Moreover, the war gave a powerful impulse to
national sentiment. Although the King of Prussia
warred in part against men who spoke the German lan-
guage, and although a united Germany under Prussian
leadership was not as yet even dreamed of, Friedrich the
Second became something like a national hero. For he
had warred also against France and Russia, and had
beaten them in hard-fought battles. He was felt to be
the representative of a new Germany of the North, which
must henceforth be reckoned with by the great powers.
His pluck and prowess stirred the blood even of South
Germans, who could not approve his policy or sympathise
with his ambition. They felt that, after all, he had
invested the German name with a fresh lustre and dignity.
All this tended, in the domain of letters, to increase the
nascent impatience of French leading-strings, and to
prepare the way for a generation of writers who should
be aggressively, enthusiastically German.

Even before the outbreak of the Seven Years' War
a phase of this militant Teutonism is seen in the young
FRIEDRICH GOTTLIEB KLOPSTOCK ( 1724- 1803). While
yet a lad, and before leaving the preparatory school at
Pforta, Klopstock became deeply interested in epic poetry.
He read Paradise Lost in Bodmer's prose, and his devout
and patriotic soul was grieved that his native land had no
such great religious epic. Might not the need be sup-
plied? He chose the Redemption for his theme, but the
question of form was difficult. There was no helpful
tradition. The form most in vogue for a long poem of
any kind was the alexandrine; but Klopstock, thoroughly
schooled in the Greek and Roman poets, soon convinced
himself that rhyme was an ignoble modern jingle, un-
worthy the holy muse of Zion. Blank verse had no

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