Another quality possessed by Hardenberg, was his strong and decided taste for literature; and his intimate friendship with Goëthe, who exercised such absolute dominion over the intellects of his time, arose from this source. This was not one of the relations of protector and protégé; for in Germany, where matters of genius and study are viewed in a serious light, a man of literary celebrity is placed almost in a superior rank, and he is not only on a footing of equality with statesmen, but sometimes even in a position of master and scholar. What a brilliant sceptre was that extended by Goëthe over Germany! The poet who had shewn such incomparable skill in his delineation of the feudal ages, appeared to blend in his escutcheon of glory all the ancient colours of the German nobility. This threefold aptitude of Baron Hardenberg for literature, politics, and administration, produced great and uncommon results: first, an expansion of mind arising from the habit of treating important affairs; then, a close application to detail, arising from his employment in the executive administration; and, finally, a clear, exact, and benevolent mind, the consequence of the literary intercourse he had pursued with enthusiasm during his youth. We must recollect what was at that time the spirit that prevailed in Prussia, and also the bent of its government. In addition to her never-failing desire of conquest, there is always in that country a certain inclination for serious study, and a wish for the advancement of ideas; and though no free debate be permitted on matters connected with the government, the discussion of philosophical and rational questions is entirely unshackled; religious opinions also are independent of any controlling theory, the Protestant spirit having introduced a sort of egotism into the schools, from which it results that every opinion, even though it be mischievous, is admitted and examined without regard to the chivalrous feelings that attach a people to a dynasty, or a generation to the articles of their faith.