Excerpt from Undine, Vol. 1 of 12
These fictions belonged, at one time, to my very self - yea, as I may well say, they were myself - and now I resign them once more to the world, and, after this last review, for ever. I have made scarcely any alteration in them, for, even as they are, they have gained the approbation of the reading world; and, therefore, I repelled that critical fury which sometimes assailed me in my labours, remembering how thereby many a gifted master has injured rather than improved his compositions, while the reader searches with painful anxiety after the earlier features of the much-loved work, and, alas, too often in vain! What I deemed indispensably to need reforming were chiefly errors arising from former ignorance either in respect of the old northern manners or names, or similar matters, of which one previously unversed in such studies could scarcely be aware. So that now I venture, with full confidence, to say to the reader, "Receive, renewed, what has delighted you; - what has already been dear to you for many years." Conscious, however, of the obligation to render some account of the origin and foundation of these various works, I offer to the reading world, and especially to fellow-artists, the following communications: -
Undine.
How this darling gift of my muse first arose (1807), from the mystical laboratory of the aged, whimsical Theophrastus Paracelsus [Treatise of Elemental Spirits], has already been alluded to here, however, the particulars shall be given more at length. It was not so easy, out of the deeply mysterious natural philosopher, sometimes seized with ostentation, and even charlatanery, as also contentious pride, but at the same time penetrated and enlightened by ever valid presentiments, and rich in an undeniably genuine experience, in any degree to make any thing, as the saying is. All the less easy was it, inasmuch as his oracles are delivered in a mixture of kitchen, or at best monkish, Latin and indolent provincial dialect, similar to the present Tyrolese, so that the like in literature can scarcely any where else be found.
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