ing of the relation we must take into account the laxity of the age; for no man can be judged apart from his environment. We may find much to regret, some things, perhaps, to censure, but we shall find nothing which we may not understand. VII. THE LIFE AND WORKS OF HE SCHILLER. EINE, speaking of Lessing's critics and antagonists, compares them to tiny insects which were caught in amber while it was yet viscid on the tree, and thus were accidentally immortalized. They would have shared the fate of all insect existences which perish, leaving no trace behind them, if a kindly accident (a breath of air, perhaps, or mere idle curiosity) had not induced them to alight upon an imperishable substance. This comparison applies, in a measure, to all whom chance, kinship, or common interests have brought into intimate contact with the life of a great man. They reap an unsought and involuntary immortality. They become interesting to posterity, not for any excellence of intellect or character they may have possessed, but for the influence they have exerted upon the great man and the relation they have sustained to him. As accessories to him, their personalities have an historic value. The life of a great man is thus necessarily a gallery of more or less significant portraits, all of which become conspicuous only by the |