This I have got
hold of, and shall never give it up again; and with a smile I thus see
vanishing the light of mine eyes, and white hairs springing up among my
fair locks. Whatever may happen, nothing shall grieve my heart; the
pulse of my inner life shall remain fresh until I die."
A strong evidence that the German people were learning well the lessons
now impressed upon them, was the increasing fondness for the
institutions of purer times and a growing taste for history. The mind
found no comfort in the present, and it was therefore driven back upon
the past for solace. Poets began to start up, clothed with the spirit of
independence, and singing of bygone days in such a way that they were
understood as saying, "Now you see what our fathers did; how they
believed and fought; go you and do likewise." This new race sprang from
the Romantic School, led by Tieck, Schlegel, and others; but while it
possessed that enthusiastic admiration of the past which these men
indulged, their literary offspring exhibited a more earnest Christian
faith.
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