HEINRICH HEINE - Repositories

Heinrich Heine
Duke of WeUington. Mitchell's sketches of famous
personahties abounded in intimate personal
details. He wrote on Lafayette, Louis Philippe,
Metternich, Thiers, Chateaubriand, Victor Hugo,
and Guizot. His description of Heine was never
reprinted and yet it contained many interesting
observations of the poet's character and mannerisms:
"Look at the little man as he walks along the
Paris Boulevards, with a sort of indescribable strut
— indescribable, because not intended, and being
a sort of demi-strut between strutting and walking.
See how he talks to himself, smiles, as if pleased
with some new conceit he has just imagined, or
with some new notion he is about to forward to
the Augsburg Gazette. But what a wonderful face
he has! How full of animation, soul, mind! How,
when he looks at you, he appears to read all your
thoughts, and to weigh, adopt, or reject them!
How he pounces down on any original ideas which
may escape the lips of some one in society with
him; and how, after turning it over and over
again, he returns it to you either dissected, cut to
atoms, and shown to contain nothing valuable; or
else how it comes forth dressed up in fairy importance,
and made to appear wonderful and sublime."
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