Reading Schiller’s poetry, as well as his historical, philosophical, and aesthetic works, has precisely the effect on the sensitive reader of which Schiller informed us--to produce in the reader an ennobling power which then continues to exist long after the reading is done.
This is volume 3 of the four volume collection of translations. Volume 3 includes Schiller Institute English translations of the following:
The Virgin of Orleans--a drama about the life of Joan of Arc
Introduction to The History of the Revolt of the Netherlands Against Spanish Rule
Homage to the Arts
The Diver
Philosophical Letters
On the Sublime
On Naive and Sentimental Poetry
Schiller fulfilled his own ideal concept, namely, to elevate, “jokingly and playfully,” the public up to his own level, and he demanded of himself the very highest standard. Schiller’s concept of beautiful humanity, of the “beautiful soul” represents the noblest image ever drawn of the potential of human beings. A human being possessing a beautiful soul, is he in whom reason and feeling, duty and passion coalesce, he who does his duty with joy. It is the genius who lawfully extends and creatively restores all limits.