later betrayed itself in the longing for poetry, as for the native
atmosphere of his spirit, which longing constantly breaks out in his
varied philosophical and historical labors and is often hinted at in
his letters to me. It finally revealed itself in virile power and
refined purity in those dramas which will long remain the pride and
the renown of the German stage.

This poetic genius, however, is most closely wedded, in all its height
and depth, to thought; it manifests itself, in fact, in an
intellectuality which by analysis would separate everything into its
parts, and then by combination would unite all in one complete whole.
In this lies Schiller's peculiar individuality. He demanded of poetry
more profundity of thought and forced it to submit to a more rigid
intellectual unity than it had ever had before. This he did in a
two-fold manner--by binding it into a more strictly artistic form, and
by treating every poem in such a way that its subject-matter readily
broadened its individuality until it expressed a complete idea.

It is upon these peculiarities that the excellence which characterizes
Schiller as a writer rests. It is because of them that, in order to
bring out the greatest and best of which he was capable, he needed a
certain amount of time before his completely developed individuality,
to which his poetic genius was indissolubly united, could reach that
point of clearness and definiteness of expression which he demanded of
himself. * * *

On the other hand, it would probably be agreeable to the reader of
this correspondence if I should attempt briefly to show how my opinion
of Schiller's individuality was formed by intercourse with him, by
reminiscences of his conversation, by the comparison of his