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"That is quite another man than Gottsched!" The modest Gellert says he "remembered Jesus Sirach's advice, PRESS NOT THYSELF ON KINGS, and never came back;" nor was specially sent for, in the hurries succeeding; though the King never quite forgot him.
"Now, your majesty," said Gottsched, "do you not find that the German language is capable of repeating the French verses promptly and concisely?" "I am astonished that you have been able to translate this beautiful poem. I am sorry I am too old to learn German. I regret that in my youth I had neither the courage nor the instruction necessary.
While the quasi-poetry of Livius proceeded, somewhat like that of Gottsched in Germany, from purely external impulses and moved wholly in the leading-strings of the Greeks, his successor emancipated Roman poetry, and with the true divining-rod of the poet struck those springs out of which alone in Italy a native poetry could well up national history and comedy.
The poet is better than the philosopher. Gellert is the wisest and cleverest poet of his time a much worthier man than Gottsched, with all his pompous knowledge. Gellert's fame will outlive his. He is perhaps the only German who will not be forgotten. He attempts but little, and succeeds well."
Gottsched, to whom, at that time, all Germany rendered homage, and who possessed all the pride and arrogance of a German scholar, thought it most natural that the king should wish to know him, and accepted the invitation with a gracious smile.
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