HEINRICH HEINE - Repositories

Heinrich Heine
the Hellenism of Heine that in this decade influenced
Walter Pater and Robert Buchanan, James
Thomson and Algernon Charles Swinburne. Heine's
authority was repeatedly invoked in the struggle between
Christ and the Gods of Greece, a struggle
which raged throughout the closing decades of the
past century and which led, on the one hand, to a
revival of rehgious mysticism and, on the other
hand, to a poetic idealization of ancient paganism.
As early as 1864, Matthew Arnold stressed
Heine's position in this conflict. In an essay on Pagan
and Christian Religious Sentiment, Arnold illustrated
pagan religious emotion by means of the
beautiful story of Adonis, as treated by Theocritus,
and Christian religious feeling by means of the hfe
and hymns of St. Francis of Assisi. In Heine's misdirected
efforts to revive the religion of pleasure and
in his ultimate confession of failure, Arnold saw evidence
of the inadequacy of paganism to satisfy the
spiritual cravings of modern man. Paganism possessed
a certain cheerfulness, grace and beauty, but
nothing that was elevating or consoling. It might
seem attractive to a gay and pleasure-loving multitude.
It might suflice for a light-hearted people that
sought gratification of the senses and the understanding.
But it had little of value to ofiFer in hours
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