HEINRICH HEINE - Repositories

Blackguard and Apostate
doctrines which he was supposedly espousing. If he
really believed what he claimed to believe, it felt
that no words would be too strong to express the
mingled indignation, disgust, and contempt which
such productions deserved to inspire. But, in its
opinion, Heine could not possibly mean seriously the
horrible pronouncements elaborated so piquantly
in his Travel Sketches — any more than Borne
could be held responsible for similar expressions of
faith in the Letters from Paris. Obviously, both of
these works were admirable satires on the German
ultra-liberal press. Under the disguise of an affected
and exaggerated liberalism, Heine and Borne were
aiming to turn into ridicule the entire slang of the
party and to expose mercilessly the wild, unprincipled
views of its leading organs in Germany, their
bare-faced attempts on the credulity of the public,
and their total incapacity to substitute anything in
place of the systems which they were seeking to destroy.
Borne and Heine had apparently become
aware of the ruinous effects of the German press on
morality and taste, and in their indignation had
penned vitriolic satires upon its spirit and tendency.
Both had for a time collaborated with the liberal
movements but had been converted to wiser and
sounder views by the extravagance and insanity of
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