Page:The Literary Magnet 1825 vol 4.djvu/84

Among the numerous authors who have, during the last ten years, distinguished themselves in Germany, Hoffmann may be ranked as the most remarkable. He was a man of so extraordinary a kind, that even if he had never written a line, he might still be justly regarded as one of the most striking characters of his age. No doubt can be attached to this fact, when it is known that Hoffmann shone in the following opposite, and in some instances apparently conflicting, characters.-He was allowed to be one of the first lawyers of his time; an elegant scholar, deeply read both in ancient and modern literature; a profound natural philosopher; an eminent musical composer; the first pianoforte player in Europe; a caricaturist of incomparable humour and talent; a man possessed of an enchanting gift of conversation; a wit whose power was at once admired and dreaded; and, to sum up all, the leading author of his day.

The man who in this manner concentrates within himself as it were a society of distinguished men, is, beyond doubt, a character of the extraordinary cast, calculated to awaken the liveliest interest, and worthy of the minutest investigation.

Ernestus Theodore Amadeus Hoffmann was born in the year 1778, in Koeningsberg, in Prussia, a place which already boasted of having produced a Kant, a Hippel, and that deep and mysterious writer Haman, surnamed the Magus of the north. Of the earlier years and education of Hoffmann but few particulars are known. He studied the law at the university of his native town, and devoted the greater part of his leisure hours to the study of music. In the year 1806, we find him at Warsaw, which at that period belonged to Prussia, filling the situation of a Prussian counsellor. The arrival of the French suddenly interrupted his professional career; and when he returned to Prussia, he found himself in his own country, without either fortune or the prospect of obtaining one. Thus situated, he had recourse to his great musical talents. He now began a rambling musical career, successively figuring as teacher, composer, and director, frequently shifting his residence from place to place. It was at this time, that his talent as a writer first began to unfold itself. He wrote a variety of articles for the Leipzig Gazette of Music; but these did not usher him into public notice so favourably as when he had formed them into a collection of three volumes, which he published in the year 1813, under the title of Phantasiestuecke ueber die Kunst von einem reisenden Enthusiasten, in Jean Callot’s Manier (Rhapsodies on Art, by an itinerant Enthusiast, in the style of Jean Callot).

The effect of this book was felt like an electric shock throughout the whole of Germany; and it is more than probable, that the high fame Hoffmann acquired by this work, induced the Prussian government to invite him from Dresden, where he then filled the situation of leader of the Opera, to Berlin, in order that he might re-assume his former official career. He accepted of this flattering invitation in the year 1815, and filled the office of Counsellor of the Court of the Chamber until his death, which occurred in the summer of 1822.