You cannot persuade me that bungling is master-work.

It is not the poverty of the mind, but the fault of the language, which is not capable of expressing with brevity and precision.
For how could any one translate Tacitus into German without adding a mass of words and phrases?
In French it is not necessary; one can express himself with brevity, and to the point." "Sire, I shall permit myself to prove to you that the brevity of Tacitus can be imitated in the German language.

I will translate a part of Tacitus, to give your majesty a proof." "I will take you at your word! And I will answer you in a treatise upon German literature, its short-comings, and the means for its improvement.
[Footnote: This treatise appeared during the Bavarian war of succession, in the winter of 1779] Until then, a truce.

I insist upon it--good German authors are entirely wanting to us Germans.

They may appear a long time after I have joined Voltaire and Algarotti in the Elysian Fields." [Footnote: The king's words .-- See "Posthumous Works," vol.II., p.