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ARMINIUS.
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that the statue would he clearly visible at a distance of sixty miles. The temple is nearly finished, and the statue itself has been cast at the copper works at Lemgo. But there, through want of funds to set it up, it has lain for some years, in disjointed fragments, exposed to the mutilating homage of relic-seeking travelers. The idea of honoring a hero, who belongs to all Germany, is not one which the present rulers of that divided country have any wish to encourage; and the statue may long continue to lie there, and present too true a type of the condition of Germany herself.[1]

Surely this is an occasion in which Englishmen might well prove, by acts as well as words, that we also rank Arminius among our heroes.

I have quoted the noble stanzas of one of our modern English poets on Arminius, and I will conclude this memoir with one of the odes of the great poet of modern Germany, Klopstock, on the victory to which we owe our freedom, and Arminius mainly owes his fame. Klopstock calls it the "Battle of Winfeld." The epithet of "sister of Cannæ" shows that Klopstock followed some chronologers, according to whom Varus was defeated on the anniversary of the day on which Paulus and Varro were defeated by Hannibal.

SONG OF TRIUMPH AFTER THE VICTORY OF HERRMAN, THE DELIVERER OF GERMANY PROM THE ROMANS.

FROM KLOPSTOCK'S "HERRMAN UND DIE FURSTEN."

Supposed to be sung by a chorus of Bards.''

A CHORUS.


Sister of Cannae![2] Winfeld's[3] fight!
We saw thee with thy streaming, bloody hair,
With fiery eye, bright with the world's despair,
Sweep by Walhalla's bards from out our sight.

Herrman outspake: "Now Victory or Death!"
The Romans . . . "Victory!"
And onward rushed their eagles with the cry.

So ended the first day.
  1. On the subject of this statue, I must repeat an acknowledgment of my obligations to my friend, Mr. Henry Pearson.
  2. The battle of Cannæ, B.C. 216—Hannibal's victory over the Romans.
  3. Winfeld—the probable site of the "Herrmanschladt;" see supra.