"Sand was in age twenty-three and a half years; stood five feet six
inches high; had strong black hair and eyebrows; a high forehead, gray
eyes, longish nose, mouth of middle size, dark-brown very weak beard,
ordinary chin, broad countenance, tolerably healthy colour, with some
pock-marks in the face." His look was open, and for the most part
friendly, but not eminently intellectual; his physiognomy good-natured,
but not especially interesting; his visage might be termed an
involuntary mirror of his mind. So painted themselves wrath and scorn
upon it, when the speech turned upon Kotzebue and his connexion with
Germany; so might be read in it a painful, or an hostile feeling, when
the principles of his system must be attacked; so that, in the end,
very little attention became necessary to discern by it, when his
answers did not contain the truth. The play of the muscles of his
forehead was particularly strikingly acted upon by an internal feeling
of resistance, which generally rose in him when he desired by some
means to conceal the truth.
Kotzebue's writings had been long disliked by Sand. Many of his early
assertions betray it. Such was his observation to his father:--"Of what
use is the man's literary talent, when the German heart is wanting?" On
the burning of his History of Germany, on the Wartburg, he became
immediately watchful of him; but still more, when shortly afterwards
his literary _Wochenblatt_, or weekly paper, appeared. In this
publication, Kotzebue promulgated his opinions often and variously on
the then state of German affairs, and many of his views must have given
great displeasure. Thus, he contended especially against the promotion
of a combined and constitutional government in Germany, and asserted
that the loud demand for this was by no means the voice of the people,
of whom he very much doubted, whether they wanted any constitution at
all. For this bold assertion, Kotzebue was instantly attacked and
ridiculed on all sides. A specimen of the missiles launched against him
on the occasion, may be given from an article in the "Zeitung für die
elegante Welt,"--News for the Elegant World, in the year 1818:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account