Except by name, Jean Paul Friedrich Richter is little known out of
Germany. The only thing connected with him, we think, that has reached
this country is his saying,--imported by Madame de Stael, and thankfully
pocketed by most newspaper critics,--"Providence has given to the
French the empire of the land; to the English that of the sea; to
the Germans that of--the air!"
-- Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881)
-- Richter, Edinburgh Review, 1827
