The German Classics of The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Volume I | Page 5

thus originated that
affectation of all things foreign, which, in speaking, led to the most
variegated use and misuse of foreign words. Patriotically-minded men,
on the contrary, endeavored to cultivate the purity of their mother
tongue the while they enriched it; this, above all, was the ambition of
the various "Linguistic Societies." Their activity, though soon deprived
of a wide usefulness by pedantry and a clannish spirit, prepared the way
for great feats of linguistic reorganization. Through Christian Wolff a
philosophic terminology was systematically created; from Pietism were
received new mediums of expression for intimate conditions of the soul;
neither must we quite overlook the fact that to some extent a new
system of German titles and official designations was associated with
the new institutions of the modern state. More important, however, than
these details--which might have been accomplished by men like Johann
Gottfried Herder, Immanuel Kant and Goethe; like the statesman,
Heinrich Freiherr von Stein; and the warrior, General von
Scharnhorst--was this fact that, in general, an esthetic interest had been
again awakened in the language, which too long had served as a mere
tool. Also the slowly developing study of language was of some help;
even the falsest etymology taught people to look upon words as
organisms; even the most superficial grammar, to observe broad
relationships and parallel formations. So, then, the eighteenth century
could, in the treatment of the mother tongue, enter upon a goodly
heritage, of which for a long time Johann Christoph Gottsched might
not unjustly be counted the guardian. It was a thoroughly conservative
linguistic stewardship, which received gigantic expression in Adelung's
Dictionary--with all its deficiencies, the most important German
dictionary that had been compiled up to that time. Clearness,
intelligibleness, exactitude were insisted upon. It was demanded that
there should be a distinct difference between the language of the writer

and that in everyday use, and again a difference between poetic
language and prose; on the other hand, great care had to be taken that
the difference should never become too great, so that common
intelligibility should not suffer. Thus the new poetic language of
Klopstock, precisely on account of its power and richness, was obliged
to submit to the bitterest mockery and the most injudicious abuse from
the partisans of Gottsched. As the common ideal of the pedagogues of
language, who were by no means merely narrow-minded pedants, one
may specify that which had long ago been accomplished for
France--namely, a uniform choice of a stock of words best suited to the
needs of a clear and luminous literature for the cultivated class, and the
stylistic application of the same. Two things, above all, were neglected:
they failed to realize (as did France also) the continual development of
a healthy language, though the ancients had glimpses of this; and they
failed (this in contrast to France) to comprehend the radical differences
between the various forms of literary composition. Therefore the
pre-classical period still left enough to be done by the classical.
It was Klopstock who accomplished the most; he created a new, a lofty
poetic language, which was to be recognized, not by the use of
conventional metaphors and swelling hyperboles, but by the direct
expression of a highly exalted mood. However, the danger of a forced
overstraining of the language was combatted by Christoph Martin
Wieland, who formed a new and elegant narrative prose on Greek,
French, and English models, and also introduced the same style into
poetic narrative, herein abetted by Friedrich von Hagedorn as his
predecessor and co-worker. Right on the threshold, then, of the great
new German literature another mixture of styles sprang up, and we see,
for example, Klopstock strangely transplanting his pathos into the field
of theoretical researches on grammar and metrics, and Wieland not
always keeping his irony aloof from the most solemn subjects. But
beside them stood Gotthold Ephraim Lessing who proved himself to be
the most thoughtful of the reformers of poetry, in that he emphasized
the divisions--especially necessary for the stylistic development of
German poetry--of literary categories and the arts. The most
far-reaching influence, however, was exercised by Herder, when he
preached that the actual foundation of all poetic treatment of language
was the individual style, and exemplified the real nature of original

style, i. e., inwardly-appropriate modes of expression, by referring, on
the one hand, to the poetry of the people and, on the other, to
Shakespeare or the Bible, the latter considered as a higher type of
popular poetry.
So the weapons lay ready to the hand of the dramatist Lessing, the lyric
poet Goethe, and the preacher Herder, who had helped to forge them
for their own use; for drama, lyrics, and oratory separate themselves
quite naturally from ordinary language, and yet in their subject matter,
in the anticipation of an