Russell Street, South Shields.
_Madame de Stael._--In _Three Months in Northern Germany_, p. 151., 1817,
the following, passage occurs among some corrections of the mistakes of
Madame de Stael:
"She knew the language imperfectly, read little, and misrepresented the
gossip which she heard, either from carelessness or misunderstanding.
When she censures Fichte, who she says had received no provocation from
Nicolai, for helping Schlegel to write a dull book against him when he
was too old to reply, she must have been ignorant of the fact, that
Nicolai lived and wrote many years after the publication; and that,
whether provoked or not, it is far from dull."
I cannot find any mention of this dispute in Madame de Stael's _De
l'Allemagne_, and shall be glad if any of your readers can direct me to the
passage in her works, and also to the joint work of Schlegel and Fichte.