THE WORKS ог HEINRICH HEINE TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN RY CHARLES GODFREY LELAND (HANS BREITMANN) VOLUME II. LONDON WILLIAM HEINEMANN 1891 Gift Robert Sadler 1-27-69 And a spy TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. No modern German writer has exerted an influence comparable to that of Heine, and it is not less true that since Goethe no author has penetrated so generally through every class of society. Universality of popularity is the surest test of the existence of genius, just as a faithful reflex of the spirit of the age in which it was conceived is the surest test of the genuineness of a work of art. That which grows from and is extolled by a class may owe its birth to prejudice, and its subsequent life to the spirit of rivalry to which it ministers, and we consequently find at times writers endowed with the faintest talent achieving a world-wide reputation, not by the force of innate genius, but by dexterously turning to account the enthusiasm of a faction. But where, as in Heine's case, we find friend and enemy alike interested, and the adherents of all parties |