HEINRICH HEINE - Repositories

Heinrich Heine
sired to understand the character of German literature
could not afford any longer to overlook him.
For this purpose he was as indispensable as the philosopher
Immanuel Kant. Heine's wit was original,
his intellect was powerful, his politics were
an interesting mixture of cosmopolitanism, enthusiasm
for liberty, scorn of patriotism, and adoration
for Napoleon. It was true that he espoused
a type of equality once preached by the French
Revolution, a type which Englishmen could not
approve; but this was not to be wondered at, since
he had experienced feudalism in its most oppressive
form. As a German, who was daily exasperated
by the many petty irritations and the many exclusive
privileges of an out-dated order, he probably
could not envisage as ideal the English system,
where diversity of ranks existed side by side with
perfect liberty and with equality before the law
— the most useful and practicable kind of equality.
If Heine would only think through to a logical
conclusion his proposed social system, wherein
distinctions between mine and thine were obliterated
and matrimony was replaced by free love, he
would probably not be willing to accept all the
consequences. But, whatever fault might be found
with his imagined state of perfect freedom and
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