Text: N. P. Willis (?), Literary, Weekly Mirror (New York), December 21, 1844, vol. 1, no. 11, p. 164, cols. 2-3

[page 164, column 2:]

HOURS OF MEDITATION, &c., by HEINRICH ZSCHOKKE: J. S. Redfield, New York. — This is a little book of devotion and morals. The author is a religious man, not a fanatic; one who, tried and tempted as other men are, has, through a long life, proved all things, and held fast the good. An interesting notice of Zschokke may be found in the Foreign Quarterly, No. LXV. He has been known in Germany and Switzerland for more than fifty years as a writer and a man of action. In the former character he is described as the “admirable novelist, the historian, and philosophical moralist,” who has grown old, even beyond three score and ten, in the service of letters, and of mankind.

Whatever may be Zschokke's excellence in the various departments of literature, he is better known to readers of the German than to Americans in general. Such of his writings as have been translated into our language, are of as popular character, but they are not therefore inferior to many of loftier pretension. In their highly practical design, they must be profitable to minds that seek for aid in self-discipline, — that look for guidance in the experience and sound wisdom of gray hairs, and an unspotted life. The purity, beneficence, and energy of the good Zschokke's character enter into his counsels, and they who take heed to them will be likely to secure to themselves the promise made to the righteous man.