William Tell and Aesthetic Education of Man

Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (10 November 1759 9 May 1805) was a German poet, philosopher, historian, and playwright. During the last seventeen years of his life (17881805), Schiller struck up a productive, if complicated, friendship with already famous and influential Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. They frequently discussed issues concerning aesthetics, and Schiller encouraged Goethe to finish works he left as sketches. This relationship and these discussions led to a period now referred to as Weimar Classicism. They also worked together on Xenien, a collection of short satirical poems in which both Schiller and Goethe challenge opponents to their philosophical vision. Included in this collection are Schillers two classics: Wilhelm Tell, better known as William Tell to English audiences, and On the Aesthetic Education of Man in a Series of Letters, which was inspired by the great disenchantment Schiller felt about the French Revolution, its degeneration into violence and the failure of successive governments to put its ideals into practice. Schiller wrote that "a great moment has found a little people"; he wrote the Letters as a philosophical inquiry into what had gone wrong, and how to prevent such tragedies in the future. In the Letters he asserts that it is possible to elevate the moral character of a people, by first touching their souls with beauty, an idea that is also found in his poem Die Künstler (The Artists): "Only through Beauty's morning-gate, dost thou penetrate the land of knowledge." This edition is specially formatted with a Table of Contents.

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