Many a modern reader will be inclined, perhaps, to smile at this deliverance and to see in it a fatuous misjudgment of the relative importance of things. The French Revolution versus a spray of aesthetic rose-water! But we must not be too hasty. Posterity has no better criterion for judging great men than the criterion of service. And service is a question of vocation. As the matter is put by Goethe, who himself a little later took refuge from the _misère_ of the Napoleonic epoch in the contemplative poetry of the Orient: 'Man may seek his higher destiny on earth or in heaven, in the present or in the future; yet for that reason he remains exposed to constant wavering within and to continual disturbance from without, until he once for all makes up his mind to declare that that is right which is in accordance with his own nature,'[91] It was not in Schiller to be a political journalist or a pamphleteer. In that field he would have wasted his splendid energy. He knew what he could do best; and it was well for his country and for the world that he chose to withdraw from the turmoil of the Revolution and prepare himself for 'Wallenstein' and 'William Tell'. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 84: So, at least, Schiller states in a letter of March 3, 1791, to Körner.] [Footnote 85: The original review, together with Bürger's reply and Schiller's rejoinder, are printed in Sämmtliche Schriften, VI, 314 ff.] [Footnote 86: The plan is very fully discussed in a letter of March 10, 1789, to Körner.] [Footnote 87: On the other hand, Wilhelm von Hoven, who was with Schiller at the time, represents him as deeply touched by the death of Duke Karl and as expressing himself thus: "Da ruht er also, dieser rastlos thätig gewesene Mann. Er hatte grosze Fehler als Regent, gröszere als Mensch, aber die ersteren wurden vor seinen groszen Eigenschaften weit überwogen, und das Andenken an die letzteren musz mit dem Toten begraben werden; darum sage ich dir, wenn du, da er nun dort liegt, jetzt noch nachteilig von ihm sprechen hörst, traue diesem Menschen nicht: er ist kein guter, wenigstens kein edler Mensch." Cf. Kuno Fischer, "Schiller-Schriften", I, 153, and Karoline von Wolzogen, "Schillers Leben", Achter Abschnitt.] [Footnote 88: A letter of May 24, 1791, contains the brave words: "Ich habe mehr als einmal dem Tod ins Gesicht gesehen, und mein Mut ist dadurch gestärkt worden."] [Footnote 89: Letter of December 21, to Körner.] [Footnote 90: "Schillers Leben", Achter Abschnitt.] [Footnote 91: "Dichtung und Wahrheit", Elftes Buch.] CHAPTER XIII Aesthetic Writings Es ist gewisz von keinem Sterblichen kein gröszeres Wort gesprochen als dieses Kantische, was zugleich der Inhalt seiner ganzen Philosophie ist: Bestimme dich aus dir selbst. _Letter of 1793._