It is the history of the literature of German Switzerland during the eighteenth century that Moerikofer has essayed to write.  He has chosen a subject hitherto but little studied, and his work deserves to stand by the side of the best German literary histories of our time.

The author begins with the first signs of the reaction against the influence of France, agreeably portraying the awakening of Swiss consciousness, and the gradual development of the enlightened patriotism that impelled Swiss writers to lay aside mere courtly elegance of diction for their own more terse and vigorous idiom.

This awakening was not confined to letters.  Formerly the Swiss, instead of appreciating the beauties of their own land, rather considered them as impediments to the progress of civilization.  It seems incredible to us now that there ever could have been a time when mountain-scenery, instead of being sought, was shunned,—­when princes possessing the most beautiful lands among the Rhine hills should, with great trouble and expense, have transported their seats to some flat, uninviting locality,—­when, for instance, the dull, flat, prosy, wearisome gardens of Schwetzingen should have been deemed more beautiful than the immediate environs of Heidelberg.  Yet such were the sentiments that prevailed in Switzerland until a comparatively late date.  It is only since the days of Scheuchzer that Swiss scenery has been appreciated, and in this appreciation were the germs of a new culture.

As in Germany societies had been established “for the practice of German” at Leipsic and Hamburg, so in various Swiss cities associations were formed with the avowed purpose of discouraging the imitation of French models.  Thus, at Zuerich several literary young men, among them Hagenbuch and Lavater, met at the house of the poet Bodmer.  The example was followed in other cities.  Though these clubs and their periodical organs soon fell into an unwarrantable admiration of all that was English, the result was a gradual development of the national taste.  Since then the literary efforts of the Swiss have been characterized by an ardent love of country.  A direct popular influence may be felt in their best productions; hence the nature of their many beauties, as well as of their faults.  To the same influence also we owe that phalanx of reformers and philanthropists, Hirzel, Iselin, Lavater, and Pestalozzi.

A great portion of the work under consideration is devoted to the lives and labors of these benefactors of their people.  The book is, therefore, not a literary history in the strict sense of the term.  It gives a comprehensive view of the culture of German Switzerland during the eighteenth century.  To Bodmer alone one hundred and seventy-five pages are devoted.  In this essay, as well as in that on the historian Mueller, a vast amount of information is presented, and many facts collated by the author are now given, we believe, for the first time.