They could also prize German poetry and eloquence. Herr Professor Gottsched and his wife were then at Leipzig. Like others, they had their weaknesses; but there was a noble nature in them, decorum of character, dignity, and knowledge. They also belonged to this school, and they wished, through the medium of German poetry, to introduce greater refinement and better taste into the country. They met with much enmity, but their periodical, the "Neuen Buechersaal," could scarcely be dispensed with by those that followed the course of the _belles lettres_. Beside this elder generation, a younger one was already springing up in the cities, who no longer considered the fine arts merely as agreeable ornaments, but looked to their influence for noble feelings and a freer morality, at which the literary party disapprovingly shook their heads. And thus these disciples--it was only a small number--conducted themselves for two years with an excitement which led them into great exaggerations; they carried books in their pockets, they gave them to the women of their acquaintance, they declaimed loudly, and pressed one another's hands. It was the first dawn of a new life which was hailed with so much joy. In the monthly journal, the "Bremer Beitraege," appeared the first cantos of the "Messiah," by Herr Klopstock; the perplexity which, in the beginning, was excited by its ancient metre, was now followed, in a small circle, by unreserved admiration. In the preceding year another poem, "The Spring," by an unknown writer, had been published; no one knew who had written it, but it was supposed to be the same agreeable poet who, under the armorial bearings of Breitkopf, had contributed, together with Kaestner, Gellert, and Mylius, to the monthly journal "Belustigungen des Verstandes und Witzes" ("Diversions of Wit and Intellect"). And just at this time, also, the beginning of another heroic poem, "Noah," by another unknown writer, had been published by Weidmann; it was supposed to be by a Swiss, because the name Sipha appeared in it, which had formerly been used by Bodmer. All these poems were in Roman metre, and this new style caused an excitement of mind such as had never before been known. There appeared to be a regular rebellion among the _bels-esprits_; and there was shortly to be a still greater uproar.