Excerpt from Critical and Miscellaneous Essays: Collected and Republished; Vols. I. And II

Of his Life of Richter these preliminary observations may be our excuse for saying but little. He brags much, in his Preface, that it is all true and genuine; for Richter's widow, it seems, had, by public advertisement, cautioned the world against it; another biography, partly by the illustrious de ceased himself, partly by Otto, his oldest friend and the appointed Editor of his Works, being actually in preparation. This rouses the indignant Spirit of Doring, and he stoutly asseverates that, his documents being altogether authentic, this biography is no pseudo-biography. With still greater truth he might have asseverated that it was no biography at all. Well are he and Hennings Of Gotha aware thatthis thing of shreds and patches has been vamped together for sale only. Except a few letters to Kunz, the Bamberg Bookseller, which turn mainly on the purchase of spectacles, and the jour neyings and freightage of two boxes that used to pass and repass between Richter and Kunz's circulating library; with three or four notes of Similar importance, and chiefly to other booksellers, there are no biographical documents here, which were not Open to all Europe as well as to Heinrich Doring. Indeed, very nearly one half of the Life is occupied with a description of the funeral and its appendages - how the sixty torches, with a number of lanterns and pitchpans, were arranged; how this Patrician or Professor followed that, through Friedrich Street, Chancery Street, and other streets of Bayreuth; and how at last the torches all went out, as Dr. Gabler and Dr. Spatzier were perorating (decidedly in bom bast) over the grave. Then, it seems, there were meetings held in various parts of Germany, to solemnize the memory of Richter; among the rest, one in the Museum of Frankfort-ou Mayn; where a Doctor Berne speaks another long Speech, if possible in still more decided bombast. Next come threnodies from all the four winds, mostly on very Splay-footed metre. The whole of which is here snatched from the kind oblivion of the newspapers, and lives in Settle's numbers one day more.

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.