Cornell University Library arV16610 Religious life in Germany during the war 3 1924 031 438 637 olin,anx Cornell University Library The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924031438637 RELIGIOUS LIFE IN GERMANY RELIGIOUS LIFE IN GERMANY IBurtng tjbe 5Blars of IntrjpenBEnce A SERIES OF HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES By WILLIAM BAUR MINISTER OF THE ANSCHAR CHAPEL, HAMBURGH TRANSLATED, WITH THE AUTHOR'S SANCTION, BY MRS. G. STURGE STRAHAN & CO. 56, LUDGATE HILL, LONDON 1872 Second Edittoft LONDON : PRINTED BY VIRTtTR AND CO., CITY KOAD. ATJTHOE'S PREFACE. GREAT as was the pleasure which the preparation of these memoirs aiforded me, it is with timidity that I offer them to the public, now that they are at length completed. For the task of producing, by means of sketches of the most eminent exponents of it, a picture of religious life during the wars of independence, required, besides a general know- ledge of the history of the period, and an acquaintance with manifold details, a talent for seizing on the salient points in the lives of eminent persons, so as to produce a vivid portrait of them. I am fully conscious of having performed the task only very imperfectly, and console myself with the hope, that the importance of the subject of my book will atone for many imperfections in its form. But in order to anticipate objections which may present themselves to the reader, I beg him to give attention to a few introductory remarks. It maybe asked, if the object was to present proofs of the renewal of religious life during the wars of independence, why this was not effected by selecting and grouping together these proofs from the lives of individuals, rather than by means of biographical sketches ? I answer, that the latter form was chosen, in the hope of thereby securing for the book a larger circle of readers, especially among women and young people. And if I may judge from the pleasure which I have always had in biography myself, I should say that there is something peculiarly attractive and inciting in tracing the course by which a man attained to eminence. For this reason I have given a prominence to the b ^ AUTHOR'S PREFACE. period of youth, and to the mental atmosphere in which it was passed. There is a peculiar interest in observing under what varying early impressions, and by what various leadings, the exponents of religions life during the war-time united in one object, and how often the seeds of parental, and especially of maternal, training, sprang up and bore fruit at that important period. Should the reader, however, approve of the treatment of the subject, he may take exception to the selection of incidents. I acknowledge that on this point there is room for difference of opinion, but trust that, on the whole, nothing of consequence is omitted, nor anything unworthy admitted. And I beg the reader to remember, that in a sketch of the renewal of religious life, he must not look for perfection, or great advancement, but for growth and aspiration. Whatever may be Regarded as a healthy plant springing up on the barren soil of rehgious life in Germany at the beginning of this century, I have noticed, though it might be far from having attained maturity. An earnest desire for truth, a warm heart open for the reception of the Spirit of God, is more bene- ficial in its effects than the mere assent of the understanding to truths without any corresponding warmth of heart ; and in this latter quality, I think none of the characters whom I have introduced to the reader are wanting. In conclusion, I beg that the remoteness of my residence, which has made it difficult to obtain access to sources of information, may be taken into accoimt in the judgment passed upon my book. May God grant it His blessing. WILLIAM BAUE. EtrPPEKTSBURG, IN THE GrAND DuGHY OF HeSSE.* November, 1864. • The author has since removed to Hamburg. — Tr. TEANSLATOE'S PEEFACE. THE loyalty and patriotism of one nation appear to be no less incomprehensible to another than the subtile attraction of one individual for another. English readers, therefore, can per- haps scarcely be expected to take any particular interest in the special purpose of this book, namely, to illustrate the renewal of religious life in Germany at the time of the wars of independence. Indeed, the ardent patriotism which animates it, the high place given to Germany among the nations, may to some appear exaggerated and ridiculous ; but we, with our exalted notion of our own national merits, are surely not the people to cast stones at other nations for their measure of self-esteem ; and I thought that the interest of many of the biographical sketches was so great, independently of their special purpose, that some English readers might be glad through their means to increase their acquaintance with men of whom they know but little, and to make acquaintance with others. As far as I am aware, no popular sketches of the subjects of most of these biographies have appeared in England. It is, therefore, with a hope of extending an interest in German life and character, and of thereby contributing some- thing, however little, towards diminishing our "aecht Brit- tische Beschranktheit," genuine British narrowness, that these Sketches are offered to the public. The characters portrayed are selected from spheres of life so diverse — royal, mihtary, political, theological, literary, and philanthropic — that it may be hoped that readers of various tastes will find something to interest them. ■^iii TRANSLATOR' S PREFACE. Several chapters in the original have been omitted, as not possessing much interest for any but German readers; the book has also been considerably abridged. Two of the poetical translations are taken from ' Lyra Ger- manica,' by purchased permission of Messrs. Longman and Co. ; for most of the others I am indebted to one of my sisters. JANE STURGE. NoRTHFLEET, Rbruory, 1870. TEANSLATOE'S PEEFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. THIS book would probably have attracted more attention than it did, when the first edition appeared, had not its title, which is not that which was originally intended for it, been somewhat misleading. A more appropriate one would have been " Biographical Sketches during the Wars of Independence in Germany." For it really contains much of the history of that period, and of the French dominion in Germany, so that its appearance shortly before the breaking out of the Franco- German War in 1870 was remarkably opportune, for the one contest must be looked upon as the sequel of the other, and the book is not likely soon to lose its value to those who would understand the relation between them. Its pages show abundant light on the earnest enthusiasm of the German people, and on many of the causes of their success in the late struggle, while the annals of the French dominion in Germany, now no longer contemporary history to most of the present generation, explain, however little' they may be thought to justify, the severe measures of the Germans in 1871. Thus the events of the last two years have invested the period of which this book treats with a special interest quite unlooked for when it was translated, and the history of the recent war wUl be followed with much greater intelligence when read in the hght which the following biographical sketches afford. Sydenham, Juh/, 1872. CONTENTS. PAGE pTEODUCTlOIT ,1 I. RELIGIOUS DECLENSION 11 II. NATIONAL DISRUPTION 25 in. THE PRIDE AND FALL OP PRUSSIA . .* ... 35 IV. BLUCHER, GNBISENAU, NETTELBECK, YOBK, AND SCHARNHORST 44 ,T. PREDERIC WILLIAM AND LOUISA OP PKUSSIA .... 60 .YI. PRINCESS WILLIAM OP PRUSSIA 81 .VII. HEINRICH KAJBL PBIEDRICH VON STEIN .... 112 ■ Vni. JOHANN GOTTLIEB FICHTE ....... 149 . IX. ERNST MORITZ AKNDT 177 . X. PREDERIO SCHLEIERMACHER 197 . XI. HBINRIOH STEEPENS 241 . XII. THE SIN OP NAPOLEON 277 ,XIII. CLAUDIUS AND. JUNG STILLING 295 . XIV. FREDERIC PERTHES . 339 . XV. PREDEBIG LEOPOLD STOLEERG 375 . XVI. JOHN PALK . . 409 , XVII. SULFIZ BOIBSEREE . . 437 XVIII. EPPEOTS OP THE WARS OF INDEPENDENCE .... 465 INTEODUCTION. ON a deep consideration of the subject, it appears as if every aboriginal nation, as "well as every individual man, has some special part assigned to it, in the counsels of the Creator, in the historical development of the Divine intentions. As it is the duty of every individual to discover what is his vocation, to know himself, to ascertain his powers and their limits, and, with submission to the Divine guidance, to strive to fulfil his calling, so should every nation endeavour to discover what is the mission which is given to it to perform. The vocation set before it by the Lord of aU the ages should guide it like a star through the dark and tortuous paths of history. However far it may wander from its guide, it should endeavour to find it again, and feel that it can never use its powers with pleasure and success except when walking in the path appointed for it by God. But as with the individual the secular and Christian vocation unite in one, as soon as he has attained light -through Christ, so it is only by the closest union of the two that a Christian nation can fulfil its national and religious calling. Christianity should permeate patriotism, and it is only at its peril that patriotism can withdraw from the influence of Chris- tianity. In endeavouring to discover what is the vocation of the German nation, we must first call attention to the fact that it is a Christian nation, and as such has performed its most brilliant B 2 INTRODUCTION, deeds. National ignominy will be the result, not only of declension in patriotism, but in religion ; and it is only when conscientiously seeking to regain the right path that we shall see German honour vindicated. Thus, in studying the German wars of independence, we find that the low state of religious life in the nation was a principal cause of its fall ; that the revival of religion was an essential element in its regeneration. The blessing which resulted from war and victory was a renewed apprehension of the mission with which it had been entrusted when first its national strength had been imbued with Christianity, for this had been very much lost sight of. The Gospel never found a more gifted or impressible disciple than the German nation. While Greece and Bome first heard the Word of Life when death was approaching; while they derived from it consolation for their last hours rather than strength to perform mighty deeds, the German nation was in the full vigour of youth, and thirsting for action when it heard the news of a Saviour. It had acquired possession of the heart of Europe ; it had founded new empires within the Boman territories ; had imparted its fresh young life to decaying peoples ; it had the aspect of one intending to do great things in the world when it was invited to bow the knee at the name of Jesus. It soon formed a close alliance with Christianity, which gave it new aims, and consecrated its growing powers. It is not national vanity, but the result of the soberest historical research, to ascribe to the Germans a special recep- tivity for Christianity, a special gift for the apprehension of its deepest essence. The claims of other nations are not thereby lessened, but the responsibilities of the Germans increased. But it must not be forgotten that the moral and religious principles of German nationality are mostly identical with those of other Germanic tribes, and love of country must not induce us to attribute specially to them merits which they have in common with other heathen nations. But if we grant that th6 Germanic representation of the Allfather amounts to little more than the Grecian " Father INTRODUCTION. 3 of gods and men ;" that worship in groves, without temple or idols, is also found among other primitive peoples ; that in the Teutonic mythology, as well as in others, a demoralising repre- sentation prevailed of the pi-oduction instead of creation of the world ; that other nations saw something prophetic in woman, — still there remain features in the religious and moral concep- tions of the Germans in which we may be permitted to recognise the likeness of a son to a father. One significant feature is their belief in the future extinction of their divinities, and of an end of all things. For the whole existing world, including their gods, in the imagining of which they had expended all their mental treasures, could not satisfy them, but appeared to them as something doomed to destruction, from the ashes of which something more pure, more genuine, and true should one day arise. Their profundity is shown more by what they con- signed to destruction than by what they created. If among the Jewish people we admire the spirit of prophecy which, instead of mourning over a lost paradise, proclaims a future kingdom of God, we may also regard it as' a gleam of Divine enlightenment that the Germans, with a deep conscious- ness of sin, perceived the imperfection of their most perfect efforts, "and looked forward to the future when something better should arise. But even the mythology, which was doomed to destruction, offered many points of contact for the teaching of the Gospel. Among these may be reckoned the heroism of the Germans, and the joy with which they encountered deaths which were coupled with their reverence for Odin, who, as Wodan, was the chief deity of the Saxons. To fall in battle was the highest aim of man, because thereby he became the companion of Odin in Valhalla, and at the end of the world would join him in the conflict with the powers of darkness. How easily must the heroism and triumph in death of the Christian, who loses life in order to gain it, who devotes himself wholly to his Lord, with whom to stand outweighs aU earthly sacrifice, have been grafted upon these ideas ! But this devotion and self-sacrifice are by no means to be attributed to a contempt for life. The doctrine of Christianity 4 INTRODUCTION. — that one human soul exceeds the whole world in value ; that, because he bears the image of Himself, one human being, in God's estimation, is worth more than all the rest of His creatures — must have sunk deeply into the soul of the German, because he had by nature a high esteem for man as an independent being. The announcement of the liberty of the children of God must have sounded to him like the fulfilment of a long-cherished idea, for he had no stronger impulse than that for freedom. And when with the value which was attached to his own free individuality, the value of his fellow man was increased in his eyes, if it gave rise to an idea that man must be willing to sacrifice " himself for others, the retainer for the leader, the leader for the retainer, — what an example of such devotion, of self-sacrifice, of redemption of captives by the substitution of one who was free, must Christ have appeared to them ! He who demands their lives as a sacrifice from His followers, because He has first given His life for them. In respect to the morals of the Germans, it is certain that both the heathen Tacitus and the Christian Salvianus draw a picture of the purity of the Germanic tribes, which stands out in clear contrast to Eoman immorality. Unnatural vices were unknown among them, and maiden purity and conjugal fidelity were fenced round by the strongest publio opinion, and by the severest punishment in case of fall. All these features display a certain depth and morality in the views and lives of these people which indicate a natural adapta- tion for Christianity. It might be expected that it would be displayed in their language, for on this, next to their religion, the spirit of a nation is most plainly stamped ; and, in fact, the German language seems to be a vessel wonderfully adapted for receiving the whole contents of Gospel teaching. Thus we find, in the natural character of the Germans, moral views of profound depth and proportionate height; and>it appears to be their Christian vocation to unite an earnest morality with a profound faith, to apprehend the deepest signi- ficance of the Gospel message, as well as to attain pre-eminence in putting it in practice. That faith is not German which can INTRODUCTION. S dispense with the acceptance of mercy ; those works are not German which lack the fervour of piety. The Komish Church, from which the Grermans first received Christianity, imposed difficulties in the way of its reception. Because her doctrine was not correct on the subject of faith, it necessarily followed that she taught a false system of works. While, according to the Scriptures, faith is the most profound act of the mind, the entire devotion of a finite creature to an infinite God, reliance of the sinner on His mercy as revealed to us in His Son, an inviolable attachment to Him who lovej us unto death, a faithful following of the Hero who alone can make us free, a union with the Living One who alone can impart life to those who were worthy of death, a life in the Saviour, — in the Komish Church, faith was soon reduced into a mere assent of the understanding to the doctrines of the Church. While, according to the Scriptures, faith produces the closest union with the Saviour, in the Romish Church it is only expected to produce obedience to her teaching. While, according to the Scriptures, works are nothing but the love which proceeds as naturally from faith as light and heat from fire ; and faith in itself possesses no merit, and is only pleasing to God so far as, like a sap of life, it animates our works ; — in the Eomish Church works take an independent place, and are coMidered as a ground of salvation. While, in the sphere of Protestant Christendom, works exist in healthy combination with faith, and are represented as fulfilments of the Divine wUl, in the Bomish Church the most arbitrary works sprang up, till they became a disgrace to, and distortion of, Christianity. The Eomish Church was to be the schoolmaster of the youthful German race for a time, but its vocation for freedom through communion with God, she could not comprehend ; and it was for the nation itself to awake to it gradually, and to assert it in opposition to the spirit of its teacher. For the special calling of the nation to a deeper piety is shown by the fact that the Church of Rome had no more faithful adherents than the Germans, and that they sought to animate its lifeless dogmas with the warmth of their hearts' blood. While at 6 INTRODUCTION. Rome, the Pope and Cardinals, like the heathen Greeks, were enjoying the refinements of art and the good things of this life, the Germans were given up to the earnest contemplation of their sins, and did not disdain the use of the miserable means offered by the Church to obtain peace. But the tendency of the nation to penetrate into the deep signification of Christianity is still more clearly shown by German mysticism than, by the endeavour to fix a meaning to the Romish dogmas. In the theology of Johann Tauler, Heinrich Suso, and Johann Ruysbroek, German subjectiveness triumphed over Romish objeotiveness, the German language over the ecclesiastical Latin, the readiness of the German people to receive God through Christ in the heart, over the Romish doctrine of recon- ciliation to ■ God through obedience to the Church. This was German theology; this clearing away of all legal fences and false mediation, this leading man back to immediate communion with God, this dying of the old man with Christ, and rising to a new life with Him, this pouring out of love from its eternal source through the soul of the believer to his brethren : this was German theology, this proclamation of the deepest secrets of revelation in the simple tones of the German language. The mysticism of the middle ages was a return of the spirit to the sources of divine life ; it was an earnest of that greatest deed of Germany, the Reformation. Martin Luther was sent to the nation to announce to it its Christian calling, to unite heartfelt faith with the purest morality. Never, perhaps, were united in one man so clear an apprehension of Divine truth with the strong stamp of nationality, as in the German reformer. There have been men in whom the image of Christ was more clearly mirrored than in the ardent soul of Luther, and others may have devoted to the Gospel a more undivided patriotism, but no such union of religious fervour vrith the natural vigour of the German character has appeared before or since. His alarmed conscience could not rest till he had discovered and partaken of the deepest springs of peace for the soul, but in putting on the new man in Christ he did not cast off his INTRODUCTION. 7. German nature. The word of God appeared to Mm as the all- powerful means to lead the world to Christ, and thoroughly German in tone was his proclamation of it ; faith was to him the life-giving fruit of the word, and with true German devotion he clung to the Captain of his Salvation. He taught that matrimony was a holy state, and thoroughly German was the family life which he held up as a pattern to future generations. With far-seeing eye he traced Christianity from its origin to its furthest extension, and perceived that human life in all its phases may he consecrated to God. The idea of the possibility of the whole nation walking in the paths that Luther pointed out to it, appears, as things now stand, like ridiculous enthusiasm. But Germany was not so far at one time from acknowledging as one man her Christian calling. Luther's writings were as joyfully received by the Christian nobles as by the burgher and peasant class. His preaching touched the national heart, his catechism taught in a national tone, his hymns opened new paths to the national love of song. The man appeared to the whole nation as an imper- sonation of its better self. The Gospel from Wittenberg had gone forth on all sides, it had been accepted by the choicest of the people ; the North Germans were its adherents, the spirit of the ancient faith was revived in Bohemia and Moravia, it had penetrated into Bavaria and Austria, and to the countries to the east of Germany. Then God permitted the spirit of the Romish Church, which was revived in Jesuitism, to hinder through force and cunning the spread of the Gospel. Jesuitism is the very antipodes, the arch enemy of the German mind ; for inward and heartfelt feeling, it substitutes the most repulsive formalism ; it seeks to control liberty by revolting statutes. In place of the sanctified idealism which burns in the youthful German mind, it offers as the only incentive in education the commonest motives of ambition. Its object is not to lead souls to a life-giving communion with their Saviour, but only to secure obedience to the Church and to increase the adherents of the Papacy. A century after the Beformation, and even earlier, Germany presented a mournful 8 INTRODUCTION. spectacle. Jesuitism pressed like an incubns on the national mind, and even when Luther's teaching still prevailed, it was forgotten that the Christian calling consists of sincere faith, and of a life which originates therein. Even in the Protestant Church faith was iu danger of becoming a mere intellectual assent ; pure doctrine had assumed the form of law ; there was a zeal in the defence of it with which zeal for a life of love did not keep pace. The period of unbroken Lutheran orthodoxy doubtless pre- sents many valuable examples of Gospel life and faith, rich treasures of hymns and prayer, profound expositions of doctrine applicable to all time, excellent regulations concerning both public and private life, but the special vocation of the nation was not suflSciently apprehended. Two powerful voices were heard admonishing their countrymen to see their calling, the theologian Johann Arndt, and the philosopher Jacob Bohme, — the former by his ' True Christianity,' which has become a national work, the latter by numerous writings of remarkable depth and power. Both exhort their readers to a more inward reception of Divine truth, not an idle contemplation of the infinity of the Divine nature, but a partaking of that pure spring of the Godhead offered to us in Jesus Christ, in order that man may be regenerated and lead a holy hfe. We pass over the orthodoxy of the seventeenth century with its active piety, which "in great part arose from the writings of these two great men, till we come to the times of Philip Jacob Spener and August Hermann Francke. They renewed the teaching of the Eeformation ; they insisted on the intimate union of religion and morality, of faith and charity, of justification and sanctifi- cation. They sought help for the times in a revival of the old times, not in outward forms, or in a meretricious style of preaching. The pietism of Spener and Francke was a religion of the heart, a faith which was to make a new creature. It sought entrance into the heart to cleanse it by repentance, and to create in it a new life by faith ; it sought entrance into houses to turn them into sanctuaries, into schools to transfer the INTRODUCTION. 9 doctrines of the catechism from the head into the heart, and into the abodes of poverty to offer the consolations of the Gospel. It held to the confession of the Fathers, but without rejecting the brethren who did not adhere to it ; it esteemed the ecclesiastical office, but without ignoring the gifts of laymen ; it was willing to walk in the paths of church order, but it per- ceived that the Gospel must renounce obsolete forms. And if in pietism there was now and then something of legal bitterness, yet the community of Moraviatf Brethren originated in it, from whom have resounded the sweetest songs of praise to the Lamb of God, and who have received the Saviour with the most heartfelt and grateful love. The profound and yet active piety of Spener, Franoke, and Zinzendorf was a return to the Christian calling of the nation ; but if not in them, in their followers, the far-seeing eye of Martin Luther was wanting, which ranged over the whole sphere of natural life, hoping to consecrate it all. He who wishes to exercise a powerful influence upon a people must take an interest in all that concerns it, in the state, in art, in science, and learning. Pietism has not lost its value. It stiU preaches faith in the heart as opposed to traditional orthodoxy, active charity in opposition to mere purity of doc- trine which refuses to touch the burdens of the people with one of its fingers, the advantage of turning to account the talents of the laity in the service of the Church, instead of the system of leaving everything to the clergy. But if German Christians are to fulfil their calling, they must hear in mind that to art and song which have not exactly an ecclesiastical tone, to social intercourse not confined to seasons of religious edification, to the freedom and unity of the Fatherland, to all healthy patriotism, the Apostle's words are applicable, "All are yours." In the middle of the last century the ancient orthodoxy had fallen into a state of torpor ; the pietistic circles kept strictly to themselves ; a new spirit had arisen, the spirit of free investiga- tion, which was to be applied alike to every subject ; history and divine revelation were to be judged by the rules of reason. These influences came from France and England, where they 10 INTRODUCTION. had long been secretly at work. The German literature of the period was gradually pervaded by this modern enlightenment. The ancient and eternal principles upon which human life must rest were discarded. At the end of the century the religious life of Germany was asleep. Heartfelt faith was superseded by mere superficial belief, true morality by a spurious code of morals. History teaches us that Germany at once lost sight of her Christian and of her national calling, that she was chastised at once for this twofold sin, — ^that she came forth, after the chastisement, inspired by the earnest desire to nourish both her religion and patriotism from life-giving springs. The period during which this chastisement, repentance, and return took place, is so important to our national hfe, — the moment when God granted it to us again after the defeat of the French is so interesting a one, — that we wish to preserve a historical memorial of it, in the hope that we may thence derive courage and zeal for the work of Christian and national revival which is so much needed again.* This is the object of the following pages. • Written in 1864, since whioli the author would protaUy admit that the national revival at any rate has taken place in the re-establishment of the empire. — Ta. CHAPTER I. RELIGIOUS DECLENSION. WHEN during the last year of the last century, Schleier- macher, then a young man, burning with holy indig- nation at the superficial tone that prevailed in religious matters, and deeply impressed with the need of directing attention again to the true sources of reUgious life, delivered his 'Discourses on Religion,' he addressed his hearers in these words : — " From very ancient times, faith has not been given to every man ; and it has ever been the case that but few have really apprehended religion, while millions have coquetted with her in the various disguises with which she has permitted them to invest her. But at the present time the life of people of culture is destitute of everything having any resemblance to her. I know that you do not worship the Godhead in private any more than you visit the forsaken temple ; I know that no other household gods are to be found in your elegant abodes than the sayings of our wise men and the glorious creations of our artists ; that human afiairs, social life, art and science, however much your taste for them may be to your credit, have so entirely taken possession of your minds, that you have no interest left for the eternal and holy existence beyond this life ; that you ignore it altogether. I know that you have succeeded in filling this life with charms so rich and various, that you no ' longer need the thought of eternity, and that having created a world for yourselves, you are quite above thinking of Him who created you. " I am well aware that you are of opinion that nothing more novel or convincing can be said about these things, than has 12 RELIGIOUS DECLENSION. been said by wise men and prophets, and — may I not add ?^- by scoffers and priests, over and over again. It is plain that though you have long rejected the latter, and declared them to be unworthy of your confidence, you are disposed to respect them because they are content to live in the desolate ruins of their sanctuaries, and take pains still further to deform and spoil them." • It was in Berlin, the head-quarters of Protestantism, that these words were spoken, but a similar state of things existed in Roman Catholic districts. Mayence was the capital of the most important Electoral State of Germany, and the governor was also archbishop, so that it might have been expected that the Catholic faith would have been under the immediate pro- tection of the Government. But under the last electoral princes, free-thinking and so-called enlightenment had taken possession of the palace as well as of the homes of people of culture. Perthes wrote on this subject as follows: — "The Elector prided himself on being an enlightened ruler in both political and ecclesiastical affairs; and upon permitting every man to think and say what he pleased. All the higher circles in Mayence were permeated with the doctrines of the Illuminati. The greater number of the canons, profesaors, and councillors, ecclesiastical and temporal, belonged to this class. In the houses of many of the canons, instead of statues of the Yirgin, yon found the symbols of philosophy and art, and in their rooms a bust of Voltaire, instead of the crucifix, or statues of St. Peter or St. Paul ; and lying upon their tables were treatises by the Illuminati and the works of Helvetius." These words furnish a striking picture of the state of religion amongst people of education. Life had still a certain serious- ness for them, through scientific pursuits, through labour for daily bread and the vicissitudes of fortune. It was adorned with art, enlivened by poetry and the charms of social life, and a sort of enthusiasm for the welfare of humanity was not want- ing. But it was merely a natural life ; God had no place in it, for men had discovered that Revelation had nothing to reveal, that the Son of God Himself only belonged to the sphere of RELIGIOUS DECLENSION. 13 natural life. There was no family prayer, no walking in com- pany to the house of God. The churches were empty, the clergy were most superfluous people, and were only tolerated when they sacrificed their office and their calling to the prevail- ing spirit. Such a renunciation of Christianity, as history has often shown us, begins in the upper ranks of society, and pene- trates to the lower, whose ideas move more slowly. But " enlightenment " had been doing its work for years, and frivolity in the upper classes and coarseness in the lower, met half-way and brought about a life estranged from God, natural, earthly, sensuous. We may truly say that at the beginning of this century, religions life iu Germany gave tokens of dissolution. Not that it was altogether extinguished. Here and there a few embers were still glowing, kept alight by the power of faith. The little communities of the United Brethren still obtained warmth from it, in the midst of the chilling atmosphere around them. Pietistic circles still derived edification from their Golden Treasuries and devotional books. In some households the custom of family prayer and of reading sermons on Sunday was still kept up. Among all classes there were people who could not altogether dispense with religion, and who in times of trouble would turn for consolations to Gellert's hymns. Some few ministers still preached Gospel truth, though seldom in all its fulness, or with the demonstration of the spirit and of power. Poets like Klopstock, philosophers like Hamann, authors like Claudius and Stilling, and preachers like Lavater, did confess Christ before men. But the evidences of evangelical faith have to be sought for here and there ; there is a certain want of cohesion even among the Christian elements. Where then was the faith of our fathers, of our revered and admired Luther ? What was become of his saying — " Das Wort sie sollen lassen stehen ? " " Firm as a rock His word shall stand." What of his testimony to the doctrine of justification by faith, "Of this article not a jot or a tittle can be abated, though heaven and earth or whatever else should fall ?" 14 RELIGIOUS DECLENSION. The rationalism of that time did not altogether give up the Bible, hut it considered itself above the Bible; It more or less adopted the language -which Goethe has put into the mouth of Eahrdt, the most repulsive representative of the doctrines of enlightenment, "It seemed to me that I spoke pretty much hke Christ." The Bible was not looked upon as a revelation of God's truth, of which Christ is the star and centre, but as a sort of collection of proverbs in which you might look for con- solation, find your favourite virtues advocated, and especially dictums against superstition, but the deepest and most important parts of it were coolly ignored or explained according to the pre- vailing views. The doctrines of the Bible with regard to sin were not believed, and therefore the idea of the plan of salva- tion was obscured. No doctrine was so abhorrent to that generation as that called by the Church original sin. It did not believe in the connection between our sinfulness and the sin of the father of our race, and therefore neither did it believe in the possibility of salvation through union by faith vrith Him who fulfilled all righteousness. The idea was, that man was born innocent, and endowed with splendid faculties, but that since the senses are developed earlier than the reason, until mind at- tains its due supremacy, the flesh gets the upper hand. But this defect is to be remedied by precept and example, and as both teacher and example Jesus Christ appeared. Sin is not, as the Scriptures teach, enmity against God, but merely a weak- ness, and, strictly speaking, it ought not to be laid to man's account ; but the blame must be laid on the Creator, who made him of such bad materials. Faith only meant a historical belief that so good a man and excellent a teacher as Jesus Christ onse lived. No new birth was considered necessary, only improve- ment. No reconciliation, only a general love to God. No God- man, only the man Jesus. Life therefore passed onw'ard with those who held these views, without any testimony of the Spirit that they were the children of God, — with no feeling of the nearness of the Saviour ; and eternity was regarded as the un- known country, instead of the consummation of the kingdom of God. RELIGIOUS DECLENSION. 15 People did indeed.picture to themselves the fearful recompense of the evildoer, and flatter themselves that their own virtue would he rewarded, but there was none of the assurance which enables the Christian to say, "We know that we have passed from death unto life." This rejection and explaining away of the doctrines of Scrip- ture also impressed its character upon public worship. Accord- ing to the Protestant idea, preaching is the principal thing in divine service,* for " faith cometh by hearing." But for this reason, preaching must be testimony to Christ, an announce- ment of the glad tidings of salvation, and with this are naturally united doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteous- ness. But at the beginning of this century, preaching was become entirely doctrinal in the worst sense of the word, and if any attempt was made to touch the heart, it was by means of sentimental emotion. Superficial, insipid commonplace, combined with fictitious pathos and an assumed pulpit tone, formed the ordinary style of preaching. It was no wonder that the people who had drunk deeply of the fountains of the poetry of Goethe and Schiller, had no inclination for such discourses ; and that most people thought it useless to go to church at all, since they heard nothing there that the natural man was not perfectly well able to find out for himself. The Baron von Stein, who was a constant attender at church, used to say, " If the sermon is bad, there is a hymn of Luther's or Paul Gerhardt's to refresh us." But even this consolation did not always exist. For rationalism attempted to make even the hymns subservient to its prosaic teaching. There has been no greater vandalism in modern times than the havoc that it made with the hymns of our German Church. Those glorious old. hymns with which she had fought for her life against Eome were expunged, and those that were retained were mutilated to suit the prevailing ideas. And the new ones, which were con- tributed in large numbers, were a disgrace not only to religion, * In the Lutheran Church preaching holda a much more important place than in the English Church. — Tk. 16 RELIGIOUS DECLENSION. but to poetry ; miserable rhymes in which the Christian virtues were entirely divorced from their holy union with faith. No doubt many did still find edification in the house of God, because they honestly sought it ; but a gradual estrangement from it was going on, there was no feeling of praise such as is expressed in the words, " How amiable are thy tabernacles, Lord of Hosts ! " * no response to such as these, " One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after ; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple." t A new idea had arisen as to the relation of individuals to the Christian community. It was considered entirely optional whether a man concerned himself about the Church or not, and with many this notion was the steep descent down which aU pious feeHng disappeared. George Forster, a man who had never been confirmed or partaken of the communion, at one time wrote as follows : "I am daily learning that no single impulse towards the pure and good arises in my own heart, and therefore that I cannot be sure of standing fast in any virtue for a moment ; but I believe that I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth us. I believe that one spark of faith in God, kindled in our hearts by Him, one spark of love to Him is a glorious token that the door is open to us, and that He wiU approach us with His unconditional and unrequited love." But the following extract from a letter at a later period wUl show what became of his religion, notwithstanding this glowing testimony to the grace of God : "I am more tranquil, con- tented, and happy now without God and without prayer, than ever I was with all the anxiety of my days of faith. If there is a Being who, as the creator of all, comprehends all other beings in Himself, I am convinced that He must take more pleasure in the happiness of His creatures than in their per- petual prayers ; and that one can be good and righteous, and act honourably, without making laws for oneself out of possibilities, * Paalm Ixxxiv. 1. t Psalm xxvii. 4. RELIGIOUS DECLENSION. 17 or probabilities at most, to say nothing of believing in lies and absurdities, and sacrificing to such nonsense the healthy under- standing of man." Forster's subsequent life, in spite of his noble nature, shows where man's healthy understanding leads him when he struggles against the truths of revelation; and his course was that of many others at that time. The subject of education excited much interest in the last century. But the salutary influence of the pietism of such men as Francke was confined to a few narrow circles. It was wanting in sympathy for many of the various phases of human life, but since its foundations were laid in the doctrines of the Gospel, many excellent men sprang from its ranks. But far and wide might be traced the cold spirit of the doctrines of Kousseau; they were adapted, indeed, to scare away some evils, but they were powerless to train up Christians. They were potent errors which were the basis of his teaching. He taught that man was naturally good, and proposed to remove him from society, as the school of evil. This was the essence of his teaching. Everything is good as it came from the hands of its Creator ; but it is damaged in the hands of man. This sounds like an admission of a sinful fall, but he is far from making the individual responsible for his sins. Society is at the bottom of all evil, and therefore he rails wildly against it, forgetting that society is composed of individuals ; he thinks that the art of education consists in not subjecting the natural man to the evils of society, ignoring that man has the evU in his own breast, and that life as a member of a community is intended to coun- teract self-seeking, his most deeply rooted sin. The influence of Eousseau was entirely an ti- Christian. He denied the destination of man for the kingdom of God, and limited his aspirations to this world. He made war with society, instead of trying to cure it by means of the Gospel ; and while flattering himself that he embraced the million, he had not affection enough to fulfil the duties of a father to his own children. His ideas were received with enthusiasm in Germany, and it c 1 8 RELIGIOUS DECLENSION. must be admitted that education partook of the general declen- sion of religion. The Bible, the hymn-book, and the catechism were no longer the pillars of national education. The Bible was considered a merely human book, the hymn-book was dUuted, and a multitude of modern catechisms took the place of that of Luther. At the same time that this degeneracy took place in the lower schools, there was an entire failure of discipline in the higher ones and in the universities. Gottingen was perhaps the most famous, and the favourite with the aristocracy. In 1802 the Pro-rector published a treatise on the ' Government and Con- stitution of the German Universities,' in which he holds up quite a different standard for the young men of rank and the poorer students who were mostly theologians. He does not disapprove of duels among the former, though he thinks it very absurd that the future ministers of the Christian religion should seek redress for insult in this way. He doubts whether the students of good family should have to pass any examinations, though he approves of the half-yearly examination of the theologians. He wishes, of course, to attract the former class to the university, but he considers that " the presence of even a limited number of industrious and blameless young people without sufficient means is a great evil." He then continues, " Gambling will always prevail at universities where a number of wealthy and distinguished young men congregate ; they see it practised at home from their earliest years, and wUl be sure to learn to imitate the habits of their fathers. Even tutors are of opinion that it would be a good thing for gaming to be placed under proper regulations, in order that young people might early, become familiar with it, and learn to play with modera- tion." Karl von Raumer, to whom we are indebted for this extract, adds from his own experience, " My parents gave me strict warning against excesses, but they never thought of warning me against gaming. I was induced to play, and did not regard it in the light of a sin. But what were the conse- quences ? It became a passion with me, and made me indif- ferent to everything to which I was devoted before. My heart RELIGIOUS DECLENSION. 19 became cold as ice, I thank God that it was not long before I was so fortunate as to be ««fortunate in play, which brought me to my senses, and once for all I resolved to give it up. At the gaming-table I also became acquainted with the frightfully licentious lives of these people. God preserved me from similar excesses by means of my father's warnings and the examples that I had before me, — ^yet these men belonged to the upper classes, and passed for people of refinement, shone in society, and were courted by it." Perhaps it may be said that the state of things is not mucfi better at our universities at the present day. They certainly were improved immediately after the war ; and if such a picture does still apply to any of our students, thank God the religious patriotic enthusiasm of fifty years ago has still so much influence that there are also young men among them who consecrate the prime of their lives to the Lord, and preserve their powers for the service of their country. We have now to enter upon another sphere of intellectual life, a very fruitful one about the end of the last century. It was not merely an age of superficial enlightenment and prosaic commonplace, it was also an age of wonderful poetic genius, the second blossoming-time of our poetic literature. We may justly take delight in this, and ever return to it as an inexhaustible source of intellectual refreshment and elevation. Yet we must not therefore refuse to admit that our modern classic literature partook of the religious declension of the age. At the threshold of the period, and as a type of what was wanted in Germany, stands the venerable figure of Klopstock. He turned his atten- tion to German nationality, and to the celebrated figures of our history. He has a thorough appreciation of the classics, which have now become so essential an element in our culture ; and all his poetry is penetrated by the earnestness and consecration of Christian faith, even when it has not the Eedeemer directly as its subject. But out of all these elements, Klopstock did not often succeed in creating poems in which depth and clearness were combined with perfection of form, with wealth of thought, or tenderness of feeling; but few of them come up to the 20 RELIGIOUS DECLENSION. highest standard. Klopstook still has his admirers among those who are able to appreciate the religious, national, and genial tone of his writings ; but his influence upon the nation at large was pretty much at an end when Lessing, Herder, Goethe, and Schiller appeared upon the scene. His poetical testimonies to the faith were a blessing to the country, but his faith did not escape the influences of the age ; it was of too sentimental a ^character, and did not sufficiently recognize the power of the simple word of God. And Lessing, Herder, Goethe, and Schiller — they all took their part in opposing the philistinism * of enlightenment, but could not deliver us from religious degene- racy. The ordinary school of the Illuminati were abhorrent to the acute mind of Lessing, and he was no more tolerant of them than of the orthodox party ; but his writings show that he had no certainty in matters of faith, and his preference for spending his life in striving after truth rather than in possessing it, proves that he had no experience of peace with God through Christ. Even when treating of revelation, and gaining a glorious insight into its organism, he gets no further than to religious contemplation of the Saviour, not to a religion of which Jesus Christ is the object, to the faith that our salvation depends on our personal relation to Him. We know well that his opinions have many followers in our own day. Herder was equipped for a contest with rationalism by great genius, and a mind capable of the deepest religious views and feelings. He severely lashed the opinion that preaching would * A G-erman nickname. I give Mr. Matthew Arnold's explanation of it, somewhat abridged : — " We have not the expression in English Philistine must have originally meant in the minds of those who invented the term a strong, dogged, unenlightened opponent of the children of the light. The party of change, the would-he remodellers of the old tradi- tional European order, regarded themselves with the rohust self-confidence natural to reformers, as a chosen people, a people of the light, and their adversaries as humdrum people, slaves to routine, stupid, oppressive, but at the same time, very strong." (' Essays in Criticism.') But when the "party of change " pursued their object as an affair of party, and in a routine fashion, they would be called philistines by others, which must be the meaning of the " philistinism of enlightenment." — Tb. RELIGIOUS DECLENSION. 21 be of no avail unless it entered other service than that of the Gospel ; he advocated the use of our old church hymns ; he unfolded the beauties of Hebrew poetry ; he plucked luscious fruits from the tree of Christianity, and in that poverty-stricken time the most pious of the people partook of them with delight ; but even he did not attain to simple faith in the Scriptures. The warmth with which in his youth he spoke of Christian topics cooled as he grew older ; his Christianity was too much the fruit of poetical sensibility for the beautiful and the good, it did not sufficiently consist in the grateful love of a forgiven sinner. And Goethe — he many times exclaimed, " But little is wanting to make me a Christian ! " In his youth he was brought into contact with the United Brethren, he occupied himself with the writings of Hamann, maintained an intimate acquaintance with Stilling and Lavater, and Bahrdt and Nioolai groaned under his lashes. The wonderful ingenuousness with which God had endowed this great man, and with which he allowed circum- stances to work upon him, and calmly gave himself up to their influence, — the spirit in which he said that love was the only remedy for jealousy of the superior advantages of others, were all traits of the divine. But Goethe's was, at the same time, an eminently sublime nature. He permitted circumstances to work upon him ; but when they occasioned him too much uneasiness he sought to escape from their influence. And from the griefs with which, by reason of his guilt, God not seldom afflicted him, he pre- ferred to escape by giving vent to his feelings in poetry rather than by taking them to the Saviour, who can feel and heal our deepest sorrows. Goethe turned away from Christianity. He became estranged from the United Brethren, because their con- fessiop of sin went too far for him ; he gave up his intercourse with Lavater, whose zeal for the salvation of souls was distaste- ful to him, and he wrote politely, but decidedly, to the friend of his youth, Augusta Stolberg, that he did not need her Saviour. It is wonderful how this man, whose views of the world were so thoroughly pantheistic, and who sometimes represents him- 22 RELIGIOUS DECLENSION. self as a heathen, can describe religious emotions, and give expression to the deepest thoughts of Christianity. But it only shows that no profound mind can entirely withdraw itself from its power. Christians may take a calm delight in the beauty of Goethe's poetry; it may even sometimes happen that it may predispose the mind for the reception of the Gospel, but its ordinary effect is to coniirm people in a course in which the best that this life has to offer is sufficient for them. And Schiller, how often his religion has been discussed ! and how true it is that the purity of his morality, the earnestness with which he strives to attain to the beautiful, which to him was synonymous with the true, that the ideality of his poetry has a tendency to lift man out of himself, and above the com- monplace of life ; so far he prepares the way for Christianity, which in the highest sense performs the same service for man. Still it is evident that he was estranged not only from the Church, but from the fundamental truths of Christianity ; and it is this which prevents the poetry of this favourite of the Germans from more thoroughly penetrating their national life. Thus our German literature suffered from the prevailing reli- gious degeneracy. The fault does not lie 'with the individual poets, but with the age. When they arose, they were nowhere met by the overwhelming force of Christianity. Neither in the affairs of Church and State were they borne along by the great organism of which men willingly find themselves a part. They stood alone. But for this very reason our modern German literature is specially adapted to display the power of genius, — a divine power, which can create out of nothing. Germany is deeply indebted to these heroes of poetry for the ideality of its life, at a time when the old order of things was breaking up, and for opposing an ideal world to the world of commonplace. They prepared the way of the Lord ; but they are more often brought forward as examples to prove that the most powerful minds can dispense with Christianity in its Biblical form. The religious declension which preceded the disgrace into which Germany fell, is indicated as much as in anything by the views and habits which were adopted with regard to morals. RELIGIOUS DECLENSION. 23 It cannot be said that the renunciation of Scriptural Christianity is always followed by moral corruption ; there are people who- feel strongly impelled to a strict compliance with the demands of morality, because of their free handling of the truths of Christianity; and although they are wanting in the most power- ful moral impulse, which consists in faith, in self-sacrificing love, they must be granted a place in the outer courts of holiness. Thus Kant was 'a schoolmaster for Christ, by the importance he gave to conscience.* His retention of morality, while he renounced faith, was to many of his disciples the bridge by which they crossed over to faith again. And if Schiller pro- posed to complete, by aesthetic teaching, the moral training of youth, the beautiful was with him inseparable from the good. Fichte also strongly advocated moral perfection, whether his philosophical theories were based upon the freedom of the will or upon necessity. But a morality which was mainly based upon philosophy was incapable of influencing the masses. It was very superficial, and had neither depth nor strength to enable it to withstand the assaults of destiny. Never was virtue more talked about than at that time, but it was virtue of a very limited sort, for it did not take its rise in the deep springs of religion ; it had not the far-seeing vision which perceives in the union of the divine and human the ultimate aim of life ; it could not soar to the height whenBe time is as eternity, and eternity as time, which not only looks forward to eternity, but possesses it already. Virtue was considered to consist in special actions, and was directed to the attainment of special advantages. The poetical genius of Goethe and his disciples was indeed opposed to the morality of the Illuminati ; but, without any Christian basis, it only more clearly revealed the moral degene- racy of the age, especially in relation to marriage, the divine ordinance, which is the chief test of morality. The school of enlightenment had greatly increased the number * " Categorical imperative," in Kant's nomenclature. I have met with the following explanation of it in the ' Life and Letters of Rev. F. W. Eobertson,' — " that is, a sense of duty which commands categorically or absolutely, not saying ' it is better,' but, ' thou shalt.' " — Te. H RELIGIOUS DECLENSION. of grounds for which divorce was obtainable, but the disciples of genius brought forward grounds for not contracting marriage at all, and advocated the doctrine of love without marriage in beguiling tones. If we turn our eyes to the two most brilliant centres of intel- lectual life in Germany, — Weimar and Berlin, and which also played an important part in the fate of the nation of which the battle of Jena was the consummation, — we cannot but acknow- ledge that this wonderful mental life was combined with a dis- graceful disregard of morals. The last ecclesiastical transaction which took place at "Weimar, in. 1806, before the churches were given up to the French for magazines and hospitals, was the marriage of Goethe with his mistress. And in Berlin we find assembled, around women of noble character, hosts of intel- lectual men, whose lives were many of them a disgrace to morality. We are reminded also of ' Lucinda,' a shameless book, by F. W. Schlegel, but which he held to be a gospel of genuine love. Morality did indeed require a renovation ; and it attained to it when the purifying sorrows through which the country passed had again directed attention to Christianity. Arndt said of this period, " We are altogether bad, cowardly, and stupid ; too poor for love, too languid for hate, too lukewarm for anger ; we hold out our hands for everything, but grasp nothing ; we wish for all things, but are incapable of attaining anything. And thus, suspended in an unhappy medium, between life and death, between earth and heaven, we behold ourselves and the earth beneath us going to destruction. In this miserable indifference and godlessness and extinction of nationality, which is called all-sidedness, lies the solution of the Mstory of the last twenty years." The godlessness, to use Arndt's strong expression, we have described, and must now glance at the extinction of nationality. CHAPTBE n. NATIONAL DISBUPIION. DECLENSION in the religions life of a people is generally followed by national degeneracy. Among heathen nations religious and political life were one. Keligion was a phase of nationality ; and therefore, if a man belonged to the nation, he joined in its worship as a matter of course ; there was no such thing as a change of religion, unless a man, transplanted from his native soil, renounced his religion along with his nationality, and adopted that of his new country. The religion of the heathen did not elevate them above the narrow sphere of national life. But it is the peculiarity of Christianity, that by imparting to man the glorious liberty of the children of God, it no longer restricts him to national or any other limits. It is to the individual that Christianity addresses itself, because he is, in the sight of God, of infinite value ; but no sooner has a man been led out of himself to God than the kingdom of God is revealed to him as the community of all nations and people and tongues who' bow the knee to the name of Jesus. Christianity, therefore, re-establishes a humanity out of the tumult of conflicting nations ; not, however, by producing a colourless monotony, but a body with many members, — an organism composed of individuals forming nations, and nations forming the great family of God. Christianity does not destroy nationality, but elevates it. The Monarch of the kingdom of heaven does not require that nations should renounce their special gifts, but rather that they should come before Him and cast them at His feet. The union of nationality and religion, which was a necessity 26 NATIONAL DISRUPTION. in heathenism, must he in Christendom the result of moral freedom. But if the State imposes too severe a restraint upon religious life, the power of religion to embrace all humanity will be impaired, and religious discord will assist to break up national unity. After the Eeformation in Germany, Christianity took so far as this a false position, that, as Catholic or Protestant, its in- terests were entirely united with the government. This led to conflicts of Germans with Germans, and to calling in the aid of foreign governments as allies of one German State against another. This contributed to national degeneracy, and led to the enthusiasm for foreign nations, which at the beginning of this century was united with apathy with respect to religion. But in order fuUy to understand this state of things, we must glance back to an earlier period of history. The rich gifts with which God has endowed the German nation entail upon it the duty of carefully defending its nationality from oppression or destruction. The Germans are by natural constitution a pro- found, inward, constant, persevering people, capable of cou- rageous deeds, and of the deepest contemplation of God ; of un- wearied tarriance in the regions of pure thought, and of poetical delight in the varied manifestations of outward life. On the one hand, they have courage enough to raise mementoes to themselves by deeds of heroism ; but they do not forget that the glory of man is as the flower of the field, and are not satisfied with- out penetrating through the shell to the kernel, through appear- ance to the essence. They hold that all we think and do should tend to the advantage of the inner man ; and that the inner man should stand in an intimate relation to all that surrounds him. No nation has more thoroughly embraced the idea of Chris- tianity than the German. And if German thinkers have from time to time deviated from the paths of truth, it has been in the spirit of earnest investigation, in the interests of a thorough appropriation of revealed truth, as opposed to an indifferent reception of it. But this inwardness and special adaptation for religious life have not prevented the Germans from doing great things in the world. At the time when the special characteristics NATIONAL DISRUPTION. 27 of the nation were as yet undeveloped, in connection with the other Germanic tribes, it was the new bottle for the reception of the new wine of the Gospel ; the youthful inheritor of Europe when its old possessors were dying out. The treaty of Verdun may in a certain sense be looked upon as the period of the birth of German nationality. The German empire had then ruled the world for centuries, and when its power declined, owing to the rise of other races, German mind did not fail to assert itself as a royal power among the nations. Its spirit of research has led to the most useful inventions ; its love of enterprise, to travels by sea and land, by means of which German character has been planted in distant countries, and brilliant pictures of them have been presented to the imagination. German architecture has raised the cathedrals in which, as it were, the cold stone has received the impress of earnest aspira- tion and devout enthusiasm. In both ancient and modern times German painting has aimed not only at charming the eye, but at directing the inmost soul to the contemplation of that which shall endure. In the middle ages, and in modern times, we have had a literature which fully expressed the national mind and character ; and Germany has conferred an inestimable benefit on the world by breaking the fetters of the Papacy at the time of the Eeformation. But in these manifold gifts there lurks a danger for our nationality. We eagerly grasp at all that is valuable and beautiful, wherever found ; and our lan- guage presents a facility for translating the beauties of the poetry of other languages, in which it is equalled by no other. But this receptivity for the creations of foreign genius is not sufficiently counteracted by political power. While other nations plant their banners in distant lands, and make their supremacy felt, we are a peaceful people in the heart of Europe, protected neither by natural boundaries nor by a vigorous military policy. Our national mind should be our protector against the acquisi- tive tendencies of our neighbours. Cosmopolitanism, only too indigenous among us, is our greatest danger. There is something humiliating in our admiration of England, because England exhibits such unbridled arrogance towards 28 NATIONAL DISRUPTION. Germany ; but it is the Germanic element that we admire in England, and separated from us by the sea, and with her mari- time supremacy to look after, she has reason enough for not wasting her strength in Continental affairs. It is against the Slavonic nations in the East, and the French in the West, that we have to guard our nationahty ; and as we have no special sympathy for Kussia or Poland, but are always liable to be dazzled by the glittering culture of the French, and as there is no greater political contrast than between German contentment and French ambition, it is above all things our duty to guard our nationality from injury from the French.* At the time of the Eeformation the previous attempts of France to gain influence in Germany and to increase her terri- tory at the expense of her neighbour became more decided. At the death of the Emperor Maximilian, Francis I. employed the basest arts to obtain the Imperial crown ; but they were fruS' trated by the Elector of Mayence, who pointed out the danger of French influence in Germany, and the disgrace it would be to see the Imperial crown upon the head of a Frenchman. Charles V. was therefore elected, though he unfortunately was not a genuine German emperor. Francis I., burning with hatred for his rival, observed that the Germans had no enthusiasm for their Emperor, and that the Protestant princes regarded him as at once the enemy of their faith and of their political existence. He, therefore, sought to sow discord between them, in order to weaken the country and render it an easy prey to the French. His son, Henry II., the fierce persecutor of the Protestants in his own country, became in Germany their ally. Scarcely had Maurice of Saxony made up his mind to take up against Charles V. the arms with which he had served under him a few years before, than a French commissioner was at hand, and a treaty was concluded, of which the following is an ex- tract : — " It will be desirable that the king of France should as soon as possible take possession of, and hold as vicar of the Holy Empire, several German cities which have for ages be- longed to the German empire, namely Cambray, and in Lor- • The late war of 1869-70 is a striking commentary on these words. — Tk. NATIONAL DISRUPTION. 29 raine, Metz, Toul, Verdun, and others. Under this title we shall be ready to advance his interests in the future, though we reserve in favour of the empire all its rights in the aforesaid towns On condition that the most Christian king treats us Germans in this matter not only as our friend but as our loving father, we will henceforth regard him as such during the rest of our lives Further, at the future election of an emperor, we wiU act in accordance with the wishes of his Majesty, and will not elect any one who is not his Majesty's friend, and who will not give security for maintaining friendly relations. If it should please the king to accept the office him- self, we should submit to him more willingly than to another." In consequence of this treaty, Henry II. put forth a mani- festo to the Germans, styling himself the champion of German liberty, and made a parade of his good will to his relations the Germans, especially to the imprisoned princes John Frederic of Saxony and Philip of Hesse. It is true that the release of both princes was the result of this understanding. But Lorraine came under French rule, and Metz, Toul, and Yerdun were taken pos- session of by the French crown, and though in accordance with the treaty only for a time, they were never restored to the German empire. This was the beginning of the French con- quests, which ended with the subjection to Napoleon. But such diminution of our territory would never have been submitted to, had not our patriotism already undergone a fatal degeneracy. Before we were conquered by the French, we had already bowed the knee to them by adopting their language and manners. In 1629 Johann EUinger, chaplain at Arheiligen, near Darm- stadt, published a book called 'The Devil in Fashionable Clothes,' in which he attacks his countrymen for their rage for imitating the fashions of other nations. He relates the story of the painter who, being ordered by the Turkish emperor to paint a picture of the costumes of all nations, introduced among them a naked man with a piece of cloth under his arm, and on being asked who he was, replied that he was a German, and that he did not know in what costume to paint him, as' he did not keep to his old fashions, but aped those of all other nations. He 3° NATIONAL DISRUPTION. continues : " If we German apes will be so foolish as to take delight in the costumes of other nations, God will surely send nations into our land of whom we have not heretofore been fond of hearing, and He will look quietly on while they take the measure of us with their new-fangled patterns, and the blood that is spilt will reach up to our heads, and the money will be drained out of our purses, and we foolish Germans shall be punished for our madness." Not long after, Johann Michael Moscherosch lifted up his voice. He was born in Alsace in 1601, and at Strasburg, at the feet of the theologian Johann Schmidt, he had imbibed the deep piety with which as a layman he served the Lord, amidst his various occupations, in the sore troubles of the Thirty Years' War. In his " Christian Testament," to his children, he says, " Go towards the north; the Hanse towns, Denmark and Sweden are pure and filled with the word of God. Yea, even go further, to the barbarian nations, if you only serve God from your hearts, and keep His holy laws. I do not advise you to go westward, I have no hope for religion there. Ratio status, cultivation and reputation are of more account than God and holiness, and the common people know little or nothing of God and his character. They believe in their king ; and what he believes, that they belieVe, in a servile fashion and without in- telUgence. France tolerates the Protestant religion, but with a very different intention from that of the Christian Swedish king, Gustavus Adolphus. France employs the Germans against the Germans, else she could not master them, and spares them and pays them, as long as it serves her purpose, just as in the times of Julius Csesar." Twenty years after the Peace of Westphalia this honest German held up a mirror of their manners before his country- men. "Oh, ancient manliness, oh, ancient German bravery and honesty, where are you flown to ? " he frequently exclaims ; and he lays the blame especially on aping foreign fashions, and spoiling the language by foreign admixtures. " Have you not learnt by experience that the nations that you imitate crush you and grind you down ? For they have already taken possession NATIONAL DISRUPTION. 31 oi' 3'our hearts, tlie best of bulwarks, and the fortifications of the eyes, the outworks of the senses." The following passage appears quite prophetic : — " I warn you, my Germans, that a time wiU come, for all things pass away, when the German empire will fall to the ground ; then will citizen fight with citizen, and brother with brother ; they will set their hearts on foreign things, they will despise their mother tongue, and set the foreigners' babble above it ; they will serve against their conscience, and their own country. And thus this great empire will fall to the ground, and go into the hands of those with whose language they have coquetted, unless God raise up for us some great hero who will chastise them according to their deserts." Other warning voices were also heard, but the French were indefatigable in struggling for the supremacy, which they con- sidered belonged to them. In 1632 Cassan published a book, in which he endeavoured to show the right of France to nearly all the countries of Europe except Great Britain, Scandinavia, and the Slavonic territories. These bold claims were part of the secret programme which Kiohelieu was planning during the Thirty Years' War, and the peace negotiations which followed. No means were spared ; assumption, intrigue, flattery, and money were all directed to the same end. Princes, princesses, ministers, generals, in- structors of youth, were enticed by large sums, and all their efforts were crowned by the Peace of Westphalia. France gained immensely by it, and the treaty gives a vivid picture of the national abasement we had brought upon ourselves one hundred and fifty years before the time of Napoleon. The loss of territory was, perhaps, not the worst result of the peace ; for there was also a great evil in the declared sove- reignty of the German princes, and the power guaranteed them over the lives, property, and hoifbur of their subjects ; the right to raise troops for foreign powers, and to conclude treaties according to their pleasure. By these means the power of the empire was weakened, and the French acquirted an excuse for perpetual meddling in German affairs ; and, by exciting indivi- 32 NATIONAL DISRUPTION. dual princes against each other, they split up Germany into factions. The manner in which Louis XIV. took advantage of the concessions made to France is well known. The Peace of Nimeguen was a fresh triumph of French policy. It was now considered that all masks might be thrown off, and one German possession was laid claim to after a,nother. In 1681 Strasburg was overrun and taken, and then France, who considers her mission to be the civilisation of the nations, began those ravages in the Khenish provinces of which Heidelberg, Mannheim, Speier, Worms, many ruined churches and places reduced to ashes are a crying testimony. And Germany submitted to it all ; for it was sick " from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot ; the whole head was sick, and the whole heart faint.'' A general resistance might have been expected throughout the country, but it was only here and there that deeds of heroism were performed against the enemy. The best of the nation were as much opposed to the Peace of Kyswick as they were to the Peace of Paris in 1814. But individual German princes had already begun to consider that their States existed for them, and to quarrel with one another for their personal aggrandisement. They took Louis XIV. — Germany's greatest enemy — for their model, and adopted his mottoes, " L'etat c'est moi," and " Le peuple pour moi." It was a charming method of governing : to think of no one but themselves ; to drain as much money as possible out of the people ; to build palaces, solitudes, and hunting-boxes ; to delight the ear and eye at the opera and ballet ; and to exchange their honest native language for the more polite French. Every prince rushed to Versailles to take a pattern for his court. So corrupted was German conscience by French example, that the practice of keeping mistresses was openly justified. German princes demanded French princesses in marriage, and German princesses were, if possible, married to Frenchmen. Wily commissioners were constantly sent to German courts to practise on German simplicity with their seared consciences, well-filled purses, and fluent tongues. Jour- nalists wrote for French pay. French cavaliers accompanied NATIONAL DISRUPTION. 33 the princes in all their expeditions, and at home they were served by French valets. The children learnt French from their honnes earlier than German, and French literature pene- trated everywhere. The clock which Louis XIV. had made, in which the German eagle trembled at the crowing of the Gallic cock, was a supercilious, but, unhappily, not an inapt symbol of French influence in Germany. Some one wrote about that time, " We wish to protect by arms our towns and terri- tories from the attacks of the French, but we and our minds have long been taken captive by them : witness our manners, language, and dress. Yes, so to speak, we have become French inside and out, and yet we regard the French as our enemies. No one of any sense can dispute that when people's minds ,are taken captive, and they are so addicted to foreign ways, but few will zealously stand up in defence of their faith and country. Many have no other desire than to be subject to foreign dominion." Frederic the Great was the only ruler who, in the last cen- tury, gave any impetus to German national feeling. Like a brilliant star, he attracted the attention of the best of the nation, and especially of the youth. But every advantage gained by Prussia weakened the unity of the empire. In putting the French to flight at Kossbach he roused the national feeling against them ; but what he gave with one hand he took away with the other. This monarch, who regarded himself as the first servant of the State, instead of saying, I am the State, whose aim was strength,, not splendour, was the greatest admirer of French culture, and despised the German language and literature just as they were beginning to produce wonders. And when the Eevolution burst forth in France, the ancient empire was unable to stand against it. It had lost unity and strength. The emperor was rather Austrian than German, and he was opposed by ambitious princes determined to assert their independence. The Imperial army was no longer a united body, moving with agility and strength. When the horrors of the Eevolution began and overthrew the kingdom, and threatened the life of the king, Germany roused itself up, expecting to 34 NATIONAL DISRUPTION. make a speedy end of the disturbances, and to restore the royal authority. The first campaign of the Austrians and Prussians, in 1792, was unsuccessful. Mayence, the seat of the Lord High Chancellor of the empire, fell an easy prey to the French, and, though retaken by Prussia, it soon fell back into their hands. The coalition of Austria, Prussia, and all Germany, England, Holland, Naples, Spain, Portugal, Tuscany, and the Pope was broken up after a series of unsuccessful struggles. Prussia, joined by Hanover, Saxony, and Hesse, concluded peace at Basle in 1795, and the country was separated into North and South Germany. Prussia ceded her possessions on the left bank of the Khine to the French Kepublic, and per- mitted it to encroach as far as Westphalia. And Austria and her allies, unable to stand against France, gave her the Nether- lands at the Peace, of Campo Formio, in 1797, and indemnified herself for Milan by taking Venice, Istria, and Dalmatia. New alliances ^were unavailing ; one ignominious concession was followed by another ; the Imperial territories were given to foreign princes. Before long Austria was prostrate, and Prussia was unable to aid her. At the Peace of Presburg, in 1805, she parted with twelve hundred square miles, not only to France, but to the German allies of France, Bavaria, Wiirtemberg, and Baden. Napoleon made the Imperial Princes of Bavaria and Wiirtem- berg into kings ; in 1806 he established the Confederation of the' Ehine, and the German emperor laid aside the Imperial crown. The national mind must have been fearfully weakened by centuries of misgovernment, or the body of the empire could not have been so quickly torn asunder, and its members distri- buted to foreign Powers. Indeed, nothing can be more humi- liating than to see how princes and people were subjected to French influence at the close of the last century. But they had to see their races and States trodden down by the Kevolution, of which Napoleon became the impersonation, before they came to themselves, and discovered that they yet possessed a moral strength by means of which they could overthrow a dominion in which God had no pleasure. CHAPTEE III. THE PEIDE AND FALL OF PRUSSIA. NEVEE have a royal house and people had more just cause for self-congratulation than the Prussian. From small beginnings the Prussian State raised itself to the position of a great Power, for the favour of Providence was united with the ability of its rulers. Perhaps scarcely any other royal race has produced so many talented rulers in quick succession. They did not regard their people as the means of gratifying their personal inclinations, but faithfully devoted themselves to their interests ; and the severity in some respects, in which, accord- ing to the custom of the age or their peculiar characters, they indulged, was tempered by the system of government taken as a whole ; for it was obvious that its only aim was the prosperity of the State. Limited territory was compensated for by the universal devotion of the people to the royal house, by the development of trade and of the resources of the country ; and the army was virtually doubled by excellent discipline. To these advantages must be added the Protestantism of Prussia. While Austria maintained her Jesuitical Church policy, and Electoral Hesse renounced the Protestant faith for the sake ol the crown of Poland, Prussia remained faithful to Protestantism. The greatest enemy of Prussia, and that which prevents her from fulfilling her mission in Germany, is her own arrogance. The confidence of Germany ought not to dispose her to think so highly of herself as to suppose she can stand alone. The position of affairs is difierent from what it was at the time when the great Elector and King obtained their victories ; and who can answer for it that the royal house will continue to produce 36 THE PRIDE AND FALL OF PRUSSIA. great rulers ? Prussia will only remain a great Power as long as she gains the hearts of the German people by her moral supremacy and her decisive national policy. The separation of Prussia from the alliance of States which struggled against the Revolution and its heir, Napoleon, only occasioned her to be the more deeply humbled. She began to recover herself from the moment that she became the leader of the national enthusiasm against the French dominion. We are not writing the political history of this period, but a history of the religious awakening of the German people. We pass by aU the vacillations of Prussian policy, during which Napoleon continued to insult the State, and fix our eye upon the moment when, at length, "war against France" was adopted as the watchword, and we shall endeavour to ascertain the moral principles on which the war was undertaken, in order that we may understand the fall which followed. We lay bare the sin, in order the better to understand the chastisement of God and the repentance of the people. It is always not only a political error, but a moral evil, a national sin, when a nation arrogantly lives on the capital of its acquired fame, without troubling itself to think how soon it vrill be exhausted. The means which to-day may enable a State to stand against the world, may, perhaps, not suffice some twenty years hence to defend it against a single Power. For the powers of a State do not remain in the same condition ; unless they keep pace with the vital progress of the age, they become mere rusty and useless weapons. It was the misfortune of Prussia that she entered upon the war with Napoleon with the arrogant idea that victory was inseparable from the banners of Frederic the Great, although the spirit of that mighty monarch had departed from the army. Bishop Eylert, in his " Recollections of Frederic William III. " has given us a striking picture of the state of the army before the defeat at Jena. One great evil was the entire separation of the army from the people ; this fostered a military pride which looked down upon the citizens with contempt. The officers all belonged to the nobility. The most incompetent attained to THE PRIDE AND FALL OF PRUSSIA. 37 the highest posts on account of their rank. There could be no greater disregard of Christian or even moral principles than in the treatment of the burgher class by the officers. There was no idea that it was possible to maintain discipline without degrading punishments. Exercise was only adapted for the parade ground, and furnished no guarantee for the war- like capacity of the regiments. The common soldier was entirely without attachment to his leaders, and even he began to ponder on the condition of the army. The son of a West- phalian farmer said to Eylert, "According to my simple ideas, exercise in time of peace is intended to prepare us for war. It is well that we should be able to march all together in a straight line, to handle our weapons, to load them quickly and discharge them all at once, — that is all likely to be useful against the enemy ; but I cannot understand what use it is to order eyes left, eyes right, right shoulder forward, left ditto, and so on. And what is the use of the powdered hair and pigtail ? We cannot love or respect our superiors, we only fear them. We hear very different things of the French, — ^they have no pigtails or hair powder ; they do not turn their eyes to the right and left, but look sharp to see that they are always in the right place. The pastor lends us the Lippstadt Gazette, and we read with amazement what General Bonaparte does with his troops. What a clever fellow he is ! How will it be when we come to measure our strength with him?" The result fully justified the opinion of the farmer's son. The army which went forth in 1806 to measure its strength with Napoleon was much as Eylert had described it. In the ranks there were many men who had grown grey in their long service, and, among the officers, old age was the rule, not the exception. In the French army the generals had risen through merit, and were in the prime of life, from thirty to fifty; while among the Prussians they were either princes or old men; There was no lack of experience certainly, but there was great lack of unity and valour. The most important fortresses were in the hands of lethargic old men. It appeared as if every one reckoned upon speedy victory instead of defeat. The fact was, that there were 38 THE PRIDE AND FALL OF PRUSSIA. several conflicting parties in the State. There was a peace party which, by reason of moral lethargy, counselled submission to Napoleon ; the king was for peace from prudence and regard for his people, for he had discovered the weakness of the army. Another party, headed by Stein, urged him to war with a full knowledge of the sacrifices it would involve ; a fourth, composed principally of the younger officers, thought they should speedily be able to rid Germany of the French. But when the measure of insult which Napoleon heaped upon Prussia was filled up, all patience was exhausted, and all were seized with martial ardour, from the king to the lowest of the people. The king took the field and did his best to remedy abuses. He was accompanied by the queen ; she had no wish to separate her fortunes from those of the king and people ; and since Napoleon had dared to insult her, her name had been a watchword against the enemy. The Princess William was inspired by Stein's spirit ; in her heroic soul she cherished a moral- detestation of the tyrant. The Princess Kadziwill, sister of Prince Louis Ferdinand, more of a politician than the queen or the Princess WUliam, stu-red the fire against France as much as it lay in her power, and added contempt for the upstart to hatred of the tyrant. And while these royal ladies inspired those with whom they came in contact by the charm which, for a great end, enthu- siastic women often exercise upon men, men were not wanting who derived power to resist the threatening evil from their moral sentiments and truly patriotic views. Stein and Scharn- horst, Bliicher and Gneisenau, were already working for Prussia ; but the nation had to pass through the refining fire of misfortune before it was ready for the ideas of these great men. There was no want of patriotic enthusiasm in 1806, or A.rndt would not have been able to write, " Never were the Germans and Prussians more excited. Their scorn was so bitter, the remem- brance of the glorious deeds performed under the great Frederic was so fresh, and their confidence was so great in the success of the Prussian eagles, that no one saw the danger of the unequal conflict, or took into account the military skill of the enemy. THE PRIDE AND FALL OF PRUSSIA. 39 Tbey thought only of the necessity of the conflict, the justice and sacredness of the cause." The press teemed with the warmest expressions of patriotism ; and when ' Wallenstein'g Lager,' then a favourite piece, was given in the theatre, and the cuirassier began his martial song, — " Up, comrades, up ! To horse, to horse ! In freedom's cause away — " the v/hole house was filled with ardour, and all who could, joined in the air. But there was too much of arrogance in all tiis. The oflScers whetted their swords on the steps of the French embassy, and a colonel said he was " sorry the brave Prussians were to be armed with sabres and muskets, for clubs would have done to drive the French dogs back into their own country." We close this part of the subject with an extract from Steffens : — "As autumn approached, the army advanced. There were generals living with my father-in-law at Gibichenstein with whom I had been acquainted before. Some of them, overcome by the horrors of war, afterwards adopted the most culpable and ruinous views ; and, I confess, the way in which they talked alarmed me. For it was not healthy enthusiasm that they displayed, but that narrow-minded arrogance which ascribed a magical power to recognized military forms. Courage like that which Shakspeare describes the English as possessing before the battle of Agincourt, would not have ignored the danger of the situation. No one seemed to have an idea of the fearful power of a great army which had metamorphosed the science of war ; which was exulting in having achieved successes unparalleled in modern history, and which was now surging towards us, and threatened us with annihilation. They thought the spuit of the Seven Years' War would infuse mysterious terror into the enemy, and that he would take flight at the sight of a Prussian parade guard." The critical moment came, — the dream of victory was soon over, and fearful was the awakening. The great fault in the army was want of unity in the command. Napoleon said, 40 THE PRIDE AND FALL OF PRUSSIA. " The Prussian troops are good, very good. Yet they accom- plished nothing, and why ? Because nobody knew how to command them ; if I had had the command of them they ■would have fought like -Frenchmen." The greatest fault lay at the door of the generals of rank and the commanders of fortresses. What a disgraceful picture is presented by the tens of thousands who surrendered arms, the generals who retired to their estates, the soldiers who were dragged as prisoners to France! Magdeburg, the bulwark of Prussia, surrendered with 24,000 men, and all the artillery and provi- sions, not long after the fugitive Prussian army had sought help there in vain. Napoleon wrote to his brother-in-law, Murat, that after all that he had heard every day of capitulation, he should not want the heavy artillery, for the fortresses could be taken by hussars. Komberg had surrendered the fortress of Stettin, with 6,000 men, to Murat's light cavalry on the first demand. When the French appeared at Kiistrin, they had no boats to cross over an arm of the Oder to the fortress. Colonel von Ingersleben came to meet them, and they sneeringly remarked that the commander had sent his boats to fetch them over. But who would care to enumerate all the instances of the cowardice and disgrace of Prussia ? The whole country was open to the French, and in 1807 Napoleon dictated to th^ humbled country the Peace of Tilsit. With this humiliation the climax of French tyranny was reached. As' long as Prussia existed, Germany fixed its hopes on her ; but now both Prussia and Austria were so lessened in extent, and weakened in power, that there was no hope of their throwing off the yoke. German princesses consented to be offered in marriage to the brothers and relations of Napoleon. German soldiers followed the French banners from Spain to Russia. Trade was at its lowest ebb, and yet incredible sums were demanded from the people. Napoleon and his generals were insatiable. Yet there were cowardly authors who com- mended him to the people as a political Messiah, and others THE PRIDE AND FALL OF PRUSSIA. 41 were so disheartened as to see no prospect of release from sub- jection. But the French dominion was an intolerable yoke to the people. The spirit of German liberty was held in dis- graceful bondage, and what would have become of it, it is impossible to say, had it not been for Napoleon's profound contempt for German Idealists ; had he had any idea of the power, even in political affairs, of the national mind when once stirred to its depths, and when a great aim was set before it by the words and Works of impassioned men. And what indeed had become of Germany ? Through modern enlightenment the people had become indifferent to the Church, the Bible was regarded as a merely human book, the Saviour merely as a person who had hved and taught long ago, not as one whose almighty presence is with His people still. The eye was onty open for the things of this world, it was closed for the kingdom of heaven, and now the most precious of earthly possessions, the Fatherland, was lost. What had the German, with his profound mind and aspiring spirit, to delight in now ? The family remained to him, but what pleasure can there be in famUy life when the nation is in mourning ? When a country is in bondage all happiness and prosperity are at an end. But it was the hand of God which laid this yoke upon it. Napoleon was only His instrument. He resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble. When God inflicts His chastisements upon men, the night will not last for ever ; we may hope for the gleam of light which ushers in the day. We look upon the humiliation of Germany as a judgment of God. In the case of no other nation can we trace so clearly the course ordained by Ilim from sin to the fall, from the fall to repentance, from repentance to faith and salvation. As with the individual, so it was with the German nation. When man makes flesh his arm, and turns his heart from the Lord, he must be humbled to the dust, in order that he may turn to God again. In Ger- many the sin of forgetfulness of God, ' and too much reliance upon self, was punished by humiliation, and by being forsaken of God. Then she came to herself, acknowledged her sin, and lifted up her eyes to the hills from whence cometh help. We 42 THE PRIDE AND FALL OF PRUSSIA. may more and more clearly trace the signs of returning life, repentance, and faith, after the battle of Jena. The judgment of Jena -was followed by the judgment of Moscow. God punished Prussia's sin by her humiliation. He responded to her repentance by the destruction of the French army in Eussia, and afterwards by Leipzig, Paris, Waterloo, and Paris again. Viewed in this light the Peace of Tilsit is not to be regretted. Prussia was indeed humbled, but she was also purified. She could appear before God, and say, "Is it not enough?" She could appear before the members of the empire and announce that she had restored the territories belonging to other German States which the French tyrant had given her. She was to receive them or other possessions again, but under different circumstances and from different hands. " Prussia saw the inhabitants of the acquired territories returning under the wings of her eagle, not with the separation from their, as they thought, basely treated rulers, rankling in their minds, but exulting in their deliverance from the foreigner ; with senti- ments which formed a fertile soil for the growth of heartfelt and universal patriotism in all parts of the monarchy. As long as pure moral sentiments exist in Prussia, she must hold the Peace of Tilsit in grateful recollection as the pledge of her repentance, for with it a new life began — a life which has already won wreaths of laurel which it would have been impossible to win upon a former basis." * It is remarkable how entirely the opinion of Queen Louisa, expressed immediately after the peace, concurs with this judg- ment of the historian formed in the light of its results. She wrote : "Peace is concluded, but at a fearful sacrifice. Our boundaries are only to extend to the Elbe. Yet the king is greater than his adversary. After Eylau, he might have made a more advantageous peace, but then he must have volun- tarily entered into negotiations with the principle of evil, and have allied himself with it. Now necessity has impelled him to enter into them, but he will not aUy himself with it. The * Leo, Universal History. THE PRIDE AND FALL OF PRUSSIA. 43 way in which the king hag acted will bring a blessing with it to Prussia some time. This is my firm belief." A new life began in Germany from the time when she seemed given over to death. To portray the elements of this new life in individual characters is the task which we propose to our- selves in the following pages. CHAPTER rV. BLUCHER. GNEISENAU. — NBTTELBECK. YORK. SCHARNHOKST. TN this chapter we shall not reach exactly the ground of -*■ Christian resuscitation ; we shall treat rather of morality, of duty, of patriotic devotion, of the courage which is ready to hazard life for a higher good, but nevertheless of faith, in its relation to the earthly blessing of freedom, of faith as " the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." The moral law, like the law of Moses, is a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, because it reveals our moral weakness, and directs us to Him by whose power weakness is made strong ; and because it withdraws us from selfish isolation, and subjects the will to a higher law. "The law is spiritual," says the Apostle ; so is the moral law. It is a revelation from God preceding the grace of Christ. The consciousness of man that he must be subject to a divine law, the willingness to submit to it, especially when it attains to the belief that " he that keepeth his life shall lose it," and to experiencing true happiness in self-sacrifice, — all these are rays from the light divine which shines into man's heart and may lead to Christian faith ; and as gifts of God they are not to be despised even when that faith is wanting. It is with these convictions that we think it right, before pointing out the more special fruits of Christian faith, which were brought forth in times of trouble, to point out the moral powers which the nation still possessed ; not that we would be understood to hold up the men of whom we are about to speak in every respect as models of virtue, but because we think that each possessed peculiar moral powers given him by God. BLUCHER. 45 Historical contemplation does not content itself with holding np a standard of faith, and rejecting all who do not come up to it. It grieves to see a nation perishing, watches the sparks which give hope that there is yet life, and praises God, who, when the time is come, revives the flame in the smouldering emhers. The men whose names we have given all possessed great moral powers, and will be no disgrace to our pages. Blucher and York were both dismissed from the Prussian army by Frederic the Great on account of their defiant independence, with the characteristic remark that they might go to the devil. The impressions of Gneisenau's youth were different, and he entered the Prussian service, having fortified his mind, never enslaved by senseless tradition, by foreign German service and a voyage to America. How different again was Scharnhorst ! the son of a farmer of Lower Saxony ; he owed nothing to birth, and was almost without military bearing, but his projects were high, and he had power to carry them out ; how different was the simplicity of genius from the superciliousness of those who sought to conceal their mental poverty and moral failings by the splendour and privileges of rank 1 Then there was Nettelbeck again, whose only reason for taking part in military affairs was his burning patriotism — the burgher who urged the military commanders to action. Blucher stands first on our list. Many earnest Christians will wonder what we shall find exemplary in him, but this will not embarrass us. We grant that his want of self-control, his gambling, swearing, and getting into debt were shadows on his moral character ; but was it then nothing but physical strength and dexterity, penetrating acuteness, and his truly national feeling which everywhere gained the hearts of the people and constituted him a hero ? We maintain that all these gifts were cemented by a moral bond, without which they would not have made him a hero. This bond was his readiness to sacrifice himself for the good of the nation, which resulted in his fidelity to duty, his devoted courage and faith in better times. There was also a moral 46 BLVCHER. beauty in the humility with which, notwithstanding his self- sufficiency, he acknowledged the mercies of God and the ser- vices of others, and in the gentleness and kindness with which, in the tumult of the war-time, he would address consoling words to individuals, and offer them the help they needed. In his first campaign against France he became renowned not only for his courage and alertness, but for his charity to friend and foe. During the vacillating policy of Prussia at the beginning of this century he was always amongst those who longed to attack France, and avenge their country's ignominy. He entirely agreed with the Princes William and Henry, the king's brothers. Prince Louis Ferdinand, Stein, and General Kiichel, when they incurred the danger of the king's displeasure by addressing a memorial to him, in which they urged him to give up Count Haugwitz and the peace policy, and to arm against Napoleon. Ignominy was to him far worse than death, and he was ever in the foremost ranks of those who were jealous of the national honour. When at last the king gave orders to prepare for war, Bliieher asked permission to lead his troops at once against the French. He was confident of victory. Eiichel wrote to him, " At any rate the army is brave, our officers are the best in the world, and, without boasting, you and I are-not bad; we are a match for any one, and will yield to nothing but impossibility ;," and Bliieher wrote, " The French will find their graves on this side the Ehine, and those who do cross over will take pleasant news with them, as they did at Kossbach." But after the defeat at Jena and Auerstadt, when the bravery of Bliieher, the Eoyal Princes, and other generals had not been able to make up for want of unity of action, and it was necessary to retreat, Bliieher was determined to do his duly, even if he perished in doing it ; and to show the world that there was valour in the Prussian army, which would hold out to the last extremity, he made incredible exertions to arrive punctually with his troops at Prenzlau, where he was to join Prince Hohenlohe. And when he heard that the Prince had submitted to the French BLUCHER. ^J •with sixteen thousand men, he endeavoured to fight his way through alone. He hoped to be able to cross the Elbe, and to attack the French in the rear, perhaps from Westphalia. He dehghted in every courageous project, and hated the idea of surrender. Nothing at last remained to him but to enter: Liibeck. One melancholy account of the losses of Prussia succeeded to another. The Prince of Ponto Corvo. sent to him in the night to say that he had done enough for his Government and for his own fame, and had better make honourable terms. He answered that things were not come to that pass yet ; other than honourable terms he would never make, but he would wait for the day before entering into negotiations. At length, when all hope was over, and he was attacked with fever, increased by shouting during the fight at Liibeck, he was forced to surrender. He desired that his reasons for doing so should be stated in the treaty. This was refused, but he consoled himself with shortly stating them under his signature. Varnhagen says, " Of all the Prussian generals and troops who had been in the campaign, he alone maintained the honour of the Prussian arms, and in the universal misfortune in which he was engulfed he alone kept to the narrow path of honour, and avoided the broad road of ignominy. He never yielded to the despair and gloom and weakness to which even the most tried spirits succumbed ; his troops held bravely out to the last moment. Such an example in those doleful days was a spark of light from which hope and confidence might again be kindled." Bliioher was no sooner exchanged for the French general, Victor, than he hoped to exert himself again in his country's cause. He went to Pomerania in order, if possible, in conjunction with the Swedes, to attack the enemy in the rear from the north. Then came the Peace of Tilsit, and he could do nothing but endeavour to perfect his troops. Scharnhorst wrote to him, " You are our leader and hero, and we shall only be courageous and successful with you, even if you have to be carried after us on a litter." He fell ill, but his hopes for his country did not fail. 48 BLUCHER. During his illness lie used to declare that he would certainly vanquish the French emperor, set Germany free, and reinstate the king upon his throne. " Napoleon must be crushed," he said, " and I shall help at it. I will not die before it is done." He was laughed at sometimes, but he fully believed that all would happen as he said. On hearing of the queen's death, he wrote, " So the pride of women has departed from our earth. Grod in heaven ! she must have been too good for us. Do write to me, my old friend, I want to be cheered and amused. Never surely was misfortune upon misfortune so heaped upon any country before. Heaven grant that the contents of your last letter may be confirmed. In my present mood, nothing would please me better than to hear that the world was burning at the four corners." At length, with the burning of Moscow, Bliicher's time came. His heroic deeds are too well known to need repetition here. The task we undertook was to show that, in spite of his failings, Bliicher was an instrument in God's hands for instilHng moral courage, and even faith in God, into the German nation. Scharahorst said of him and 'Stein, that he never knew any other men so entirely devoid of all fear of man ; and this must ' have been based upon fear of God. He was one of the heroes of the people, and as a part of his heroism we must reckon his faith that it wa's God who led him on to victory, his humility and modesty, and contempt for all pomp and show. We give two traits from his life, illustrating his energy and humility. As is weU known, on the 18th of June, 1815, he was hastening to the assistance of Wellington. Delay would have been most dangerous, but progress was difficult, owing to the state of the roads, which were heavy with mire. In the greatest anxiety to keep his word, Bliicher was constantly encouraging his troops with words and gestures. " Forwards, children, for- wards ! " — " It can't be done, it is impossible," was the answer. With energy and emotion he persisted. " Children, we nvuM get on ; you may well say it can't be done, but it must be done. I have promised my brother Wellington ; ■promised, do you hear ? You wouldn't have me break my word ? " And it was GNEISENAU. 49 done. But after such feats as this, he was so humble, that he once said to some one who was lauding his deeds, "What was it, after all, that you are extolling ? It was my boldness, Gneisenau's discretion, and the great mercy of Grod." Bliicher always brings Gneisenau to mind, just as Melancthon is connected with Luther. Christ sent out His disciples two- and-two ; and in like manner, when any great work is to be done, the God of history generally sends the man of prudent counsel with the man of adventurous deeds. Many others, indeed, were united with them in forming the band who assisted in liberating their country ; and it was one of their Christian graces, even if they did not adopt the language of Christianity, or penetrate into its depths, that each was willing to submit to another when it was required in the service of their country ; but Bliicher and Gneisenau were united in a special manner, and their self-renunciation is shown in the strongest light. No detailed biography has yet appeared of Gneisenau, but we have reminiscences of him from Amdt and Karl von Raumer. What a blessing for so corrupt a generation was a man in whose character there was not a spot, and what a contrast to the licentious and avaricious French generals ! We give a few extracts from Arndt's description of him. In 1843, just thirty years after the battle of Leipzig, Amdt was at Nassau. He visited the Baron von Stein's tower, and saw the portraits which Stein had had placed in it of the eminent men of the war-time. Inspired by the spirit of that great time, Amdt immediately wrote down his recollections of Gneisenau. This was the origin of one of the finest pieces of writing that Amdt has left us. He says: "This noble form, this ready and aspiring mind, was also ennobled by grandeur of soul. A lofty and high- minded spirit shone out conspicuous in aU his features and movements. In his happiest moments one felt inclined to stand before him with delight and reverence, and to exclaim, ' Here at last is a high-born and harmonious man.' Though vehement, impetuous, and subject to ever-varying emotions, he possessed the most perfect self-control. Even in the expression of the indignant scorn which sometimes broke forth when he heard of so GNEISENAU. mean and base actions, he seemed to be under the control of a higher power, preserved \ix his language the dignity of a hero, and never descended to the shrill tones of confused and exhausted rage, or the repulsive coarseness with which angry men often disgust us." He then relates that the more refined and softer characteristics which adorn domestic life were as conspicuous in him as his promptness and vigour. He tells us what a father and friend he was, how willingly he spent his property for his country, and in happier times remained free from arrogance and cupidity, how generous he was, and ever ready to help. "All that has hitherto been said," continues Arndt, "has shown him as a hero and a man in a noble and amiable light, but there is no motto that becomes him better than ' I serve.' The manner in which he served Prussia and Grermany and his king is engraved upon the hearts of his survivors. Although by the grace of God a man of first-rate power^ he always stood second, and was even sometimes spoken of, as is often the lot of the most superior people, as a third or fourth-rate man ; but those who knew him best always put in a word for his insight, courage, and valour, when Hardenberg's promptitude and Bliicher's victories were being extplled. He served with the feeling that his country and a kingdom were to be restored to their former glory. He was often heard to relate with great animation remarkable circumstances and adventures which happened to friends and foes, but never a word of his own deeds. He always turned off any questions about them, and it was equally impossible to get a word out of him about the hindrances which stupidity, baseness, and envious foes had placed in his path. It was an important time ; and a little band of noble men, brought together by the providence of God and the impulses of their own hearts, united to save and liberate their country." Gneisenau's military genius and moral greatness were first displayed in the time of Prussia's misfortunes. After the battle of Jena, still only captain, though forty-six years of age, he led his battalion of fusiliers to Konigsberg. Here he was, so to NETTBLBECK. 51 speak, discovered by Scharnhorst, whom he had once replaced in the conflict with France. He received the rank of Major and the Order of Merit, and was soon intrusted with the commission in which his success raised the hopes of his countrymen. He was made commander of the fortress of Colberg in April, 1807, and successfully defended it till the Peace of TUsit. This connects the name of the great general with that of the simple citizen, old Nettelbeok. Joachim Nettelbeck was born in 1738, and was the son of a citizen of Colberg. After distiriguishing himself as a boy for courage, decision of character, and bodily dexterity, he became a sailor, sometimes on his own account, sometimes in the service of others. He was hundreds of times in danger of his life, often lost his all, and had to begin the world again. He was as prompt, cautious, and courageous in battling with wind and waves as with the baseness and untrustworthiness of men. The sight of any injustice made his blood boil, but it did not prevent him from taking in the position of affairs, which he did at a glance, before proceeding to action. But it was his public spirit and ardent patriotism which distinguished him from many other citizens. Perhaps modern history furnishes no more striking example of what a citizen, in limited circumstances, and with the most simple means, may accomplish for his country. Perthes may be compared to him, only he was far above Nettelbeck in the depth of his religious views, and the range of his mental vision. Nettelbeck was especially distinguished for the union of moral and physical prowess in his actions, for his projects were always such as required physical strength and agility to carry them out. After numerous voyages and adventures he settled down, as he himself relates in his autobiography, in his native town, farmed, distilled brandy, and brewed beer. Then came the French hurricane of 1806-7, and one Prussian fortress after another surrendered. Magdeburg and Stettin had fallen; how should Colberg stand out in its defenceless state, and with a negligent com- mander ? Old Colonel Loucadou was not likely to offer more S2 NETTELBECK. resistance than the other commanders, who had readily given up their keys to tbe French, and all the garrison were of his way of thinking. Nettelbeck tried to rouse the commander out of his lethargy, placed himself at the head of the citizens, and offered their help. "The citizens! it is always the citizens!" he answered, with a scornful laugh. " I don't want them, and won't have them." But Nettelbeck was nothing daunted, and when Loucadou found that he could not get rid of him, he said, " What is done outside the town does not concern me. I shall be able to defend the fortress ; outside you can raise what fortifications you please. That is nothing to me." Journeymen, apprentices, and maid-servants all turned out with the citizens, Nettelbeck at their head, and he did not spare his own money to get more hands. Then he made arrangements for provisioning the place, and tried t,o send intelligence direct to the king to ask for help. Fortunately, Lieutenant, von Schill, who had fought his way from Jena to Colberg, was lying seriously wounded in the fortress. Nettelbeck made friends with him, and when Schill was recovered he assisted the good cause with his military knowledge, and helped to inspire the soldiers with courage. The king sent help and promise of more, and they held the fortress as well as they could till Gneisenau came, and Nettel- beck was the soul of everything. Once, when the commander condescended to inspect his works, and laughed at them as child's play, and the officers expressed doubts about holding the fortress, Nettelbeck could contain himself no longer, and said, " Gentlemen, Colberg can and must be preserved to our king, let it cost what it will. We have bread and arms, and what is wanting will be brought to us by sea. We citizens, one and all, are determined not to give up, even if we see our houses reduced to ashes. And if ever it comes to my ears that anybody, whether citizen or -soldier, talks of surrender, I'll run him through the body with my sword on the spot, even if I have to run it the next minute through my own." There were still more stormy scenes between Loucadou and Nettelbeck. A bomb once burst almost YORK. 53 close to wli6re they were standing, and Loucadou stammered out, " If it goes on like this, gentlemen, we shall have to knock under yet." Nettelbeck was beside himself with rage, and did what he afterwards repented ; he drew his sword, and, pointing it at the commander, exclaimed, " Whoever says a word again about knocking under, let him be who he will, shall die by my hand ! Let us be brave and honourable, or we deserve to die like cowards ! " The joy of the citizens was indescribable when Gneisenau arrived. He and Nettelbeck, the soldier and the citizen, made common cause for the defence of their country, a spectacle not very common at that time. Nettelbeck says of Gneisenau : " Father and friend of the soldier as well as the citizen, he attached both to him by his sympathizing kindness, and the gentle earnestness of his character ; all his commands Were carried out with perfect confidence ; the result of long-tried experience, they seemed to become the will of everybody." The distress became imminent ; the bombardment was unceas- ing; then, to the indescribable joy of the inhabitants, news came of the peace. All turned to Gneisenau, as Nettelbeck relates, to whom, under God, they owed their safety. Next came the care of providing for those whose dwellings were destroyed. The king wrote to Nettelbeck in July, and sent him the gold medal. Gneisenau and the citizens parted with touching marks of mutual goodwill. Nettelbeck had an audience of the king and queen in December, 1809, when they returned to Berliui He and the other ambassadors from Colberg were most graciously received, and feelings were expressed of gratitude on the one side, and devotion on the other. " I know," said the king, " that if circumstances should demand it, sooner or later^ the Colbergers will stand out for me. again." In enumerating the few pillars of the Prussian State that remained standing after the battle of Jena, we must not over- look York. S4 1rORK. His keen, shrewd, iron character is a great contrast to Nettelbeck's impetuosity, but they were alike in vigour, courage, and fire, when king and country were at stake. Among all the great men who contributed to the liberation of German}', perhaps York was the most resolute and the most acute. BliJoher's vehemence was often exchanged for gentle amiability, and Stein's impetuous nature sometimes broke bounds. York, on the contrary, had his deepest passions under control, and when he chose to exhibit them, they made on that account all the deeper impression. Duty was the moving spring of this hero's life, and in lofty independence he walked in her paths ; he who neglected his duty was to him utterly contemptible. When a young Ueutenant, he had an important post to hold in the Bavarian war of succession. The hereditary Prince von Hohenlohe, colonel of the regiment, rode up to him, and ad- monished him to stand firm. "Your Highness maybe quite easy on that head," was the answer. "A Prussian noble has as much courage as an Imperial prince." After peace was concluded, the events of the war were being talked over, and it was related that a staff captain had taken an altar-cloth from a church. "I call that theft," said York. An action was brought against him for the expression. He was acquitted, but "old Fritz" wrote on the sentence, "Plunder is not theft; York may go to the devil." York refused obedience on parade to the sacrilegious captain, and was cashiered. With nothing but his sword to depend on, he went to Holland, and thence to the Cape and Ceylon. He amused himself with adventurous hunting expeditions, and schooled the wild Creoles in his train to the obedience of Prussian soldiers. Beturned to the Cape, he met with a young lady who inspired him with the deepest affection, and gained the promise of her hand. Just afterwards it was sought by a. wealthy merchant. The lady told him she was not at liberty, and the suitor addressed himself to York. He was afraid to bind the girl to his uncertain fate, and gave her up, but wished to be present at the wedding. He heard the address with composure, but fairly broke down at the bride's " Yes." YORK. 55 He returned with the next ship to Europe, but sought in vain to re-enter the Prussian service under Frederic the Great. Frederic William II., however, accepted him, and sent him as captain of a battalion of fusiliers to Namslau, near Breslau. He joyfully devoted himself to his task, and aimed at training soldiers who, instead of being the slaves of their position, would be able to turn any position to advantage. Here, as an evidence how little he cared for mere rank, he married the daughter of a citizen. His method of training his soldiers was by rousing their sense of honour, instead of by abuse and punishment, and his success was early acknowledged by Frederic William III. A saying of the Prince de Ligne, of which he was fond, expressed exactly his own opinion : " Qu'il faut faire trois fois plus que son devoir, pour le faire passablement ;" and he con- sidered it to be one of the merits of Kant that he so clearly laid down the requirements of duty. Hope and fear might furnish motives suflScient for the multitude, from himself he required self-denial in the cause of duty. In the discipline of his troops he was a strong contrast to the prevailing carelessness. Nothing escaped him, and he inspired the most indolent with life. He was not engaged in the battles of Jena or Auerstadt ; but his valour was put to the proof at the retreat. He had charge of Bliicher's corps in the retreat across the Elbe. On the banks of the same river, seven years later, he won the victory which gained him the name of York von Wartenburg. But in the position of afiairs at that time, the battle near Altenzaun was something gained, for it was the first success after the disgrace the Prussian arms had sustained. York never gave in to the idea that nothing remained but subjection. When a general was expressing that cowardly sentiment, York said, " General, he who really thinks that, ought to shoot himself if he has any honour left in him." After many a bold exploit, he arrived with his jagers at Liibeck with a severe wound in his arm. In the streets of that city he fought like a lion ; one of the first shots struck him in the collar-bone, but he continued fighting until he received a 56 yonx: stab in tie abdomen. When in some degree recovered he heard what had happened to Bliicher. He was permitted on his word of honour to return to Mittenwald. So completely was he broken down that his wife and children did not know him, but a little bird that he had petted fluttered as if for joy, and then fell down dead. It gives an idea of the estimation in which York was held, that during the years of Prussia's sub- jection, the royal family thought of him as the instructor of the Crown Prince. York fully explained his views and character to show that he was not fit for the post, and said in conclusion : " I am very poor, I have a wife and four children, to whom I am tenderly attached ; on their welfare my happiness depends, all my efforts are directed to caring for their future. Still my duty to my family must ever be subordinate to my duty to my king and country." The project was abandoned. In the time which followed, during which Prussia was secretly preparing to free herself, York was indefatigable in fulfilling every mission with which he was intrusted, particularly in improving the jager regiments of the army. He was made Brigadier-General, which gave him a great field for the exercise of his energies. In the domestic circle he tried to infuse his own courage into his sons. He tried with them the experiment whether they had courage and fortitude, like Mucins Scsevola, to hold their hands in the fire ; the boys stood the trial, and their father, not willing to be behind them, got a severe burn. In obedience to the king he went with the army to Eussia in 1812, but with ill-concealed aversion to the French allies. His withdrawal from them shows his moral courage in a striking light ; for notwithstanding his high ideas of the duty of obe- dience, he took the step without the king's consent ; and, although convinced that he had rendered him a most important service, as an atonement for the apparent lapse of duty, he laid his head, grown grey in the king's service, at his feet, and swore that he would await the bullet as calmly on the sandhill as on the field of battle. He passed the weeks during which the king was making up his mind in quiet and resolute resignation ; he prayed the king SCHARNIIORST. 57 not to allow any personal respect for him to influence Ms judg- ment, and was far from wishing to indemnify himself for the expected royal censure by currying favour with the people, for, when they once greeted him with cheers, he commanded silence, saying, " Let me have that upon the battle-field." We shall not here describe his exploits after the defeat of France and the entry into Paris. Our object was to indicate the influence such men as he was must have had upon the moral and religious elevation of Ger- many. We regard him as a true hero, a man of unusual moral strength, and are of opinion that religion was the basis of it. According to the habit of the age, he said little on the subject of religion, and the stormy events of those days were incom- patible with religious contemplation. But his deeds rested on faith in the Lord of Hosts, who holds in His hand the moral government of the world. He could have entered devoutly into Paul Gerhardt's prayer before a battle — " Let beginning, middle, and end, O Lord, to best advantage tend ! " And it appears from his letter to his son that he prayed for him, and looked for the best blessings for his children from their heavenly Father. It yet remains to delineate a character, perhaps superior to all the others, that of Gerhard David Scharnhorst. If we would see a portrait in which we may trace our most charac- teristic national features, let us turn our eyes to his. He was born at Bordenau, near Neustadt, in Hanover, in 1756, one year before Stein. He was the son of a farmer of Lower Saxony ; but under the pressure of straitened means and agri- cultural toil, he early felt an inclination for a soldier's life. He was fortunate in being admitted by Count Wilhelm von Schaum- burg-Lippe into his military school of Wilhelmstein. In the count he had a noble example of military greatness, and he soon learnt by study what were the conditions of its attainment. At twenty-one he was an, officer in the Hanoverian army, gave instruction, and distinguished himself by writing on S8 SCHARNHORST. military subjects. He had already acquired repute as a theorist, when he had an opportunity of showing his practical talents in the wars of the Eevolution. He attained the rank of major in 1794 for his courageous conduct at the fortress of Mennin ; and soon after, during peace, that of lieutenant-colonel in the general's staff. The penetration and clearness with which he, at that time, perceived the peculiarity of the French mode of warfare, and the shortcomings of the German mode, are re- markable. Field-marshal the Duke of Brunswick introduced him to the Prussian service in 1801. First in the artillery, and in 1804 as colonel, he continued his career of mihtary tutor and author, in order to influence the younger officers. He had found it difficult in Hanover, as a citizen, to maintain his posi- tion among the nobility, but attained distinction by means of his genius, in spite of the prejudices and superciliousness of the nobles. Now he was regarded as an interloper in the Prussian army; he was disliked as a foreigner, and as of burgher origin ; and in his stooping figure and insignificant appearance it was not easy to discern his mental powers. In the French war he was colonel in the general's stafi' of the Duke of Brunswick, but scarcely obtained recognition of his powers. He was taken prisoner at Liibeck, but exchanged. The success of the Prus- sians in the battle near Eylau was mainly attributable to him. The king learnt to appreciate him ; and after the Peace of Tilsit he placed him at the head of the commission for the reorganiza^ tion of the army. He now became one of the most skilful artificers of German freedom, and performed quiet and unosten- tatious actions which are worthy of a place among the noblest deeds of heroism. With the quick eye of genius he penetrated to the root of the evil, and discovered the means of remedying it. It was needful to turn over altogether a new leaf. He saw that there must be no longer an antagonism between the army and the citizens ; the soldier must be a citizen, the citizen a Boldier. Battles could no longer be won by the military alone ; they must be aided by the love of the citizens for king, for country, and for freedom. Training must be for the battle-field, not only for the parade-ground. It was necessary to watch the ■ SCHARNHORST. 59 enemy's methods in order to be a match for him. The moral principle must be strengthened, by giving the soldier the feeling of being part of a great whole, instead of extinguishing it by degrading punishments. Those who had betrayed their coun- try, commanders and officers who had surrendered fortresses and arms without resistance, were punished. It was decreed that every citizen was subject to military duty, and that merit, ' not rank, should regulate the appointment of officers. Schools were established, in which a new spirit was to be instilled into the pupils, and much greater success was attained than was expected. According to the treaty, Prussia was to maintain forty-two thousand soldiers. But Scharnhorst obtained recruits, trained them, dismissed them, obtained others, and in this manner filled the country with military men, so that at the beginning of 1813 three times that number were able to take the field. And all this was accomplished under the eyes of French spies. He was full of the projects of genius, but instead of blazing them abroad he allowed them to develop gradually, and made them known when they were ready to be carried out. He was not ambitious of the fame of having led the way, but allowed others to think that they had found it for themselves, if only the goal were reached. By his justice, and his amiable character, he outlived the jealousy excited by his mental superiority and his foreign birth. A feeling heart was united with his dauntless courage. He had the firriiest faith that, in the future, the scale of fortune would turn in favour of Ger- many, but, in the meanwhile, he was most solicitous to do his duty. He was profound, bold, courageous, simple, and unas- suming, and of irreproachable honour. He could say, like Ernst Moritz Arndt, that though millions had passed through his hands, they had not been stained by a copper, and he died poor. To no nobler dead than to Scharnhorst could the heroes who fell in 1813 catry the news of the events of that year. He fell in the beginning of the war with Napoleon, and beheld, from the other world, the harvest which sprang up from the seed that he had sown. CHAPTER V. FREDERIC WILLIAM AND LOUISA OP PRUSSIA. IT was an incalcolable blessing that at the time of the political downfall of Prussia, this royal pair presented an example of the noblest Christian demeanour to Germany and to the world. Schleiermacher wrote at this time to Eeimer: "The universal dissolution is frightful, and one sees on all sides a depth of baseness and cowardice, to which a few individuals, and among them the king and queen, afford a striking contrast." As evil influence spreads with surprising rapidity from the throne to the level of the people, so a truly Christian princely house diffiises a healthy spirit over the whole land. The court of Frederic William III. was a great contrast to that of his father. It is a great misfortune when the Christian faith, as expressed in the constitution of the Church, gives rise to the suspicion that it has formed an alliance with the privi* leges of the upper classes, or with those who consider them- selves privileged to be immoral. But the Government under Frederic William II., in the hands of Bischofswerder and Wollner, was open to this suspicion. Boj'al mistresses and edicts against the modern enlightenment were the order of the day, and the effect on the burgher class was that in protesting against the dissolute lives of royalty, they conceived an aversion to the Christian faith. How salutary it is for the diseased mind of a nation to see on the throne a royal pair who combine dignity with simplicity, and heartfelt faith with a dread of moral contamination ! And the court of Frederic WilUam III. was as great a contrast to most of the other courts of Germany at the time, as to that which immediately preceded it. FREDERIC WILLIAM. 6l An example of genuine German royalty was presented to the people, and tlie fact of its having been insulted by the French tyrant gained for it the earnest devotion of hearts and hands, and was not the least cause of the bitter hatred with which Germany rose against its oppressor. It would not be just to attribute genius, resolution, or vigour in action to Frederic William III. He was not gifted with genius, only with talent. The conscientiousness with which he took all circumstances into consideration prevented him. from forming prompt decisions, and a too great attention to details from acting with vigour; And the fall from the height on which he stood had filled him with distrust of his fellow-men. Through these failings he often appeared in an unfavourable light. Every one was grieved at the separation of the king and the minister Von Stein, at the moment when they were most necessary to each other, and at hia want of sympathy when, at the time of the separation. Stein was lying ill of typhus fever at Breslau. And when, before the entry into Paris, York rode up to the king, and introduced the first corps of the army, which, after the hardships it had undergone, was certainly not in parade trim, and the king rode back with the words, " They don't look well, dirty fellows," — every one will sympathize with the vexation with which York gave the word of command : " Turn, march." He also gave just cause for blame by the policy he pursued after the war of independence; but as Arndt, who suffered most severely from it, retained his affection for Frederic WUliam III., an unusual amount of excellent qualities and virtues must surely have been united in his character. Frederic William was simply brought up by his extravagant and pomp-loving father. For a bu'thday present he once received a pot of mignonette ; and when his tutor wished to give him a treat, he would buy for him one or two groschen worth of cherries. He was very fond of cherrie.s, and on his tenth birthday a gardener's boy brought him a small basket of them, which had been raised in a hothouse in very severe weather in January. The prince was pleased, and was going 62 FREDERIC WILLIAM to eat them, but on being told that they were worth five dollars, he turned away, and said decidedly, "I won't have them." Immediately afterwards he sent twenty dollars to a poor shoe- maker to buy leather. Even in the days of his greatest pros- perity he preserved his taste for simplicity, and had no liking for costly pleasures, while his hand was always open to relieve distress. In his religious opinions he differed essentially from his father. While the former, erring in morality, sought support for him- self and the State, now in the mysteries of the Illuminati, now in the ecclesiastical ordinances to which he was advised by WoUner and Bischofswerder, the son exhibited from his early years the gentle piety of a Spalding and a Sack, and it was con- firmed and deepened by the troubles of later times. Tolerant towards the free expression of opinion, but without the least tendency to free-thinking himself, prudent in not allowing old opinions and customs to drop, but anxious to pro- mote the unity of Christians ; he adhered to the doctiine of the inspiration of Scripture, but in life put the spirit before the letter, — such was his character. His piety and uprightness were like those of a simple civilian, they were alike free from statesman-like constraint and romantic excess ; they were sober, but tempered with warmth — gentle, but earnest ; they exhibited that moderation in religious views and motives which prevailed among the noblest members of the nation. But the simplicity of his faith and life was no detriment to his bravery. When his father, shocked at the fate of the royal family of France, entered into an alliance with the German emperor against it, the Crown Prince was among the bravest of the Prussian army, and did his duty in every post that was assigned to him. The course of the war introduced him to his future wife. After the Prussians, with the assistance of the Hessians, had retaken Frankfort-on-the-Maine from the French, the old Imperial city was the head-quarters of the Prussian king. In 1793 the Landgravine of Hesse Darmstadt, on her return from AND LOUISA OF PRUSSIA. 63 Hildburghausen, appeared there •with her two granddaughters Louisa and Frederica, Princesses of Mecklenburg Strelitz. Their mother, a Princess of Hesse Darmstadt, had died when Louisa was in her sixth year. Their father, then a field-marshal in the Hanoverian service, and a year later, in consequence of the death of his brother, Duke of Mecklenburg Strelitz, and a widower for the second time, had confided the education of his daughters to their excellent grandmother. Frederic William was twenty-three, the Princess Louisa seventeen years old when they first met. Both were in the bloom of youth and beauty. The first meeting was decisive. In the midst of war the double betrothal of two brothers and two sisters was celebrated, that of Frederic William with Louisa, and of his brother Louis with her sister Frederica. The mar- riages took place at Christmas, 1793. The marriage of Louis was soon dissolved by his death, but the union of Frederic William and Louisa afforded an example of a truly German Christian marriage under the happiest circumstances, as well as under those of the deepest national grief. Queen Louisa was a thoroughly German princess, although, from the effects of early education, even in moments of the deepest emotion, she always spoke French, according to the custom of the time. The daughter of a prince with a large family, who did not expect to have become a reigning prince, and, on account of the early death of her mother, brought up at the little court of the Landgrave of Hesse Darmstadt, she had grown up in great simplicity, and had herself made the silk shoes which she wore. She had a remarkably fine figure, and there was a lovely light in her open blue eye. She preserved the charms of youth as long as she was an inhabitant of earth, for when she died, a severely- tried Christian, she was only thirty-four. But her beauty was only the outward expression of a still more lovely character. With truly royal dignity, she combined an afiability which was the more charming because it was the expression of a loving heart. It must have delighted the nation to see how Frederic WiUiam and Louisa scorned the stiff and heartless forms of court life which had been trans- 64 FREDERIC WILLIAM planted from France, and ventured to enjoy themselves and each other's love like other Christian people. Louisa was received with great rejoicings on her first entry into Berlin. At the triumphal arch at the entrance of the city a lovely little girl recited a poem to welcome her, and the royal bride gave way to her natural impulse, and embraced &aA. kissed the child. When there was a talk of a general illurnination on the day of the marriage, at Christmas, 1793, the Crown Prince said that it would give him more pleasure if the inhabitants would spend tiie money on those who had been made widows and orphans by the war ; the royal family added gifts to the sum, so that the sufferers received a handsome Christmas present. It seemed as if the festival of the birth of Christ, at which Frederic William and Louisa were married, — ^that festival of loving humility and joy in self-sacrifice, — had shed a blessing upon the whole married life of the princely pair. They used to each other the confidential " thou," then banished by etiquette from conjugal intercourse. In the summer they lived in rural retirement at Oranienburg or Paretz. At harvest time they mixed freely with the country people, and bought presents at the Christmas fair at Berlin, and not for their own household only. The Germans are naturally disposed to love their princes, and when domestic and Christian virtues shine on the throne, their admiration is unbounded. Queen Louisa soon appeared to them as their beau ideal. She had grown up in German simplicity; she had stored her mind with the best that the nation had to offer, with the writings of Goethe and Schiller, Herder and Jean Paul. She united with the ideality which is a national peculiarity,, the also national love of domestic life ; all her qualities were consecrated by the warm influence of religion ; and when all these advantages appeared united in the person of a young, beautiful, affable, and loving queen, it was no wonder that the people became enthusiastically fond of her, and that poets vied with each other in singing her praises. The first ten or twelve years of this conjug^ happiness happened during the time of repose which Prussia had secured AND LOUISA OF PRUSSIA. 65 by the Peace of Basle. During this period Louisa appeared simply as the housewife, and yet the housewife of a king. When, in the year 1805, Napoleon had begun to display his arrogance towards Prussia, when the storm was seen approach- ing, and the king and country began to be alarmed, every sound of danger made a deep impression upon Louisa's mind, for she was a queen, she was a mother, she was a Grerman. The German woman is not a politician, like those who may be found among the Italians, Magyars, and Poles. She has no desire to enter the political arena, or to busy herself with secret dis- patches. She loves to be at her husband's side, amongst her children at the domestic hearth. But there she fully enters into the joys and sorrows of her country : without many words she animates her husband by her willingness to make sacrifices, by her joy at every victory, her grief at every defeat sustained by her country, and she instils into the minds of her sons sentiments which are of more value than any earthly posses- sions. The German woman is no politician, but, as in the days of Hermann, she cried shame on the man who deserted his country in the wars against Napoleon, and loved and honoured those who shed their blood in the cause of liberty. Neither was Queen Louisa a politician, but she was thoroughly German, and every insult offered to her country was branded upon her heart. The passage of the French troops through Anspach, a part of Prussia which was neutral ground, — which Napoleon justified by saying that he could not be hindered from gaining the victory over the Austrians by false scruples, — ^was the first sign that Prussia could not keep peace with him. Such a breach of national law naturally roused the indignation of all who valued their country's honour. At this time, on the 5th of October, 1805, the birthday of the Crown Prince happened. He was ten years old, and his father presented him with a sword and mihtary hat, and for the first time he appeared in uniform before the queen. " I hope, my son," she said with deep emotion, " that when you use this attire, your only thought will be to avenge the wrongs of your countrymen." 66 FREDERIC WILLIAM Soon afterwards the Emperor Alexander arrived at Potsdam. At midnight, at the tomh of Frederic the Great, in the presence of the queen, the emperor and king vowed to fight for the free- dom of Grermany ; but, through the treachery of the minister Haugwitz, Prussia was ignominiously allied with Napoleon. In the contentions between the peace and the war party which agitated the Prussian court in 1806 the queen did not play any conspicuous part, but she was a constant incentive to the best of the nation to work for their country's deliverance. It was what she was, not what she did, that made her name a watchword for the enemies of Napoleon. It was impossible for him, with his diabolically cold nature, to comprehend the deeper feelings of the heart ; still he discovered that Queen Louisa was a great power, a host in herself, which he could not otherwise understand than by assigning to her a special political activity, and on this account he did not fail to calumniate her. His rage against her increased when, at the breaking out of the war, she followed her husband into the camp. She could not keep away ; she shared too entirely, and increased by her presence the enthusiasm with which the people rose against Napoleon. The guns were firing at the battle of Jena before she determined to leave the camp, and return to Berlin. Just before reaching the gates of the capital she heard of the entire defeat of the Prussian army, and that Napoleon's soldiers were advancing into the open country. She left Berlin with her children, and turned her steps eastward. To the eldest prince she addressed words of the deepest maternal and national grief, which must have fallen like the seeds of a better future into his susceptible young mind. " Ah, my son, you are of an age to understand the great events by which we are now visited ; in the future, when your mother and queen is no more, recall them to mindj and weep for me as I weep now for the overthrow of my country. But do not content yourself with tears — act, develop your powers ; perhaps the spirit of the guardian angel of Prussia will descend upon you. Deliver your country from the shame, reproach, and humiliation which have faUen upon it. Try to win back from AND LOUISA OF PRUSSIA. 67 the French the sullied fame of your forefathers, as your great- grandfather, the great Elector, once avenged the disgrace of his country on the Swedes at Fehrbellin. Do not be infected, my princes, with the degenerate spirit of this age, but be men, and strive for the fame of great generals and heroes. Without this ambition you would be unworthy descendants of the great Frederic. But if with all your exertions you cannot restore your oppressed country, seek death as Louis Ferdinand has sought it." At Kiistrin the king and queen met, and bore together, stroke upon stroke, the news of the surrender of armies and fortresses. At Konigsberg she met with the recently converted Madame de Kriidener. " By means of an admirable instinct," says Eynard, " the queen, whose life had been so pure, apprehended that which the sinner generally learns through the humiliation of sin ; she loved as though much had been forgiven her, and understood what had been revealed to her friend through painful experience and severe discipline." They communed together on the depths of divine mercy, and visited the soldiers in the hospitals. The queen fell ill of typhus fever, and was scarcely recovered when the flight was continued to Memel. When the remains of the Prussian army joined the Russians, the fighting began again, and the queen returned to Konigsberg. Here she kept up an intercourse with the most superior men, with the court preacher Barowsky, and the councillor of war, Schneffner. They animated her patriotism, and confirmed her Christian faith. And she needed support, for after the battle of Friedland, on the 14th of June, 1807, everything seemed lost. The flight began again, and she took refuge at Memel, the town at the most easterly extremity of Prussia. On the 24th of June the queen wrote to her father : " My faith shall stand .firm, but I cannot hope any more. I will pursue the path of duty in Ufe or death, and, if it must be so, live upon bread and salt ; I shall never be entirely unhappy, only I cannot hope any more. No one who has been hurled from such a heavenly height could hope any longer. If good come, — oh, no one would receive it 68 FREDERIC WILLIAM with more gratitude than I should, but expect it I cannot. If misfortune come, it may amaze me for a moment, but it never can cast me down entirely, so long as it is not deserved. But any wrong on our side would bring me to the grave ; I could not survive it, for we are placed in a high position." In the spring of 1808 she wrote to her father: " It is all over with us for the present, if not for ever. I hope for nothing more during this life. I have resigned myself, and in this resignation, this submission to the will of Heaven, I am at, rest and in great peace, and if not happy in an earthh' sense, I am what is of more moment, mentally happy. I see with increasing clearness that it was necessary for everything to happen as it has happened. Divine Providence is imperceptibly introducing a new order of things into the world, for the old order is obsolete, and is dying as it were of decay. We have been slumbering on the laurels of Frederic the Great ; he was the master spirit of the age and created a new era. We have not advanced with the age, and so it has left us behind. No one sees this more clearly than the king. I have just had a long conversation with him on the subject, and he said repeatedly, as if musing on it to himself, ' We must tarn over a new leaf.' "Even the best considered plans fail, and the French emperor is more wary and cunning. When the Prussians and Eussians had fought as bravely as lions, even if not conquered they were driven from the field, and the enemy had the advan- tage. We ma'y learn a great deal from him, and what he has done and planned will not be lost. It would be blasphemy to say that God was with him ; but he is clearly an instrument in the Almighty's hand to put an end to the old order of things, which is effete, but with which all outward things are so closely connected. Better times will most certainly come ; faith in a perfect Being assures us of that. But good can only be brought about in the world by the good ; and for this reason I do not believe that the Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte is so very secure upon his certainly at present brilliant throne. Truth and righteousness alone are secure and at peace, and he is only AND LOUISA OF PRUSSIA. 69 politic, in other words prudent ; and he is not guided by eternal laws, but by eiroumsta'noes as they happen to be, and he defiles his Government with so many acts of injustice. He has no honest desire to speed the good cause for mankind. With his immeasurable ambition, he only cares for himself and his personal interests. He may be admired much more than he can be loved. He is dazzled4with his success, and believes that he can do everything. Besides, he has no moderation, and when this is the case, a man loses his equilibrium and falls. I have a firm faith in God, and therefore in a moral government of the world. But this I cannot reconcile with a dominion of might, and therefore I hope for better times. " They are hoped for and expected by all the better class of people, and we must not be led astray by encomiums on the present times, and the great hero of them. It is unmistakable that all that has happened, and is happening around us, is not the final good which shall be, and which shall endure, but only the preparation for that better end. This end, however, appears to be very distant ; we shall probably not see it, but die before it is reached. As God wills ; all things as He wills. But I find comfort, strength, courage, and serenity in this hope, which is firmly fixed in my mind. Is not everything in this world transitory ? We must press forward. Let us only be careful that every day we ripen and improve. Here, my dear father, you have my political expression of faith, as well as I, as a woman, can form and express it." It was not much the custom of that time to express religious feelings in ardent words. The piety of the most pious may appear cold to many people nowadays, if judged by the expres- sion of it. But religion was more retiring. Barowsky de- scribes the piety of the queen as of this character, but gives us an insight into the deep workings of the Holy Spirit on her mind. He says, " With the feeling and expression of timidity she approaches the holy truths of religion, but also with an expression of thirst and longing, and she receives refreshment from them in all their purity. What pleases me the most is that all her views, convictions, and endeavours are firmly 70 FREDERIC WILLIAM founded on the revealed wcrd of God ; this gives her firmness, assurance, coherence, and repose ; and since she honours me with her confidence, I endeavour to confirm her faith. In her prevailing state of mind she sympathizes most particularly with the Psalms ; the holy enthusiasm which pervades them is in harmony with her beautiful and poetic nature, and gives an impulse to her pious spirit. Tl\e grave experiences of her life open up to her the inmost meanings of the Holy Scriptures, and guide her into their full and deep meaning. The old proverb, ' Trouble teaches us to mark and understand the word,' is gloriously illustrated in her, and I am often most agreeably surprised by her spiritual and intellectual remarks, questions, and answers. "When I had the honour to wait upon her last Sunday I found her alone, in her sitting-room, reading the Bible ; she rose quickly, and met me in the most friendly manner, at once beginning : — ' Now I have thought over and felt the precious 126th Psalm, about which we were talking. The more I medi- tate on it, and try to grasp its meaning, the more its loveliness and sublimity attract me, and I do not know anything which has such a solemn, benign, elevating, and comforting effect upon my mind as these precious words. The anguish of soul which is simply expressed in them is deep but tranquil, peaceful and tender. What it will effect, and the fruit which it will bring forth, is strikingly explained under the pleasing figure of seed- time and harvest. The hope which soars above all, and makes all sorrow bearable, is like the hues of morning, and you hear in the distance the triumphal songs of the victor rising above the tumult of the waves of sorrow. It is pervaded by a spirit of melancholy, but also of victory, of resignation, and the most joyful trust ; it is an elegy, but also a hymn of praise, a halle- lujah mingled with tears. I look at this psalm as you look at a lovely flower on which a dewdrop glistens in the morning light ; I have read it again and again, until it is firmly impressed upon my memory.' " And then with an expression of holy reverence, with a low, but firm and clear voice, and in a tone of the purest devotion, AND LOUISA OF PRUSSIA. 71 the queen repeated the psalm which was engraven on her mind, here and there slightly altering it to adapt it to her own circum- stances. As a beautiful hymn sweetly sung makes a deeper and more lively impression than when read, the well-known words, as I heard them from the queen, gave rise to new feelings. For her melodious manner of reciting it, though it was not exactly intoned, was like an ecstatic song, poured forth from her finely- strung soul. As I Ustened to and looked at this exalted and enlightened woman, with the words of everlasting life on her eloquent lips, the words came into my mind, ' In thy hght shall we see light ; ' and, ' Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.' Everything became clearer to me than before, and she appeared more beautiful than ever." A letter to Madame de Kriidener, who had joined her in the days of her deepest grief at Konigsberg, testifies to the depth of the queen's religious life : — " I owe a confession to your excellent heart," she writes, " and I am convinced that you will receive it with tears of joy. You have made me better than I was before. Your words of truth, our conversations on religion and Christianity, have made the deepest impression upon me. I have gone with deeper earnestness into the things, the existence and value of which I had indeed felt before, but I rather guessed at than knew them. These contemplations had very comforting results for me. I came nearer to God; my faith became stronger, and thus, in the midst of misfortune, and many injuries and griefs, I have never been without com- fort, never quite unhappy. Add to this the goodness of the God of love, who never hardened my heart, but always kept it open to the kindliness and love of my fellow- creatures, always filled me with an impulse to help and to be useful to them. " You wUl understand that I can never be quite miserable while I have this source of purest joy. With the keen eye of truth I have seen the vanity of earthly greatness, and its nothingness in comparison with heavenly possessions. Yes, I have attained to a repose of the soul, and an inward peace, which allow me to hope that I may be able to bear all God's dispensations, and the sorrows that are sent to purify me, with 72 FREDERIC WILLIAM the composure and humility of a true Christian. For it is in this light that I view all the close trials which bow us down. I have found myself again in the tumult of the world. Promise me that you will always tell me the truth." It is a glorious thing when this patient resignation, founded on the hope of better times, becomes a glowing faith, which mingles with the fire of patriotism. " Have you heard," wrote the queen in September, 1808, " that the king has commanded that memorial tablets shall be placed in the churches for those who have fought for their Fatherland, to the memory of the dead, to the honour of the survivors, and for the emulation of others ? This is another spark from which may be kindled the flame from God which shall consume the scourge of nations. Has it not been lighted in the Tyrol as well as in Spain ? — ' Freedom upon the mountama ! ' Do not these words, which I now, for the first time, understand, sound like a prophecy when you look at those mountains, and see what a rising there has been at the call of Hofer ? What a man this Andreas Hofer is ! A peasant becomes a general, and what a general he makes ! Prayer is his weapon, and God his ally. " He fights with folded hands, he fights on bended knee, and smites with the cherubim's flaming sword. And these faithful Swiss, who were before familiar to my mind through Pestalozzi. Childlike in spirit, they fight like the Titans, rolling masses of rock from their mountains : just so in Spain ! God, if the times of the Maid of Orleans should come again, and if the enemy, the wicked enemy should be overcome at last, overcome by that power by which the French, with a maiden at their head, drove the foe from their land. Ah ! how many times I have read it over and over again." It may be asked how in so religious and exalted a frame of mind the royal pair could have found any pleasure in the pomp with which they were received by the Emperor Alexander at St. Petersburg in 1809. Men like Stein and Gneisenau judged AND LOUISA OF PRUSSIA. 73 the journey hardly. The latter wrote : — " The king has been in a bad humour since his return ; he scolds about trifles in the service. At St. Petersburg he saw the Eussians dressed up for reviews. Certainly the half- slaughtered East Prussians are a contrast to them. Perhaps everything looks very small to him after the pomp there. His half-monarchy, his half-palace, the half-romance of the last few years; but this is all in harmony with half-measures." And Stein answered : — " The journey was made for the sake of being dazzled ; people take pomp for strength, fearful weakness for prudence, and are glad of a few moments' rest to hide their eyes from the future, which has nothing to promise but a miserable and humiliating existence." Unfortunate kings, we may exclaim, who are so often prevented from following the dictates of their hearts by political considera- tions. It may be that the reception at St. Petersburg was not with- out designed intention on the part of the Russian Court, and it may have had a lulling influence on the royal pair ; but cer- tainly the amiable attentions which were showered upon them were sincere, and it is clear that the heart of the queen was not in the pomp. " I am come back as I went," she wrote, soon after her return. " Nothing dazzles me now ; ' my kingdom is not of this world.' " And in the same year : — " My birthday was a fearful day to me. A splendid banquet was given by the city in my honour in the evening ; before that, a handsome and abundant repast in the palace. Oh, how sad it made me ! my heart was torn in pieces. I danced, I smiled, and said pleasant things to those who gave the banquet ; I made myself agreeable to everybody, yet I did not know where to turn for grief. To whom will Prussia belong at the end of the year ? Where shall we all be scattered ? Father Almighty have mercy upon us ! " The most earnest desire of her heart was the moral and reli- gious elevation of the people. It was this which attached her so closely to Stein. Under the heavy cross which she had to bear, she discovered the emptiness of the religion of the so-called enlightenment, and searched ever deeper into the eternal truths 74 FREDERIC WILLIAM of faith. When she bore a son at Konigsberg in October, 1809, the christening festival was a painful day to her, because of the minister's flat rationalistic discourse. He had no idea of th6 power of the Sacrament, knew nothing of the covenant made with Grod through baptism into the death of Christ ; his only idea was that of a consecration of the child on its entrance into life. The queen could not be comforted until it was proved to her, from the creed of the Protestant Church, that the power of the Sacrament was independent of the worthiness of the dis- penser. For three years the royal family had lived in a circumscribed position away from the capital. The queen longed for her home at Berlin ; and in December, 1809, the journey was undertaken, and was tmTied by the affection of the people into a triumphal progress. The tears of the queen fell like burning drops into the hearts of the best of the people. Arndt wrote : — " More eyes were wet with tears of grief than joy. The deep grief of the beautiful queen was evident in the midst of her joy as she stood at the window acknowledging the people's greeting, for her eyes were red with weeping." She was not to tarry long amongst her people. She was often ailing, and presentiments of death passed through her mind. She longed once more to see her home at Mecklenburg, and her father and brothers and sisters ; and at the end of June the journey was undertaken. She was unspeakably happy to be with her beloved ones again, and, at the same time, in possession of her husband and children, and often gave simple expression to this overflowing joy. The illness which occasioned her death developed itself with surprising rapidity. The king and the elder princes were scarcely in time to see her alive. " Lord Jesus make it short," was her last sigh ; and the people, as well as the royal house, felt a grief which contributed not a little to the regeneration of the Fatherland. Steffens reports of the impression which the death of the queen made at Halle, which then belonged to the kingdom of Westphalia : — " There was a commotion in the town, which was only to be AND LOUISA OF PRUSSIA. ^$ compared to that which took place during the first few days after it was overpowered hy the enemy. Grief was depicted upon every countenance ; there was mourning in every house, and everybody seemed impressed with a feeling that the last faint hope had departed with the life of this adored woman. Every one ascribed her death to the unhappy condition of the country : they said to themselves, ' The enemy has slain the guardian angel of the people ; ' and. a feeling of revenge, and an unspoken oath to keep her memory in inviolable constancy, strengthened the national resolve to seize every opportunity to throw oflf the hateful yoke." The queen remained after her death, as she was during her life, the heroine of a struggle which, far from having ceased, was only strengthening itself for the first favourable moment. We have before remarked that there was something typical in the character of Queen Louisa. In her Germany saw its best self personified ; love of liberty and country, pleasure in domestic and family life, taste for poetry, deep and pious gratitude for all the gifts of God ; and in her fate the nation saw its own. This accounted for the peculiar love for the queen, the grief at her death, and the new adaptation of the words, " She being dead yet Speaketh." Her praises were not only sounded over her coflSn, she was remembered in the latest years of ignominy, and when after the successes of 1813 Korner sang — " Luise sohwebe segnend um den Gatten," " Louisa o'er thy consort blessings shed," he only gave expression to the general feeling of all who loved her, that from the rest which was granted to her, the departed one would behold with glorified eyes the conflicts in which her husband and the nation were engaged. Fouque, Korner, Schenkendorf, and others have tuned their harps in her praise. The king, who had before sunk into the deepest grief, re- ceived the heaviest blow by the death of the queen. When they were trying to inspire him with hope by her sick-bed, he said, " Ah, if she were not mine she would live ; but as she is my wife she will be sure to die." 76 FREDERIC WILLIAM Under the influence of this grief he passed the last years of ignominy, and entered upon the new struggle with Napoleon like a knight avenging his insulted beloved one. Arndt says, " The king had the gifts of uprightness, bravery, and piety, but he was ehUling and reserved. In his quiet, simple look and gesture there was an appearance of peculiar grief; he was the mourning knight who could never forget his lost beloved one. The idea never left him that his queen, his beloved Louisa, had been snatched away from him in the bloom of her loveliness by the tumult and misfortunes of the time, grief for which had killed her. After that time, in 1810, when she died in her Mecklenburg home, his face never beamed with pleasure ; he was scarcely able to share the joy of his people in 1813, 1814, and 1815, but shut himself up with his solitary grief. There is a wonderful consecrating power which survives death in pure love for a noble woman. As Beatrice, lost to Dante for this life, was his guide to heaven, and became to him the glori- fied personification of a saving knowledge of God, so the image of the glorified queen hovered before the eyes of the king, not 'only as that of his beloved spouse, but as an impersonation of all the grief suffered on account of their country, and the struggles to be gone through in its behalf- It really was the case, that the king fought against Napoleon not only for his kingdom, but for the honour of his beloved one." When in the spring of 1814 all the patriotism of the country was aroused, and the king made preparations to enter into the struggle with his people, he instituted the iron cross as a mark of distinction for valour. A more appropriate symbol in the struggle which was at hand could not have been found ; a cross, the symbol of the deepest grief that was ever borne, but suffered for the highest good, but also the symbol of faith on our part in the willing self-sacrifice of eternal love — an iron cross as a reminder of the iron time in which no victory could be won without the most earnest struggle. And what a light of devoted love falls upon the institution of it when we find that the king devised it on the birthday of the departed queen, the 10th of March, without consulting any one ! AND LOUISA OF PRUSSIA. 77 From the victorious field at Leipzig he hastened to Berlin ; his steps were first turned towards the cathedral, in order to give the glory to the Lord with his assembled people. Thence he hastened to Charlottenburg, to the grave of the queen ; he uncovered his head, laid the laurel branch which he had brought with him upon the tomb, and remained in silent prayer. With the impression of this visit to her grave he returned to the army. He crossed the Khine, and made the victorious entry into Paris. But he soon left the tumult of victory, and travelled homeward with his adjutant. He went through Switzerland, sought out remote Colombieres, and stopped at the pastor's house. There Miss Gelieux, the former instructress of his Louisa, lived with her brother ; the king went to thank her for the love which she had formerly shown to the youthful princess, and to refresh himself with reminiscences of her. He gave Miss Gelieux a shawl which had belonged to the queen, and which he had taken with him. On his return home he founded the Prussian order of Louisa in memory of the queen, and in honour of the women and maidens who had assisted the struggle by works< of charity. It is probable that the tumultuous events which the king had passed through from 1806 to 1814 had deepened and strength- ened his faith. He had always been inclined to a religious life, although he might have viewed the subject in the weak and diluted form which was current at the time. Both these ideas are confirmed by what he wrote to the minister Von Wollner on assuming the reins of government: "I honour religion myself, and willingly follow its blessed precepts, and should be very sorry to rule over a nation which had no religion ; but I know that it is, and always must be, a matter of the heart and feelings, and of personal conviction ; and if it is to forward the cause of virtue and righteousness among men, it must not be degraded into a meaningless babble by any methodistical com- pulsion. Reason and philosophy must be its inseparable com- panions ; it will then be able to stand secure of itself, without needing the authority of those who claim the right to impose their doctrines on future generations, and to dictate to posterity 78 FREDERIC WILLIAM what it is to think in every age, and under all circumstances, upon subjects which have the most powerful influence upon its well-being." But reason and philosophy, treacherous guides in the path to eternal life, were allowed to fall into the background, and pre- cedence was given to the Bible as the unfailing light. When at Konigsberg, after the great defeat, he had a desire for the word of Grod. Barowsky, afterwards archbishop, was at hand with this most powerful source of comfort. He read and explained to the king the striking narrations of the Book of Daniel, and the seeds of a firm faith were sown in his agitated mind. He remained true to his opinion, that religion must be a matter of the heart and of the feelings, and of personal conviction. Nothing could be more foreign to his honest and simple piety than the doctrine which had been prevalent for a century, and particularly with princes and statesmen, that religion was by no means necessary for the safety of individuals at the judg- ment day, but might be very useful for keeping the people in order. "The most barren and miserable view which a man can possibly hold of Christianity and its divine ordinances," said the king, " is that wise and enlightened people will hold religion in reverence, because, although quite superfluous to the educated, it is necessary and good for keeping the middle and lower classes in order, by means of the superstition which it instils ; the higher and highest classes require no such bugbear. If this is enlightenment, I do not know what is obscurity. It is like a sunstroke, which takes away your senses." His piety was an affair of the heart and of personal con- viction. He could not dispense with it in his conflict with sin, for the patient bearing of the cross, and the hope of everlasting life. He loved the Bible with the love which is peculiar to the Protestant Christian. He did not explain away its doctrines ; he had a deep feeling of the sinfulness of the human race, and therefore full confidence in the mercy of Jesus Christ. .He was earnest in prayer, for he knew that prayer is heard, and can accomplish much when it is earnest. He could not dispense with public worship. He felt it beneficial to join in it with his AND LOUISA OF PRUSSIA. 79, people on the same level. He rejected flattery with real in- dignation, especially if it ventured to address him in holy places. For the house of the Lord was holy to him, because he knew that there divine love condescends to meet the humble confessor of sin, and the faithful petitioner for divine mercy, in the pro- clamation of the Word and the administration of the Sacrament. The simplicity of his character developed itself in sacred things in the humility of thp sinner, who, like all other sinners, can only live by grace. But though his faith was firm in the atone- ment of Jesus Christ, his Christianity had a thoroughly moral tendency, as a genuine gospel faith always has. The king was upright in the highest degree. Diligent in his calling after the hereditary principle of Prussian monarchs, that the king should consider himself the chief servant of the State, benevolent with royal generosity, and tender sympathy for special cases of distress, chaste in word and deed, and especially severe upon transgressors of the seventh commandment ; animated by a powerful impulse to labour for the general good, he strove to attain to that attribute of charity, that she " seeketh not her own." But above all other things, it was his endeavour to revive among the people the sense of religion which had sunk so low, and especially by openly acknowledging his adherence to divine truth. This endeavour was the origin of the Holy Alliance, which Frederic William entered into after the victory with the Emperors of Bussia and Austria, and of which he was perhaps the first instigator. There was something great in the common acknowledgment by the three powerful rulers of their faith in the Holy Trinity, and in their common vow to make the precepts of the Gospel the rule of their government transactions. The deep impression which divine mercy had made upon the king's mind during the times of war and victory was displayed in the years of peace, in his various endeavours for the advancement of the Prussian national Church. Perhaps he took no other department so much into his own hands, and acted so much on his own opinions as on this one. However hazardous it was, and always must be, for a ruler 8o FREDERIC WILLIAM. to take advantage of his supremacy in ecclesiastical matters, for the purpose of stamping his own views upon the laws of the Church, it must be granted that even in his errors, his zeal for the Church was displayed. And even those whose judgment ip most strongly opposed to the union of the Eeformed and Lutheran Churches, which was urged on during his government, grant that his intentions were honest, and honour him as a God-fearing monarch. " My time in disquiet, my hope in God," was the super- scription of his wUl, — an appropriate motto for a king who had seen so much adversity both in peace and war, but who had struggled against it with honest endeavour, and whose conso- lation was the prospect of the rest which remaineth for the people of God. CHAPTER VI. PRINCESS WILLIAM OF PRUSSIA. BY the side of Queen Louisa, and in every respect her equal in birth, stands the Princess William. Called, like the queen, to a brilliant royal court, from the more retired circles of princely life, — like her, she possessed that simplicity of character which enabled her to penetrate through the obstacles of etiquette to the sources of the true life, and to appreciate whatever was noble in humanity. Perhaps it was easier to her than to the queen, who, notwith- standing her fresh and natural character, had a taste for splendour, to accommodate herself to the deprivations to which the times subjected the royal family; indeed, when she was again surrounded by princely pomp, she recurred with a sort of hankering to the simple life at Memel and Konigsberg, which was so rich in intellectual enjoyments. The queen and princess were entirely alike in their steadfast and unquenchable patriot- ism ; and as it is our wish to record the effects of the war of independence, in animating and deepening the religion of the people, we may remark that the letters of the princess, as well as those of the queen, during the times of humiliation, afford a touching picture of the work of the Holy Spirit on humble and trusting souls. We will begin with the description which the minister Von Stein gave of the princess when she was tWenty-two years of age;— " The Princess William unites with beauty and dignity a powerful, cultivated, and thoughtful mind ; a deep, great, and noble character. Her appearance is but the impress of her 82 PRINCESS WILLIAM OF PRUSSIA. mind, and combines purity, symmetry, and dignity. She is born to a throne, but she would ennoble and beautify any position in life, even were it the lowest. She received her edu- cation from her excellent father, who was her instructor and friend, and who early developed ther germs of the great and good in her character. She was early acquainted with suffer- ing and deprivations of various kinds ; the French invasion drove her from her paternal home when yet a child ; she had only been married a few years when she accompanied the royal family in the unfortunate years 1806-7-8. " During this time she lost her two children, and her husband was separated from her by the campaign, and by the embassy to Napoleon. She is fond of history, and acquaints herself with it through translations from the ancient historians, which she reads with great attention, and impresses them on her memory by making extracts. The judgment she passes on men, formed by such a mind and such occupations, is a severe one, but free from prejudice; she is inexorable towards everything shallow and vulgar, even if surrounded by the splendour of a thi'one. '"One result of her discretion, and of the dignity with which she assigns to every one his place, is reserve, which she possesses in a high degree. She has an irresistible love of solitude, and of a recluse and quiet life, which outward circum- stances enable her to give way to more than is good for her. Her taste for art is united with a great talent for drawing, which she has cultivated herself without much instruction." The love of solitude which Stein mentions did not, however, prevent her from entering courageously into public Ufe at the time of the decisive struggle, but when peace was restored to her country, she doubly enjoyed a retired life in the bosom of her family. Marianne, Princess of Hesse, was born at the Castle at Homburg, on the 13th of October, 1785. During her childhood the first conflict took place between Germany and France. She clearly remembered her bed being shaken by the guns at the siege of Mayence. She was surrounded in youth by French PRINCESS WILLIAM OF PRUSSIA. 83 and German influences, for her first playmate was the child of a family of French emigrants. Her first music mistress was also a French lady, who, however, had taste enough to teach her, among other things, the choruses from Grliick's ' Iphigenie.' When she listened to the conversation of her parents, she heard French from her mother, and German from her father. Her mother was a lively person, fond of pomp and splendour, who found it difficult to accommodate herself to the limited circum- stances of her position ; bat this influence was Counteracted by that of her father, who was a thorough German, and a religious man, and maintained a friendly intercourse with Lavater ; he was fond of solitude and quiet contemplation, kindly and benevolent. The Princess Marianne, like her brothers and sisters, was distinguished for her warm patriotism, and her mind was ever open to the reception of divine truth. The German and Christian constancy of her character was shown by her unfailing attachment to the reminiscences of her youth, her devoted afiiection to her family and friends, her gratitude to her teachers, and her delight in her south German home. " It gave me the greatest pleasure, dear Mr. Eector, to see your handwriting once more, and I thank you heartily for receiving my little gift so favourably. I like to know that my portrait hangs in your garden room, so that you will often be compelled to think of me when you go there to enjoy the spring sun, for in that room I have spent many happy hours of my life which I shall never forget. Nothing is pleasanter to me in my northern home than to be reminded of my native country, beloved beyond every other." She always retained her afiection for her governess, and kept up a correspondence to the end of her life with a friend of her youth belonging to the burgher class. At Berlin the loss of her native mountains was a great deprivation ; at Fischbach, in Silesia, she loved the mountains because they reminded her of those of her former home ; and when her eldest daughter went to reside in Hesse after her marriage, she felt that it was an addition to her happiness, that " she is now near my beloved Homburg." 84 PRINCESS WILLIAM OF PRUSSIA. This constancy, which deepened more and more into Christian faith, is the leading feature of her character, and she adopted as her motto, " Be thou faithful unto death, and I wiU give thee a crown of life." In the summer of 1803, Queen Frederica of Prussia, sister of the wife of the Landgrave of Hesse Homhurg, came to Hanau with her two sons, Henry and "William, to visit her daughter, the Electoral Princess of Hesse Cassel. The mother's wish that one of her sons should marry the Princess Marianne, then a charming girl of seventeen, was quite in accordance with the inclination of Prince William. The marriage took place on the 13th of January, 1804, in the palace at Berlin. A brilliant reception was given her in the royal city, but she felt embarrassed at it. So simply had she been brought up at Homburg, that no one had ever been pre- sented to her, and now there were great ceremonies in her honour. No wonder that the cultivated mind of the youthful princess was shyly shut up in itself. Prussia first discovered the treasures of her mind and character, the wealth of her courage, and constancy and love, during the great national calamities which soon followed. The loss which she experienced in exchanging the sands at Berlin for the mountains of the Taunus, and the seclusion of her Homburg life for that of the noisy capital, was compensated by the warm affection of her husband. Her happiness was indescribable when in the summer of 1806 she returned to Homburg with an infant princess. On the day before the battles of Jena and Auerstadt, the princess completed her twenty-first year. The fearful news of the death of Prince Louis Ferdinand, and the complete defeat of the Prussian army, arrived soon after. The princess was obliged to fly, and reached Dantzig, where she gave birth to a princess in November, who only lived a fortnight. The prince left the dispersed army and hastened to his wife. It was necessary to continue the flight, although the only child was ill. While crossing the Nehrung, the prince was enjoying a splendid sunset in the sea, but the princess was sad with pre- PRINCESS WILLIAM OF PRUSSIA. 85 sentiment of evil. The child was in another carriage. When they arrived at Pillau the mother hastened to the bed of her darling ; she drew aside the curtain — alas ! she had no longer a living chUd. Grrief for the ignominy of her country, increased by domestic trial, sunk still more deeply into her heart. StUl, in spite of grief, it was a very pleasant life which opened for the royal family at Memel and Konigsberg from 1806 to 1809 ; that is, if it be judged by its internal attractions, and not by outward splendour. The most vigorous inhabitants of Prussia had taken refuge in its most easterly corner, in order thence to impart mental strength to the rest, to compensate for the loss of territory, and to endeavour to regain it. The weight of circumstances caused all minor considerations to fall into the background. , The royal family cheerfully led the way in making sacrifices to meet the heavy demands that were made upon the country, and this rendered the greatest simplicity necessary in their mode of life. The hand of God, which was outstretched to chastise Prussia, led the best men of all classes together. Although Napoleon appeared to be invincible, statesmen like Stein, generals like Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, Boyen, and Grol- man, poets like Schenkendorf, and orators like Siivern began to declare that the tyrant would one day be overcome, and that when stirred to its depths, the spirit of the Germans was invincible. In this animated mental life the princess shared, and when the prince was absent, engaged in promoting the restoration of the army, she spent a great' deal of time alone, engrossed in his- torical works, reading and writing, and thus fortifying her mind for courageous deeds. In the night of misfortune we soon see the names of the Prince and Princess William shine out like two brilliant stars. The burden which was enforced upon Prussia by the Peace of Tilsit was insupportable. The French were not to leave the country until the enormous sum which had been demanded had been paid, and it seemed im- possible to raise it while they remained. It was hoped that if 86 PRINCESS WILLIAM OF PRUSSIA. Prince William were sent as ambassador to Napoleon, he would lessen his demands. Alexander von Humboldt was to prepare the way for him at Paris, and to be ready to support him in his slippery path. It was thought that the words of the prince would be likely to make an impression, from the fact that he would in future take an important part in public affairs. But besides this scheme, from which the government hoped for success, the prince and his wife had thought of another : he would offer himself as a hostage, in order to lighten the burden imposed upon his country, and the princess was willing to follow him into imprisonment. She expresses her readiness to make this sacrifice in a letter to her husband in the following touching words : — " That I can write this without trembling, without sinking, is taught by my love, — and only by strong lov,e. If I can be with you, be it in a prison or a palace, if only with honour, I shall hasten to join you. When it is over, we shall return to our country with joy. But if it be pos- sible, that because there is too much delay, he should choose to end your imprisonment in another way — oh, there will surely be ways enough to his heart (or no heart) to make him let me share your fate ! We are alone — ^we may do this. Amelia, too, is dead. Then we should be happy for ever." When the letter reached Paris, the embassy had already failed. At the first interview Napoleon expressed himself in hard and bitter terms against the king. The prince represented to him in lively colours the sufferings of the royal family and of the country, and endeavoured to convince him that Prussia would fulfil her obligations. His speech appeared to have made some impression, for Napoleon endeavoured to calm him. The right moment seemed now come to propose the plan, which he naturally did not wish to propose till all other means had failed, and with great animation he offered himself and his consort as hostages, till payment was completed. Napoleon approached him, embraced him and said : — " That is very noble, but it is impossible." The prince was treated with distinction, though he did not PRINCESS WILLIAM OF PRUSSIA. 87 succeed in his object. And yet the embassy was not in vain ; it acquired for the princely pair the affection of Stein and other noble-minded men, and shared in kindling the flame of that devoted patriotism to which Napoleon finally succumbed. In October and November, 1808, those disputes and negotiations began at Konigsberg under the influence of the French, and those who were favourable to them, which resulted in the second dismissal of Stein from the ministry, followed by his outlawry and flight into Bohemia. About this time Stein wrote a letter to the princess, which is too beautiful a testimony to her character to be omitted. " Your Koyal Highness must not give yourself up to indignation at the events of the time, and do give up the idea of retiring into solitude. You have too many great and noble qualities not to have an influence on life, even in our eventful times ; you have a profound sympathy for all that is great and noble, a powerful and cultivated mind. You and your husband are formed to lift the standard under which all the great and noble will range themselves. Your Royal Highness must not despair of humanity, although the weakness, frivolity, and shallowness of some, the base envy and selfish- ness of others, have lately played an evil part ; and although this combination of the lowest passions with ofiicious babble is most repulsive, still my most recent experience has convinced me of the existence of distinguished and excellent characters, of unfailing patriotism, of readiness to sacrifice everything for it, and I have received touching proofs of attachment and affection for the good cause and myself, from persons from whom I had no reason to expect it. The exertions of the good and power- ful are not lost ; it is always true that — ' The firm patriot Who made the welfare of mankind his care, Though still hy faction, Tioe and fortune crossed, Shall find the generous labour was not lost.' Cato, hy Addison. " Your Eoyal Highnesses must give up the idea of shutting yourselves up; it would be a moral suicide. You and your 88 PRINCESS WILLIAM OF PRUSSIA. husband must assemble around you the noble and the good, and lead them in the conflict with the base and the bad. Separate yourselves from everything which belongs to the latter, and conscientiously fulfil the vocation assigned to you by Provi- dence, and for which He has equipped you with such splendid qualifications." When Stein was compelled to fly, it was a comfort to him that the princess remained, " with her great and noble character, her powerful and cultivated mind," and he departed with the hope that she would exert a beneficial influence upon every one around her. When the king and queen went to St. Petersburg in the winter of 1808, Prince William accompanied them, but the princess remained at Eonigsberg, which was quite in accord- ance with her taste for a quiet domestic life. Childless herself, she tended the royal children as if they had been her own, and gained their lasting affection. The new hope which God had given her about this time was extinguished in August, 1809, by the birth of a still-born son. She shared in the liveliest manner in the patriotic hopes which were excited in that year by the rising in Austria. Four of her brothers were in the Austrian army ; and Stein informed her, from Prague, of the excellent spirit which pervaded the army and people. But these hopes were not fulfilled ; the heavy yoke of bondage was still on the country when the royal family and the Prince and Princess William returned to Berlin in December, 1809. She felt leaving Konigsberg, and still more keenly the entry into' Berlin, for she was coming without her children to be shut up in her golden cage, as she called her apartments in the royal palace. She had probably expressed these feelings in a letter to Stein ; for in a letter to her he gives us the following pleasing retro- spect of the past : — " None of us wiU ever forget the residence at Konigsberg ; it was a time of trial, of endurance, of striving for a nobler and better state of things. "Weakness, discord among friends, the rough might of the foe, accidental circumstances, frustrated all our efforts, and the instruments of them are scattered and destroyed. The con- PRINCESS WILLIAM OF PRUSSIA. 89 sciousness of pure motives, the memory of the good and nohle, who did them justice, and accorded them their sympathy, ac- companies those who are banished in every situation of life, and the work that has been begun will not be quite in vain. The memory of a young princess will never leave me, who possesses a mind susceptible of all that is great and noble, combined with external charms. Whatever may be the position in which she is placed; she will ennoble and exalt it. Certainly our hopes and expectations have been greatly disappointed, but it win always be consoling to remember that faithfulness and bravery, though not victorious, were displayed in a most decided manner, and strengthened the foundations of the State; that the exhibition of them affords a brilliant example, both for the present and the future, and that a system founded upon might and arbitrary will for the glorification of an individual, and not for the general good, must sooner or later succumb to public opinion, to the opposition of exasperated powers, and wounded feelings. To maintain this public opinion, and to oppose the mean and base, is the duty and calling of all the good among our contemporaries. With this conviction we shall be able to live through the manifold painful events, which may yet await us, with courage and resignation, to maintain our inward peace, to find our way readily through entanglements of every sort, and to avoid becoming the sport of the influence, the opinions and the quarrels of vulgar men." The friendship which the princess had formed in Konigsberg with the queen and with the Princess Louisa Eadziwill, sister of Prince Louis Ferdinand, was maintained at Berlin. What a blow it was for her in the summer of 1810, when in the midst of the joy of being with her beloved ones in her Hessian home, she received intelligence of the sudden death of the queen ! The correspondence with Stein, in relation to this mournful event, gives us an insight into the depths of her mind, in which God was instilling faith and a new life by the means of the cross. It affords one of the most unmistakable evidences that the times of which we write awakened and deepened religious life. 90 PRINCESS WILlrlAM OF PRUSSIA. We will remark, before giving the correspondence, that the princess was five-and-twenty, and Stein fifty-three years of Stein to the Princess William. "Peabde, 21th September, 1810. "Your Eoyal Highness has spent the summer amongst your relations, and in your beautiful native country, but how must the enjoyment of it have been disturbed by the circumstances of ignominy and subjection in which it is placed ! And how much more by the loss sustained by the royal family daring your absence ! A cord formed of affection, beauty, and good- ness has been broken asunder ; and who can heal the wound, who will sustain our deeply sorrowing king, now quite alone and pursued by misfortune ? " He will no doubt find consolation in the religious spirit which inspires him, in love for his children, in the fulfilment of his duties ; but nothing can fill the void made by the loss of a faithful, tender companion and wife. No doubt his family will affectionately strive to assuage his grief, and he may be con- sidered happy in having among his relations so noble, in- tellectual, good, and affectionate a princess as your Koyal Highness." Princess William to Stein. " Beklin, nth December, 1810. "Two valued letters from you are lying before me, and I cannot understand how it is that I have left them so long un- answered. The chief reason, no doubt, has been the deep depression under which I returned here ; after four months so happily spent in my native land, this heavy blow was sent me to remind me of the imperfection of aU earthly bliss. You have thought of me with sympathy on this occasion, and I gratefully feel your kindness. If you had followed y6ur in- clination, and shown the poor unfortunate king how much you mourned his sad loss, it would have been a great pleasure to him; and who could have been so cruel as to put, as you PRINCESS WILLIAM OF PRUSSIA. 9« feared, a wrong construction on such an act at such a time ? I am really very sorry that you did not write to him, because I have witnessed how much such proofs of sympathy have touched him in his infinite grief, more than I should have thought possible at such a time. "It is impossible to explain everything in writing; but I should so much like to tell you how all the pleasantness in life is over for me now that she is gone. She was so unspeakably kind and sisterly to me that I miss her every moment, and with every fresh event. How I regret every word that I may have spoken against her, since I have clearly seen that it could only have been envy because she was so much better than I, which induced me to do it. I cannot go on, it makes me so sad. The king is worthy of all reverence in this sorrow, which will last with his life : he shows so much Christian resignation and patience ; he is so kind to me that I can scarcely look at him without tears. "What impelled me to write to you to-day was, that I have now read Siivern's Fifth Lecture on the Age of Chivalry. Yon often told me that I ought to read these lectures ; but at Konigsberg I only got as far as the first, but now I have just read the fifth. It has engrossed me and elevated me more than almost anything, for it is exactly in harmony with my thoughts and feelings, so devout and German, as certainly only that age could be when people were humble and believing. It seems to me that philosophy produces self-conceit, and that these two things are ruining our generation. No doubt I speak in a narrow kind of way, and as if I belonged to a benighted age ; but the more impressed I become with the vanity of earthly things, the stronger these convictions grow. Ah, how little and humble it makes one feel before the Almighty ! it leads to faith, as it seems to me, not to sight, in those things in which we cannot yet see clearly. " In one thing I may venture to say, I have made some progress since we parted, in religion. " Do have the goodness to read the fifth lecture again. My first -thought was, why did you not propose the author as tutor? 92 PRINCESS WILLIAM OF PRUSSIA. I Bhall DOW maka his acquaintance. I am almost ashamed to see that I have been speaking only of myself, when I wished to speak of you, and to tell you all that I have heard of your subjects, but it is not so easily done in writing. You will readily believe that I thought of no one but you when I was in that neighbourhood. What every one said of you was just in accordance with my own opinion, and often moved me to tears. Once we had a heavy storm on the Lahn, and were obliged to remain some hours at Nassau. The doctor was in the room, and a young man, the son of a lawyer. There was much talk about old times ; and oh, how it interested me ! A man from Nassau also came to us, and was in the greatest delight at being able to talk of you ; he was only a common man, Philip Balzer. " I must conclude. Farewell, and think of me and of my great esteem for yoii. "M. " P.S. — ^A great pleasure is in store for me to-morrow. Five of my brothers are coming ; I am quite beside myself with joy. One of them is very fond of your brother-in-law, and would much like to make your, acquaintance. I have seen Schon several times, and like him very much. " William wishes to be remembered to you, and remember me to your lady." Stem to Princess William. "PKAGtTE, I7ih March, 18U. " Waiting for a safe opportunity has hitherto prevented me from answering your Koyal Highness's gracious letter of the 14th of December. Its contents have deeply touched me, and they afford clear evidence of your serious and tender spirit. " Intercourse with so noble a friend will be a compensation to the king for his loss, in daily life, in moments of sadness caused by remembrance of the past, and forebodings for the future. I honour him for his reUgious morality, his pure love of all that is good ; I love him for his well-meaning character, and pity him because he lives in an iron age, when this gentle- PRINCESS WILLIAM OF PRUSSIA. 93 ness and- uprightness have only accelerated his fall, and in which but one thing was necessary to enable him to maintain his position, the talents of a general, united with that reckless selfishness which treads everything underfoot, and is ready to enthrone itself upon corpses. "I read Siivern's Lectures at Konigsberg in a manuscript which belonged to the queen. I do not possess them, but I wish to do so. The author is a most estimable man, on account of his rare powers of mind, his knowledge, and his noble cha- racter. But would this learned, but plain and homely man, totally unacquainted with court life and the distractions of the great world, have been adapted for the instructor of a young prince ? Would he have wished it himself ? I scarcely think so. " Certainly the age of which your Royal Highness speaks had great advantages over ours. Those true and devout men whose minds were filled with the love of honour and religion, are incomparably superior to the petty, frivolous, dried-up, selfish, and pleasure-loving race of our times. In those days there were great events and superior men ; the great events which happen now are brought about by the baseness of men and want of unity amongst them. What has superseded these noble sentiments, these powerful springs of action amongst us ? What is the result of our metaphysical jargon ? France is now complaining loudly of her philosophers, as having quenched public spirit, destroyed religious and moral principles, and caused a dreadful revolution, which has ended in an iron despotism ; and for what has Germany to thank the theological school of Berlin, and Nicolai, and his modern metaphysics ? The former has banished plain and simple faith in the Bible with its exegesis ; and the latter has reasoned away German integrity, puzzled plain and healthy understandings, and taught doctrines which overturn the principles of morality, faith in God and immortality, and it has withered the hearts of men. Happily this school has made itself contemptible by the quarrels of its disciples, and it wUl disappear as many other follies have done. Happily also there were some men left in the nation 94 PRINCESS WILLIAM OF PRUSSIA. who deserved our confidence, and who stemmed the tides which were threatening us with destruction. Among these I reckon Herder ; a man who possessed a sound and healthy under- standing, a virtuous and religious mind, a pure and delicate taste, and with these were comhined great depth and learning, which enabled him to attain to a rare wealth of ideas and views. I advise your Royal Highness to read those portions of his works which would have a peculiar interest for you. You will find instruction and improvement in them, and confirmation in all that is good. The Princess William to Stein. "Berlin, 6th June, 1811. " Although I am ill, and therefore not inclined for writing, I cannot refrain from employing my pen for you to-day, as a good opportunity ofi'ers. Neither can I longer delay giving you my heartfelt thanks for your letter of the 17th of March. It made me feel so happy, for it seemed like hearing you talk. Everything that you say to me is sure to please and interest me, but I doubly valued the contents of your last letter, for I was so glad to have confirmed by you what I have so often thought ; for these times and modern people impel one to make comparisons, and I am always struck by the contrast when I hear the enlightenment and culture of these times extolled, and it seems to me that the old paths led so much more directly to the goal than our circuitous ones. With equal simplicity, but with a firm faith, I see the difference between religion and philosophy ; I can, of course, only judge of the latter by its effects; still there is a principle within me which places the former very high above the latter. "People come and discuss the subject, and ask, ' Is there a more beautiful principle to be found in the whole Bible than this? "Do good for the sake of good;" — how unselfish, how great, how simple it is 1 ' " But in my humble opinion it is but an evidence of pride ; and humility seems to me to become poor humanity so much PRINCESS WILLIAM OF PRUSSIA. 95 better ; and in the teaching of Christianity, ' Do good for the sake of love,' what meekness — how great the difference ! " When this giddy pride is past, I fancy brighter stars will shine out again. But I blush when I read what I have written to think that I have been expressing my perhaps ludicrous opinions to such a man, and venturing to write about things that are quite above me and beyond my comprehension. But I rely upon the indulgence with which you have often spoiled me before. " There was a rumour of glorious news here yesterday, too good to be true, that the sequestration was removed from your estates. How I should rejoice to see you in possession of that beautiful district again. I sympathize with you doubly in what you have lost, since I have been there. With this I send you a little memorial of the place, and because it comes from there I flatter myself it will give you a moment's pleasure. It is a stone from your Castle of Stein. When I was up there, I could think of nothing but you, and not without tears, as you can well believe ; so I took a stone from the old building with the intention of having something made of it for you, for myself and my two companions, Philip and William. I have done so — the stone is rather soft, as it was only a splinter, so you must not use it with the wax very hot. William unites with me in the kindest remembrances, and I beg the continuance of the friendship which makes me so proud and happy. " Maeianne. " Eemember me to the Baroness." Stein to the Princess William, "Prague, lith August, 1811. "The devout and childlike spirit which pervades your Koyal Highness's letter has deeply touched me. It is in this spirit that the highest truth and the highest wisdom lies. Every- thing that we see around us must daily remind us of the empti- ness and vanity of all human knowledge. This feeling of genuine modesty has always been the characteristic of the most 96 PRINCESS WILLIAM OF PRUSSIA. superior men, but it has been pushed aside by the pride and arrogance of the sophists of the eighteenth century, who were bent in their self-conceit in supplanting the principles and in- stitutions on which the temporal and eternal welfare of our fore- fathers was based, — they destroyed both, and nothing remained to their unfortunate contemporaries but regret for what they had lost and inability to recall it. Chateaubriand's ' Genie du Christianisme ' is written in an excellent spirit, and is calcu- lated to awaken religious feeling. He illustrates with eloquence and deep feeling the emptiness and vanity of human knowledge, the excellence of Christianity, its doctrines, usages, and eccle- siastical institutions. It is impossible to lay it down without being edified and improved. " Frederic Schlegel's ' Lectures on Modern History ' also deserve your Koyal Highness's attention, for their intelligent, well-weighed, and modest tone, and their correct appreciation of the circumstances of our ancestors and contemporaries. He shows how, in the old times, the action of men's hearts was more vigorous and unrestrained, and how their more restricted sphere was beautified by their faith in everything divine. The gift of your Eoyal Highness is an evidence of the tenderness of your heart. You thought with kindness and sympathy of the outlaw, and felt that it is painful to have ' to ascend the stairs of the stranger,' and to avoid the home of one's childhood. When all ties are dissolved or threatened, when all opportunity of activity is ruthlessly snatched away, life loses its value ; but one wish remains, the hope of soon entering on a better." The faith expressed in these letters was sure to overcome ; such humility was sure to see brighter days. Minds so imbued with divine strength were strong enough to bear the weight of the conflict, and to ascribe the victory to the mercy of God. In October, 1811, the princess gave birth to twins, the Princes Adalbert and Friedrich Thassilo. Soon afterwards her husband had an illness which shattered her own health, and in the following summer she tried the waters of Ems. She saw Homburg again, and for the first time went down the Bhine as PRINCESS WILLIAM OF PRUSSIA. 97 far as Cologne, in company with her husband and brother Leopold, who had left the Prussian service in order to avoid fighting for Napoleon in Eussia, and he would fain have gone to Spain to fight against him if his father had permitted it. She returned to Berlin to enter upon the greatest year of the century, the most important qf her life. We have the diary before us which she wrote in 1813, and have received permis- sion to make extracts from it. It will give us a lively picture of that eventful time, and a mirror of the character of the princess. As in the year 1806, so in 1813, the critical moment in national afiairs was also a crisis in her family life. The news of the defeat of the French army, of York's convention with Bussia, of Austria's joining the German cause, reached the iprincess at the deathbed of her child Friedrich ThassUo. He died on the 10th of January. " Faith survives hope,'' she wrote on the day of his death. " I learnt this this morning when I was trying to impart life and warmth to the half-sitiffened hand of my Fried. Thassilo. I kept on saying to myself: ' With God nothing is impossible. He helped Samson, and I thought He would say to me, ' Woman, thy faith hath helped thee.' Or was not my faith strong enough ? Is faith also a sort of hope ? But love is indeed the greatest of these, for it will still live in heaven when faith and hope have conducted us thither. " My Fried. Thassilo fell asleep about nine. It was the first time that I had seen death, and I am so glad that I have seen it ; it has made me feel so peaceful. I felt so surely that it is a long sleep, and nothing else ; before, the idea of death was so terrible to me, and now the impression is entirely altered. I saw how temporary this veil must be, it is like a timepiece run down ; a mechanism necessary for earth, only an unessential thing, the real being remains, and is, indeed, eternal. Now, for the first time, I shall go to bed without praying for him. Now pray for me, my little angel ! " Scarcely had the mother adorned her chUd with the ring and wreath of myrtle, and seen him laid at rest, than the court of Berlin was in the greatest excitement. The French division, 98 PRINCESS WILLIAM OF PRUSSIA. under Grenier, had entered the Electorate of Mark. The Germans could scarcely wait in patience till Prussia should declare itself against France, and it was needful to be in con- stant preparation, lest the French should make an onslaught on their Prussian allies. A report was spread that the king and royal family were to he taken prisoners. The German party wished that the king should absent him- self; the French party construed the wish into a desire on the part of the Tugendbund (alliance of students) to have the game all to themselves. On the night of the 17th of January, Prince Heniy brought news to Prince William that the French were •plotting an act of violence against the court. Prince William rode to Potsdam to the king. It was arranged that the Crown Prince should be confirmed in haste, and that the king should afterwards join the army in Silesia. The night before, the king's adjutant, Von Natzmer, had returned from the Emperor Alexander with the news that he would enter into the alliance, offensive and defensive, which had been proposed to him; would prosecute the war, and advance towards the Oder. On the 22nd of January, the King and Crown Prince left Potsdam for Silesia, and the princess's husband and her brother Louis went to join the troops,, and she remained solitary in the palace with her child. The time was now arrived when she had to play a part in history. The record of her life during the next two months, amidst the universal excitement, and the rapid succession of events, presents a picture of noble and heroic demeanour, wl^ile her heart was divided between maternal grief and anxiety for her country. In consequence of the death of the queen, she was the chief representative of the royal family in the capital. It was against her that the enmity of the French would be directed, and she felt that she was called upon to stand firm, lest by her flight she should encourage the enemy and depress the people. She transacted business with the French marshal, and the Eussian and Prussian generals came to do homage to her courage ; and when Prussia began to rise, 'she stood at the head of the women in the work of nursing and assisting the wounded. Her time was divided between her PRINCESS WILLIAM OF PRUSSIA. 99 only remaining child and the affairs of the country. She often went from her child's bed to look out into the streets, or to watch the French troops exercise in the Lustgarten, or she arose in the middle of the night and went out upon the battle- ments of the palace to observe the light of burning houses, or smouldering watch-fires. The creations of the poet's fancy are exhibited in simple truth in the princess's diary. The watcher on the tower keeps those in the house informed of what passes on the battle-field. Hope and fear are alternately depicted on their countenances, victory is announced, and jubilees resound. She saw the pitiful remnants of the army which escaped from Kussia totter through the streets. On the night of the 19th of February she dreamed that the French were besieging the palace, and that balls were flying about the room. News came in the morning that the Russians were approach- ing ; she went up to the parapet, and could see the movements of the Cossacks at Pankow and Sohonhausen. When the French, as usual, mounted guard at noon, a Cos- sack galloped into the city ; the people received him with exultation. One of the guards took to flight, the French sounded an alarm, the garrison moved up to the Lustgarten, infantry, cavalry, and artillery, with Marshal Angereau at their head. The princess saw it all. An officer of the Cossacks arrived with a flag of truce, and was dismissed ; a gun was fired, and a second ; a third was spiked and dragged away by the people, but retaken. It was feared every moment that they would fire upon the palace. The castellan trembled, but the princess still sat at the open window, and would not be per- suaded to leave the palace. Her idea was that if the French heard that every one had left it, they would be sure to enter and take possession, and she was not willing to give up the king's property to destruction and plunder. She also reckoned a little on the gallantry of the French. She sent the court marshal. Count Von der Groben, to Marshal Angereau, was reassured, and sat down to supper, which reminded her of the meal in ' Gotz von Berlichingen,' when the knight's castle was roo PRINCESS WILLIAM OF PRUSSIA. The uncertainty of the enemy's movements lasted a few days longer; and though Angereau withdrew on the night of the 24th of February, on the 28th the streets of Berlin swarmed once more with the troops of the vice-king of Italy. " Oh, how I wish for peace !•" she wrote on the 1st of March. " How it pains my aching heart to have my thoughts continually dis- tracted by the fierce storms of the outward world!" When Czernitscheff, Tettenbom, and Bepuin made their entry on the 4th, she wrote: "Ah! if it were but a German triumphal entry. Their singing as they marched touched me deeply, and when Tettenbom stopped in front of the palace, and they took off their caps and shouted a vivat for the king and people, and we waved our handkerchiefs, I shall never forget it — it was a glorious day. Victory ! oh, victory ! what heavenly music there is in the word ! When shall I be able to pronounce it for German arms?" And later in the evening i " The illumination was fine, but I saw Spandau in flames, a dark cloud of smoke reached thence to us, the moon between uniting the two lights; joy here, miseiy there. It was curious to feel, after so long a time of ignominy, that our tongues were free again." Clausewitz related to the princess the whole history of the Russian campaign ; in which " neither the retreat behind Moscow nor the burning of it was the result of system, but were partly accidental, partly intentional ; yet both will be represented to the end of time as the result of a sagacious plan ; we shall never hear it related ourselves wilh perfect truth, and no doubt authors, a thousand years hence, will fully believe that it was designed." In February she became president of the Ladies' Society for assisting the Militia ; the objects proposed were to furnish those who had no means of their own with arms, to build hospitals, and to provide for widows and orphans. On the 17th York entered the city. " To-day was the third day of rejoicing over the arrival of the Prussians after so long a time, but the people are become rather lukewarm about these joys, and York may well be proud that the city is illuminated PRINCESS WILLIAM OF PRUSSIA. loi ■in his honour, and the moon shines so gloriously over the free city. Everybody is gone to the Opera-house. " ' Wallenstein's Lager ' is being given for the first time since 1805. I did not incline to go, and am quite alone this evening. The Swedes are coming, and the English. Is then the old world going to be quite diflferent from what it has been ? Is such thy wiU, Lord God ?" The king soon afterwards came to Berlin. " He confessed that he had experienced the feeling of joy for the first time since the death of the queen, so far as he was still capable of feeling it." Amidst the excitement of these great events, the princess felt the presidency of the Ladies' Society as a burden, and begged the other princesses to unite in the office with her, in order that she might be kept humble. The reception of contri- butions was often painful to her, for in many cases she could not fail to see what real sacrifices the donors were making. She had great pleasure in assisting to establish the Lazaretto, but shuddered at the thought of soon seeing the well- arranged rooms filled with the wounded'; and in the bitter- ness of grief for her lost child, the idea of entering a convent, which she had before cherished, entered into her mind again; but she roused up all her energies, and visited the wards. " On Sunday, the 25th of April, I visited our hospital for the first time since it was filled, and I found them all so courageous and cheerful and grateful that I was quite touched, for I had had a struggle with myself — it was such a self-denial to me to go in. One was rejoicing that he had been wounded in fighting against the Russians ; another, with a crushed leg, only wished, with a laugh, that he was on his legs again, and he would soon be after them. The saddest case was that of a man who was shot in the chest, lying opposite to his wounded brother, who would see him die." The princess was much affected when the first great battle took place, on the 2nd of May, at Liitzen, and was filled with mournful presentiment. When news came, she heard that her brave husband had had a horse shot under him, but that 102 PRINCESS WILLIAM OF PRUSSIA. he was unhurt, while her brother Leopold had < died a hero's death. A fortnight before, the king, who had been annoyed at his leaving the Prussian service, had reinstated him as major. He fell with Scharnhorst, who received his mortal wound in the same battle ; an early sacrifice, a noble sacrifice, as his sister often called it. At first she only heard that he was wounded, and waited in anxious suspense for further tidings. " Where is Leopold ? This battle-field of Liitzen, how often we had talked of it together ! it always attracted me so, and with what pleasure I showed it to him for the first time in 1806. The last time that I drove over it, the moon was shining gloriously, and as I was driving there I read the account of Pappenheim's death. How often Leopold envied him this death ! Oh, God ! do send me good news when I awake to-morrow ; but I cannot expect it." The day after she wrote : " He is indeed dead. At the very beginning of the battle a ball struck him in the heart. He remained so quietly on his horse that they thought he had only fainted, and a cuirassier mounted behind him and held him ; but when he was taken ofi', he was found to have been long dead. The flowers bloom as before, and the nightingales sing, and yet he is no more." Afterwards, more particulars reached her; that he had declined to be sent by General Zeithen to a less dangerous place, that he would not take off his star, and that he only said, when he received the ball, " Take care that I do not get among the French." For a long time grief for the loss of her brother, mingled with joy in her husband's heroism, may be traced in her diary. When Berlin was again in danger, in consequence of the retreat of the army into Silesia, the princess held out as long as she was permitted to do so ; and the people, who saw in her presence a pledge of their own safety, applauded her with acclamation-. She was the centre of the overflowing enthusiasm of the time. Young girls came to her, and begged to be equipped for the war. Karl Maria von Weber brought a music- PRINCESS WILLIAM OF PRUSSIA. 103 etand and his choir into the court of the palace, and sounded the praises of Prince and Princess William, together with those of the king. " I was touched by the songs that I heard in the pale moon and starlight, in the old palace connected with so many re- collections ; and yet how vain is all worldly applause and fame. ! No merit belongs to me ; and yet they all do me homage, just because I am here. It brought many thoughts into my mind, of the world and mankind, and vanity and myself." But she was at length compelled to leave Berlin by the king's desire, and on the 17th of May she reached Frankfort on the Oder. Here also she was asked to become president of the Society of Ladies ; servants brought her sixty dollars, and young girls offered her garlands of roses. The armistice, over which her German heart mourned, brought her and her husband together again in Berlin, where they took a house in the Thier- garten, in order to enjoy the fresh air. Life was pleasant sometimes in the quiet intervals of these stormy times ; but the idyl of the happy family was often enough disturbed by some tragical event in the world's history, as, for instance, by the death or Scharnhorst. The war began again, and Austria joined in it. "It is beautiful," she wrote, "that at last the three eagles are waving together; the happiest moment of the century has arrived, and my Leopold's uoble sacrifice is a pledge to me of success." Notwithstanding the delays of the Crown Prince of Sweden, the northern army soon commenced operations. There were skirmishes at Trebbin and Wittstock before the battle of Grross- beeren, and the firing was heard at Berlin. The day before the battle of Grossbeeren was the Sunday on which it is usual to preach on Christ's weeping over Jerusalem. " I went to church, in order to compose my mind in peace, and heard an excellent sermon from Marheineoke about the fate which Christ foretold for Jerusalem, and how he wept over it. He closed with the words, ' Oh, that the Saviour may not weep before our walls now ! ' And he admonished us to speedy and I04 PRINCESS WILLIAM OF PRUSSIA. lasting repentance, that evil may be averted from us. Yes, we ought indeed to pray earnestly." About the same time old Janicke organized a praying corps in Berlin, -which did not cease to pray day or night till victory was gained. On the day of the battle of Grossbeeren, the princess sat by her cradle, and sang a war-song to her Adalbert, into which she wove the names of all the generals who were engaged in the battle. On the 24th, she received, on awaking, the joyful news of the victories gained by Biilow and Tauent- zien. " How happy we are, that the cup has so passed away t We praise thee, God ! " Soon after news was received of Bliicher's victory on the Katzbach. " It is like the fulfilment of a glorious dream ; everything is combining to overwhelm the tyrant, even his own machinations ; his hour must surely be come." It is remarkable how the princess's comments on the death of Moreau agree with what Arndt says about it. He reckoned the early death of the French general, who had come to the help of the Germans, as one of the "five or six miracles" which happened during the liberation of Germany. He con- sidered it a mercy from God, that a possible idea was thereby dispelled, that Napoleon could only be vanquished by a French- man. The princess wrote: "I have wept for this stranger. What a fate ! The world was building upon him. I was building on the will of God alone, and not on any human being. Nevertheless, it is striking to see how relentlessly destiny rules individuals as well as the world ; as the brook flows over the pebbles under it, so destiny rushes over men, races, the world, and the age, — ^man stands by and marvels that his short-sighted calculations have proved incorrect ; he begins them once more, but to find them wrong again to the end ; fate remains in- exorable, neither tears nor despair, patience nor resignation, can influence it ; but God will fold us in his arms above, if we will but come to Him, in those realms where these mysteries will cease. Oh, how the crushed heart will then rejoice ! " Her husband wrote to her about this time : " It was God's will to reveal himself in this struggle as the only Almighty PRINCESS WILLIAM OF PRUSSIA. 105 power, and therefore the instruments were destroyed from whom we hoped the most; so Scharnhorst is no more, and Moreau is disabled."* " He wills," she added, " and He does not require human arts to help Him. That He would will it so this time, I believed as firmly as a rock." At the dnd of September she had the pleasure of seeing her husband with her for a few days. The following expressions show what was her frame of mind : " For three months I have sufiered so severely from cough that I often think of con- sumption, but I think of it with cheerfulness, even with a smile." And on the evening of her twenty-eighth birthday she wrote : "God, only make me fit for thy Heaven, then all would come to a happy end. One more prayer ; bless all my dear ones, and preserve them for my parents, and oh, grant freedom and golden peace to men ! Amen." But the troublous times soon recalled her to active life. In October, a child of three weeks old was found upon her stair- case. The father, a Prussian lieutenant, had been killed in battle ; the mother died of grief, and the nurse, not feeling it to be in her power to take care of it, gave it to the princess. She undertook the charge, and the chUd is now living and married in Berlin, and enjoys the favour- of her princely foster- brothers and sisters. While she was employed with the little orphan came the news of the battle of Leipzig. "A great day," she wrote ; " the city is illuminated, the air is filled with rejoicing, and ceaseless firing accompanies the hurrahs. G-od has conquered gloriously — 500,000 men stood under the thunder of 2,000 guns. How many of them are alive now ? " I can only weep, I cannot rejoice. God has preserved my six dear ones. I would fain pray, but my head and nerves are too much affected." And some days after, on the continued rejoicings : — " I never saw anything like it; the sound rose to Heaven; • Moreau died a few days after the amputation of both legs. io6 PRINCESS WILLIAM OF PRUSSIA. I wept and thought, Germany is free ! If the queen were but still living. Leopold will snule down upon us." She could only witness the king's entry by stealth, as she was really ill. He came to see her, and they talked of the queen, and he wept as he did after her death, and said he could take no pleasure in anything ; he felt as if everything was torn from him. Then he praised the bravery of the' princess's brothers. Two of them, one of whom was wounded, remained after the battle of Leipzig alt Dessau, where a sister was married to the Crown Prince. In November the princess went to see them. Hei" cough was " blown away " by the mere determination to go to Dessau. She could now rejoice with her brothers in the laurels which they had won. Another sister came from Eudo]- stadt, and she enjoyed to the full the blessedness of brotherly and sisterly love, and returned in December to Berlin. The new year opened with happy omens for Germany. On the last day of the year she wrote in her diary : " Here I am, "as I have so often been before on this solemn day, but never before has one of my dear brothers and sisters failed me when I have counted them over and commended them to God, and myself to their love, — but to-day my Leopold is missing ! For the first time since Fried. Thassilo has lain in the Cathedral I have entered the place, and how solemn the aisles were to me ! Prayer was being .offered that God's hand might be over us in this great year ; I could have wept, for to whom was it more applicable than to me ? Father in Heaven, watch over a^d guard my parents, William, my brothers and sisters, my child, my friends, and make me more worthy of them all. If I could only look back and say that I have improved during the past year ; but I cannot. I feel that I might become better in my element in a pleasant country, away from court life, — how I long for it I Almighty God, grant that 1814 may close as gloriously as 1813. I am sorry to part with every year, yet this was a sad one for me ! Farewell, 1813." During the memorable year of 1813, the princess had not only without seeking it, but against her will, and . in all PRINCESS WILLIAM OF PRUSSIA. I07 Kumtlity, acquired the position of the mother of the country in Prussia. Thus, when the king returned victorious to the capital in the summer of 1814, and founded the Order of Louisa in memory of the queen, and in honour of the women who had served their country, hy their works of love and mercy, he placed the Prin- cess William at the head of it. And thus she takes her place in her country's history as one of the noblest and most active promoters of those works of Christian love which have since been largely carried out by societies of ladies and institutions for deaconesses. By the people, as well as by the royal family, she was beloved for her true amiability and her love of helping others. " Minnetrost " was the name given her by her nieces, in allusion to Fouque's " Zauberring." And in truth, Fouque and many other poets, without men- tioning her name, had beheld and celebrated in her the beau- ideal of a German princess, uniting as she did princely dignity with Christian gentleness, stern morality with charming grace. In our narrative, which is intended to describe the religious and not the warlike aspect of events, it is natural that Prince WiUiam, who was in the midst of the conflict, should not be so prominent as his wife, who, from the quiet seclusion of home, recorded her observations on what was passing around her. Nevertheless, although it is not our purpose to chronicle his deeds, we will remark that he was a fit husband for such a woman, — a lion in war, but full of self-sacrificing kindness. He fought heroically at Grrossgorschen. He was prevented from taking part in the battle of Leipzig by a commission to induce the refractory Crown Prince of Sweden to join in the war, but in France he acquired fame at Laon by the storming of the village of Athis by night. " The prince led the East Prussian fusiliers personally against the enemy, with the lion- like courage that he possesses," wrote the Duke of Branden- burg. But the lion was like a lamb when, soon after this, York in ill-hnmour resigned the command, and wished Prince William to take it pro tem. The prince most earnestly prayed the general io8 PRINCESS WILLIAM OF PRUSSIA. not to forsake the cause of their country in this time of dif- ficulty. " Never," he wrote, " has Prussia stood more in need of clear-sighted generals than at present, and on whom can she reckon, if not on the restorer of her ancient fame, as it was gloriously displayed in Kurland; on him who gave the signal for throwing oflf the foreign yoke, who led his victorious armies from the shores of the Dwina to those of the Seine ? As your fellow-citizen, as the second in command, as grandson, son, and brother of your kings, I conjure 'you not to give up the com- mand." York returned. Prince William made the entry into Paris, accompanied the king to England, and, adorned with well-earned military honours by the three great mouarchs, he returned to the bosom of his family. When Napoleon returned from Elba, he joined the army again, and took part in the battle of Waterloo. The worst times of his country had been coincident with painful events in his family ; now political and domestic happiness succeeded. The Princess Elizabeth was born on the day of the battle of Waterloo, and in the following years Prince Waldemar and Princess Marie were added to the family ; and this increase of the domestic circle was a source of the purest happiness to the prince and princess. On the occasion of her silver wedding, she wrote to a friend of her youth : " Yes, it is a long space of time, this twenty-five years — and yet I have received only mercy from my dear Lord, and I can but praise Him and thank Him for everything that He has sent me. Even all the grief that I have experienced is cause for thankfulness. So much affection is shown me on all sides that I feel quite ashamed, for it is aU unmerited." Her desire to enjoy her domestic happiness, in the midst of a beautiful country, was gratified by the purchase of the castle and estate of Fischbach, in Silesia. The family always spent the summer there from 1821 ; indeed, they often lingered there till Christmas. Life among the mountains was refreshing ; the families in the neighbourhood afforded pleasant society ; Prince PRINCESS WILLIAM OF PRUSSIA. log Radziwill at Kuhberg, Field-marshal Gneisenau at Erdmanns- dorf, Countess Kedenxat Buchwald, the Stolbergs and the Reuss family. And if the princess's faith, founded upon her experience in the years of tronble, had been developed in Berlin by the sermons of her favourite preachers into an ever -increasing Christian confidence, her residence in Silesia conduced to the same end, particularly her intercourse with the Countess Beden, who took great interest in missions and the spread of the Scrip- tures, and who kept open house for earnest Christians from Germany and England, whether they belonged to the national church or the community of the Brethren. Her outward life was pervaded with the spirit of her inner life in an unusual degree, chiefly from the benefit she had derived from the dis- courses of the court preacher, Strauss ; and the stronger her faith became, the clearer were the evidences of it. It was an evidence of this faith, of her afi'ection for her husband, and of her delight in God's beautiful mountains, that on her husband's birthday, in 1830, she and her children caused a cross to be erected on the Falkenstein, one of the heights near Fischbach, with the inscription, " The blessings of the cross upon William, his posterity, and the whole valley." Attracted by the " blessings of the cross," which were evi- dent in the valley, and by the superior people who dwelt there, Stein set out, about this time, to pay a visit to it, and renewed his old friendship with the princess at Fischbach. To show how much she valued his friendship, she worked him a letter- case, and sent it to him in memory of his visit. The old man wrote in reply : " I shall carefully preserve this beautiful pre- sent, and the use of it will remind me of the revered giver with respectful gratitude. The memory of those happy days, spent at the foot of the Schneekoppe, accompanied me on my journey home, and is continually present with me in my solitude. Nothing can be more complete than the picture of the d'omestic happiness of the inhabitants of Fischbach, founded as it is on inward peace, a religious spirit, and intellectual' culture ; may it long continue undisturbed, diffusing its blessed influences upoti all who come in contact with it, guarded by that Divine Provi- uo PRINCESS WILLIAM OF PRUSSIA. denoe who will preserve the happiness which his fatherly hand has founded." The residence in Silesia was only broken by frequent visits to her old home at Homburg, and to the Rhine ; the latter occasioned by the prince being three times appointed governor of Mayence, and, in 1830, governor of the Ehenish provinces. The affability of the princely pair quickly won the hearts of the inhabitants. They were everywhere received with acclamation, and visited their old friend Stein at Kappenberg. The health of the princess improved greatly during the years of peace, and from her residence in the country. In 1845 she was attacked with severe illness while visiting her daughter Elizabeth at Darmstadt, and was long detained by it at Hom- burg. She was, however, able to return to Berlin ; but on the 14th of April, 1846, on Easter Tuesday, she was called home. Her children, and sons- and daughters-in-law knelt in prayer around her bed, and she departed as the Princess Marie, now Queen of Bavaria (Queen Dowager), was repeating Paul Ger- hardt's consolatory words : — " Wenn ich einmal soil scheiden. So scheide nicht von mir, ■Wenn ich den Tod soil leiden. So tritt du dann herfiir ; Wenn mir am allerbangsten Wird um das Herze sein, So reiss mich aus den Aengsten, Kraft deiner Angst imd Pein." " Oh, vhen thou oall'st me to depart, Turn not away thy face, When death has pierced me with his dart Uphold me with thy grace. If terror and dismay Assail my fleeting breath, t Lord, thou wilt all my fears allaj , For thou hast conquered death." The iron times in which she had lived had brought her to God's fatherly love, and she had pierced through the dark clouds of trouble to the sun of mercy. Before she spoke muc^ PRINCESS WILLIAM OF PRUSSIA. m of Christ, the humility with which she acknowledged herself a sinner, and the faith with which she grasped salvation, made her a Christian. Christ condescended to accept her humble faith, and her piety was built up more and more firmly upon Him. She is an example to posterity from her union of piety with a truly patriotic spirit, with the purest devotion to her country. It was in this light that her royal son-in-law. King Max of Bavaria, now also departed, regarded her when he addressed her in the following lines ; — " Stax and crown of German women, Go in peace unto thy rest ; Near the throne, yet only seeking How to serve thy Lord the best. " In those hitter days of pain, When the Scourge our country beat, Binding Europe with his chain, Bringing princes to his feet ; Keenly, truly, did she feel, Trembling for her country's fame, And with love and faithful zeal Strove for Freedom's holy name. " Stood with angel love untiring Where the wounded warrior lay, While her youthful smiles inspiring, Oieered the victor on his way. Then when dear-bought peace succeeded, Bless'd and blessing was her lot ; Hers the gift where help was needed, To console and know it not. " Now on you, ye German women, — What she was ye surely know, — Still is Germany depending In the hour of trial and woe ; Cherish zeal's inspiring flame. For your country's fame and good ; We are one in birth and name ; Tie the bonds of brotherhood." CHAPTER Vn. HEINMCH KABL FRIEDBIOH VON STEIN. QTEIN was the most powerful adversary of Napoleon. All the O reverence for past history, which was characteristic of a Ger- man Imperial baron, revolted against the revolutionary career of the Corsican parvenu ; all his German conscientiousness against romantic unscrupulousness ; his zeal for law and justice, against the boundless ambition of the supercilious tyrant ; his deep and earnest morality, unwilling to sacrifice any real good to outward success, against a wantonness which did not scruple to establish its successes upon the ruins of morality ; his faith in a living and just God, against an illusion which trusts in destiny. Stein possessed the power which gave unity to aU other efforts to subdue Napoleon. Frederic William, disinclined for bold and vigorous measures, required Stein's courage to rouse him up. Alexander, easily influenced and somewhat effeminate, must have imbibed something of the iron strength of Stein's character to take the field against Napoleon with the watch- word, " He or I." Scharnhorst's preparations for war were aided by the greater freedom in the exercise of their powers which the people had obtained from the reforms introduced by Stein ; Gneisenau, with the far-seeing eye of a general, beheld in Paris the end and aim of the war ; bui it would scarcely have been attained had not Stein, with untiring energy, kept political negotiations straight, and Bliicher's onslaughts would have appeared like foolhardi- ness without Stein's statesmanship, by which monarchs and ministers were urged forward. Stein induced Arndt to employ BEINRICH KARL FRIEDRICH VON STEIN. 113 his popular eloquence to further the deliverance of his country. Fichte's hopes of the rise of a better generation welre partially- realised by Stein's statesmanlike 'wisdom, directed as much to the mental emancipation of the people as to their deliverance from outward bondage ; Stein honoured the enthusiasm of Steflfens, whatever he might have to say against philosophers in general, and in the deeper views of religion, which Schleier- macher preached. Stein saw salvation, not for the people only, bat also for himself. Amdt called Stein the political Luther ; and the comparison is not inappropriate, for, like Luther, Stein was free from all fear of man, because he feared God and his own conscience ; he was like him in not rejecting old forms from mere love of novelty, but from a holy desire for a life which should endure and be pleasing to God ; his failings, for from some no human being is free, arose, like those of Luther, from superabundant force ; his strength, like Luther's, displayed itself in the moral courage which engaged in a struggle against the world, in Christian humility, which regarded himself as only an instrument in God's hands, and in the human tender- ness which, in the midst of storm and conflict, was able to adapt itself to the humble and meek. To represent the gentle, moral, and Christian aspect of Stein's character is the object of this sketch. "We have endeavoured elsewhere* to introduce to the people this great man, too long unknown. Here it will be our endeavour to depict his life from the inner side, through which his influence was felt in the religious revival of Germany. Heinrich ' Karl Friedrich, Freiherrt Stein von Stein, was the youngest but one of ten children, and was born on the 26th of October, 1757, at the old family seat at Nassau on the Lahn. Four sons and three daughters survived their parents. His father was privy-councillor of the Electorate of Mayence, and member of the court of Knights of the Middle Rhine ; an * ' Das Leben des Freiherm v. Stein ; Qotha, bei Besser, I860.' t Freiherr is a title derived from the times of the Holy Roman Empire ; it now only indicatea a rank next above a Baron, but we have no other word for it than Baron. — Tr, I 114 HEINRICH KARL FRIEDRICH VON STEIN. honourable, upright, impetuous man ; who was preserved from falling a prey to the physical enervation of court-life by his passionate love of the chase, and from the moral contamination of it by his inviolable uprightness. He was a genuine German chai'acter. His son inscribed upon his tomb : — " Sein Nein war Nein gewichtig, Sein Ja war Ja vollmachtig. Seines Ja war er gedachtig, Sein Grand, sein Mund eintrachtig, Sein Wort, das war sein Siegel." " His nay was nay without recall ; His. yea was yea, and powerful all ; He gave bis yea with careful heed. His thoughts and words were well agreed ; His word, his bond and seal." His mother's maiden name was Langwerth von Simmem ; her name, by her first marriage, Low. Her mind was clear, her feelings lively and ardent, her will strong ; but all these characteristics were ennobled by a Christian spirit, which early influenced her son. In old age he used to speak of his mother's Christian training, from which he early learnt to bow the knee humbly before God, and to be a willing instrument in his hands. Life in the country, and climbing the wooded hills gave him agility and strength, and his mind was nourished with history and poetry. When his brothers and sisters were going to act Shakespeare's 'Midsummer Night's Dream,' he rejected for himself every other part, with the prophetic words : " I am the Wall," and even then, as if to qualify himself to be a rampart* to his country, he was zealously studying history, and fortifying his mind with its great examples. At Gottingen, where he diligently studied jurisprudence, politics, and history, under the guidance of learned men, he began also to enjoy the pleasures of friendship. A wonderful intellectual life was then stirring in Germany. * A play upon the word — wall being the German vord for rampart. HEINRICH KARL FRIEDRICH VON STEIN. 115 Frederic, Maria Theresa, and the American war of independence had roused the world from its slumbers ; Kant's philosophy was in vogue ; Elopstock, Lessing, Herder, and Groethe were dis- pensing the charms of their poetry, and youthful minds expanded to appreciate them. But while the Counts Stolberg were dancing round the oak- trees with the rustic Voss, in poetical enthusiasm, or pressing him to their hearts at their festivals of friendship, and cursing the whole race of tyrants. Stein was forming with Brandes, and particularly with Rehberg, afterwards Hanoverian states- man, a calmer friendship more conducive to future practical activity. Rehberg says of him at this period : " There was in all his feelings and relations something of passion, but what a passion it was ! AH personal ambition was swallowed up in his lively and unfailing admiration of the great, the noble, and the beautiful. He was strongly attached to the few to whom he gave his friendship, and it was impossible for those who were honoured by it to help loving him passionately in return." Although Stein and Rehberg formed a close friendship, their religious paths diverged. Rehberg adopted the opinions of Kant; Stein retained his belief in the catechism which had been taught him by his mother. And to the last he preferred the safe paths of simple faith to the dangerous ways of speculation. After the completion of his studies at the university, Stein saw something of the world ; he studied the ancient German empire at Wetzlar, Ratisbon, and Vienna ; visited the courts of Mannheim, Darmstadt, Stuttgard, and Munich, and then re- turned to the family seat. He had now to choose an occupa- tion for life, which he did with all his moral earnestness, and this quality is specially shown in his choosing one at all, for he had been selected by the family as heir of the barony and estates, and he might have found sufficient employment in the mangement of them, in caring for his dependants, and in at- tending to intellectual interests as it behoves the nobility to do. But his powerful mind urged him to pubic and patriotic activity. And it is remarkable that the Diet, the Imperial Chamber at Wetzlar, the High Court of Judicature, and the courts of n6 HEINRICH KARL FRIEDRICH VON STEIN. princes, appeared to him like old bottles in which the new wine of bis ideas bad not room to ferment ; so that, in opposition to the family traditions, he took service in that State and with that prince with whom German renown seemed then to have taken refuge. It was a German and Protestant impulse which at- tracted Stein to the service of the great Frederic of Prussia. He was not satisfied with being chamberlain to the king, but under the minister Von Heinitz he was made superintendent of the mining and smelting department, threw himself with great zest into the study of it, and undertook journeys to increase bis knowledge of the subject. In his twenty-fifth year he was first councillor of the mining department ; in bis twenty-seventh be went to Wetter on the Kuhr to superintend the WestpbaUan mining o£Sce, and the commission of mining at Minden. The country and people of the Mark were congenial to his tastes. It was a mountainous district, fresh waters rushed through the valleys, the people were pithy, able, industrious, and religious, and disposed for self-government in civil and ecclesiastical matters. Stein saw and forwarded here on a small scale what he afterwards laboured to obtain for the whole country, — a national life imbued with a free and religious spirit, not fettered by bureaucracy, but developing its own powers. He recurred with pleasure to the time spent in this district during the whole of his life. From an energetic activity which brought him into immediate contact with his fellow-men and their interests, he was called in 1785, much against his will, to undertake a diplomatic mission, which he only accepted as a duty. He was sent by the old King Frederic to the courts of Mayence, Darmstadt, Durlach, and Zweibriicken, on the affairs of the alliance of princes which Frederic wished to form, in order to oppose the endeavours of Austria to increase the power of the House of Hapsburg by means of the German empire. He fulfilled his difficult mission with brilliant success, but always retained an aversion to a diplomatic career, a moral dislike to the " miserable arts of diplomacy." In 1786 Frederic William II. nominated him first privy- councillor of the mining department, and in this capacity he HEINRICH KARL FRIEDRICH VON STEIN. 117 made a journey to England. Two years afterwards he was at Hamm, as director of the war department, and of the manage- ment of the crown lands of Cleve and Mark, and he was specially commissioned with the oversight of manufactures, the water-works on the Rhine and the Ruhr, and the construction of roads. The coalpits in that district were greatly increased in value by making the Ruhr navigable, and the work is a last- ing monument to his fame. Besides this, in the course of four years, he constructed twenty (Grerman) miles of roads. The work could not be done fast enough to please him, and when money failed, he furnished it from his own resources to the extent of 10,000 dollars. In the meantime Germany was entering on the first unfortunate war with revolutionary France. "When Custine marched towards Mayence, the Prussian am- bassador, Stein's brother, in vain endeavoured to arouse the princes to an armed resistance. Mayence fell, and in despair the ambassador hastened' into the country to seek for help. At Wetzlar he met with his brother, the Westphalian director, and at Giessen they consulted with the Hanoverian Field-Marshal Wallmoden on what was to be done for the defence of the country. Stein's spirit was fired with ardent patriotism. He advanced 4,000 gulden to his brother for the defence of the country, he roused up the Landgraves of Hesse and Darmstadt to call out their regiments, urged the Hanoverians to assist, and gave his king such good advice that, instead of retreating, he advanced to Frankfort, and, with the assistance of the courageous Hessians, delivered the coronation city of the German emperors from the enemy on the 2nd of December, 1792, and soon made his entry into Mayence. When Hoch- heim, near Mayence, was retaken from the enemy. Stein ■hastened down the Rhine : the French were already opposite to the fortress of Wesel, — ^they had invested the unfortified island of Biiderich, and there was a talk of surrender. This roused Stein's indignation to the highest pitch. He armed the artillery- men who were under his command as commissariat for ' the troops, clothed them in uniform, placed himself at their head, took the island, and saved the fortress. It was in this stormy ii8 HEINRICH KARL FRIEDRICH VON STEIN. and tumultuous time that God gave him his wife. He had often felt very lonely in the midst of his busy life, and it was only the memory of his mother, the consciousness of a faithful discharge of duty, and correspondence with friends, which served to beguile and enliven the solitude within. But his idea of marriage was so deep and serious, that he would not enter into it without a strong feeling of love. At Griessen and Cassel, in the house of Field-Marshal Count Wallmoden, Stein became acquainted with the count's daughter Wilhelmine. In 1793 he took her home as his young wife. For the first few years the disturbances of the times, which often separated them for months, difference of age and dis- position stood in the way of the complete realisation of the happiness of the relation. But reciprocal esteem gradually grew into heartfelt affection, which survived the miseries of the coming times. In 1793 Stein was made President of the Court of Judicature, and the Castle of Cleves was his official residence. So zealous, beneficial, and self-sacrificing were his labours, that he thoroughly gained the hearts of the people. His sphere of labour was enlarged when, in 1796, he was appointed President of the Grovernment of Westphalia, with a residence at Mindea. Thence he frequently visited Hanover, cultivated his acquaintance with Eehberg, and came into contact with Schamhorst and Count Munster. In 1802 a proposal was made to him to be minister at Hanover, but this he declined. He was rendering im- portant services to Prussia by taking possession of the new territories that had fallen to her lot in consequence of the Peace of Luneville. As through the weakness and want of unity in Germany, the left bank of the Rhine had fallen a prey to France, the princes sought to indemnify themselves for their lost territory by taking possession of bishoprics, ecclesiastical institutions, and monasteries. Prussia received Paderbom, Munster, and other portions of Westphalia, and Stein was com- missioned to take possession of them. It was no easy task; for a Roman Catholic district which was well governed, and had reason to be proud of the religious spirit of its people, and of HEINRICH KARL FRIEDRICH VON STEIN. u^ its ecclesiastical institutions, had to be subjugated to a Pro- testant government, against 'whicli a strong feeling of distrust prevailed. Stein's moral and religions character made him exactly the right man for the office. He left existing customs and institutions as he found them ; he sympathised with the religious spirit which prevailed in the circles of Fiirstenberg, Overberg, and Stolberg, without relinquishing anything of his own Protestantism ; and he had only to appear among the people with his noble, upright, open, and energetic character, to inspire confidence in Prussia. At the close of the year 1803, the Prince of Nassau-Umsingen issued a proclamation, that he was about to take possession of the baronial estates within his territory, in order to protect them against the estates of the empire, and that he should him- self assume the supremacy over them, if the sovereignty of the. Imperial Barons should be abolished. The Nassau official took possession of Stein's estates of Friicht and Schweighausen. Stein immediately issued a protest to the prince, full of noble independence and ardent patriotism. For the greatness of Germany he was willing to make any sacrifice, but not for the aggrandisement of the minor States. " Germany's prosperity and independence would gain little by the consolidation of the few baronial possessions with the little territories that surround them ; but if Germany attain in- dependence, these little States must be annexed to the two great monarchies on whose existence the continuance of the German name depends, and Providence grant that I may live to see this happy event 1 In the severe struggle after which Germany is now reposing, the blood of the German nobility flowed freely. But Germany's numerous reigning princes, with the noble ex- ception of the Duke of Brunswick, refused all sympathy, and endeavoured to maintain their tottering thrones by emigration, by bribing and negotiating with the French generals. What advan- tage will accrue to German independence if her powers are to be still further concentrated in such hands ? It is hard to relin- quish a possession which can be proved to have been in the family for seven hundred years ; to have to transplant myself into a 120 HEINRICH KARL FRIED RICH VON STEIN. distant country, and to give up the prospect of enjoying repose in the house of my fathers, amidst- the memories of youth, and there to prepare for the transition to a higher existence, after a laborious and, I may say, useful public life. It is still harder to have to make this sacrifice, not for a great and noble object for the good of the whole community, but in order to escape a lawless might, in order to — but there is a conscience that will condemn, and a God who will avenge." With the same decision with which he opposed a German prince in the interests of Germany, he was soon to enter the lists against Napoleon. At the time that the First' Consul assumed the Imperial crown, Stein was summoned to Berlin as President of the Board of Trade. He was in office before and after the battle of Jena, during' the most unfortunate and igno- minious time that Prussia has passed through. His faithfulness was shown by his endeavours to arouse all the powers of the country to furnish the enormous sums which were demanded, and by his efforts to inspire the people with a courageous spirit which should one day be capable of throwing off the French yoke. Had his bold and vigorous advice been followed, Napoleon would not so long have been permitted to trample Germany under foot. Stein was continually urging the king to remove the incapable, and, in some Tespeots, immoral men who had thrust themselves between him and his ministers, and who stood n the way of a courageous and united policy. After the battle of Jena, when Stein had secured the treasure, and followed the king to Konigsberg, the more urgent became the necessity, the more urgently Stein entreated the king to reform the administration. But to these decisive measures the king was not inclined ; he was fond of judging and deciding for himself, and the minister's importunity offended him. In an angry letter he told him, in plain terms, that he considered him " a contumacious, defiant, obstinate, disobedient minister, who, vain of his genius and talents, was actuated by personal enmity, and not by desire for the public good." Nothing remained for him but to ask for his dismissal, which was granted. It is truly tragical to see these two really noble men separated M a HEINRICH KARL FRIEDRICH VON STEIN. 121 most critical moment, when Stein was most necessary to the king, and was most desirous to serve him : they parted because the energy of the one was incompatible with the over-circum- spection of the other, prompt measures with slow resolve, and the glance of genius over things as a whole, with anxious atten- tion to details. No sooner was Stein dismissed than his loss was painfully felt. England, Bussia, and Austria lost confidence in Prussia, since Stein was no longer in office. The officials who had served under him mourned over the departure of the man imder whose guidance they felt that they could best serve their country. Prussia fell from one humilifition to another. When the peace with France was being arranged. Napoleon declared that he would rather carry on the war for forty years longer than treat with Hardenberg, and advised the king to recall Stein ; he is reported to have said, " Take the Baron von Stein, he is a sensible man." He had doubtless discovered that the pay- ments which France exacted from Prussia were better paid when he was in office. On the day on which the Peace of Tilsit was signed, and Prussia reduced to half its former size, the Princess Louisa Badziwill, perhaps the most energetic of all the royal ladies who laboured to bring about the fall of Napoleon, wrote to Stein ; Bliieher and Hardenberg wrote also ; all conjured him to return. Stein was at his family seat at Nassau, when the letter reached him, arranging his private affairs, pondering over the rescue of his country, and attending to his health, which was much shattered by gout. Never did his devotion to his country, or his self-denial, appear in a' stronger light than in the answer which, deeply wounded as he had been, and suffering as he was, he dictated to the king. " I obey your commands unconditionally, and leave it' entirely to your Majesty to decide what office I am to undertake, or with whom I shall work. At this moment of general misfortune it would be highly immoral to allow any weight to personal oon^ siderations, and so much the more as your Majesty gives us so exalted an example of firmness." 122 HEINRICH KARL FRIEDRICH VON STEIN. As soon as health permitted, the hero compelled himself to leave house and home, wife and child, and hastened to join the king in his misfortune. His efforts were crowned with success, for he accomplished great things in the period between Sep- tember 1807, and November 1808. The object which he pursued, in conjunction with right-minded men, was to awaken a moral, religious, and patriotic spirit in the people, which should be ready to make sacrifices in order to gain freedom and independence at the first favourable moment. " When," he wrote, " a nation is raised above a sensual condition, has acquu-ed a fair amount of intelligence, and enjoys a moderate degree of freedom of thought, it directs its attention to its own national and communal affairs. If the people are permitted to take part in them, a healthy patriotism and public spirit are soon evinced ; but if participation in them is denied, discontent and ill-will arise, which will break out in manifold injurious forms, and which must be put down with a strong hand, and this enslaves the national mind. The labouring and middle classes are then degraded, because their energies are exclusively directed to trade and physical enjoyment ; the idle- ness and love of pleasure of the upper classes cause them to sink in public esteem, or they injure the government by wild and ignorant censure. Speculative ideas usurp too high a place ; the public welfare is neglected ; the mind acquires an idle and foolish attraction for the extraordinary and incomprehensible, instead of devoting itself to energetic action." To energetic action he endeavoured to arouse the nation, and gave them a powerful example of it himself. While Napoleon's immoderate demands for money gave him abundant occupation. Stein never for a moment lost sight of the necessity of reform iu the State. If these demands were to be fulfilled, if the country was ever to be free again, the people must be permitted to enjoy mental and material Uberty. On Stein's joining the ministry, landed property was declared to be free, and this put an end to serfdom and hereditary servitude. More liberty was allowed in the government of the communes in town and country. Stein aimed to encourage the nobles, HEINRICH KARL FRIEDRICH VON STEIN. 123 the gentry, and the people, to use their mental powers, to improve education and the standing of teachers; and as the corner-stone of the structure of national life, he hoped in a few years to be able to convene the States of the empire. All these reforms were assisted by the reformation of the army undertaken by Scharnhorst. The attention of many patriotic men was directed to a general levy of the people for the defence of the country ; and when Spain revolted against Napoleon, and Austria began to arm against him. Stein and his coadjutors began to hope, and to believe it ppssible that Prussia would enter into the struggle, and they expected that a revolt would take place in the old Prussian provinces, in Westphalia and Hesse, against the tyrant. A letter of Stein's, in which he expressed these hopes, was intercepted. The French and their friends accused him of hurling the country to destruction, so that he felt obliged to tender his resignation. The king hesitated, and did not accept it till November, after a weak policy had once more triumphed over a strong one, and a new treaty had been concluded with Napoleon. Passionately beloved by the good, and passionately hated by the bad. Stein left the service of the State after having done all that was possible to give permanent effect to the spirit of his government by embodying it in laws and regulations. He drew up a political testament, and clrcnlated it among the Govern^ ment officials. " Government emanates from the highest powers ; the possession of a portion of land cannot give any one the right to domineer over his fellow-subjects ; hereditary serfdom is abolished, a general national representation is in prospect ; the nobles must be reformed, and the cleft bridged over between them and the burgher class ; the duty of defending the country is universal ; compulsory service to the lord of the manor must be abolished by law, and, if prosperity is to be secured, the sense of religion must be revived among the people ; unworthy ecclesiastics must be removed, frivolous and ignorant candidates must be prevented from taking orders, public worship must be rendered more impressive by greater solemnity ; and love to God, their king and country, must be 124 HEINRICH KARL FRIED RICH VON STB IN". cherished in the minds of youth, by an education calculated to awaken their mental and moral powers, and we shall have a pledge of a better future, in the rise of a vigorous and moral generation." Stein had scarcely left Berlin after his release from office, and joined his family after a separation of fifteen months, when the French ambassador, St. Marsan, appeared as the bearer of an Imperial decree, dated Madrid, 16th December, 1808, of which the contents were as follows : " I. Stein, who has Bought to excite disturbances in G-ermany, is declared to be the enemy of France and of the Confederation of the Rhine. II. The possessions of the aforesaid Stein, whether in France or in the territory of the Confederation of -the Rhine, are con- fiscated. The aforesaid Stein is to be taken prisoner wherever he may be found, either by the allied troops or by our own." The decree was published in all those parts of G-ermany which were subject to' the French army,- and Prussia was threatened with war if he remained in office or in the country. He was therefore obliged to fly. But Napoleon's wrath had pointed him out as their leader to his enemies. The ban invested him with- the halo of the martyr. All who were longing for the deliverance of Germany looked to him. Accom- panied by prayers and blessings, under the impression of a sermon of Schleiermacher's which he read with his family on New Year's Day, on " What man has to fear, and what he has not to fear," hospitably entertained on his way by the family of Count Kedern, and accompanied over the boundary by the excellent Count Gessler, he went to Prague. ' There and at Briinn he lived for a few' years ^dth his family in peace. In the Austrian rising in 1809 he took a lively interest, and rejoiced when the Archduke Carl showed at Aspem that G-erman arms were competent to defeat Napdleon, • and hope began to dawn that German liberty would begin its career in Austria. In the same year intelligence arrived that it was the intention HEINRICH KARL FRIEDRICH VON STEIN. 125 of England to land an army on the north coast of Germany to fight against Napoleon. Stein took the greatest interest in it, and expressed his wish that every one who could bear arms in North Germany should join the English army under the leadership of a German prince. He wrote at the time, " That my sympathy in such endeavours, if they fail, will annihilate my existence as a citizen of Germany I am fully convinced, but this will not prevent me any more than it did before, under much more painful circumstances, from fulfilling my duty to my country." In order that the rising in the North German States should not be a lawless one, it was his wish that they should form an alliance under the protection of the German emperor, for the deliverance of the country from a foreign yoke, and for the abolition of the Con- federation of the Ehine. It was his wish that a thoroughly German army should take the field under a banner on which the name of the great German emperor was displayed, and that the public worship of God should be maintained in the army, in order that the martial enthusiasm should be sanctified by religion.- While he kept up communication with like-minded men, in Westphalia through Gneisenau and Schleiermacher, in Prussia through the Princess William, in Austria through Stadion and Gentz, and thereby caused the infiuence of his fervent spirit to be felt, he faithfully fulfilled the duties of a father by giving his daughters instruction in history ; always in small things as well as in great, keeping the same object in view, that of awakening a free, religious, and practical genera- tion from the ruins of the German empire. From this peaceful sphere of labour he was suddenly called to the arena of pubhe life. Napoleon was proceeding to Eussia. The Emperor Alexander, with the idea of calling every power to his aid against the destroyer of European liberty, thought of Stein ; of his great ability, his unfailing courage, and his un- quenchable love for his fellow-men. He sent a messenger to him at Prague, and invited him to come to Russia to assist him with his advice. Stein, fired with the desire for action, did not delay a moment, and on the 12th of June, 1812, arrived at the 126 HEINRICH KARL FRIEDRICH VON STEIN. emperor's head-quarters at Wilna. The purity of his character is shown in this new sphere of labour to which God had called him. He did not enter the Bussian service, nor did he covet Bussian honours. He was the emperor's personal friend, and inspired him with courage to oppose the enemy to the last gasp ; but it was his own beloved country that he had in view, it was her deliverance that occupied his thoughts, and which he strained every nerve to accomplish. He foresaw that the victorious Eussian army would pursue the enemy to Germany. To meet this emergency, he laboured at the formation of a German legion ; it was to be headed by Prussian officers, who had gone to Bussia to fight not with, but against Napoleon ; he hoped to be able to bring this into communication with an English contingent in North Germany, and with such a support there, he expected that there would be a rising in Prussia, Hanover, Westphalia, and Hesse. With the help of the coun- cillor of state, Grnner, at Prague, he kept in his hands a thou- sand threads, connected with the promotion of such a revolt. And it was not only from arms that he hoped for support, but from the minds and consciences of his countrymen. He en- deavoured to incite to action the professors at the universities, the Protestant clergy, the enthusiasm of youth, the mental and moral powers of all. He summoned Arndt to Bussia, in order that he might infuse the right spirit into the German legion, and from safe quarters speed the winged words of prose and song, which should fall like sparks among gunpowder into German hearts now groaning in the fetters of a foreign yoke. Germany had the first place in his heart, and was the ground- work of his life and labours even in Bussia. What did not harmonize with this was nothing to him. " I am sorry," he wrote to Count Miinster, in London, "that your Excellency regards me as a Prussian and yourself a Hanoverian, I have but one country, and that is Germany ; and as according to the old constitution I belong to it, and not to any particular part of it, so I am devoted to the whole, and not to any part in parti- cular. At this time of great changes, dynasties are nothing to me ; they are only instruments ; it is my wish that Gei-many BEINRICH KARL FRIEDRICH VON STEIN. 127 should be great and strong, that she may regain her freedom, independence, and nationality, and maintain them in her position between France and Bussia ; this is for the interest of the nation and the whole of Europe, but it cannot be done by main- taining decayed and corrupt forms." Stein's cheerfulness and courage never forsook bim in any of the vicissitudes of war. The salutary effect of the evacuation and burning of Moscow were not at the time understood at St. Petersburg, where Stein was then staying. " It may be,'" he said to Arndt, when the news was brought, " that we shall have to start for Orel, or even Orenburg. I have two or three times in my life lost all my baggage ; what does it signify ? We must die some time. Most men are pitiable creatures." When Napoleon was compelled to retreat, and his army was destroyed, those who had before advised making peace with him began to talk courageously. At a family festival at court at which Stein was present, the Empress-mother, a princess of Wurtemberg, excited with success and victory, said, " Well, if one man in the French army crosses the Ehine and returns to his country, I shall be ashamed of being a German." Stein changed colour, and suddenly rising up, said, " Your Majesty is wrong in saying this, and especially in presence of the Russians, who owe so much to Germany. You ought not to say that you will be ashamed of being a German, but ashamed of your kinsmen, the German princes. I lived in the Rhenish provinces in the years 1792-3-4-5 and 6 ; the brave people -BTere not to blame. If they had been trusted, if the princes had known how to employ them, no Frenchman had ever crossed the Elbe, to say nothing of the Weichsel and the Dnieper." The empress was at first startled by these bold words, but quickly recovering herself, she said, " You are right. Baron von Stein, I thank you for your lecture,". In January, 1818, Stein went to Prussia, commissioned by Alexander, to find means for carrying out the enterprise against Napoleon. York had already concluded the convention by which the army was released from the service of Napoleon, and 128 HEINRICH KARL FRIEDRICH VON STEIN. was ready to unite with Prussia in a German policy. These two hp.roes, Stein and York, shine conspicuously among the great characters then assembled in Prussia's capital, Konigsberg; both men of iron will, Stein the most brilliant, York the keenest; Stein, the inheritor of an ancient name and great possessions, a baron of the empire, bornj as it were, to rule ; York had no long roll of ancestors,' belonged to the poor nobility, was a grandson of a preacher and son of a captain, he had nothing but his sword to depend upon, but he was as proud of his military vocation as any prince, count, or baron of his ancestry. It was the cause of. Germany that Stein had at heart, although he saw in Prussia the safeguard of German greatness. York, once dis- missed from the Prussian service, felt no firm ground beneath his feet till he had entered it again, and he was entirely devoted to his king and country. Stein was lull of confidence in the people, and therefore indefatigable in endeavouring to emanci- pate their powers by reforms. York was at one time one of the most determined opponents ot these reforms, and was sus- picious of genius ; and though foremost in the marshal's van- guard in the whole campaign against France, he was often opposed to the projects of Bliicher and Gneisenau. The situa- tion was a difficult one. Stein, formerly Prussian minister, was commissioned, but by a foreign monarch, to engage all the powers of the country against Napoleon. York had turned from the French to the Eussians, but without the command of his superiors. Schon, Dohna, and many other excellent men, knew well that in falling in with Stein's plans, they should be working for the salvation of their country, but they had not the authority of the king. By Stein's desire the Diet was sum- moned. He wished that York should open the communications to the assembly; York desired that Stein should do it, and there were some vehement scenes between them; but Schon' stepped in to mediate, and their patriotism prevailed to induce each to give way where it was desirable to do so. The war began. Stein had hastened to Breslau, to urge an alliance with Alexander on the king. It was at the end of February ; he succeeded in his mission, but was immediately HEINRICH KARL FRIEDRICH VON STEIN. I2g afterwards prostrated on a bed of sickness ; his wife and daugh- ters hastened to him from Prague, but found him convalescent, and he was soon in fall activity. After the king had declared war, and issued the "Appeal to my People," on the 16th and 17th of March, there was a treaty to be made between Russia and Prussia about the government of the territories which would be freed in the course of the war. Stein was the soul of the provisional government. From Breslau he went to Kalisch, thence to Dresden. There he was pressed on all sides, and in incessant activity, working in all directions with his usual vigour, now rousing people up, now frightening them ; beloved by all the good, the terror of all the enemies of his country ; insulted by Napoleon in his bulletins, and thereby pointed out to the country as the foundation-stone of all their hopes, the corner-stone, the precious jewel of the country. After the battles of Grossgorschen and Bautzen, he saw his family again at Prague, and, for the last time, Scbarnhorst, who was mor-. tally wounded. After the victories later in the summer, he kept in view not only the liberation of his country, but also its new constitution. On the day of the entrance of the allied sove- reigns he also went to Leipzig. Stein and Gneisenau made a compact that the war should end only with the dethronement of Napoleon. Stein wrote to his wife, " Now this edifice, cemented with the blood and tears of millions, and founded on the wildest and most accursed tyranny, is levelled to the ground ; from one end of Germany to the other we may ven- ture to proclaim that Napoleon is a villain, the enemy of the human race ; that the degrading fetters in which he held our country are broken, and the shame with which he covered us washed out in streams ol French blood. Providence is avenging the past by the great judgment that ha? passed upon the monster; His obduracy led him into political and military follies, which have hastened his fall, and will make him the derision of the nations." In November Stein went to Frankfort, and his presence there was highly necessary. Metternich was contemplating concluding peace with Napoleon, and allowing him to retain the boundary 130 HEINRICH KARL FRIEDRICH VON STEIN. oi the Ehine. Stein had no confidence in this statesman from the time when he first came into contact with him. He thought of the excellent spirit which Stadion had infused into the Aus- trians in 1809. " Now," he complained, " they have a cold and calculating man at their head, who is afraid of vigorous measures, has no lofty aims, and whose mode of action is pitiful patchwork." He saw with pain that the supremacy which Met- ternich had attained hy Austria's joining in the war against Napoleon, would not he employed for the advantage of Ger- many, and that it would he necessary to watch and restrain him. It was always Stein's part to urge on towards Paris when Metternich opposed it. It was a Messing for Germany, which has not heen sufficiently accounted of, that through Stein's poli- tical influence and moral power he enjoyed so much considera- tion. Some of his greatest admirers even thought that he might be elected Emperor of Germany. From Frankfort he went to Freiburg, to Basle, and to France, always exerting his influence at head-quarters that no political hindrances should stand in the way of the bold military schemes of Blijoher and Gneisenau. He had the pleasure of making the entry into Paris. On the 10th of April he wrote to his wife, " I have been in Paris since yesterday, the anniversary of my arrival in Dresden. What events have taken place since then ; out of what an abyss of misfortune we are delivered ! Thanks to Providence, to the Emperor Alexander, and his brave Eussian and German troops ! . To what a height of happiness, of independence, of fame, we have attained ; we may at last give ourselves up to the enjoy- ment of our success, and return in peace to the bosom of our families, conscious that they are deHvered from the miseries which threatened them. Only when I compare the feelings which now pervade my whole being, with the sufiering and oppression of the last nine years, can I appreciate my present happiness, or the intensity of my previous sufiering." His work was accomplished, he had done his part to bring about the fall of Napoleon. When Napoleon assumed the Imperial crown, Stein was Prussian minister. So powerful did the German baron appear to the tyrant that he placed the HEINRICH KARL FRIEDRICH VON STEIN. 131 martyr's crown of outlawry upon his head, thereby distinguish- ing him as an equal opponent. When Napoleon crossed the Eussian frontier, there was Stein to face him, and now the out- law enters the capital of the would-be monarch of the world, and helps to proclaim an act of outlawry against him. Content with having seen the avenging arm of God, the German baron returned to his castle. Alexander invited him to accompany him to England, but he had no inclination to be stared at by the Prince Regent. Longingly expected by his family, joyfully welcomed by his dependants, he returned to Nassau, which he had left seven years before to labour for his country. But he was not long permitted to remain in peace at home. He was soon summoned to Frankfort, and thence by the Em- peror Alexander to Briichsal, and in September to the Congress at Vienna. It appeared to be thought that his mere presence would prevent the pen from spoiling what had been gained by the sword. He was not among those who had the right to speak a decisive word as ministers ; he was adviser to Alex- ander in the interests of Germany; he enjoyed consideration as president of the government of the conquered German terri- tories, but still more from the purity and inflexible firmness of his character. He did all that was possible to gain something for the consti- tution of Germany. He was by no means satisfied with the concluding acts of the Congress, which were finished somewhat in haste under the impression of the return of Napoleon. He returned to Nassau immediately after the battle of Waterloo. When the allied sovereigns entered Paris for the second time, there was a general desire for Stein's advice, so he tore himself away from Nassau again, and reached Paris on the 16th August. But it was impossible, with the best intentions, to gain all that he wished for the advantage of Germany, amid the conflicting interests of so many monarchs, all greedy of territory ; and in September he was at home agaiu. His years of peace now began. He built the tower at Nassau, in which he intended to collect all his national, literary, and artistic treasures. He pur- 132 HEINRICH KARL FRIEDRICH VON STEIN. chased the estate of Kappenberg, in Westphalia, and by means of an extensive correspondence he laboured to nullify, by good administration, what was unsatisfactory in the constitutions of the German States. Austria offered him the office of President of the Diet, and Prussia to send him to sit as her ambassador, but he declined both honours. But at the Prussian festival, in January, 1816, no one was more highly honoured than he, and he alone received the order of the Black Eagle. The following winter he spent at Frankfort ; in the summer he was either at Nassau or Kappenberg, and later in life he passed the winter also on his estates. In 1818, by the invitation of Alexander, he attended the Congress at Aix-la-Chapelle ; in 1819 he lost his wife; in 1820 he made a tour with his daughters in Switzerland and Italy. During the last ten years of his life he devoted himself to the Westphalian Diet, and to collecting materials for German history. Having given this sketch of his outward life, we will en- deavour to present a picture of its interior aspect. The inner and religious life of every man is influenced by his birth, his education, and the spirit of the times in which he lives. Faith, although in itself eternal, appears to us all in a form which has received the impress of the spirit of the age. During Stein's youth rationalism was prevalent, and from this he adopted that cold form of religious expression which makes use of the term Providence instead of the personal appellation of God. Still, when he speaks of Providence, a heartfelt faith is always discernible, and the evidences are unmistakable that God had been revealed to him as a Father through Jesus Christ. He gives some hints of the development of his religious character in a letter to the pastor Stein, at Frankfort, after the death of his wife : " Thanks to my pious parents, and especially to my excellent mother, esteem and love for the life and teaching of our Saviour were early instilled into my mind. Agitating conflicts, distracting and overwhelming business have often obscured these sentiments, sometimes made me forget them, but the germ of them was never crushed by contempt or HEINRICH KARL FRIEDRICH VON STEIN. 133 mockery, and it was revived and developed by suffering, and the troubles ■which, assailed the evening of my days." In fact, although any expression of religious opinions is seldom to be found during his early busy life, he never appears as an unbeliever, a doubter, or a mocker. At Gottingen he maintained the faith as expressed in the catechism, in opposi- tion to the philosophy of Kant, which then exercised a power- ful influence upon superior minds. When he resided in the Mark the evangelical spirit which prevailed there, in spite of the rationalism of the age, was peculiarly congenial to him, and we know from Eylert's ' Ee- collections ' that he maintained friendly relations with estimable men among the clergy. When he was afterwards commissioned to take possession of the district of Miinster, he was especially pleased with the moral and religious character of the people ; and in the lenient judgment which he passed upon Stolberg's joining the Romish Church we have evidence that he was aware of the emptiness of rationalism within the Protestant fold, and that it was in positive Christian doctrine that he dis- cerned genuine Christianity. In later time we see him accord his sympathy to all efforts to maintain and to infuse a definite Christianity into religion ; he recommends Herder and Chateau- briand, and occupies himself with Schleiermacher. In his cor- respondence with the Princess William we have seen with what earnestness he laboured to deepen his own religious impressions and those of others. In the extraordinary events of the years 1812, '13, '14, and '15, he saw the hand of God plainly revealed, and it is clear from his letters that he heard the voice of God in his inmost soul. He had many strong impressions to work out when he could at length enjoy a time of repose. Arndt has left us some notices of the manner in which he did so in the conversations which he has recorded. " Yes," he would sometimes say, " God has often turned our follies and perversities, our pitiful and wrong beginnings, to a good end, without any merit of ours ; we have Him alone to thank for our deliverance." Or, " My dear friend, we have 134 HEINRICH KARL FRIEDRICH VON STEIN. attained a great deal, Grod will help us to attain more." " This is an evil world where rogues often get the upper hand ; one often longs to be in a better one ; I hope some day to attain to a place where we shall always associate with honourable people, and not meet the rogues and villains who so often come in our way here." When he turned from his own future in heaven, to the future of Grermany, he said to his friend : " I am old, and hope not to have to witness any more Babylonish confusion. But you are younger, and will very likely see violent storms break over us and other nations. It will be all the more neces- sary to be armed with trust in God, in order to keep right aims in view, and to have an internal support. God will not permit the world to come to an end yet, but His justice cannot allow it always to escape its well-deserved chastisement." The war of independence awakened all his faith, and he strove to confirm it. Arndt says that he never saw him engaged in prayer, either alone or with his family, but often observed that he hastily put aside an open Bible or a hymn-book on his entrance. This was also in accordance with the spirit of the time ; for rationalism had declaimed so loudly against the out- ward and hypocritical expression of piety that, even when genuine, it preferred to shut itself up in the closet, and to reveal as little as possible of the influence of the Spirit of God to which it had been subject there. But it is a fact that he devoted from a quarter to half an hour every morning after rising to contem- plation and prayer ; and he asked a friend, whom he invited to visit him, not to come on Good Friday, because he had set it apart for devotional exercises. He was a regular attendant at church, but had a great aversion to the mere moral twaddle and flowery emptiness of rationalistic preachers. " These stupid fellows have forgotten the chapters which relate to the Holy of Holies in the ark of the Covenant, overlaid with gold, and before which we ought to worship ; they are much more at home in prattling and commenting on the oxen and asses who were to draw the ark. The heart raised to God ! The head uncovered in reverence ! For this they seem to have no feeling. But never mind, if the sermon is HEINRICH KARL FRIEDRICH VON STEIN. 135 bad we can take comfort, we have a hymn of Dr. Luther's, or Paul Gerhardt's, and if we are disposed to devotion, we need not be hindered," He was lenient to the Eoman Catholics ; he felt that ther« was something in their maintenance of the positive doctrines of Christianity which united him to those of his time. He kept up a friendly correspondence for many years with Count Spiegel, Canon of Miinster, and afterwards Archbishop of Cologne ; in which, however, he did not fail to point out the errors of the Eomish Church, and to confess his Protestant faith. When governor of the district of Landskron, he bestowed a considerable pension upon a priest of Bodendorf ; and when he visited his patron, there was much friendly dis- cussion on their difference of ■ faith. When speaking of the worship of saints. Stein said, " One God, and but one God, and God alone ! Hearts and hands always raised to one only, to the Highest ! That gives us courage, the right kind of courage. We Protestants are soldiers who, even in time of peace, have to exercise with heavy baggage on our backs, and so we have longer breath in time of war ; you Catholics have, in your saints, so many servants and lackeys, who help you off with your loads, and carry them a good way for you, that when you are obliged to fight, you are short-winded." He rejoiced in the blessings of the Keformation. He used to ■say, "Dr. Luther, thank God, has shortened the way to heaven, for he dismissed a multitude of marshals, :doorl^p^s, and masters of the ceremonies from the gates of the heavenly palace. You know I like a short path, even if it is a little steep and dangerous." It was a natural result of the uprightness and purity of his character that he should be most anxious that youth should not be educated for the service of this world only, but that their minds should be so developed as to fit them for independent and active life. We have already seen his opinions on the subject of education, expressed in the political testament which he bequeathed to his colleagues on leaving the ministry in 1808. Like Fichte and Queen Louisa, he hoped a great deal from the 136 HEINRICH KARL FRIEDRICH VON STEIN. example set by Pestalozzi's method, wliich, founded on the nature of the human mind, seeks to develop its powers, and to excite and strengthen noble principles. But he was not con- tented with these general ideas ; when it was in his power he strove to influence the minds of young people himself; and he considered that the subject best calculated to form a noble, powerful, and superior mind was history. When president in Westphalia, he kept up a correspondence with Prince Louis Ferdinand, whose powers he hoped to see preserved for the service of his country, instead of wasted in youthful excesses. He once wrote to the prince : "If the lot of a man who feels himself called to a great and useful career is cast amidst the effeminacy of court life, or amongst people of little minds, he can sustain and develop his strength of character only by sur- rounding himself with the great men of history, and by fortify- ing himself by means of their example, against the effects of mean and hurtful circumstances." Stein also exercised a decided influence on the education of the Crown Prince. He observed that his tutor, Delbriick, was no longer equal to the task of educating so sensitive and vehement, but well-disposed, a young prince, fond of learning, and gifted with a lively imagination ; that it was not enough for him to receive the general good education which would make him a well-informed man, but that he ought early to receive instruction in the his- tory of nations and their rulers, the causes of their greatness or their fall ; he therefore proposed that AncOlon should undertake the task. During his residence in Bohemia, he acquainted his daughters with the history of the French Revolution, which he derived from the best sources, as well as his own knowledge of the events. His brother-in-law, Arnim, had, when dying, com- mitted to him the care of the education of his children. He fulfilled this charge with great faithfulness ; and, in this case also, it was from historical studies that he looked for the most beneficial influence. He wrote to the tutor of the children: "The influence of history is most beneficial to the juvenile mind, when it is thoroughly studied with honesty and simplicity-,' HEINRICH KARL FRIEDRICH VON STEIN. 137 and not encumbered with metaphysical twaddle and political sophistry. It raises us above the common level of our con- temporaries, and acquaints us with what has been accomplished by the noblest and greatest men, and shows us how great powers have been wasted by a perverted use of them through indolence or sensuality. I therefore consider it most essential to excite a taste for the study of history, and to make it one of the chief employments of young people." And what he thus did towards promoting the study of history amongst individuals, it was his wish to do for the nation at large when peace was restored, by collecting materials for German history. By aiding the learned in this undertaking, which they woald not so well have been able to accomplish without the aid of his high position, his connections, and his purse, he evinced a noble spirit — a patriotic spirit, by his researches into the most hidden sources of German character and history ; a scientific spirit, by undertaking a work that would have to pass through the hands of two or three learned men, before it was adapted for the use and enjoyment of the many; and a Protestant spirit, in that he only sought to discover the truth, whether his views might be such as would be agreeable to others or not. Was it not in a genuine Protestant spirit that he wrote to Pertz, who had in- formed him that the Emperor Francis and Metternich viewed the enterprise with suspicion ? "In combating the spirit of evil we must be careful not to allow ourseKes to become suspicious . of the good, or be seduced into the belief that it is only the ordinary, nay, even the vulgar course of things that deserves our confidence. "What wiU be the use of the history? I thought that question had been answered long ago by the whole human race ; for the savage barbarian, as well as the cultivated European, delights to preserve the memory of the deeds of his forefathers; and if history is to be studied at the universities, the teachers must have pure and correct sources of information. Who would have dreamt that an undertaking of such obvious literary value, as making a complete collection of the Scriptores rerum Ger- 138 HEINRICH KARL FRI^DRICH VON STEIN. manicarum, mostly printed a long time ago, and which have been so largely used, could have been looked upon by states- men as a dangerous one ? A Eussian censor at Mittau had Tissot's 'Avis au Peuple,' a well-known medical work, burned, and another at Moscow, Klopstock's ' Messiah,' as likely to spread mystical errors. Is not the revolutionary school fairly charged with throwing history aside, with destroying the existing state of things, and with endeavouring to construct a new edifice, based upon air, the creature of its own imagination?" He was always attached to the Church, and, during the days of bondage, it was from her vitality that he hoped the national spirit would be aroused to throw off its fetters ; and afterwards, during his residence in Westphalia, he entered thoroughly and very beneficially into ecclesiastical questions. In Westphalia and the Rhenish provinces they have, by their constitution, a means of rejecting those ecclesiastics who have shown them- selves unsuitable for the service of the Church, and of employ- ing in it the energies of the Christian laity. According to the constitution of the earldom of Mark, the proprietor of Kappenberg was a member of the synod, and Stein was elected president. From the constitution of the synod in that district, he hoped for the decrease of unbelief. He wrote to Eichhorn : " The synod will compel our Pro- testant clergy, who are infected with the doctrines of Enlighten- ment, to return to the simplicity of Christian doctrine ; for the people do not want their exegetioal philosophical nonsense, their atheistical gibberish, — they want the simjile teaching of the Gospel, founded upon faith, hope, and charity, to be their guide in life, their sure and steadfast anchor in death ; they will choose ministers who will give them these and reject others." The year before his death he exerted himself as a member of the synod to establish a seminary for preachers. He offered to contribute 5,000 dollars, and hoped others would follow ; but it was not so much in the means for establishing it that he interested himself, as in the spirit of it. While he expressed himself most decidedly, on the one hand, against every form of HEINRICH KARL FRIEDRICH VON STEIN. 139 unbelief, especially against the school of Semler, Paulus, Wegscheider, and Gesenius, and, on the other hand, against superstition and sectarianism, he asks, "What shall be taught there ? A revealed Christian religion, something defined, stead- fast, in a spirit that confesses that Christ is of God ? or a spirit that is called in the 1st of John iv. 1 — 3, the spirit of Antichrist, of rationalism, something undefined and vague which will at last open the door to all the errors to which the human mind and human blindness are liable?" He says of the philosophical preachers that, when they are talented, they are instructive to the educated ; but if they have only moderate gifts, they are unintelligible to the uneducated, tedious to the half educated, intolerable to the educated. But a congregation " always listens readily to the sermons of a very moderately gifted preacher, if he is humble, pious, and anxious for the salvation of his hearers ; if they discern the influence of the Spirit of God derived from the power of prayer, and find that the spirit of piety is predominant in his mind." He was consulted about the hymn-book;* and answered that he did not consider himself competent to give an opinion, but he gave one nevertheless. "Above all things the hymn-book must be in accordance with the universal Christian creed, and whoever gives the right to depart from it materially, whether to a hymn-book commis- sion, to a consistory, or to any other body of persons, had better, in company with every one else who does not hold that creed, descend from the pulpit, and not mar the task which has been committed to him. This is one point. The other is, that 1 should select old hymns, up to the beginning of the eighteenth century ; for the subsequent period, and for the most part our own, is not a religious one, but a scientific, industrious, com- mercial, political, loquacious, rash, and most conceited age. For these reasons, I would select some from the thousands of these excellent old hymns ; many generations have found com- fort and edification iu them, and a refuge from cold and tedious preachers, whose bungling performances were often accompanied by an offensive delivery, ridiculous action, and excessive vanity." 140 HEINRICH KARL FRIEDRICH VON STEIN. He also delivered an opinion about the project for a new agenda for public worship, which he considered to be very necessary, in order that the mode of conducting it should not be dependent on the caprices of the moment ; he spoke in favour of the simplicity, power, and unction of the ancient prayers, and was glad that the taste for novelty was not to be gratified, nor for "a tedious idyl-like phraseology.'' It wiU be plainly seen from the foregoing that the ministers he liked were those who preached Christ crucified with sim- plicity and power. At Frankfort, after the war, the pastor Stein attracted by his ministry all those who sought edification from the true source. A Mrs. von Low is said to have first mentioned him to the minister. " I dare say he is a woman's parson," was his first answer ; but he went to hear him, and the young clergyman was from that time his spiritual adviser. " What a beautiful sermon ! " said another lady to him, as they came out of church. " A beautiful sermon ! " he exclaimed, " we talk of a beau- tiful romance ; you should say it was a Christian — an edifying sermon." Stein fully accorded his sympathy to works of Christian love. He was interested in missions to the heathen at a time when they were almost universally looked upon as an absurdity, and he did what he could for discharged prisoners. He was always disposed to accept the good in the Komish Church, and admitted that there had been a use in monastic life. He was interested in the life of St. Charles Borromeo, and the writings of Sailer ; and the Sisters of Mercy, whom he had seen in France and Lorraine, had made a deep impression upon his mind. He was desirous that such a Sisterhood should be introduced in Ger- many, and long cherished an idea of establishing an institution for training these nurses of the sick within the folds of the Pro testant Church. He discussed the subject with his clerical friend Pastor Stein, and with his young friend Von Bodelschwingh, afterwards minister, and the biographer of Vincke. Through him, Amelia Sieveking heard of Stein's wishes, and entered into HEINRICH KARL PRIEDRICH VON STEIN. 141 correspondence with him. He communicated to the ' Hamburg Tabitha ' the information he had acquired in Borromeo's insti- tution and that of St. Vincent de Paul. " When I visited both institutions I was particularly struck, with the expression of inward peace, repose, self-denial, and pious serenity of the Sisters, their quiet activity, devoid of all bustle, their affectionate treatment of the sick committed to their care, so calculated to be a blessing to them. To all this there was a painful contrast in the expression of the countenances of middle-aged, unmarried women of the upper and middle classes, who were not called upon to labour, or to earn their living, a look of irritable discontent, arising from unsatisfied vanity or neglect, — ^their want of occupation occasioned them to feel an emptiness and bitterness which made them a misery to them- selves and a burden to others. Then this condition of mind has an injurious effect upon the health. The question naturally arose. Why are not institutions similar to those of the Sisters of Mercy to be found amongst the followers of the Protestant faith ? We have in many towns endowments for such institu- tions, and a more active spirit of benevolence is prevailing in many ladies' societies, etc., but we have no such permanent associations as those of the Sisters of Mercy, with which so much that is excellent is connected." Then he expresses his pleasure at the decline of rationalism, and the increasing number of pious Christian ministers, encou- rages Amelia Sieveking to continue her work, advises her to visit the institutions at Nancy and in Lorraine, and to enter into communication with Pastor Stein at Frankfort. Institutions for deaconesses are now flourishing in nearly all the countries of Protestant Germany, and a part of the merit of their establishment must be accorded to Stein ; and it is plain that he was instigated to encourage such undertakings by the outward circumstances and inward experience which were the result of the war. In all that Stein says about ecclesiastical institutions and Christian works, the sincerity, purity, and warmth of a Christian spirit are unmistakable ; and we discern this still more clearly 142 HEJNRICH KARL FRIEDRICH VON STEIN. ■when we are introduced into his family life and his intercourse ■with his friends. The unquiet times deprived him for many years of domestic happiness, and when he was reunited to his family he lost his •wife after a union of twenty-six years. He made a sketch of her, and wrote for a superscription, "To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." He added in her praise, " Her life was ' faith which worketh hy love ; ' from this sprang the virtues which adorned her. Nobleness of mind, humility, purity, a lofty feeling for truth and justice, faithfulness as wife and mother, transparency of mind and a clear judgment : these were displayed all through a life of much trial, and diffused blessings around her under all circumstances. Her taste was for domestic pleasures, family and social life, and peace ; but it was not granted her by Providence to enjoy them. Had she been selfish or indifferent to the voice of duty and conscience, she might have separated her fate from that of her husband, or advised him to unworthy compliance or to cowardly escape from new dangers in the various circumstances she passed through with tiim ; but she was always faithful to duty, she trusted in God, and adhered to the motto which she chose for herself in times of trouble, and which she had engraved upon one of her rings : ' Bear and forbear ' [Dulden und Entbehren). She has fought a good fight, she has finished her course, she has kept the faith." The hope_of meeting again cheered him at the tomb of the departed. He wrote to Pastor Stein : " We may also hope to be again united with her ; Jesus assures his disciples of this reunion ; why may not we also hope for it ? Love does not die, but how should it live without reunion ? " The daughters now clung still more closely to their father, and he conscientiously attended to the completion of their education. God gave him the satisfaction of seeing both united to excellent men, — the elder, Henrietta, to the Impe- rial Count Giech; the younger, Theresa, to Count Kielman- segge. The deepening of his faith which took place after the death of his wife, is shown in many ways in his correspondence HEINRICH KARL FRIEDRICH VON STEIN. 143 ■with his friends. His letters are always full of purpose, earnest, and calculated to impart a healthful incitement to his friends, and he often expressed himself as really solicitous for their souls' welfare. Sometimes he sends an extract from a hymn, sometimes a text to a friend in trouble, and he always directs, them to the true source of consolation. He kept up a lively personal and epistolary intercourse with his old friend Hans von Gagern, in spite of great differences in their views. Stein had pointed out to him in 1819, on the occasion of the death of a daughter, the great consolation afforded us by the resurrection of Christ, and had copied for him some fervent words of Sailer's on the life eternal. In 1822, Gagern mentioned the comfort which Cicero's book on the nature of the gods had been to him during a severe illness. Stein broke out into righteous indig- nation: " In the earnest and solemn frame of mind occasioned by the prospect of death you take ' Cicero de Natura Deorum,' etc., in hand!!! Could, then, the disciple of the worldly vsdsdom of the Greeks, the Eoman statesman, tell you more of the land you were approaching than the crucified and risen One, through whose mercy alone you can be justified ? What would you say of a traveller intending to sail round the world, and to explore the North-West Passage, who should take with him Hamann's school atlas, and leave all more modern geographical charts at home ?" Gagern answered him, but Stein would not leave him alone. " Your Excellency says we are separated, both by our faith and our Prussian politics ; that is, for time and for eternity. You say with perfect truth that one cannot take faith like a pinch of snuff, for I cannot see the least propriety in the simile ; it is one of those that has not a leg to stand on. faith can no more be obtained by subtle reasoning, as all metaphysicians and theologians maintain, than it can be taken like a pinch of snuff, but it must be asked of God in humility and self-renun- ciation. Try this, since neither reasoning nor snuff-taking will help you." To the persecuted Arndt, Stein wrote, " Trust in God, and in a just and noble king. Address yourself to the one in prayer. 144 HEINRICH KARL FRIEDRICH VON STEIN. when the enemy would swallow you up, and to the other with representations of the truth." And at another time : " How is, it that this fate has befallen a man who, during the time of the foreign yoke, awoke and spread attachment to king and country with courage and self-sacrifice, while so many unworthy instru- ments and admirers of Napoleon, and even arch-Jacobins, have attained to honour ? But we have a God who will help us, and a Lord of lords who will save us from death." At the end of 1824 Stein wrote to Niebuhr, who was de- pressed and irritated by political and personal circumstances : " Only one word, a free and friendly word from an old man who loves you dearly, spoken on the last day of the year. Forget yourself, deny yourself; Providence has destined you for something nobler and better than for the mere enjoyment of domestic joys, and for working in your garden and vineyard. . . . Forget yourself, deny yourself ; pray in humility that He from whom all strength comes will give you strength and courage." To a young friend, Von Arnim, Prussian consul at Berne, among other amiable letters on the death of a child with whom Stein had made acquaintance on a journey into Switzerland, he wrote the following : " My friend, so deeply bowed down, seek comfort from Him who has promised rest to aU those who are weary and heavy laden ; seek it by prayer, the power of which is taught us by his own on the Mount of Olives, as well as what we ought to pray for, ' Not my will, but thine be done ! ' " With the consoling faith which he ^ideavoured to instil into others, he awaited his own e^d. He longed to depart and to be with Christ. In 1817 he became blind in one eye. After he reached his seventieth year, no year passed in which he did not pass through an illness. Gout, from' 'which he had suffered even during his years of vigour, attacked him in the chest, occasioned a convulsive cough, and threatened at one time to cause paralysis of the lungs. After the first severe attack he wrote : " Illness teaches us patience — resignation to the fatherly will of Him who sends it ; it loosens our ties to the things of earth. Illness is one of those educational institu- BEINRICH KARL FRIEDRICH VON STEIN. 145 tions of which life is made up, so we will accept it with thankfulness, and derive the benefits from it that we are intended to." The next year the attack returned. " I am declining faist," he wrote ; "I long for rest, and to be removed from all earthly things, — this is not a murmur ; who would dare to murmur, who has had even but a little opportunity of witnessing the extent of human misery ? But I wish that the ties that bind me here were loosed, and that I might join those beloved ones who have gone before me." In the summer of 1830 the aged hero once more went to the old family seat at Nassau. Once, when resting on a bench on the bridge, and gazing on the landscape in the. evening light, he exclaimed, " How beautiful it is even here ; how much more beautiful it must be above ! rejoice with me that I am so near the goal!" Those who were with him tried affectionately to turn his thoughts away from death, but he answered, "Do you suppose that I am afraid to die ? When one is seventy-two years old, the most sensible thing one can do is to die." When the news of the Revolution in France, in 1830, was brought to him, he exclaimed, " Is that wicked nation, then, going to bring confusion over Europe once more ? If they will, and must break out, I wish they had waited till I was dead." But his heroic nature was true to itself. " If we are attacked," he wrote to Arndt, " we must fight bravely ; what folly to expect any good from the French ! from that avaricious, godless, empty-headed, vain, deceitful nation ! " The disturbances in the world around him often wrung from him the exclamation, " Away, away from here ! I am no longer of any use in the world ! " and sometimes the longing for heaven was expressed in softer tones, — Seek me a spot for calm repose, I am weary, and fein my eyes would close." He spent the following summer at Kappenberg. Earthly things receded more and more from his view, but his love was active still. The care of the estate became burdensome to him, 146 HEINRICH KARL FRIEDRICH VON STEIN. and he accused himself of having spent too much in building, and of having contributed too little to works of mercy ; and when it was in his power, he helped those who were in want, especially young people. In the spring of 1831 he had another paralytic attack. When he revived, and was able to speak, he exclaimed, " Oh, God ! while I am lying here, they are fighting in Poland ! " At another time he said to a friend, " I shall not live to see it, but you may ; there will be fearful wars, emigration of nations, and God knows what other dreadful things." In June he had intended to go to Pyrmont, to visit his daughter Theresa, and see his little grandson, and then to return to Nassau, but was prevented by an Ulness which arose from being out in a storm. So he made preparations for another journey. His children's governess, who had faithfully remained with him and tended him, had often to read reflections on death to him. After listening to the newspaper for the last time, he said, "After a life so richly blessed as mine has been, God will also grant me the favour to call me away in his own good time." The time was drawing near. During the night of the 29th of June he wished to partake of the Holy Communion. While waiting for the minister, who lived at some distance, he took leave of his employes and servants. Unfortunately, neither of his children was with him. He expressed his thanks most heartily to the high-forester, and concluded with, " I must say to you once more, that it is my firm belief that there is a com- munion between the dead and the living, and it will give me great pteasuje, if I look down from above, to see that you serve my children with the same faithfulness and devotion that you have shown to me. We shall meet again on the other side — remember me to your wife and family." Thus he took leave of one after another, admonishing them to piety and uprightness, forgiving and asking forgiveness, and alluding to meeting again. To a young forester he called out as he was going away, " And if war breaks out again, fight like a brave Prussian for king and country." HEINRICH KARL FRIEDRICH VON STEIN. 147 When the pastor came, the dying man wished to be raised up, and giving him his hand said : " I appear before you as a poor sinner ; I wish to acknowledge my sins and my Kedeemer, and to be reconciled to Him, and I ask for the Holy Supper.'' He received it with devotion ; then wished to be raised up once more, and again giving his hand to the minister, he admonished him to grow in faith. " The Church is threatened with danger from France, and her servants must be upon their guard. But God has protected her hitherto, and will continue to do so." Many tears were shed by those around him as his voice became weaker and weaker. Once more he asked, " There is no hope, is there, doctor?" and receiving the answer that he wished, he sank into a tranquil slumber. Soon after, about six o'clock in the evening, he turned upon his left side ; the congestion of the lungs that had long been looked for set in ; one last, deep breath, and the noble spirit of the hero bad escaped from its tenement. The officials, the servants, the doctor, the Lutheran and Catholic pastors were all deeply affected by the peaceful death of their revered master and friend, and the poor who were standing in the court below broke into loud exclamations of grief when they heard that he was dead. " Ah ! " exclaimed a poor woman who came the following day intending to see him, " is the good minister dead ? H he is not in heaven, nobody will get there ! " And when the coffin was taken to the family vault at Friicht, near Nassau, it was evident how much he was beloved by the people. At his modern home in Westphalia, and at the ancient one on the Lahn, the bells announced that a disciple of Christ had entered into the joy of his Lord. From parish to parish, old and young, nobles and peasants, accompanied the proces- sion : Arndt also, from Bonn, followed for a considerable distance the best friend he had had on earth. Consoled by God's Word and sacred hymns, the children of the deceased, surrounded by a company of those who revered him, placed the coffin in the 148 HEINRICH KARL FRIEDRICH VON STEIN. vault. The inscription describes him as " Humble before God, high-minded towards men, the enemy of falsehood and injustice, constant in duty, undismayed when outlawed, the unyielding son of his oppressed country, a sharer in the struggles and victories of Germany," and the record of the fame of the patriotic hero melts away into the exclamation of the Christian, " I am ready to depart and to be with Christ." For many years almost passed out of memory, scarcely known to the present generation among the great names of the war of independence, Stein was recently crowned with fresh laurels and pronounced to be Germany's greatest statesman. He possessed qualities which are rarely found united. With an experience in the details of public business, acquired by passing through the successive steps of the service, was joined an eye that could take in the whole range of statesmanship ; though he disliked a merely literary' national life, he had a con- stant desire that the range of knowledge should be extended by means of literature ; he united a creative genius with veneration for the past, with great gifts, untiring energy ; and all his endeavours were borne aloft on the eagle's wings of patriotism above all that was narrow and restricted, guided by an unsuUied conscience, purified by heartfelt Christian piety. The image of the man as he was altogether, as a German and a Christian, should always be remembered as the most vivid personification of the powers that were at work during the years of the war of independence. But it is painful to reflect that while he has many admirers, he has but few imitators.* * Stein's Leben von Pertz ; ' Das Leljen des Freiherm von Stein,' Ton Wilhelm Baur (Gotha, bei Besser, 1860) ; imd, ' Stein nnd Perthes, von Wilhelm Bam' (Zwickau, 1862), CHAPTER VIII. JOHANN GOTTLIEB FIUHTE. THE most conspicuous place in the history of the religious awakening in the Grerman war of independence belongs to those men who regarded the mental bondage of debased senti- ments as the cause of subjection to a foreign yoke, and who therefore only looked for complete deliverance by means of national regeneration. The number of thesis was not small, and comprised theo- logians, philosophers, historians, poets, statesmen, and plain citizens ; but three powerful spirits were conspicuous among them, Fichte, Amdt, and Schleiermacher. It has been said, and with especial reference to Fichte, that since Luther's time no such stirring language had been addressed to the people as in those days. We fully agree in the opinion, and maintain that the German Christian movement of the war of independence has not only a certain resemblance to the Refor- mation of the sixteenth century, but stands in essential connec- tion with it. In both cases the object was to throw off a yoke which was not merely an outward bondage, but which enslaved the spirit ; and the leaders in the struggle, especially Luther, preached the necessity of an inward regeneration as well as of liberty, and kept the national as well as the Christian element in view. It was the spirit of the Reformation which was aroused again in the war of independence, the spirit which, while it refuses to submit to outward authority, wQlingly owns allegiance to God and to his laws. " We do not overlook what was accomplished in Roman Catholic countries, especially in the Tyrol, nor do we doubt that a great increase of sincere ISO yOHANN GOTTLIEB FICHTE. faith took place in many Eoman Catholic circles, and rejoice to think so, but it is impossible to deny that it was a spirit of Pro- testantism which showed itself in repentance and faith, and in works of charity. The task of rendering clear to a wide circle of readers the significance of Fichte's labours, appears a difficult one, for few can be expected to follow him into the realms of abstruse thought into which he soared. But we will not shrink from the task, for the mere history of the course of his life is instructive, and even his most profound speculations were directed to the practical end of the revival of pure morality, and the ripe fruits of his labours in assisting to throw off a foreign yoke, are intelligible to all. According to the family records, during the Thirty Years' War, a German guard of the name of Fichte was left wounded in the village of Eammenau in the Oberlausitz. A peasant took him into his house and nursed him, protected him as a fellow Lutheran from the Eoman Catholic enemy, gave him his daughter in marriage, and made him heir of his little farm, for he had lost all his sons in the war. From this soldier in the army of Grustavus Adolphus, Fichte was descended. His grand- father inherited from his parents a little manufactory of tapes, which were sold in the neighbourhood. He apprenticed his son Christian to Johann Schurich, tape and linen manufacturer at Pulsnitz, in order that he might improve himself in his father's trade. Christian became a favourite with his master ; nevertheless, when he gained the affections of his daughter, his burgher pride would not allow his peasant son-in-law to settle down near him. The young people therefore returned to Eam- menan, and built a house with the wife's dowry, in which they carried on their trade as weavers. It was here that their son Johann Gottlieb was born on the 19th of May, 1762. The boy grew up the image of his mother, quick of comprehension, ready in his answers, and with a will of his own ; sometimes when his comrades were at play, he would stand by the hour gazing dreamUy into the distance, or watching the setting sun. His father was his first teacher ; he taught him to read and to commit texts and hymns to memory JOHANN GOTTLIEB FICHTE. 151 He was soon entr-usted with the office of reader at mormng and evening prayers. His imagination was early excited by what his father related of his travels ; and he was determined to exercise control over himself at a very early age. When only seven years old, his father brought him home the story-book about horned Siegfried, probably the first he had possessed, except the Bible and hymn-book. He was so taken up with the wonderful story, that he was inattentive at his lessons, and made up his mind to throw it into the brook. He did so, shed a few tears as he saw it swimming away, and his father happening to come by, he bore the scolding for throwing away his gift, without revealing his deep moral grounds for doing so. Not long after, his father relented, and proposed to give him another, but he declined it, in favour of his brothers and sisters. He had a remarkably retentive memory, and could repeat the sermons he had heard by heart. The Baron von Miltitz came one Sunday to Kammenau to hear the excellent minister preach, but he arrived too late. Afterwards, when dining at the table of the proprietor at Ram- menau, he was expressing his regret at having missed the sermon, when he was informed, half in jest, that there was in the place the son of a peasant, Gottlieb Fichte, who could repeat it to him. The boy was sent for, and though shy at first, he soon forgot himself in his subject, and went on repeat- ing the sermon until he was told to stop. The baron was interested in him, and the clergyman took advantage of the circumstance to recommend him to his notice. MUtitz decided to take him home with him. The mother was fearful that the influences of the great house might not be good for her pious and simple child, but his benefactor promised to watch over him carefully. He took him with him to Schloss Oberau, near Meissen, but he soon became homesick, and was sent to the pastor Krebel at Niederau, in whose house he passed some very happy years. At Schulpforte from 1774 to 1780, his character received a fresh impulse to independence. The strict- ness of the rules, the deception practised in efforts to evade them, the tyranny exercised by the elder boys over the younger 152 yOHANN GOTTLIEB FICHTE. ones, and the entire absence of any of the softening influences of family life, occasioned the boy to become more reserved than ever, and to defy external circumstances by the strength of his will. Once, fired by the history of Campe's ' Robinson,' * he resolved to run away and seek his fortune. He traced the way to Hamburg on the map, and made his escape. But while pursuing his solitary way he remembered the injunction of his pastor to begin every work with prayer. He knelt down, and the thought of his parents came into his mind. The idea of grieving them by his disappearance was intolerable, and he re- solved to go back and confess his fault. The simple confession of his escape, and all the circum- stances, made so favourable an impression that he was after- wards regarded with special interest. He made good use of his time, and often sat up far into the night over his books. Lessing was one of his favourite authors, and a favourite motto was the saying of Horace : "Si fractus illabatur orbis, impavidum ferient ruin8e."t At Michaelmas, 1780, Fichte went to Jena, and afterwards to Leipzig. He studied theology, but without any inclination for it. He early speculated on the subject of the freedom of the will, and decided in favour of fatalism until Kant occasioned him to alter his views. But this theoretical opinion had no evil influence on his conduct, for, in common with many others, he was so happUy illogical as to deny vidth the understanding, the freedom of the will, and yet to strive to attain perfection with all his might. His needy circumstances gave him abundant exercise for resolution. His benefactor was dead, his parents could give him but little help, so that he was obliged to devote some of the hours to teaching that he would fain have given to study. In 1784 he returned as a candidate to his parents' house, and they were proud to hear him preach in the village church. Then began an unsettled life as a tutor. In 1787 he was at Leipzig again in great poverty, but associating with * A Gennan adaptation of ' Eobinsou Crusoe.' t If the world should be dissolved, he would be found undaunted amid the ruins. yOHANN GOTTLIEB FICHTE. 153 superior men. For seven years he had experienced the delights of study and the bitterness of want. Wishing to put an end to this state of things, he addressed himself to the president of the consistory of Saxony, explained his circumstances and his theological opinions, told him what he could do, and what he could not, and asked for some assistance to enable him to com- plete his studies, in order to pass his second examination, that he might be competent to take charge of a parish. But his request was not granted, and he took it as a hint to give up his theological career. It was the evening before his birthday id 1788 that he made up his mind that this honourable profession was closed to him, and the future looked dark before him, but he resolved not to disclose his circumstances to any one. But just at this juncture the tax-gatherer Weisse, known as the author of the ' Kinderfreund,' sent for him, and offered him a situation as tutor at Zurich, in the family of a hotel- keeper, which he at once accepted. It was very soon found that there were great discrepancies between Fichte's ideas of training the children and those of the parents. He kept a diary in which he chronicled the parents' mistakes, and great must have been the awe in which the mother stood of the tutor, for she submitted to hear the diary read aloud once a week. Fichte continued his speculative investigations, preached and translated, drew up a plan for a school of elocution, and made many friends. It had great influence upon his political views that his opinions of the French Kevolution were formed while living in a republic. But the circumstance which had the greatest influence on his after life was his acquaintance, through Lavater's introduction, with the family of the Eahns. Eahn had become deeply attached to Lavater during the time when he was at Zurich, and afterwards married his only sister. Fichte formed an attachment to their daughter, Anna Mary, and she became the star of his life. Thus, brightened by the charms of friendship and love, the life at Zurich was a very happy one. But the time came for leaving it, in order to seek for a place where to found a home, and whence he could influence the world at large. 154 JOHANN GOTTLIEB FICHTE. But success did not accompany him on his return to Germany, and his residence at Leipzig in 1790. It had, however, great effect upon his inner life, for the lessons which he gave in the philosophy of Kant, obliged him to study it more deeply him- self, and it resulted in his renouncing the contradiction between his theory and practice with regard to the freedom of the will. He eagerly grasped the truth that man is gifted with moral freedom, and rejoiced in the consciousness of having escaped from an error and attained to the Ught of truth, though it was certainly not yet the pure truth of Christianity. On this sub- ject he wrote as follows to his friend Achelis, at Bremen : — •_ " I came to Leipzig with my head full of great schemes, but they have all foundered, and not a vestige is left of the bubbles of which they were composed. " At first this disturbed my peace not a little, and partly in despair I adopted a plan which I ought to have adopted long ago. Since I could not alter outward circumstances; I resolved to alter my inner man. I buried myself in philosophy, and of course in that of Kant. In this I found an antidote for the true source of all my sorrows, and a great deal of pleasure into the bargain. The influence that this philosophy, but especially the moral part of it, has upon one's system of thought, the revolution which has taken place in mine, is inconceivable ; but it cannot be understood without studying the ' Critique of Pure Keason.' I feel that I owe the confession to you espe- cially, that I now believe with my whole heart the doctrine of man's freedom, and see plainly that it is only on this condition that duty, virtue, and morality are possible ; a truth, however, which I perceived before, and perhaps have acknowledged to you. I also see clearly that very mischievous results are caused by the doctrine of necessity ; that the immorality of the so- called higher classes mainly arises from it, and that when any one who holds it escapes ruin, it is rather in spite of the doctrine than because it is harmless or useful. /Further, I am convinced that this is not a world of enjoyment, but of work and effort, that all our pleasures are only intended to strengthen us for further exertion ; that we are not required to shape our destiny, yOHANN GOTTLIEB FICHTE. 155 it but only to cultivate ourselves. I do not trouble myself about external circumstances ; I try not to- seem, but to he, and it is to tbese convictions that I owe the peace of mind I now enjoy. My outward position is just such as it is likely to be ; I am neither the master nor the servant of any one. I am without prospects, for neither the ecclesiastical constitution nor many of the people please me. As long as I can maintain my present independence, I shall be willing to make any sacrifice to do it." It was indeed a great revolution which had taken place in Fichte's inind. The world had previously been to him a web of cause and effect in which his ego was imprisoned, but the ego was now become the ruling principle, and the outward world was only an appearance. He had now attained that for which he had been striving, "the consciousness of the absolute free- dom of the ego, which sees all the powers of the world ranged in vain against the power of the will." The battle which Fichte successfully fought with fate under the influence of these new views was a brave one. In 1791, when he was about to return to Zurich to be married, the lady's father lost his property, and the prospect of a home had sud- denly to be given up. Instead of going southward full of hope, he turned his steps to Warsaw, to take a sitution as tutor. On the way he visited his parents. With childlike love he speaks in his diary of his " good, brave, warm-hearted father," and prays, " Make me, God, as good, as honourable, and upright as he is ; take all my own wisdom away, and I shall have won the victory for ever ! " On arriving at Warsaw, he soon found that the family of the count in which he had been engaged as tutor had been entirely mistaken in him ; he was as entirely innocent of any intention to deceive, and proposed to release them from their engagement, but claimed a sum of money as a compensation. With this he went to Konigsberg, after having preached in the Protestant church at Warsaw, feeling sure that he should derive great mental improvement from the acquaintance of Kant, and in the hope that something or other at Konigsberg might decide his destiny. He visited Kant, but was not very cordially received, iS6 yOHANN GOTTLIEB FICHTE. and attended his lectures, but found his delivery drowsy. Wishing to have closer intercourse with him, he wrote in five weeks his 'Critique of all Kevelation,' and handed it himself to, the great philosopher as a letter of introduction. Kant then treated him with extraordinary kindness, and he was admitted to the superior society of Konigsberg. But though mentally in his element, he was in the greatest physical need. To whom should he make it known ? To him alone in whom he had the greatest confidence in the guidance of his inner life. The letter in which he made known his painful situation to Kant, and asked him for a loan to enable him to return home, is remarkable for the manner in which he protests against being subjected to any suspicion for doing so. Kant did not comply with his request. But just when every door seemed closed against him, he re- ceived an advantageous offer of a situation as tutor in the family of the noble-minded Count von Krockow, and at once accepted it. Meanwhile his ' Critique of all Revelation ' had found a publisher. The book excited a great deal of attention, and was supposed to be by Kant, and to be a new link in the chain of works in which he was applying his philosophy to every sphere of intellectual life. His admirers were extravagant in its praise. Kant disclaimed the authorship, and stated to whom the merit of it belonged. From this time Fichte had a profound contempt for reviewers and the public, in consequence of the lukewarm- uess which succeeded to their first favourable opinion. But the work placed Fichte among the ranks of eminent philoso- phers. In the meantime the prudence of his betrothed had found means to save a portion of her father's property, and in the spring of 1793 Fichte went to Zurich to be married. The marriage took place in October. During a journey afterwards he made acquaintance with Baggesen, and spent a few days with Pestalozzi, whose system, fifteen years afterwards, he recommended to Germany. On his return, he finished a work that he had begun at Konigsberg, ' Contributions to the Correction of the Judgment of the Public pn the French Eevolution,' which caused him in many circles to be regarded as a democrat or a Jacobin. JOHANN GOTTLIEB FICHTE. 157 He gave lectures at Zurich, and among his hearers was Lavater. The testimony that he gave to their value is rema;rk- able, considering the essential differences in their views. Lava- ter wrote to Fichte after the conclusion of his lectures: "To think more clearly, more deeply, and more comprehensively, to generalize more readily, to pass more rapidly from the general to particulars, to prove things more carefully, to define more exactly, to express myself more intelligibly, to form clearer views of what I have never yet expressed, to admire more than ever the powers of the human mind ; to congratulate myself more warmly on the honour of being a man, to reverence more than ever the noble attributes of man in every individual, to labour more earnestly, more industriously, and with more hope and courage, in every way, and especially in my own way, for the development and perfection of the highest good of all — all this (and how much it is !) — I have learnt from the most acute thinker that I know, who so kindly devoted many precious hours to me, and some other friends of truth, during his last stay at Zurich. He will ever have the thanks of his pupil, friend, and feUow-beiug, John Caspar Lavater." We add a passage written in 1800, intended to be given to Fichte after Lavater's death. " Unattainable thinker, thy powers are to me a proof of the existence of an eternal Spirit, from which lofty minds are a radiation. Were it possible that thou shouldest doubt it, I would prove it to thee by showing thee the rays from the eternal Spirit which Ulumine thy own mind." This life at Zurich was brought to a close in an agreeable manner, by his being called to fiU the chair of the professor of philosophy at Jena, rendered vacant by the removal of Keinhold to Kiel, He went there at Easter, 1794, at first alone, and began, as the model of an academical teacher, his career of use- fulness among the German youth. Perhaps no one ever had more ardent disciples, and their admiration, far from becoming a snare to him, only animated him to be more useful to them. And in every stage of his course, his efforts were directed to improve mankind, to rouse them from selfish isolation, to willing IS8 JOHANN GOTTLIEB FICHTE. service for the community, to lead them from delusive appear- ances to the true and the eternal. It vyas this which induced him to propose giving some moral Sunday lectures, by which he hoped to attract in his own way those young men who were estranged from the church to give attention to eternal truths, but the project failed, owing to the opposition of the clergy. During the five years that Fichte was at Jena his activity and domestic happiness were at their height. His father-in-law had followed his children to Jena, and they had the pleasure of making him happy in the evening of his days. At his death, we have a glimpse of Fichte's religious feelings, the warmth of which was not stifled by' philosophy. He wrote to his wife, " Sleep softly, thou good spirit, after thy long labours ; sleep in the evening after the heat of the day ! If there is a God — and there is — it is not possible that the life of this good man is really ended, that all is over with him. Undoubtedly it is now well with him, while you are weeping for him, and my own eyes filled with tears." The happiness of smoothing the path of a departing life was soon exchanged for that of welcoming a new one ; a son was 'bom to them who was their only child. Fichte was closely connected with the university ; he gave so much satisfaction to the government, he was held in so much esteem by such men as Schiller and Goethe, that it appeared probable that a long career of usefulness was before him at Jena, but it was sud- denly cut short by an unexpected accusation of atheism. It may appear surprising to some of our readers that we should include among those who contributed to the religious awakening of Germany a man against whom such an accusation was pos- sible, but we hope to be able to explain the seeming contradic- tion, without compromising either Fichte or our own belief in religious truth. The child of the age in which he lived, Fichte had become estranged from the faith as derived from the Scrip- tures which the reformers had proclaimed. The pitiful sub- terfuges of the rationalistic clergy were so repulsive to him that he had given up the idea of taking orders. He had destroyed the craft in which he had embarked on the sea ai life, and was yOHANN GOTTLIEB FICHTE. 159 trying to construct a new one on the island of his speculations. In his lectures he most carefully avoided the use of customary ecclesiastical expressions in portraying spiritual life. But, as we have seen in his diary, he addresses himself to God, and consoles himself with His love when friends were taken from him. And it was not merely an adoption of ordinary usage, for in his heart he believed in God, clung to Him, and stretched out the arms of aspiration towards Him. But God seemed to him so far above all human comprehension, that he avoided speaking of Him in his teaching, and spoke only of those revela- tions, which appeared to him the safest and clearest, the moral government of the world, and the moral law which exists in the mind of man. He had a strong conviction of the existence of a divine life in man, and his doctrine was entirely opposed to materialism. It could not be said of him that he denied that God had an existence, but he expressed no decided opinion on the subject, considering that Infinity was beyond the power of man's finite judgment. He said, " The moral law which lives and acts is God. We want no other, and can comprehend no other." It must he admitted that this is a very dry and barren doctrine, and the Christian will reply, "i" do want another God. I want a God who is heart to heart, who speaks to me as a father, and to whom I can speak as a child ; and I can apprehend another God, for I can apprehend His appearance in the flesh." We shall discover once more in Fichte's case that philosophy is ever seeking, but fails to find, that of which those who believe in revelation are in possession. But the great gulf between Fichte's doctrines at this time and those of the Bible must not lead us to join in the charge of atheism against him. The accusation was made, not by his own government, but by that of Electoral Saxony. In a philosophical paper that he edited, Fichte admitted an article by another philosopher which concluded with a doubt of the existence of God ; and in an article of his own in the same number he did not, to ordinary understandings at least, combat it with sufficient plainness. i6o JOHANN GOTTLIEB FICHTE. He was therefore denounced, and, as usual, without full understanding of his doctrines ; and it was demanded that measures should be taken by the government of the Duchy against so dangerous a person. The government, of which Goethe was a member, wished to hush the matter up. But this was not congenial to Fichte's independent, or, as many thought it, defiant nature ; he was never willing to sacrifice an internal good to an external one, and the contrast of this dis- position to Goethe's sublime calmness widened the breach. He received his dismissal in 1799 in spite of the wishes of the students that he should remain, and the danger that threatened the university in consequence of his leaving. The students had a medal struck with his likeness, in order to show their attachment to him. He was therefore obliged to leave Jena, and as a residence in Schwarzburg-Eudolstadt was refused him in consequence of the influence of the government of Weimar, he left his wife and child for a time, and went in July, 1799, to Berlin, where he was permitted to remain in peace. Frederic William HI. is said to have replied, when permission was asked for Fichte to reside there, " If, as I hear, Fichte is a peaceful citizen, and not connected with any dangerous associations, I am quite willing that he should live in my dominions. It is not the business of the State to pronounce upon his religious views." Or, according to another report, "If it be true that he is at enmity with God, God can arrange that matter with him ; it is nothing to me." Fichte amply requited the king for his good will. Whatever may be thought of his doctrines, it is impossible not to admire his moral character. He wrote calmly to his wife from Berlin, " You see, my dear, I look at it in this way. I did not wish to have a reprimand, so I resigned ; this was my own affair ; I think it was quite right, and do not repent it in the least, and should do the same thing over again. " That they accepted the resignation is their affair ; that they did not strictly adhere to form is also their affair, not mine. I am not angry with them ; I have had my ovm way. I did not JOHANN GOTTLIEB FICHTE. i6i wish to have a reprimand, and have not had it. The resigna- tion -will not make me unhappy." And at another time, when his wife had told him the hes that were circulated about him, he wrote, " Tell me, now, is it the first time that we have been slandered, and are not those slan- ders blown over ? Now there are some new ones ! They will blow over like the others. Perhaps, then, there will be some more, but at last, when we are better known, people will get tired of it. I will bet you whatever you like that in ten years' time I shall be revered and valued by all the German public. This is only the first mighty opposition to the powerful efiect I have produced, and which can no longer be denied. It must be gone through ; I shall not shun the conflict, and shall come out victorious." This is still the language of moral consciousness, not that of faith which says, " By the grace of God I am what I am." But submission to conscience is next to submission to grace ; and the more earnestly a man strives to fulfil the moral law, the more surely will it be a schoolmaster to bring him to Christ. In Berlin, Pichte brought his doctrine to completion, and reli- gion appears both as the root and the fruit of it. He employed his leisure in writing his work on the ' Destiny of Man,' which was published in 1800. About the end of the previous year he wrote to his wife, " In working at the present treatise I have examined rehgion more closely than before. My heart is only afiected when I can see with perfect clearness, but it could not fail to be touched when I had attained it. Believe me this frame of mind has a great deal to do with my cheerfulness, and with the calmness with which I bear the injustice of my adversaries. I do not believe that I should ever have attained to it but for this unfortunate dispute ; and so results have followed from what has befallen me that neither you nor I would wish to dispense with." He had no official position in Berlin ; but always anxious to work upon the minds of his countr3nnen, he was not ooatent with authorship and the friendship of distinguished men, but gathered around him a select audience to whom he gave private 16* JOHANN GOTTLIEB FICHTE. lectures. They were attended by high State officials, learned men, officers, and citizens. In this way he employed his talents, until in the spring of 1805 he was appointed professor of philo- sophy at the university of Erlangen, but with the agreement that he was to lecture there in the summer, and return in winter to Berlin. But he only held the professorship one summer at Erlangen, being prevented from returning there by the public events of 1806. We are now arrived at the point where we shall fulfil our intention of describing-Eichte's labours for the regeneration of the German people, for which the foregoing sketch has prepared the way. ~x^ In the winter of 1804-5 he gave lectur^ on the ' Principal Characteristics of the Present Age.' In these his newly attained religions views were first clearly expressed. They are far enough from ecclesiastical orthodoxy or biblical theology ; but whoever has convinced himself of the futility of the doctrines then taught by both the supernatural and rationalistic schools, and has seen that theology required to be renewed from its foundations if it was to. infuse new life into Christendom, will rejoice at any attempt at such renovation, which proceeded from profound thought and rigid conscientiousness, even if he is not satisfied with the results. Fichte's discourses held, as it were, the mirror of repentance before the age. From the heights of philosophical speculation, he surveys the past and future development of the human race. He declares it to be the aim of man's earthly life to arrange everything according to the principles of reason, and divides the course of the human race into five epochs. Whatever may be thought of this theory, it was at any rate of great practical import that he described the time then passing as belonging to the third epoch, as an age which had emanci- pated itself from the dominion of reason, as an age of absolute indiiference to all truth, of unbridled liberty, and therefore of a measure of iniquity filled up. A call to repentance was mingled with this, sucTi as had not been heard for a long time. " This epoch," said Fichte, with. philosophic irony, "has this JOHANN GOTTLIEB FICHTE. 163 great advantage over the age of knowledge, that it knows every- thing without having learnt anything, and can pass judgment upon all that comes before it without troubling itself about any previous opinions. " As far as morality is concerned, in the present age, virtue consists in advancing one's own interests, adding, perhaps for the sake of appearance, those of other people when they do not interfere with your own ; and vice consists in want of success. It is maintained, and even proved, for when people are ignorant of all that is noble, there will never be any difficulty in finding bad motives for everything, that no one ever lived who ever acted on any other motive than his own interest ; and he who d,oe& appear to act from any other will be despised as ignorant of the world. As for religion, it is treated as a mere question of happiness, intended to teach us that we must be moderate in our pleasures if we wish to prolong the power of enjoyment. The only necessity for a God is that He may look after our interests. Whatever is spared of the supernatural part of any existing system of religion, will owe the honour to its being supposed to be useful for controlling the common people, for the educated do not require it, and it is looked upon as a sort of complement to the police system and the tribunals of justice, j In a word, the present age has attained to the sublime convic- tion that reason, and whatever is above the sphere of sensuous experience, is the invention of those idle creatures whom men call philosophers." If knowledge of the disease is the first condition necessary for a cure, this unsparing disclosure of the ills from which Germany was sufiering must have been a blessing. Far as Fichte was from attaining to biblical truth, he had grasped the idea that man will not find salvation in self-seeking, but in willingness to sacrifice himself for the good of all. In another place he says, " Religion reveals to man the signification of the eternal law which influences the free and noble in the form of duty, and the ignoble as the law of nature. The religious man apprehends this law, feels it to be a living principle within him, the law of the development of life. With inexpressible lov'e^ i64 JOHANN GOTTLIEB FICHTE. and rapture, his eye perceives the source of all life, and it flows onward with him in perpetual streams. What the moral man calls law and duty is to him the natural fruit of life, the element in which he breathes most freely. He wishes for nothing else, all else is to him death and damnation. For him the imperative ' Thou shalt ' is not needed ; he neither will nor can do other- wise than obey it. As morality requires no external law, religion requires no internal one. The lawgiver in our breasts is silent, for the will, the tastes, and the affections are im- pregnated with it. The moral man often finds it difficult to do his duty, for he has to sacrifice his strongest inclinations iand feelings. But he does it, it must be so, and he suppresses his feelings and controls his grief. He must not even allow himself to ask, why this conflict between the inclinations which have been implanted within him and the requirements of the law ; he must submit in silence, for then only is submission genuine. For the religious man this question is solved. This principle which struggles and will not die is an imperfect life, but life still ; but it must be renounced if a nobler principle is to take its place. The religious man says to himself, ' These inclina- tions which must be given up are not my inclinations, they are opposed to my nobler being, they are foes which cannot be conquered too soon. The pain which I feel is not really mine, it is the pain of a nature that is my sworn enemy. They are not the agonies of death, but the throes of a new birth which will be glorious beyond all my expectations ! ' "Religion raises her devotee above time, and above all that will pass away, and puts him into possession of eternity. His eye rests in the contemplation of the divine life, and his Ipve is rooted in it. He is raised far above all fear of perishing in death, and all anxiety to find proofs of the immortality of the soul. He is already in possession of eternal life with all its blessedness, and he does not require ingenious proofs of what he sees and feels. It is a most striking proof that the know- ledge of true religion has been very rare among men, and is not contained in the various systems, that eternal blessedness has always been postponed to the other side of the grave, and that yOHANN GOTTLIEB FICHTE. 165 no one has conceived that any one who will, can possess it at once. At the beginning of this discourse we have stated that the test of all that is great and noble in man, must be his wil- lingness to sacrifice himself for the good of his species, his readiness to labour for it, to suffer and to die. The only true nobility of man, the highest idea of which he has any conception, is religion ; but religion is not an external tiding — she perfects the inward man, she is light and truth in the soul. When man possesses her, the actions will be right without effort, for truth can only act in accordance with truth. It is no longer any sacrifice to act rightly, it is the natural expression of the highest inward blessedness." The religious views which were first expressed in the ' Lec- tures on the Characteristics of the Present Age,' are more clearly defined in his ' Way to the Blessed Life,' called also, ' The Doctrines of Eeligion,' lectures delivered in 1806. Al- though we cannot help ascribing to both a great influence in awakening the religious spirit with which thousands entered into the conflicts of the following years, we must not forbear to point out the errors of Fichte's doctrines. While the philo- sopher seems to hold in one hand the precious gifts of revela- tion, he still grasps in the other his system of thought which is so opposed to it. A correct idea of sin is the first' essential point in religious knowledge. No one will doubt that Fiohte acknowledged the existence of sin, since he described his own time as that of a measure of iniquity filled up ; but he did not recognise it as enmity to Grod arising from the fact of the Fall of the father of the human race from his' allegiance to God, but considered rather that the divine life in individuals had become enfeebled. Like Novalis in one of his hymns, Fiohte speaks of an " illusion of sin." The attainment of the divine life, therefore, seemed to him, not to depend upon a reconciliation with God, but upon a resolution of the wUl. He did indeed believe that there had never been, before or since, such a union of the human and divine as there was in Christ, but it was to him a historical fact, not a metaphysical necessity. He would have considered i66 JOHANN GOTTLIEB FICHTE. it possible for a person to attain to such purity by mere resolve. Because he does not regard sin as a great gulf sepa- rating man from God, he will hear nothing of redemption, and rejects the doctrines of St. Paul as fettered by Judaism. When St. John speaks of the "Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world," and of the blood that cleanseth us from sin, the idea conveyed to his mind is not, " His blood shed for the remission of sins, but his blood, his life, his spirit within us." He places but little value on those passages of the Bible which are merely moral. It is only in St. John the Evangelist that he discovers the truth which agrees with the results of his own investigations. What then was the relative good in Fichte's doctrines amidst so much serious error ? It chiefly consisted in his ascribiug to religion a power to pervade the life of man. Kant and his followers had lowered religion by their one-sided attention to morality. They attached a pre-eminent value to such portions of the Bible as the Sermon on the Mount. Fichte, on the contrary, adopting the mysticism of St. John, again proclaimed religion to be a life in God. He says, "The veil will be taken away when thou takest religion as thy standpoint, the world and its corrupt principles wiU vanish, and the God- head will enter into thee in its original form of life, as thy life itself, the life that thou oughtest to live and wilt live. In all that a holy man does and loves, God is no longer only shadowed forth or veiled, He exists in all the fulness of life. Dost thou long to see God as He is face to face ? Do not seek Him behind the clouds, thou canst find Him where thou art. Look at the life of one who has given himself up to Him and thou wilt behold Him, give thyself to Him and thou wilt find Him in thy own breast." Fichte goes far beyond Kant's morality, but makes morality more closely dependent on religion. " Beal at(d true religion does not consist in views and contemplation, in brooding over devotional thoughts ; it is necessarily practical. It consists in the inward conviction that God really lives and acts in us, and will perfect this work. Keligion is not devout dreaming, and, JOHANN GOTTLIEB FICHTE. 167 above everything, not an independent thing distinct from all our other aflfairs, which can be carried on at particular days and hours ; it is the internal spirit which pervades and animates all the thoughts and actions which would otherwise pursue unin- terruptedly their natural course. In such words as these Fichte described the essence of reli- gion in a much more attractive manner than was common at the time, and the affection with which the philosopher speaks of Christ may be regarded as a hopeful sign. One is not disposed to regard with so much severity the philosophic conceit that man can attain to what Christ possessed, when one hears the acknowledgment that no man has been like Christ before or since, and that all are dependent upon Him for their knowledge of religion. Fichte says, " Undoubtedly an insight into the absolute unity of human existence with the divine is the highest knowledge to which man can aspire. It never existed before the time of Jesus, and since, as far as we know, up to this time the knowledge of it has been lost. How did Jesus attain to this insight ? It is no miracle that anybody should be able to understand the truth after it was discovered, but that he who was distinguished from all before or after him by being the only possessor of this insight should have attained it, is a stupendous miracle. And in this sense it is true that Jesus of Nazareth, in a manner in which no one can approach Him, is the only begotten and first-born son of God, and that in every age in which men are capable of understanding Him, He must be acknowledged to be so." Notwithstanding the pertinacity with which he maintains that the philosopher could discover the same truths indepen- dently of Christianity, and would have at any rate a more logical and clearer view of them than was common at that time, he acknowledges that our religious views are dependent on Christianity. He says, " And thus the second article of the Christian faith, that all those who have attained to union with God since the time of Jesus have only attained it through Him, is also indisputably true ; and to the end of time all intelligent people will bow the knee to this Jesus of Nazareth; and the 1 68 yOHANN GOTTLIEB FICHTB. more independent they are, the more humbly they will acknow- ledge the surpassing glory of this great appearance." And it is not only as an object of admiration, while shrinking from the consequences of it, that Pichte represents Christ. " To eat His flesh and drink His blood, means to become entirely and thoroughly like Him, to be changed without reserve into His image — to repeat His personality — to enter into tran- substantiation with Him. As He was the eternal Word trans- formed into flesh and blood, it means so to be changed into His flesh and blood, and what is, therefore, the same thing, to become like the eternal Word itself ; to think entirely as He thought, as if He was thinking and not we, to live entirely as He lived, as if He was living in our stead." Doubtless the way to the attainment of the divine life has been much more clearly pointed out than by Fiohte's method, as above described, because more simply in accordance with the Word of God, but that his views were a blessing to Germany resulted from the pitiful religious state of the country. He introduced a request to his hearers to be sometimes allowed to make use of Scriptural expressions with these words, " I am well aware that it is impossible nowadays to enter any circle of educated men, even if not very numerous, without meeting with individuals to whom the mention of Jesus, or the use of Scriptural expressions is unpleasant, and excites the suspicion that the speaker is either a hypocrite or a narrow-minded simpleton." And it was in the minds of such a generation as this that Fichte strove to kindle the sparks of a new life with all the enthusiasm of one commissioned by God. We give one more extract in;Which he shows that the love which aspires to God also embraces its fellow-men, though it is not with the sensuous happiness of man that true love concerns itself. " Having regained his life in God, man will regard it with affection, but, apart from God, he hates it, for his love for the one presupposes his hatred for the other. The effect of per- ceiving what man may be, is to call forth righteous indignation at all that is unworthy and dishonourable. Knowing that ha JOHANN GOTTLIEB FICHTE. 169 has only to stretch out his hand to take what is ever within his reach, and which would at once make him blessed, he is over- come with melancholy and bitter grief. He never gives up striving to ennoble his fellow-men, and therefore never gives up hope. As often as he is repulsed and fails in his object, he is driven back into himself to draw from the inexhaustible springs of love new zeal and love and means. He looks past the pre- sent into the future. At last — and where will the end be ? — everything will be safe in the secure haven of everlasting rest and peace. At last, the divine kingdom must appear, in might and power and glory.'' It is related of Arndt's ' True Christianity ' that this book and his 'Paradies Gartlein' were often miraculously preserved from the hands of the Eoman Catholics in the Thirty Years' War. Such stories, at any rate, indicate the value placed upon the book. Something similar is told of Fichte's ' Doctrines of Religion.' A Prussian volunteer jager, Friedrich Wilhelm Schulze, according to the account which he wrote to his " Father Fichte," owed his life to this book. He wrote, "I had in my shako that excellent work ' The Doctrines of Religion,' which has been my inseparable companion during the campaign. I threw myself into the midst of the murderous bullets, and received one in the crown of my shako, where my book, in- tended as a moral defence, served as a physical shield, for it received it between its leaves, and prevented it from giving me anything more than a stunning shock, though it would, doubt- less, otherwise have been fatal. It was also especially striking to me that the bullet struck at the passage, p. 249 : ' For every- thing that happens to him is the will of God, and therefore the best thing that can possibly happen.' " Nothing could more clearly indicate the deep impression made on the young soldier by Fichte's writings than this cir- cumstance, and it vindicates our right to place him among the renovators of religious life in the wars of 1813 and 1814. When Prussia rose against Napoleon, Fichte was anxious not to be behind any one in love to his country. He regretted that it was not the custom of the time for a 170 yOHANN GOTTLIEB FICHTE, philosopher to take part in the war, like iEschylus or Cervantes, but he hoped to be able to animate the troops by his patriotic eloquence, and petitioned the King to allow him to be at head- quarters and to grant him opportunity for the exercise of his gifts. The King refused the unheard-of request, and hoped that he would have an opportunity of celebrating with his eloquence the glories of victory. Fichte submitted, and showed his zeal by expending large sums of money for the necessities of the war. But it was soon grievously evident that he was not to celebrate victory, but that all his courage would be required to enable him to keep others from despair. After the entry of the French into Berlin he followed the King to Konigsberg, not to escape danger, but in order to be where Prussia was, and to be able to work for her restoration. When peace was concluded between Prussia and France, and things appeared to be in a manner settled, he returned in deep dejection to Berlin. " God's ways were not our ways this time," he said, " I thought the German nation must be preserved, but, behold, it is extinguished." But Fichte's hopes were not extinguished. " Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." He took courage, and endeavoured to inspire his countrymen with it in the ' Discourses to the German Nation,' which he delivered in the winter of 1807-8 at Berlin, often disturbed by the noise of French trumpets and watched by French spies. The delivery of these Discourses, which were a challenge to the oppressed, within hearing of the oppressor, to throw off his fetters, was Fichte's most heroic deed ; and the valour of it is not diminished by the fact that the French, in their contempt for German ideology, did not recognise the danger of it. One of Fichte's aims in the Discourses was to promote the regenera- tion of the nation by recommending a better system of educa- tion. Mme. de Stael called the remedy a very tedious one. But Fichte showed his faith in the immortality of the German mind by not rejecting a method for its improvement, because its effect would be slow. And if the people of that day could devote themselves to no more holy task than to preparing the yOHANN GOTTLIEB FICHTE. 171 way for the restoration of their country to liberty by training a wiser generation, they were not, in so doing, forestalling the acts of God. And when He did at length interpose, the seed that had been sown sprang up and bore fruit. A new genera- tion had indeed arisen, not only of youths grown into men, but of men who had been imbued with new principles. We can neither ignore the effect produced by Fichte's Discourses upon education, nor entirely approve his methods. The fundamental error which we recognised in his religious views also aifeets his opinions on education. It is the delusion concerning the natural goodness of man, the aversion to the doctrine of uni- versal sinfulness. His own moral energy and heroic will bear him on eagles' wings above the mists of sensuousness and self-seeking to a purer air ; the dread of inducing total indifference in the minds of a people already sunk so low, by teaching them the doctrines of inherited sinfulness, prevented him from duly estimating the doctrines of the Bible. He forgot that the same teaching which proclaims the bondage of the human wUl, also announces its freedom ; that those who have most humbly acknowledged their ruined state have been those who have most brightly re- flected the light divine ; that Christianity, which asserts the sinfulness of the human race, also recognises in it the image of Grod, which will again shine forth in the sun of His grace, when disencumbered of the rubbish in which it now lies buried. Agreeing with Eousseau in his denial of the doctrine of original sin, he made a proposition similar to his for removing the youth entirely from that corrupt generation ; only that the German philosopher, instead of proposing the isolation of each pupil, which would have an obvious tendency to promote selfishness, recommended that all the youth should form a community, under the care of those few who had not fallen victims to the corrupt spirit of the age. The fundamental error of this plan, besides that it ignores the value of family life, is the delusion that youth might be infallibly preserved from corruption by this isolation. But we are willing to overlook this accusation, and many 17* JOHANN GOTTLIEB FICHTE. others which can be brought against Fichte's views, and to ex- press our conviction, which grows with every reperusal of his Discourses, that no such words had been addressed to the people since the days of Luther, — so penetrated with ardent patriotism, combined with so deep a sense of the evils which had befallen the nation. Repentance, faith, and love are the remedies which he pre- scribes. It seemed to him that the spirit of Germany, of her past and of her future, was speaking to the assembled nation by means of his voice ; and it was fearlessly addressed to young and old, to the learned and unlearned, and not the least boldly to the princes of Germany. Those who can see no connection between the spirit of his addresses and the spirit of the Reformation, must see it in the enthusiasm with which he speaks of Luther, and in his thorough appreciation of his works. He says, " Li refined culture, in antiquarian learning, and many other advantages, he was sur- passed, not only by foreigners, but by many of his own nation. But he was seized by an all-powerful impulse, anxiety about eternal salvation, and it became the life of his life, outweighed every other consideration, and gave him the power and the gifts which are the admiration of posterity. Others may have had worldly purposes to serve by the Reformation, but they never would have prevaile4 if they had not been headed by a leader who was inspired by things eternal. That one who felt that the salvation of immortal souls was at stake should go fearlessly forward, and brave all the devils of hell, is only natural, and no miracle at all. It is only an evidence of German earnestness of purpose." And it was with this earnestness of purpose that Fichte wished to inspire his countrymen. " When, notwithstanding a deep conviction of the hopeless- ness of improving this generation, we yet continue to labour to improve it, — when the seed is sown in the sweat of the brow, without any prospect of a harvest, — when good is done to the unthankful, — when blessings are bestowed on those who curse us, in the full knowledge that they will curse, — when, after yOHANN GOTTLIEB FICHTE. 173 manifold failures, we continue to labour on in faith and love, — it is not morality only that is the moving spring ; it is religion, submission to a higher and to us mysterious lavf, silent humility before God, love for His life in us, which has been almost quenched, but which must be preserved alive if everything else perish." Filled with love for his country and with faith in the power of the divine spirit, he quoted the prophet's vision of the dry bones, and exclaimed, " Let the elements of our higher Spiritual life be ever so dried up, and the bonds of national unity torn asunder and scattered abroad in wild confusion, like the dry bones in the vision, — let them have been bleached for centuries by rain and wind, and dried by the burning sun,— the vivifying breath of the spiritual world has not ceased to blow ; it will re- animate the dry bones of our national body, and join them one to another, so that it shall live again in all its glory." Fiohte continued to exert his utmost powers in this manner as long as he lived. A new door was opened to him by the establishment of the university of Berlin, which arose out of the conviction, so in accordance with his own, that Prussia must endeavour to make up for loss of territory by increase of mental strength. Fichte was invited to propose plans for the new institution, and when opened, he was its most eminent professor. He was soon elected rector of the university, and, as at Jena, he endeavoured .to influence the moral character of the students. Amidst these labours the time of bondage passed over, and the year of hberty arrived. When the king published his appeal to the people, Fiohte discontinued his lectures; He would not detain the young men from the conflict when all available strength was wanted for the country, neither could he have maintained the composure necessary for his work when his whole soul was engrossed with the fate of his country. Not deterred by his want of success in 1806, he again pro- posed to endeavour to animate the army by his eloquence. He wished to preach the Bible and Christianity, not to make them a text-book of morality, but to draw lessons of life and love 174 JOHANN GOTTLIEB FICHTE. from their spirit. He had no wish to supplant the army chap- lain, but longed to use the talent which he possessed for the good of his country. But it was not, this time either, considered practicable to permit him to carry out his wish ; and he therefore endeavoured to do in a narrower sphere what he could not do for the nation. He joined the miUtia. Still in the summer of 1813 a number of students flocked to him, and he delivered lectures to them, in which the deepest springs of Napoleon's character and deeds were portrayed in a masterly manner. When, in the autumn, Germany reaped the fruit of her exertions in the victory of Leipzig, and the army soon afterwards marched across the Ehine, Fichte felt his youth renewed for his winter academical labours. He seemed to have attained to new Ught, and to work with fresh vigour. But the time was drawing near when he was to quit the scene of his earthly labours ; he was to be taken from his country in the full vigour of manhood, in order that we might retain him in our remembrance, with strength unimpaired, energy unbroken, and ardour unquenched. As we have seen in the memoir of the Princess William, the war had found abundant work for women's hands. Fichtg's wife had from the beginning joined the Ladies' Association, which was first occupied in helping to equip the volunteers, and afterwards in tending the wounded and dying. She was inde- fatigable in the Lazarettos, and especially interested herself in many young men who now lay sick and wounded, unable to communicate with their parents. Many a dim eye brightened once more at the pious and consoling words spoken by this devoted woman, and to many a mother she sent the last wishes of her dying son. After leaving the Lazaretto, worn out with fatigue, she would go about the city to collect funds for the relief of the sick. In consequence of her great exertions, she was attacked, in the beginning of Jajiuary, 1814, with typhus fever, and it seemed as if recovery was hopeless. On the day of the crisis of the fever, Fichte tore himself from her sick- bed to deliver a lecture ; and such was his self-control that he JOHANN GOTTLIEB FICHTE. 175 soared for two hours into the realms of the most abstruse thought. As he left the lecture-room, the image of his dying wife, perhaps already dead, again took possession of his soul. He found that the illness had taken a turn, which gave room for hope. FuU of gratitude to God, and affection to his wife, as it seemed, restored to him, he bent over her, and probably at that moment caught the infection. The next day he lectured again, but his resolute will was obliged to submit to the will of Grod ; he was struck down with fever, and was soon unconscious. In one of the latest moments of consciousness he heard from his son that Bliicher had crossed the Rhine, and of the rapid progress that the allies were making in France. It was the last joy that he shared on earth, and it was so intermixed with the fantasies of delirium, that he fancied he was taking part in the conflict. When his son was once more bringing medicine to his bedside, shortly before his death, he said, in a tone of the deepest affection, " Never mind that, I do not want any more medicine ; I feel that I have recovered." And he did soon after recover, for on the evening of the 27th of January, 1814, his noble head was laid low in death. One of his successors, in the philosophical chair of Jena, has said 01 him, " There is something in his death which reminds us of that hero of antiquity who was drawing the arrow from his wound as he heard that his people were victorious : ' Thou diest, Epaminondas, and leavest us no sons.' ' But I leave to you two immortal daughters, — the victories of Leuctra and Mantinea t ' " Fiohte was taken home when his mission to his country was fulfilled, but not without leaving sons v/hose minds he had trained for us, as well as the son after the flesh, who, under the pious care of his mother, grew up to be worthy of his father ; and who afterwards portrayed for us his father's character. It is from this Memoir that we have borrowed the traits which we have presented to our readers, with the purpose of showing what Fichte was to his countrymen. We will only add that this patriotic hero was exemplary as the head of a household. He taught his son with the greatest 176 JOHANN GOTTLIEB FJCHTE. patience, and ■with the most lively interest. And at the close of the labours of the day he was accustomed to do what his spurious disciples are not fond of relating. Wife and child and servants were assembled, and the day closed with solemn worship. Some verses of a hymn having been sung, accom- panied on the piano, the master expounded a passage or a chapter from the New Testament, generally from his favourite St. John ; or when domestic circumstances called for it, he spoke words of admonition or consolation. But his purpose was not so much to give special rules or to make moral applications, as to purify the spirit from the distracting influences of the common occu- pations of life, and to raise it to things eternal. He who believes that Christianity does not consist only in correct doctrines, but also in putting in practice the new prin- ciples which Christ brought into the world, will not hesitate to class Fichte with those who promoted the revival of religion in the war of independence. We may be repulsed by the pertinacity with which he rejected some of the doctrines of Christianity, but we can but feel attracted to him when we observe with what power and purity he embraced and acted upon the Christian truth, that " He that loveth his life shall lose it, but he that hateth his life shall receive it unto life eternal." * * ' Fichte's Leten und Literarischer Briefwechsel, von seinem Sohne, J. H. Fichte; Leipzig, 1862:' iind das von dem Enkel Ed. Fichte herausgegehene Buch, ' Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Lichtstrahlen ana aeinen Worten und Briefen nebst einem Lehensabriss ; Leipzig, 1863.' The quotations from Fichte's works are from the latter. CHAPTER IX. ESNST MOKITZ AENDT. "VrO one is more worthy to take his place next to Pichte than ly Ernst Moritz Arndt. Much as they differed in their coarse, and especially in the use they made of the Word of God, yet they were alike in the faith that, as the expression of the will and of the Spirit of Grod, it has a wonderful influence in imparting fresh life to a benumbed people ; and they were one in their entire devotion to their country. Arndt sat at the feet of Fichte at Jena, derived inspiration from his influence, and ever retained a grateful remembrance of him. In the year 1812, when Arndt had met his hero Stein, at St. Petersburg, and had been most cordially received by him, he wrote, " Touched and excited by the bearing, the manners, and the conversation of this noble man, I retired to my little chamber. I was seized with a fit of musing on reminiscences and resemblances ; it possessed me still more on the following day, until what I was trying to remember suddenly came into my hea,d, and I exclaimed, Fichte ! yes, my dear old Fichte, it is you to the very life ; the same closely knit frame, the same forehead which sometimes looked so beaming and benevolent. Both had the same powerful nose, only with this difference, that inTichte this mighty member appeared as if it was still seeking an object to attack, and in Stein as if it had already found it. Both could be very agreeable, Stein much the more agreeable of the two ; there was a deep earnestness in both, and sometimes a fearful severity in their glance, occasionally much greater in the son of the German baron than in the son of the weaver of Lausitz.'' 178 ERNST MORITZ ARNDT. We have elsewhere portrayed in detail the life and character of Amdt, and to this we may refer our readers.* It is our purpose here only to delineate some of his more striking features, and to show that he was of the number of those who, during the time of the deepest humiliation of Germany, pre- dicted her restoration on account of the mission assigned to her by God, and who taught that Christian faith was indispensable to this restoration. Amdt was born at Sohoritzr, in the island of Riigen, on the 26th of December, 1769. The memories of his childhood were therefore connected with this curious island, whose moors, rocks, and bays, connected as they were with mysterious ancient sagas, must have exercised a powerful influence on his childish dreams. Riigen belonged at that time to Sweden ; his father was Swedish, and it was to Sweden that the son's in- clination early led him. The depth and vigour of the northern races, as well as their fanciful sagas and legends, contributed their share to the for- mation of Arndt's character, in which earnestness and power were combined with the most delightful humour, and in whose writings the most vigorous eloquence is tempered with deUeate wit. His parents were of peasant race. His father, the son of a shepherd serf, was freed by his master, and had risen to the rank of a farmer ; his mother was the daughter of a small inn- keeper and farmer. Thus while ancient families die out and decay, men of vigorous powers are constantly springing up from among the people. Luther, Fichte, and Schamhorst rose from their ranks to be their leaders ; so also did Arndt. As under the ancient covenant, Moses, David, and Amos were called from tending their flocks to be shepherds of men, so did Ernst Moritz Arndt, during his association with shepherds in his early youth, hear and see the voice and power of God in the sunset and sunrise, in the rushing of the wind among the * ' Ernst Moritz Arndt's Leten, Thaten und Meimmgen ; ein Buch fur daa Deutsche Volk, vou Wilhelm jBaur. Hamburg, Ageutur des Buuhen Hauaea.' ERNST MORITZ ARNDT. 179 oak-trees, and,m the roaring of the waves of the sea. It must not, however, be forgotten that his parents, more cultivated themselves than might have been expected from their origin, did rot allow their children to be engrossed in the labours and pleasures of the field, but gave them higher aims. Their education was strict, according to the custom of the time, but it is less to be attributed to that, than to the peculiarity of their father, that so much attention was paid to hardening their bodies. The long journeys on foot that Arndt was able to take, the hardships that he underwent, and the ninety years which were his portion, must be attributed to the early control of the mind over the body to which he was accustomed. With this physical training was combined a careful cultivation of the mind and heart. Neither his father nor his tutor probably exercised so much influence upon Arndt as his pious mother, with her lovely blue eyes, her open brow, her clear well- regulated mind, and warm heart. Arndt read the Bible through with her three or four times while yet a boy, and often sat up with her far into the night while they read togethfer the spiritual songs of the Lutheran Church. He gave evidence of what his mother had taught him in his answers at the public examinations in the catechism, and he attended the services of the church, both from the example of his parents and for his own gratification. Arndt's influence in the renovation of the nation waS' no doubt greatly enhanced through his early familiarity with the national Church and religion. But while his heart was thus early made susceptible to divine grace, his mind was also opened to the fantastic realms of fancy. He wove into wonderful stories for his brothers and sisters what he heard among the peasantry, and in old age they still haunted him in his sleep, like delightful dreams of childhood. When he was older he came under the exciting influences of German poetry. The impressions of his father's house were not effaced either at the Gymnasium at Stralsund, nor at the universities of Greifswald and Jena. He remained true to himself, and to his determination to naake the body the willing i8o ERNST MORITZ ARNDT. instrument of the spirit, and therefore he resisted all temptation to waste his powers in debasing vices, and strove earnestly to attain the highest aims of life. In one point the youth may have deviated from the intentions of more childish years. His childlike faith was influenced by the searching test of reason to which it was everywhere subjected, and he gave up the idea of being a preacher after he had preached a few times with " eclat and approbation." But he afterwards returned to the faith of his early years, and became a preacher, not to a single congre- gation but to the whole German nation, a preacher, not only of liberty from the tyranny of a foreign despot, but of the " glo- rious liberty of the children of God." At the university, Arndt, like Fichte, gave more attention to languages, philosophy, and history than to theology. The superficial manner in which divine truth was handled by rationalism was probably not attractive to him : it is known that he was deterred from becoming a clergyman by the base practices through which the fat livings of Eiigen were obtained. His strongest inclination was for the historical study of national life, for which a knowledge of languages is necessary. After spending some years as a candidate, first in his father's house, and then in the house of a friend, learning as well as teaching, in 1798 he set out on his travels. He travelled through Germany — stayed three months at Vienna, walked through Hungary, thence went to Italy, where the war prevented his going further than Tuscany, proceeded to Marseilles ; spent the summer of 1799 in Paris, and returned home in the autumn. He then settled down at the university of Greifswald, in Pomerania. In March, 1800, he passed with honour the examination which was necessaiy to obtain permis- sion to give lectures ; his public disputations were also very successful. When he had taken his degrees of M.A. and Doctor of Philosophy, he was authorised to te.ach philology and history, and began his lectures in the summer of 1800. About the same time he brought home his bride, but his happiness in his first marriage was of very short duration, for the son who was born to him in the summer of 1801 cost his wife her life. ■ERNST MORITZ. ARNDT. i8i Arndt lectured on the Revolutions of Europe from the time of Charles VIII. of France, till the death of Lpuis XIV., also upon the Dialogues of Lucian, and had some private Latin classes. History and the languages were the principal subjects of his lectures as long as he was an academical teacher at Greifswald. In December, 1810, he was appointed to be an assistant of the philosophical faculty, " with a salary of one hundred dollars, twenty dollars for rent, twenty fathoms of wood, and six thou- sand pieces of turf." He was elected professor extraordinary in 1806, having meanwhile resided for a year in Stockholm. When the French were approaching in the autumn of 1806, Arndt, who had already made himself known by his writings as a true German, deemed it prudent to get out of the way of the enemy, having no inclination "to be taken prisoner by the foreigners, and to be shot like a mad- dog." He again went to Stockholm, found occupation, and kept quiet until provoked by the admiration of the Swedes for the French. When in the year 1809 hope was dawning for Germany, when Austria was aroused, when the sound of Hofer's rifles were resounding in the Tyrol, when Schill projected his bold enterprise, the ground burnt under his feet, and he returned to Germany. He went first, as his parents were dead, to his brother's estate of Trantow. Thence he paid a visit to BerUn, and was in- troduced by his friend George Eeimer to the circle of brave men who were inciting their countrymen to rise against the French. After his return in May, 1810, as France had made peace with Sweden, he was again included among the professors at Greifswald, from the lists of whom he had been struck out by Marshal Soult in 1808. But meanwhile he had published his political opinions, and was so completely identified with the political conflicts of the time that the university, in its quiet course, was frightened at his powerful discourses. On the 7th of October, 1810, he intended to give an address on the king's birthday, but there was so much previous whispering about it that he did not dehver it, and it was first printed in his collected ijrorkB in 1847, as a ' Hopeful Discourse in the year 1810.' A i82 ERNST MORITZ ARNDT. discussion on some theses put forward by him was also pre- vented from taking place. We may observe Arndt's truly German character in these Latin theses. " Nothing," he s- ys, " could be more painful and ruinous to us than the founcing of a so-called Universal Empire. The peace which it promises would be more dangerous than eternal war. Such an empire must be feared by every one, no philosopher can approve of it, and by Christians it must be abhorred." And again: "A cer- tain modern system of alliances is landed as the best means of safety to the world. We are of opinion that it is not an alliance that is meant by it, but bondage under its name." The allusion is plain to Napoleon's project of universal monarchy, and to the Confederation of the Ehine. Arndt required a larger sphere of labour than that of the little university ; and in August, 1811, he asked for his dismissal. He received it with a testimonial to the commendable zeal and industry with which he had fulfilled his duties, and with the regrets of his colleagues. He went to Trantow, and afterwards to Berlin, to procure a passport for Kussia ; and when the French were advancing in 1812, he set out again for Berlin, Silesia, Bohemia, and, at last, to Bussia, in order to offer his services, for the liberation of his country, to the Baron von Stein. Before Arndt had been directly called to aid in this work in connection with Stein, he had had a powerful influence in stirring up the patriotism of the people to throw off the foreign yoke by means of his work on ' Germania and Europe,' published in the year 1802, and the first and second parts of 'The Spirit of the Age,' in 1806 and 1809. From the time when this, his first great political work, appeared at the beginning of this century, until the publication in 1854 of his ' Pro Popolo Ger- manico ' — as the fifth part of the 'Spirit of the Age ' — ^with the motto, " Saro che fue, vivro com' ho vivuto" ("What! was I shall be, and as I have lived I shall live "), he did indeed remain the same, steadfastly admonishing the German people to be true to themselves, and reiterating the truths on which he considered the salvation of his country to depend. In all his political writings, larger and smaller, his custom is to ERNST MORITZ ARNDT. 183 express his deepest views on the subject of life in general, and political life in particular, then to place a historical view of the nations of Europe before the eye of the reader, to assign its right place to his own country, to call her unsparingly to repentance for her sins, and with the warmest enthusiasm to represent to her what she was capable of becoming. Never did there live a man to whom the sorrows of his country entered so like iron into his soul, or in whose heart a brighter flame of patriotism was kindled. He was like a conscience to his coun- trymen, and was deeply sensitive to whatever was for their weal or woe. He was like the watchman on the tower, giving notice of the approach of the enemy, and exhorting the people to resist him with all their might. It was for an entire national renovation that Arndt was labouring ; he considered that the whole head of his country was sick, and the whole heart faint ; that no small reforms here and there would effect the object, but that the very foundations must be renewed. During the time of humiliation he wrote v?ith courageous faith, " Why do you look so gloomily at me ? Have I been delivering a funeral oration for my people and my country ? Do you suppose I wish to do so ? By no means. I had quite another end in view. It is better to look our evils in the face, that we may be the better able to meet them. He is a bad man who loses all hope. An old poet has said, ' Hope is for the living.' / say she is also for the dead. Old things must die in order to give place to the new. As we shall awake from the grave to a more glorious life, strength must spring out of destruction, and revenge from ignominy. Germans, my be- loved brethren and countrymen, these are sad times, our mis- fortunes are great ; we are covered with burning shame, although we have not deserved it ; but all is not lost for him who does not despair. It is the privilege of lofty natures to grow in mis- fortune, to feel the fulness of their strength in times of urgent need, even to afford an example to others by the manner in which they perish. For a long time we have no longer been a nation ; now the last semblance of our nationality is destroyed; but a brighter day may be dawning ; now that we know that i84 ERNST MORITZ ARNDT. we are nothing,' perhaps we shall begin to be something. Mediocrity is the ruin of both individuals and peoples. When things are come to an extremity, salvation begins to appear. You are few and scattered, but you do not fear ; the power of mind is immeasurable, and a noble will that wills the right can inflame the -hearts of millions ; it can break swords in pieces, and scatter the satellites of the tyrant." In his " Grermania and Europe " he points out that the greatest evil among his countrymen is an exaggerated spiritu- ality. By this he means the substitution of a false idealism for the sober realities of life, the contempt of morality as a com- monplace thing ; in a word, the so-called enlightenment of the previous century. He does not overlook the purif3dng influence of this tendency, but he considers it to be incapable of pro- ducing anything new or great. He meets with it in every sphere of life. It is to this that he ascribes the want of plain cultivation of the understanding in the education of youth, and the absence of noble impulses in the rising generation ; that the holy, impulses of our religion are lost sight of, and she has become a repulsive mixture of superstition and unbelief, which has given rise to fanaticism and gloomy mysticism, and that social life has degenerated into mere spiritless and commonplace intercourse. But what pains him most of all is that this fine-spun spirituality should seek to supplant patriotism, that it is willing to see Germany swallowed up in a universal empire, that the idea of a united German empire is sacrificed by some to cosmopolitanism, by others to those races who imagine themselves to be nations. Arndt strove to counteract both these tendencies with all his might. Germany was infected with a spirit of cosmopolitanism during the last few years of the empire, because it offered too little prospect of promotion. Then Napoleon appeared, and gave himself out as a political Messiah for Germany, and the weakness which was unable to withstand him took refuge in the pretext of a pohtical idea, and considered itself happy to form a part of the French Universal Monarchy. The Confederation of the Brhine was considered to be the first ^realisation of this ERNST MORITZ ARND'T. 185 dazzling prospect, and some of the German States made tlie revolting attempt to secure promotion for themselves through the favour of Napoleon at the expense of the German empire. It was a disgrace that the submission -which had been too often refused to the empire by some of the States was accorded to the French. it is the great merit of Arndt that he directed his country to the sources whence she must look for renovation, and that he never despaired of her when the empire was dissolved, and Germany appeared to be nearly annihilated, and that he always laboured to keep before her view her peculiar gifts and calling. He pointed out the bond of union she possessed in her lan- guage, lauded her manners and customs, and revived the memory of her heroes and their noble deeds. With striking truth he lays bare our faults, and admonishes us with ardour and enthusiasm. The fervour of his patriotism warms the hearts of his readers, and we can but regret that, notwithstanding all the love which has been at length accorded to "Father Arndt," his powerful writings of the time of the war are now but little read. It was only in connection with Christianity that he looked for the regeneration of his country. But while at the beginning of his career as an author his religion is confined to the general expression of Christian senti- ments, the calamities of the times urged him to an ever-increas- ing decision on the subject. Like Fichte and Schleiermacher, his. childhood was passed under the influence of Christian faith, but the tender buds of youthful piety were nipped by the keen winds of modern liberalism ; later, however, the ploughshares of divine chastisement turned his heart into a fertile soil, in which grace caused the seed of faith to grow. He belonged to the number of the elect who passed froih ancient orthodoxy through the wilderness of unbelief and attained to new faith. He had grown up in' acquaintance with the Bible send hymn- book, and' had had the advantage of- preaching and catechetical i8b ERNST MORITZ ARNDT. instruction in the church, but while at the university, the influ- ence of his mother's teaching was supplanted by the prevailing opinions. According to the ideas of that time, unbelief would have presented no obstacle to his being a theologian, but he was too honest to be a preacher of the faith which he did not hold. In his ' Germania and Europe ' there is a passage which gives us an insight into the history of his mind in youth. He is speaking of the influence of Rousseau in Germany, of the enlightenment which has robbed men of all religion in professing to give them something purer ; he then continues : " There has never been more atheism in the world, from the palaces of France to the poorest huts of Germany, than from 1770 to 1790 ; for the notion that we possess God only in our own conceptions was atheism, and of the worst kind, for this doctrine eoiild have no influence on the life. This God of the reason could have no effect upon the happiness or misej:y of man, He could not confirm him in anything tfiat was good, but spared above his head in cold sublimity, while man groaned beneath his burdens and perished. I passed through an epoch like this myself; I prayed with fervour as a boy, as a youth I laughed and scoffed ; may innocence and pieiy not be wanting to me in old age." In these words we detect the longing for a life of faith ; the prevailing enlightenment did not satisfy him, but the problem of life had not yet been solved for him by incai-nate love ; he had not yet attained, through faith in Christ, to see God in everything, and everything in God. " I have my part in divinity, holiness, and immortality, but I do not see everything pervaded by them ; they appear to me like distant lights, like foretastes of hours of blessedness, like powers which have but a feeble influence upon my understand- ing and daily walk. My heaven is above, my earth below, entirely separated, yet often blending. I know nothing, I do not affect to know, where I can only hope and believe, and I have always thought it the greatest folly to endeavour to lay bare the secrets of heavenly things that are above our ken. It ERNST MORITZ ARNDT. 187 is this unwise practice whicli has driven religion and faith out of the world." It was Arndt's desire neither to see religion degraded by bringing it down to too low a level, nor yet banished to the regions of pure reason. He could only find satisfaction in the message which proclaims that the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.* In the first part of the ' Spirit of the Age ' we find the same longing of the soul for the fulness of divine life, but he had not 5-et attained to it. He gives it as his opinion that Eomanism must fall, but accuses the Lutheran ministers of dishonesty, because they preach the faith they no longer believe. " There is no longer any religion, any discipline, any enthu- siasm in the Protestant world. It is a fearful state of things, which would have made us think, two hundred years ago, that the day of judgment was coming; and have we not had judg- ments enough ? We cannot retrace our steps ; those are in error who take refuge in Eomanism ; they will not find what they seek there. It is vain to try to return to the old faith ; this enlightened generation can no longer enter into the spirit of that, for the last vestiges of it are vanishing in spite of all efforts to retain it. There is but one means of salvation ; we must pass through the fires of death, in order to secure life." In the second part of the ' Spirit of the Age ' he points more clearly to religion, to an exalted and glorified Christianity, as the foundation of all things that shall be, the destruction of those that have been. " When all that is eternal and universal appears to man in a purer spiritual light than it has hitherto done, he will feel its influence more clearly in earthly things ; and through the lofty wisdom that he will attain through inspiration, he will see things in their true simplicity, for he will perceive how and why he must submit to his condition as an inhabitant of earth, and where his heavenly liberty begins. • Jolm i. U. X88 ERNST MORITZ ARNDT. " Christianity, like all other religions, will always have to preserve an outward form. It is only the madness of presump- tion, the conceit of Satanic ambition, only atheism, which arose from the error that reason is the standard by which everything must be judged, which looks upon the externals of religion as relics of the childhood of the human race, which the men of a riper age, who should be guided by reason only, ought to dis- pense with. But I maintain that it is not only the multitude, but every one, who stands in need of something external, to preserve the deep sympathy, the holy union with, and childlike dependence of his soul on God. Therefore, as long as mea exist, there wiU be an outward church with rites and observ- ances, a community of saints, with symbols and priests ; but it will have to keep pace with the spiritual advance of Christianity. " Oh, happy time ! which will surely come. By the divine light of spiritual Christianity it will lead us back to the inno- cenoe and simplicity of nature. It will make us freer and more courageous in all our works and ways. The time which was announced to us by Christ, the prophet and well-beloved of God ; the time which Luther saw, but which his contempo- raries could not understand ; the time of the religion of light will come, and teachers, mighty, inspired, and holy, will raise our perplexed and weary generat^n to the heavens again. With an enlightened head and fervi^heart, man will pursue his way in peace and holiness. Then will the space between earth and heaven be filled with spirits joining their hands to make a chain by which we happy mortals may ascend and descend. Man will then know where his heaven is ; sun and stars will greet him, and condescend to be his playfellows, and they will be joined by his companions in Eden, Innocence and Joy; he will have as his inalienable possession a childlike faith in nature, and will be ever obedient to her laws.'' Although there is much in this passage that is vague and visionary, it plainly indicates Arndt's longing for a Christianity that does not keep itself apart from the world in recluse spiritu- ality, but which imparts vigour to common life, — in short, for a national Christianity. His hopes for the realisation of these ERNST MORITZ ARNDT. i8g ideas were strongly excited during his journey to Kussia, and his residence there in the time of the war with France. For he saw there, for the first time, the remarkable spectacle of an enthusiasm which was based as much upon religious as national grounds. Napoleon was resisted in Eussia, not only as the enemy of the country, but as the destroyer of the faith. And there was abundant cause for so regarding him ; he came into the Kevolution as his heritage, the principles of which had been renounced throughout Christendom by the united voice of the people; and though he was too prudent to imitate the early follies of the Revolution, his treatment of the Pope, and his thoroughly selfish, and therefore unchristian policy, made it impossible for the nations to regard him with anything but suspicion. It may be obseryipd i^that nations belonging to the Eomish, the Greek, and Protestant Churches were in turn arrayed against Napoleon with spiritual as well as carnal wea- pons ; the first in Spain and Austria, the second in Russia, and the third in Prussia, and that throughout his career, nothing proved so dangerous to him as popular risings in which religious was combined with nati^al enthusiasm. When, summoned thither by Stein, Arndt arrived in Russia in the autumn, he found to his astonishment the whole nation, from the Czar to the peasant, from the princess to the humblest woman, animated by a devout and self-sacrificing enthusiasm. The emperor had formed bis resolution before God, to resist Napoleon to the last gasp, his deep religious emotions originated at the time of this decision. The synod exerted its religious influence upon the people in the same direction. Arndt was witness of all this, and of the terrible destruction of Napoleon's army. "It was the finger of God," he exclaims repeatedly in the third part of the ' Spirit of the Age,' when narrating the events of that time. " The arm of man is weak unless God lends it strength, and his heart is easily discouraged unless inspired with uncon- querable faith. The Russians are a devout people ; they made: this mighty war a religious war ; their religion, the desecration of their holy places by the foreigner, the peril of their country. 190 ERNST MORITZ ARNDT. inspired them with a faith which enabled them to surmount every obstacle, and to which death and ignominy were welcome. The churches, the chapels, the sacred burial-places were daily thronged with people ; the soldiers consecrated themselves by prayer, they signed themselves with the cross, they consecrated their banners with religious ceremonies, they took a solemn oath to the emperor and their country, and went forth rejoicing as to a triumphal procession. Was Bonaparte to subjugate such a people, to prevail against such a spirit ! " He accompanies the description of the retreat of the French with the following words. " Thus perished, through the reck- lessness and infatuation of one man, in six months, the flower of France, Italy, Germany, and Poland, and thousands of children were made orphans, thousands of wives were made widows, thousands of parents and betrothed maidens were clothed in mourning. So great is the event, so unheard of the defeat, so incredible the disaster, that surely the unbeliever must be con- vinced, and exclaim, ' Behold God is here, this is the finger of God ! ' That mysterious, incomprehensible, that infinite power above us and within us, which lightens from the clouds and illumines our hearts, that which we call providence, destiny, retribution, and which, by whatsoever names it is called and whatever it means, is always about our path, afar off and near, has pronounced such a doom as Europe has not witnessed for With the impression of his experiences in Russia deeply engraven upon his mind, with a feeling of profound humility in view of the power and glory of the living God, and with an ardent desire to see the German nation withstand Napoleon, not only with the sword of steel, but with spiritual weapons, he returned to Germany. In the third part of the ' Spirit of the Age ' he relates God's judgments upon Napoleon, and asks, "What have the great powers to do now?" and answers the question by advocating a war, not of the usual kind, but with spiritual weapons. " The French will not be conquered by the usual warlike preparations, nor by the arts and calculations of human foresight, nor the most skilful appliances of physical and ERNST MORITZ ARNDT. 191 mechanical means. Bonaparte and his Frenchmen bear a charmed life against debased views. They must fall by means of lofty views, and lofty views mean trust in God, devotion to our country, an ambition to live or die for the sake of honour. It means faith in virtue and in the people." In smaller works adapted for the people, Arndt sought to arouse them to a Christian and national spirit. One of the most worthy of notice is the ' Catechism for the German Warrior ;' and it was a happy thought to provide him with this spiritual food as part of the contents of his knapsack. In the preface he gives a sketch of the history of Germany, and after describing the outrages of the French, he continues : " It is now the wiU of God that this pride shall be curbed, that the French shall be punished for the outrages that they have committed in every land, and which cry to Heaven. It is the will of God that the Germans shall arise in righteous indignation, and smite the Tyrant, and regain the freedom which they inherited from their fathers, but of which the crafty foreigner has robbed them. " It is the will of God that you should set your brethren free on the other side of the Rhine, and restore them to the empire from which they have been separated by treachery and cunning. This may be looked upon as a Christian and holy war, for had Napoleon ruled much longer, freedom, virtue, and justice would have vanished from the earth." In another passage Arndt says, " Yes, people of Germany, God will give you love and trust, and you will see what you are and what you ought to be. God will kindle a flame within your hearts, and awaken the bold spirit of liberty that the enemy would fain cause to slumber. ' God himself will go before you and be with your hosts, and bless your banners with victory, if you have faith in eternal justice and believe that there is a God- in heaven who will crush the Tyrant." The same spirit per- vades the pamphlet published in 1818 at Konigsberg, entitled, ' What do the Levy of the People and the Landwehr mean ? ' and it is an interesting memorial of the enthusiasm of Prussia in the spring of 1813. 192 ERNST MORITZ ARNDT. ' It may be imagined that Arndt would break out into heartfelt expressions of joy and praise after victory had been gained. Soon after the battle of Leipzig he published a pamphlet, en- titled, ' The Army and People of Prussia in 1813.' The fol- lowing is an extract from it : — ' " Ever memorable to him who has a German heart in his bosom will be the spring and summer of 1813. We may now be content to die, for we have, witnessed that for which it is alone worth while to hve. We have seen men sacrificing all their temporal goods, and even their lives, for the sake of that which is eternal and imperishable. And the most delightful of all was, that in this holy zeal and tumultuous joy all differences of class and age were overlooked and forgotten, that every man humbled himself, and gave himself up for such service as, he could most usefully perform ; that every other sentiment was swallowed up in the love of our country, its liberty, and honour ; all considerations of rank and position, allowable and praise^ worthy at other times, were set aside. Every one felt that misfortune had made all equal, and all wished to be equal in obedience and usefulness. And so filled were all hearts with the idea of duty and a common object, that there was no place for the license for which the tumultuous scenes of war generally afford so much opportunity ; the enthusiasm of those memorable days was desecrated by no excesses ; it seemed as if the humblest felt that he must be a model of morality, modesty, and justice, if he was to prevail against the boastful pride and debauchery which he had so detested in the French. It is the effect of the power of the spirit, the power of God, to lift man out of and above himself, so that he scarcely knows what he has been or what he is. Brave and pious heroes, you your- selves exclaimed in amazement : ' We did not do it, it was not we ; God did it, it was God ; God gave us strength, God gave us success, God decreed, and we executed his purpose!'" What Riickert expressed in poetry after the battle of Leipzig vvas in accordance with the opinion of Arndt, — " God, who long time our -woes teheld, At last Himself came down." ERNST MORITZ ARNDT. 193 After the peace lie published a little pamphlet called, ' Five or Six Miracles of God,' in which, after pointing out the Divine interposition in some special events, he continues : " More miracles might be related whiqh cause the devout to adore, and the scoffer to laugh ; but the greatest miracle of all is fhe power of German enthusiasm in scattering treachery and tyranny Hke spray before the wind, and in restoring our country to its honourable position. Let every true German ponder it in silence and faith." We must here say a few words on the service which Arndt rendered to religion in the revival of the ancient hymns for the use of the church. The Reformation had been prolific in hymns ; the singing of them had been, as it were, the response of the congregation to the preaching of the word. At the time when the doctrines of repentance and faith were no longer heard from the pulpitj the hymns in some degree supplied their place to the worshippers, and kept them from perishing in the barren wilderness of rationalism. But just for this reason the rationalistic preachers detested the old hymns, and during the last quarter of the last century there was a zealous attempt at a so-called improvement of the hymn-book, by which the most valuable hymns were struck out, others altered in an unwarrantable manner, and many new ones added, alike wanting in faith and poetry. It was during this period that Arndt's youth was passed, but he had become so much attached to the old hymns in his home and in the church that he was fully alive to the danger of revision. " I was born," he says in one of his works, " among a humble people, with them, and as one of them my life has been spent, and, if I know anything at all, it is from the people that I have learnt it. I have seen how those of my own faith have been starved by the use of meagre catechisms and hymn-books, from which the ancient simplicity and force of the divine word, its fervour and exulta- tion of language, have been washed away. It cannot be doubted that many have fallen into error in consequence of this, in an age when people have erred rather unwittingly than 194 ERNST MORITZ ARNDT. through intention. And since this has been the case, God has been gracious to us again since the joyful years of 1812 and 1813, but this pitiful state of things still continues in too many places -where Protestant Christians live." When \rndt wrote his ' Catechism for the German Warrior,' he added to it hymns of his own after the manner of the ancient models. He strove earnestly to awaken the people, and when awakened he could thiiik of them as singing such hymns only as were sung in the days of Luther. Some years had passed since the Peace, and the minds of the people were once more in a ferment, in which the revival of the grand old hymns of the church could not fail to be advantageous, but the spiritual leaders of the people were stiU carrying on their mischievous revision of the hymn-book. Arndt then published a pamphlet called the ' Word of God and the Hymns of the Church.' He pointed out the inexhaustible sources of edification which the country possessed in both, and proposed that a new hymn- book should be compiled chiefly composed of hymns from the time of Luther to 1750, but not excluding more modern ones worthy of a place in it. He wrote a number for it himself, which breathe a spirit of pure Christian piety. He was the first to clear the way in this matter, and those must bless his memory who rejoice that the people are now almost everywhere in possession of their ancient hymns. The above relates to a period long after the wars of inde- pendence. After the peace, Arndt lived an unsettled life for two years, seeking a spot in which to found a home. In 1817 he established himself at Bonn, having just been united to his second wife, Nanna Marie Schleiermacher, the half-sister of the great theologian. The following year he received an appoint- ment at the newly-founded university there, built himself a house, and planted a garden on the shores of the Rhine, with a view of the Siebengebirge. He started in life again with a fair wind, and everything promised a prosperous course. As is well known, however, his voice as an instructor of youth was soon silenced ; but he remained true to himself during the twenty years when his best powers were lying fallow, and when ERNST MORITZ ARNDT. 195 he had much painful experience of the fickleness of the world, until he was fully reinstated by Frederic William IV. He continued to be the same faithful guardian of the unity and greatness of his country that he had been during the time of the war ; and the Christian faith which had been awakened during that stormy period was deepened during the years of peace, under the influence of personal crosses which he had to bear, some sent immediately from God, others the result of the suspicion with which he was regarded. He was the author of many hymns, and while they always express his sense of sin, his joy in his Saviour, and his longing for heaven, they sometimes enter into the religious questions of the day, and he expresses himself warmly against all free- thinking on the one hand, and all tendency to Romanism on the other. He faithfully served the Protestant community at Bonn as elder and representative. The Word of God and the sacrament continued to be the nourishment of his soul until, full of faith in his Redeemer, he died on the 29th of January, 1860. Perhaps scarcely any other German has been so applauded by his countrymen as Ernst Moritz Arndt, but most of them were not acquainted with his character as a whole, nor did they care to be so. Their applause was accorded to him as a patriot, not as a Christian ; but the characteristics of such a man as ATndt cannot fairly be separated. He was a patriot because he was a Christian, and a Christian because he was a patriot. It is because Christianity and patriotism were so closely united in him that we regard him as an exemplar. His merit lies in his endeavours to infuse the one into the other ; and during the time of the great events through which our nation was pass- ing fifty years ago, he endeavoured to keep Christ, as their light and their salvation, continually before the view of the people. To his latest breath he cordially acknowledged every greeting which reached him from German hearts, but those were the most congeimal to him who, like himself, daily sought in the Scriptures for^h^nourishment of their souls, who joined him igfi ERNST MCRITZ ARNDT. in approaching the Table cf the Lord full of devotion and expectation of blessing ; who could unite with him in singing from the depths of his own experience : — " When all around seems dark and lost, As if my soul were sunk in hell, And when in seething hiUows tossed The floods of sin within me swell ; When in the depth of want and woe, All hope of help seems cast away, Whence does the streak of morning glow. The herald of approaching day ? " From Thee, from Thee ! my comfort springs. Thou star of hope. Thou rising sun. Servant of servants, King of kings. Helper and healer all in one. What houndless riches Thou canst give I What light e'en in the darkest place 1 Who doth as our Redeemer live, Who died to save a guilty race." CHAPTER X. FREDEKIC SCHLEIEEMACHER. SCHLEIERMACHEK accomplished so much for the revival of religious life during the first thirty years of this century, that the chief difficulty of our narrative will consist in confining it within the needful limits. His first achievement was the de- liverance of religion from the bonds of petrified formulas, obsti- nate ignorance, and mere external observances, and leading it back to the deep springs of intimate communion of the soul with God. And from the atmosphere of piety in which he had grown up he had attained to a clear conviction', then almost a new dis- covery, that there could be no Christianity without Christ; that a holy life must proceed from a union with the incom- parably holy person of our Lord. Important as was Schleiermacher's vocation in proclaiming the double fact that religion must take root in the very life of man, and that the religious life could only be perfected through Christ, his usefulness would have been but limited had he not also taken part in the rich intellectual life which at that time pervaded our country — had he not been on a mental equality with the great spirits which were then shining star-like upon Germany. If Germany, after its religious desolation, was again to drink of the springs of holiness, was she to return to an insipid or- thodoxy, to a narrow pietism, or to the superficial teaching of the so-called modern enlightenment ? Might not the Gospel retain its power of permeating all things, and thus offer the 198 FREDERIC SCHLEIERMACHER. best gifts to the people, without rejecting the other gifts of God? Schleiermacher was specially adapted to prepare the way for the introduction of Christian faith into the regions of renewed intellectual life. He stood upon the heights of philosophical research ; he was one of the best Greek scholars in Germany, and his translation of Plato showed how deeply he was versed in the spirit of antiquity. A talent for art and art criticism brought him for a time into close contact with the Schlegels and Hardenberg, and as a statesman and patriot he has left evidence that his idea of a State was not of one destitute of religion, and that the faith which he preached had no tendency to destroy nationality. Before the great events of the times of which we write had taten place, his religious convictions were settled, and there- fore he was the better qualified to offer his fearless admonitions to his countrymen at every step of their humiliation and exulta- tion. And his words were listened to by educated men, not as those of a priestly guild, but as the utterances of a man who, sympathizing in. all the joys and sorrows of his country, had a moral right to exhort them to a better life. Eich materials have now been provided for us from the life and works of this great man ; every one endeavours to portray his character in his own particular manner, betraying love or aversion by the colour given to it. We shall also attempt the task, hoping to fulfil it without that blind admiration which forgets that he was not perfect, and without the religious preju- dice which has often been unjust to him, Friedrich Ernst Daniel Schleiermacher was born on the 21st of November, 1768, at Breslau, where his father was then an army chaplain, belonging to the Reformed Church. His mother, the daughter of the court preacher, Stubenrauch, exercised the chief influence upon his childhood, and mainly conducted his education. Before he was six years old, she rejoiced in his attention to his lessons. When he was ten years old, his parents left Breslau, and during the next few years he was either at Pless or Anhalt. FREDERIC SCHLEIERMACHER. 199 His parents were Christian people ; and -wlien they visited the school of the Moravian Brethren at Niesky, in the Ober- lausitz, with a view of placing their children there, they were charmed with the spirit of the place. To their great consola- tion they found that it was the doctrine of the Brethren, that reconciliation with God could only be attained by the atoning sacrifice of Christ, and that it is from participation in this sacrifice by faith that every virtue springs. " I have often trembled for the children," their mother wrote to her brother, " on account of the soul-destroying opinions, principles, and manners of our times ; ah, how could we have preserved them' from their subtle poison ! We thank our dear Lord with all our hearts that He has not inclined their tender hearts to rush to destruction with the world. Lord, preserve them in this truth, that it is only in Thy love that they can be blessed and happy." When it had been decided by lot that the Schleiermachera should be received into the community at Niesky, their parents were delighted. They felt as if the children were for ever pro- tected from the dangers of the world, and told them of the beautiful and peaceful life they would lead in constant inter- course with their Saviour. Schleiermaoher and his younger brother went in 1783 to Niesky, while their sister Charlotte was received at Gnadenfrei. His letters at this time are childlike and natural, though written in the pious tone which prevailed among the Brethren. After writing to his sister of his preference for winter over summer, because it was a better time for study, he continues : " But neither my love of winter nor dislike of summer disturbs me in my peaceful course ; I am only disturbed when I see that I do not love my Saviour enough, that I do not live to His glory, and that my daily intercourse with Him is interrupted. But whenever we go to Him as sinners, who can only be saved by His mercy, we are not sent empty away. He is never un- faithful, however often we may be so ; but the more undisturbed . our communion with Him, the better ; the more regular it is, the more peaceful and nearer to Heaven — how delightful it 200 FREDERIC SCHLEIERMACHER. would be to be there altogether ! — but His will be done ; it must be for the best." And after this outpouring, which was doubtless quite sincere, he makes affectionate inquiry for his father, and concludes with — " You may remind him that my purse is in a consumption, occasioned by eating fruit, though nobody would believe it. Papa knows how to cure it. Now, farewell, under the Saviour's protection, to whom I commend myself and you." At another time he consoles his sister for having missed the celebration of Passion Week and Easter among the Brethren, by saying that the season was the same everywhere, though the manner of keeping it might not be so edifying. " We partake all the same of the body of Jesus that was offered for us, and of His blood that was shed for the pardon of our sins, and the effect of it must be just the same if our hearts are humbled by our sins and by His mercy, and if we yet rejoice in Him because He quickens and refreshes us when we approach Him with a spirit full of reverence and love — I am sure you must have experienced this." And what wisdom there is in the following advice from a brother of fifteen or sixteen years old to a sister : " In the first place you ought to be glad that you have some- thing to do with domestic affairs again ; it is absolutely neces- sary for a young woman to know something about them : you do not know where the Saviour may place you some day, or that it will be always your vocation to sit in the choir-house at your embroidery frame. In the second place, do not be so anxious about doing these things right ; it is of no use. My principle is, ' To venture boldly is half the battle ' (' Frisch gewagt ist halb gewonnen '), but it must be understood that venturing boldly does not exclude the necessary care and con- sideration. Thirdly, do not forget that people will have their eyes upon you, and will form opinions about the Brethren from what you are ; so do take care not to be depressed and melan- choly, that people may not be confirmed in the opinion that they are all sanctimonious hypocrites. Fourthly, talk like other people do, and do not make use of phrases that you first FREDERIC SCHLEIERMACHER. 201 learnt among the Sisters ; it is of no use ; nobody ■will under- stand them." We see that the boy passes a free judgment on non-essentials, but we cannot doubt that it was his earnest endeavour to im- bue his life with essential principles. He asks his sister for her prayers while preparing for the communion. " 'I will draw all men unto me ' was our yesterday's text, and He will be so merciful as to fulfil it in my case ; He rose again to help all who are miserable ; this gives me a right to come to Him. He alone is my confidence, the God who expired for me upon the cross." He confessed that he had learnt much during the two years of his residence among the Brethren, much of the evil of his own heart, and much mercy on the part of the Saviour. 'On my part I can only say, ' I have deserved wrath,' but the Lamb on the cross exclaims, ' I have redeemed thee.' " About this time his mother died, and his father rejoiced the more that she had so guarded her children from the dangers of the world. When the son complained that he could not love his Saviour enough, and that his feeling of his own unworthi- ness awakened the wish that he might soon be released from all earthly troubles, his father directed his attention to the suffer- ings of Christ. But an inviolable love of truth did not allow him to conceal from his father, however much it might pain him, that the contemplation of these sufferings did not have the desired effect. The boy had gone through some religious conflicts before joining the community of the Brethren. The doctrine of the eternity of future rewards and punishments anxiously employed his youthful imagination ; and when eleven years old he passed sleepless nights, because he could not satisfy himself about the relation between the sufferings of Christ and the punishment for which they were a substitute. At Niesky the doctrine of original sin and supernatural grace occasioned him much per- plexity. That he was a fallen being he knew from his own ex- perience, but he could not, in his own case, trace the working of that supernatural grace for which he was taught to hope, and 202 FREDERIC SCHLEIERMACHER. which he thought he perceived among the Brethren, which was to enable him to rise from the depths of sin into the purer atmosphere of the new life. If he thought he had attained anything of it, it soon proved to be nothing but a phantom. In the meantime he earnestly endeavoured to follow the Saviour, who was undoubtedly leading him, with childlike confidence. So passed the years at Niesky, not in complete religious satisfaction, but with great industry. He formed a great friend-' ship with Albertini, afterwards bishop of the United Brethren, which procured them the names of Orestes and Pylades. Their literary undertakings were adventurous and colossal. In Latin they received excellent instruction, and their inferior teaching in Greek did not prevent them from eagerly devouring Homer, Hesiod, Theocritus, Sophocles, Euripides and Pindar ; with very scanty means of instruction they attacked the Hebrew of the 'Old Testament, and first stuck fast, as Schleiermacher ex- pressed it, in the mysteries of Ezekiel. They continued their labours and endeavours at the seminary of the Brethren, at Barby, where they were sent ia 1785. There his religious doubts increased, and gave rise to a confiict between the father and son, which might be called tragic, if the thorough honesty of purpose which was at the bottom alike of the son's candid confessions, and the father's severe admonitions, had not in the end brought it to a peaceful close. His critical talents,, his more mature years, the critical atmosphere which pervaded Germany, and of which traces were often to be found even among the secluded communities of the Brethren — indeed, from their very seclusion the active minds of youth hankered after it, — all tended to increase Schleiermacher's doubts ; and he was disturbed that the objections of modern theology to the orthodox faith were not introduced into, or refuted in the lectures. " There is one thing I do not like," he wrote to his father, " I should like to study theology thoroughly ; but I shall not be able to say that I have done so when I leave this place, and it seems to me that the fault lies in the limited scope of our FREDERIC SCHLEIERMACHER. 203 lectures ; for of all the present objections, exceptions, and dis- putations about exegesis and dogma, we read nothing except in the learned newspapers. In the lectures they are not sufficiently noticed, and yet it is certainly necessary for any one entering on the study of theology to be acquainted with them. This course causes many to suspect that there must be a great deal in these modern objections, and that they are hard to refute, because they seem afraid to lay them before us. I am not, however, of that opinion, and this little annoyance has not dis- turbed my peace, and I have not mentioned it to any one but you." His father assures him that he lost nothing by not being acquainted with modern objections and explanations. " Avoid this tree of knowledge, and the temptation to eat of it, under the plea of a thorough study of theology. I have read almost all the objections of unbelief; but they have not convinced me, indeed they have shown me that faith is what is due from ns to God, and that it is purely a gift of His grace. Besides, it is not your wish to be a vain theologian, but to be expert in lead- ing souls to the Saviour, and for this those things are not necessary, and you can never be grateful enough to your Saviour for placing you among the Brethren, where you can so well dispense with them." He then directs the attention of his son to the length and breadth, and depth and height of the love of God, and hopes he will be happily restored to holy simplicity. But the desire to find a firm basis of truth was not so easily quenched. After this letter the son was intimidated, and for live months kept his feelings to himself. The new year, 1787, arrived. He longed to wish his father happiness in the fulness of childlike love, but the consciousness of doubts which he knew would pierce his father's heart prevented him, and he pat off his New Year's letter till the 21st of January. With an aching heart he wishes his father joy in his children. Then he expresses what had been consuming him like a secret fire for months. •' You write to me that faith is the prerogative of the Deity. Oh, my dear father ! if you believe, and I know you do, that without this faith there is no happiness in another 204 FREDERIC SCHLEIERMACHER. world or peace in this, do pray God to give it me, for at present I have lost it. I cannot believe that He was the true and ever- lasting Grod who called Himself the son of man ; I cannot be- lieve that His death was a propitiatory atonement, because He never distinctly said so Himself, and because I cannot believe that it was necessary ; for it is impossible that God can eter- nally punish man for not being perfect, when it is obvious that He has not made him capable of attaining perfection, but only of striving to attain it. Ah, my dear father ! the deep grief which I feel in writing this letter prevents me from giving you the history of my mind as connected with these opinions, and from telling you in detail all my strong reasons for holding them ; but I entreat you do not take them for passing ideas, for they are deeply rooted opinions. They have been in my mind for nearly a year, and long and strenuous meditation on them has only confirmed me in them. I pray you to lay before me your strongest arguments against them, but still I must honestly confess that I do not think you wiU convince me, for I stand firm." With a beating heart, this secret was confided, and a request added that he might be allowed to go to Halle to qualify him- self for a schoolmaster, as with his opinions he should not be allowed to take any office among the Brethren ; and his father would hardly wish to see his son increase the number of unbe- lieving preachers in his own church. His father's grief on receiving the letter was distracting. It was like being thrust out of heaven. In the first feeling of sorrow he thought his son was lost. " Oh, foolish son," he wrote, " who hath bewitched you, that you should not obey the truth ; before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, but now is crucified by you. You did run well ; who did hinder you that you should not obey the truth ? This persuasion is not from Him that calleth you, but a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. " That perversion of heart which made you fear four years ago that you would be ruined in the world, and which inclined you to the Brethren, ah, you have unfortunately retained a por- FREDERIC SCHLEIERMACHER. 205 tion of it ; it has leavened your whole being, and now it drives you out from among them. Ah, my son ! my son ! how you have bowed me down ! What sighs you have wrung from me ! And if those who are departed take any cognisance of us, what a disturber you must be of your blessed mother's peace ! for even your stepmother, who does not know you, weeps over you with me. Go out into the world then, whose honour you seek. See if your soul can be satisfied with husks, since you despise the divine nourishment which Jesus gives to all those who thirst for Him. Have you then never received a drop of balm from His wounds ? Was all that you have written to me deceit and hypocrisy ? If it was truth, it will testify powerfully against you on that day if you do not turn again to your merciful Saviour. (John xii. 48 — 50 ; Heb. vi. 4 — 6.)" He then enters into his son's doubts ; but quiet investigation of them soon changes to the most agonized exhortation, urgent entreaties, and fervent prayer. " And now, my son ! whom I press with tears to my aching heart, with heartrending sorrow I part from you ; for part from you I must, since you no longer worship the God of your father — can no longer kneel with him at the same altar ; but once more, my son, before we part, tell me what has the gentle Jesus, so lowly in heart, done to you that you wiU not accept what He offers you, and that you choose to dispense with His peace ? Yv^as it not well with you when you brought your griefs and sorrows to Him ? And now, after His long-suffering and patience, will you deny Him ; will you be false to your vow — ' Jesus, I will remain with Thee ? ' Why will you go away ? Have you not heard the words of life from Him ? return, my son, return ! Oh, Lord Jesus, thou shepherd of men, do bring back thy wandering sheep thyself ! Do it for the glory of Thy name ! Amen ! " How desirable would the mediating love of a mother have been in this painful collision between an excellent father and an excellent son. She would not have been less grieved than her husband, but she would hav^e had more confidence in her son. Her brother Stubenrauch, Professor of Theology at Halle, assisted the youth most kindly in arranging his affairs. His 206 FREDERIC SCHLEIERMACHER. father allowed him to -go to Halle, became gradually pacified, and before his death his son fully regained his confidence. Thus, then, Schleiermacher left the United Brethren, and joined that more general Christian community connected with the world by a thousand ties ; but he always retained not merely an affectionate remembrance of the Moravians, but called them the maternal lap of piety in which he had been brought up ; he liked to visit them, and many of his ideas on the subject of the Church and the Christian community were influenced by what he had learnt and loved amongst them ; indeed, it may be said that the new and earnest stress which he laid upon the person of tha Redeemer, and upon communion with Him, which is his distinguishing characteristic, was a legacy of the Brethren to their departing son. " Grod bless you at Halle, preserve you by His spirit from all evil, and may His fatherly love draw you again to His Son whom you have denied. Yes, the true Shep- herd will not cease to seek to bring you Himself, until, weary and heavy laden, you return again to Him, to our humble and lowly and sympathizing High Priest." This was the father's prayer, on his son's entering on his academical course. He assures his son that he will have his prayers that he may make his salvation sure, and gives him excellent advice for his earthly welfare. He warns him to beware of modern interpretations of the Scrip- tures, but advises him to study philosophy thoroughly, parti- cularly Kant's ' Critique of Pure Eeason.' For the advance- ment of his calling as a teacher, he recommends him to study English, French, and mathematics ; but warns him not to con- found mathematical with theological certainty, because they stand on a totally different basis. He specially commends the reading of the Bible to him. The son was truly industrious ; not after the manner of those who think that whatever you read becomes your own mental possession ; he attended but few lec- tures, and those not regularly, but he threw himself vdth vehe- mence, as he expresses it, into those subjects which deeply interested him. He was regarded as a youth of independent mind, careless of outward things, wrapped up in himself, and fond of solitude ; FREDERIC SCHLEIERMACHER. 207 but when, in accordance with his father's wish, he mixed with superior people to form his manners, his manners were as good as theirs. Two years were passed in this way at Halle, then he went with his uncle Stubenrauch to Drossen, in Branden- burg, near Frankfort-on-the-Oder. The quiet of the parsonage and the residence with so fatherly a friend and counsellor were very beneficial to him. But here also he found it impossible to follow a plan of study, and to take up several things at once ; he loved to devote all his time and strength, all his intense energy, to one thing at a time, to make an end of it, and to think it out. His mind was not adapted for the acquisition of mere knowledge. He calmly listened to arguments for and against any opinion, and considered whether he could make it his own mental possession. During his student years it was not his way to heap acquirement upon acquirement, but to find out the net value of everything ; . and when himself an author, he was not a voluminous writer, but what he wrote was the full expression of his whole being.. In the summer of 1790 he passed his theological examina- tion, and obtained the situation of tutor in the famUy of Count Dohna-Schlobitten,-ui Prussia. His residence in this family was of great importance to him. The teacher was himself taught ; he learnt " patience, and that gentleness which comes from the heart, and which is founded on gratitude for social happiness." Intercourse with the nobility enlarged his views, and contributed to the ease with which he afterwards filled important positions in the service of the State. But the chief advantage of his residence there was in sharing a genial Chris- tian family life, and in forming an acquaintance with superior women. Such a life was what Schleiermacher wanted, he could not thrive except among his fellow-men. He says of himself a few years later, " I stretch out all my roots and leaves for love ; I must imbibe it, and if I cannot, I droop and fade. This is my inmost nature, I do not know any help for it, nor do I wish to find any." His father hoped that his son would make himself necessary 2o8 FREDERIC SCHLEIERMACHER. to the family. " They have become almost necessary to me" he wrote ; " they are all such nice people, and it is such an instructive, and yet such a pleasant school. My heart thrives here, and does not wither among the weeds of mere learning, and my religious feelings are not stifled by theological subtle- ties. I enjoy domestic life, too, for which man was destined, and it warms my heart." It is a striking evidence of his inviolable love of truth, that notwithstanding the great attractions of this life to a young man of twenty-five, when a dispute on the subject of education arose between him and the Count, he would not sacrifice his convictions to his happiness, and in the spring of 1793 he gave up his situation. He first went to his uncle at Drossen ; but in the autumn we find him at Berlin, a member of the Gredeke Seminary, and Assistant-Master in the Kornmesser Orphan House, in which he lived. Half a year later he went to Landsberg on the Warthe, in order to assist a relative. Pastor Schumann, who was pre- vented by illness from fulfilling his duties. Here, in the autumn of 1794, he was deeply afiected by the news of his father's death. It was a comfort that the worthy man had regained confidence in his son. He had asked him to stand godfather to his little girl by his second marriage, which the son regarded as a gratifying proof of his father's afiection. He wrote to his sister Charlotte, " There has never been any interruption to your mutual affection ; but there was a period of my" life, the thought of which distresses me, in which I misjudged my excellent father's heart, and I thought he misjudged me, be- cause our opinions did not agree. A certain coldness towards him, to which this gave rise, appears to me one of the darkest spots of my life ; but I have seen my error, and he forgave me without my asking it." Then he continues, longing as he always was for love, " It remains for us, my dear sister, to draw still closer the bonds of our friendship, to cling still more closely to each other, now that we have lost such a support, and often to remind each other of him who has left us. Peace be to his ashes, and may his soul delight itself in his children." FREDERIC SCHLEIERMACHER. 209 At Landsberg, also, he partook of a happy family life, and there he made his first attempt at authorship. At the instiga- tion of Sack, he translated " Blair's Sermons." In the pulpit he gave, and even then to a great concourse of people, the best that he had to offer. His sermons were not generally written, but they were the product of his hours of holy contempla- tion. In 1796 he removed from Landsberg to Berlin. He had the choice between a lucrative post in Brandenburg and the Chap- laincy of the Charite at Berlin. He disinterestedly gave up the more lucrative office to an older man, but was indemnified for it by the greater intellectual advantages of Berlin. The six years which he spent in the capital had a most important in- fluence upon his mental development. j His ideas concerning the renewal of spiritual life were yet slumbering in the recesses of his own mind ; but in order to appear before the public with any decided effect, his mind required to be ripened by intercourse with congenial minds on an equality with his own. Strenuous mental exertion was natural to him, but he required the refreshment of social inter- course, and this he found at Berlin. There he met with his old friend Gustav von Brinckman, Alexander Dohna, afterwards minister, Scharnhorst, Henrietta Herz, and Frederic Schlegel. The two latter exercised the greatest influence upon Schleiermacher during the next few years. The lady, because he found in her a congenial friend, who, while always appreciating his views on the most sacred subjects, incited him to more practical life, and Schlegel's in- fluence was animating and exciting, both from the fertility of his mind and from his facility in giving expression to its treasures. Interesting as these friendships are, it is impossible to go deeply into the subject of them herfe ; and in consequence of the many misunderstandings which they have occasioned, it would be useless to go into them superficially. Henrietta Her^ was the beautiful and intellectual wife of a Jewish physician, Marcus Herz. She afterwards became a Christian. 210 FREDERIC SCHLEIERMACHER. The importance of her friendship to Schleiermacher is shown by the fact that, during the composition of his ' Discourses on Eeligion ' at Potsdam in 1799, he was in constant communi- cation with her about them, and they were first sent to her both in manuscript and in print. In this work he comes forth with the strength of a victor to meet refined scoffers at religion. It is not that he despises refined culture, he is no stranger to its varied manifestations, neither to pomp and show, to art nor to social life ; on the contrary, he takes the keenest interest in all, but for this very reason, he cannot bear the contempt with which religion is treated, when she is deprived of her peculiar characteristics, and made subordinate to other things. He reveals the deepest source from which religion springs, the self- consciousness of man. But after descending into these depths, he rises again and shows that the living water of life invigorates the whole life of man ; that religion effects a community of interests; in which the individual finds himself elevated by the spirit which embraces all mankind. It is impossible to give an idea of the impression which these ' Discourses ' made at the time. Glaus Harms, who read the book as a student, says that he felt as if two screws were being applied to his temples, so powerfully did it oppose all his pre- vious ideas ; and when he had finished it, the conviction came over him that rationalism, aesthetics, all our self-knowledge, and our own works, go for nothing in the plan of salvation, which he saw must come from another source. And, like Glaus Harms, many have received from these ' Discourses ' an impetus in their spiritual progress. With them Schleiermacher had taken leave of the old century ; he greeted the new one with his ' Monologues.' They are more widely known than the ' Discourses,' and allowance being made for the style of the time, and bearing in mind that it is only through the mediation of the Son of God who became flesh, that man can have his life inG-od perpetually renewed, they are still a beautiful description of human life according to the ■ original intention of the Greater. For it was this original ideal of life that Schleiermacher desired to describe, not as though FREDERIC SCHLEIERMACHER. 2ir he had himself fally apprehended it, but knowing well, " That life as we see it, is continually vacillating between its ideal and its caricature." One of the results of Schleiermacher's intimate acquaintance with Frederic Schlegel was his appearance as an author, but it gave rise to one work which has placed him in a false light. They were united in the bonds of the closest friendship, they lived together, they shared everything, and the little events of domestic life gave occasion for the most animated mental in- tercourse. Schleiermacher's enthusiastic affection made him entertain the highest opinion of his friend, though his faults were not nnperceived by him. Their paths afterwards diverged. Schlegel became a Eomau Catholic, while Schleiermacher re- mained a Protestant. It was about this time that Schlegel wrote his romance, called ' Lucinda,' a book of an evil teiidency both in matter and manner. It was an attempt to counteract the prevailing low and superficial views on the subject of love, but advocated open license instead of sensuality under the garb of virtue. The approbation which the book received from the men of genius of that day is only to be explained by their deep aversion to the philistinism * of the time, and by their romantic desire for a poetic conception of life. Of course the book was attacked by people of simple burgher morals. But Schleier- macher wrote ' Confidential Letters on Lucinda ' ; they were disquisitions on friendship, love, and chastity, full of subtle irony and striking truths, and displaying a keen appreciation of the subjects of which they treat. But he unfortunately introduced into them what he approved of in ' Lucinda,' and it is a pity that so much mind and taste were wasted upon such a subjecft If this book was an error, a much greater one, indeed the great mistake of his life, was the relation in which he stood at this time to the wife of a clergyman, an intellectual woman, unhappily married. Schleiermacher was desirous to rescue her, and wished her to obtain a divorce, in order that she might be united to him. * See p. 20. 212 FREDERIC SCHLEIERMACHER. Of this, however, after bitter grief, he repented, and after- wards proclaimed, by word and deed the inviolable sanctity of the marriage tie.* This position of affairs made it welcome to him to be removed to Stolpe as court preacher in 1802. The income was not large, and he had to pay for the title which he did not want. Amidst dreary domestic circumstances, in which the family element which he so much prized was wanting, he found peace in retreating into himself, and in devoting himself to his duties, and to his study. While writing his ' Critique on the Doctrines of Morality,' a book very difficult to understand, and, therefore, accessible to but few, he was imparting the riches of his inner life to his congregation in animating sermons. While translating Plato's Dialogues, he was devoting himself with his whole heart to catechizing the youth under his charge. He felt it laid upon him to do something for the church, and the pitiful state into which it had sunk, partly through the fault of its ministers, grieved him deeply. He wrote from Stolpe : " On Wednesday the Synod of this diocese was held, and the provost was so civil as to invite me. It took up nearly the whole day. How melancholy it made me ! Ah, my dear friend, to be among thirty-five clergymen such as they were. I will not say I was ashamed to be one, but I looked forward with longing to the time, it is to be hoped not very far off, when things will not be as they are now. I shall not live to see it, but if I could but do anything to hasten it. I am not speaking of the openly bad, though I dare say there were some such among the number, but the general low standard, the absence of appreciation of anything noble, the X&sfi and grovel- ling way of thinking, — and I was the only one who took it to heart. I must have been, for I knoc^d at so many doors that I must have found it out, if there had been any others." Schleiermacher had already the gratifying consciousness that he. was producing an effect among his countrymen. * From the ' Life and Letters of Schleiermacher ' it appears, however, that it was the lady who first repented, gave up the project of divorce, and resolved to remain with her husband. — Tk. FREDERIC SCHLEIERMACHER. 213 Many persons, both men and women, had expressed their thanks to him for the excitement or renewal of their interest in religion by means of his ' Discourses ' and ' Monologues.' The novel, gifted, and strikingly powerful manner in which he grasped the subject of theology could not be long without effect in Germany. In 1804 he was elected professor of practical theology at the University of Wiirzburg. The idea of having to deliver lectures took him by surprise; he considered his knowledge in many respects too deficient, but he would probably have accepted the office had not the Prussian government refused permission, and at the same time offered him a pro- fessorship of theology at HaUe, and the office of preacher to the university. He went there in the autumn of 1804, and invited his half-sister, Nanny, to live with him, that the sunshine of feminine society might not be wanting in his home, and she remained with him after his marriage, until, in 1817, she be- came the wife of Ernst Moritz Amdt. The new calling of an academical teacher awakened all his powers. He bestowed equal care upon the matter and the manner of his lectures ; they were principally upon ethics and divinity, and expositions of the New Testament. He seldom preached, as public worship was only established in the uni- versity in 1806, and the Lutheran pulpits were still closed 'to the preachers of the reformed faith, although the distinction between their creeds appeared to many of the ministers as senseless as it did to Schleiermacher. Having found it im- possible to work at Plato with F. Schlegel, on account of not being able to rely upon him, he continued it alone. His ' Celebration of Christmas,' a dialogue written during his resi' denee at Ealle, bears testimony both to his religious life, and to his occupation with that great master of dialogue. It brings out the various conceptions of the person of Christ in a most attractive maimer, set as it were in the frame of a domestic festival, and pervaded by a genial warmth which makes the little book still acceptable to Christian readers. At Halle he formed a friendship with Heinrich Steffens, with 21.4 .FREDERIC SCHLEIERMACHER. whom he shared, with manly patriotism, the fate which befell the university after the battle of Jena. Having brought Sohleiermacher's life to this point, we might proceed to the description of the powerful influence which, after the deep humiliation of his country, he exercised upon the renovation of its life, and particularly of its religions life, but we pause for a moment in order to present to our readers a more complete picture of Sohleiermacher's " striking indivi- duality," for it was from this that his influence arose. With an eager cultivation of knowledge he joined an equally ardent cultivation of the affections by means of friendship, not only by correspondence, but by personal intercourse. In the immediate influence of a man upon his fellow-men he took especial pleasure. And while he could not feel entire satisfaction in his home as long as his country was prostrate, yet he felt that the chief glory of that country, and that which lay nearest to his heart, consisted in its beautiful domestic life. Schleiermacher's correspondence, lately published, must have presented the great theologian in quite a new aspect to those who were only acquainted with him through his learned works. While Christian doctrine has risen, partly on his shoulders, to heights far above those to which he attained, the character of the man comes before us once more as an example of moral life in all its aspects. Indeed, although we may feel that his theology is very incomplete, God has rarely given us a man who devoted himself so entirely to the service of his fellow- men. But it was always his endeavour, while labouring for the good of the community, to enrich his own mind by inter- course with superior men, and to impart to others the fulness of his own life. And in this respect he set a very high value on the influence of woman. He endeavoured to awaken in their minds their mostly unsuspected aspirations towards a higher life, and when awakened, to draw thence inspiration for himself. Schleiermacher's social intercourse was surprisingly rich, and his family affection unquenchable. His love for his brothers and sisters was beautiful, as it appears in descriptions to his FREDERIC SCHLEIERMACHER. 215 sister 'Charlotte of the meetings which took place several times a week between himself and his brother Charles at Berlin ; and how intimate were his relations with this sister during the whole of his life ! They differed widely in their religious views. While the bonds of the United Brethren were tod strait for his soaring spirit, she felt herself at home among them from child- hood to old age. She was not one of those rare women who have either the powers of mind or the inclination for deep investigation ; her character was simple and easily satisfied. But how carefully, nevertheless, Schleiermacher cherished brotherly intercourse with her ! how faithfully he imparted his rich intellectual life to the quiet Moravian, not even concealing from her what she might be likely to misunderstand ! he wished her to share the best of his enjoyments. As soon as he left his father's house, he began to feel a great desire for friendship. He relates in a letter that in an early stage of his mental development he had two friends. They were both alike in earnest aspiration, and in a tone of thought which distinguished them from those arouiid them. One died early ; the other, Albertini, remained from piety, and a timid nature, in a position from which Schleiermacher escaped ; this friendship declined from want of intercourse, though they continued to regard each other with affection. When at Schlobitten he became acquainted with Wedeke, a country clergyman, " a noble-minded man of a simple and genuine character, of true morality and pure love of truth, living a patriarchal kind of life." But, besides disparity of age, there were mental differences which stood in the way of intimate friendship. But at ' Schlobitten, the elder sisters of his pupils, particularly the Countess Frederioa, exercised great influence on the formation of his character. He says of her, " Of art I was ignorant, and had no knowledge of the influence of woman. My mind was opened to the value of the latter in the domestic circle in Prussia. The merit of having done me this service was, I hope, not the most insignificant result of Frederioa's beautiful life. It was only through acquaintance with the female mind that I learnt the true value of life." 2i6 FREDERIC SCHLEIERMACHER. But it was in Berlin that the delights of friendship first fully opened to him. Besides the friends before mentioned, there was Beimer, the publisher, a man of a truly national character, who may be compared to Perthes in the lofty disinterestedness with which he forwarded valuable literary undertakings for their own sake, and for the devotion with which he served his country, although very different from him in other respects. » It was a happy moment in which their hearts first opened to each other, Schleiermacher had caught a glimpse of Eeimer's conjugal happiness, and a happy marriage always delighted him. - He pressed his friend's hand, and said, after a short pause, " When my life becomes clear to me, and is perfected like yours, you shall witness it." Eeimer embraced him with the words, " We will no longer be strangers to each other in anything." They were both then about three-and-thirty years of age, so that their intimacy had nothing of youthful enthusiasm about it, but was maintained amidst earnest labours for their country. During the latter part of his life, untU his death, Schleiermacher occupied part of Eeimer's handsome house. The University of Halle, in which they both ranked among the most distinguished teachers, brought Schleiermacher and Stefiens together. They were animated by the same enthu- siasm ; in Schleiermacher it was ah all-pervading glow, in Steffens a brilliant flame. There was much similarity in their views ; and in the different spheres in which they worked, each helped to perfect the other. Their friendship took deep root, and Schleiermacher, who was then suffering keenly from dis- appointment, and thought the bloom of life was gone for him, took heart for the sake of his friend. But we have still to describe the best treasures that love and friendship had in store for him. In May, 1801, he went with Henrietta Herz and her daughter to Prenzlau ; he wished to make acquaintance with a theologian, Ehrenfried von Willich, who had been greatly attracted to Schleiermacher through his ' Monologues.' They made good use of the three days they were together ; they were deep in conversation on the highest subjects, the last thing at FREDERIC StHLEIERMACHER. ^\^ night and the first thing in the morning. But the hour of parting arrived. A large party was assembled in the house of a friend, the punch-bowl steamed, and song after song was sung. Schleiermacher and Willich were deep in the most con- fidential discourse, one mental recess was opened after another, they were drawn more and more closely together. Henrietta Herz was delighted, for her friendship was entirely free from jealousy. "My heart was very full after you left," she wrote to Schleiermacher ; " I was touched and pleased to see how intimate you and Willich were becoming, and I would gladly have extended to both the friendship that one possesses already. All left, and I was alone ; this was pleasant to me, for I could think of you without interruption. Much moved, and with a genuine sentiment of devotion, I felt the force of all that is good and beautiful. When they returned, Willich came and sat by me ; he was in the same frame of mind, and we cherished your memory together. He told me that he had not felt so devout for a long time ; I was pleased with this unity of sentiment, and was silent." This was the sort of friendship that prevailed among Schleier- macher's friends. Let not him who cannot comprehend it, on that account despise it ; for in these days the power of indi- vidual attraction among men appears to have wonderfully diminished. Schleiermacher's acquaintance with Willich was a source of the greatest happiness to him. He felt at once that his friend- ship was more valuable to him than that of Schlegel. " He has not," Schleiermacher wrote, " the deep, all-embracing spirit of Frederic Schlegel, but our hearts are in many respects more congenial, and his views of life are more like mine." A visit which Willich paid to Berlin confirmed the friendship, and it was kept up by frequent correspondence. As soon as WilUch had obtained a living at Biigen, his native place, he introduced Schleiermacher to the circle of his friends there. One of these was Charlotte von Kathen, a noble woman of superior mind and great warmth of heart. With her also the ' Monologues ' were the bond of union. 2i8 FREDERIC SCHLEIERMACHER. Willich also iutrodaced her sister, Henrietta von Miihlenfels, to his friend as his betrothed. She was only sixteen ; in many respects still but a bud, but a bud of fairest promise and sweetest perfume. Schleiermacher again appears before us as the patron saint of happy unions ; he had thought so much on the subject of love and marriage, and yet this happiness, on which he set the highest value, appeared so distant in his own case. But he rejoiced in every fresh marriage among his friends, as if he augured from it a promise of his own future bliss. . Through the friendship of these people, Eiigen became the brightest spot of earth to him, and after a visit he. paid there in 1804, the affectionate intercourse with his friends was like the echo of a sweet melody in his life. " Believe me, Ehrenfried," he wrote after his return to his solitude at Stolpe, " I can take a pure and unalloyed pleasure in the happiness which is not for me. Your happiness, instead of depressing, consoled me." He could not be present at the wedding, which took place in September, 1804, but he wrote a benediction to his friends. " You invited me to be with you, iny dear friends, and so, indeed, I am, for is not a man where his spirit is ? I do not know who is consecrating your union, perhaps a perfect stranger, but if you do not like, his address, listen to me instead. You know where to find what would be the essence of my marriage address in the ' Monologues ; ' you know also of that beautiful mystery of Christ and the Church, how she is buUt up through His love, how she extols and glorifies Him, and how she is to subdue and sanctify the world. You know Christ's sublime prayer that she may be one with Him, and so you know what. I should say to you. My daughter, — for I usurp a father's office to-day, — I give you to the man who is my friend and brother. You know the eye that has often overflowed when gazing on your beloved countenance. It overflows now ■with fatherly pride and holy sadness. And I consecrate you for all the joys and sorrows before you ; but in your case they yvill ever be blended. I consecrate you for all that we call duties, but which your loving heart will always render as a free FREDERIC SCHLEIERMACHER. 219 tribute of affection for the great calling upon which you are entering, the holiest to which you can aspire. And you, my beloved brother, when you receive the sweet girl from the hands of our dear Charlotte, receive her also from mine. You will be everything to her, — ^husband, father, brother, son, friend, and lover, — and yet we shall all be able to be to you both what it behoves us to be. I cradle your marriage on its birthday, in my fatherly arms, and smile on it with a father's eye ; let me often witness its engaging childishness, its merry roguery, its holy earnestness. Let all your friends say of your union, ' Premature wisdom and eternal youth ! ' A life hidden from the world, but rich and vigorous in the consciousness of immortality. I salute you with aU the love of which my heart is capable." When he received intelligence of the fulfilment of this happi^ ness, his enthusiasm broke out afresh. The intimate intercourse between the friends was continued, and the grave events 6f 1806 introduced a tone of manly and courageous patriotism into the correspondence. In March, 1807, Schleiermacher learnt from a heartrending letter from the widow that her Ehrenfried had been suddenly taken from her. " I entreat you,'' she wrote, " by all that you hold dear and holy, to assure me, if you can, that I shall find him and know him again. Tell me your opinion about it. I should be annihilated if this faith were to fail me." It must be confessed that Schleiermacher did not possess that simple faith which alone can give peace and consolation concerning the death of our beloved ones, but his answer was full of affection and of faith in the immortality of the true life. " Dear Jette, what shall I say to you ? Certainty beyond this life has not been granted us. Do not misunderstand me ; I mean that there is no certainty for the fancy which loves to see everything in defined forms, but there is the greatest cer- tainty, indeed, we could be sure of nothing if not of that, — that there is no death, no destruction for the soul. But the personal life is not the essence of the soul, it is only an appear? 220 FREDERIC SCHLEIERMACHER. ance. How this will be reproduced we do not know ; we can- not hnaw anything about it, we can only imagine. But you may allow free course to your loving and devout imagination in your sacred grief ; do not attempt to hinder it. Its piety will prevent it from desiring anything contrary to the eternal laws of God, and therefore there will be a truth in the fancies in which you indulge." Schleiermacher faithfully fulfilled his office of consoler by means of correspondence. The young widow gave birth to a second child, a son, soon after her husband's death. Her im- pressible mind was much influenced by the words of her friend, and she felt that her character was deepened and strengthened ' by her correspondence with him. In the summer of 1808 he went to Eiigen, and his visit led to his betrothal with Henrietta von Willich. Both were certain that the departed would bless their union, and that he would rejoice to see his wife and children under the protection of his best friend. The engagement lasted till May in the following year, 1809. His love-letters are among the most beautiful that have been left ns by superior men, for mature and earnest sentiments are combined in them with the youthful freshness of love. There is no wild enthusiasm overpowering the mind ; they are per- vaded by a gentle, animating, composed spirit. This love was the result of the wonderful dealings of God, and it exhales the dew of His blessing. It came from God ; to God it would re- turn ; but it was permitted upon earth, for their own enjoyment and the edification of their friends. Some have thought that there was something effeminate in Schleiermaoher's character, because he sought to preserve in his mind so much freshness of feeling, because of his fondness for influencing women and being influenced by them, because he so zealously cherished whatever was beautiful in individual character, and was fond of observing in particular marriages the peculiarities of the life of love. But all this was only the more private and confidential sphere, from which he influenced the community at large. It indicates FREDERIC SCHLEIERMACHER. 221 the harmony of his character, not any want of manly power. The wonderful acnteness with which he buOt up the knowledge of divine things anew was certainly a manly quality ; so was the ability with which he fulfilled every calling assigned to him, and especially the power, the courage, the boldness, the clear- ness of view, the circumspection and perseverance with which he served his country. In this respect he shares his honours with Stein, Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, and Wilhelm von Hom- boldt. This patriotic activity is not to be separated from what we now have to describe, — his influence upon the revival of religious life. He was not among those who turned to God in repentance and faith from the distress of the times ; before "Germany had sliccumbed to the chastisement sent her by God, his religious convictions in the most essential particulars had been formed ; and it was because he was equipped for the great conflict with earnest devotion, with a clear view of what makes life worth having, with entire submission to the divine will, and a sanctified energy in carrying out his purposes, that he stood on a prophetic height among his people, that he could discern the signs of the times, and turn the prevailing dismay to ad- vantage in promoting the revival of the divine life. Schleiermacher belonged, like Arndt and Fichte, to those clear-sighted men who ascribe to Germany a special vocation among the family of nations, through the depth and intensity of her religious life. In the Eeformation they recognized a return to the task assigned to her by God ; and they regarded the conflict with France not only as a defence of territory, but a struggle for the preservation of intellectual, moral, and re- ligious life. Arndt was indefatigable in endeavouring to awaken his countrymen to a consciousness of their nationality. Fichte addressed himself in his discourses immediately to Germans ; and Schleiermacher's 'Discourses on Eeligion' were addressed exclusively to the " sons of Germany." It was his strong con- viction that these were "the only people who were capable, and therefore worthy, of having their minds awakened to holy and divine things." He reproaches the proud Islanders at that time with having 222 FREDERIC SCHLEIERMACHER. no other watchwords than enjoyment and gain ; and even at a later period, when Christian zeal was extraordinarily active in England, he would not give it credit from being quite free from political and mercantile motives. It was, however, French influence, threatened by the invasion of Napoleon, which it was needful for Germans to oppose with all their might. He was firmly convinced that Napoleon had a special hatred for the idealism and profound mental life of Germany, for the spirit of Protestantism, and for that free and mighty faith which over- comes the world. " Germany exists still," he says in the ' Discourses.' " Her invisible strength is not diminished, and she will yet return to fulfil her calling with more power than she is suspected of possessing. She will prove herself worthy of her ancient heroes and of her boasted vigour of constitution ; for it is her special calling to develop this principle of Protestantism, and she will yet rise up with a giant's strength to do it." During the political storms of 1806, his devout patriotism was displayed both in his social intercourse and in his sermons. When, in the summer of 1806, a fear arose that Napoleon would attack Sweden, he wrote encouraging letters to his friends at Eiigen, who were under Swedish rule. Thus, in June, 1806, he wrote to Charlotte von Kathen: "And now, dear friend, if your king resolves upon a determined resistance, you must be of good courage, and be willing to sacrifice everything in order that you may gain everything ; and you must reckon all that is preserved to you as something gained. You must remember that no one stands alone, that no one can save himself ; you must remember that our very life is rooted in German freedom and German views, and it is these that are at stake. . Would you not undergo any dangers, any sufferings, to prevent our posterity from being sacrificed to ignominious slavery, from being subjected to every insult, and from falling, into the debased condition of a subject people ? Believe me, sooner or later a struggle will arise in which we shall have to defend our sentiments, our religion, our intellectual culture, no less than our property and our personal freedom. We cannot shun the FREDERIC SCHLEIERMACHER. 223 conflict. The victory cannot be won by kings and their hired soldiers ; it must be won by rulers and their people combined. It wOl unite people and princes more closely than they have been united for ages ; all must take part in it, as they value the common weal. The crisis for Germany, and Germany is the heart of Europe, is as clearly before my eyes as this more limited one is before yours. There is thunder in the air, and I wish that a storm would hasten the explosion, for it is useless to think that it will pass over." When this was written, the Prussians had been already defeated at Jena, and Halle was in the power of the French. Together with Steffens, Schleiermacher had witnessed the taking and plundering of the town, but he was not to be intimidated when the French invaders endeavoured to prevent any informa- tion being given of it by the inhabitants. If Halle was given to a French prince he would not stay there, but take refuge in the last corner of territory that remained to Prussia. From his conviction of Napoleon's hatred to the national mind of the Germans, he was prepared for the worst ; indeed, even wished to sacrifice his life for the common cause. " Unless the wheel of fortune turns,'' he wrote, "he (Napoleon) will soon attack the Protestantism he so much hates, and then it will be my special post to come forward. In these days no one can tell what may be before him ; there may be martyrs again, martyrs of science and religion." He expresses confidence in the king that he will not conclude an ignominious peace, because, though surrounded by so much fear and cowardice, both he and the queen have maintained more noble views. He showed his own willingness to make any sacrifices. He continued to live, in the most needy cir- cumstances, at HaUe after its capture, and declined an invitation to go to Bremen, as he preferred remaining at Halle as long as there was any hope of retaining his influence among the youth. If this tope were entirely extinguished, he would go somewhere else, imd labour for Prussia's restoration to life. " Napoleon hates Protestantism, just as he hates speculation," he wrote to his friend Willich. " What I said in the ' Discourses ' has not 224 FREDERIC SCHLEIERMACHER. turned out incorrect. When it comes, my friend, we will stand at our posts, and not flinch. I wish I had a wife and children, that I might not be behind any one in such a case." It was his opinion that death is the forerunner of life, in a patriotic sense as well as in other senses. He did not grieve that the patched and untenable character of the Prussian monarchy should be destroyed. He saw clearly that the scourge must pass over the whole of Germany, if a better and brighter state of things was to be the result. " It will be well for those who live to see it," he exclaimed, " and those who die must die in faith." His faith was, " that Ger- many, the heart of Europe, will arise again under fairer auspices." At length he left Halle, for it was no longer Prus- sian. " It is my intention," he wrote to Charlotte von Kathen, " to follow the fortunes of my country, Prussia, so long as she exists and is not quite unworthy of this resolve. But should she be entirely overwhelmed by misfortune, I will seek a country, as long as I can, where Germans rule and where a Protestant can live." From the moment when Jerome Bonaparte wielded the sceptre at Halle he would not stay there, not even when, as was afterwards the case, he restored the university. "After prayer was ordered for the King and Queen of Westphalia," he wrote to his friend, "I could not ascend the pulpit." He went to Berlin, in order to find some sphere of labour there. Schleiermacher endeavoured to inspire the people from the pulpit with the exalted sentiments to which his correspondence bears testimony. His originality, the freshness and fulness of a religious life, not confined within any of the existing fomulas, that could not be identified with any existing party, Bad exer- cised a great effect upon the people before the brea,king out of the war; but just because he belonged to no existing party there were the most contradictory opinions concerning him. He was said, in turn, to be a rationalist, a follower of Spinoza, a Moravian, and a Koman Catholic in disguise. But that he proclaimed the fundamental truths of Christianity in a manner calculated to elevate his countrymen, no one could doubt who FREDERIC SCHLEIERMACHER. 225 knew what he was in the pulpit in the days of his country's distress. Not less courageous than Fichte, he was continually telling his hearers, under various forms of expression, during the period of French rule, that this subjection would not last, if G-ermany would only have faith in God, who had given her a great work to do. It was in accordance with the nature of the case that he made less mention of the second article of faith than the first, but the doctrines of the first- — that there is a God who rules the world, that there is a kingdom of truth and justice, that everything must be sacrificed for the sake of this kingdom — he taught as they have been revealed to us by the Son who was in the bosom of the Father. His wonderful acuteness and mastery of logic enabled him to drive the subter- fuges of self-interest into the remotest corner, to tear off the dazzling mask from grovelling sentiments, and, inspired by the fulness of the divine life that burned within him, he draws a picture of the new state of things that must arise. There was indeed something novel in these sermons, and it bore fruit in many minds ; in this doctrine of love to a generation whose selfishness was leading it to ruin ; in this apprehension of life in all its manifold aspects, its origin and aim, at a time when State and home, knowledge and social life seemed to be all falling asunder; in this fine and manly language, which derived a charm from the enthusiasm of the speaker and the peculiarity of his subject. How surprised must those timid people have been who took refuge in the church from the troubles of the time, when Schleiermacher endeavoured to infuse courage and confidence into their hearts. The principle of all his political sermons, though the term political is scarcely appropriate, may be found in the one preached in the summer of 1806 at Halle : " How greatly it adds to the dignity of man when he attaches himself with his whole heart to the community of citizens to which he belongs ! " He argues in favour of patriotism instead of cosmopolitanism, against the principle of leaving all care for the welfare of the community to the ministers of State, for he thinks that all should take a lively interest in public affairs. He applies the Q 226 FREDERIC SCHLEIERMACHER. Apostle's words, " So then you are no more strangers and pilgrims, but fellow-citizens with the saints and of the house- hold of God," to earthly citizenship; and shows that the cosmopolitan is not only a stranger and pilgrim in his own country, but everywhere, for he has no strong bond of union with any one, — he is wanting in love, devotion, and sympathy, and has no certain sphere of action. He teaches that it is the will of G-od that peoples should be united by a common language and national peculiarities ; that an ardent patriotism ennobles human life in all its aspects ; that a man without it is not so likely to see what is worthy of admiration even in a foreign nation. He shows that the bonds of friendship are drawn closer by this common bond ; bi:ave sons are reared for their country in the sanctity of home ; and learning, however widely its empire may extend, takes deepest root in the country where it has been acquired. He directs the cosmopolitan, who says that patriotism is too narrow a senti- ment for him, to the example of Christ, who laboured among the Jews ; and to the Apostle of the Gentiles, whose love was ever ardent for his " brethren according to the flesh." When the worst came, and Halle was occupied by the French, it was Schleiermacher's earnest desire that no peace should be made ; but it was natural that many weak-minded people should be of a different opinion, and say that, if peace were only restored, they should be able to live a godly life. To combat this opinion, Sehleiermacher declared, with holy irony, . that "wherever God rules, there is peace." But, because God rules, he declares relentless war against the enemies of God ; lauds the heroism which sacrifices itself for such a cause ; and for the conduct of life he draws, from the peace which exists in the kingdom of God, the double conclusion, that we must not be so misguided as to sacrifice our inward peace to outward repose, and that we must take heed to preserve it through every step in life. It was in this way that he endeavoured to lead men from outward strife to the peace of God, and from this inward peace to an earnest combat with the principle of evil. He held in FREDERIC SCHLEIERMACHER. 227 one hand the oil with which to heal the wounds ; in the other, the wine to give the sufferer strength to stand. He preached a sermon " On the Use of National Misfortune," from the text, " All things work together for good to them that love God," and pointed out that these words are true only for them that love God, not for them whose love is set upon earthly possessions ; that the chief use of the sorrows of their country was to increase their knowledge of God and of themselves, to give them an insight into their national sins, in which all had a share of guilt, to increase their faith that godly sorrow would be followed by joy. But those have nothing to look to but fear and confusion who have no desire to be changed into the likeness of God, but who care only to enjoy the good things of this life. The sermon preached on the last Sunday of the unhappy year 1806 gives evidence of the faith that death is the fore- runner of life, for he gives it as his opinion that the latter times are not worse than the former, neither as respects domestic, civU, nor religious life ; and he had arrived at this conclusion from the fact that misfortune had deepened family affection, and had given rise to renewed activity in the service of the State, had awakened a greatly increased interest in religion;, and he hailed all this as a great improvement on the superficial views which had previously prevailed. On New Year's Day, 1807, he preached upon the text " Fear not them that kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul ; but rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in heU." And with his usual depth and earnestness he draws the distinction between the visible and invisible, between that which will pass away and that which will endure, between that which belongs to the flesh and that which belongs to the spirit ; and he exhorts to the sacrifice of everything that God calls for, in order that the soul may abide in his favour. The same spirit pervades the sermon, probably preached in Halle, on 1 Cor. vii. 29, 30 : " But this I say, brethren, the time is short ; it remaineth that both they that have wives be as though they had none, and they that weep as though they wept not, and they that rejoice as though they rejoiced not, and they 228 FREDERIC SCHLEIERMACHER. that buy as though they possessed not." In this sermon he says that the best preservative against being enslaved by the world consists in setting the true and Christian value on the things of this life ; and when all that renders life lovely is taken from us, he deprecates a stupid apathy no less than morbid regret for what is lost. " Now, then," he concludes, " let us be strong and brave ; let all who are zealously working for a common cause, all who are personally attached, encourage and uphold each other; let us join in opposing all seductive and effeminate weakness ; let us enter into a bond of truth and love, to help us in striving after everything that is beautiful and good, in following Him who is the author and finisher of our faith, who has prepared no other way for us to enter into the kingdom of God than that which He trod himself, the path of much tribulation." At another time, in the midst of general gloom, he preached on Komans xii. 21, " Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good," exhorting his hearers to perseverance in the conflict with threatening evil. Neither the courage nor the discretion of the Christian should ever forsake him, nor must he allow himself to be robbed of his cheerfulness and serenity. These exhortations are adapted to all times ; but he who pictures to himself as he reads them the circumstances which gave rise to them, cannot fail to admire the preacher who, amidst them all, maintained his courage, his self-possession and cheerfulness, nor to think the hearers happy who were thus strengthened and comforted. How valuable one such man may be in times of universal alarm ! In the summer of 1807 he gave lectures on Greek philosophy to a large and intellectual audience in Berlin. Varnhagen says that " they were delivered entirely without notes, or even any memoranda of the Greek quotations, and were yet remarkable for the eloquence of the language." He also seized every opportunity of preaching. During the following summer, though engrossed with his marriage engage- ment, his political activity was as great as ever. Prussia was in the deepest humiliation, and the presence of the French FREDERIC SCHLEIERMACHER. 229 troops prevented any rising against the oppressor. Still the most influential men were looking forward to, and preparing for war with France. It was hoped that Austria and the North German provinces not subject to Prussia would join with her, that England would lend her aid, and that the war in Spain would hinder Napoleon's progress in Germany. No open pre- paration was possible : all that could be done was to arm in secret, and to enlighten the minds of the people, as was done by Stein and Scharnhorst. Meanwhile all who were warmly attached to their country throughout the whole of North Germany formed a close but secret alliance for the purpose of obtaining and spreading exact intelligence concerning their own strength and that of the enemy. Schleiermacher was just returned from his betrothal when he was deputed by some of the most zealous patriots of Berlin to undertake a political mission to Konigsberg, then the seat of the Court and Government. He gave an account of this journey in a series of remarkable letters, in which public events are veiled in the narration of family affairs, and the chief per- sonages are mentioned under fictitious names. He had the pleasure of staying in the house of his old friend Wedeke, and it increased his desire to establish a home of his own ; but in looking forward to it he always kept in view with steadfast courage that it might be needful to sacrifice everything for the good of his country. "I feel full of trust," he wrote to his betrothed, "and I cannot tell you how happy it makes me that our engagement occurs during the present situation of public afi'airs. The one gives dignity to the other, and each takes its right relative position. If I could not do what I am doing, and I now feel fully able to do it, I should not feel so sure of my right to lay claim to you, your whole existence, and your children. But, on the other hand, without you I should not know what my courage and patriotism were worth. But now I know that I am not behind any one, and that I am worthy of my country and to be a husband and father." And thus in his letters 230 FREDERIC SCHLEIERMACHER. affection for his betrothed and labour for his country are inter- mingled, until they were united in a happy marriage and shared together all the joys and sorrows which public events occa- sioned. On the last evening of the year 1808 he wrote to her : " I shall never despair of my country, I have so firm a belief, I feel so sure, that she is a chosen instrument and people of God. But, whatever happens, I hope that nothing will keep ns much longer apart. With what pleasure I have pictured to myself an eventful time, with you ever at my side, or anxiously looking for my return when I have been engaged in some business calling all my powers into exercise. It is a glorious gift of God to live in a time like this, everything that is beautiful is more deeply felt, and therefore it can be more forcibly ex- pressed. Yes, and even in looking at the simple enjoyment of love, I would rather introduce you into circumstances like the present than to a secluded and idyl-like existence. For how can love be better glorified than by drawing everything that is great and noble in life into its sphere ; so, come what will, let us be prepared to meet it with energy and joy." In May, 1809, when hope was beginning to dawn for the country through the spirited commencement of the war in Austria, Schleiermacher brought home his bride, and founded a domestic happiness which remained fresh and green to the end. In the same year he was appointed preacher at the Trinity Church. This leads us back to the sermons by means of which, according to the testimony of their contemporaries, he and Fichte changed the character of public opinion in the Prussian capital. In his former political sermons he endea- voured to awaken patriotic feeling in the midst of the destruc- tion of the State, but in 1808 he begins to refer more definitely to its reform. His sermons prepared the way for what was undertaken by Stein and Scharnhorst. On the 24th of December, 1808, the birthday of Frederic the Great, he defined in a masterly manner the proper limits of reverence for former national greatness. Taking for a text Christ's words about the temple of Jerusalem, " Verily I say unto you there shall not be left one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down,'* FREDERIC SCHLEIERMACHER. 231 he shows how obsolete political forms must decay, but mind with its eternal youth must create new and more perfect ones. He censures the wish that it were possible for the great monarch to return ; for if the people hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead. Even the most powerful ruler will effect nothing for a nation which puts all its trust' in a great leader and has no self-reliance. The return of the kingly hero, even if it were possible, would avail nothing, and it is equally vain to wish to restore the worn-out constitution of the State, with all its imperfections, instead of striving to establish a better one. But though in a Christian spirit he censures those who fix all their hopes on the restoration of old times, he has no wish to reject what was good in them, but urges the retention of all that was worthy of praise under the rule of Frederic the Great — diligence and economy, uprightness and justice, the equality of all in the eye of the law, liberty of conscience, and efforts for the diffusion of knowledge. He celebrated the introduction of the regulations for the government of towns, which were a testament of Stein's, who was then outlawed, by a sermon on Romans xiii. 1 — 5, in which he defined the relation of a Christian to his government, and points out that, though it is unworthy of a Christian to be subject merely from fear, yet he must be subject for con- science' sake. Keligion is the enemy of all hypocrisy and fear, and consists of independence, courage, charity, and free- dom. The sermon is a powerful testimony against patriotism, which thinks that it can dispense with religion, and religion which thinks that it can dispense with patriotism. When, in the summer of 1810, the nation was stunned by the sudden death of the queen, Schleiermacher portrayed her character to the congregation with all the affection of a faithful subject, but at the same time quoted Isaiah Iv. 8, 9,* in order * " For my thoughts are not yovir thoughts, neither are your -ways my ways, saith the Lord, for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." 232 FREDERIC SCHLEIERMACHER. to refine and elevate the prevailing grief, that a blessing might result from it to the country. One thing was yet wanting to Schleiermacher after he had secured for himself a pulpit and a home — the professor's chair. Since he had had enthusiastic youth hanging on his words at Halle, the desire to teach was irresistible. Then political misfortune brought " the deep' conviction that a new generation must be born of the spirit, if the country is to have a great future." As soon as he took up his residence at Berlin he began to deliver lectures. Those on Grecian philosophy have already been mentioned. He afterwards lectured on ethics and theology, and later on the doctrines of faith. In conjunction with Fichte, Wolf, and Schmalz, Schleiermacher to a certain extent anticipated the foundation of the University at Berlin, and when it was founded he gave his assistance. " That is right, that is excellent," the King had said when he was con- sulted about it soon after the Peace of Tilsit ; " the State must try to replace by mental strength what it has lost in physical power." Wolf, Fichte, and Schleiermacher were mainly relied on. He forwarded the cause of it essentially by his " Remarks upon Universities, according to the German Idea of them, with an Appendix on the Establishment of a New One." There was a great desire that the new institution should be of a very superior kind ; the old academic forms were like old bottles for new wine. Between philosophic innovations and plans based upon one-sided ideas, Schleiermacher preserved the ancient idea of a university in a renovated form, uniting creative genius with his usual discretion in retaining what was good in old plans. It was opened in the autumn of 1810. It arose during the period of the country's ignominy, and took part in its reno- vation, to which it may be said that it essentially contributed. In the struggle which took place in 1813, the professors and students took an active part both with the sword of the spirit and the sword of steel. Schleiermacher had now found the sphere in which he could FREDERIC SCHLEIERMACHER. 233 gratify his earnest desire to labour for the renovation of the Church in Germany. During a quarter of a century he had awakened an interest in religion in the minds of thousands of young men; he had proclaimed Christ as the alpha and omega of the religious life, and spread abroad his pure enthu- siasm for the kingdom of Grod. He also had a share in the ministry of pubho instruction until 1814, when he resigned it in order to secure time for his office as secretary of the academy. God had given him aU his heart's desires. At Christmas, 1808, he wrote to his betrothed, " If I were in the service of the State, even only as a temporary thing, I should have nothing more to wish for. Learning and the Church, the State and domestic life, — what more can a man want in this world ? and I should belong to the happy few who had taken part in them all." The general rising of the country in 1813 came at last. The King's summons to the volunteers was dated the 3rd of February. It excited an extraordinary commotion in Berlin. Sohleiermacher devoted all his energy to equipping those who gave in their names to him as volunteers, and in March he received a letter of thanks from Breslau from Scharnhorst, on behalf of the State, for the services he had rendered in ex- pediting the volunteers to the places assigned to them, and he alluded to a proposal which Schleiermacher had made for the establishment of a newspaper. This little, undignified - looking man was the soul of the preparations for war in Berlin. He published an address, " To my Countrymen," which was intended to be read in the churches, and Karl von Raumer describes the deep impression made by the sermon which Schleiermacher preached on the same occasion. Indeed the spirit of it is like the refreshing breath of spring, to which the patriotic feeling of the time may be compared. He begins by describing recent events, the memory of which was fresh in the minds of all ; the pleasure with which the departure of their nominal friends, the French, was witnessed ; the joyful recepr tion of the Eussians, their nominal foes ; the arrival of their own troops, and the hopes that were excited that they were now 234 FREDERIC SCHLEIERMACHER. to be employed in fighting against the national enemy ; and how these hopes were now fulfilled by the plain words of the King to his people. He then read the King's proclamation, and dwelt on the happiness of so entire an agreement between the wishes of the King and those of the people. He then read the following passages from Jeremiah : — " Thus saith the Lord ; Cursed be the man that trusted in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord. For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh ; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited. Blessed is the man who trusted in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green ; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit." * " At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and con- cerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it ; if that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to buUd and to plant it ; if it do evU in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them." + With wonderful clearness, and by his humble "we," always including himself in the national guilt, he points out how the nation had brought this chastisement upon itself. He describes the great progress of Prussia under Frederic the Great ; the carnal security produced by consciousness of power, the indo- lent administration of public afiairs, the ignoble views which induced Prussia to endeavour to maintain peace ; then, after a spark of patriotic enthusiasm in 1806, came the fearful fall which was the consequence of the servile state of the national mind. * Jeremiah xvii. 5 — 8. t Jeremiali xviii. 7 — 10. FREDERIC SCHLEIERMACHER. 23S Now, however, after the fearful pitch to which hypocrisy had reached, there was a return to sincerity and hberty, as was shown by the free gifts which were pouring in, and the volun- tary preparations for war. He then read the King's proclama- tion to the militia, and afterwards pointed out the duties of all in the coming struggle. He warns the soldier not to let courage run into arrogance or indiscretion ; he exhorts the people to be ready cheerfully to give up their beloved ones ; he admonishes those who guide the State to faithfulness in making use of the powers now with so much devotion and self-sacrifice placed at their disposal. He then exhorts all to maintain the conflict ■\vith ignoble views in their own minds. " Let every one stand firm at his post. Let every one keep himself fresh and green in the consciousness of the great and holy powers which animate him. Let every one trust in God, and call upon His name." When, in May, 1813, danger seemed to threaten Berlin, Schleiermacher sent his wife and children into Silesia, a measure which he afterwards bitterly regretted, for, after the first great battles, Silesia became the seat of war ; but he re- mained firmly at his^ post. By means of the newspaper which he edited in spite of the vexatious interference of the censor- ship, he exhorted to vigorous measures, especially during the depressing period of the armistice. The victorious days of the summer and autumn of 1813 at length arrived, and he was able to enjoy them in the midst of restored domestic happiness. With the course of events in France in the following year he was kept thoroughly acquainted by means of correspondence with his friends, Steffens and Blanc ; the former of whom was in the campaign as an army chaplain, the latter as a volunteer. After the second taking of Paris, he addressed himself to Gneisenau about the rescue of the literary treasures which Napoleon had taken to Paris. Well might he exclaim, as one who had always acted up- rightly, at the declaration of peace in 1815, " The Lord has chastened us in mercy because He loved us ; He has awakened 236 FREDERIC SCHLEIERMACHER. our dormant powers by sending us troublous times; He has granted us joyful though dearly bought deliverance from the evils that oppressed us ; He has crowned the country, and our King especially, with imperishable, though dearly bought fame ; He has permitted us to begin the fifth century of our national existence with our youth renewed and brighter hopes than ever: crowned with so much mercy, may all hearts be turned to Him, and, shunning every evil way, may all the nation walk in His paths." For the space of twenty years after the restoration of peace, Schleiermacher's sphere of usefulness was very widely extended. He maintained his fearless and inviolable love of truth during those years of startling changes and violent party spirit. When his brother-in-law, Arndt, was deprived of his office, when people began to raise, accusations against the men who had done the most for their country's deliverance, on account of private opinions or expressions used long ago, when what was spoken in the closet and written in confidential letters was not safe from listeners and spies, Schleiermaoher was marked as a suspicious character. But he pursued his own path, and maintained his faithful but long unacknowledged attachment to his King, and he lived to enjoy the satisfaction of entirely re- gaining his copfidence. If it is to be regretted that he was not more closely united to the orthodox party, with whom he en- tirely agreed in regarding Christ as the sole foundation of the religious life, he had nothing in common with those who preached religion as a mere matter of superficial opinion with but scanty influence upon the life. He maintained- a deep and fervent personal piety. He was already under its influence when he wrote the ' Discourses ' and ' Monologues,' and it was more and more practically unfolded in his life. He who judges a theologian simply by his agreement or disagreement with the traditional doctrines of the Church, will perhaps scarcely acknowledge the benefit of Schleiermacher's labour's. The value of his influence consisted in the sincerity and earnestness with which he laboured to restore respect for FREDERIC SCHLEIERMACHER. 237 religion in general, and for Christianity as consisting in a religious life having its foundation in Christ. He is not to be judged by the number of his orthodox opinions, but by the powerful conviction with which he grasped those which he held. His influence is acknowledged by men of the most various theological tendencies. Those are his true disciples who seek in religion for a mystical union of the soul with God, who look to Christ as the sole way to such a union, who sanctify their daily life by the word of God and prayer, who endeavour to make the family a community of saints, who strive to guard the church from all unseemly narrowness, whether proceeding from the authority of the State or from the opinions of the majority of the people. In all these points Schleiermacher was a con- spicuous example. Hie was in the habit of taking journeys for recreation, gene- rally accompanied by attached friends, and among other countries he visited England, Sweden, and the Tyrol. Even in advanced years he used to shun no exertion on these excursions, and was always an active pedestrian. These absences from home gave occasion for the correspondence from which we have the most pleasing insight into his beautiful domestic life. His marriage entirely fulfilled all his hopes and expectations. It was truly a model union, and the volume of family letters in his life may be recommended as a book for family reading. He loved his own children and those of his wife by her former marriage with equal affection. His letters offer many valuable hints on the subject of education, especially that of boys. Youth is apt to confound feeling with action, and sentimental admiration of aU that is great and noble with carrying it steadily out in practice, but Schleiermacher understood the art of in- stilling into the minds of young people the fact that it is their special duty to learn and to improve ; but his grave admonitions were tempered with so much affection, and he took so much pleasure in the freshness of youthful life, that he always won their confidence. He lost the only son whom God had given him at twelve 238 FREDERIC SCHLEIERMACHER. years old. It was characteristic of his greatness of mind and of his noble character that he himself preached the funeral sermon ; "amidst tears," indeed, hut yet with wonderful com- posure, discarding every consolation from which men of less acute minds might have derived support, but finding more in- tense comfort in the words, " Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am." After his son's death he wrote to his friend Gass : " Since the boy began to go to the gymnasium, I made it my business to take him more especially under my care. I had arranged that he should work at his lessons in my room, so that I may truly say that not an hour passed in which he was not in my thoughts, and in which I was not caring for him, so that there is not an hour now in which I do not miss him. There is nothing for it but to submit, and to work off my grief. I neither can nor wish to struggle against it, and I dare not give way to it. On the day of the funeral I began to arrange everything, and now all goes on as usual, only rather more slowly and heavily." Under a well-known portrait of Schleiermacher stand the words, " There is one thing I have always wished for, that I might die in full consciousness, and see death approach with certainty without surprise and without illusion." This wish was granted on the 12th of February, 1834. During the night of the 6th, after suffering from cough and feverishness, he was seized with fearful pain, and said that he could not tell where it was, but that every fibre in his body was in agony. During the severe suffering which lasted during the few remain- ing days of his life, he was in a calm state of mind, perfectly obedient, no murmur escaped him, always gentle and patient, but serious and thoughtful. From the opium that was given him, he was often in a state of half-uneonscious slumber, but his mind was clear enough to be aware of his condition, and he very characteristically said, " But I have times of most divine happiness. I have the deepest speculative thoughts, and with me they are all one with the most devout religious emotions." Once he lifted up his hand and said, with great solemnity, " Now kindle a fire for sacrifice ! " At another time, " My FREDERIC SCHLEIERMACHER. zjg legacy to the children is the saying of John, ' Love one another.' " His heart was full of love, and his mouth spoke out of its abundance. On the last morning, when the death struggle was approach- ing, he uttered his first and last complaint : " Lord ! I am in great suffering." Then, with the signs of approaching death in his countenance, he laid his forefinger on his left eye, as he was in the habit of doing when in deep thought, and said, " I have never attached importance to the dead letter ; we have the atonement of Jesus Christ, His body and blood ; but I have always believed, and believe now, that the Lord Jesus instituted the last supper in water and wine." Wine had been offered to him, and he thus expressed his agreement with the Eastern custom of mixing water with it, to excuse himself for taking water only. He raised himself up, and with great animation, in a clear, strong voice, he asked those present if they were of his opinion, that Jesus blessed the water as well as the wine. On their saying that they were, he said, " Then let us take the communion ; you the wine, and I the water." When the neces- sary things were brought, with a countenance illumined with a wonderful light of fervour and devotion, he uttered a few words of prayer introductory to the ceremony. He then distributed the bread and wine, sajdng the appointed words with a clear voice to each one separately. When it was over he said, " On these words of Scripture I rest ; they are the foundation of my faith." He then pronounced the benediction, and, turniag to his wife with a look of intense affection, said, " In this love and communion we are and shall ever be one." Then, lying back on the pillow, and with the help of loving hands trying for a few moments to find a comfortable position, his eyes gradually closed, and he breathed his last. In the midst of life he had said in the ' Monologues ' — " Yes, my mind shall preserve its vigour in advancing years ; never shall spirit and courage forsake me ; what I rejoice in now I will rejoice in evermore ; firm shall my will remain and strong ~ my imagination. Nothing shall deprive me of the magic key which unlocks for me the mysterious portals of the world 240 FREDERIC SCHLEIERMACHER. above ; never shall the fervour of my love be extinguished. I ■will not behold the dreaded weakness of age ; I vow to despise every calamity which does not affect the objects of my exist- ence ; and I swear to preserve myself in eternal youth." What he vowed to himself, in the spirit, as it were, of the archetypal man, in the faith that would anticipate eternity and infuse into the life of man the power of God, was granted him by the grace of God through the glorifying power of Chris- tianity. CHAPTEE XI. HEINEICH STEFFENS. HEINRICH STEFFENS is worthy to take his place next to the three great renovators of G-erman life — Fichte, Arndt, and Schleiermacher, although his influence was not so great as theirs. In the spring of 1813 his academical lectures were turned, like those of Fichte, into appeals to his hearers to join the holy war. Like Arndt, he took part in the great conflict with France, but as a soldier, and he was with the army when it entered Paris. He was united in the closest bonds of friend- ship with Schleiermacher by the similarity of their views of life and religion ; but their great powers of mind, called forth as they had been by the stirring events of the times, afterwards led them in difierent directions. Schleiermacher, who belonged to the Reformed Church, advocated the cause of union with all the strength of his convictions ; while Stefiens, who was always a Lutheran, became a still more decided one in his later years. Heinrich Steffens came from the northern regions, in which, until quite recently, the Lutheran confession exclusively pre- vailed. His mother was Danish, and he was born in Norway, but his paternal ancestors were natives of Holstein, and it was in Germany that Steffens afterwards took root. He was boin at Stavanger in May, 1773, where his father was Danish sur- geon. In his third year his parents removed to Drontheim, in his seventh to Helsingfors, and in 1785 to the old Danish royal residence, EoeskUde, where his father had received the appoint- ment of army surgeon. His excitable and violent character often brought him into trouble. Rousseau had had great in- fluence upon his principles of education, but they were noi 242 HEINRICH STEFFENS. incompatible with leaving the children very much to themselves. His profession, however, led him to pay great attention to their physical training. They were early accustomed to cold bath- ing, and were almost as much at home in the sea as on the land. Steffens was a forward child ; he could read in his fourth year, and soon after began making rhymes. The uninteresting manner in which he was instructed in the ancient languages gave him a dislike to them, but history, nature, and religion made a deep impression upon his mind. Nowhere is the present so intimately connected with the history of the remote past, fading away into ancient sagas, as in Denmark. Nowhere is the remembrance of it so fostered by education in the national mind. Steflfens experienced in his youth the powerful influence of sagas and legends of gods and queens, sea-kings, and warlike exploits ; and the influence of them was confirmed by the still existing monuments of ancient times, and by the stern and imperishable features of surround- ing nature. But nature had a stUl more powerful influence on his mind than these national legends. The varying scenes which were presented to him by the frequent change of resi- dence of the family, and the books which he found in his father's library, contributed to encourage his taste for the study of nature ; and after it was once awakened, his ideas were not limited to what was before his eyes, but he soared on the wings of fancy to the most distant lands. He often imagined himself in the midst of shady forests and in the glow of tropical climates, far from the bare and lofty mountains and tumultuous seas among which he was born. He says of him- self, "I liked well enough, like other children, to enjoy myself in the open air, and to revel with my companions in the sunshine, amid the treasures which nature spread before us ; but this was not my highest pleasure ; another and a deeper joy possessed me ; when alone, I kept up a mysterious inter- course with nature, for I can call by no other name the happi- ness which thrilled me. AH her treasures seemed to be laid at my feet, and my delight was connected with a deep and still emotion which I must call devotion. I rejoiced that I lived in HEINRICH STEFFENS. 243 her midst, and that I was the child of the eternal, blessed, and vivifjdng creation." This feeling of being a part of the universe, of receiving life from it, and contributing life to it, has often led excitable and poetical natures like that'of Steffens to pantheistic views, but in his case speculation was kept within bounds by the faith of the Lutheran Church. In his mature years Steffens found in the Lutheran doctrines, and especially in that of the Lord's Supper, a peculiar reconciliation betweeti things natural and things spiritual, — a view according to which God cherishes nature in Himself and Himself in nature. But in his childish years Steffens received in simplicity what was taught him at church and at home. Until his seventh year Hiibner's Biblical His- tories were his delight, and at the school which he attended pretty complete instruction was given in natural and revealed religion. Steffens was deeply interested in it, but he was totally unable to learn portions of Scripture by heart. While his schoolfellows learnt just the passage that was selected for them, he was engrossed with the subject and its connection with the context. It stimulated his thoughts, and he wrote essays upon religious subjects, which he read, not without vanity, in the school, but which no doubt resulted in giving form to and deepening his own thoughts and feelings. But it was his mother who had the greatest influence in awakening his love for his God and Saviour. " For every feeling of devotion," he says, " every religious emotion, I am indebted to my mother ; most truly may I call her the guardian angel of my life. She was so in the deepest sense of the words, and when in after-life an accusing conscience made itself heard amidst the distractions and errors of life, it always conjured up an image of her anxious and pensive coun- tenance as she warned me of my danger." His father was prevented by his profession, his cares, and his opinions from exercising much influence on his son's religious life ; his mother fell sick, and the children ran about uncared for. But the more Steffens felt himself released from any outward control, the more he was influenced by his gentle, suffering mother. He 244 HEINRICH STEFFENS. lived a sort of double existence ; out of doors he revelled in the sports of youth, in his mother's room he was engrossed with the most solemn aspect of hfe. If he had been giving himself up to the enthusiastic enjoyment of nature, a word from his mother would cause him to fall upon his knees in prayer. Even when taken up with the amusements natural to his age, he never gave up the idea, in which he was strengthened by his mother, that he should one day be a clergyman. Once, many years before her death occurred, she was thought to be dying, and the children were summoned to the sick-room, which for weeks they had not been allowed to enter. They stood around the bed, Heinrieh read a prayer aloud, the mother raised herself up, and speaking joyfully of her speedy departure, commended her children to God ; then, turning to Heinrieh, she dedicated him to the service of the Lord, and gave him a special blessing. He threw himself sobbing on his knees, longed that he might die with her, and yet he felt a thriU of joy in the idea of being consecrated to God. But his mother was once more spared, and Heinrieh was allowed henceforth to spend much of his time by her bedside, as if he had also been set apart for this intimate and confidential intercourse. Her loving confidence in him opened his mouth, and he told her of all that he had learnt, and of some doubts by which he was tormented. Devotional books were read, Stilling's ' Youth ' had a great effect upon him, and he found in Fenelon a con- genial spirit, without perhaps altogether understanding him. The religious impressions received in his mother's room were not effaced when he left it ; his brothers thought him singular, but he was thoroughly happy in himself. He read the Bible through, and endeavoured to bring the doctrines of Christianity more clearly before his mind by writing about them ; he also began to write a history of the Church, which, like that of Stol- berg, began with Adam, but only got as far as Samuel. In the Church, too, at this happy time he found just what he wanted. It was the custom for all the scholars to^attend regularly in the cathedral to assist in the singing, but they used quietly to make their escape when the sermon began. But Steffeas heard of a HEINRICH STBFFENS. 245 minister at a little distance whose hearers were mostly country people. He went to hear him, and the open and pleasing countenance of the preacher, his clear voice, and short and feeling prayers made such an impression on him that he re- tamed home full of his newly found happiness. But the deep impression which the service had made upon him as a whole prevented his remenihering any parts of it in particular, and he was unahle to tell his mother anything about the sermon. " You need only remember, Heinrich," said she kindly, " that you are listening to the sermon, not only for yourself, but also for your poor invalid mother, who cannot go to church at all, and then you will succeed." From that time forth he went every Sunday to hear his favourite preacher, recalled what he had heard during his solitary walk home through the fields, and then repeated it fluently to his mother and brothers and sisters. Incited by his mother, who delighted to see the future minister in her son, he also wrote and read a few sermons about this time. Although the sermons preached in the cathedral did not interest him, still it doubtless had some effect upon his mind. The monuments of the kings, the reminiscences of the judg- ments of Grod as revealed in history, combined with the solemnities of the service, must have produced a powerful effect. On certain days ofi the week it was the custom for one of the scholars in turn to go inside the iron gratings of the great gate, which were always open at six o'clock in the morning, and read a prayer aloud. Steffens was always glad when his turn came, and willingly took the office for others. He was accompanied by a sacristan, who opened the choir and lighted the candles. The wide expanse was still enveloped in darkness, only here and there a worshipper with a light before him. It seemed to him as if he was looking down into the tomb of the past. The simple words of the prayer, which he read in a clear, loud voice, when he heard them resounding in the dim space, affected him deeply ; his own words appeared to him like the warning voice of another. Tears of repentance, 246 HEINRICH STEFFENS. aspiration, and hope flowed down his cheeks, and he was grave and thoughtful during the next few days. It was also in the cathedral, on an Easter morning, after he had been rejoicing in the opening spring, that he was power- fully affected by the singing of the hymn, in the same manner so inimitably described by Goethe in Faust, — " Wie Bchon leuchtet der Morgenstem ! " " morning star, how fair and tright ! " ' He often also witnessed, with trembling aspiration, the celebration of the Lord's Supper. When sometimes in warm summer weather his invalid mother could venture to come, and, supported by friendly ladies, approached the altar with trem- bling steps, when she knelt down, and heavenly joy beamed from her beautiful eyes, her son felt as if his being was truly one with hers. " I trembled," he relates, " as if I were about to meet a saint, whose presence I could hardly bear ; and when the minister approached her, and she partook of the conse- crated bread and wine, the tears started into my eyes, I felt as if I had partaken of them myself, and had no rest till I had thrown myself into her arms, that having been blessed herself, she might give me her blessing." When she partook of the holy communion for the last time in the cathedral, Steffens feared, from the dimmed lustre of her eye, that her departure was at hand. He was overwhelmed at the thought of the approaching separation, and it increased his grief that his father and brothers did not share his feelings. How gladly would he have opened his heart to a friend ! He threw himself sobbing on the ground, earnestly praying, " Keep my faith pure." Then he Uved over again in thought the solemn ceremony at the altar, and seemed to enter into entire communion of spirit with his mother. He was penetrated with a deep impression of the unity of all things. The varied manifestations of nature were like revealed words to him, of which he penetrated into the inmost meaning, and every word of truth seemed to him to have the vivid reality of a created being, HEINRICH STEFFENS. 247 The Saviour whom he adored, the centre of life and love, seemed to him to pervade all the forms of nature, to be a part of all his thoughts ; and, to his childlike spirit, the object of his devout love seemed to be everywhere. But he did not always continue to see his Saviour so clearly in nature as his all-in-all. He became engrossed in the study of nature for its own sake, after it had been presented to him under a different aspect, by reading Buffon's 'Natural History.' A change came over him, which was also observable in, his intercourse with his mother. She asked him to tell her what it was that so entirely engrossed him, and he did so with the greatest animation. He spoke of the power which nature seemed to possess of following eternal laws, in the midst of apparent destruction and disorder, a»d of the never-failing delight which the investigation of these laws promised him. " Heinrich," said his mother in a faint voice, " how can you investigate these wonderful things, and be so entirely taken up with them, without thinking of the Lord who moves heaven and earth, who foldeth the heavens together as a garment, but who reveals Himself most clearly to us in the inmost emotions of the soul, in the repentance of the erring sinner?" She told him that what was occupying him now, was the sphere of the natural philosopher ; " But it is to be your calling,'' she continued, " to proclaim God's word im- mediately to men." But even the voice of his mother, then sick unto death, could not recall him from the path which, by means of his natural inclination, had been marked out for him by God. TOien near her end, after receiving the communion, she once more said to him, "Heinrich, you must proclaim the word of the Lord; He has called you and fitted you for the office. Be tru6 to Him and to your calling, and then He will bless you." As he knelt" and wept beside her coffin, in the excitement of the moment, he once more vowed to fulfil his mother's dying wish ; but the promise was not kept in the sense in which she meant it. Not long after her death he was confirmed, but the prepara- tion for it only affected his understanding and imagination. 248 HEINRICH STEFFENS. When he partook of the communion his mother's warning voice seemed once more to sound in his ears, but the impression was soon effaced, and for many years he neglected the table of the Lord. But the germ of the religious impressions received from his mother remained in his mind ; in riper years he re- turned to the faith of his youth, and became, though not from the pulpit, a preacher of the truth in Christ. We have dwelt more particularly on the history of his child- hood, because our task is the delineation of the religious life. We shall hasten through the next few years until we come to the time of Steffens's patriotic labours. In 1790 he became a student in the University at Copen- hagen, but his father did not like residing there, and procured an appointment at Bendsburg, in his native country, Holstein, instead ; and means were wanting to allow the son to remain at Copenhagen. He was obliged for a time to take a situation as tutor in the family of a relation at Odsherred. At this time he was not openly opposed to theology. While a student he had even preached a few times — " sentimental moralities,'' as he calls his doctrines. But his taste for the study of natural history was so strong, the rationalistic but dogmatic manner in which orthodox tenets were then held was so repulsive to him, and his manners and tastes were so opposed to the dignified behaviour that was expected of a clergyman, that he ventured at length to open his mind to his maternal uncle. Professor Bang, at Copenhagen. He saw that it was a case in which nothing could be done by compulsion, and invited his nephew to live in his house, while he supported himself by giving lessons. He soon became acquainted with many superior men, and youths of similar tastes to his own. They made attempts at theatrical representations, studied poetical literature, and revelled in the pleasures of social intercourse. Thorwaldsen introduced him to the world of art, and religion came some- times gently tapping at the door as a friend of former years. When Lavater visited Holstein, he also went to Copenhagen and preached in the Eeformed Church. Steffens was powerfully impressed by the firmness of his faith and the fervour of his HEINRICH STEFFENS. 2^g devotion. The subject of his discourse was prayer; it aroused his slumbering soul with a voice of thunder, and brought to his mind the hfe he used to lead with his mother. With the fervour of one who is speaking from personal experience, Lavater described those outward and inward conflicts which can only be passed through victoriously by prayer. After each description of a hopeless condition of mind, he made a short pause, and then exclaimed in a loud voice, " Pray ! " His voice pierced his hearer to the heart, but the time was not yet come for a permanent effect. After several years' study he was offered by a society the means for a journey for the purpose of making researches in natural history in Norway. The sum, which was not large, was considerably lessened by the payment of some debts before he set out, and in very depressed spirits he went on board the vessel. Besides these painful outward circumstances, his mind was in a ferment. When the time was at an end in which he was to have fulfilled his commission, the results of his re- searches appeared to him very insignificant, and the necessary books were wanting to enable him to reduce his collections to order, as well as the serenity of mind which is requisite for such studies. His distraction of mind at length led him to doubt whether his own existence was not a delusion, than which nothing can be a greater hindrance to active exertion. The idea was dreadful to him of returning to Copenhagen with the scanty results of his researches, so he suddenly made up his mind to go to Germany and send a written report to Copenhagen. " All that the Germans are striving after," he said to himself, " all that the greatest spirits there are seeking, is also the object of my earnest endeavours; an intellectual struggle is going on there, in which I must take part ; I exist here, but I am even now living there in spirit. When I have succeeded in distinguishing myself, I shall return to Copenhagen." He reasoned with himself, that owing to his poverty, he should have to endure many hardships, and, in order to put his forti- tude to the test, he held a finger in the flame of a candle until it was severely burnt. A friend at Bergen, lent him a sum of 250 HEINRICH STEFFENS. money, and he commissioned his friends at Copenhagen to sell his library and his collections of objects of natural history. Thinking that he had thus made provision for his immediate ■wants, he took ship. After a most perilous voyage, having lost all his possessions and collections, and with difficulty escaped with his life, he arrived at Blankenese. He went to .Hamburg, and spent several weeks there in the greatest destitution, and was at last seized with a dangerous illness. Fortunately some kind friends came to his rescue, or he would probably have perished miserably in his attic. In these painftd circumstances, he brought his mind at length to take refuge at Kendsburg with his father, then heavily laden with debt, but he was received with open arms. Unfounded accusations were added to his other misfortunes. Then, instead of the expected money from Copenhagen, came the news that the remnant of his pro- perty which had escaped the sea had been consumed by fire. But this weight of misfortune seemed to awaken all his powers ; he was never more industrious than during this period at Rendsburg, andiis unsettled opinions acquired unity through the effort to summon up all his strength. He felt unspeakably happy. It was in -the spring of 1796 that he went to the University of Kiel, in order to learn as well as to teach, and he soon found means of earning something by giving lessons in natural history. After passing an examination, he received permission to give lectures on the same subject, which- were remarkably successTuI. In the course of the year he wrote his first German work, ' On the Study of Mineralogy.' In the spring of 1797 he received a doctor's degree. He then ven- tured to pay a visit to Copenhagen, and spent some happy weeks with his old friends, all slanders against him having died away. When he had returned to Kiel, and had again settled down to the peaceful study for which this little university offers so congenial a home, he felt that a mental revolution had taken place within him. For a time he had attempted to keep a keen watch upon his mental state by means of a diary, but this plan of keeping a debit and credit account of his inner man was repulsive to his HEINRICH STEFFENS. 251 natural tendency to regard life in its unity and completeness. Kant's one-sided morality did not satisfy Mm. Goethe and Shakspeare had already deeply engrossed him, and his atten- tion was now directed to Spinoza through Jacobi's work ' On the Doctrines of Spinoza in Letters to Mendelssohn.' He was convinced, on reading the preface to the ethics, that the philo- sophy of Spinoza was the result of the hunger of the soul for a consistent certainty in all the vicissitudes of life, of a practical, and not of a mere theoretical need. Steffens also longed to find some basis of truth, firm and unchangeable, a mental harmony not with others, but with himself, " to find the centre from which the passions, the thoughts and feelings, the wUl and the very existence should radiate, and to which they should again converge." He found, therefore, in Spinoza a certain repose and security, but it was bound up with a renunciation of all individual wishes and hopes, a tranquillity and self-abnegation which appeared to him to rob nature and life itself of all their interest and zest. Nevertheless this tranquillity had an elevating, instead of a depressing effect upon him. And when, after he returned from attending the death-bed of his father, he found Schelling's ' Ideas for a Philosophy of Nature,' the Jew Spinoza seemed to him to have only an Old Testament significance, for he had only directed him to the God who was revealed within him ; but on reading Schelling, he felt as if he was listening to tones of harmony, as if he heard the first words of promise of future initiation into the divine life. Soon afterwards he received from Count Schimmelmann, who was very friendly to him, a travelling stipend. Germany was open to him ; he had first crossed the threshold of the country at Kiel, and he felt strongly attracted to it by Jacobt and Schelling, Lessing, Goethe, and Schiller, not to mention other less important names. It would be necessary to describe the rich intellectual life which at that time existed in Germany, to accompany Steffens to Jena, Weimar, Freiberg, Dresden, and Berlin, to ramble through the Hartz Mountains and the forests of Thuringia, to 252 HEINRICH STEFFENS. visit the Bhiue country and Franconia, and to recall the memory of a large number of eminent men, if we attempted to describe the influence upon Steffens of his travels in Germany. Werner at Freiberg took the warmest interest in his researches in natural history ; but his devotion to this particular line of study did not prevent his taking a comprehensive view of the wide range of science, and he was not a stranger to any sphere of intellectual life. He made acquaintance with the philosophers Fichte and Schelling, the poets Schiller and Goethe, Schlegel and Tieck. Novalis, the poet and philosopher, made a deep impression on him ; and he considered that it was through intercourse with him that the faith of his childhood was re- newed. It is remarkable that the spirit of the days of Boeskilde seems to have returned during the time of his residence in Germany, when every faculty was subjected to healthful sti- mulus, when he was earnestly endeavouring to work out for himself the problem of the origin and aim of life. We see in this fact a proof that his philosophical researches were founded on a religious basis, that his youthful faith and more mature studies had the same end and aim — to behold and to possess God in everything, and everything in God. "It was remarkable," he says, "how everything that I saw and heard around me appeared to have a sort of connection vrith religion, even when apparently in opposition to it. I felt rather as if my earliest youth, childhood even, had returned, as if what I was seeking must lie concealed in the serene and cheerful nature which was the delight of my childhood ; as if old times musi;^ be renewed. A deep sense of the principle of self-renunciation in religion pervaded my earnest strivings ; and when I penetrated into the essence of it, it seemed to me that I caught a glimpse of something above, and unattainable by reason, as if there were something fairer than all the enchant- ments of poesy ; as if there were a mighty spirit ruling the fate of nations in their destruction and renovation. When I recall this time, it seems to me to have a curious connection with the peaceful life at Eoeskilde ; I was now hoping to make my own what then exerted so much influence over me." HEINRICH STEFFENS. 253 In the spring of 1801, Steflfens returned to Denmark. He went to Grermany as a student, he returned as a learned man, having acquired repute by his ' Contributions to the History of the Interior of the Earth.' He took rank next to Schelling in the department of natural philosophy. Germany had done a great deal for him. He had also found a wife there, a daughter of the Chapel Master' Eeiohardt, in Giebichenstein. But the "German Doctor" was not altogether well received by the Danes, always sensitive on the point of their nationality. His new acquirements, which he regarded as the pleasantest task of his life to communicate in public lectures, were, accord- ing to the general view, entirely superfluous. And these new doctrines were to be brought from Germany forsooth. It was naturally regarded as a suspicious circumstance that the ministers Bernstorf and Schimmelmann did not speak Danish, the latter of whom was very favourable to Steffens ; and now a report was spread that Steffens had lost the power of thinking in Danish, and very contemptible it must of course have ap- peared, that after an absence of only two years, a man should have lost the power of thinking in his native tongue. The course of lectures was begun in October, 1803, just after he had brought home his bride. Steffens was perfectly aware that his position, and the esti- mation in which he was held, would depend upon the success of these lectures, and was seized with the greatest anxiety as the time drew near. He felt that it was not only the defence of a theory that was at stake, but that he was endeavouring to secure an intelligent reception for the doctrines of eternal life. "The last moments that I was alone," he relates, " before I entered the lecture-room, were spent in silent prayer ; perhaps it was the first real prayer since my childhood. I had talked a great deal about Christianity, and 1 had in me the germ of Christian feeling which then filled my mind. These solemn moments were not without influence upon my lecture ; from this time faith was the background of all my knowledge, and it never forsook me." Thus strengthened by prayer, and accompanied by the poet 254 HEINRICH STEFFENS. OelenscHager, and some other friends whose hearts were beat- ing like his own, he made his way with difficulty through the crowd, too great for the room to hold, which had come to hear him. As soon as he ascended the tribune his serenity returned, The effect of his discourse was like that of a stream which flowed from the inner life, which could with difficulty be kept within the bounds of circumspection. Lectures which did not consist of mere teaching, but re- vealed the mind and sentiments of the lecturer, were new in . Copenhagen, but most attractive for all who had strength and inclination to discard the obsolete forms of learning, and to enter on new paths. His hearers were not merely students, but, like those of Fichte and Schlegel, professors, high officials, and merchants, and side by side with the youths were many old men, to whom the problem of life was not yet solved. But it was not Steffens's wish to be merely a philosopher ; he hoped to give lectures on geognosy, and to undertake scientific journeys in Norway. But for the latter. Count Eeventlow would have had to provide the funds, and he was an enemy to all speculation, and held that a philosopher was unfit for any practical occupation. Steffens had been engaged for a short time in such an undertaking by Count Schimmelmann, who had commissioned him to explore the salt-springs of Oldesloe, and the Gripsberg, near Segeberg. But he gradually arrived at the conclusion that he was not likely to find in Denmark the vocation which he was seeking, and he was constantly in pecuniary difficulties. It was, there- fore, with great satisfaction that he received from Halle a letter from Eeil, professor and physician, informing him that there was a probability of his receiving an invitation to that uni- versity, and the invitation itself soon followed. It was also a great pleasure to his wife to look forward to living near her former home, for she had had much to bear in a strange land, and, among other troubles, had lost her first-born. Steffens spent two years in the pleasantest social circumstances, and the most congenial occupation, at Halle. His friendship with Schleiermacher was most beneficial to his public career; the HEINRICH STEFFENS. 255 character of each was the complement of the other — while the attention of one was more directed to the science of mind, the other to the study of nature. Both were full of aspiration. This is indicated hy their accounts of their well-known walk together to the Petersberg. The following morning, Schleier- macher had to preach a sermon in memory of the Queen Dowager ; but after spending a delightful spring day in the country, they remained out the whole night. "That night always seems to me," Steffens says, " like a consecrated time, one of the most remarkable nights of my life. We had spent the day so happily, and the open and fruitful country, dotted with villages, lay spread before us, rejoicing in the first breath of spring. Nature seemed to us like a holy temple, every thought was, as it were, borne aloft on wings, and our minds, as well as everything else, were inspired by the spirit of spring. I never was more convinced of the depth of the religion which was the foundation of Schleiermacher's morality. The Saviour was in the midst of us, as He has promised to be where two or three are gathered together in his name. It was clear to me that his mind had been penetrated from his earliest childhood, when he was in the community of the Moravian Brethren, by something positive in Christianity, and that what he called scientific theological feeling had increased to Christian con- sciousness, to love eternal and divine." It is interesting to compare with this, which was written long afterwards, what Schleiermacher wrote soon after the occurrence to his friend Henrietta Herz. "It is a long time since I wrote to you anything about Steffens, and now I understand him so much better that I can write quite differently of him. You know, my dear friend, that I am neither given to be particularly modest nor conceited, but I have never felt any man so entirely and in every respect above me. I should feel inclined to worship him, if it becaroe one man to worship another. " In the first place, his marriage is a true marriage, in the highest sense of the word. It is not that one sees so very much of it, but I know that it is so in reality. He speaks most en- 256 HEINRICH STEFFENS. thnsias'tically of their relation to each other ; and with childlike simplicity, and tears of affection in his eyes, he tells his friends little traits of the depths of his wife's character, of her piety and her peculiarities, and then he is so altogether beyond descrip- tion delightful, so deep, so free, so witty, more like Frederic Sehlegel than any one else, and with a glowing eloquence even in our to him foreign tongue ; he is not only entirely upright and free from party spirit, but thoroughly holy, and in the sense in which I love and honour him for it, mild and gentle. " Can you fancy our first natural philosopher moved to tears at the sight of the splendid sunset which we saw from the hill ? But he is truly a priest of nature. It was the first time since his marriage, nearly two years, that he had ever been separated from his wife for twenty-four hours. You can imagine how full he was of her, and how we were inspirited by the fresh air and freedom, as we spent the night under the rocks, with the beauti- ful prospect before us. Holy earnestness and joyfulness of heart were seldom so combined. There is also a wonderful harmony between Stefiens and me, which gives me a sort of confidence in myself. His ideas on moral subjects always agree with mine ; and my views of nature, as far as I know anything about it, always fall in with his system. Our hearers, too, remark that, although starting from opposite points, we always meet in the centre and work into one another's hands, and this cannot be from anything but true congeniality." We certainly should not recommend any one to follow Sohleiermacher's example, in not returning to Halle till the bells were ringing for service on Sunday morning, for few could do as he did, go straight into the pulpit, and deliver with the utmost composure one of those clear, logical discourses which riveted the attention of his hearers. What youthful freshness there was in both these men, and Schleiermacher had p&ssed the meridian of life, the thirty-fifth year ! What a sphere of active usefulness seemed to be before them ! and they com- municated the ripe fruits of their researches with so much hearty enthusiasm ! But it did not last long ; the iron tread of French dominion crushed the good seed into the earth. HBINRICH STEFFENS. 257 but only that it might again spring up, more vigorously than before. Not long before the breaking out of the war with France, Steffens had an opportunity, during a visit to Berlin, of forming an opinion on the available powers of Prussia. He was staying with George Eeimer, associated with Alexander von Humboldt, and was introduced to the circle which was the centre of national enthusiasm. In the autumn of the same year, 1806, he made closer acquaintance with the forces which were encamped in Thuringia. The superciliousness of the ofBoers inspired him with suspicion. Not long after, occurred the defeat at Jena, and Halle was taken possession of by the French. We cannot here enter into the particulars, as related by Steffens, of what he and Schleiermacher and Gass went through on the occasion. When Napoleon arrived, he saw at once that the German " Idealists," Schleiermacher, Steffens, and Wolf, would not be favourable to him ; and therefore he abolished the university. But the " Idealists " did not lose courage. Steffens says, " The further off any prospect of help appeared, the more threatening the position of affairs, the firmer and more settled became our con- viction, in spite of all apparent improbability, that the good and holy things which were beginning to appear in Germany, the divine power which rules in history, must be so glorious a good, that the rough tread of the victors would never be able to annihilate it. It was under this conviction that I ventured to express what was the leading principle of my views as long as the dominion of the French lasted, that the battle of Jena, even in those hopeless days, was the first victory over Napoleon, for it annihilated the weakness which had allied itself with him, and excited that magnanimous patriotic feeling in the hearts of all Prussians which was sure at last to cause them to rise against him and to conquer. The confidence that I should survive this degradation never left me." The professors suffered the most painful deprivations, but they consoled themselves with their social life. The evenings which Schleiermacher, Steffens, Blanc, Marwitz, and Varnhagen spent together were animated by the warmest patriotic feeling. 258 HEINRICH STEFFBNS. Steffens, however, was soon recalled to his native country ; he still considered himself as a professor of the University of Halle, and explained this view to the minister. He asked per- mission to go, in order to provide for his family. In the beginning of 1807 he arrived at Hamburg, where his wife's grandmother lived. In March he went to Kiel to present himself to the prince regent, who had invited him to return to his native country. "I am glad," said the prince, "that you are come to us again ; you are a good fellow ; we shall be able to give you something to do, but you must not give lectures." — " I am sorry, then," answered Steffens, "that I must consider that your royal highness dismisses me from his service." Steffens was so much dismayed at the idea of not being allowed- to fulfil what he considered his vocation in life that he was in- clined to withdraw in silence. " Are you so easily offended, then ?" continued the prince ; "we will have a little talk to- gether, but I cannot allow you to lecture ; you will turn my subjects' heads." This was an allusion to a story that had been widely circu- lated, that a young man who had been in the habit of attending Steffens's lectures, and had afterwards become insane from other causes, had during the ravings of madness often pro- nounced the names Steffens and Oelenschlager. A long conver- sation took place between the prince and the professor, which left a painful impression on the minds of both. Steffens pro- ceeded to Copenhagen, in order to see his former patron, Count Schimmelmann. But the report of his unfavourable reception by the prince had preceded him. It was clear that he would not be able to gain any position or any means of living in the Danish States, and he was in a most painful situation. But a circumstance which occurred just at this time, not only afforded him outward assistance, but helped to strengthen his faith. On the very day of his arrival at Copenhagen, the widow of an uncle on his mother's side died, and he succeeded to the onlyin- heritance which he had any reason to expect, and of which bis unphilosophical uncle had threatened to deprive him. "For many years," says Steffens on this occasion, "I held HEINRICH STEFFENS. 259 the opinion that there was an eternal necessity for everything that occurred, — a necessity which was founded, indeed, on the will of an intelligent Being, but that this will when once expressed was irrevocable. But there are circumstances in life which seem to have an immediate relation to our personality. They seem to have the significance of a revelation to us, and whenever they recur to the memory they serve to remind us that our existence is dependent on free Divine love.' Thus did the inheritance which came to him as it were from the hand of God serve to confirm his sonship. Poorer in hopes of worldly success, but richer in experience of an overruling love, he returned to Hamburg. His residence there, and his intercourse with the Sievekings, with Perthes, Eunge, with the Spanish general, Bomana, and a visit to Bnmohr at Lubeck, were animating enough, but, nevertheless, the circumstances in which he and his wife and child were placed were very de- pressing. In the meantime, the kingdom of Westphalia, including Halle, was established, and the university was reopened. There was little to attract Stefiens to a residence there nnder French dominion, but he went in order to put an end to the painful situation in which he was placed. Of the men with whom he had been associated by similarity of views, and in efforts for the advancement of learning, he found only Beil, the physician, and Blanc, the preacher. Niemeyer, the chancellor of the university, without com- promising his loyalty or patriotism, was prudently making every effort to restore it. The president of the university was Johannes von Miiller, councillor of State at Cassel, already mentioned, a man broken down by regret for the change of opinion which the weight of circumstances had made him think it necessary to proclaim. But the vigorous intellectual life, the joyous spirit of progress in all departments of knowledge and life which was springing up under Prussian rule, did not thrive under the dominion of the French. Of the twelve hundred students who had been at Halle before, only three hundred returned. Steffens felt his present audience to be a depressing one ; there was none of the 2f>o HEINRICH STEFFENS. animating reciprocal influence between himself and his hearers that he had formerly experienced. King Jerome came to Halle. Steflfens was induced by curiosity to take part in the reception. Flowers were strewn in his path. " To-day," said Professor Eijdiger to his fellow-professors, " the emblem of the town of Halle is going to be represented : an ass treading on roses." The professors were introduced. The king cut a' truly pitiful figure ; his countenance was vacant, his youthful features were disfigured by excesses, his eyes were dull, his gait unsteady. He assured the professors that he had a special fondness for learning, and that he would protect the university. Imme- diately afterwards Stefl'ens had a long conversation with Johannes von Miiller. He warned Steflfens to be careful what he said (by no means a needless precaution), for that he had no power to protect any one. At the close of half an hour, the historian, with whom the natural philosopher had formerly associated at Berlin on the common ground of similarity of opinion, shook hands with the latter, saying, with tears in his eyes, " You had better go ; if we hold too long a conversation we shall be suspected ;" and filled with pity, Steffens took his departure. It seemed to him impossible to attain to any satis- faction in his life or work at Halle. Pecuniary difficulties had accompanied him thither, and the professors were obliged to submit to several reductions -of their salaries. His domestic happiness was blighted by the , death of two children, and he felt straitened in all his efforts for the advancement of learning ; the political state of things was in the highest degree repulsive to him. When the university was founded at Berlin, Reil went there, and Steffens would most gladly have followed him. Reil and Schleiermacher made every effort to procure an invitation for their friend, and even declared themselves willing to give up a portion of their salary for his sake. Schleiermacher urged that the lectures of the natural philosopher would be an advan- tageous addition to his own, on account of the similarity of their views ; sometimes it appeared as if they had almost gained their point, but at length Steflfens was not included among the men who were selected by the rising university HEINRICH STEFFENS. 261 to establish its fame, and to develop the moral and intellectual powers of the people. At last, when the university of Frank- fort-on-the-Oder was removed to Breslau, Steflfens received an invitation to go there in the autumn of 1811- Before he went he visited Jena once more, and met Goethe there. He revelled in that scientific and poetic life which he had always in some degree enjoyed, even in the days of depression at Halle, in association with the most eminent men of the time, particularly with Achim von Arnim, Clemens Brentano, and the brothers Grimm. In the summer he paid a visit to Berlin. The comet of 1811 was then visible. About this time a company of comedians who had been playing in Schleiermacher's church at Halle went away. " The comedians are gone," said a woman belonging to the lower orders, " how is it that the comedy star is stin to be seen ? " This, however, was an isolated opinion as to its significance. Most of the people gazed at it in the clear summer nights with secret terror, and thought that it portended tragic commotions. Stefiens also cleady foresaw them from the ferment in men's minds which he had observed at Berlin, and from what he had himself experienced and taken part in. He never denied his German views during the time that he was a subject of King Jerome. His address on the ' Idea of Universities ' was an open appeal to the people to unite all the mental forces of which they were possessed, and to oppose and conquer the foreign power which was seeking to annihilate them. But this was only an " idea," — ^it was " ideology," and thesefore it did not appear dangerous in the eyes of the French, The French emigrant, Villers, who was favourable to the Germans, wrote to Steffens, " You would be ruined were it not that you have written in a knguage which is as unintelligible to the French as Sanskrit." But much more dangerous to Stefiens than this address, which, nevertheless, contributed not a little to stir up the minds of youth against French dominion, was the part he took in those secret patriotic combinations which prepared the way for the fall of Napoleon. He was in constant fear that he might be arrested,, banished, or even executed ; indeed, his most 262 HEINRICH STEFFENS. intimate friends were arrested directly after his departure. At the right moment, in September, 1811, he left Halle and went to Breslan. It was not easy for Steffens to feel himself at home there, although he found there Gass, the theologian, and friend of Schleiermacher, and Earl von Baumer, who about this time married a daughter of Eeichardt, and so became his brother-in- law. But domestic and intellectual considerations soon gave place to patriotic affairs. Steffens breathed more freely under Prussian rule, only that just at the time when he returned to Prussia, she seemed to be submitting to fresh degradation, by entering into alliance with Napoleon against Bussia. He asked, " "What are those bold men doing now, who, when I was at Halle, incited me to such perilous activity? Have Gneisenau, Chazot, Eichhorn, and Schleiermacher entirely given up hope, or are they as zealous as ever ? " He felt himself almost alone at Breslau in his faith in the ultimate victory of Germany over France, of mind over might, of morality over reckless nnscru- pulonsness. But this faith had already become a religious belief with him, and he persevered in it in spite of all apparent improbabilities. The spring of 1812 arrived, and it brought with it some very unexpected guests to Breslau, both to the authorities and the people, — Gneisenau, Chazot, Justus Gruner, Ernst Moritz Arndt, and, at last, Bliicher. They and Steffens were immediately in communication on patriotic affairs. This " powerful choir of German men " often met in Steffens's house, or in some other retired place, and dis- coursed upon the liberation of their country, of which they did not for a moment doubt, in spite of the renewed bondage. The summer passed over, and Prussia was obliged to accompany Napoleon to Bussia ; but winter followed, and with it God's judgments upon him. Steffens was in great excitement; he felt that the moment for which for six years the minds of the bravest men had been preparing, was arrived. One thing appeared to him a painful hindrance to giving vent to bis patriotic enthusiasm and self-sacrifice, — ^that Breslau was far from the scene of action. But just then the king and the royal HEINRICH STEFFENS. 263 cMdren came to Breslau, and, by the end of January, it was evident that it was from there that the revolt, which had begun at Konigsberg, would spread towards the west. The King pro- claimed war, and though the enemy was not directly named, he was perfectly well known to every German. Steffens had long had him in his eye. One evening he learnt that the appeal to the volunteers would appear the following morning in the papers. A copy of it was read aloud to the company, of which he was one ; the enemy was not mentioned even in this. In a state of anxious suspense, and yet pleasurably excited, Steffens did not leave the company till after midnight. He passed the night in restless dreams. At eight o'clock next morning he was to have given a lecture on natural philosophy ; but, while preparing for it, he could not get the appeal out of his head. He said to himself, " It is my place to declare war, my position permits it, and when it is done, I do not care what the court may say about it." He said nothing to his wife about it; and represented to himself the consequences which might arise to him, from his thus declaring war against Napoleon, urged to it as he was merely by the dictates of his conscience. He kept to his determination, and said at the close of his lecture, — " .Gentlemen, at eleven o'clock I was to have given a second lecture, but I will employ the time in speaking to you of a sub- ject that is of much more importance. The appeal of his Majesty to the young men to volunteer to arm themselves has appeared, or will appear to-day. It is on this subject that I shall address you, and I shall be glad if you will make my intention known. It is quite a matter of indifference at the present moment, whether the other lecture is postponed or not. I hope to see as many as the room will hold." The commotion that day was very great. The streets were crowded with troops, ammunition waggons, and guns ; thou- sands came in from the country to hear what was going on ; wherever a word was spoken about the affairs of the country it was eagerly listened to, and at once spread abroad. The students flocked to Steffens' lecture-room at ten o'clock ; it 264 HEINRICH STEFFENS. "was soon as full as it could hold, — door, windows, stairs, and the space in the street, immediately outside, were crowded. Steffens sent word to his astonished wife that she must have patience, and that she would soon know all about it. " I had spent those two hours," he relates, " in a singular state of mind ; what I wanted to say excited my inmost being. The time and circumstances were now come for me to express what had been weighing heavily on mj' mind for five years past, — ^I was going to be the first to proclaim openly that the day of salvation for Germany and for the whole of Europe had arrived. My mental excitement was uncontrollable. In vain I tried to arrange my thoughts, but spirits seemed to whisper in my ear, and promise to help me ; I longed for the painful solitude to come to an end. One thought was uppermost in my mind — ^how often have I complained that I was thrust aside in this corner of Germany! and now it has become the all important centre of enthusiasm ; a new epoch in history is beginning here, and it is permitted to me to express what is agitating the minds of these multitudes. " Tears started into my eyes, I fell on my knees, and a prayer calmed me. I made my way through the crowd, and ascended the tribune. What I said I do not know, and even if I had been asked immediately afterwards, I should not have been able to give any account of it. It was the depressing experience of many unhappy years which now found expression, and the sentiments of the multitudes before me found utterance through me. It was nothing new that I had to say, it was familiar to the minds of all, and just for that reason, and because it was the echo of the sentiments of every one present, it made such a deep impression. Of course, after calling upon the youth to arm, I made known my determination to take part in the conflict myself." The address was scarcely over, and Stefiens had hardly had time to say a few reassuring words to his wife, when the students came into his house and entreated him to repeat it in the great fencing-room. And not the students alone, for they were accompanied by the rector of the univer- HEINRICH STEFFENS. 265 sity, who was sent by the chancellor of State, Prince Harden- berg. The French ambassador, St. Marsan, had already laid a com- plaint before him. "What does all this mean?" exclaimed the astonished diplomatist. " We are living in peace with you, and even consider you as our allies, and now a professor of the university dares to declare war against us under the very eyes of the King." Hardenberg prudently answered, that the ambassador could not be unacquainted with the sentiments of the youth and the people, and that the address had been given so suddenly that there had been no time to prevent it. " Demand satisfaction," he continued, " and yon shall have it. But I cannot conceal from you that any step that is taken against this premature speaker will turn him into a martyr, and will make such a disturbance as will greatly embarrass us, and which it will be very difficult to put a stop to." The chancellor sent the rector to Steffens to say that he would not prevent him from repeating his address in the fencing-room, only he requested that he would not mention Napoleon's name. This was not difficult, for by a kind of instinct he had avoided mentioning it before. Asower of religion, which no poet could surpass. But we must resist the temp- tation of culling anecdotes from the story of Stilling's youth. It delighted the youthful Goethe so much at Strasburg, that he zealously forwarded the publication of it. Stolberg sang its praises, and in later times it has been extolled by poets diflfer- ing so widely from each other as Schenkendorf and Freiligrath, and it has never been surpassed by any of our painters of CLAUDIUS AND JUNG STILLING. 319 popular life, not even by Immermann, Auerbach, Gotthelf, or GlaubrecM. We must confine ourselves to seeking out the elements in Stilling's memoirs -which combined to form his peculiar cha- racter. The little village of Grund, in the parish of Hilchenbeck, in which, in September, 1740, Heinrich Jung Stilling was born, belonged at that time to the Prince of Nassau-Siegen, now to the Prussian province of Westphalia. " In this country," he says of himself, " where the smelting of ore, iron foundries, mining and agriculture, were carried on, Stilling's youth was passed, among peasants, miners, and smiths." Stilling's family were mostly charcoal-burners, but his father was a tailor, and the boy was brought up to this trade, sometimes going into the fields with the women of the house ; but it is probable that his grandfather's occupation of charcoal-burning, the life in the woods, the view of the mountains, the seclusion in the forest glades, which leads to an intimacy with birds and flowers, made a strong impression on him. At any rate, Stilling grew up with an unusually strong love of nature, and was a close observer of her. The district was peopled by a sturdy race, professing the Reformed faith. When Eberhardt Stilling looked forward to the glories of the future life, he hoped to find himself in the company of Luther and Calvin, Zwingli, (Ecolampadius, and Bucerus. The pastor with whom Stilling came into contact in his youth had an overweening sense of the dignity of his office. But Eberhardt Stilling, the elder of the church, was by no means intimidated by it ; his own faith was firm, he was fully conscious of his dignity as the head of a family ; and, when occasion required, he was quite ready to stand up for his rights in opposition to the pastor. But there were other peculiar elements in the religious atmosphere by which Stilling was surrounded in his youth. The district was one of those in which the pietistic separatist movement was most strongly developed. All Protestant sects which were subject to persecu- tion elsewhere, were welcomed in the neighbouring territories 320 CLAUDIUS AND JUNG STILLING, of Wittgenstein and Berleburg. The district had been visited by Zinzendorf, Rock, Hochmann, and Dippel ; and the writings of Spener, Francke, Petersen, Anna Lead, and Mme. Guyon, were eagerly read. Many people thought themselves inspired by the Spirit of God, and that the fall of Babylon was near, and they were united in the bonds of close fellowship. Men who had once imbibed worldly wisdom at the universities, wandered about as pedlars from house to house, extolling, with their wares, the grace of God as the pearl of great price. Pious countesses gave their hands in marriage to pious peasants. There was much fanaticism, and sometimes much camal- mindedness, but, nevertheless, Christ had many true disciples in the country. There was no separatist congregation formed in Stilling's native village ; but many were favourably disposed to this sect who did not leave the church, and sometimes attended the separatist meetings to supplement the spiritual edification to be obtained from their own pastor. To this class Stilling's family belonged. In his maternal grandfather, Moritz, who had been dismissed from his office of pastor for practising alchemy, he saw an example of unrestrained fanaticism ; while his grand- father Stilling was a champion of ecclesiastitfal orthodoxy. After his mother's death, in the views which his father adopted, he made acquaintance with the hidden life of the " Quiet in the Land," a party who sought to withdraw entirely from the world ; and as soon as he left home, he was brought into eon- tact with all sorts of religious opinions. Stilling never attempted to conceal his connection with this classic ground of sectarianism, and his writings have a flavour of separatist opinions. Although he considered himself a member of the Reformed church, he was so indifferent to creeds, that towards the close of his life he resolutely refused to say to which he gave the preference. But the effect of family influences was still stronger upon Stilling than that of scenery or associates ; for the Stillings were distinguished by a remarkably strong feeling of family CLAUDIUS AND JUNG STILLING. 321 afieotion, ■which reminds us of the ancient patriarchs of the Bible. When taking a walk with his grandfather in the wood, Stilling once began asking him about their ancestors. Father Stilling smiled, and said, " It would be hard to make out that we are descended from any prince ; but that is all one to me, and you must not covet it either. Your forefathers were all good and honourable people, and there are very few princes who can say that. You must consider it the greatest honour you can have that your grandfather and great-grandfather and their fathers were men who were beloved and honoured by everybody, although they had nothing to rule over but their own households. Not one of them ever married disgracefully, or acted dishonourably towards a woman. Not one of them ever coveted what did not belong to him ; and they all died full of days and honour." Henry was pleased to hear this, and said, " I shall find my forefathers in heaven then." — " Yes," answered the grandfather, " that you will ; our race will thrive there. Henry, I hope you will remember this evening as long as you live. In that world we shall take a high rank ; mind you do not forfeit your privileges ! Our blessing will rest upon you so long as you are good ; but if you are godless, and despise your parents, we shall not recognise you in eternity." Stilling's great-grandfather lived to be 104, his grandfather and father attained to a great age, and he reached that of 77 himself. He regarded his grandfather Eberhardt as a venerable patriarch, and always revered the memory of his grandmother, who took charge of him after his mother's death. Traits of the character of his mother, the gentle, susceptible Dortchen, were deeply engraven on his mind ; and when at the height of his fame, he had the satisfaction of receiving his father — then a venerable and weary old man — into his house at lyiarburg, and of caring for him till his death. His strong regard for family ties was very early indicated. When his grandfather died, a son-in-law, of the name of Simon, became master of the house. Stilling says, " He was not a Stilling^ and the oak table that had been witness of so many blessings and so much hospitality — the useful old table — was exchanged for a yellow maple one Y 322 CLAUDIUS AND JUNG STILLING. full of locked-up drawers ; the other was put up in the loft behind the chimney. Henry sometimes went up there, lay down upon the ground near it, and cried. Simon once found him there, and said, " Henry, what are you doing there ? " — " I am crying about the table." His uncle laughed, and said, "What, crying about an old oak table!" Henry was pro- voked, and said, " My grandfather made that lap to it, and that leg, and that carving in the lap ; nobody who loves him would like tp see it destroyed." Simon was angry, and retorted, "It was not large enough for me; and, besides, where was I to put my own ?" — "Uncle," said the boy, "you ought to have put that up here, tUl grandmother was dead, and all the rest of us were gone away." The national and family influences amidst which a man grows up are doubtless very important in determining his future career, but they are not the most important element in so doing. It consists in the special divine idea of which his life is to be the exponent, the essence of his individuality, which though influenced by race and nation, like the plant by air and soil, is yet developed in accordance with its own peculiar characteristics. Stilling early excited observation, both among his own family and others. His grandfather often said, " That, boy is getting beyond us. He will be fledged earlier than any of us were. We must pray God to guide him with His good spirit." The retired life of his childhood only increased instead of re- pressing his ambition to acquire knowledge and obtain influence. But the limited means which closed the paths of learning to him just at the period when the mind begins to feel its powers, and the necessity that was laid upon him to watch for the leadings of Providence step by step in his career, gave rise to the fiact that whatever ofiice he held, it never seemed to satisfy the longings of his soul, that his wishes and aspirations always led him into a sphere beyond that in which his calling lay. At fifteen he began to be a schoolmaster. But his own thirst for learning often interfered with his teaching; the originality of his ideas was almost too great for what was ex- CLAUDIUS AND JUNG STILLING. 323 pected in a schoolmaster at that day, and often led him to introduce novel plans which gave offence, and his extraordinary passion for reading, and many other tastes and habits, annoyed the people. Admired and censured he went from place to place. When he could not get on at school-keeping he took to working at his trade again, but he soon wearied of that and longed for a freer and more intellectual life. He did not eventually follow either school-keeping or trade ; at one time he was foreman to a mer- chant, in 1770 a medical student at Strasburg, then a surgeon at Elberfeld, in 1778 professor of political economy at Kaisers- lautern, in 1784 at Heidelberg, and at Marburg in 1787. There he appeared to have attained to the summit of earthly happi- ness, for he had an income of 1,200 dollars, and a post of honour. But his religious writings and pietistic tendencies estranged his hearers, until at last he had but three, just suffi- cient to form a class. In 1803 he was for the first time satis- fied with his position, for the Margrave Charles Frederic of Baden made him aulic councillor, with a salary, but no duties, in order that he might devote himself to his calling of winning souls for the kingdom of God. During aU the vicissitudes of his fortune, he retained the conviction as the star of his life, and to illustrate which he wrote his history, that God immediately controls the ways of men, in fact, that the life of a prayerful man is but a tissue of mysterious leadings and gracious answers to prayer. He may often have deceived himself and mistaken his own inclinations for divine guidance, but in every bitter disappointment he took refuge in earnest prayer, under the influence of which he re- turned to walk in God's ways, so that he was truly justified in considering his life as guided by a divine hand. He was not always consistent in his creed. Although early rich in religious experience, it was much later before he became a partaker of the pardoning grace accorded to a condemned sinner ; and though, after experiencing a sudden awakening in his twenty- second year, when walking in the street at Solingen, and making on the spot an irrevocable covenant with God to give 324 CLAUDIUS AND JUNG STILLING. himself iip entirely to His guidance, and though he had been for years in close comEQunion with the " Quiet in the Land," he afterwards adopted the fatalist opinion that all the ways of man are pre-determined by an irrevocable decree. He held these opinions for twenty years, until he was induced to relin- quish them by Kant's philosophy. And after he had returned to a Grod who is heart to heart, he required to be fresh initiated into the doctrine of reconciliation through the blood of Christ. It was at the time of the French Revolution of 1789, when Christianity was openly rejected, that Stilling renounced fatalism, and returned to a belief in a God who hears prayer . and lovingly watches over the destinies of men. He gave up also his belief in the rationalistic explanations of the atonement, and returned to his faith in the blood of the Lamb to cleanse from all sin. He himself relates, " Through the influence of the philosophy of Wolf and Leibnitz, Stilling became entangled in the meshes of fatalism. For more than twenty years he had fought against this giant with prayers and supplications, with- out being able to vanquish him. He had, indeed, always maintained in his writings the doctrine of the freedom of man's will and actions, and believed it in spite of the suggestions of reason ; he had also always continued to pray, though the giant used to whisper in his ear, ' Your prayers are of no use, for that which God has ordained in His counsels will come to pass, whether you pray or not.' " Nevertheless, StUling prayed on, but without light or comfort, even when his prayers were answered, for then the giant whispered, " It is only chance." It is singular that Stilling was set free from this bondage of fatalism by the same means as Fichte, namely, by the philosophy of Kant. Stilling eagerly studied Kant's ' Critique of Pure Reason.' The arguments adduced therein to prove that beyond the sphere of the senses human reason knows nothing at all, that it encounters contradictions whf never it tries to form conclusions concerning supernatural things, based upon its own premises, appeared to him to be an illustration of the words of the Apostle, " But the natural man receiveth not the things of CLAUDIUS AND JUNG STILLING. 325 the spirit of God ; for they are foolishness unto him ; neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned."* With this result of Kant's philosophy, Stilling contented himself. It was a negative result, — merely the conviction that reason of itself knows nothing of things divine. But instead of filling up the void with morality, like Kant, he kept close to the revelation contained in the Scriptures, and felt confirmed in so doing by Kant's words, " You are also right in seeking your only consolation in the Gospel, for it is the inexhaustible source of all truths, which, when reason has exhausted its resources, are to be found nowhere else." After Stilling had returned to the belief in a God as revealed to us in the Bible, who rules in loving freedom over His free creatures, his views also became clear again on the subject of the atonement, on which he had wavered in consequence of intercourse with a man who held rationalistic opinions upon it. In the autumn of 1789 he went to Eiisselsheim on the Maine, in Hesse Darmstadt, where he performed an operation on the wife of the pastor Sartorius, and spent nine happy days in his Christian family. Stilling relates, " Pastor Sartorius belonged to the school of Francke at Halle, and talked in its tone to Stilling of the truths of religion, especially of the doctrines of the atonement and of imputed righteousness. " Without intending it, he got into an argument on these subjects with the good pastor, and discovered how far he had swerved from the truth. This then was the beginning of his return." Immediately after this, he resided for a time among the Moravians at Neiiwied, which essentially contributed to the confirmation of his faith. About this period, those opinions which originated in France, of which the tendency was to undermine both Church and State, began to obtain considerable influence in Germany. And as Stilling was then induced to appear as an author of religious * 1 Cor. ii. U. 326 CLAUDIUS AND yUNG STILLING. works, it was natural that he should endeavour to oppose the new doctrines and uphold the old. His treatise ' On the Eevolutionary Spirit of Our Time, for the Instruction of the Burgher Class,' originated in this desire. He points out that pride, luxury, and especially the lamentable immorality and godlessness that prevailed, are the real causes of the Revolution. He says, " Now, my honest German fellow-citizens, lay your hands upon your hearts, give glory to God, and say truly, is not the class of people that I have been describing very numerous, and therefore formidable, especially among the learned and people of rank ? Unmeasured pride, unbridled, sensuality, a secret aversion to Christ and His religion, and a fearful indifference to God, arc at once the sources and charac- teristics of the revolutionary spirit. Titan-like, it presumes to assail the throne of God, and therefore it is not likely that it should submit to the authority of man. Let us first take the beam out of our own eye before we venture to take the mote out of the eyes of our rulers." And again, " My beloved German fellow-countrymen, high and low, great and small, there is but one way in which all abuses can be rectified, as far as that is possible in this imperfect world, and this consists in an earnest and general endeavour to attain to moral perfection, to ennoble one's self, and to avoid luxurious living ; in a word, in the practical cultivation of real and true religion. This would teach us to submit to those who have the rule over us, and not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward. It would convince us of our state of moral degradation, and thereby make us humble." But Stilliag's religious writings were much more influential than this political treatise. It is not within our province to treat of the works which have most contributed to his fame, the ' Scenes from the Spirit- World,' ' Home-Sickness,' and his romance, called ' The'obald, or the Enthusiast.' The works which had the greatest influence upon public events, were a religious periodical called ' Der Graue Mann,' the ' Grey-headed Man,' and ' The Triumphant History of the Christian Religion ; a PopuUr Explanation of the Revelation of St. John.' The CLAUDIUS AND JUNG STILLING. 327 latter appeared in 1799, in the same year as ScUeiermacher'fl 'Discourses on Religion.' Both were the result of newly awakened religious life, but they differed very widely. It was at first Sohleiermacher's desire to descend into the depths of his own mind, in order there to seek for the sources of the religious life. Stilling, on the contrary, explored the realms of history, explained passing events, and attempted to define the nature of the kingdom of dod. He had been accustomed from his youth to occupy himself with the Book of Revelation. In 1798 he made acquaintance with the interpretation of it by Bengol, the theologian of Wiirtemberg, and finding that some of his explanations were confirmed by the events of the French Revolution, Stilling adopted his system, and formed a sudden resolution to make a new translation of the Revelation from the Greek, with an exposition upon Bengel's plan. Whilst he deprecated a hasty application of particular symbols to passing events, he was firmly of the opinion that the great conflict was near at hand. According to his view, the first angel with the everlasting gdspel in the fourteenth chapter is Luther ; the second, Jacob Bohme ; the third, Francke. But in the supple- ment he gives it as his opinion, that Bengel was the secodd, who was called to proclaim the fall of Babylon, and that the third had not yet appeared. Possibly, in the depths of his soul, he thought that he was himself the third, for he was convinced that he had a great and special vocation in the kingdom of God, and the great acceptance which his writings found among the " Quiet in the Land," and among the scattered few who honoured the name of Christ, could but strengthen his conviction. The key-note of his prophetic theology was the approach of judgment ; and he adopted Bengel's reckoning, according to which the most distant period at which Christ should have vanquished his foes was the year 1886. Afterwards, under the excitement of passing events, he thought it was still nearer. If it be asked, what place he assigned to the Emperor Napoleon in his apocalyptic system, he did not consider him to be Antichrist, nor does he speak against him with the indignation that might have been expected from a 328 CLAUDIUS AND JUNG STILLING. devout German. Perhaps this is partly explained by his residence in Baden, one of the States of the Confederation of the Rhine. In Wurtemberg, where the people were rather inclined to religious speculation, their desire to form a precise estimate of the mission of the French despot, combined with their admiration of some improvements introduced by his government, had led to the delusion that " Napoleon waS Jesus Christ, the Son of God, come down to earth the second time to establish His kingdom." Those who fell into this error formed a sect, " who therefore despised all authority, insulted and refused obedience to their rulers, gave out that all preachers, even the most devout, were deceivers and priests of Baal, withdrew from the church and sacraments, wore the white hat and cockade, and adopted all sorts of peculiarities." Stilling was accused by some journalists in 1807 of being the founder of this sect ; this he indignantly repelled, and took the opportunity of explaining his views about Napoleon : — " I con- sider the Emperor Napoleon to be a great instrument in the hands of Providence, whereby it is God's will to carry out great and important ends, tending to the salvation of the whole world. His history and that of our time renders this so clear that no reasonable man can possibly doubt it. But that he is the Son of God, Jesus Christ, he would himself declare, if he heard it, to be nonsense and blasphemy. None can hold such an opinion but fanatical fools." Stilling could not agree with those who held that Napoleon was Antichrist after his first fall in 1814. Notwithstanding the Peace of Paris, he did not think the tranquillity would be permanent. He thought it possible that the final struggle might yet be near at hand. But, in this case, he held that the man of sin must certainly appear ; and the question therefore arose whether he had not already appeared in the person of Napoleon, but he did not answer it in the affirmative. He said, " The man of sin, or the beast out of the abyss, will reign until the coming of the Lord, when the Lord will slay him with the sword of his mouth, and cast him and the false prophet and all his angels into the lake of fire and brimstone. CLAUDIUS AND JUNG STILLING. 329 " Certainly, Napoleon has been beaten, and that the Lord has done it there can be no doubt ; but we know nothing yet of a false prophet distinguishing himself as such, and the island of St. Helena is not a lake of fire and brimstone." We have already given our opinion on the sin of Napoleon, and, while we agree with Stilling that he was not the Antichrist, we hold that he was an Antichrist, and that, from a German point of view, Stilling's judgment on him was far too lenient. Long before the alliances of 1812, there were indications in Stilling's writings which prepared the way for the announcement of the Emperor Alexander as the elect of God for the restoration of His kingdom. In endeavouring to understand the popular religious move- ments of that day, we must not overlook the singular attraction to the East that was felt by many minds. Because the aspect of the Western world was dark, — because the ever-increasing unbelief, the resistance unto blood to the powers ordained of God, and all the horrors of revolution, had come to Germany from the West, — pious people began to turn their eyes longingly to the East. There was in StiUing's writings a mysterious pre- sentiment of this tendency. As early as 1793 he had fore- shadowed an idea that, in His own good time, God would raise up some great man, who was destined to lead his people into a place of refuge, into a land of peace, a Solyma, just as Moses led the people out of Egypt, and Zerubbabel out of Babylon. He warned people against a carnal mUlenarianism, and prema- ture interpretations ; still he went on prophesying and calling attention to Asiatic Russia. He looked upon the Moravians as a type of the church of God, as a beginning of the gathering together of His people ; and there was a little community of them at Astrachan and Sarepta. Stilling thought to himself that God might easily put it into the heart of the Emperor Alexander to allot a territory in Astrachan or Georgia where the people of God, scattered abroad or exiled on religious or political grounds, might congregate and abide in safety till the storms were overpast. He wrote, "All those who honour the Lord from among all parties, and from every place, would 330 CLAUDIUS AND JUNG STILLING. naturally be attracted to them ; and by degrees, or m one great company, tbey would all journey to this Solyma or land of peace, under a prince or leader who would rule this congrega- tion of the Lord according to their own laws and the essential principles of the kingdom of God, and thus prepare the way for the establishment of this glorious kingdom." What at first might have been a half-poetical fancy was after- wards taken for prophecy ; at any rate, some of the people were not gifted to distinguish between the poetic form and the pro- phetic meaning, but endeavoured to put into present practice the foreshadowing of a possible future. The faithful in South Germany longed for their place of refuge, and began to journey thither. In 1803, George Kapp, of Iplingen, emigrated to America with a large number of his followers. A little later, Mary Gottlieb Kummer, a fanatic peasant who believed herself to have the gift of prophecy, had induced twenty-one persons, with blue ribbons and pilgrims' staves, to set out for the promised land ; and now, in 1809, a new movement began, for the pietists and millenarians of Wurtemberg had taken offence at the introduction of a new hymn-book and liturgy. A flight from approaching destruction was determined upon, and in 1810 an emigration was begun to Bessarabia, Odessa, and Kaross. In 1816 and 1817, after Alexander had revealed himself as the coming hero from the East, and had promised protection to the wanderers, 7,000 souls took boat to go down the Danube. With a loss of 3,000 persons, they arrived in Georgia in 1818. They founded churches, but their emigration proved to be rather a severance from the nursing mother church than a refuge from destruction. The churches fell into confusion, and the rem- nants of them were succoured by the Basle Missionary Society.. It can scarcely be said that Stilling favoured these undertak- ings. There was in his character a singular mixture of visionary enthusiasm and common sense. Under the influence of the former he regarded his sanguine expectations as if they were real, and produced the impression upon others that he did so CLAUDIUS AND JUNG STILLING. 331 regard them. But no sooner had his poetical prophetic visions escaped him, no sooner had they produced an effect on simple souls, than his common sense induced him to grasp the reins, and to say that he had heen misunderstood ; that at least the time was not yet come, that the Lord's commands must not be anticipated, &c. In 1805 he wrote : — " Now I earnestly pray you not to seek this place of refuge until the Lord points it out, and not to move until you can stay no longer." And in 1806, just before the great emigration, he gave forth this warning : " This going to Eussia is premature. The true followers of the Lord should remain quietly at their posts, even if the man of sin is revealed and reigns supreme. It is onlj' when they have nobly stood the trial that they are worthy to be received into the place of safety, that they may be protected from the Almighty's vials of wrath, which are designed only for the Antichristian rabble : for the flight of the woman clothed with the sun into the wilderness does not take place until she has borne the pangs of labour, and brought forth a man-child — not till then is she delivered from her enemy." It may be remembered with what interest Alexander, the Emperor of the East, was regarded when the course of events suddenly brought him into prominence as the hero called of God to conquer Napoleon. We shall see what great hopes Stilling placed upon him ; and he occupied a large place in the prophecies of Mme. de Kriidener. Our readers will be glad to get out of this apocalyptic atmo- sphere into the domain of history. During its stormy course Stilling endeavoured to admonish the people, and to awaken in them a Christian spirit. In the periodical called the 'Grey- headed Man' we have a record of what he had to say from year to year to a large circle of readers. As to Napoleon, Stilling shared the opinions of some others, especially of Arndt and Riickert, that he perished through hard- ness of heart ; for he was not humbled by the most severe chastisement, was never satisfied with the most advantageous proposals, but scornfully made demands with which it was impossible to comply. Siilling wrote : — " This judgment of 332 CLAUDIUS AND JUNG STILLING. hardening the heart explains what is meant in the Bible when it says that ' the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, so that he would not let Israel go.' The Lord hath also hardened Napo- leon's heart, so that he would not accept peace. If he had done so, in a few years he would have regained his power, and then he would have revenged himself terribly on Germany. And who knows what Providence may yet spare him for, if he lives ?" Siilling had long before predicted divine judgments on the North of Germany, on account of the frivolous spirit that he had observed there, and now he rejoiced that they had produced so good an effect, and fostered a religious spirit in high and low : " It is not the teachers of religion' who have effected this," he wrote, " but the acts of the Lord have spoken with a voice of thunder, and the people have hearkened, and heard it. If this text were now expounded from every pulpit, how many souls would be won ! But it is but rarely done. Some day severe judgment will be passed on these faithless hirelings." In StUling's writings on passing events we do not trace the patriotic glow which is so evident in those of Arndt, Fichte, Schleiermacher, and Schenkendorf. He estimated nations solely by their relation to Christianity, and this sometimes led him into injustice towards bis country. He passed the most favour- able judgments on those parts of the country where there were the greatest numbers of the " Quiet in the Land." But around these spots of light he beheld a grea' expanse of darkness ; and, of course, after mixing for seventy-five years in every grade of society, he was pretty well acquainted with the sins of his countrymen, and he was not the man to throw over them the mantle of patriotism. But in other lands, which he had never visited, he was acquainted only with the Christian element, for which he was always on the look-out, and the prevailing sins were not so patent to him. Thus he praises England in most glowing terms, in consequence of the religious awakening which had taken place there, and her great zeal for missions and the circulation of the Bible ; but the dark shadows of English life were unknown to him. He could not deny the ignorance, superstition, and torpor CLAUDIUS AND JUNG STILLING. 333 that prevailed in Eussia, but he had great hopes for the Greek Church, on account of " its profound reverence for Jesus Christ, and its just conception of His sublime person." Several thiugs contributed to inspire him with special sym- pathy for religious people in Russia. In the year 1815 he could relate that he had held important conversations with the Emperor Alexander,, and said that the Emperor was firmly resolved to live and die a true Christian, and he accepted the support he gave to the Bible Society as a proof of it. Of the Empress, whom he called the most gracious lady in the world, he reported that she loved religion, and that her ladies of honour, with whom he had had much intercourse, were the most sincere, penitent, and exemplary Christians." In fact, he had seen the Emperoiii'and his court under the most favourable aspect. It was in the beginning of the year 1814, on Alexander's first journey to Paris, that he was often asked by his mother-in-law, the Margravine of Baden, if he would not give an audience to the " privy councillor Jung.'' The Emperor, however, did not feel any special attraction to the " privy councillor Jung," but at length an idea suddenly flashed upon him, and he asked, "Does not Stilling live here?" And when informed that he was Jung, he said, " I have a great deal to say to him, but I must wait till I come back." Accordingly, after the Emperor's return from Paris and London, Stilling was summoned to Bruchsal. He greeted the Emperor as the deliverer of Germany, which honour he de- clined, with the remark — " The good that has been done came from God, and all the errors belong to us." Stilling asked for a private interview, as he had important things to say to the Emperor concerning the kingdom of God. An appointment was made for the following day, and Stilling prepared himself for it by prayer. The Emperor received him as an old friend, seated himseif close to him as he was rather deaf, and took both bis hands in his. StUiing informed him that thfi peace would not last long, that the divine judgments would continue to be poured out, until every one was a'wal-"'=*aed who was capable of being so. He 334 CLAUDIUS AND JUNG STILLING. concurred with the Emperor's remark, that great multitudes had already been awakened, but maintained that the mass of the people had only become worse. The Emperor told him of the Bible, Tract, and Missionary Societies with which he had recently become acquainted in England, and promised to do all in his power to advance true and practical religion in his own country. After a humble acknowledgment of his own short- comings, he asked Stilling what he held to be the real, practical, and essential duties of a Christian.' StiUing answered : — " The essential duties of a Christian consist in three things : firstly, in the entire surrender of his own will ; secondly," in constant contemplation, and in dwelling in the presence of the Lord ; thirdly, in continual inward prayer." With glistening eyes, the Emperor pressed Stilling's hand, and said, " That is also my firm conviction." To the Emperor's question to which of the Christian creeds Stilling gave the preference, he answered that the Lord had His people amongst them all, and would not give a decided opinion. He spoke highly of the Moravians, on the Emperor's expressing a favourable opinion of them, but without assigning to them the highest place among the visible communities of Christendom. When Stilling congratulated the Emperor on having such pious people about his court, and told him that he had made a compact with Eox^ndra von Sturza to remain true to the Lord to all eternity, thip Emperor rose up, once more pressed his hand, and said, " WelL we two will also make an agreement to be faithful unto death.!' The Emperor afterwards showed himself very friendly to Stilling, hghtened the burden of old age by giving him con- siderable presents, and took one of his sons into the Bussian service. StiUing also maintained his intimacy with the Russian court. Amongst the ' Letters from Experienced Christians,' which were published after his death, there were some in French, which appear to have been written by Roxandra von Sturza during the Congress of Vienna. From St. Petersburg, in 1816, the same hand informed Stilling, then near his departure, that " Our Emperor continues to walk in the ways of the Lord. He lives a retired and very exemplary CLAUDIUS AND JUNG STILLING. 335 life, and bears ■with great patience the thorns with which his crown is set. I trust that God will bless him, and enlighten his path, which is beset with more difficulties than you can imagine," It may be supposed that Stilling, who had been devoted for years to seeking out true Christians in many lands, and to exhorting people to a religious hfe, took no great pleasure in the hyper-patriotism which prevailed in Germany after the wars of independence, as the natural consequence of the previous cosmopolitanism. In the last number of the ' Grey-headed Man,' in which, in 1816, he took leave of the " Stilling congregation," he seeks to bring down this Germanizing tendency to a Christian standard. " There is a great deal said now about the regeneration and renovation of the German character. It is said, ' Thank God, we are Germans once more,' &c. But is this true ? Have we" a just idea of what the German character is ? It consists in firm fidelity to God and man, in being that which we seem, and in an insatiable thirst for all kinds of knowledge." He says that this thirst for knowledge will be likely to lead into the dangerous paths of religious doubt, unless the Germans keep close to their Saviour with unswerving fidelity, and this fidelity he finds by no means universal. Once more he calls to mind how the Lord annihilated Napoleon's army, and contiuues : — " The thought flashed through the mind of every man, even if not a profound thinker, ' This is a divine intervention.' The Russian crossed himself, put his mouth in the dust and exclaimed, ' JesuS Christ has done this ! ' A small but most noble portion of the Germans agreed with him. A much larger number said, ' This is a dispensation of Providence ; ' a third part said, ' This is a decree from Heaven ; ' and the fourth, and unfortunately by far the larger part, either thought nothing at all about it, or said, ' The scale of fortune has turned at last on the right side.' Why cannot the Germans exclaim with the Russians, ' Jesus Christ has done this. He has risen up, He has come forth and shown to all the world that He who is truth will keep His 336 CLAUDIUS AND JUNG STILLING. word.' He Himself said, 'AH power is given unto me in heaven and in earth ; ' and St. Paul says, ' He must reign till He hath put all things under His feet.' To ascribe this obviously divine intervention to God or Providence, does not prove a man to be a Christian ; every deist, Turk, or Jew may say that ; the true believer will say, ' The Lord Jesus Christ has done it.' " It was objected to him that the term Lord, by which Jesus Christ was understood, was often thoughtlessly used as a shibboleth by the " awakened." To which Stilling answered, " The Christian should only reverently use the name Lord Jesus Christ when it is necessary to make the distinction between the Father and the Son ; but in the case in question it should always be used, especially in the present day, when men have fallen away from Christ, and are attempting to despoil Him of His honours. All the divine government, both in the Church and in the State, is in the hands of our Lord, and it ought to be openly acknowledged on this occasion." Accustomed as Stilling was to dwell on the Apocalypse, he drew a very definite line between those who were for and against the Saviour ; but those were no less justified in their opinion who held that the acknowledgment of the living God, which at this time became so much more general, was the first step towards the acknowledgment of His Son. Stilling always thought that the great conflict was near at hand, and he naturally supposed that all who did not take a decided stand on the side of Christ would be condemned as His opponents. We now know that the great judgment did not take place, that the course of events was to be still further developed, and that many who then spoke only of God, but who acquired a profound conviction of His overruling presence in the history of nations and men, afterwards turned in- repentance and love to Christ. Stilling's life may well incite us to praise God, who enabled a sinful man to be so useful to his brethren. It is true that traces of human frailty are often to be observed in this instrument of grace, and we sometimes remark with surprise that his duty and inclination, his outward and inward callings. CLAUDIUS AND JUNG STILLING. 337 were at variance ; but this feeling vanishes when we consider his career of usefulness as a whole. Without ever making his skill a means of gain, he restored the sight of large numbers by operating upon them for cataract. When the number amounted to 2,000, he left oflf keeping account of them. And to how many was he the restorer of their spiritual eyesight ! His correspondence was entirely devoted to gaining souls for the kingdom and confirming their faith : he was never weary of sending forth his messengers of peace, although postage often cost him upwards of a thousand florins a year.* By means of his writings he preserved the scattered few who were believers in Christ in unity of spirit. Many of his doctrines, hopes, and predictions were without any Scriptural foundation, but on the main point he always stood firm. His childhood had been passed in the midst of a patriarchal life ; and, in his old age, children, grandchildren, and friends assembled around him as the patriarch, and honoured him as their father. From the year 1806, in accordance with the wish of Charles Frederic, Duke of Baden, who wished to have him near him, and who hoped to employ him for the benefit of humanity, he lived at Carlsruhe ; he had a room in the palace, sat at the Grand Duke's table, and spent most of his time in his company. The Grand Duke preceded his spiritual adviser into eternity. Stilling had suffered severely for some time from cramp in the stomach and pleurisy, and entered on the year 1817 in much weakness. His illness developed into water on the chest. He lived for twelve days after giving his wife his parting blessing, continually occupied with the thought of death and of Him who is the victor of death. His second daughter begged that when in heaven he and her mother would pray for her. The wife then living, was not her mother. "Yes," he said; "we must first see what is the * About £83. z 338 CLAUDIUS AND JUNG STILLING. custom in the other world, and then we will pray for you." Passion Week had begun. One day, on waking up, he said, " I feel an unspeakable peace in my soul, which my physical misery makes it difficult for you to understand." Soon after- wards, he began to pray for his children and children's children, that God would preserve them as branches in the vine by faith in His Son, so that after the lapse of ages he might find them all united. Then, feeling that his end was drawing near, he earnestly desired to receive the Supper of the Lord with his family ; but it was four o'clock in the morning, and there was no pastor of the Eeformed Church within reach. After con- ferring with his eldest son. Stilling decided to take the holy office upon himself. He asked his family to kneel down, uncovered his head, folded his hands, and, in the power of the Spirit and of faith, he offered a prayer nearly in the following words : — " Thou who didst shed thy blood for us upon the cross, and overcamest death and hell, and forgavest thine enemies, thou divine Mediator, forgive us now if, in our weakness, we are presuming to do that which we ought not to do." He then distributed the bread and wine, and as he partook last himself of the consecrated cup, he spread out his hands in the attitude of blessing, and said, " The Lord be with you," The last hour was passed in great anguish from suffocation, but he was continually in prayer, and asking those around him to pray for him, When the sun beamed forth brightly at midday, he drew his last breath, and the aspect of the earthly tenement was dignified and peaceful after the parting spirit had winged its flight. He who had so often experienced a heavenly home-sickness was now blessed for evermore, for he had reached his heavenly home.* * ' Stiiling's Lebensgesohichte und seme samwtliobe Werke,' CHAPTER XIV, PEEDEBIC PEBTHES. GERMANY has no nobler representative of her citizens' life than Frederic Perthes. Although in his youth his edu- cation was limited to that generally afforded to youths destined for trade, yet by his untiring exertions he placed himself on a mental equality with men of learning. Although originally without property, through his energy, ability, and inviolable uprightness, his business became one of the most important of its kind. Without the outward calling of any official position, and solely from his pure and ardent patriotism, he takes his place among the deliverers of his country from the French yoke, and justly shares their fame. From the healthy union in his character of patriotism and religion, he may be regarded as a modern representative of the ancient citizens of the free German cities, in which the preaching of the Reformation and the spirit of Protestantism took such deep root. In whatever aspect we regard his life, as the head of a house- hold, as a man of business, patriot, member of the Church, or as a philanthropist, — in every character he displayed zeal, love, and energy ; and the conviction is forced upon us that he was a complete man. Frederic Christopher Perthes was born in April, 1772, at Rudolstadt, where his father was collector of taxeSf and his grandfather had been court surgeon. He had to bear the yoke in his youth. His father died early, and his mother, having only a yearly pension of 21 gulden, about £1 15s. sterling, found a home with some of her friends, and his maternal grandmother took charge of the boy. She died when he was 34° FREDERIC PERTHES. only seven years old, when he was adopted by his maternal uncle, Frederic Heubel, and his sister Caroline. The brother was a man of great animation, taking a keen interest in ■v?hat was going on in the world, strictly honourable, and devoted to his prince, body and soul ; the sister was a woman of great energy and strong will, ready to help every one, but never to accept help herself. In the holidays the boy was fond of stay- ing with his uncle, J. D. Heubel, who was lieutenant-eolonel and bailiff to the prince, and lived at the castle of Schwarz- burg; and roaming about the hiUs and woods of that beautiful neighbourhood with him, was beneficial both to body and mind. He made but little progress at the gymnasium at Eudolstadt \ he had had too little regular instruction before, had no head for figures, and very little for learning languages. But he read with avidity, and a great deal of knowledge was stored up, though unassorted in his mind, when at the age of fifteen he was sent as an apprentice to the bookseller Bobme, at Leipsig. The contract is an interesting relic of a time when religious and moral training was still considered t9 be the necessary groundwork for success in business. Bohme promised not only to instruct him in the bookselling trade, but to admonish him to live virtuously and. in the fear of God; and his uncle en- gaged, besides supplying him with clothes during his appren- ticeship, to admonish him to be zealous in advancing his master's interests, to be pious, industrious, and cheerful, to go regularly to church on Sunday, never to go out of the house without leave, day or night, to avoid all bad company, and to fulfil all the duties of a faithful apprentice. Perthes went to his master at the Michaelmas fair. He was happy in the family circle, particularly among the young ladies, who were very kind to him. His chief occupation consisted in going to the other book- sellers of the town for the books ordered from Bohme. If he did not at once understand the titles, his master thundered out, "Don't you understand German?" but his anger soon evapo- rated, and he sometimes celebrated a reconciliation by giving him fruit, or sharing his afternoon coffee with him. The shop FREDERIC PERTHES. 341 was never warmed ; when the master was cold, he stamped his feet and rubbed his hands, but Perthes' feet became frostbitten during the first winter, and his master took no pity upon him till he was no longer able to walk. The doctor was then sent for, who said that had it been neglected twenty-four hours longer, the foot must have been taken off. For nine weeks he was laid up in his attic ; but his master's daughter Frederica, a charming child of twelve, took pity upon him. Knitting in hand, she chatted and read to him, and a warm friendship sprang up between them. As may be imagined, the young apprentice in the strange flat town often suffered from home sickness, when he thought of the hills of Schwarzburg, and when he heard the cowherd of Gohlis blowing his horn, it made him " feel quite curious." It was a great treat to him when his uncle Justus Perthes came from Gotha, and gave him a few groschen to go and see the menagerie, or took him with him to Easchwitz, where the booksellers of the Holy Eonian Empire were assembled, and he was introduced to them. " What an honour I have had ! " he said to himself, " such as no other of the apprentices can think of." BEs mind gradually developed with his years, and his love for Frederica preserved him from the temptations of youth. The intimacy of childhood was replaced by the reserve of riper years. He tried hard to persuade himself that this affec- tion would not lead to anything lasting, and sought to fill the void which this conviction left in his heart by means of friend- ship. Of his feUow-apprenticej Eabenhorst, a well-conducted, clever, and business-like youth, he said, "If it had not been for him, the world would have been a hell to me." About this time he became acquainted with some superior young men from Swabia, with whom he read the German poets, and whose friendship was very beneficial to him. He wrote to his uncle, " Yes, I feel a fire in my soul, and if this fire, which now warms me for other subjects, shall some day incite me to re- ligion, perfection, and virtue, all self-interest will be done away, and I shall love all men as brothers.'' In these expressions we may trace his moral and religious 342 FREDERIC PERTHES. aspirations. Finding that he had got sleepy over French and English grammar during the late hours which were alone at his disposal for self-culture, he took to books which nourished his inner life. He became a philosopher; sought into the grounds and motives of our actions, and formed a conception of the virtues which man should practise. Perthes conducted himself during his apprenticeship so entirely to the satisfaction of his employer that, at Easter, 1793, half a year before his time expired, he allowed him to take a situation with the bookseller Hoffmann, of Hamburg. With gratitude to God, Perthes reviewed the years at Leipsig. " It was there," he wrote, " that my mind began to be formed, and to have a conception of the dignity of man. I have passed through many evil days, but they have all turned out for my good. When I came here I was a light-minded boy, with many, many faults. I have many still, but many have been corrected or lessened, I thank God for His goodness in putting so many incitements to good in my way, so that my frivolity could not get the upper hand." When he came to Hamburg he was just twenty-one. There also he had to work hard, but found time to read the works of our great poets ; and when at holiday times he gave himself up with cheerful companions to the enjoyment of youth, he tried to* make these social pleasures subservient to the perfecting of the inner man. He gained access to the intellectual aristocracy of Hamburg, which assembled in the house of the Sievekings. But intercourse with three friends had a still more important iniluence upon him, — Speckter, Runge, and Hiilfenbeck. They were deeply immersed in the streams of intellectual life which were then rushing through Germany, and they were interested in seeing how eagerly the young bookseller's assistant refreshed himself in their waves. There was something almost effemi- nate in his slender form, fresh complexion, and the delicate form of the eye, and yet they declared that the little Perthes had the most manly spirit of them all. He congratulated him- self on his happiness, and said that he was "like a fish restored to its native element." FREDERIC PERTHES. 343 But while his pure and youthful mind was in this ferment, he had sufficient decision and circumspection to begin an inde- pendent course in business matters. With a young tradesman of Hamburg, and Nessig, a friend of his apprentice years, he founded a business which bore his name alone. The bookselling trade was then in a very dull state, and Perthes, who thought more of extending intellectual life among the people than of his own gains, selected the bookselling in- stead of the publishing business. He undertook to obtain any book wherever published, and to deliver it in any place ; and, in order to make a visit to his shop attractive, and to forward the interests of literature, he provided copies of every German periodical, and every work of general interest. The booksellers of the Holy Roman Empire, as the young apprentice had once called them, at first regarded with astonishment the young tradesman who, with cheerful confidence, introduced himself to their notice at the Easter fair of 1796. But the ready mono)- with which his Hamburg friends had intrusted him soon helped him over aU difficulties. But it was a less easy task to stem a storm of passionate love which arose just as the little barque of his business was loosed from her moorings, and spreading her sails to the fair breeze. His partner, Nessig, was a rival in his affection for Frederica Bohme, and, with touching disinterestedness, Perthes had allowed him the first claim to her hand, thinking that there was no longer any passion in his love. But when he saw the maiden again at Leipsig, her charms reasserted their power over him. She was now to decide for herself. Her answer was, " I like Perthes and I like Nessig, but I cannot give my hand to either.'' Perthes felt petrified, and in this state of mind attention to business was a heavy burden. But he controlled himself, did all that was necessary, returned to Hamburg, hired a house in a busy part of the city, took his mother and sister to live with him, and opened his business in July, 1796. With his lofty and intellectual conception of his calling, the young bookseller was soon brought into contact with many superior people in the neighbourhood, and in the country in general, and to some of 344 FREDERIC PERTHES. these connections he owed the happiness which soon after bloomed for him. Not long after the opening of the shop it was entered by a distinguished-looking man, of about fifty years of age, whose appearance at once inspired confidence. It was F. H. Jacobi, the philosopher, and at one time the centre of a most hospitable literary coterie at Pempelfort, near Diisseldorf. The French Eevolution had now sent him northward, and he was living at the castle at Wandsbeck. The first meeting led to a lifelong friendship. He introduced Perthes to the house of Claudius, the author of the ' Wandsbeck Messenger.' His eldest daughter, Caroline, though not strikingly beautiful, was pleasing in appearance, and an inner world of imagination, feeling, energy, and repose shone through her light blue eyes. She had been but little in contact with the outer world ; had been devoted to domestic duties ; had acquired a fair knowledge of languages from her father's tuition ; and her beautiful voice contributed to the musical pleasures of the household. A correspondence with her friend, the Princess Galitzin, had directed her attention to the earnest questions of life, and the death of a little sister in the previous year had given her ardent longings for communion with Him who can save us from death. She saw Perthes for the first time in November, 1796, and they were at once attracted to each other. At Christm.as they met at Jacobi's house, and from that day his heart was decided, though it was not until April that she gave him a favourable answer. In July the betrothal took place, as an ecclesiastical ceremony according to the ancient custom of Holstein, and the Princess Galitzin and Count F. L. Stolberg were among the guests. When the pastor reminded the bride that once betrothed they could only be separated by the Consistory, she replied, " I have long been entirely decided, and for a long time past neither you nor the Consistory would have been able to separate us." The day before the marriage Caroline wrote to Perthes, " I have been with the pastor to-day. The formulary that is to unite us is neither cold nor hot, neither ancient nor modern, but a disagreeable mixture of the two. But it will not hurt us. FREDERIC PERTHES. 345 dear Perthes. We will ask God for his blessing after the old fashion, and He will bless us in the same manner. Join me in asking for it, dear Perthes, and open your arms wide and hold me fast till you close my eyes. I am yours, body and soul, and trust in God that I shall be happy." And they did hold each other fast, differing, as they did at first, both in character and in habits of life ; but without renouncing their individuality, their communion of spirit continually increased. Through Caroline's influence, Perthes " was led to a greater desire for the peace of God, and she learnt from him to put the talent of her hidden life to interest, ip the midst of practical activity. This marriage led Perthes to seek for the pearl of great price, for the charm that attracted him in Caroline's character was derived from the grace of God. The moral law was a schoolmaster to Perthes to bring him to Christ ; and his ideal of spiritual life was a divine influence from the Father to lead him to the Son. He had always aspired to live not after the flesh but after the spirit, and it was needful that he should strive to attain this end with all his might, in order to discover that his own strength was not sufficient for it. "My dear good uncle," he wrote at eighteen, "heavenly joys are attained by those who labour to improve themselves, and I have often enjoyed times in which, from the contemplation of the works and perfections of God, and from a feeling of my own dignity as a man, I have had a foretaste of the end for which we are destined." But- at another time he said, " How often have r bewailed my perversity with tears in my eyes, when, after having resolved to be steadfast in the practice of good, I had fallen away because I could not conquer some passion. At these times everybody appears better than myself, even if they have committed actual crimes, while I have only sinned in thought, for I fancy that if others had the same impulses for good that I have, they would certainly be better than I am." His impulsive, excitable nature could find no satisfaction in the doctrine of virtue, in which merely the understanding is 346 , FREDERIC PERTHES. concerned, but when the good to which he aspired appeared to him in the garb of beauty, it gave him fresh zeal to strive to attain it. For this reason he was very fond of Schiller,, who endeavours to show that the paths of virtue and beauty are the same. From Schiller, and from intercourse with his friends, his ideas of virtue increased in depth. It no longer appeared to him as the sum total of isolated actions, but as a condition of mind in which the avoidance of evil and the practice of good is a matter of course. But the higher the aim, the clearer became the impossibility of attaining it. " Perthes," said Speckter to him, " all your love is mere delusion, it only assumes the character of a nobler passion, because your feelings are refined and sensitive." Perthes felt compelled to acknow- ledge that he was right. It was only through Christian knowledge and faith that he could attain peace. What could neither be accomplished by reason, by the feelings, nor by beauty, was to be attained by the divine power of love, which condescends to man in order to lift him up. He witnessed the reflection of the divine light in the house of his father-in-law, in the circles of the pious Lutherans in Holstein, and the devout Eoman Catholics of Miinster, Eeventlow, and Stolberg, Fiirsten- berg, and the Princess Gralitzin. He wrote to Jacobi, " He only who is love can solve the problem of our being, and of our deliverance." But he did not at first see that it is in Christ alone that reconciling and rescuing love is revealed to us. He wrote to his wife, " That there is something in me that lives, and will live for ever, I feel with a certainty that words are inadequate to express ; but I also feel that the immortal ego can only find satisfaction in love to God. To every one who is earnestly striving to attain this love, who falls down on his knees in trembling prayer and thanksgiving, the Lord will be merciful, even if he worships a piece of wood, instead of the Crucified One. For since the invisible is concealed from our view by the visible world, everything that helps me to draw near to God is a means of reconciliation, and not idolatry. The evil principle rages within me, and is very powerful. My prayers are only signals of distress, and do not help me, for I FREDERIC PERTHES. 347 am not like you, penetrated by the holiness of the Highest and with His dazzling brightness ; but I am penetrated with you, my saint, and through you I shall attain to that higher love to which I cannot attain without mediation." But it was not long before Perthes learned that redeeming love is revealed to us in no other way than by Jesus Christ. He then wrote to his wife : " My mental distress requires some one who wiU give satisfaction instead of me, and an idea arises in my mind of a God who, as man, has felt the torments of humanity. I have leaned on many a broken reed, and seen many a star fall from heaven." The last step of knowledge was now gained; he had apprehended the great mystery, " God manifest in the flesh ;" he felt the truth of the saying, " Had Christ been bom in Bethlehem a thousand times, but not also in thyself, thou wouldst have been lost eternally." He read the Scriptures with an ardent desire to grow according to his knowledge. He rejoiced in mercy, but was indefatigable in striving to work out the life that had been given him. There is soniething very edifying in observing how excellent men in that day gained their knowledge step by step, by earnest endeavour, aspiration leading them to knowledge, and further knowledge to more earnest aspiration ; while nowadays some renounce all effort to work out their inner life, content with the everyday experience of their outward existence ; whUe others, who do accept the proffered truth, accept it so lightly and superficially, that it is impossible to help doubting whether the confession with the lips arises from any real belief in the heart. While Perthes had thus attained to clearness in his inner life, his business and family had prospered. The first partnership had been dissolved at the end of two years, but he entered into another with J. H. Besser, a man of excellent qualities of the heart, and of greater attainments than he himself possessed, especially in languages. The firm soon became one of the most highly esteemed in Germany. And the house was becoming daily more lively. By the year 1807 seven children had been born to him, of whom one only was lost. His happiness would 348 FREDERIC PERTHES. have been complete, had it not been for the condition of his country. Perthes' patriotism had never contented itself with attach- ment to the Uttle State in which he was born, he was devoted to the Emperor and the empire, and only saw happiness and freedom for the minor States in a great and united Germany. He therefore keenly felt the humiliation of his country, but he was among those who always believed in her renovation. A righteous indignation took possession of him, that some who bore great names in Germany, Goethe, for example, did not feel her ignominy more keenly. In 1804 he wrote to Jacobi, " Our hearts ought to be overwhelmed with shame at the disruption of our country. Instead of arming themselves, and acquiring strength and courage by nourishing this shame, they stifle their feelings, and produce works of art. If the best among us turn a deaf ear like this, our people will no more escape the fate of being vagabonds without home or country, than a sinner can hope for salvation who amuses himself with card-playing in order to escape the pangs of repentance." But this view of the situation of Germany was only based upon external appearances ; his faith perceived strength for a new birth in the midst of desolation. " Should not the fact that we live in this most evil time, stir up our hearts to great deeds ? " he once exclaimed. When Austria was so signally defeated in 1805, Perthes urged Johannes von Miiller, the historian, whom he would gladly have seen as the leader of all good Germans, to stir up Prussia to come to the rescue of Austria and of Germany. But it was too soon. In the autumn of 1806, Prussia first roused herself up. Not long after the battle of Jena, the French Marshal Mortier entered Hamburg. All intercourse with England was forbidden under pain of death, and the trade and prosperity of Hamburg annihilated for years, and the unbidden guests occasioned enormous expenses to the town by their shameless demands. Between November, 1806, and June, 1808, not less than 7,372,776 marks* were extorted. * Atout £430,000. FREDERIC PERTHES. 349 About a year after the battle of Jena, Perthes wrote to Jacobi, "My mind becomes daily more free and firm, and so, happen what may, I am cheerlful and full of courage. I am a frail mortal, I know, but not an unhappy one — rather a very happy one, whose lot it is to live in stormy times. Much interest in life and death, much love, much sorrow, many children, many friends, much work and much business, much pleasure and much annoyance, little peace and but little money. Added to all this, a dozen Spaniards in the house, and for three days three gendarmes, who nearly drive me to despair." He often questioned with himself what would be the end of all this frightful overturning of everything. It was his opinion that " it was a necessity that some great power should arise in the midst of the universal weakness and degenerate selfishness of the times, and that it proved victorious, because there was nothing vigorous to oppose it. " Napoleon is an historical necessity. This mighty spirit of the age is firmer and more secure than any one else, because he cares for nothing but himself ; he is of the devil more than any one else, because he has in a greater degree than any one made self his God." Perthes considered that the world was given over to this demoniacal being, in order that a new birth should arise amidst the ten'ors of judgment. " God is guiding us into a new order of things," he said, " by the paths of trouble and distress. The game cannot be played backwards, and there- fore it must go forwards. Let that fall which has not strength to stand. The actors in the great play are playing their parts, but behind the scenes is the great invisible Director, which is a comfort and support for us poor spectators, whose lot is bad enough." He wrote to Jacobi, " Every support gives way, in order that we may learn to trust in God." He was desirous of doing everything that was possible to prepare for the future rising in Germany. Before the battle of Jena, he laboured to form a secret alliance in Germany from the Alps to the sea. It was necessary at first to explain his object : — " If it were once understood," he wrote, " and the way pre- 35° FREDERIC PERTHES. pared, we shall perhaps, with the aid of the Highest, form an alliance for nohle deeds. I have no fear of the spread of it, such a thing rolls rapidly along. But it must he kept together by a few simple, inviolable principles, and cemented by the united judgment of men of talent. The principles must not be printed, but communicated by word of mouth, and by means of correspondence." When the rising of Austria in 1809 failed to lead to the over- throw of the French yoke, and Germany was not only trodden under foot, but torn in pieces, he set himself to consider how to cherish the sentiment of nationality as the last bond of union, and the first essential for the restoration of unity. By the establishment of a periodical, he hoped to afford the most eminent German patriots an opportunity for discussing learned questions. In the spring of 1810, the ' Vaterlandische Museum ' appeared, and was not only hailed with joy by the most emi- nent men of the time, but enriched by contributions distin- guished by learning, patriotism, and in a great measure by a Christian tone. Among the contributors were Heeren, F. W. Schlegel, Arndt, Eeinhold and Jean Paul Eichter, Claudius, Marheinecke, Stolberg, and Fouque. But the. periodical had but a very brief existence. The new Emperor of the Franks, who regarded himself as the successor of Charlemagne, who is said to have founded Hamburg, would have considered that he was doing an injustice to the ancient city if it had not been incorporated with the new empire. Hamburg became a French department. The governor, Marshal Davoust, Prince von Eck- miihl, made his entry. The ' Museum ' no longer appeared, but the alliance of Germans, which it had helped to cement, continued. Perthes managed to carry on his business under the most difficult circumstances. The book trade throughout the French Empire was embarrassed by such a web of police restrictions and supervision as only a French or Napoleonic head was capable of inventing. Thus, if Perthes required a book from Kiel or Gottingen, for example, or to send one to any other place in the German States under French rule, he had first to get a permit from Paris ; and before the book could reach its FREDERIC PERTHES. 351 destination it had to run the gauntlet of a whole army of police regulations. How was it possible for a business to stand which maintained communication with the old and new world, and particularly with Holland, the north-west of Germany, Eng- land, and the north of Europe ? Two courses were open, either to give in and to wait till the storm was over, or to hold up his head and do as much as was possible, with the dove-like harm- lessness of an honourable man, and the serpent-like wisdom of a shrewd man of business. Perthes chose the bolder course. He wrote to Jacobi, "My situation is very much altered, but in such a way that, notwithstanding the overthrow of my plans, my chief objects as a man of business will be forwarded. As for my inner man, the fulness of life and love has not diminished with years, and as I learn more self-control from day to day, I am able to devote my strength more to outward things, in order to attain the objects which my position places before me. Fear of Grod and courage among men are one and the same thing according to my philosophy and Christianity." And he infused his own courage into others. Fouque wrote to him : — ' ' Your letter has baptized me with fire and water, with tears of the deepest melancholy, but at the same time with the fire of the firmest and most glowing faith and courage." And Nie- buhr and Nicolovius, who had the pleasure of seeing their friend at Berlin in 1812, assured him that his visit had had a most strengthening effect upon all who had come in contact with him. In the meantime the distress in Hamburg had reached the highest pitch, but with it came the hope of relief. Trade and commerce were almost at an end. Of four hundred and twenty- eight sugar refineries, only a few remained. C(jtton j printing was given up altogether. • New taxes were being continually invented and exacted with the utmost severity. The charitable institutions were robbed of their incomes, their existence was threatened, and landed property lost its value. When Napoleon went to Eussia, and report after report of victory was spread by the French bulletins, a cloud of melan- choly hung over the city. Then all at once, on the 24th of 352 FREDERIC PERTHES. December, like a Christmas message of redemption, came the news, which Napoleon's twenty-ninth bulletin could no longer conceal, that the French army was buried beneath the Kussian snows. Perthes was greatly excited by this news. Although a Te Deum had been ordered in the churches for the burning of Moscow, it appeared to him like the flames of judgment for the French, and a token of freedom for Germany. He consulted men in whom he could confide, and the question was agitated, whether the weak French garrison might not be driven away. The Swede Von Hess, a friend of Perthes, suggested the idea of arming the citizens. Perthes promoted it. Among the citizens was a plumber named Mettlerkamp, a courageous and decided character, who possessed much influence; he spread the idea of arming amongst his own class, and in a short time a thousand men were ready, and only waiting for the right time. This appeared to be near at hand, but in February the greatest part of the garrison was called to Magdeburg. It was Perthes' wish that the revolt of Hamburg should be the signal for a general rising against Napoleon in north-west Germany ; but to this end countenance in high quarters and a military leader were necessary. Perthes wrote a request to the Duke of Oldenburg, whose name stood among the highest in Germany, that he would head the movement. While Perthes was on the road to convey the request to the duke, great changes were going on at Hamburg. The Russians were approaching. Caroline Perthes wrote to her father at Wandsbeck, — " Yesterday morning the Cossacks were at Perleberg, seven- teen miles from here. Oh, that I had a thousand tongues to sing, ' Benedictus qui venit.' The city is all alive, and doubt- less great events are before us. I cannot attain to peace or quiet in my room. May God help us further, and fill our hearts with praise and thanksgiving towards Him and towards men, and teach us to act according to His will." On the 24th of February, the day before Perthes' return, the illwill of the people had already broken out in acts of violence ; it was first expended on the custom-houses, then the sons of FREDERIC PERTHES. 353 citizens ■who had been pressed ioto French service were set free, and the French eagle, the carrion bird, as it was called, was everywhere torn down and trodden under foot. Hess and Besser called the citizens together, and urged them to assemble in the streets to protect the city 'from plunder. The French authorities, who began to feel uncomfortable, declared that they had no objection. The drums of the militia of the old free city resounded through the streets, and the people of all classes assembled under their former leaders. The following night Perthes returned, and convened a council of the most eminent men at his house. The French authorities agreed that 500 citizens should be armed, but jealousy among the leaders occasioned Perthes to propose that the companies should be disbanded ; but the next day he assembled the most decided and trustworthy men in his house for drill. For a short time the French increased their vigilance. The most annoying house visitation was instituted. The prefect had a list of "names made out of persons who were to be arrested, and Perthes was among them ; but he took care to provide himself with a way of escape should the hour of danger arrive. But the prefect had not the courage to carry out his orders. When he received instructions to be more severe he hung himself, and though cut down before he was dead, he became insane. He had an- nounced that the Emperor would come himself, but instead of that the French took their departure on the 12th of March. On the 16th, General Morand entered the little town of Bergedorf, only a few miles from Hamburg, and fears were entertained that it might fall into the hands of the enemy again, but Perthes and his friends were determined to oppose any attack by fostering the indignation of the people, which had reached its highest pitch ; but the danger passed over. Morand left Bergedorf, and on the same day 1,500 Cossacks entered it, and thirteen of them appeared before the Steinthor at Hamburg. The commander of the Steinthor guard handed over the key of the gate to the leader of the Cossacks, exclaim- ing, " Long live Germany and Kussia." The joy soon spread through the city. On the night of the 17th of March news 354 FREDERIC PERTHES. came that the Russians under Tettenbom would enter the city on the following day, hut as enemies if they found it under French authority, and the inhabitants joyfully declared them- selves free from their rule. Tettenbom was hailed with acclama- tion. Caroline Perthes wrote to her father, "My dear papa, how shall I describe the universal joy of old and young, rich and poor, bad and good ! It is really a gift of God to have seen, heard, and felt it. Cries of joy burst from the lips of aU, and my heart was thankful to God in heaven and the Russians upon earth. Never, my dear papa, have I witnessed such a unity of feeling proceeding from thousands of hearts. If we could only be so united for the best objects, what a glorious church we should form! People who were before entirely disheartened took heart yesterday, and if the souls of men were more often stirred to their depths like this, I think it would have a good effect. I feel this deliverance more than I shall feel free- dom itself, for freedom will not come in the same manner." That night no guards were posted, no patrols paraded the streets, and the inhabitants went to rest, weary with joy and free from care, under the protection of God. But it was a short-lived repose. Immediately on the departure of the French, the senate seized the reins of government, but it was not easy to restore the old order. A volunteer corps, under the name of the Hanseatic legion, testified to the desire of Hamburg to take a share in the deliverance of Germany, but the city which these her brave sons left behind was by no means in safety. A city militia was organized, and by the end. of April 6,000 men met for exercise, but arms, practice, and skilful leadership were wanting. Tettenbom, although a clev«r cavalry officer, was not fitted to unravel the complicated state of affairs which existed in the old Hanse town. And on the other side of the Elbe, only separated from Hamburg by the river and a few islands, Vandamme and Davoust had already besieged Harburg, and were projecting re-taking Hamburg. In this time of danger Perthes' energy was untiring. In the first place, he had to collect funds to arm poor citizens, and provide for their families. Then he du-ected his attention to the FREDERIC PERTHES. 355 Hanseatic legion. The confidenc-ewhicli he enjoyed occasioned his being entrusted with the supervision of the city militia, and he was made staff major. He had no military knowledge, but he was indefatigably energetic, prudent, courageous, and self- sacrificing. He laboured to foster unanimity, and to overcome petty and selfish considerations in the great cause of the father- land. The enemy had established himself on the islands of Wil- helmsburg and Feddel, and the bombardment of Hamburg began. Perthes had sometimes to calm down the impetuous Hess, — now to allay the terrors of the people, and to hurry from post to post to encourage the guards. For twenty-one nights he did not go to bed, and was only now and then in his house for half an hour. His brave wife had to perform hei' difficult duties without any help from him. She had sent the three youngest children to her mother at Wandsbeck, the four elder ones remained with her. People were always coming in and out and wanting food, and sacks of straw were placed in the_ large room for the weary to rest upon. Her anxiety led her out day and night upon the balcony to see if her husband or any of her friends were among the wounded, who were continually being carried by. The danger was constantly increasing. Tettenbom could not hold the city long, Hess was not equal to the occasion, and the hopes which were placed upon the Swedes, Danes, and Prussians by turns all proved fallacious. On the 28th o£ May Perthes sent his wife and children to Wandsbeck, and they were hp.i'dly gone when the bombardment began afresh. ' The Fi:encli took the island of Ochsenwarder. On the morning of the 29th of May they were before Hamburg without any great obstaelie, in the way. Perthes commanded the guard at the Steinthor^ At midnight he received news that Tettenborn had withdrawn. Not to flee then would have been a useless sacrifice of the best men in the city to the French. At two o'clock in the morning he was with his family at Wandsbeck, and considered where to send them for safety. His friend Count Moltke had pressingly offered a refuge in the time of danger, and they were sent to 356 FREDERIC PERTHES. Niitschau, an estate belonging to him, but, as the French were so near, it was necessary for Perthes to hasten on. He toot a hasty leave, and proceeded during the night. Soon afterwards his wife, and seven children and another expected, accom- panied by her sister and a servant, set out, weary to death, in a basket- waggon. She wrote afterwards: "It was a terrible parting. My mother was beside herself, my father deeply moved, the children wept aloud, I was petrified, and could only say continually, ' Now in God's name ! ' " In the evening they arrived at Niitschau, near Lubeck, and, as there were only two beds for ten persons, cloaks and bundles of clothes were distributed in order that the children might, at least, have a pUlow under their heads. They hoped to have seen Perthes the same evening, but he did not come. He arrived on the 1st of June, but, as the neighbourhood of Lubeck was dangerous, he had to leave again immediately. The family followed, and on the 7th they met from different directions at Eckernfiirde, in Schleswig. Not far firom this town, on the solitary shore of the Baltic, Count Caius Eevent- low had a summer cottage. Here the family found a refuge, and rejoiced in the union of parents and children amidst the loss of all other possessions. On the 30th of May the French re-entered Hamburg. The city was outlawed, and Davoust was allowed to do what he pleased. Forty-eight million francs were demanded, and indescribable burdens were laid upon the city : even the bank was plundered. Perthes lost everything. His business was placed under seal, his other property con- fiscated ; and, after everything movable had been taken from liis house, a French general took possession of it. Not long after, his name appeared among the list of absentees who were declared to be outlawed. He had no ready money, either for himself or his creditors. He had saved his account- books, and tried to reduce his affairs to order. He then joined in the conflict again, for only when his country was saved would he be able to build up his own house afresh. The parting was heartrending. His wife said, " With him, I think I could FREDERIC PERTHES. 357 bear anything, but without him I do not know what will become of me." But there was no help for it. On the 8th of July Perthes tore himself away from them under the dark shade of the fir-trees in the garden. He wrote in his diary : " I am going out into the world again, — a new and unknown world, full of great shadows and much danger, — but my mind is earnest, cheerful, and full of courage. Submission to God, firm convictions and rich experience, a heart full of love, youth and health, truth, uprightness, and constancy of character, — these are the results and value of my forty years of life. God, my Lord, I thank thee ! Forgive a poor sinner, and lead me not into temptation." At Kiel ie met his friend Besser, and they drove together to Heiligenbafen on the Baltic, whence he intended going by water to Rostock. When Besser left him, it seemed to him like the closing of the last door, the screwing down of a coffin ; still hope never forsook him. Con- trary winds detained him nearly a week in the house of a fisherman. He read much in the Bible, and wrote to his wife : " The Gospel of St. John leads me back to myself. I examine myself strictly, and the conclusion I come to is, that I have been and am in God's hands, however I may have failed in keeping His temple pure." At last the wind changed, and he crossed over to Warne- mijnde ; and the sight of the waves gave him spirits. He was now in Mecklenburg. He collected a few debts ; but, needy as he was, that was but a secondary object, and his great desire was to find a point whence he could labour for his country. His first care was for his fugitive countrymen, and he went hither and thither in order to get an idea of their situation. He soon found that money was indispensable to feed the hungry and provide arms for those who could bear them. Help came from England through Hess, and a society was formed for the proper application of the funds. Perthes' thoughts then turned to the condition of Hamburg, when it should be freed from the French. It was a time of ferment and reor- ganization. The importance of every State depended upon the value it put upon itself. But at that time Hamburg was 358 FREDERIC PERTHES. annihilated as a State ; it had no government to represent it among the powers of the earth, and was ready to fall a prey to any conqueror. The attention of Perthes was therefore directed to organizing a government for the Hanse towns. Not long before the return of th^ French, Syndicus G-ries and Syndicus Curtius, of Lubeck, had been sent as ambassadors to the Crown Prince of Sweden, and were still looked upon by him as the representatives of those cities. Perthes proposed to them to unite with Mettlerkamp, the colonel of the city militia, Dr. Benecke, Dr. Sieveking, and himself, to form a Hanseatic Directory, as a representative of the cities among the leading powers engaged in the war. The plan succeeded, and although the recognition of the government was tardy, this did not hinder it from attending to the interests of the cities. Perthes was very anxious that the Hanse towns should prove themselves worthy allies of the other Germans in arms against Napoleon. But the Hanseatic legion, a noble troop as far as numbers went, but without pay, some of them barefoot and in rags, after wandering about in damp, cold, and mud, and without military discipline, were in danger of getting into confusion. Four- fifths of the legion were composed of noble and courageous young men, but the rabble that was mixed up with them gave the whole legion a bad name. " This must be remedied ! " was Perthes' exclamation ; " and, as God lives, I will not leave it alone, nor rest till the chaflf is separated from the wheat, and I shall succeed." On his representations, England took the legion into her pay, and, under the command of General Witzleben, it joined the hosts who were fighting for the freedom of Germany. After this matter was settled, the Hamburg civic guard, which was assembled in Giistrow, under Colonel Mettlerkamp, engaged his attention. Proclamations were put forth to induce others to join it; funds were provided, and Perthes headed them as major. It was owing to him that the citizens were permitted to try their strength in the struggle. He thought, "When the name Civic Guard is proclaimed before the gates of Hamburg, they will be opened, and all within will rise." FREDERIC PERTHES. 359 But after the expiration of the armistice, and the resumption of hostilities, General Vegesack sent the civic guard into garrison at Eostock, and refused, without the most urgent necessity, to expose a corps consisting almost entirely of fathers of families to the dangers of war. Then jealousy arose between the guard and the Hanseatic legion, and it was the part of Perthes to reconcile them. He proposed that they should be amalgamated, which was acceded to, and all difficulties were surmounted. While Perthes was struggling for his country, his family were struggling to obtain the necessaries of life in the summer cottage on the shores of the Baltic^ They had one living room and two bedrooms. Except Count Reventlow's bailiff, there was no human being within two or three miles. They could obtain nothing but milk and butter from him, everything else had to be fetched from long distances by the aunt and the children ; they had no white bread or meat in the house for eighteen weeks. The kitchen, so called, was forty paces from the house, and the cooking utensils consisted of four saucepans, a tin spoon, and a few plates. The eldest child, Agnes, was just fifteen, the youngest, a boy in arms. Matthias, the eldest son, walked every morning to Altenhof, in order to receive instruction with the sons of the count, but the other children could not receive any teaching. An old servant remained faithful to them. A doctor would have been very welcome, owing to the frequent illness occa- sioned by t^e damp situation, but there was none nearer than Kiel, several miles off. The wife's greatest anxiety was' about her husband ; her children, her greatest comfort. She wrote, "When I clasped my sweet Bernard in my arms, and looked into his bright young eyes, and saw that he feared nothing, and was not troubled about anything, but only loved me, and was happy, I found my support again, and prayed God to make me like my darling child." But the father could not share this consolation. He wrote to his wife, "You are only separated from me, but I am parted from so many beings, to lose one of whom would break my 36o FREDERIC PERTHES. heart. The sight of little children always brings tears into my eyes.'' Yet he was fully convinced that he must stake life and property for the cause of truth and justice. Meanwhile Tettenborn had entered Bremen, and Perthes was sent there to see that the cavalry general did not interfere too much with the civic power. All parties had confidence in him. " Do thou, God, give me wisdom and understanding, and the courage of truth, atid let me never forget thee," was his prayer. He strengthened the legion, hy inducing the inhabitants of Bremen to join it. Then a new task was committed to him. It was necessary to protect the liberties of the Hanse towns from some of the reigning princes, who would have liked to incorporate them with their dominions, especially from the Crown Prince of Sweden and from Hanover. The allied powers were at Frankfort, whither Stein, who was at the head of the reconquered German provinces, had followed them. To him the deputies of the Hanse towns, among whom was Perthes, were referred, and received not only from Stein, but also from the monarchs, the assurance that the Hanse towns should remain independent, and Perthes and Sieveking took back the welcome news to Bremen, and hastened to com- municate it to Lubeck. There he received news of the birth of another son, Andreas. During the Christmas week he traveEed towards Kiel, and in the dusk of the evening, after a separation of nearly six months, he unexpectedly rejoiued his family. They spent a happy Christmas together, but on the 1st of January he had to leave them again, in order to bring succour to the thousands who were in the greatest distress- The savage Davonst had nearly filled up the measure of his iniquities. As after the battle of Leipzig, he was more closely confined to Hamburg, he took pleasure in inflicting barbarities, to which his previous extortions were but trifling evils. It is impossible to describe the conflagrations, the devastation, the destruction of houses and gardens, the hunger, the cold, the wretchedness, with which Hamburg was filled. The Crown Prince of Sweden sent means of help, and intrusted Perthas FREDERIC PERTHES. 361 with the distribution of it. He took up his quarters at Flott- beck, a little beyond Hamburg, and exerted himself to the utmost. "The present is past help," he exclaimed; "may God help us in future!" At this time he was in much sorrow about his family. He had left his httle Bernard ill, the desire of his mother's eyes and joy of her heart, and his own delight when with them at Christmas. He was a child of uncommon beauty and promise. After several weeks' absence, Perthes cheerfully entered the room with "Are all well?" and the mother led him to the body of their darling child, and he gave way to the most bitter grief. He remained but five days with them, weary in body and mind, and then hastened back to Flottbeck, to assist the miserable, until he succumbed to his excessive exertions. He had been thrown from a carriage, but had not been able to take care of his leg, which was injured. This accident, his great exertions during severe winter weather, the sight of the misery around him, and the loss of his child, all combined to break down his strength. He returned to his family with the germs of typhus fever in his constitution, and when his leg was examined, it was foiind to be broken. From February to April he was laid low. When he recovered, the most lovely spring had burst forth, the German troops were marching victoriously through France, and Paris was in the hands of the allies. Perthes and his family turned their steps homewards. At first they took up their quarters at Blankenese, in order to await the course of events. In the middle of May the French took their departure, and the Senate reassumed its duties. The white banner streamed from Harburg and from the tower of St. Michael's Church at Hamburg, and the exiles streamed from all quarters into the city. Perthes and his family now took pos- session of the home which they had not seen for a year, but for which he had so bravely exerted himself. It was in an appal- ling state. The pleasant rooms on the ground floor had been used for months as guard-rooms for French soldiers. In the 362 FREDERIC PERTHES. middle of the largest room was a huge fireplace. Trunks of trees had been thrust in at the window, one end being in the fire, the other out at the window, and the smoke made its way out where it could. A French general had occupied the upper story, but there also the destruction was dire — all the wood- work had been torn oflf for fuel, the dirt was a foot deep on the floors, and all the furniture which had not been taken care of by friends had fallen a prey to the French. Much money would be necessary to make it fit for habitation. Davoust had placed his seal upon the books, and had given out that the creditors were to pay to the French instead of to Perthes. But Besser, with the help of a faithful servant, had contrived to save a good deal. They had now to make a fresh start. Their well- known uprightness p'rocured them credit everywhere. A wealthy Jew wrote to Perthes, " If I can in any way relieve you from the petty cares with which you ought not to be bur- dened, in order that you may be at liberty to labour for good and noble objects, I shall be very glad to do so. I do not re^ quire any special security ; a note from you is quite enough, and I beg you to repay me only at your convenience." Perthes and Besser went cheerfully to work ; in a short time , all creditors were paid, and the business became a flourishing and important one. Perthes had never regarded the book trade as merely a means of making money, but as an important instrument in promoting the intellectual life of the people. He now endeavoured to in- fuse into it the noble and patriotic spirit which had been fos- tered by the distress and deliverance of his country. He hoped that literature might prove a common bond, and lessen the an- tagonism between Austria and Prussia, North and South, Pro- testantism and Catholicism. But if this was to be the case, it was necessary that some evils in the trade should be reformed, and the greatest of these was the want of a law of copyright. What was required was a general law for the whole of Germany ; for of what use, for instance, was Prussian protection when any work could be reprinted in Wiirtemberg with impunity ? The subject had been already mooted at the Congress of Vienna by FREDERIC PERTHES. 363 eighty-one important firms, and it had been resolved by the German diet that attention should be given to the adoption of measures for the prevention of literary piracy as soon as possible. Perthes drew np a memorial called " The German Book- Trade as the condition of the existence of German Litera- ture." In the summer of 1816 he made a journey into South Ger- many, in the interests of this subject, and conferred with the most eminent statesmen, learned men, and booksellers. His object was to prepare watercourses by means of which the whole country might be irrigated by the fertilizing streams of German intellect. Accompanied by his son Matthias he visited Bremen, Munster, Cologne, and Coblence, whence he visited Stein at Nassau, with whom the affairs of Germany, and especially those connected with the book trade were freely discussed. He then proceeded to Frankfort, Heidelberg, Stuttgart, Augsburg, Munich, Salz- burg, and Vienna. In October they turned their faces home- ward, visiting Perthes' native place, Rudolstadt, by the way. Here they had a narrow escape from drowning by the breaking down of a bridge over the Schwarza, and a few days afterwards reported their merciful preservation at Hamburg. It is easy to recognise in Perthes' life how the troublous years of war had fostered Christian faith and charity, and after peace was restored they brought forth rich fruit. We have already spoken of the misery occasioned by the French occupa- tion of Hamburg, and especially by the cruelty of Davoust. Many had perished through it, but the greater number returned after the departure of the enemy. But although restored to their native place, food, clothing, and shelter were wanting ; and to remedy this state of things the city contributed large sums, the wealthy famihes did the same, and help was also re- ceived from distant places. But much depended on the proper distribution of the funds, and in consequence of Perthes' repu- tation for integrity and judgment, he was intrusted with the care of the poor. The memoranda of the distribution which 3t'4 FREDERIC PERTHES. were found among his papers indicate the variety of cases of distress, and the care that was exercised in the minutest details. Among the entries are, " Rent for a blind person, clothing for a girl to enable her to go to service, tools for a carpenter, medical treatment of a girl who had become insane when driven out of Hamburg, education of children whose friends had all perished, support of a widow whose husband had been shot by the French, rebuilding houses which Davoust had ordered to be burnt down, means to enable two industrious women to begin again a trade in fish," &e. But man does not live by bread alone. Perthes had dis- covered through his intercourse with the people that they were suflfering from more deeply seated evils than physical want. The Bible was very dear, and the people were very ignorant of it. In 1804 the British and Foreign Bible Society had been founded in England, and repeated efforts had been made for the establishment of a similar society in Germany. About this time Messrs. Steinkopf and Patterson came over from England to Hamburg and addressed themselves first to J. J. Bambach the well-known writer of hymns, to GrUbert van der Smissen, a man well known to the religious world of that day, and to Perthes. He interested himself in the subject with his usual aptitude and zeal. He did not care for the imputation of mysticism and pietism which was sure to attach to those who were zealous for a life and faith in accordance with the Bible, but openly intro- dnced the subject to those who held the most important secular and ecclesiastical offices in Hamburg. He represented in a letter to the Mayor that Hamburg had received money from England at the time of her distress, and should not now reject the spiritual gifts which she was profiering, and offered his house for the first conference. He had the satisfaction of seeing the Hamburg and Altona Bible Society founded on the 19th of October, the anniversary of the battle of Leipsig. The Bible Society brought Perthes into contact with many good men, and they did not forget that the mere circulation of FREDERIC PERTHES. 365 the Bible was not enough, but that it was necessary to impress its contents on the hearts of the people. The Duke of Holstein-Beck wrote to Perthes, " What can the Bible Societies effect alone if the work is not carried on in other ways ? The Prussian church reforms are good, and do not reject the good with the bad, like the edicts of Frederic William II. For a spirit of devout piety appears to prevail at present in Prussia, from which much good may be expected if it is nourished by a good liturgy, and good modes of worship ; but God grant that we may not be subjected to a new sacrificial service, or a theatrical style of worship. But of what avail will new liturgies, church reforms, and the Bible societies be alto- gether, if more care is not bestowed upon the schools, and more pains taken in them to inspire the scholars with love for the religion of Christ, a desire for His word and respect for His servants ? It is pitiful in the country to see the children the whole summer tending the cattle in the fields, where they for- get all the little they have learnt at school. Besides this, in most of the country schools they learn scarcely anything, and what they do learn is only words, not things. When they leave school they learn nothing more of the word of God, for the country people, as well as most of the townspeople, consider it useless, and even ridiculous to go to church. This state of things must be mended." Such words found a ready response in the mind of Perthes. His desire was not only to free the people from a foreign yoke, but to deliver them from mental bondage by means of Christian civilisation. It was his wish to put good religious instruction in their way, and he considered popular writings an excellent means of doing this. It was at that time the opinion of the most superior men that the Christian and patriotic spirit should be cherished together among the youth and the people in general. When Napoleon was dethroned the second time a friend wrote to him : " Are not the bells to-day imploring prosperity for the cause of Germany ? Is not this the right moment to make a special collection for the poor ? " Perthes accepted the challenge to take the first step. He wrote to Fouque : " We 366 FREDERIC PERTHES. collected 30,000 marks * at once for the instruction of poor children, and hope to get more. We twelve have now gone through the city, and what numhers of fine children we have found I God's blessing still rests upon our people. We have already taken charge of 700. In this age, when everything is regarded in a general kind of way, and human beings are reckoned up like the figures in a sum, such a business is very salutary." The subject of schools for the poor, which afterwards ex- cited great interest at Hamburg, may be said to have received its first impetus from the collections made for them at this time. Another form of Christian charity which is still pursued with great zeal at Hamburg may be traced to this period, — the labours of the associations of ladies. Perthes wrote of them as follows : " The associations arose in the time of great distress, from the just feeling that when the men and youths were facing death it was the part of women to succour the helpless. Twice within a short period these associations have nobly fulfilled their objects, and we may now trust to woman's innate feeling and unfailing sense of truth, that she will also fulfil her vocation in time of peace, which may God preserve to us ! We Germans, as well as other nations, have gone through a long and painful apprenticeship : first, a half century of neglect, of shallowness, and mistaken eff'ect ; then twenty -five years of revolution, war, and confusion. During this period, through the abolition of monasteries, and the destruction of property belonging to hos- pitals, poor houses, and orphan houses, the last remains of the pious institutions of our ancestors have been annihilated, and their place has not been supplied either by gift or will. Here is an endless field of usefulness for women accustomed to works of charity. The associations wUl at first work each in its own sphere and place, but they will soon unite and diffuse a wide blessing as an alliance of German women. Abundant gifts will be intrusted to them, for pious souls will, as in former times, endow them with the means of carrymg out their own wishes, * £1,750. FREDERIC PERTHES. 367 and tlie new institutions will fare better in the Lands of women than under the protection of men." These labours of love on behalf of those afflicted in mind and body have never ceased at Hamburg. The same city in which Perthes strove to assist the distressed has since given to Ger- many Amelia Sieveking, the " Hamburg Tabitha," and Dr.. Wichern, the father of the Kauhe Haus. From public life, and these endeavours to relieve the suffer- ings of humanity, Perthes, always turned with delight to his home. Caroline did not hinder his public activity, her own heart beat too warmly for her country ; but her patriotism and faith, and all the gifts with which God had endowed her, shone most brightly in the domestic circle. She had an acute mind and a warm heart ; and though her mental powers were highly culti- vated, her character was thoroughly simple, and in her fresh and childlike, yet deep and lofty way of looking at life, she was a feminine likeness of her father. Towards God her heart was all thankfulness, and towards man it overflowed with love. She wrote, with Christmas presents, to her married daughter and her husband : " Now let us rejoice, and thank God from our hearts, and confide ourselves, and all dear to us, with full trust to His hands. We shall gladly accept your help here to make us thankful. Read that hymn in the name of us all — " Oh, if I had a thousand tongues ! " " Singing is a great help when we know not how to give vent to our feelings. This is often my case when I review our twenty-five years." At another time she wrote : " Love always prospers when it is the prevailing feeling, whether in doing or sufiering. It is the miracle of miracles, and the only thing which I think of as eternal, for everything else awakes terror when I think of its being perpetuated to eternity." The love between Perthes and Caroline was always like that of a bride and bridegroom, and those were golden hours when, in the spring, after the cares of the day, they could escape from the city and take a walk together. 368 FREDERIC PERTHES. Since tlie painful experiences of 1813 Caroline's health had not been good. Before she reached the age of fifty she was taken from the blooming circle of her beloved ones ; but not before she had seen two daughters happily married, embraced a grandchild, and had accompanied her eldest son on his entrance on his university career with her prayers and her invaluable advice. She celebrated the last anniversary of her betrothal day with fresh and joyful affection. " To-morrow is my beloved 1st of May,"^ she wrote, " and I should like to go far among the woods and hills with my dear bridegroom, where I should neither see nor hear any other human being, and thank God that, after twenty-four years, I can celebrate this day with such thorough pleasure. A few sighs would, no doubt, escape me by reason of my shortiiess of breath; but they would not last long, and I should rejoice afresh continually. Yes, in the green woods I should like to be ; but my view here of the blue water and the sky covered with little clouds, through the young leaves, is so pleasant, that when I think of it, it is a shame to wish for anything different. I think we have never had such a luxuriance of beauty in spring — trees and grass and flowers are indescribably beautiful. And this great change from death to life has come to pass in a few days, I might almost say hours. When one beholds this delightful spring, and gazes on the light green of the trees against the clear heaven, it is almost impossible to believe that there can be so much distress and sorrow amongst and aronnd us. Yes, spring is a joyous time, and, when I have no child ill, it carries my thoughts forward to that land where we can- not imagine any more pain or sorrow." And she was soon ipermitted to enter it. On her wedding day, 2nd August, 1821, she took a walk, although with difficulty, with her dear bride- groom in the meadow at Wandsbeck. Afterwards she spent an invalid Ufe for a few weeks at Hamburg, and on the 28th of August she died so suddenly that no parting word or look was granted to those around her. Perthes committed her to God's keeping, but preserved her memory in his heart. He wrote to his daughter, " Grief docs FREDERIC PERTHES. 369 not make me spiritless ; I wish to make up for the loss of her love, and to help those around me as far as possible ; " and through the strength of his affection he seemed stUl to hold communion with the departed. " She knows now how and in what I have erred, which she could not know on earth, but she also knows the depth of my love. That she knows me now entirely, and helps me to trust in G-od at all times, and to walk as in His presence, I fully believe because I cannot help it, although I know that this faith has never been revealed to us in any definite form." It had been always Caroline's most ardent wish to be able to live somewhere with her husband in peace and quietness. But it was not tiU after her death that he was able to leave the busi- ness at Hamburg in the hands of Besser. In 1822 he removed to Gotha. Two daughters were married there, and four children were still around him. His object was to establish a publishing business, but the leisure which he now enjoyed was not devoted to business alone ; in order to qualify himself to carry it on with a view to the highest interests, at fifty years of age he devoted himself to a wide range of study, and it was quite in accordance with the mighty influence of the war of independence that he published chiefly religious and historical works. The great conflict of nations, the struggle for national existence, had reawakened interest in history, and the sense of religion had been revived by the experience of human powerlessness and the mar- vellous help of God. The Bible was by no means neglected in Perthes' studies ; and if in reading it many difficulties presented themselves, he had the right key to the comprehension of it as a whole in his own need of salvation. "It is only at those times," he said, "that the meaning of the holy Scriptures is revealed to us, when we seek to find in them the means of reconciliation with God, and help in the conflict with the flesh and the pride of our hearts." He discovered that it is not chiefly in the flesh that the devil has his seat, but in the spirit, by fostering selfishness, pride, and hatred ; and therefore it was his opinion that the essence of Christianity did not consist in the abnegation of the powers given us by God, or in cowardly B B 37° FREDERIC PERTHES. flight from the -world, but he -wished to see human nature renewed in body, soul, and spirit, and in mixing -with the world it was his desire to salt it with the savour of the divine life. But with deep humility he acknowledged the little progress that he made, and the need of maintaining the conflict to the end. To his son, who was pursuing his studies, he gave advice which he found it constantly necessary to follow himself, "We must act and suffer, but we must act and suffer in a spirit of love. When this spirit has forsaken us, and we have been guilty of harshness towards others, or of sensuality ourselves, or of want of humility towards God, we ought to feel our need of the atonement of Jesus Christ. We shall have to struggle to the end. If we have escaped the coarser and rougher forms of sin, we shall still be hourly assailed by it in its more subtle and refined aspects. This world is not the place for repose after the victory ; we must struggle and love, and trust to the mercy of God." The same religious and moral earnestness was also displayed in his calling, and he at once took an honourable place among his colleagues. He kept a select assortment of books, especially religious and historical works. As far as was in his power, he laboured to forward the revival and deepening of German theology which had been the result of recent events, and he published the works of modern theologians, such as Schleier- macher, Liicke, Ullmann, Umbreit, and Tholuck. This, and the weight of his character, brought him constantly into contact with men of mark, and he took the most lively interest in the general development of his country. He felt most painfully the solitude in which he lived, when his third daughter Matilda, who had kept his house, was married. About this time Eebecca Claudius, the mother of his departed Caroline, visited him, and she advised him to seek a partner for the remainder of his life. God led Charlotte Becker to him, a widow whom he had previously befriended in heavy trials, and the sister of his son-in-law. In May, 1825, the marriage took place. Seven children were left to him of the first marriage. FREDERIC PERTHES. 371 and four were given him ia the second. New joys and sorrows awaited him. The loss of the only son of the new family threw him into the deepest grief, for he had never before been able to Hve with a child and to watch its development, as he had done with this one. It made him feel that the evening of his own days was drawing near. He became more indifferent to the toil and endeavour of life, and often when pacing up and down his room, he would exclaim, "My Eodolph, my Bodolph, where and what art thou now?" He had chosen a pleasant retreat for his latter days at Friedrichsroda, a few miles from Gotha. He delighted in spending the summer months there with his family, and in roaming among the Thuringian hUls and woods. Many honours had been awarded him ; he was adorned with the ribbon of an order, the University of Kiel had made him a Doctor of Philosophy, and Leipsig had presented him with the freedom of the city ; but he prized more than any other earthly honour the freedom of the little town of Friedrichsroda, pre- sented to him by the mayor and corporation. A monument placed there by the family still marks the spot near the town where Frederic Perthes, in the serene evening of his days, loved to wander, and to listen to the voice of God among the hills. On the 1st of January, 184S, Perthes wrote in his diary, "From the state of my health, it does not seem likely that I shall write 1844." He suffered from hver complaint and jaundice. By the end of March his strength seemed to have failed entirely, and he arranged everything for his last journey. In those times, when he had had to maintain a perpetual strife with his impetuous spirit, the Epistle to the Komans had been his favourite portion of Scripture ; now it was the Gospel of St. John. The parting addresses in the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth chapters, and the prayer of the Graat High Priest in the seventeenth, horded him the strongest consolation. On his birthday, the 21st of April, he was so peaceful and cheerful among the spring flowers in his chamber, that those around him could not but share his serenity. 372 FREDERIC PERTHES. "When I am dead," he said, after speaking of the mercy of God, "do not mourn for me ; I am quite ready to die, and shall die in peace." " I've given myself to God, how dear My Father and my Friend ! There is no life for ever here, All things of earth must end. Death has no power to harm, 'Tis welcome to my heart ; If God upholds me with His arm, I shall with joy depart." During the last few weeks of his life this heautiful deathbed hymn was often on his lips, and he frequently exclaimed : — " What heavenly joy and blessing. E'en now await me there ! For Jesus' love possessing. His blessedness we share. Then what can hurt me or alarm, Christ's peace is in my heart ; If God uphold me with His arm, I shall with joy depart." But the exclamation that most often escaped him was, "God be merciful to me, a sinner, for His dear Son's sake." Many painful days were before him. Erysipelas set in, and occasioned fearful suffering, and the opiates that were given him to still it obscured his mental powers. "0 Lord, if I could only weep!" he exclaimed; and "Lord, Lord, lead me not into temptation ! " But faith would triumph again, and once when those around him thought that he was in an unconscious slumber, he began in a low and touching voice : — " The hour of death draws nearer. Oh, world, why should I live ? The joys of heaven are dearer Than aught that thou cansttgive. I have no earthly care, hut calm And ready for the start, God will uphold me with His arm, I shall with joy depart." FREDERIC PERTHES. 373 At another time he said, " Herder, on his deathbed, asked for one more idea; 'Light, light!' was G-oethe's exclamation; it would have been better for them if they had asked for hnmility and love." From this time, though his body became weaker, his mind was not again entirely obscured ; his affection for those around him burned brighter and brighter, and he rejoiced with ever increasing confidence in hie Saviour. "God be praised," he exclaimed, in a low voice, " my faith is firm, and stands fast in death as well as in life. G-od is merciful to me, a poor sinner, for the sake of His dear Son." On the 18th of May, the doctor told him that he would soon be released. His whole soul was given to prayer, even when he could not pray aloud, and in the afternoon he repeated in a firm voice : — " Ye loved onea, bless the Lord for me. And wipe away your tears ; You must not weep, for I am free From sorrow, pain, ai d fears. Steer for the port where istorms shall cease. Watching with steadfast heart, Then God will fiU you with His peace, You shall with joy depart." In the evening his breathing became slower and more difficult, but he was quiet and without suffering. He prayed aloud for an hour, but with an indistinct utterance, so that only the words "Eedeemer," "Lord, pardon," were intelligible. When a light was brought in, it was evident that a great change had passed over his features, and the last words which caught his dying ear were — " "What heavenly joy and hlessing, E'en now await me there, For Jesus' love possessing. His blessedness we share.'' One long last breath, one last look of pain, and he had over- come. He was buried on the 22nd of May, and the favourite hymn 374 FREDERIC PERTHES. quoted abdve was sung over his grave. In his life and death he had shown the German people that faith is a living and mighty power, that, to use the words of Luther, it can make of poor dejected sinners, " brave and blessed men who care neither for the devU, nor for the world, nor for any misfortunes that can happen to them." * * 'Perthes Leben von Clemens Perthes.' 3 Bande. Gotha: bei Andreas Perthes. CHAPTER XV. FREDEBIO LEOPOLD STOLBEKG. THE repugnance which Stolberg's conversion to the Roman Catholic faith excites in the minds of Protestants, must not prevent us from recognising in him one of the foremost representatives of the G-erman mind and its conflicts, at the end of the last and the beginning of the present century, and especially one who advanced the cause of Christianity during a time of general religious declension. Forty years after he had made a tour with him in Switzer- land, Goethe, in conversation with Sulpiz Boisseree, spoke of him as the hero among the proselytes of his day, and expressed his admiration of " his natural character, his magnanimous spirit, the wealth of his human interests." We must accord him a place among our heroes, — the pro- moters of religious life, — ^because he looked at the great events passing around him from a German and Christian point of view, and his religious writings met the wants of those, especially of his own rank, whose minds were opened to receive the message of salvation. We should be guilty of unfairness if, in portraying the newly awakened religious life at the time of the wars of inde- pendence, we were to ignore the tendency which then existed in the Roman Catholic Church in Germany, to turn to the essential and intrinsic doctrines of religion. This tendency cannot be better illustrated than in the character of Stolberg, who took into it a valuable inheritance from the Protestant Church of heartfelt faith, derived from the Bible and founded upon Christ. 376 FREDERIC LEOPOLD STOLBERG. Count Frederic Leopold Stolberg-Stolberg was born on the 7th of November, 1750, of an ancient noble family, at Bramstedt, in Holstein. His father, Count Christian Grunther, then warden of the district under the Danish Government, was a branch of the numerous race of Saxon Counts of Stolberg, many of whom were distinguished for their piety. His mother belonged to the Franconia,n family of Counts of CasteU, which boasts of having once given a wife to Charlemagne. During the whole of his life, Stolberg was distinguished by a strong consciousness of noble birth, but he regarded it as con- ferring responsibility as well as privileges. His love- for his fellow- creatures never forsook him ; and he was not more influenced by the prejudices of his class than his early friend and subsequent opponent, Voss, who assailed him so mercilessly on his change of religion, in his pamphlet, ' How did Fritz Stolberg lose his liberty ? ' was influenced by the prejudices of the burgher class. When Frederic Stolberg was six years of age, his father removed to Copenhagen, having been appointed Danish privy councillor and Lord High Steward to the widowed Queen Sophia Magdelena. To him belongs the merit of being the first nobleman who emancipated his serfs, on his estate of Bramstedt, and, at his suggestion, those on the queen's estate of Kirsch- holm were also set at liberty. The elder Bemstorf, then Danish minister, following the example of his friend Stolberg, alleviated the condition of the serfs upon his estate of Bemstorf, near Copenhagen, and thus paved the way for the entire abolition of serfdom in Denmark, which was carried out under Bernstorf the younger. It was in such an atmosphere of humanity and freedom that Frederic Leopold and his elder brother, Christian, grew up ; they lived mostly at a distance from the capital, upon an estate near the sea, the shores of which are clothed with splendid beech woods. Klopstock was an intimate friend of the house, and not only called forth enthusiasm in the minds of the youths for the fatherland and the ' Messiah,' but incited them to fearless riding, and especially to skating. FREDERIC LEOPOLD STOLBERG. 377 Count Christian Gunthe* died suddenly of apoplexy, at Aix- la-Chapelle, in 1765 ; and the friendship of Klopstock was afterwards especially valuable to the widow. He once found the brothers reading a French translation of Cicero's letters, and reproved them for it so sharply that they made strenuous efforts to attain the power of reading the Latin authors in the original. Besides Klopstock, the court preacher and hymn writer, Cramer, assisted the mother in the Christian education of her sons ; as did also the tutor of Cramer's family. Funk, himself an author of hymns, and afterwards councillor of con- sistory at Magdeburg. Stolberg says himself, " Instructed in the Scriptures from childhood by Grod-fearing parents, I early became fond of them, and never neglected to read them." Their tutor, Clauswitz, laid a good foundation of useful knowledge in the minds of the brothers, of whom Leopold was distinguished for ardour and imagination. With all the ardour of youth he read German poetry, the spirit of which was then reviving. Klopstock read his ' Her- mann's Schlacht ' to them before it was printed ; and at a striking passage, Frederic Leopold began to weep, and, full of deep emotion, pressed the poet's hand. Klopstock was also moved, and said, as he returned the pressure, " My boy, this approbation gives me more pleasure than the praise of all Germany." Tjx the spring of 1770, these hopeful and aspiring youths went to the University of Halle, accompanied by their tutor. Neither philosophy nor jurisprudence, as then taught, had much attraction for them. The Muse gave them compensation, and furnished a pretext for their contempt for the wisdom emanating from the chairs of the professors. In the recesses, besides visiting their friends at home, they made an excursion to the Hartz Mountains, and to the ancient seat of their fore- fathers at Wernigerode. One of the best of Frederic Leopold's poems, the ode to the Hartz Mountains, dates from this period. A spirit of Klopstock may be traced in it, but there is a pre- cision in the form to which Klopstock does not always attain. With these poetical tastes, both counts went in the autumn .378 FREDERIC LEOPOLD STOLBERG. of 1772 to Gottingen. The sons of the German nobility flocked to this university, but by no means with the object of cultivating the liberal arts. It was the school of conservatism, the seat of historical lore and jurisprudence. The ancient German empire flourished under the fundamental knowledge of its history and laws, as taught by such men as Putter and Schlotzer at Got- tingen. He whose birth entailed upon him the prospect of being one day ruler or minister of one of the hundreds of German States within the compass of the empire, could obtain at Gottingen an insight into the involved relations and manifold diversity of the German constitution and laws. But the Counts Stolberg felt no such necessity laid upon them. No sooner had they arrived at Gottingen than they were strongly attracted to a little set of youths of the burgher class who did homage to the Muses, and to Professor Heyne, who was profoundly versed in Homer. These youthful poets, among whom were Hdlty and Voss, had already united themselves into a society called the " Hainbund." On the 12th of September, 1772, during a walk to a neigh- bouring village, they discovered what they called the national oak of Braga.* They wreathed their hats with oak-leaves, and then, forming a circle round the tree, called moon and stars to be witnesses of their league. Their aim was to be brave sons of their country, to serve it by the practice of religion and virtue, by the love of freedom, truth, beauty, and noble song. The brothers Stolberg, having grown up in intimacy with Klopstock, and being fired with enthusiasm, were doubtless very welcome additions to this circle, and must have found themselves much at home in it. Voss wrote soon after making their acquaintance : " What nice people the Counts Stolberg are I It is not very common to find among the landowners and the great, with their Frenchifying tendencies, people of even moderate taste ; but to find, among this class, people of the most refined sensibilities, with the noblest hearts that beat for God and their country, with great poetic talent, and vyithout • Braga, the god of poetry among the ancient Germans. FREDERIC LEOPOLD STOLBERG. 379 a particle of pride, — ^people, in short, who are loved and valued by Klopstock, — is really a great discovery." And of Frederic Leopold he says, " I am not proud of being loved by a count. No ; but that my friendship is valued by a German, a gentle- man, a poet, and a friend of Klopstock." The attention of the brothers at this time was chiefly occupied with poetry ; they troubled themselves very little with juris- prudence, but zealously studied Greek. One and another of the league occupied himself with the old German Minnesingers, but Klopstock was regarded as the patriarch of it. On the 2nd of July, 1773, his birthday was celebrated with great solemnity. Klopstock's chair, adorned with roses and carnations, stood at the head of the long table, also decorated with flowers; on it were placed the works of the poet, while under the chair lay Wieland's ' Idris ' torn up. " Cramer," relates Voss, " read some of Klopstock's odes having relation to Germany ; then we took coffee, and made lighters for our pipes out of Wieland's writings. Even Boie, who did not smoke, was compelled to light one and to stamp upon the torn ' Idris.' Afterwards we drank, in Rhine wine, to the health of Klopstock, the League, Ebert, Goethe, and Herder, and to the memory of Luther and Hermann. Klopstock's ' Ode to Rhine Wine,' and some others, were read. Conversation then flowed freely. With hats on, we, talked about liberty and Germany and virtue ; you can just imagine how. Then we supped, and finally burnt Wieland's ' Idris ' and likeness. Whether Klopstock has heard of our doings, or only guessed at them, I do not know ; but he has written to ask for a description of the day." This happy intercourse did not last more than a year ; on the 12th of September, 1773, the anniversary of the formation of the league, they celebrated a parting festival. Overflowing spirits were exchanged for floods of tears. It was midnight when the Stolbergs arrived, and the friends remained together for three hours in a state of mind bordering on frenzy. Frederic Leopold's countenance was torn with conflicting feelings ; he tried to look cheerful, but every gesture betrayed melancholy. A parting song was struck up, but their voices were choked with tears. 38o FREDERIC LEOPOLD STOLBERG. They vowed eternal friendship, and sent greetings to Klopstock. The clock struck three. Voss says, " We then gave fall vent to our grief, and tried to enhance it by singing the song again, but were scarcely able to get through it, and broke out into loud weeping. After a dreadful pause, Clauswitz rose up and said, ' Now, my children, it is time to go.' I flew at him, and do not know what I did, but when I had let him go the counts had disappeared. Some of us rushed down the stairs after them, but they had torn themselves away." The brothers returned to Copenhagen, and lived in the house of their brother-in-law, the younger Bernstorf. In December, 1773, they lost their mother. They occupied themselves much with Greek, and Frederic Leopold continued to strike his German lyre. Some of the best known of his lyrics date from 1774. Still imbued with the spirit of the Hainbund, in 1775 they made a tour in Switzerland. They spent a fortnight at Hamburg, in true Hainbund fashion, with Klopstock, Voss, Miller, and Claudius. They had announced their intention of coming to Frankfort to Goethe, whose acquaintance they had only previously made in the Gottingen 'Almanack of the Muses ;' but he was already carrying on the correspondence with their sister Augusta, though they had never met. At Frankfort they met their friend Haugwitz, afterwards Prussian minister of unenviable notoriety, on account of his cowardly policy. But now they did not anxiously weigh the moral standing of individuals. It was, as Goethe said, " the joyous season of youth ; they opened their hearts to one another, and, although their mental powers were immature, much talent was displayed." The brothers and Haugwitz lived at a hotel, but spent most of their time at the house of the imperial councillor. At his hospitable table the young nobles soon disclosed their poetical hatred of tyrants, and declared that they thirsted for their blood. Goethe's father laughingly shook his head, and Mme. Goethe went into the well-stored cellar, and, bringing up some of her best wine, exclaimed, " This is the true tyrant's blood ; take your fill of it, but do not let us have any talk of assassination here." FREDERIC LEOPOLD STOLBERG. 381 Goethe determined to accompany them on their journey. Frederic Leopold hoped that it would heal the wounds made by an unfortunate love-affair, and Goethe wished to make the experiment whether he could cure himself of his first deep passion, and do without Lili. Merck did not at all approve of Goethe's going with them, and said, " Your going with these youths is a foolish affair. Your aim, and the whole tendency of your mind, is to clothe reality in a poetical garb ; their aim is to realise the poetical, which is sheer nonsense." Goethe, nevertheless, went with them. Their stay at Zurich has a special interest, for Lavater, whose enthusiasm for physiognomy was then at its height, took a warm interest in the counts, and took their shadow portraits. The judgment he passed upon Frederic Leopold is certainly not one of the least correct. "Behold the blooming youth of five-and- twenty! A hovering, floating, elastic being, too lively for repose, not solid enough to stand firm, not strong enough to fly. In the whole outline there is not a single straight line, no firmly arched one, no angular indenture, no rocky prominence in the forehead, no hardness, stiffness, or roughness, — no dominant power, no iron courage, — though there may be courage under excitement, — no searching depth, no patient investigation, no prudent circumspection. He will never stand with the sword in one hand and the scales in the other, yet there is the most perfect rectitude and inviolable love of truth. He is not the man whose penetration will discover, or whose ready recog- nition will develop new truths. He wiU ever be floating in space ; a seer, an idealist, one who longs to beautify everything; to clothe all his ideas in form. A half-intoxicated poet, who sees that which he wishes to see." Lavater also said of him to Goethe, "I do not know what you are all thinking about; he is a noble-minded, excellent, talented young man, but you represented him to me as a hero or a Hercules, whereas I never saw a more gentle, flexible person, or one more easily influenced." The travellers pursued their journey amidst the charms of Swiss scenery, after the fashion of men of genius, in that sense 382 FREDERIC LEOPOLD STOLBERG. of the term which for a long time brought genius into discredit •with rational people. Goethe left the Stolbergs in Switzerland, but they rejoined him at Weimar, and the duke offered Frederic Leopold the post of chamberlain at his poetical court. The decision was an important one. Such a character would have been lost in the atmosphere of Weimar ; but it was not God's purpose that he should pass from the romantic ardour of youth into a region of cold and intellectual unbelief, but into one of living Christian faith. Klopstock was his good genius. He wrote to Goethe, " Stolberg shall not come if he listens to me, or rather if he listens to himself." We have purposely described Stolberg's student years some- what circumstantially. Our sketches would have been in- complete without recalling the spirit of the Hainbund. In the blooming gardens of patriotism during the times of the wars of ■independence, there was many a flower, the seeds of which were sown by Elopstock and his disciples. Stolberg's youthful enthusiasm for freedom and the fatherland was like a prophecy, wlfich was falfiUed in the days of Germany's struggle for her glory and greatness, against French tyranny. By the year 1813 the fermenting juice was changed into clear and sparkling wine. In 1776 Frederic Leopold Stolberg received, through the interest of the Duke of Oldenburg and the Archbishop of Lubeck, the office of ambassador and lord high cup-bearer at the court of Denmark, with a salary of 3,000 dollars,* and after a journey to Eutin, where he spent some weeks with Klopstock, he took up his residence at Copenhagen. An inci- dent at this period indicates the religious sentiments with which he contemplated important steps in life. Not long after his appointment his birthday occurred. Twenty-four years after- wards he related, "The day induced me to think of my sins, and I seized the Bible and prayed God himself to direct me to a suitable passage. And behold when I opened it my finger lighted on the words, 'Then spake the chief butler unto * £357. FREDERIC LEOPOLD STOLBERG. 383 Pharaoh saying, I do remember my faults this day.' All must acknowledge that in the whole pible no passage could have been found more adapted on that day and year to my circum- stances external and internal, and as I believe in Grod's help, I consider that it happened to me through Jesus Christ our Lord." The ambassador was not much occupied with political affairs, and had abundant leisure to begin a congenial task — in which, however, he was soon rivalled by his friend Voss — the transla- tion of the Iliad into German hexameters ; and his own lyre was not neglected. The translation was completed in two years, and was given to Voss for publication, that the profits might assist him in estabKshing his home. Stolberg was now thirty years of age. He had hitherto found much pleasure in his love for his fellow-men, and in the society of congenial friends, but domestic happiness was still wanting. In the summer of 1781, he met at Eutin with a young maid of honour at the court there, Agnes von Witzleben, a charming maiden, in whose character tender sensibility was combined with a fine understanding. They were soon be- trothed, and life opened before them with a bright prospect of love and friendship. Stolberg now fulfilled his duties as lord high cup-bearer at the court of Eutin instead of at Copenhagen, and in June the marriage was celebrated. During the following winter, through Stolberg's influence, Voss received the appointment of rector at Eutin, and the days of the Hainbund were renewed in the daily intercourse and poetical labours of the friends. They together prepared for publication the poems of their early lost friend, Holty, and the ladies sat by and gave their advice. Stolberg was engaged in a translation of ^schylus, and often used to rush to Voss in the twilight with a sheet of translation scarcely dry, to ask his friend's opinion of it. During the same winter he began his 'Iambics;' they were of the nature of satires in which he described his own views, and severely lashed the follies and errors of men. His scorn for faithless priests and wicked princes knew no bounds, and his zeal for religion broke forth 384 FREDERIC LEOPOLD STOLBERG. in a description of the theologian among the Illuminati, — the elegant mannikin, whose discourses are as ornamental as his curling locks, and who thinks he has penetrated into all the mysteries of religion. Life at court was not congenial to the poet, and in the summer he went with his Agnes to the house of his brother Christian at Tremsbiittel. There his wife bore her first-born son, and they spent a very quiet winter together, Voss joining them at Christmas. In accordance with his own wish to enjoy his domestic happiness away from the court and in the seclusion of the country, Stolberg received the appointment of governor of Neuenburg, in the duchy of Oldenburg ; and as the official resi- dence required repair, they spent the summer in a journey to Carlsbad. On their return they went through Holstein to- Copenhagen, where in a very short time Stolberg finished a drama called ' Timoleon,' wrote another — ' Theseus," — and a third, fourth, and fifth soon followed. Voss felt compelled to re- monstrate with his friend against such rapid poetical production. But the poet enjoyed his labours, and wrote to Voss, " It is as impossible to me to make plans as it would be to write a book on the freedom of the will;" and later, "It may be that in the drama more than in my other poems I have sinned against, or neglected theoretical laws, but none of my other works have ever come so from my inmost soul, or been written so con amore, and I consider them the best of my performances. The muse bears witness to my spirit, and that is more to me than anything." Stolberg's contemporaries received his dramatic writings with a considerable measure of approval, but posterity has forgotten them. They were scarcely settled at Neuenburg when Stol- berg was commissioned to carry the news of the death of the Duke of Oldenburg to St. Petersburg. He met with a flattering reception; the Empress Catherine appreciated the poetical envoy, and read his Homer with great interest. Adorned with the cross of St. Anne he returned to his family in 1786. In a poem called 'The Island,' we have a picture of FREDERIC LEOPOLD STOLBERG. 385 Stolberg's happy idyl, which lasted for three years at Neuenburg. Four children were born to him ; nature was an unfailing source of delight, and intercourse was kept up by means of correspondence with numerous friends of note. The sunshine of his friendship with Voss was in some measure clouded, when the latter entered the lists with the count by publishing a trans- lation of the Eiad, and it was already threatened by a deeper shadow occasioned by the diversity in their religious opinions. When Lavater was staying at Bremen, in 1786, and the multitude were jeering at a man who was so consumed by his zeal for the kingdom of G-od, Stolberg expressed a favourable opinion of him, which is of the more value as it contains a criticism on his fanatical tendencies: "I have never seen a man," he said, "who, in a great and good cause, verged so closely on extravagance, and yet ao seldom overstepped the boundary." And in an ode to Lavater he reminds him that here below, where we have to be content with faith, we must guard ourselves from being too anxious for sight, and from a taste for the marvellous, and an impatience to see the kingdom of God established in visible form. At another time he bore a powerful testimony in favour of morality with respect to a romance. He wrote to Halem: — "Herewith I return ' Ardinghello.' It is written with much spirit and fire, but it is a bad spirit, and a fire that consumes but neither gives Ught nor heat. If the rights of hospitality permit it I would say, 'Oh, ye men of Oldenburg, if you care for the virtue of your wives, sisters, and children, burn this wicked book ! ' " Even in libertine Athens no author would have been allowed with impunity to make such an attack on virtue as to say that the laws of morality were only made for the vulgar. But we Germans have too often taken libertinism for liberty ; we flatter the great, and despise what is really great and nobl^. If the book were written with all the genius to which it lays claim, I should read it with the same disgust as I should read n, clever lampoon on my father. And should religion and virtue be less de.ar to us than a father ?" 386 FREDERIC LEOPOLD STOLBERG. Amidst the defections from the Christian faith of contemporary- men of talent, Stolberg remained steadfast. He wrote once to Jacobi : " The modern semi- Christianity ■which only sees in the Son of God, God's best and greatest messenger, cannot stand, for it is contradicted in the Bible in every page." When Schiller, in his celebrated poem, expressed a poetical longing for the "gods of Greece," Stolberg's Chris- tianity proved stronger than his love of classical antiquity. Among other criticisms upon it he said, " The representations which our religion gives us of the God who calls Himself our Father, who offers us a love surpassing a mother's love; of the Son of God who is our brother, and as such visibly walked with men ; of the Divinity, who, having partially revealed himself some thousands of years before, then unveiled Himself com- pletely, and gave us a moral law in comparison with which all other moral laws are nought, for it alone is holy, and based upon love to God and man ; who brought life and immortahty to light, and confirmed it by His resurrection, thus unsealing to us the object of His life and death ; — these representations, I say, which stand in the closest connection with our improvement and happiness, must surely appear to Schiller, even if he had the misfortune not to believe in them, far more noble and beneficent than the play of the phantasy of the Greeks, whose mythology combined the grossest idolatry with the most lamentable superstition." Stolberg's faith in the resurrection was soon put to a severe test. In November, 1788, his Agnes, the joy of his heart and the sunshine of his home, was taken from him after a short illness. He wrote : "I hung with love and joy over her sweet face, and thought she was asleep — she was dead ! It is not difficult for me to renounce all the joys of this life, for my Agnee, the essence, sum, and substance of my earthly happi- ness, has left me. I shall see her again.'' His brother Christian hastened to him, and the mourner re- turned with him to Tremsbiittel, taking with him the two eldest children. He did not return to Neuenburg. He received the welcome FREDERIC LEOPOLD STOLBERG. 387 appointment of Danish ambassador at Berlin, and, after spend- ing the winter in Holstein, he removed thither in the spring. At first he found his residence there very dreary, for his sister and his children were not with him. Intercourse with his friends, his classical studies, and business spmetimes relieved his melancholy for a time, but again grief for the departed returned in full force. But in the very midst of his grief, and while he was cherishing the memory of the wife of his youth, another lady crossed his path, who ensnared his heart, so that he projected another marriage. There is something melancholy in this spectacle, but it is one constantly repeated, and it must be ascribed to the needs, the weakness, the weariness, and longing of the human heart, that he whose affections have been most keenly wounded by a separation is sometimes the most ready to enter on another union,, that new joys often follow so quickly on the bitterest grief for lost happiness. In the winter of 1789 Stolberg made the acquaintance of the Countess Sophia von Kedem. In a letter to a friend, after extolling her virtues, he says, " I could not remain a widower. I confess to you, my dear friend, that it had been my hope to find my greatest earthly happiness in a lonely life devoted to. the memory of my beloved Agnes, but your friend is a weak mortal." In February, 1790, the marriage took place on an estate belonging to the Kedern family. The young wife sympathised with the religious views of her husband, which, about this time, became more decidedly confirmed. The poet Von Halem, in conjunction with two ecclesiastics, was commissioned to carry out a scheme which found much favour in those days, the revision of the Oldenburg Hymn-Book. Although not a believer in the doctrines of the Church, Von Halem not only put his own hand to the work, but sought for helpers among his friends, arid applied to men of su pocket, he said, " Boisseree, you were the first protector of the cathedral ; I must give you a memorial of it for your button- hole." And he presented him with the Order of the Bed Eagle of the third class. Sulpiz answered,. " I have only tried to treasure up a few seeds of the flower of ancient German art, to recall the memory of its grandeur, and they have taken root in your generous heart, and are growing up into a great tree* May God add His blessing.'' With his cold Mephistophelian Spitit,. Metternich called the enthusiasm of those autumn days " a mutual infatuation." But Germany breathed freely in them,, and they inspired her with courage. So great was the desire for a gJeat and united national life that even Protestant Christians regarded the building Of the cathedral as a symbol of unity. Before the cathedral fete, Frederic Perthes wrote to Boisseree, " The cathedral of Cologne, a corner-stoiie which has been a stumbliilg- block to many, has become a symbol of that unity without which all effort after agreement is vain and fruitless, unity in the Church of Christ. According to the external aspect of things, the prospect of this unity is very distant, but when we look at essentials, firm foundation-stones may be descried." After the/ete he wrote, " The attention paid by both parties to the deepest questions of Christian life is so grate and searching, that a return to an indifferent existence side by side is impossible. " Because God is guiding us, we may hope to reach the goal, but the confiict will and must be a long one. The cross of a united Church of Christ on the spire of the cathedral of Cologne would be a symbol of the victory, as well as an evidence of the completion of the cathedral." Perhaps the time when Catholics and Protestants shall have attained to unity may be more distant than the planting of the SULPIZ BOISSER&B. 463 Cross of Christ upon the spire of tlie finished eatbedral ; but that need not prevent our rejoicing in the successful labours of the man who devoted his life to Grerman Christian art ; and -We see in th«se labours a precious fruit of the great days when we regained our independence, a fruit wbich tended to the advance- ment of a deeper and richer religious life through the media- tion of art. King Frederic William IV., after summoning many valuable men into his kingdom, attracted Sulpiz Boisseree to return to his native lafld. He gave him an honorary office at Bonn, where he resided from 1846 until his death. In August, 1848, together with the Frankfort legislators, he attended the cathedral /efe. This occasion was like a few bright days in the midst of long continued stormy weather, for the events of that year were very painful to his devout and patriotic spirit. In 1851 he was deprived of the faithful companionship of his brother. Bertram had died before, and in 1853, Sulpiz visited Cologne and the cathedral for the last time. Fifty years had pas^d by since he took the first picture of his collection in at the back door. The Bignonia Catalpja, which he had planted in the garden, was in full bloom and beauty ; in the cathedral, the wall of the south window was closed in, and was, as he said, " mighty to behold." Throughout a long life, God had given him strength for much exertion and many long journeys, in spite of his poor health. A heart complaint now brought death near to him. He received the last sacraments of his Church, and then said to his wife, " Let us look into each other's eyes once more, and ( then look forward to meeting again." He had prayers read to him till the close. Clement Perthes, the son of his old friend, had just left, when his wife observed that the patient drew a deep breath. She grasped his hand, and as she repeated the Benediction, he breathed out his soul into God's loving keeping on the 2nd of May, 1854. The builders and workmen employed on the cathedral came over from Cologne, and, followed by many friends, they took him out and buried him beside his brother Melchior. 464. SUlPIZ BOISSERiE. In the churehyard at Bonn, which contains the mortal- remains of so many distinguished Germans, the graves' of Sulpiz and Melchior Boisseree are to be eeen, and may remind us what energy, uprightness, and devout faith can enable individuals to achieve for their country^* * 'Sulpiz Boisseree.' Stuttgart: 1862. CHAPTER XVIII. EFFECTS OF THE WARS OF INDEPENDENCE. THE time iinmediately after the wars of independence was one of the happiest periods in the long annals of the German nation. As there are hours in the mental history of individuals, when their vocation, like a hitherto buried germ, becomes evident to them, — hours in which that which is to be the leading idea of their lives reveals itself in royal pre-eminence, as the result of the healthy exercise of all their powers, and of their earnest endeavours to ascertain it, hours, the remembrance of which is always an incitement to good, — so are there times in the course of a nation's history when it clearly perceives what is the calling for which it is designed by God, and feels its strength renewed to fulfil it. " Bitornar al segno," a return to the first watchword, is, as Machiavelli says, the law of the development of history. It may deviate from its course, but returiiS to the original starting-point, and makes amends for the error by increased progress. The watchword of the Germans was the union of nationality and religion, and the wars of independence resulted in a return to it. Every power was in healthy exercise, and there was a prevailing conviction that the nation could not fulfil its vocation independently of religion, and that the Church would be powerless if she did not adapt herself to the national wants. In 1786 the youthful Spalding wrote to F. H. Jacobi that he had heard Blester say, that " we must not relax our efforts, and then in twenty years' time the name of Jesus, in a religious sense, would no more be heard." And exactly twenty years H H 466 EFFECTS OF THE later came the chastisement at Jena, and with it many earnest people returned to the Saviour of sinners ; and thirty years later, how often the name of Jesus occurs in the hymns of Amdt and ScTienkendorf — how powerfully it was proclaimed by many from the pulpit — how efficacious it proved among the people in the lecture-rooms of the philosophers, as well as among the congregations of the faithful ! And that kingdom began to be established, concerning which we have the promise that it shall endure when all the kingdoms of the world shall have passed away. From the moment when religion took the place among the nation from which it had been deposed, a wonderful impulse was given to all the nation's powers. Science and art, learning and education, political and mercantile life, all began to flourish anew. After the war, Germany was like a field that has been well ploughed, sown with good seed, and richly watered with the tears of sorrow. The seed was already sprouting ; there was every prospect of a good harvest, though much would depend upon future weather. It is beyond our purpose to record in detail the religious results of the wars of independence ; we shall only indicate a few of them in the various departments of religious life. In the first place, we will give an example of the fact that many earnest Christians, who afterwards rendered effectual aid in building up the Church, received their first incitement to spiritual life in the times of the war. Ferdinand Charles von Biilow, born at Luthe, in Hanover, in 1789, had studied law, and was intended by Savigny, of Berlin, who thought highly of him, for an academical career. But ' when in February, 1813, the King issued his appeal for volunteers, although Biilow's health was poor, he could not remain behind, but hastened with hundreds of his fellow- students to Breslau. There he bought a Testament, which accompanied him in all the battles in which he was engaged. There is on the fly-leaf, in his handwriting, a record of the course of the war, and then follow the words, " This book has WARS OF INDEPENDENCE. 467 been my constant companion, and has often given me divine support. ' praise the Lord, for He is good, and His mercy endureth for ever.' Lord, forgive me n;iy sins." Thus equipped, he fought as a volunteer jager at Gross-, gorschen and Bautzen, as an officer at Grossbeeren and Dennewitz, and in 1815, when war broke out again, as adjutant to General von Dobschiitz. After the second peace of Paris he entered the diplomatic service, and died as privy councillor of legation at Berlin in 1853. He evinced his faith, not only by various hymns which he composed, but by the keen interest he took in many good works of Christian charity. He was a member of the committee of the Missionary Society, vice-president of the Protestant Book Society, and of the Society for the Care of Discharged Prisoners, and he aided in building the church of St. Matthew in Berlin, now a favourite haunt of earnest Christians, especially among the nobility. Thus, in the person of Biilow, we see the religious awakening which took place in 1813, in immediate connection with the interest in the Church which has been so general since 1848. And this is but one instance out of many. Not during the war itself, but under the influence of its warning voice, another Prussian officer was led to embrace the faith, whose conversion influenced first his own family, and then a whole neighbourhood, like the ever- widening circles pro- duced when still waters are set in motion. Gustavus von Below, the son of a landed proprietor in Pomerania, born in 1790, being a talented youth, was designed for the service of the State, and had sat at the feet of Fichte, at Berlin. Utterly devoid of any interest in religion or the Church, in 1813 he entered the army as a volunteer jager. He served in Prince William's regiment of dragoons, then as adjutant in General Gneisenan's staff, and won the Iron Cross. Led into serious reflection by the grave experiences of war, after his return from the campaign he felt aspirations towards a higher life which could not be satisfied with Fichte's philosophy. He was brought into contact with a circle of serious young 468 EFFECTS OF THE men, among whom were Clemens Brentano, and the three brothers Von Grerlach. But it was a former comrade in the regiment, Gotze, who divined the state of his mind, and one day said to him, " My friend, I wish you would read the Bible ; " and in the words of Wangemann, " So near had God's love and mercy drawn to men after the great events and distress of the war, so thin was the partition between man's averted will and God's outstretched arm, that the perusal of the Gospel of St. Matthew sufficed to effect an entire change in the life of a young officer of the Guards." He searched the Scriptures further, read otlier religious works, and was soon entirely converted to Christ. His cor- respondence at that time is an evidence that Fichte, although he had not himself attained to the knowledge of salvation in Christ, did in reality lead many to Him by reason of the moral earnestness and religious enthusiasm by which his philosophy was pervaded. Von Below relates that after his return from the war to Berlin, he read some of Fichte's works with earnest attention ; for when he compared his own faith with that of some of his devout friends, it did not seem to him to be suffi- ciently firm, and he longed to attain to their standard. " But I doubt," he continues, " whether this would have effected any change in my views, for it seemed only to confirm them the more. In the meantime I renewed my acquaintance with some of my former fellow-students and others besides, and discovered that in intercourse with spiritually minded and excellent men, one gains more than from any books. Among others, I will mention G , whom you know ; he served in the same detachment of jagers, and was severely wounded at Dennewitz. I cannot undertake to give you a description of this delightful man. I saw a good deal of him, and admired in silence the serene and cheerful peace, and the steadfastness which pervaded his whole being. I very soon discovered that a firm unshaken faith in the doctrines and promises of the Holy Scriptures, a deep sense of religion, unmixed with any philosophical jargon, was the foundation and essence of his life. By his means I was Ipd to the Bible and the church ; all my philosophy retreated WARS OF INDEPENDENCE. 469 into the background, and served only as a foil to faith. And, God willing, that shall henceforth be its place. It is now my undivided and earnest endeavour to uphold and confirm these views ; to imbue my whole mind and being with faith. " Happily, my former philosophy does not hinder me in this work of sanctification, because there is nothing in it detrimental to the interests of faith. It goes as far as human insight and reason can go, it leaves off where the other begins, and my error consisted in trying to engraft faith on philosophy, and to permeate the latter with the former. Faith shall now be the groundwork of all my life and thoughts, and if God only grant me strength I hope to find mercy." In May, 1817, his words sounded like those of one who had found mercy. He wrote to a friend, " There is no other life for us but in and through faith in our Lord and Saviour, and the forgiveness of sins through his blood. There is no true love, but that which flows fresh and free from the wells of life and mercy ; there is no other truth, there is no other way to God and to everlasting life, but through Him. There is no other virtue but that which has its foundation in the Lord, and which is practised for His sake. Dear S., if your heart has not yet been enlightened by these truths, I pray you for God's sake, and for the sake of your soul's salvation, acquaint yourself with the divine revelation in the Holy Scriptures, and if the perverse understanding rebels against the reception of the proffered mercy, I beg you to meditate on the following sayings of a divinely gifted man : — 'When thou gazest on the sun and findest it too bright, 'Tis thy eyes that are in fault, and not the brilliant light. 'Man, when thy heart is soft as wax, and like it pure and fair, The Holy Spirit will impress the Saviour's image there. ' man, thou must a child become, else thou wilt never go Among the children of thy God, the door is far too low.' " In proportion as Gustavus von Below was thankful that he had been delivered from the kingdom of Satan, the more 470 EFFECTS OF THE zealous was he to save the souls of his brethren. " Have you a Bible, dear S. ? " he wrote, " or have you read it with simplicity and humility of heart ? If not, do so now, and you will soon, discover that it is a divine revelation, and not what many theologians of modern times proclaim it to be, who deserve rather to be called the slaves of Satan than the servants of God. I had read some parts of it before myself, but in much the same spirit in which I should have read Plato or Cicero. The years of war and misfortune have caused a great stir and commotion amongst us ; in the first place only in a political sense, but like the widening eddies in a pool when you throw in a stone, it will soon spread itself into every department of life." At the time of his conversion Gustavus von Below had a father and two brothers. From the year 1818, when he was married, he had taken possession of the estates of Beddintin and Symbow, while Charles had the larger estate of Gatz, and Henry those of Serhoff and Pannekow, their father having retired to that of Briinnow. Gustavus sent forth his earnest exhortations to faith in Christ on all sides, at first without visible result. The desolating breath of rationalistic teaching, and the worldly lives of the rationalistic clergy, had produced disastrous effects in Pomerania ; but there were still some few souls who, like Gustavus von Below, valued the ancient treasures of con- solation. He became more and more confirmed in his biblical Christianity, which may be described as Lutheranism tinged with Pietism. His brother Henry was the first to be won over in 1819. One day, in an idle mood, from mere ennui he took up Tersteegen's ' String of Pearls ; ' and the exposition of the fifteenth chapter of Luke made such an impression upon him, that he said to himself, " I am the prodigal son ! " He called his family together, and said to them, " We have all been hitherto going the wrong way ; if we do not alter our course, and are not converted, we shall all be lost." He gave up smoking, cards, and wine ; banished things, not in themselves sinful, out of his house ; searched the Scriptures diligently, and WARS OF INDEPENDENCE. 471 read the works of Luther, Arndt, and Francke. About the same time, Charles was converted also. One of them wrote, " We three brothers have now agreed to rule our householdsr *s far as Grod gives us grace to do it, as faithful followers of Christ ; that His word shall be prized above everything, and diligently put in practice ; and by Grod's help we have already made a successful begmning.'' There was soon no member of the large family who did not share in this new life ; and when the incre- dible report was noised abroad that family worship was held in these noble houses, it came to the ears of the " Quiet in the Land," and they praised God for the grace He had given. The excitement in the neighbourhood continually increased, and was regarded with great enmity by the clergy. The only pastor within range of these Lutheran nobles who understood them was Metger, of the Reformed Church, the court preacher at Stolpe, the successor of Schleiermacher. The minister at Pannekow carried his rationalistic doctrines so far, that Henry von Below one day said to him after service, at the church-door, "Are you fully convinced of what you have been preaching to-day, that it is not necessary to salvation to believe in the Lord Christ ? " — " Certainly I am fuEy convinced of what I have been preaching," was the answer. — " Well, then," said the patron, " I hereby renounce you, for it is my duty to avoid false doctrine. Henceforth I shall no longer attend your ministry." Then, mounting upon a grave mound, he said to the congregation, " Do not believe him ; he is a false prophet." From this time the movement took a free course independently of the ruling powers. The nobles themselves preached, and multitudes came to hear them; other laymen, servants and labourers, did the same, and a great revival took place. The Government sent gendarmes to arrest the work of the Spirit ; but neither they nor the rationalistic clergy could set bounds to it. All the concomitant circumstances usually observed when a sudden awakening occurs in a whole neighbourhood took place here — ^prophesying and violent bodily contortions. All the arrows which, vrith an only too natural rancour, those who have felt constrained to separate themselves from a lifeless com- 472 EFFECTS OF THE munity, are apt to discharge at the national Church and its servants, were sent forth here. And the revivalists in Pomerania had also to pass through all those perils which are generally the lot of those who separate themselves from the Church. First, open rapture with the clergy; then, when more faithful pastors were sent, a desire to be reconciled with the Church ; but these again were regarded with suspicion if they did not go through thick and thin with the Revivalists.- After the great awakening, the promoters of it sank into a state of mystical, theosophical contemplation, and the clergy en- deavoured to rule their congregations according to order. We cannot follow further the history of this ' Spiritual Stir and Strife on the Shores of the Baltic,' as it has been called by Wangemann.* Charles von Below died in 1842, and Gustavus in 1843. Their study of the works of Bohme and Grichtel had given them a distaste for these religious commotions. Henry, who was the most energetic character, came in contact with the Lutheran Separatists in Silesia, and at length formed his followers into a sort of congregation. He died in 1855. We cannot fail to regret that the spiritual life which was awakened by the brothers Below in Pomerania, when the national Church was, as it were, too old a skin to contain the new wine, assumed so disorderly a character ; but we must give the pro- moters of it the credit of faithful discipleship to the end. And if the preaching of the G-ospel takes deep root to this day in Pomerania, — if faithful pastors find the ground well prepared for their labours, — and if, in many of the mansions of the chief families, conservative political sentiments are adorned with the doctrines of the cross, — ^it is fair to seek the source of this state of things in the days of the wars of independence. The newly-awakened religious life was clearly evinced in those works of charity which were so greatly needed in the universal distress. Here was a sphere for the Christian patriotism of women. Some few men, like Perthes and Falk, whose souls were pained by the distress of whole towns or * "Wangemann, 'Geistliohes Eegen imd Eingen am Ostseestrande.' Berlin: 1862. WARS OF INDEPENDENCE. 473 districts, worked on a large scale, and sent forth far and wide their urgent appeals for help. But there was abundant rooir for works of mercy in detaU for the hands of girls and women In the periodicals of the day we meet with papers by womei who take a just view of the position of the German woman judged by a historical and religious standard. ' What does regenerated Germany require of her Women ? ' is the title of a little book by a governess, Betty Gleim, published at Bremen in 1814, for the benefit of the fugitives from Hamburg. And where their duties were not thus theoretically discussed, women did not doubt that it was their part to sustain the men by helping to equip them for the war, and by caring for the wounded and for widows and orphans. The angel of mercy followed closely on victory, war, scarcity, and pestilence. In November, 1813, the young ladies of Leipsig established a society " for the succour of those who are fighting and sufiering in the good cause." Their plan was to work for the society, and raise funds by the sale of the work. " Contribu- tions in money,'' they said, " unless it were first earned, could not be of the same value as the industry of German girls for the cause of their country." No sooner had their appeal been issued than a gold chain, a pin, and an anchor were sent by a young lady in the country. She wrote with them to her " dear sister " at Leipsig, that she would fain have followed her brothers to the war in the service of Prussia, but that, being an only daughter, she was obliged to stay at home, and, being too busy in working for her brothers to send work, she had sent her ornaments instead. " If I could only send things of greater value ! " she added ; " but if many would follpw my example we should soon have a good sum. The sacrifice would not be great, for what is the use of these glittering trifles ? A flower or a ribbon is far more ornamental." Patriotism and religious feeling led in those days to simplicity of dress, and especially to the avoidance of French fashions. We have seen in Falk's life how the misery occasioned by the war called forth works of mercy in Thuringia. Gerd 474 EFFECTS OF THE Eilers, a tutor in the wealthy merchant families at Frankfort, has given us a description of the labours of women in clothing the naked, feeding the hungry, and nursing the sick in the old imperial city, and in the valley of the Maine. " While the citizens of Frankfort were patiently bearing the burden of having soldiers quartered upon them," Eilers relates, " their utmost sympathies were excited by the misery and distress which prevailed in the district around the city. Typhus fever had consorted itself with want, and many families had lost both father and mother. "A large hospital in the city, in which hundreds of fever patients were lying, took fire. The sick had to be saved, and there was no course open but to remove them into the houses of the citizens. Fear of infection brought natural self- love and love of our fellow-creatures into collision, and, to the honour of the inhabitants of Frankfort be it spoken, humanity gained the day. The sick were all provided for, except a few who perished in the flames. " Perhaps no one had better opportunities than I had in the circles in which I was then living, of admiring the mental power and moral strength in the characters of noble women in the midst of this urgent distress. It filled me with the highest esteem when I saw how, without the least cant, they kept the law of Christian liberty, and walked in deed and in truth in that more excellent way which St. Paul showed to the Corinthians." The Frankfort Ladies' Association, which celebrated its jubilee on the 2nd of February, 1864, was instituted in those days, and is a living evidence that the influence of tlie benevolence which was called forth during the war time has extended to otir own days. For a moment we cast our eyes from the south to the north, to remind our readers of the activity of the Hamburg ladies narrated in the life of Perthes, and then return to Wiirtemberg to observe how, under the auspices of Queen Catherine, works of Christian charity were extended over a whole country. This princess was the daughter of the Emperor Paul of Kussia, and her mother was the Empress Mary, a princess of Wiirtemberg. The Emperor fVARS OF INDEPENDENCE. 475 Alexander was her brother. Like him, she had been deeply impressed by the grave events of the times in -which she lived. She was greatly shocked by the murder of her father, and it led to her living a retired country life with her mother, and her youth was passed in serious study instead of idle vanities. Her marriage with Prince George of Oldenburg, who settled as governor-general at Twer, on the Volga, gave her increased opportunity of exerting herself for the good of her dependents. When Napoleon advanced towards Kussia, and the prince prepared to defend his territory, the G-rand Duchess equipped a corps of serfs at her own expense. After the burning of Moscow, when the hospitals at Twer were filled with the wounded, the Prince constantly visited them, and was himself seized with typhus fever. His wife nursed him faithfully until his death, when she fell ill herself from grief and over-exertion. Having recovered her health at the baths of Bohemia, in 1813 she took an eager interest in political events, and when the allied armies entered Paris she laid aside her widow's weeds. In January, 1816, she married the Crown Prince ofWiirtem- berg, who succeeded to the throne in October of the same year. Being now queen, there was no outward hindrance to her following the dictates of her loving woman's heart. Her mind was peculiarly fitted to rule, and her keen, masculine insight into the position of affairs enabled her to animate and regulate the works of benevolence throughout the country. In the year 1817 a network of beneficent institutions was spread over Wiirtemberg ; but she was only permitted for two years to be the mother of the country. Nevertheless, at her death -in 1819, the work was so well established, and intrusted to such faithful hands, that it has endured, and is to this day an example to other lands.* Although blessing flowed and continues to flow from the labours of women, men were not wanting who walked in the * Merz, ' Frauenbilder.' Stuttgard : 2 Bande. 476 EFFECTS OF THE same steps. From the year 1816, Count von der Eeeke Volmerstein followed in Falk's footsteps. He at first en- deavoured to rescue neglected children by placing them out in families, but, as that proved impracticable to a sufficient extent, in 1819 he founded an asylum on his estate at Overdyk, with which, since 1822, the larger institution at Diissolthal has been connected. From 1819 Keinthaler carried on the labours of his friend Falk at the Martin's Stift at Erfurt. And while, in Northern Germany, charity was directing her blessed steps hither and thither, reconnoitrers were standing on the southern boundary of Switzerland, not to see whether Germany was open to attack, but for the reception of streams from the fountain of beneficence then open at Basle. There is at Beuggen, near Basle, but in the territory of Baden, an institution for training teachers for the schools of the poor, with which an asylum for neglected children is connected. It did not, like Falk's labours, originate in the war time, but it was a branch of a society, called the " German Christian Association," which had been founded in Basle in 1780, and from which ramifications had spread into Germany. It was an association of earnest Christians for the promotion of Christian knowledge and godliness of life. But its establishment has some connection with the commotions of the time and with the foundation of the Basle Missionary Society, so that we will say a few words on that institution. The leading members of the Christian Association, especially SteinkopflF, and after he was elected minister of the Savoy church in London, Spittler and Blumhardt, had long had it in their hearts to establish a missionary training school at Basle. It is sometimes said that it originated as follows : — That at the siege of Hiiningen some devout men formed a vow that if Basle were spared the horrors of war, they would establish a semi- nary for training missionaries to be sent among the Calmucks and Tartars who were among the allied armies. This, however, is not correct, though the events of the war caused the long- cherished plan to be carried out. From 1803, Blumhardt and Spittler had worked together in the service of the Christian WARS OF INDEPENDENCE. 477 Association. When Blumhardt's father died in 1800, he placed his hands on the head of his son, then a student, with the prophetical words, " The Lord will bless thee, and so prepare thee with the gifts of His Spirit, that thou wilt one day become a blessed instrument in carrying His grace to the heathen." A few years later, Steinkopff asked him, on behalf of the London Missionary Society, to go out as a missionary. His weak health precluded him from this, but he began to take a special interest in missions, and sent contributions and pupils to the mission school which Janicke had established at Berlin in 1801. He had not thought of establishing one himself, but it had been proposed by Spittler, and only some fresh impulse and a suitable opportunity were wanting to induce them to lay the proposal before the public. Albert Ostertag relates that, in the year 1814, a man looking something like a G-erman student, half gentleman, half vagrant, came into Spittler's room with a letter of introduction from Grossner. He made inquiries about the Christian Association, and asked if he could be in any way employed in it. This was that singular, zealous, and powerful man Kellner, who was a friend and coadjutor of Mme. de Kriidener. During the French rule he had been postmaster at Brunswick, but had incurred the wrath of the foreign power partly by objecting to the shameless opening of letters, partly from some patriotic expressions which had escaped him. He was imprisoned in the fortress of Cassiel, where he daily expected the fate of many of his fellow-prisoners who were shot under his window. In this situation he took up the only book that had been left him, a Bible. He had before been a materialist, but, in reading it, he found that liberty compared with which the liberty which he had hitherto been striving to attain was but a delusive shadow. The events of 1813 released him, and after various adventures, he came to Spittler at Basle. Spittler received him gladly, and found him to be possessed, not only of a richly-gifted and cultivated mind, but of the fiery zeal which was just what was wanting to fan into a flame the embers which were smouldering in Spittler's thoughts. He enthusiastically took up the idea of a missionary 478 EFFECTS OF THE institute, but the fitting occasion for making it public had not yet arrived. It was so ordered by Q-od that some of the bombs of Hii- ningen, maliciously thrown into the town, should inflame the hearts of the inhabitants with zeal, instead of setting fire to their dwellings ; and the plan of the missionary institute was matured in those days of deep anxiety, and under the influence of the unusual presence of foreign hordes, some of them from Kussian Asia. After the storm had blown over, Spittler's first letter to his friend Blumhardt, then a pastor in a remote country place, gives him the joyful news of the establishment of the institute, and says, " and you must be inspector " — and in- spector Blumhardt became. It was on the 21st of October, 1816. The autumn leaves were falling, and the fading aspect of everything turned the mind to serious thought. Two friends, zealous promoters of the kingdom of God, Spittler and ZeUer of Zofingen, director of the school at Aargau, were walking under the trees behind the cathedral at Basle. They had just come from the Missionary Institute, where they had seen the ten pupils destined to go to the heathen. Just then some late birds of passage were taking their flight towards the south, and brought the young missionaries afresh to mind. " Ah," said Zeller, " these young men are soon going to the heathen, and amid the growing apostasy we want efficient labourers for the harvest in our churches and schools at home." Then he described the spiritual destitution in Switzerland and Germany, the need of suitable instructors in the existing institutions, the number of neglected children, and suggested the idea that an institution for training teachers for home work should be combined with the Mission Institute. Winter and spring passed by. At Easter, Spittler wrote to Zeller at Zofingen, to ask him to draw up a paper setting forth his ideas on the subject. The conference of the friends at Basle on the paper resulted in the decision that the Training School must be a separate society from the Mission Institute. On the evening of the 31st of October the friends kept the WAHS OF INDEPENDENCE. 479 festival of the German Keformation, and constituted themselves a society for a voluntary association for training schoolmasters for the poor. A gold snuff-box was soon sent for the object, which, being three times raffled for, — for twice, the successful competitor presented it to the society again, — brought in a sum of 3,200 francs ; and other gifts flowed in. They tried to find a site for building near the town, but as land was dear, they turned their thoughts to Beuggen, an old German chateau a few miles above Basle on the Ehine, in the territory of Baden. For the last three years it had been used as a lazaretto for sick soldiers, and was an abode of misery and desolation. In 1819 the friends Spittler and Zeller had a personal inter- view with the Grand Duke Louis of Baden, and obtained per- mission to occupy the castle for a rent of 60 florins a year. By AprU 1st, 1820, it was to be ready for the reception of the inmates, and a mother was found for them in Mrs. Mary Salome Fasch, widow of Professor Fasch of Basle, a lady of property, but who had previously found her greatest pleasure in instruct- ing poor children. Zeller, of Zofingen, was requested to undertake the office of director, and he and his wife took possession of a corner room in the upper story, which had before been the special haunt of typhus fever. Their first act was to throw themselves on their knees, to thank God for His guidance, to dedicate the whole house to Him, to pray Him to dwell in it by His grace and His holy Spirit, and to change it from an abode of misery, pesti- lence, and death, into a blessed sanctuary for many poor crea- tures. There were pupils from six years of age to thirty, clever and stupid, attractive and repulsive, those who had been well brought up and wild neglected beings, well-dressed and ragged ones. There were ten boys and ten girls intended fo be trained for teachers. Zeller devoted himself entirely to this work until his death in 1860, at the age of eighty-one. One of the pleasantest incidents in the annals of the institu- tion was a visit from the aged Pestalozzi, in 1826. From his correspondence with Nioolovius we see how this man, so pos- 48o EFFECTS OF THE sessed by a spirit of love, but to wliom it was not granted t6 carry out his loving projects, rejoiced to see them carried out by younger, and, as he readily acknowledged, more practical men. How he must have delighted in the spectacle presented to him at Beuggen ! and may we not rejoice to observe how the mantle of an Elijah is ever bequeathed to an Elisha, and how link is added to link in the chaia of works of charity, until the coming of the Lord ! " We shall never forget," Zeller reports, " the moment when the venerable man entered the room, and passing between the double row of seventy-eight children and twenty-two youths, who greeted him by singing a hymn, he walked feebly up the stairs, and with tears of emotion in his eyeSj took his seat in the pulpit in the great schoolroom ; we shall not forget how he declined the wreath of oak-leaves that was oflfered to him, and placing it on the head of my little son, pressed him to his heart, with the words, 'Not for me, not for me; garlands belong to innocence.' His voice was choked with tears when the youth- ful choir sang, in soft and touching voices, the following stanza from ' Gertrude and Lienhard :' — " Thou wlio cam'et from heaven ahove, Thou who all oui anguish stillest, Thou who with the richest love Evermore the poorest fillest, I am weary, give me rest, Bid my anxious wanderings cease ; Send unto my troubled breast AH Thy promised grace and peace." ■Then, still almost overcome with emotion, he blessed the Children. And during the four days that he spent vyith us, the advice he gave us from the rich harvest of his experience vpill never be forgotten, nor his affectionate interest in the poor and their children at so advanced an age. May God comfort the venerable father ! "* * Ostertag, ' TJeber den Ursprung und die Entwioklung der Deutschen Christenthums-Geaellschaft in Pasel, in den Beitragen zur vaterlandischen Gesobichte,' Baspl: 1850, M^AHS OF INDEPENDENCE. 481 Another work of charity was the circulation of the Bible. It was originally a genuine German one, the sense of the need of which was first practically shown by Luther in his translation of the Bible, and it was afterwards promoted by the Canstein Bible Society, which was a result of the pietism of the Halle school. Since the beginning of the century, it had been carried on with great success in England, and had found since the war a fruitful soil in Germany. We have looked through the reports of the British and Foreign Bible Society, and the narratives of the English agents Pinkerton and Paterson, and the German agents Steinkopfif and Schwabe ; the correspondence from all parts of the country gives so interesting an insight into the religious condition of Germany at that period, that we regret that space will not allow us to reproduce more than a few features of it. Before the war, the indifference to the word of God which prevailed among the upper classes had penetrated to the lower, but after it, a desire for the Scriptures was everywhere felt. At Wernigerode, Dr. Schwabe found the count's family just returned from banishment, and mourning that the French rule had at once stifled the growth of religion and lessened the means of promoting it. The aged countess herself undertook to distribute Bibles. " The blessings of young and old," she exclaimed, " will be joined with mine on the Society which gives me the pleasure of offering them this book ; it was from this alone that we derived strength and comfort during a time of repeated losses and distress, and it taught us to bear our fate with resignation and even cheerfulness. I will take the book myself to the houses of the poor, and tell them when I give it them, that God has raised up benefactors for us in a dis- tant land." Leander van Ess, Catholic Professor of Theology at Marburg, author of a translation of the New Testament, which, with the assistance of the British and Foreign Bible Society, he circu- lated among the Catholic population, wrote, in March, 1813 ; " Never were the minds of the people so ready to receive the "Word of Life ; never was the need of consolation so deeply 482 EFFECTS OF THE felt ; never did the door of the kingdom of heaven stand wider open than at present. Oh, my dear friends, do satisfy this hunger with the bread of life ! " A pastor near Eisenach wrote : " One of the saddest effects of the war is the loss of the means of instruction which many of our poor families have sustained, and they cannot replace them. After the retreat of the French many fathers and mothers came to me, and complained that they had lost aU their Bibles, hymn-books, and other religious books, and begged me to furnish them with some books of consolation. The condition of the children is still worse. One schoolroom cannot be used at all, and most of the children have to Stay away from another because they have no books, and their parents are unable to buy any. The minister at Fortha assured me that he had been robbed of all the books used in divine worship, that he had not a single Bible or Prayer-book left." The distress was indeed great ; but, as soon as peace was restored, as soon, in fact, as any hope of it dawned, there was great readiness to help. The agents of the Bible Society, in their travels through Grermany, had only to shake the ripe fruit from the.trees. Wherever they went they found people ready to take up the work. Ministers of State and generals united with the most eminent of the clergy, and princes, under the influence of the spirit which had found its expression in the Holy Alliance, and with a settled conviction that nothing but religion could per- manently close the pit of misery, afforded protection to the Bible Society, and often gave it their sympathy and blessing. A network of societies was soon spread over Germany from Wupperthal to Konigsberg, and from Hamburg to the remote south. The work of Bible circulation promoted the increased incli- nation for union between various Churches which existed at that period. Pinkerton reports, in the year 1814 : " In Han- over, as well as at St. Petersburg, I saw the Lutheran, Calvin- istic, and Catholic clergy all joining hands in the good cause, and, after the meeting, some of them assured me that, though WAHS OF INDEPENDENCE. 483 they had been for years teachers of the same religion in the same town, they had never before had an opportunity of con- versing together. Oh, what a blessed undertaking it is which thus brings the different sections of the Christian Church together 1 When the head of the Catholic clergy at Hanover came into the room, he came straight up to me, shook me heartily by the hand, and said, with a beaming countenance, ' I rejoice to have an opportunity of taking part in so glorious a cause. I am decidedly of opinion that the scriptures should be in the hands of all classes, and that especially the lowest and poorest should have it in their power to draw water from the fountain-head of divine instruction.' " The love of the Scriptures was especially strong in the CathoUc circles in Bavaria, who gathered around Sailer and Wittmann, and later around Gossner, Boos, and Lindl. We must not allow ourselves to dwell on the Protestant awakenings which took place in CathoUc Bavaria, since it has no special connection with the wars of independence ; but, just to give an idea of it, we cannot refrain from making an extract from a description of a visit which Anna Schlatter, of St. Grail, paid to the revivalists of Bavaria in 1816 :— " I shall always rejoice in having undertaken this journey. It seemed to me when I was sitting at the table among the brethren and fathers, as if I were amongst a community of the early Christians. I could be entirely simple and unconstrained, as T am by nature. Knowing that I should go to the chateau of a wealthy baron, I took my best clothes with me, but was ashamed to wear them amongst these simple Christians, who had renounced all love of the world. Our minds and conver- sation were engrossed with one topic, — with Him who, gave His life for us. Since I have seen so many very poor believers in these parts, who, in the midst of extreme poverty, feel them- selves so rich in Christ, I feel that my own faith has never been put to the test. I wish that some others could have seen them. It went straight to my heart when some poor old labouring man or woman, or a girl who worked in the stables, recognised me at once as a sister, and kissed and embraced me with 484 EFFECTS OF THE heavenly words. It was a foretaste of heaven. One thing is needful, a living active faith in Christ, the crucified Son of God. Where He lives in the heart, all is well." History has taught us that for believers in the Bible in the Romish Church, at any rate for her priests, no other union with the Protestant Church is possible than that of joining themselves to her community. There is no doubt that the union within the borders of the Protestant Church which has been efiected in many parts of Germany since 1817 was the result of the feeling of Christian communion during the war. We can but regret that in many cases it has been brought about rather by indifference to the distinctive doctrines, than from a unity of spirit based upon a deep feeling of the need, and an experience of the blessings, of salvation. We can only allude to the commemoration of the Reforma- tion when there was a strong sentiment of unity between the Lutheran and the Reformed Churches. The whole course of our narratives indicates the influence of the wars of indepen- dence upon the re-awakened recognition of the true significance of the Reformation. The religious movements of the last few years had opened men's minds to the comprehension of Luther's work of faith ; the struggle with Napoleon had called to mind the struggle with the Pope ; the heroes of the war had revived the -memory of the old heroes of faith ; the popular commo- tions, the waves of which were scarcely stilled, had recalled the popular movements at the time of the Reformation. An appeal had been made to the whole nation, to the nobles, the citizens, and the labouring classes, to rise against a foreign yoke— an appeal to their conscience, in opposition to romantic unscrupulousness, and to faith in a living God and Saviour in opposition to unchristian practice and unchristian views of life. "The restoration of the synthesis of Protestantism through the newly awakened moral sense," as Hundeshagen expressed it, was a result of the war. y^fter having long been taught that faith was a mere assent of the understanding, and virtue a course of action independent of the effect of the grace of God, WARS OF INDEPENDENCE. 485 our people once more clearly apprehended that religion and morality are essentially one, that upon the basis of this divine harmony man must advance to the fulness of the divine life ; as at the time of the Reformation, a fresh revelation had been vouchsafed to the Church, for God had inspired the people anew with his spirit, and had afresh proclaimed His word by the eloquence of mighty deeds. In recalling the results of the war, and in reviewing the spiritual blessings which flowed from those years into the suc- ceeding ones, we must not overlook the energetic and aspiring youth who had grown up in the heat of the conflict. Gorres wrote in the 'Ehehish Mercury' in 1814, "It is a pleasure to look at these daring and vigorous youths. There is a conscious dignity and magnanimity in their mien ; they have accomplished and suffered something in the world ; their lives have not run on in a course of empty idleness, they have lived through an exciting period of history, and the consciousness of their power, and of what they have gone through, gives them that noble and military bearing which has taken the place of the old obsequiousness. One sees that their minds are inspired with an animating idea, that they know that they are working in a noble cause, and that they therefore cheerfully bear all the penalties and dangers of their arduous calling. "The brotherly afiection which exists among these young people is also very pleasant to behold. Indeed, youths whose dawn of life has fallen in these eventful times, who have shared so much enthusiasm and so many sufierings, who have stood together amid the thunder of so many eventful battles, cannot fail to regard each other with affection. Their whole lives will be nourished on the remembrance of their youth, and their friendship will never grow cold. " Supercilious vanity has been succeeded by an honourable pride, based on the conscious possession of hardly won treasures; and therefore are they the pride of their country." If any one takes exception to the pride of these young men, it must not be forgotten that among the best of them, it was, if we may so call it, a holy pride, that noble consciousness of 4S6 EFFECTS OF THE dignity as a free Christian man which may be combined with deep humility before God. For the youths who returned from the war were Christians. If with some love for their earthly, and with others for their heavenly country, was predominant, a union of patriotism and religion was the basis of their sentiments. Not that in this period of fermentation there was always perfect harmony between their impulses and their actions ; and who can wonder if here and there some excitable mind lost its equilibrium ? The German Students' Association {BurscJienschqft), formed by the young men who were penetrated with the spirit evoked by the war, exercised an important influence. Our opinion of this Association, so early nipped in the bud, has long ago been expressed by the veteran of those days, Karl von Eaumer. He says, "The effect of the war upon the uni- versities was incalculable. The youths, thousands of whom in response to the King's appeal had joined the army, and honour- ably fought in the great battles, returned to the universities in 1815 and 1816 to resume their studies. In the short space of three years, during which Europe lived through more than three centuries of ordinary time, our youths were entirely changed. They had been spell-bound by commonplace and ignoble academical notions, but now the spell was broken by what they had gone through. They were delivered from the tyranny of a false honour, and viewed its code of laws in their true light, like Titania her lover after the disenchantment. Genuine honour and courage devoted to the fatherland had taken the place of that spurious honour which is always morbidly taking offence, and giving challenges about trifles. In what a light must th^e pitiful notions, derived partly from the Fi-ench, have appeared to men who had fought at Dennewitz and Leipsig! Purer thoughts, and morals also, replaced the previous immorality of the students. They had been face to face with the grave questions of life and death, and it had had its effect upon them,. The bullying, obscene, mawkish, senti- mental student songs had given place to pure, vigorous, and patriotic ones. TVASS OF INDEPENDENCE. 487 "Eeverence for religion went hand in hand with patriotism, — a feeling, even if it were but a vague and undeveloped one, that without religion Germany would be lost. Were not the words, ' With God for King and Fatherland,' the motto of the war'?" The students at Jena were the first to attempt to embody this new life in an Association in June, 1815 ; and it was from them that the invitation proceeded to the festival of the Wartburg on the 18th of October, 1817. Their main idea was to associate the commemoration of the Reformation and of the battle of Leipsig; and it was, therefore, a genuinely religious and patriotic one. As such it proved itself during the course of the fete, for it was surely no small thing that five hundred students from all parts of Germany comported themselves vrith serious- ness and dignity during the whole time. Amidst the ringing of bells they wended their way up to the Castle in solemn procession. After a few moments of solemn prayer in the great hall they sang, — "Ein' feste Burg ist miser Gott," " A mighty castle is our God." A student of theology from Eatzeburg, who had earned the iron cross at Waterloo, made a speech, in which he called to mind the victories of the 18th and 31st of October, and exhorted his comrades to the practice of Christian and patriotic virtues, and closed with an earnest prayer. Then — " Nun danket alle Gott," " Now let us all give thanks," resounded through the ancient hall. A professor from Jena then gave an address by request, and after a prayer for a blessing on the occasion, the assembly dispersed. These " Sons of the Fatherland " then partook of a banquet, but they did not linger long over it, for they hastened to attend the commemorative services in the churches, after which they amused themselves with gymnastic exercises in the market- place, and in the evening assembled round a blazing bonfire. 488 EFFECTS OF THE It was then that a freak took place, which was by no means a preconcerted thing, but was improvised by a few hot-headed students, — the burning of a basket containing books, a bodice, a pigtail, and a corporal's stick. On the following day they again assembled on the Wartburg, discussed the subject of the Association, and concluded by forming a "bond of brotherly union," which was sealed by partaking of the Holy Communion. The burning of the books was immediately taken hold of to stir up the government against the Association ; the storm, however, blew over, and on the 18th of October, 1818, the "Universal German Association of Students" (Burschenschaft) was instituted, with the object of " cultivating, in a Christian and patriotic spirit, every power, mental and physical, for the service of the Fatherland." All went well ; the influence of the Association was evidently beneficial to the moral and intel- lectual character of the students, when Kotzebue was murdered by £arl Ludwig Sand, and this abominable deed, for which all the German youth were held responsible, nipped the Association in the bud. It is true, indeed, that Sand's deed indicates that there was in the mind of this young man a caricature of holy things, a perversion of Scripture, a religion without repentance, full of self-glorification, and a hallucination on the subjects of bondage and liberty. It is true that Sand's deed was an indi- cation' of tendencies which existed in the minds of a small section of German youths, the tendencies of the " Uncondi- tionals," of which Karl FoUen may be said to be the repre- sentative, whose desire it was to sacrifice everything uncon- ditionally, even the purity of Christianity, to their republican idea of German liberty. It must be allowed that in many of the hymns which emanated from this sect, there is an un- hallowed zeal, not kindled by the Spirit of God. Scriptural words are used, but in an unrepentant and distorted sense ; and, as in the hymns of Arndt, Eiickert, Komer, and Schenkendorf in the war time, there were appeals to break fetters and to shed blood, but what fetters and what blood could be meant ? The foreign yoke had been thrown off, and therefore it could only WARS OF INDEPENDENCE. 489 be intended to incite Germans against Germans, and malcontents to rise against their rulejrs. Expressions whicli had always been used in .the service of religious faith, were given a high- sounding, mystical, and pantheistic meaning, and what they called prayer, was nothing but a mental excitement against their opponents, no true lifting up of the soul to God. This was that caricature of the Students' Association, of which by reason of man's sinfulness and infirmity there lurks a germ in every human institution ; but it would never have been so mis- chievously developed, had more confidence been awarded to the genuine religious and patriotic Association. It came out scath- less from all the investigations which were instituted, nevertheless severe measures against it were resolved upon by the Prussian Diet, and published in October, 1819. We have recorded individual examples of the religious results of the war, in order to give an idea of the deep and manifold efiect of that great time upon the spiritual life of our people. But v?e must not overlook the grand result, the most important of all, that Germany again became conscious of her dignity as a national individualism, conscious that she still retained within herself the germ of the greatness assigned to her by God, and all her powers were strained to cause it to spring up and bear fruit. A new spirit was infused into every department of life. It was not only at the universities that the principles of education and instruction received a new impulse. Gymnastic exercises had been practised before, but it was now taught by Jahn, the father of the gymnastic system, to whom the credit belongs of having aroused German nationality in the midst of French bondage, that physical strength and agility should be cultivated for the sake of the Fatherland. Pestalozzi had endeavoured to raise his pupils from selfish isolation to considering themselves members of the great community of men, but they now learned that it was by seek- ing their country's good that advantage would be gained for humanity. Learning, which had hitherto looked down upon common life, began to have a beneficial effect upon it, and to see that its 49° EFFECTS OF THE true aim is to advance its interests, and in order to do so it turned its attention to the history of our country. The nation saw itself reflected in lively colours, and with distinct features, in the mirror which was held up to it by the researches of Pertz and others under the sanction of Stein, and through the labours of the brothers Grrimm, who so diligently devoted themselves to removing the accumulated rubbish from the springs of national lore. Art, too, was revived; the beauty of the ancient German pictures and cathedrals was discovered, and appreciation of them inspired the desire to create new ones. Architecture, painting, and sculpture received a new impulse. Art must have for its exercise a country, a national life, and heroes, and these were all regained. Our poetry was inspired with a spirit of patriotisin ; the effect of the songs of the war time was not lost. Ubland became the favourite of the nation, because he knew how to unite SehUler's spirit of liberty — the spirit of the romantic school, imbued as it was with the recollection of ancient German glory — and the spirit of the wars of indepen- dence. And the German youths began to take an interest in Siegfried and Dietrich, as well as in Achilles and Hector, in Chriemhild and Kudrun, as well as in Penelope and Andro- mache. The national ballads from the boys' " Wund«rhorn," breathing the spirit of the woods, again resounded through the land, and the old fairy tales, which had been banished from the nursery as too antiquated, were revived. In the church, too, there was new life. Rationalism, which had not been vrithout a blessing during the great days, and had become less cold and more devout, was indeed also revived and spread far and wide, but even then its strength had departed. The sense of sin had been too profound, God had revealed Himself too plainly, many had too devotedly attached them- selves to the Captain of their salvation, the influence of the old hymns was too powerful, too many fervent prayers had been offered, to allow that frigid system, the opinions of which were as superficial as its faith was weak, to assume the old ascen- JVARS OF INDEPENDENCE. ' 491 daney. Not that there was unanimity of opinion among the faithful. The commemoration of the Reformation, at which the union of the Lutheran and Beformed churches was effected, revived the subject of the differing creeds. Steffens, once a partisan of Schleiermacher, became again a Lutheran. Harms, who had, as he said, received an impulse to perpetual motion from Schleiermacher's ' Discourses on Eeligion,' also joined the ranks of the Lutherans, but earnestness, enthusiasm, faith, love, and life were promoted in the church. There was once more a moment in the life of the people, when inspired by the Spirit of God, they turn§d to God Him- self to receive of His fulness, grace for grace. "Son of man, can these bones live?" was the question which God had put to the best men in our nation, when its limbs appeared to be torn asunder and scattered abroad like dry bones. And they answered, "OLord God, thou knowest." And the living God displayed the power of His might, " And the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army." Let us return to the watchword which God has given us, Patriotic Religion, and Religious Patriotism. May the promo- tion of it be the vocation of this book ! While we have been writing it, it has often seemed to us as if Germany was already retracing her steps. There are many who would like to separate the banner of 1813 and 1814, to preserve the portion on which Fatherland is inscribed, and leave that bearing the name of Christ to whomsoever cares to have it. But the vic- torious banner must be kept intact. He who rejects Christ is not a true patriot, and he who is not a true patriot cannot stand before the Lord who wept over Jerusalem. THE END. PKINTED BY VIRTUE AND CO., CITY BOAD, LONDOV.