Schiller's merit as a historian--Genesis of 'The Defection of the Netherlands'--The author's self-confidence--His readableness--Freedom the animating idea--Attitude toward past and present--Position as a historian--Too little regard for the fact--First lecture at Jena--Influence of Kant--Theory of the Fall--The 'Historical Memoirs'--Inchoate Romanticism--'History of the Thirty Years' War'--Skill in narrating--Conception of the war as a struggle for freedom--View of Gustav Adolf.
A happy year--Disastrous illness in January, 1791--Feud with Bürger--Interest in epic poetry--Second illness and desperate plight--Help from Denmark--Resolution to master Kant's philosophy--Visit to Suabia--Enterprise of the _Horen_--Attitude toward the Revolution--Sympathy for Louis XVI.--Prediction of Napoleon--Made a citizen of the French Republic--Disgust with politics--Program of the _Horen_--Genius and vocation.
Value of philosophy to a poet--Goethe's opinion--Schiller's early philosophizing--The essays on Tragedy--Plan of 'Kallias'--Kant's aesthetics--Schiller's divergence from Kant--Beauty identified with freedom-in-the-appearance--Explication of the theory--Essay on 'Winsomeness and Dignity'--Essay on 'The Sublime'--Remarks on Schiller's general method--Letters to the Duke of Augustenburg--The 'Letters on Aesthetic Education'--Some minor papers--Essay on 'Naïve and Sentimental Poetry'.
Goethe and Schiller--Six years of aloofness--Beginning of intimacy--The 'happy event'--Campaign for the conquest of Goethe---Schiller, on Goethe's genius--A friendly relation established--Comparison of the duumvirs--Fortunes of the _Horen_--Return to poetry--Significance of the essay on 'Naive and Sentimental Poetry'--Goethe on Schiller's theory--Enemies assail the _Horen_--The Xenia planned in retaliation--A militant league formed--The fusillade of the Xenia--Effect of the Xenia--Return to the drama--Further relations of Goethe and Schiller.
General character of Schiller's poetry--'The Veiled Image at Sais'--'The Ideal and Life'--Idealism of Goethe and Schiller--'The Walk'--Poems of 1796--'Dignity of Women'--'The Eleusinian Festival'--The ballads--Attitude toward the present--Lyrics of thought--'The Maiden's Lament'--Popularity of Schiller's cultural poems--'The Song of the Bell'--Latest poems.