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RIESBECK’S TRAVELS THROUGH GERMANY. 164
has been faid of the great painters, that you may know them by the dafh of their pen-
cils. Wieland is one of the few German writers who will go down to polterity asa claf-
fical writer, when the works of feveral of his cotemporaries fhall ferve for dung of the
fields. It is generally objected to him, that he repeats the fame things too often, and
copies himfelf; but, for my part, I have not obferved much repetition. It is true, that
like other great writers, he has favourite ideas, which he is ever turning and polifhing, in
order to fet them before the reader in every point of view. I have no fault to find with
him, but that hehides his {tudy too little, expofes his immenfe reading too much, and
often forgets that his reader may not be fo enamoured with his erudition as he is himfelf,
I likewife think, that before he was privy-counfellor and tutor to the prince he wrote
much more naturally than he does now. ‘In order that no part of literature fhould be
unexplored by him, but more with a view of filling his purfe, whilft his reputation was at
the height, he undertook a literary journal, which he carried on with uncommon {pirit
and activity. None of the German writers know {fo well how to pleafe the public as
Wieland does. He is molt fruitful in the invention of trifles, in order to make his jour-
nal, which is as good as any other we have, fell. _ Sometimes, like a Dutch tobacco-
merchant, he will tye a picture to his wares; fometimes he promiles in one number a
folution of a riddle in a paft one, and in the next, inftead of a folution of the riddle,
gives you a rattle or a trumpet for children to play with. At times he publifhes one
number in a year, at others he will write the whole volume in a month, Riddles, new{
papers, anecdotes, literary quarrels, every thing, in a word, is crammed in that may give
his wares the appearance of novelty, or amufe the people. You will fay thefe are little
book-felling tricks ; and fo they are, but they are more venial in German than in other
authors, as without them it would be difficult for the greateft indultry and the greatetft
talents to live by the profeflion.
Wieland is, what few poets are, a good domeftic man. He lives, in fa&, more for
his family,than for the public. He would furnifh a new proof, if there wanted any, of
the juftice of a favourite aphorifm with me, to wit, that the generative powers of man
are in the fame proportion as his underftanding, and that it is good for him when he
ufes the one with as much order and ceconomy as the other. Wieland has feven or
eight fine children. No poet, he obferves himfelf, ever had fo many; and he has writ-
ten the lives of the poets folely to aflure himfelf of the truth of it. A good penfion
from the court, added to what he gets by his journal, enables him to fee the approach
of old age with tranquillity, and gives him the profpect of enjoying the comforts of life
to the end.
There are fome extraordinary traitsin Wieland’s character, which feem a contraft
to his writings : I will give you fome of them. In all he has written, he difcovers great
knowledge of the world, and you would take him fora courtier out of place, yet no man
knows lefs of mankind. In polite circles, and in the condué of a coramon affair of life,
he is entirely at a lofs. Even fince thé publication of the Agathon, which you know
contains every evolution and revolution of the female mind, and, like his other works,
befpeaks one of the politeft writers that ever exifted ; there have been feveral inftances
of his not knowing how to converfe with a woman. His knowledge of the gay world
confifts entirely in theory, and he muft be fome time in company before he can make
ufe of it. This is not altogether owing to continual ftudy and want of intercourfe with
the polite world, but is in fome degree conftitutional in him. He is by nature very lively,
but not very refolute, diffident of himfelf, and eafy of belief towards others ; in fine, he
is one of thofe men to whom nature has refufed every grain of that felf-futhciency, a
fmall dofe of which is of fo much ufe in the affairs of this life.. His knowledge of the
VOL. VI. Y world
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