His mind, indeed, seemed to gain strength and expansion with the advance of years--the horizon of his views was perpetually enlarged--and in vastness of conception, and profundity of observation, his last philosophical works outshine even those of his early manhood. Yet to whatever cause we are to attribute the fact--whether it be that his last works had not received from his hands the same careful revisal--or whether some men as they advance in life, become as negligent in their style as in their dress--or whether he at last gave in to the bad practice so prevalent in Germany, of disregarding the lighter graces of diction--certain it is, that his later writings, much as they may have gained in excellence of matter, and presenting, as they do, passages perhaps of superior power and splendour, are on the whole no longer characterised by the same uniform terseness and perspicuity of language. With the "History of ancient and modern literature," Schlegel closed his critical career. He never afterwards mounted the tribunal of criticism, except on one occasion, when he awarded in favour of the early poetical effusions of M. de la Martine, a solemn sentence of approbation.[7] He now devoted himself with exclusive ardour to the graver concerns of politics and philosophy. Nor can we regret this resolution on his part, when we reflect that as far as regards literature, he had done all that was necessary--that he had now only to leave to time to work out his æsthetic principles in the German mind--and that should further elucidation on these topics be required, the distinguished Tieck, and his illustrious brother were at hand to furnish the requisite aid. But in metaphysics and political philosophy, what German could supply his place?