HEINRICH HEINE - Repositories

Martyr of Montmartre
most sacred in the eyes of the vast majority of his
fellow-beings, do give evidence of a certain moral
turpitude in the man — out of which, however, as
from a fetid soil, have grown those pure and perfect
lilies of song with which he has adorned the
literature of his native land. It is impossible not to
condemn much that he has written; it is scarcely
possible sufficiently to praise a great deal more; and
while children and the purest of women love him
for the simple beauty of his songs, many a man,
little given to the affectation of purism, abominates
him for the scurrilous ribaldry of his satires.
If his countrymen perplex themselves in endeavoring
to spell the enigma of his character, it is perhaps
because they make the attempt upon very
false principles. Surely it is a vain labor to seek
for consistency in the thoughts, and consecutives
in the acts, of the greatest humorist of the age; and
the metaphysician, who is only intent on discovering
the Grundidee, or leading principle in a man's
life, can scarcely hope to gauge the character of
Heinrich Heine."»
Fane was too fond of his hero, however, to end
his essay on a note of disapproval. He rather sought
to center final attention upon the martyr of Montmartre,
the paralyzed, bUnd, and bedridden poet
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