HEINRICH HEINE - Repositories

Heinrich Heine
offered as a substitute for the dominant religion of
the Occident a so-called religion of pure humanity
— the rehabilitation of the flesh. This substitute,
however, could hardly lead to salvation. Its end
was cultural pessimism. It would never bring about
the kingdom of heaven on earth. The real need was
for a wider apphcation of truly Christian principles
to the state, to industry, and to the life of multitudes.
One of Heine's most memorable passages in the
Travel Sketches dealt with the overthrow of the
Olympian divinities by the Nazarene. This passage
had been quoted with horror by the first English
interpreters of the German poet as an illustration
of his blasphemy, but among the late Victorians it
found favor and was reproduced by George Eliot,
Robert Buchanan, James Thomson and others. It
described a banquet of the Greek deities: "All at
once there approached, panting, a pale Jew, with
blooddrops on his brow, a crown of thorns on his
head, and a huge cross on his shoulders; and he cast
the cross on the banquet-table of the gods, so that
the golden cups trembled, and the gods grew dumb
and pale, and ever paler, till they finally dissolved
away into mist." This passage furnished the inspuration
for a dirge by Robert Buchanan, the Scottish
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