From: The Dial, Vol. III, No. III (Jan. 1843)
Author:
Published: E. P. Peabody 1843 Boston
I have taken up my abode for the winter here in Heidelberg. I will spare you the story of my journey hither, of the sunsets and the sea, of Rouen churches and Belgian cathedrals, and of the pictures of Rubens. I shall tell you nothing of the Rhine (which, apart from its castles and history, will compare well with the Hudson)—nothing of the antiquities of Aix la Chapelle and Cologne, and shall pass without stopping by Rolandseck, Ehrenbreitstein, the Rheinfels, Bishop Hatto’s Tower, and Johannisberg. Of Heidelberg, I will give you presently some details. There is a general desire, now noticeable in many continental cities, of restoring and finishing the principal churches and other buildings of architectural pretensions. At Rouen, this fact came under my observation; and again at Antwerp and Brussels; but especially at Cologne. The cathedral there has for centuries been something between a fragment and a ruin. It is now to be restored and completed. Thirty years is, I believe, the lowest computation of the time requisite therefor, and the sum of money needed, enormous. But it is not doubted that the spirit now awakened in both Protestants and Catholics will ensure its contribution. And then Germany will have a church to compare with anything in Italy; the St. Peters of Gothic architecture will be completed. The King of Prussia is the leader in this business. It is understood to be a political movement on his part. His Rhenish provinces, which are strong holds of the Catholic religion, were quite disaffected to his father, the late king, for several reasons; particularly for his perseverance in opposing the Catholic clergy on the subject of marriages between Papists and Protestants. The present king adheres to the policy of his father on this question; but of course has not the personal unpopularity which the introducer of the policy could not escape. And now he has apparently won the hearts of his Catholic subjects by this interest shown in the completion of the cathedral of Cologne; the original plans have been carefully preserved, and will be exactly followed. If, when completed, it shall possess all the beauty of which the engraving gives promise, it will be well worth a pilgrimage to Cologne to see. Pity that its interior should be defiled with the nonsense of the skulls of the three kings, the bones of St. Matthew, &c. &c.
At Bonn, a few miles above Cologne, I went to see A. W. Schlegel. He is a striking-looking old gentleman of seventy-five, quite gray, but not bent by age, nor weakened in his mental powers. He still lectures in the University on subjects connected with the arts, and, as he told me, has just published a volume of his miscellaneous pieces, heretofore printed in different journals. The collection is in the French language. He further said that he was soon to publish an enlarged and improved edition of his Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature. He was pleased that W. and I should come to see him. He kept us about an hour, making many inquiries respecting Americans whom he knew, as the Everetts and Mr. Ticknor, and mentioning with evident delight the republication of his writings in America. In the preface to his new book, he declares his consciousness that even beyond the Atlantic his name is still a living thing.
But now, of Schelling and his doings at Berlin. I send you his introductory lecture, delivered nearly a year ago on his advent here, which caused so extraordinary a sensation after his silence of twenty-five years. During the winter semestre he was attended by about three hundred auditors, and listened to with great admiration. His lectures were given in the capacity of a member of the Berlin Acade1J1y, between November 15th and March 18th. A torch-light procession of the students, who had listened to him, came in front of his residence on the evening when he concluded his lectures; and he addressed them as follows. (You are indebted to W. for the translation.)
“I accept with joy and gratitude this open testimony of your recognition of my labors. We have passed four months together in deep and hearty interchange of thought. That I am known by you is a source of pleasure to me; and you too, who five months ago were strangers to me,—what has won for me, your favor, your confidence, your sympathy? It is true, gentlemen, I have exerted myself to impart somewhat to you, that will endure longer than the swiftly fleeting relation between teacher and hearer—to give you particularly a philosophy, which can not only maintain itself within the narrow precincts of a school, among a scanty circle of disciples, but can bear the chill air of life and show itself in the broad eye of day. But hearts are not won by the mere subject-matter of discourse. What, then, has personally attracted you to me? This alone; that I sought to acquaint you with the loftiest things in all their truth and peculiarity; that I have not given you, instead of the bread that you desired, a stone, with the assurance that that was bread, that I have not concerned my aversion to every system of instruction that only trains to falsehood, my displeasure at that coolly planned distortion, so sadly attractive, which aims at the same moral and spiritual deformity—and that too, in youthful minds, whose finest ornaments are honor, rectitude, and genuine sentiments. Gentlemen, this same uprightness, this rectitude, this love of truth, which at your age is most highly prized, you have recognised, and will still farther recognise in me. The spiritual communion which has existed between us during this winter, will not be broken now; the germ which I have planted in you, will not—I know it from repeated experience—will not rest. It will of itself grow and expand, and burst every fetter that would restrain it.
“In this I confide, upon this I ground the hope, that even when I am no longer with you, you will say, he did not come to us in vain! Let me too respond: wherever I have taught, the youth have met me with confidence, with love, but the last have become in my heart the first; as we observe that offspring born in later years are ever dearest to the parents. Accept again my warmest thanks for this open proof of your good wishes and sympathy, and for the present season once more a heartfelt adieu.”
On the 22d March an address of thanks, printed on parchment, containing many signatures, and among them Neander’s and Twesten’s, was presented to Schelling. It ran as follows:—
“Address of thanks to his Excellency the Privy Counsellor, &c., Von Schelling. Dignum laudi virom vetat musa mori. In the morning of your life you were already chosen to be the herald of a better time. Now, in the evening of that life so full of significance, you are called to introduce a new era of science. Yes, beloved Teacher! you have been spared to a great mission by Him, who conducts to their predestinated goal both the fates of men, and the history of science. You it was, who withheld from us none of the fruits of your many years of silent reflection, that you might indicate the path to a positive philosophy, bringing Idea and Life, Faith and Science (Glauben and Wissen) into harmony. May you. honored teacher, yet long enjoy the results of your researches, and in the service of Truth, and of Him who is the Source of all Truth, may you here proclaim, with wonted energy, to your latest days, words of light and gladness. This is the sincere wish and the free homage of the undersigned, who, having gathered round you from the various spheres of common life, hung upon your words, and followed with eager interest the train of your reflections, through the night of the past to the faint morning-red of the future.”
During the summer semestre, Schelling lectured on the Philosophy of Mythology to an audience of about sixty. The smallness of this number, compared with the audience of the previous half year, occasioned many expressions of triumph, I gather in various ways, on the part of the Hegelians. They declared that Von Schelling’s visit to Berlin had been only an experiment on the part of the King of Prussia, and that it had signally failed. The friends of Schelling, indeed, might say with reason, that “an outflush of foolish young enthusiasm,” which would naturally and desirably die away, had perhaps attended the first appearance of the veteran philosopher in Berlin; and that circumstance, coupled with the fact, that the Philosophy of Mythology is not so generally attractive a subject as a philosophical system, which undertakes to reconcile Revelation with Reason, would fully explain the falling off in his audience in the hot weather of the summer, when the Prussian capital is neither a desirable nor a fashionable residence. But such considerations did not prevent the Hegelians from the most confident prophecies, that Schelling would, on his return to Munich in the autumn, omit to ask leave of absence from the duties of his Professorship there, for the ensuing year, and settle down into the inaction of previous years, and so, as to name, fame, and influence, quite die out. I have just learned that their prophecies have already come to nought. Schelling returned to Munich; and has now resigned his Professorship there; it is generally supposed, after an ineffectual attempt to obtain leave of absence for another year. He now goes to Berlin as his home for the rest of his life; but, I believe, does not take the style of a Professor in the University there, but in the capacity of a member of the Academy of Sciences receives a salary of 2000 Thalers a year, and the considerable addition thereto arising from lecture-fees. He is said to be on the eve of publishing four volumes; I., On the History of Philosophy since Descartes. II., On Positive Philosophy. III., On the Philosophy of Mythology. IV., On the Philosophy of Religion. His lectures on Natural Philosophy he will not publish himself; but leave to the care of his literary executor. I am told that old Schellingism and new-Schellingism are quite different things.
Tieck, whose apoplectic fit you may have heard of, is better, and likely perfectly to recover. But as he is now in his seventieth year the literary world can expect little more from him. The papers left by Hegel are in the course of preparation for the press. They are nearly or quite illegible, with corrections, erasures, and interlineations, innumerable; quite as inscrutable as his system, say such scoffers as have set eyes upon them. We shall doubtless now have a complete and uniform edition of the works. Of Count Platen I have as yet learned little. Munich was his home; and he has now been dead for some years. The best edition of his writings is Cotta’s; a double-columned octavo, of some 500 pages. The first part of Schlosser’s third volume on the History of the Eighteenth Century is published, and the second part is soon to appear.
Complaints are frequently heard in all parts of Germany, that the various governments, and of late the King of Prussia in particular, restrict the teachers in the several Universities, turning out those who teach doctrines in theology, philosophy, or politics, opposed to those of the court. The pure old-fashioned rationalism has been well nigh hunted out of the Theological Schools; at Giessen alone, which Hengstenberg calls a Hell, it has sway; and Credner says what he pleases. In Tübingen it is tolerated in the person of Baur. Hegel’s followers, if they wish to keep their places in the Universities, must teach, as many of them do, that Hegelism rightly understood is the same thing as the Christian doctrine rightly understood. The Hegelian opponents of Christianity, among whom Bruno-Bauer is by many good men here in Heidelberg reckoned, and the symbolists of the same philosophical school, are not allowed to teach in any University, I believe. The removal of Bruno-Bauer was viewed with great dismay by many of the confessedly Christian Hegelians, and by the liberty party generally. Marheineke published a pamphlet against the proceeding; but many of the liberty party, Hegeliaos even, were so little pleased with the book of Bruno-Bauer, that they were unwilling to make common cause with him. But a crisis, it is generally allowed, must soon come. And the liberals say that a good case alone is wanting for them to stand forth, and assert for the teachers the right of speaking what they think true, without fear or favor.
22d. As for Heidelberg, it is four weeks to-day since I came into the place. We have taken a suite of rooms, which several Americans have occupied before us, in the house of a family who speak English. I have made the acquaintance of Schlosser to whom Mr. Bancroft gave me a letter, and have met him repeatedly. He is a very obliging old gentleman of somewhat more than sixty years, with a fine countenance and perfectly white hair, and all the fire and enthusiasm of a young man. It was amusing to hear him denounce Tholuck and his party, as devilish and infernal hypocrites, who made the religious dispositions of the people the means of reconciling them to despotism. To Professor Park of Andover, who called on him a little earlier, he used similar language. I shall hear him lecture this winter. He has the largest class of all the professors here, excepting Von Vangerow and Mittermaier. The first lectures on the Pandects to an audience of one hundred and fifty; Mittermaier, on Criminal Law, on Commercial and Maritime Law, &c. to one hundred and twenty; and Schlosser to sixty or seventy on recent History. Von Vangerow, a very young and handsome man, is, since the death of Thibaut and the elevation of Von Savigny to a seat in the Prussian Cabinet, the most celebrated lecturer on Roman Law in Germany.
Professor Schlosser introduced us to old Paulus. Eighty-two years have not blunted the acuteness of his intellect, if they have somewhat impaired his memory. We found him hard at work, pen in hand, and the characters on the paper were firmly drawn. It struck us oddly that the name of Dr. Channing, to whom allusion was made in the conversation, was new to him. But the ignorance of scholars and of professors respecting America is boundless. A noticeable person here is a young lecturer on philosophy, named Roeth. He lectures this winter on the crisis resulting to the philosophical works from the opposition of the systems of Schelling and Hegel. He may fairly represent that newest German school, which undertakes to receive both the a posteriori element of the English philosophers, and the a priori element of the Germans, giving to each its proper place, and which school, as I learn, is daily gaining ground.
Thus far, I have chanced to find but little admiration for Goethe. The statement that he is read in America, is received with coldness. But when the fact is mentioned, that the letters of Bettine and Gunderode have admirers beyond the Atlantic, many persons are forward to express their indignation, as if they felt a personal responsibility for whatever came from the German press. Some young people, whom I know, are sufficiently enthusiastic in their regard for Goethe. But for Schiller all profess unbounded reverence and admiration; and Jean Paul is spoken of much in the same way except that the praise is sometimes qualified by criticisms on his style. Of English authors the, know little here of Wordsworth, nothing of Carlyle, whilst Bulwer and James are found in every parlor. Of Shakspeare you shall hear not uncommonly passages repeated in conversation; and Byron and Scott are familiar names. Cooper seems to be the only American who is really read here, but they do not know that he is an American.
A beautiful memorial of one Ernst Fries, a landscape painter, who died some ten years ago, has just been completed here. His pictures were few in number, but among them were two or three of great merit. The people of Heidelberg, and the friends he had made in his artist-travels, joined in a subscription, and built a fine road from the castle to a higher summit, on which once stood a Roman fort. It winds round the hill in such a manner as to afford the finest views of the valley and town below, and nearly in the middle an inscription is cut in the living rock. This way is called the Friesenweg.
The death of Gesenius will undoubtedly have been known in America a fortnight before this arrives. It took place Sunday, Oct. 23d; the disease was cancer of the stomach. His great Lexicon or Thesaurus of the Hebrew Language wants still a part for its completion. Five of the six have been already published. It is hoped that Professor Rödiger will supply the remainder. The appointment of his successor is watched with jealous eyes; and the King of Prussia must expect a new flood of abuse, if he takes a pietist or a Schellingian. Gesenius was the Professor who made Halle so attractive to theological students; his Auditoriums were of from three to four hundred. Clemens Brentano, the brother of Bettine, and the publisher, in conjunction with Von Arnim, of the Child’s Wonder Horn, also has quite recently died.
I spoke in my last of the new edition of Hegel as now publishing; it is complete. Marheineke, Schulze, Gens, Von Henning, Hotho, Michelet, and Forster, were the editors. It fills 18 volumes, 8vo., and was published 1832-41. It is made up as follows: Vol. I., Philosophical Discussions. II., Phenomenology of Spirit. III., IV., V., Logic. VI., VII., Encyclopiædia. VIII., Philosophy of Law. IX., Philosophy of History. X., Æsthetics. XI., XII., Philosophy of Religion. XIII., XIV., XV., History of Philosophy. XVI., XVII., Miscellanies. XVIII., Philosophical Propædeutics. The 12th and last volume of a complete and uniform edition of Kant’s works has just been published at Leipzig. The first complete and uniform edition of Zuinglius’s writings has lately made its appearance in Zurich. Six new volumes have between 1837 and 1842 been added to the 12 vol. ed. of Schiller’s Works. They contain a Life which has the sanction of the family of Schiller, and selections from his MSS. Two new volumes of correspondence have been added to the common edition of Johann Von Muller’s Works. A new, complete, and cheap edition of Von Chamisso’s writings is just published. Varnhagen Von Ense has published the second volume of the new series of his Denkwurdigkeiten. Harnmer-Purgstall, (Von Hammer,) has commenced the publication of a work on the Mongolians in Persia; which is a page of the history of the 13th and 14th centuries which is worth some study, it seems. The first volume has already appeared; a second will probably complete the work. Wachsmuth has published a brief history of the French Revolution, in the Library of Modern History projected by Heeren and Ukert. Neander has published a new edition of his Church History, and dedicated it to Schelling. Ranke’s History of Germany during the time of the Reformation is in the course of publication, but not yet completed. Von Raumer has just published the volume of his Historical Taschenbuch, or Annual, for 1843. A complete and uniform edition of Creuzer’s publications is in progress. Gervinus has completed his History of the Poetic National Literature of the Germans in five volumes, 8vo., and also published a Handbuch on the same in one volume. I met him at Schlosser’s table. His history is worth telling. A few years ago, for he is still a young man, he was a grocer’s apprentice in Darmstadt. Since then he has raised himself to a Professorship at Gottingen, which he left, rather than submit to the requirements of the present King of Hanover. In his retirement here in Heidelberg, he has written this book, which has already given him a fame throughout Germany. It is considered the best specimen of literary history which Germany has yet produced. Hoffmann of Fallersleben, the Breslau Professor, sometimes styled the Beranger of Germany, who published a year ago some volumes of original poetry, entitled “Political Poems” and “Poems not Political,’’ is extremely popular at present for having incurred the displeasure of the Prussian government by the first of these. Last summer he was forbidden to lecture by the government; and this autumn the savans, who had a great meeting at Strasbourg, made him one of their vice presidents, to show him that they liked him the better, rather than the worse, for what he had done.
The following books are promised. A complete edition of Mendelsohn’s writings. A work on Mythology by Wolfgang Menzel. The first number appears on the first of January. A new and improved edition of Grimm’s German Mythology. A new History of Ancient Philosophy, by Dr. Roeth, the learned and promising privat-docent I mentioned in my Inst. It is to be in four volumes; the two first come out at Easter. Umbreit, who has just published his second and last volume on the Prophecies of Isaiah, announces a Commentary on Jeremiah.
The savans of Germany held a great meeting at Strasbourg during the last week in September. Mainz was the scene of a meeting of the scientific men during the third week of the same month. And the philologists met at Ulm, in the last days of September and beginning of October.
The King of Bavaria has just opened the Valhalla with much pomp and circumstance. This is designed as a sort of Temple of Fame for Germany. It is to contain the busts of all the Teutonic race who have distinguished, or may distinguish, themselves in arms or in arts. Arminius and Blucher, Nibelung Bards and Minnesingers, Schiller and Goethe, poets, heroes, kings, statesmen, artists, musicians, composers, historians, and sages, are all admitted on a common footing. If no genuine bust can be obtained, a fancy piece is substituted. Even if the name of the author of any great work in literature or art is unknown, this does not invalidate his claim to admission. Thus, the architect of the Cologne cathedral lives here in a fancied effigy, though even his name has died out from the records and memory of men. In the Hall of Expectation, a sort of Antechamber, are placed the busts of the living spiritual nobility of Germany, as it were on probation. This Valhalla is the realization of a youthful dream of the present King of Bavaria, a monarch who unites in his character a French love of spectacles, with a real admiration of art, and love of artists. The building stands nearly in the centre of Germany, on an eminence three hundred feet above the Danube. Donanstauf, near Ratisbon, is the town nearest lo it. It is a Doric temple, of white limestone, of the proportions of the Parthenon. Leo Von Klenze was the architect. Schwanthaler has furnished alto relievos for the pediments. One of them represents the victory of the Cheruscii over the Romans; the other the efforts of the Germans against the French in the War of Liberation. The same distinguished artist has completed a colossal statue of Germania, and symbolical figures of the principal German States.
There are three questions on which all Germany seems to be alive, 1st, The question between Catholicism and Protestantism, in which the Cologne intermarriage troubles form no slight feature. Görres and Neander take part in this discussion. 2d, The question, between Schelling and Hegel, in which Schelling himself and Marheineke are the chief figurantes. 3d, The liberty of teaching. The publications on this subject hinge generally on the removal of Bruno-Bauer from his privat-docentship at Bonn. On these subjects pamphlets and newspaper articles are of frequent appearance. Caricatures, rivalling in stupidity and indecency anything of American growth, are fast becoming the order of the day. And, what is the strangest of all, engravings without letter-press have lately, in Prussia, been made free from censorship. As for the second question; suppose Hegelism triumphant, then Marheineke must fight out a battle with Strauss. Strauss, too, is now backed by many who will soon find him too conservative. For he, I believe, wishes to build up a Christian faith and practice on his Dogmatics. But Feuerbach will probably resist such a procedure as rigorously as he now resists Schelling or Marheineke. Strauss is now backed by Ruge, the editor of the Deutsche Jahr Bücher, Feuerbach, and BrunoBauer. Beside these, Mosen, Gutzkow, and Laube, support him by their writings for the stage; and Hoffman, Pratz, Dingelstadt, and Herwigh, by their verses. He himself is living at Heilbronn, in Wurtemburg, which city stands on the Neckar, a few hours ride above Heidelberg. Common report says that he has just married an opera-singer.
American books and affairs are noticed more and more in the German journals; such matters, for instance, as Longfellow’s recent visit to Europe,—with a sketch of his life, and complimentary notice of his writings; Dr. Channing’e death; Morton’s Crania Americana; Bancroft’s third volume, &c. Dr. Robinson, Prescott, and Sparks, are duly appreciated; one finds the names of Judge Story, Webster, Clay, Calhoun, Wheaton, the Everetts, and Ticknor, in all the Conversations Lexicons; and in Wolff and Schutz’s “British Museum,” a fair proportion of American authors; among others, Allston, Braynard, Brooks, Bryant, Clark, Miss Davidson, Doane, Frisbie, Gould, Irving, Halleck, Percival, Peabody, Pierpont, Sedgwick, Sigourney, Willis, Woodworth, Flint, and Bird. Irving’s Sketch Book is reprinted here with German notes, to be used in schools where English is taught; and I see in my tailor’s shop a fine engraving of a scene in one of Cooper’s Indian novels, by a German artist. The Irvings, Cooper, Paulding, and Hoffmann, are translated; and many of Cooper’s books are reprinted in the English. Yet the people generally know nothing about the Americans. Their idea of one ranges indefinitely between an Indian and a Negro; and in the bookstores and print-shops you surprise the tradesmen by informing them that the Americans speak English; sometimes, even, you may meet a Professor who thinks that only the educated portion of the Americans speak English, while the farmers and mechanics use a mixed dialect of Pequod, Choctaw, and Irroquois.
Dana’s “Two Years Before the Mast” has been translated; and some of Longfellow’s poems, by Freiligrath. Also a translation of Allston’s “Monaldi,” and of Prescott’s “Ferdinand and Isahella,” are promised. The following new works may be mentioned. A volume supplementary to the common edition of Goethe’s works, containing “Odysseus and Nausikaa;” a supplementary volume of Lessing, containing “Dramen und dramatischen Fragmenten;” the third and last volume of BrunoBauer’s “Kritik der Evangelischen Geschichte der Synoptiker und des Johannes.” Laube, one of the most celebrated young Germans, advertises a novel as nearly ready, to be called “Die Gräftn Chateaubriand;” Alexander Jung, another, has published “Vorlesangen über die moderne Literature der Deutschen;” the plays of Julius Mosen, also of young Germany, have lately been published, the last of which, “Bernhard Von Weimar,” has, within a short time, been repeatedly enacted at Dresden, with great applause. Georg Herwegh, a young poet of the same school, is quite famous here at present. The leading Review of this class seems to be the “Deutscher Jahrbücher;” the leading magazines, the “Telegraph,” published at Hamburg, and the “Morgenblatt für gebildete Leser,” published by Cotta, at Stuttgard.
Edward Ferrand, (Schulz) of Berlin, the poet, of whom Chamisso said that “he played only on one string, but on that like Paganini,” has recently died.
[We omit many interesting details on the German Universities, furnished by our correspondent, especially on the University of Berlin, and make haste to present to our readers the Introductory Lecture of Schelling.]
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