We are inclined to
complain, also, that he does not bring out more clearly how much Lessing
owed to Diderot both as dramatist and critic, nor give us so much as a
hint of what already existing English criticism did for him in the way of
suggestion and guidance. But though we feel it to be our duty to say so
much of Herr Stahr's positive faults and negative short-comings, yet we
leave him in very good humor. While he is altogether too full upon
certain points of merely transitory importance,--such as the quarrel with
Klotz,--yet we are bound to thank him both for the abundance of his
extracts from Lessing, and for the judgment he has shown in the choice of
them. Any one not familiar with his writings will be able to get a very
good notion of the quality of his mind, and the amount of his literary
performance, from these volumes; and that, after all, is the chief
matter. As to the absolute merit of his works other than critical, Herr
Stahr's judgment is too much at the mercy of his partiality to be of
great value.
Of Mr. Evans's translation we can speak for the most part with high
commendation. There are great difficulties in translating German prose;
and whatever other good things Herr Stahr may have learned from Lessing,
terseness and clearness are not among them.
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