EXCHANGE 
 
JUL 
 
 o- 
 
 The Life and Works of 
 Mrs. Therese Robinson 
 
 (Talvj) 
 
 i 
 
 BY 
 
 IRMA ELIZABETH VOIGT 
 
 (A. B. 1910, A. M. 1911, University of Illinois) 
 
 THESIS 
 
 Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the 
 
 degree of doctor of philosophy in German in the Graduate 
 
 School of the University of Illinois 
 
 1913 
 
llnterfd?rift im 
 
The Life and Works of 
 Mrs. Therese Robinson 
 
 (Talvj) 
 
 BY 
 IRMA ELIZABETH VOIGT 
 
 (A. B. 1910, A. M. 1911, University of Illinois) 
 
 THESIS 
 
 Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the 
 
 degree of doctor of philosophy in German in the Graduate 
 
 School of the University of Illinois 
 
 1913 
 
To 
 Mr. Edward Robinson 
 
 . *< - .. v ** 
 :.- 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Page 
 
 Preface : 
 
 Introduction 7 
 
 Biography 26 
 
 Literary Activity Prior to Coming to America 43 
 
 The American Indian : 53 
 
 Studies in Popular Poetry 71 
 
 History of the Colonization of New England 87 
 
 Miscellaneous Essays 104 
 
 A Study of the Ossian Question 112 
 
 Her Novels 123 
 
 Conclusion 136 
 
 Bibliography 142 
 
 Appendix 145 
 
PREFACE 
 
 It is with great pleasure that I take this opportunity of 
 expressing my deep gratitude to Professor "Julius Goebel of 
 the University of Illinois, who first awakened in me a keen 
 interest in the history of the German- American element in this 
 country. It was he who directed my 'attention to the subject 
 of the present monograph and by his broad scholarship, his un- 
 failing enthusiasm and kindly advice made this study possible. 
 
 I also wish to acknowledge gratefully the helpful criticism 
 and the valuable suggestions which I owe to Professor O/ E. 
 Lessing of the University of Illinois. 
 
 To Mr. Edward Robinson, of New York City, Talvj's 
 grandson, who kindly placed at my disposal what was left of 
 her manuscript material as well as a photograph of her portrait, 
 I respectfully dedicate this study. 
 
 I. E. V. 
 
THE LIFE AND WORKS OF THERESE ROBINSON 
 
 (TALVJ). 
 
 BY IRMA ELIZABETH VOIGT, PH. D. 
 Dean of Women in Ohio University, Athens, O. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 One of the most fascinating and difficult problems which 
 confronts the student of American history is that of the rise 
 and development of a higher national culture in America. 
 The fact that it is closely interwoven with the question of 
 the development of a uniform American nationality out of 
 the various ethnic elements composing the American con- 
 stitutes its peculiar complexity. What is called American 
 national culture is, at the present day, not the product of 
 the American people as a racial unity, but the result of 
 the contributions made by the civilizations of the various 
 ethnic elements which have met and mingled in this 
 country. While it will remain the task of the future his- 
 torian of American civilization to determine the share 
 which each of these ethnic elements had in the process of 
 forming a new composite culture, this work cannot be 
 accomplished satisfactorily until a number of single detailed 
 investigations have been made. 
 
 It is from this latter point of view that the following 
 study of the life and work of Mrs. Robinson (Talvj) has 
 been undertaken. A woman distinguished as a scholar and 
 author, and representing as a member of the Goethe circle 
 the highest type of German culture, enters America at a 
 period when the higher civilization of this country is in 
 the first stages of its making. German influence in the 
 previous century had not been wanting, but it had been 
 confined chiefly to Pennsylvania, where Philadelphia early 
 became a center of culture, and to New York, where the 
 first original writers of America, men like Irving, Cooper, 
 and Bryant, had felt its stimulating touch. On the whole, 
 
 7 
 
however, the higher intellectual life of America had been 
 English in character, with a decided leaning, since the time 
 of the Revolution, toward the French spirit. And so it 
 remained until the second decade of the nineteenth century, 
 when a group of talented men at Harvard inspired by 
 Madame de StaeTs book (1814), transferred the completion 
 of their studies to Germany, and there discovered the 
 wealth of German culture. Upon their return to America 
 they began to implant consciously the best seeds of this 
 culture into the rising civilization of the young republic. 1 
 With the thirties of the last century, American literature 
 and philosophy, philology and historiography, every 
 branch, in fact, of intellectual activity, began thus to 
 show the influence of German cultural ideals. 
 
 While in the spheres just mentioned the value of this 
 foreign impulse is today more or less recognized, it seems 
 little known that in the field of American theology there 
 was a similar movement. Inasmuch as the husband of the 
 woman of whom this study is to treat was a leader in its 
 inception, a word concerning it may be in place. Despite 
 the fact that theology had been from the first the dominant 
 force in America, it can justly be said that from the modern 
 point of view it was utterly devoid of the scientific spirit. 
 To be sure, among the theologians of the various denom- 
 inations we find men of a great amount of learning; but 
 theirs was not a productive scholarship. Proudly confident that 
 truth had been established once for all by the fathers of the 
 Reformation, they felt no need of an unremitting search 
 after newer light. During a period of more than two cen- 
 turies American theology did not produce a single work 
 which could be considered a permanent contribution to theo- 
 
 1 Professor Charles F. Richardson discussing this period, says in his 
 excellent work American Literature, 16071885, that "it is a matter 
 of important record which should not be forgotten by the student of 
 American books, that the force of the newly revived Teutonic mind 
 was directly felt in America simultaneously with its impact upon British 
 thought. Germany and its philosophy and literature were not less 
 known and not less highly esteemed in the United States than in 
 England and Scotland during this period." 
 
logy as a science. 2 So powerful, moreover, was the dom- 
 ination of the theological spirit in America, that it claimed 
 control over all intellectual activity, and resisted every 
 effort to introduce a cultural ideal which did not recognize 
 theological supremacy. 3 
 
 The first attempt at making a breach in this stronghold 
 of the elder dogmatism was the Unitarian movement. A 
 similar, although far less radical attempt at infusing new 
 life into American theology, by bringing it into contact 
 with the new philosophical and scientific spirit of Germany, 
 was made by Professor Edward Robinson, the husband 
 of Talvj. It was for this purpose that he founded, after his 
 return from Germany in 1830, the Biblical Repository, 
 afterwards known as the Bibliotheca Sacra, the pages of 
 which clearly reflect the influence of German culture in 
 the theological field. It is a noteworthy fact that the first 
 volumes of this periodical contain, aside from Robinson's 
 and Moses Stuart's essays, 4 only contributions of German 
 
 2 By theology as a science I mean, of course, historical theology 
 in the widest sense of the word, for it is the only branch of theology 
 or the science of religion to which the term "science" in the modern 
 sense is applicable. The "Treatise on the Freedom of the Will" by 
 Jonathan Edwards is not considered here because of its metaphysical 
 character. 
 
 How keenly the lack of the scientific spirit in American theology was 
 felt as late as 1840 may be seen from the following words of Theodore 
 Parker : "It is only the Germans in this age who study theology or even 
 the Bible, with the aid of enlightened and scientific criticism. There 
 
 is not even a history of theology in our language For our 
 
 ecclesiastical history we depend upon translations from Du Pin and 
 Tillemont, or, more generally, on those from the German Mosheim or 
 Gieseler." The Dial, vol. i, p. 324. 
 
 3 Cf. Richardson, American Literature, vol. i, p. 119: "It is not 
 easy in these days of the independence of the laity to estimate rightly 
 the power of the ministers in early New England. Few Roman Catho- 
 lic priests exercise a more potent control over their congregations 
 than did these ministers and servants of the first churches of Boston, 
 Salem, Plymouth, over their independent and democratic flock. Theo- 
 retically the minister was but one among the body of the church, 
 practically he was a force in public affairs and in social order." 
 
 4 Cf. Richardson, Am. Lit. vol. i. p. 294 : "The spirituality and the 
 
 9 
 
scholars in translation. Thus great was still the dearth of 
 theological scholarship in America at that time. And quite 
 frankly one of the writers states : our American philosophy 
 has continued essentially the same as in the seventeenth 
 century. 5 
 
 While Talvj, as will be seen later, assisted her husband 
 in this work, her chief interests lay, in the wider fields of 
 human culture. In order to estimate correctly her con- 
 tribution to the national civilization which was then gra- 
 dually taking form, it may be well in this introductory 
 chapter to give a brief survey of contemporary conditions 
 of American cultivation. There are two main sources from 
 which we may derive our knowledge of the degree to which 
 the higher intellectual life had developed. One of these is 
 to be found in contemporary American literature and in 
 the status of such other expressions of the spirit of the 
 times as higher education, music, art, etc. ; the other in 
 opinions of cultured foreigners, especially the 'Germans who 
 during this period migrated to America in great numbers. 
 Some of these newcomers were seeking this country as the 
 Utopia of human freedom ; others were filled with the hope 
 of finding here an opportunity of taking part in the up- 
 building of its civilization. For these latter Gustav Kor- 
 ner, 6 himself a man of academic training, is impelled by 
 
 discreet liberalism of Schleiermacher and other Germans of kindred 
 mind were beginning to be used as allies by the conservative Congre- 
 gationalists of New England who, like Stuart, were not content to let 
 'German culture* be deemed the property of Emerson and Parker." 
 
 5 Philip Schaf, "German Literature in America", Bibliotheca Sacra, 
 vol. iv, p. 511. 
 
 6 Gustav Koerner (1809 1896) came from the academic circles of 
 Frankfurt a/M. and Heidelberg, and as a young man entered the 
 activities of American life at its most significant period of develop- 
 ment. His career in America is closely associated with the political 
 and historical development of Illinois, as he was supreme judge 
 in this state from 1845 to 1850, and lieutenant governor from 1852 
 to 1856. Beginning with Van Buren's presidential campaign, he took 
 an active interest in each successive national election. He was es- 
 
 10 
 
Gottfried Duden's 7 glowing but misleading reports of life 
 in America to raise the questions, "How far has life in the 
 American republic, especially in the new western states, 
 developed in its intellectual and political phases?" and 
 "What restrictions are the present defects of this develop- 
 ment likely to lay upon the intellectual freedom of the 
 cultivated immigrants?" He concludes these questions with 
 the remark, "To him who is seeking merely a haven of re- 
 lease from the burdens of sustenance and physical oppres- 
 sion, these considerations, aside from arousing a slight in- 
 terest, can have no especial significance; but he who is 
 seeking a place in which to move and express kimself freely, 
 spiritually as well as physically, certainly must consider 
 well every possible answer to these questions." 8 That 
 
 pecially fitted for campaigning because of his ability to speak fluently 
 in German, English, and French. Not only was he the most confidential 
 advisor of Governor "Dick" Yates, but he was also consulted fre- 
 quently by President Lincoln in regard to various highly important 
 matters. As a lawyer he was eminently successful, a fact which 
 was recognized by the University of Heidelberg when in 1882 this 
 body conferred upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws. 
 His entire life in America, to his very last year, was one of the most 
 intense interest and activity in the land of his adoption, (Cf. Ratter- 
 mann, vol. xi, p. 219 ff.) 
 
 7 As early as 1824 Gottfried Duden had taken up a temporary abode 
 about 80 miles from St. Louis. From here he wrote most attractive 
 and alluring letters to his friends in Germany, and because of the 
 respect in which he was held, both by virtue of his intellectuality and his 
 political prominence in his fatherland, these letters had a very great 
 influence. But unfortunately Duden was a man in whom theory did 
 not grow out of practice, and theoretically he had found in America 
 the Utopia for which he was seeking. Attracted by his favorable re- 
 ports, in the hope of finding a land abounding in milk and honey, many 
 highly cultured German families came to this country in 1832 to settle 
 in the same spot which Duden had left, in a sudden access of disap- 
 pointment, after a two years residence. After several years spent in 
 America Koerner became impressed with the fact that many of Du- 
 den's reports were altogether incorrect and misleading, and this led 
 him in 1834 to write and publish his pamphlet entitled, Beleuchtung des 
 Duden'schen Berichtes uber die westlichen Staaten Nordamerikas. Von 
 Amerika aus. (Cf. Koerner, Das deutsche Element, p. 299 if.) 
 
 8 Koerner, Beleuchtung des Duden'schen Berichtes, 1834, p. 45. 
 
 11 
 
men like Koerner came here with lofty patriotic intentions is 
 usually overlooked by American historians, as it was 
 frequently unappreciated by their American contem- 
 poraries. It was because America was to be their future 
 home that these men were so deeply interested in getting a 
 correct view of the entirety of American life, of its physical 
 as well as its intellectual and cultural side. This very fact 
 also makes the notes of German travelers, which upon first 
 consideration might seem but hasty and superficial, of the 
 greatest significance. The chief object of all these reports, 
 whether by educated German residents or by travelers, 
 was to give to future German emigrants the accurate 
 knowledge they were seeking; and this despite a feeling on 
 the part of many Americans that these men were spying 
 upon them in order to be able to ridicule America upon 
 their return to the Fatherland. That their attitude was 
 keenly critical and their expressions boldly truthful is but 
 natural, and argues neither against their hopefulness for 
 America's future nor against their confidence in and respect 
 for her achievements. The reports in almost all cases give 
 evidence of the characteristically critical and scientific view- 
 point of the cultured German. But before considering fur- 
 ther the status of American culture as interpreted by these 
 men, we may profitably consider what our contemporary 
 American sources have to tell us on this subject. 
 
 Perhaps the one great obstacle which at first retarded 
 the development of American culture and later frequently 
 resulted in its misdirection, was lack of national unity. From 
 the earliest period, the spirit of nationality had had to fight 
 its way, stubbornly resisted all along its course, by local 
 pride. The first breaking away from the bondage of sec- 
 tionalism followed the extreme ardor of the times which 
 immediately preceded final unification, and in consequence 
 American literature began to assume as early as 1789 the 
 appearance, at least, of a national literature. But the new- 
 fledged aggressive Americanism was ignorant of the fact 
 that it was impossible to create by conscious effort truly 
 national poetry, music, or art. To this statement it must 
 
 12 
 
be added that America, in her origin as well as in her 
 literary standards, was provincial, not national. She de- 
 clared her political independence of England, but at the 
 same time continued to follow English models in almost 
 every other regard. Only here and there was heard occa- 
 sionally the voice of original poetry, as for instance, when 
 Philip Freneau recognized the Indian as a fit subject for 
 literary treatment. 
 
 Because, therefore, of its decidedly imitative character, 
 it was not until the nineteenth century that American 
 literature was considered with anything but indifference 
 or even contempt by Qther countries. When this new era 
 was ushered in, by Washington Irving and others, it came 
 as the result of travel by American men of letters among 
 the countries of Europe, and an honest effort on their part 
 to imbibe the culture of the older civilizations. A natural 
 and praiseworthy desire to create and possess a literature 
 which should truly represent the nation began to take root 
 and offered a strong incentive to write. However, while 
 sharing in this desire for a wider national life, each section 
 of the country retained its own peculiar characteristics and 
 aims. This would have been very well had each of these 
 sections still developed a literature national in its character, 
 as, for instance, the German principalities and territories 
 did during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, main- 
 taining as it were, a unity in variety. But conjoined with this 
 sectionalism was a local jealousy which made each section feel 
 its own peculiar preeminence as a center of national culture. 
 New England, surprising as it may seem, played at first a 
 small role in the rise of national literature. She was greatly 
 surpassed by the South and the Middle States. There was 
 then, as there is now, a tendency to slight the work of the 
 South and give Northern writers an undue prominence. 9 Yet 
 
 9 Is it not strange," says the Southern Literary Messenger for 
 1847, "that men, claiming to be imbued with a spirit of nationality, 
 should be able to show so plainly to foreigners how those things for 
 whose absence they reproach us, cannot yet be reasonably expected from 
 us, from the stage of progress in which we are, and yet forget both the 
 philosophy and the candor which they recommend to the foreigner, 
 
 13 
 
an impartial survey shows that the warm, imaginative, and ro- 
 mantic Southern nature has contributed most significantly to 
 American literature. The failure of critics to allot due recogni- 
 tion to Southern influence may be due to her lack of any definite 
 schools of writers. The history of Southern culture is largely a 
 history of isolated careers. Had the South possessed the same 
 advantages as New England, she would undoubtedly have 
 achieved results that would have thrown all the weight o<f 
 literary prestige on her side. 10 In the Middle States we find 
 Philip Freneau from New Jersey and Charles Brockden Brown 
 from Philadelphia, both of whom were without New England 
 rivals. As late as 1846 Edgar Allan Poe claimed that the auth- 
 ors in New York City included one-fourth of all in America. 
 Their influence, though seemingly silent, was extensive and 
 decisive. From Irving's advent in 1807 to that of Longfellow 
 and Emerson, New York was certainly entitled to the distinc- 
 tion of being a literary center. But with the founding of the 
 North American Review in 1815 in Boston, a new spirit which 
 greatly modified the narrowness and sternness of the old Puri- 
 tanism entered New England. 
 
 The causes of this shifting of centers of culture is ex- 
 plained by the fact that the Southern temperament and the 
 Southern mode of life fitted its men to excel in an era of ora- 
 tory. When, however, the era changed to one of purely literary 
 cultivation, intellectual supremacy, as is noted above, lay first 
 with Philadelphia and later with New York. 11 Tom Moore 
 
 and commit toward one portion of their own country a greater folly 
 
 and injustice than the foreigner does to the whole and we do 
 
 scorn that narrow-mindedness which regards Philadelphia, New York, 
 and Boston as America." 
 
 10 Cf. Pancoast, Introduction to American Literature, p. 259. 
 
 11 To the student of German American History I need not point 
 out the large share which the cultured German element of Pennsylvania 
 and New York had in developing the early leadership of Philadelphia 
 and New York in matters of literature, music and science. Those 
 who are less acquainted with this fact are referred to the following 
 books and articles : 
 
 Hallesche Nachrichten, neuherausgegeben mit historischen Erlau- 
 
 14 
 
said in 1840 that Philadelphia was the only place in America 
 that could boast of a literary society. The cultural sceptre was 
 all the more certain of award to the Middle Atlantic States 
 from the fact that New England's genius was still, at this per- 
 iod, bound by religious prejudice. When the famous group of 
 Boston writers broke the bonds, their work bore the stamp of 
 a popular movement. This was undoubtedly due to an effort 
 on the part of these men to give expression to the ideas and 
 ideals of universality and liberality which many of them had 
 imbibed in their study and travel in Europe, and especially in 
 Germany. The most salient phase of the reaction against the 
 stern Puritanical doctrines which held sway in New England 
 for so long was, as has already been emphasized, the rise of 
 Unitarianism. The effect of this movement- on literature was 
 remarkable, for it brought with it the assertion of individual 
 opinions and freedom of thought. When Unitarianism final- 
 ly took an organized form in 1815 it embodied in its creed, if 
 it may be said to have a creed, the idea of wider culture. Chan- 
 ning, one of its greatest representatives, went to England and 
 through Coleridge imbibed and brought back with him the 
 "new life" which the latter had found in German thought and 
 ideals. With Channing culture was religion. Through Uni- 
 tarianism, then, we may say that the gates were opened to the 
 intellectual impulses of Europe at a time when the mother 
 nations were aglow with new ideas and philosophies. In 1817 
 Edward Everett returned from Germany inspired by the new 
 great world of thought with which he had met. But New Eng- 
 land, as well as the country at large, lacked the thousand beauti- 
 ful associations of poetry, legend, and art that gave to Euro- 
 pean culture its magic. Longfellow, perhaps more than any 
 
 terungen etc. von W. J. Mann und B. M. Schmucker, Allentown, Pa. 
 188695. 
 
 Commissioner of Education's Report 1897 98. Commissioner of 
 Education Report for 1901, vol. I. 
 
 Frederick W. Wilkens, "Early influence of German Literature in 
 America"; Americana Germanica, vol III,, p. 103 ff. 
 
 H. A. Rattermann, Anfange und Entwicklung der Musik in den 
 Vereinigten Staaten. Jahrbuch der deutsch-amerikanischen historischen 
 
 Gesellschaft von Illinois, vol. XII, p. 327 ff. 
 
 / 
 15 
 
other native writer, felt the American need for the refining and 
 cultivating influences that were so powerful in the Old World. 
 A fortunate circumstance afforded him, very early in his 
 career, the opportunity for study abroad, an opportunity which 
 lasted for three years, and which was repeated later in his life. 
 His Hyperion shows most decidedly of all his works, how deep- 
 ly he was imbued with the German spirit. And with all his 
 European culture and the expression he gave to it, he remained 
 one of the most popular poets of America, certainly a powerful 
 argument for the value of a universal culture in the develop- 
 ment of a national culture. 
 
 Absolute self-knowledge, as Goethe remarks, is impossible 
 for the individual as well as for a nation. It is here that the 
 observation of the friendly critic becomes of the greatest value, 
 While American scholars give us a fairly just view of condi- 
 tions at that time, the detailed observations and criticisms of 
 German students of American life, mentioned above, 
 throw a light upon these conditions which is all the more 
 interesting because it emanates from men representing the 
 cultural ideals which were to become so powerful in America. 
 
 One of the criticisms which Americans frequently made 
 upon themselves was that their cultural development as a na- 
 tion was haltingly slow. Foreign students of American history 
 attribute this belated social ripening to various causes. One 
 on which all seem to be more or less agreed is the exaggerated 
 emphasis placed upon business and its attendant profits. Koer- 
 ner says that even a greater hindrance than the lack of racial 
 unity or the defects in educational methods is the subordination 
 of science to business. The former is pursued only in so far as 
 it is an adjunct and servant to the latter. That merchants had 
 no need for a liberal culture seemed to be a national axiom. 
 Another explanation suggested by Koerner as partially respons- 
 ible for this lack of cultural development was that America's 
 early settlers in New England and elsewhere did not bring a 
 literature or history with them, for they belonged for the most 
 part to an oppressed people and, with the exception of a few 
 learned clergymen, to a class possessed of little general educa- 
 tion. They left their fatherland at a time when higher educa- 
 
 16 
 
tion was quite generally the prerogative of the rich and power- 
 ful. Those, moreover, who did possess education and culture 
 before coming to America, F. J. Grund 12 felt did not differ 
 enough from their brothers in Europe to establish at once a 
 new national character. The almost daily influx of immigrants 
 and the hardships of pioneer life made the basis of liberal 
 development, in early times transient and unstable, whereas 
 the highest ideal of culture presupposes the production of 
 such permanent values in literature, science, music, philosophy, 
 and theology, as will be of benefit to the whole of civilized 
 humanity. 
 
 At the root of the growth of such a culture lies education. 
 The Americans were never lacking in the scholastic 
 idea. One of the main motives back of Jefferson's action in 
 establishing the University of Virginia was the hope of de- 
 veloping a national character by means of a cosmopolitan 
 scheme of education. 18 As a foundation underlying all 
 
 12 Franz Joseph Grund (17981863) came to America in 1825 or 
 1826. In 1833 he wrote a book entitled Algebraic Problems, from whose 
 publication dates the introduction of algebra into the American High 
 Schools. In addition to this book he also wrote a Plain and Solid 
 Geometry, an Elements of Astronomy, a Natural Philosophy, and an 
 Advanced Mathematics. After a ten years' residence in Boston pre- 
 ceded by a two years' residence in New York and Philadelphia, he wrote 
 his The Americans in their Moral, Social, and Political Relations. 
 In speaking of this book the American Quarterly Review for December 
 1837 said : "It does not seem to have been the intention of Mr. 
 Grund to produce merely an amusing book, in which the piquant foibles 
 and humorous peculiarities of society are marked and noted, nor does 
 he appear in any way content with a superficial glance at things around 
 
 him he writes with the serious purpose of disabusing the English 
 
 public and of conveying true information of the country and people of 
 the United States. The work contains abundance of information which, 
 even to an American, would be eminently useful." For a period of over 
 thirty years beginning about 1830, he was actively engaged in journalism. 
 During Buchanan's administration he was consul at Havre. He is 
 sometimes called the Schurz of the first half of the nineteenth century. 
 Cf. Rattermann, vol. x. p. 70 ff. 
 
 13 The idea of establishing a "federal university" for the purpose of 
 "preparing the people of the United States for our new form of Govern- 
 ment by an education adapted to the new and peculiar situation of our 
 
 ' 17 
 
subjects the scientific and critical point of view was to be in- 
 troduced, the lack of which, as will be noticed later, seemed to 
 German students one of the weaknesses in American education. 
 His plans were like the preliminary drawings of a great artist. 
 Even in their undeveloped state they indicated a remarkable ap- 
 preciation of the university idea which had given western Euro- 
 pean education such superiority over all other of the world's 
 systems. Jefferson's ideal was so thoroughly European that he 
 even harbored for a time the idea of transplanting the entire 
 teaching corps from the College of Geneva to America; for 
 this faculty, which had become dissatisfied with its political 
 environment, had written to him saying that they were willing 
 to come to Virginia in a body if suitable arrangements could 
 be made. This proposal (1794) was really the historical origin 
 of his project for a great university, to be equipped with the 
 best scientific talent that Europe could afford, which, strangely 
 enough, Jefferson thought was at that time centered in 
 Geneva. 14 He appealed to Washington, but the latter, who 
 wished to carry out his own ideas of a federal university, op- 
 posed the plan. Jefferson laid the proposition also before the 
 
 country" seems to go back to Dr. Benjamin Rush, the eminent 
 scientist and surgeon-general in the Revolutionary army, who had 
 studied at several European universities and who was a great 
 admirer of German civilization. As early as 1788 he published 
 in the American Museum an article entitled "A plan of federal 
 university" in which he says: "Let one of the first acts of the new 
 Congress be, to establish within the district to be allotted for them, 
 a federal university, into which the youth of the United States shall 
 be received in the colleges of their respective states. In this university 
 let those branches of literature only be taught, which are calculated 
 to prepare our youth for civil and public life. These branches should 
 be taught by means of lectures." 
 
 Among the subjects to be taught at this university he mentions 
 especially the German and French languages. He says: "The many 
 excellent books which are written in both these languages, upon all 
 subjects, more especially upon those which relate to the advancement 
 of national improvement of all kinds, will render a knowledge of them 
 an essential part of the education of a legislator of the United States." 
 
 14 Cf. "Thomas Jefferson and the University of Virginia" U. S. Bu- 
 reau of Education, Circular of Information No. 2, 1888, p. 45. 
 
 18 
 
state legislature but the practical Virginians thought the plan 
 too expensive. However, the advanced ideas of the third presi- 
 dent, although not fulfilled in this matter, had a quickening in- 
 fluence on Ticknor, a close personal friend, and through him 
 upon the whole method of instruction at Harvard. Ticknor 
 received a call to Virginia in 1820, but continued at Harvard 
 until 1835, when his resignation was forced by stubborn op- 
 position to just such reforms as would have reorganized the 
 northern college in accordance with the principles of university 
 education laid down by Jefferson. 15 
 
 Perhaps the chief point of weakness in American education 
 at that time was the general disregard for scholarship by a dem- 
 ocracy whose highest ideal seemed the accumulation of wealth. 
 Dr. Brauns, a highly cultured German theologian who lived 
 in America for years, says that very few if any of the American 
 academies and universities were liberal enough to allow their 
 professors to turn to the service of scientific research their 
 talent, inclination, and independent thought 16 Moreover, the 
 recompense given them was scarcely greater than that allowed 
 a day-laborer. 
 
 Grund quotes and emphasizes the following statement 17 
 from an "Annual Report of the Superintendent of Schools of 
 the State of New York, 1835": ''The main cause which re- 
 tards the advancement of our educational system is the meager 
 wage of the teachers As long as the salary of a teach- 
 er is no higher than that of the manual laborer we cannot ex- 
 pect to attract scholars of talent and ability to our schools. 
 
 15 The main points of Jefferson's plan for a university were: 1. 
 There should be no prescribed curriculum laid down for all students. 
 2. Specialization should be introduced. 3. The elective system should 
 be used. 4. Discipline should be reduced to a minimum. The reforms 
 proposed by Ticknor were: 1. Students should be admitted even if 
 they were not candidates for a degree. 2. The instruction should be 
 divided into departments with a head of each department. 3. The 
 elective system should be introduced. (Cf. U. S. Bureau of Education, 
 Circular of Information No. 2). 
 
 16 Brauns, Ideen tiber die Auswanderung nach Amerika, 1827, p. 686. 
 
 17 Grund, Die Amerikaner, p. 121. 
 
 19 
 
Low salaries have filled our schools with incompetent teachers 
 whose methods have lowered the level of all knowledge to their 
 own teaching." To the same effect Brauns quotes Bristed, a 
 British scholar who came to America to study American re- 
 sources and later became a citizen of the United States: 
 "Wealth, that is truly the great social virtue even as poverty is 
 an unpardonable sin. In no land of the earth must the poor 
 scholar bow before the gates of wealth in more slavish hu- 
 mility than in our free and independent Republic." 18 Com- 
 menting on this, Brauns says, "Let not the scholar forget that 
 farmers, manufacturers, and merchants are really the three 
 main and privileged classes of American society." 1J> In ad- 
 dition to pointing out that low salaries necessarily entailed a 
 dearth of teachers Bristed, as well as our German critics, re- 
 minds us that those scholarly professors whom we do have in 
 our schools have a limit placed on their time and energy by 
 their great burden of purely routine duties. 20 One of Tick- 
 nor's great reforms was a division of the faculty into depart- 
 ments, with departmental heads, and sufficient assistants to 
 make research and original production possible. This was one 
 of his proposals that was most stubbornly resisted. In de- 
 fending it Jefferson said, "Professorships must be subdivided 
 from time to time as our means increase, until each professor 
 shall have no more under his care than he can attend to with 
 advantage to his pupils and ease to himself." 21 
 
 Almost all foreign students of American education were 
 agreed on the excellence of American elementary training. 
 Brauns was especially impressed with the almost universal 
 extension of the rudiments of education. 22 The middle schools, 
 however, as Koerner remarked, were rather for the purpose of 
 
 18 Brauns, Ideen, p. 697. Also Bristed, Die Hilfsquellen der Ver- 
 einigten Staaten Amerikas, Weimar 1819, p. 686. 
 
 19 Brauns, Ideen, p. 697. 
 
 20 Bristed, Hilfsquellen, p. 428. 
 
 21 U. S. Bureau of Education, Circular of Information No. B, 
 p. 64. 
 
 22 Brauns, Ideen, p. 433. 
 
 20 
 
private gain than of popular instruction. 23 Parents, generally, 
 were not yet impressed with the necessity of educating their 
 children beyond the elementary grades. But, as Dr. De Wette, 
 the brother of Professor Karl Beck of Harvard, said, after his 
 visit to America in 1826, the American youths were wonder- 
 fully persevering and diligent. One of the chief expressions 
 of this diligence was the zeal with which they took up the study 
 of the German language and literature, very little opportunity 
 for the pursuit of which was offered at the American universi- 
 ties. Even private tutors were not plentiful ; and many students, 
 therefore, took up the sjudy by themselves with no other help 
 than a dictionary and a few pieces of German literature, of 
 which Goethe's and Schiller's works were perhaps the most 
 popular. Imagine the American youth of today obtaining the 
 rudiments of German through a translation of Wallen stein ! 
 Later this method was no longer necessary, for many of the 
 professors at Andover, Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, and else- 
 where went to Germany and mastered the German language 
 for purposes of instruction at home. It should be noted here 
 that this zeal for acquiring German was prompted not by a 
 mere hope of understanding its forms, but by an earnest de- 
 sire to gain entrance to the treasures of German thought. 
 
 Another significant point to come under the notice of the 
 German observers of American culture was what they con- 
 sidered a deplorable rarity of interest in science. While Grund 
 did not deny the existence of a spirit of scientific inquiry, as 
 Koerner came so near doing, he did say that it had few mani- 
 festations beyond the information contained in elementary 
 texts. 24 The one science in which the Americans had made 
 slightly more progress was mathematics, and he, probably 
 better than any other foreign writer, could judge this be- 
 cause he had written several university texts in mathe- 
 matics and other sciences. The Germans placed especial 
 emphasis on science and scientific research, for to them science 
 was eternal even as truth was eternal. "Monarchs may pro- 
 
 28 Koerner, Beleuchtung, p. 46. 
 2 * Cf. Grund, Die Amerikaner, 1837, p. 105. 
 21 
 
tect the arts, republics must honor the sciences", 25 said Grund. 
 The search for truth would alone establish, in their estimation, 
 an enduring national prosperity. It cannot be denied that the 
 stern, narrow views of the early American settlers in religion 
 and politics retarded all progress in art and science, and this 
 despite the great number of universities, colleges, and semi- 
 naries. 26 Brauns quotes Walsh, 27 an American scholar, as 
 saying, "A liberal education under which a systematic grasp 
 of science and classical literature is understood, is almost en- 
 tirely lacking in America." 28 Aside from a few minor dis- 
 coveries and inventions in physics and nautical technique, 
 purely practical in nature, America had made no advance in 
 the field of science. 29 This, at least, was the view of the more 
 radical Koerner, who continued to say, "Indeed, I am not the 
 first to be impressed by the lack of genuine scientific education, 
 and the manifold pleasures which are brought about by the 
 closer intercourse of highly cultured and educated men." 30 
 
 If, as Grund says, imagination is the soul of artistic pro- 
 duction, we have an explanation for the decided deficiency in 
 America ; for we do not need Koerner, nor Grund, nor Julius 31 
 to tell us of the neglect of the imagination in the American 
 people. Even Cooper, as Koerner truly says, one of the best 
 early American writers, and beside Longfellow, perhaps the most 
 representative figure in American literature, excels only in 
 description, and not in such work as requires an active and fer- 
 
 > 25 Grund, Die Amerikaner, p. 80. 
 
 26 Koerner, Beleuchtung, p. 51. 
 
 27 Walsh was the original editor of the American Register in 1817 
 18. In 1827 he revived the North American Review, and continued as 
 its editor until 1837. 
 
 28 Brauns, Ueen, p. 685. 
 
 29 Koerner, Beleuchtung, p. 47 
 Ibidem, p. 47. 
 
 81 N. H. Julius (1783 1862) a physician and student of sociology 
 especially criminology. He made one of the first and most extensive 
 statistical studies in criminology in America. 
 
 -,22 
 
tile creative power. 32 This lack of imagination, Julius feels, 33 
 accounts for the almost cruel way in which the Americans have 
 discarded the old musical and resonant Indian names of towns, 
 rivers, and mountains, and substituted in their place the harsher 
 sounding Roman, Grecian, German, English, and even Egyp- 
 tian names. Besides a recognized lack of imagination 
 Brauns discovers other causes which have retarded the de- 
 velopment of art and literature. These he considers under four 
 heads ; first, the comparative ease with which wealth and prom- 
 inence are attained through other channels than literature or 
 art; second, the hardships of early settlement; third, our own 
 Revolution ; and fourth, the French Revolution, which inclined 
 the Americans more toward a zeal for gain, military glory, 
 and political fame, than to the less strenuous pleasures and 
 benefits of literature and art. In addition to these causes, De 
 Wette, with others, attributes the retardation of a nationally 
 independent literature for America to the constant intercourse 
 with Europe; or, as Grund puts it, to the fact that a gigantic 
 conglomeration, such as America is, cannot produce a national 
 literature. 34 Again, Brauns adds as a further cause a lack of 
 concentration, due, he believes, to an overbalancing tendency 
 toward newspapers, magazines, and political pamphlets. 35 As 
 a people the Americans read more than any other nation in the 
 world ; indeed Grund goes so far as to say that the Americans 
 read more books and magazines each year than the English, 
 French, and Germans together. 36 John Bristed, after a careful 
 study of American culture, remarks also on the shallowness 
 of American writings which seemed, for the most part, confined 
 to newspaper articles and political pamphlets. 37 
 
 Concentration presupposes a calm philosophical point of 
 view. The lack of this was more noticeable, probably, in 
 America's historical productions than elsewhere in the field of 
 
 32 Cooper was more highly esteemed in Germany than in America. 
 
 33 Julius, Nordamerikas sittliche Zustdnde, 183436, p. 420. 
 
 34 Grund, Die Amerikaner, p. 98. 
 
 35 Cf. Brauns, Ideen, p. 681 ff. 
 
 36 Grund, Die Amerikaner, p. 104. 
 
 37 Bristed Die Hilfsquellen, p. 685. 
 
 23 
 
her literature. Led astray by hyper-enthusiastic patriotism, 
 Americans inclined too much toward biographies. Even Jared 
 Sparks and George Bancroft, two historians who deserve great 
 praise, were unable to take a dispassionate view of America's 
 historical development, the only view, indeed, which is able 
 to unite the life of the states with the course of human develop- 
 ment. Up to 1837, in Grund's estimation, Marshal's Biography 
 of George Washington was the best history of the United 
 States. 88 
 
 So far it would seem that this lack of imagination affected 
 only the literary productions. Koerner's rather bold remark, 
 however, that in the field of art the Americans were half bar- 
 barians, 39 reveals the fact that the lack of imagination extended 
 beyond the realm of literature. As yet whatever America pos- 
 sessed of art was not original but of foreign adoption. There 
 were, of course, individual artists but there was no artistic 
 atmosphere, no collective "art-life." 40 Even the foremost of 
 
 38 Grund, Die Amerikaner, p. 106 See also Pancoast, p 253. 
 
 39 Koerner, Beleuchtung, p. 52. 
 
 40 The following passage from Henry James' "A small Boy and 
 others" shows how he felt this lack of artistic atmosphere in America 
 during his boyhood. Speaking of his hunger for art he says (p. 
 264 ff ) : "Wasn't the very bareness of the field itself moreover a 
 
 challenge, in a degree, to design ? Afterwards, on other ground 
 
 and in richer air [in Europe] the challenge was in the fulness and 
 not in the bareness of aspects, with their natural result of hunger ap- 
 peased; exhibitions, illustrations abounded in Paris and London the 
 reflected image hung everywhere about; so that if there we daubed a- 
 fresh and with more confidence it was not because no one but because 
 
 every one did In Europe we knew there was Art; just as there 
 
 were soldiers and lodgings and concierges and little boys in the 
 street etc." 
 
 "The Diisseldorf school commanded the market, and I think of its 
 
 exhibitions as firmly seated, going on from year to year No 
 
 impression here, however, was half so momentous as that of the epoch- 
 making masterpiece of Mr. Leutze, which showed us Washington 
 crossing the Delaware." 
 
 Emanuel Leutze, the German-American painter, was born at 
 Gmiind, Wiirttemberg. He came to America in his early youth but re- 
 turned to Germany in 1841 to study at Diisseldorf under K. F. Lessing. 
 In 1859 he was called back to America by the federal government in 
 order to decorate the Capitol at Washington. 
 
 _ 24 
 
early American painters such as Benj. West and J. S. Copley 
 were more English than American in character. It is a signifi- 
 cant fact that West's famous picture 'Death of General Wolfe' 
 was painted in England. However, Grund believed that the 
 Americans possessed sufficient talent both in drawing and 
 painting to make a truly national art a future possibility. 41 
 That the Americans did not possess any real love or passion 
 for true art, a fact which Koerner deplored, was due, no doubt, 
 in large measure to the lack of the numerous galleries and col- 
 lections of art treasures with which Europe was blessed. 
 But despite this lack we must agree, I believe, with 
 Koerner, when he says that if gloomy religious views re- 
 tarded science they worked even more negatively against the 
 development of art. 42 Music and painting were completely in 
 the service of the church. If some art lover succeeded in trans- 
 porting a work of art across the Atlantic, it received such a 
 poor reception that the hope of arousing an interest which 
 would create a demand for such work was shattered. 
 
 Closely allied with drawing and painting were music and the 
 theater. The taste for music was slightly more developed than 
 for tragedy and comedy, Grund tells us, but as yet there was 
 no American talent. Indeed, Julius goes so far as to say that 
 the Americans at that time were virtually lacking in the musical 
 sense and in musical voices. Of this latter deficiency he says, 
 "In the whole of America, during a visit of a year and a half, 
 I heard a single beautiful native female voice, and among the 
 men none at all." 43 The lack of a musical sense, he thinks, 
 may be due to the fact that America was a composite nation 
 and not a racial unit. He noticed the same lack in England, 
 also a composite people in contrast to Scotland, Ireland, and 
 Wales, strictly racial unities. The lack of musical voices, no 
 doubt, could be attributed to frontier-life as well as to the 
 climate and its almost inconceivably rapid changes. One de- 
 cided hindrance to the development of the theater, as well as 
 
 41 Grund, Die Amerikaner, p. 74. 
 
 42 Koerner, Beleuchtung, p. 51. 
 
 43 Julius, Nordamerikas sittliche Zustande, p. 419. 
 
 25 
 
its hand-maiden music, was the stifling bonds of narrow 
 orthodoxy which placed the enjoyment of the stage outside 
 the pale of respectability. Many churches absolutely forbade 
 attendance at dramatic performances of any description. Even 
 at the present time we have not broken away entirely from the 
 effects of this prejudice. 
 
 This, then, was the atmosphere into which Mrs. Robinson 
 came in 1830, an atmosphere pregnant with possibilities and 
 at the same time teeming with an intense desire to produce and 
 establish a national culture. German influence, as we have 
 noticed, was having a major share in the process of develop- 
 ment. In the following chapters I shall attempt to trace the 
 path of this influence as represented in Mrs. Robinson. I shall 
 take up her works chronologically, in so far as that is con- 
 sistent with their grouping in subject matter. At the same time 
 I shall lay especial emphasis on the various individual produc- 
 tions most directly connected with contemporary American 
 events or development. What Gustav Koerner says of the 
 German element in America in general fits also Mrs Robinson 
 and thus forms a most appropriate close for this introductory 
 chapter: "Eine deutsche Nation in der amerikanischen 
 kann sie nicht sein, aber den reichen Inhalt ihres Gemutslebens, 
 die Schatze ihrer Gedankenwelt kann sie im Kampfe fur die 
 politischen und allgemeinen menschlichen Interessen in die 
 Wagschale werf en, und ihr Einfluss wird um so tiefer gehen, 
 ein um so grosseres Feld der Beteiligung sich schaffen, je 
 weniger tendenzios sie auftritt, je mehr sie aber zugleich an 
 dem fest halt, was Deutschland der Welt Schones und Grosses 
 gegeben hat." 44 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 Biography. 
 
 The names of Franz Lieber, Karl Follen, Karl Beck, Franz 
 Joseph Grund, Gustav Koerner, all men of commanding ability, 
 have long since become a part of the history of their adopted 
 country. Many more men whose life and works H. A. Ratter- 
 
 44 Koerner, Das deutsche Element, p. 9. 
 
 26 
 
mann has treated in his recent work Biographicon und Dichter- 
 Album, will also eventually find a permanent place in the cul- 
 tural if not the political history of America. To this list of 
 German-Americans who have given to Americans not only an 
 interpretation of the culture of their fatherland, but also the 
 service of their talent and their personality should be added 
 also the name of Mrs. Robinson. 
 
 It is indeed strange that this has not been recognized; for 
 her field of labor was broad, her intellect keen, her attitude 
 toward life truly sympathetic. From the commencement of her 
 active career in 1830, tp the year 1863, when she returned to 
 Germany, she identified her energies and interests with those 
 of the country of her husband, modestly taking a part in the 
 cultural evolution of the young republic through a number of 
 remarkable literary productions. At no time do we find her in 
 the front ranks of radical reformers and reorganizes, but tact- 
 fully and unassumingly, rather, exerting that subtle influence 
 for which women are best suited. Her method of making her 
 personality felt was a particularly happy one, for at the time in 
 which she lived one of the most important in American His- 
 tory current opinion in regard to conditions both political and 
 social was in a comparatively plastic state, but none the less 
 important. With politics she had nothing to do ; for while most 
 of her German contemporaries, coming directly from the ex- 
 citement of political affairs in the fatherland, entered similar 
 fields in America, she remained entirely outside of this field of 
 activity. This is in part explained by the fact that she came 
 from the quietness of the Goethe circle, which in a measure 
 determined the character of her work in the land of her adop- 
 tion. Goethe, it may be said, held aloof from the turmoil and 
 intensity of the life about him, quietly spreading his inij^ence 
 through the brilliant men and women who were attr 
 his intellectual court. This was especially true in 
 life, during which time Mrs. Robinson became persoi 
 quainted with him. 
 
 Grillparzer, who at that time visited Goethe, 
 very charming picture of her in his Selbstbiographi 
 ward evening," he writes, "I went to Goethe. I fou 
 
 27 
 
a large company gathered in the drawing room, awaiting the 
 Herr Geheimrat. When I found among them a certain Hof- 
 rat Jakob or Jakobs with his daughter, young as she was 
 beautiful, and beautiful as she was talented, the same who 
 later entered upon a literary career under the name of Talvj, 
 I lost my timidity, and in my conversation with this most 
 amiable young woman, I almost forgot that I was at the home 
 of Goethe." 45 The description of Heloise, drawn by Mrs. 
 Robinson in her novel of the same name, presents a very good 
 picture of herself and of the position she deemed suitable and 
 becoming to women: "Now only did Heloise learn to know 
 the charm of intellectual, inciting conversation, the invaluable 
 advantage to be derived from hearing the interchange of ideas 
 of superior minds. Heloise, eager for information and sus- 
 ceptible of improvement as she was, felt deeply grateful to- 
 ward Isabella for this distinction. The conversation turned on 
 subjects taken from divers departments, belles-lettres, philos- 
 ophy, history, political economy, but above all the great ques- 
 tions of the day. On all these Heloise heard persons of mind 
 give and defend their views. She herself, as was suitable to 
 her youth was for the most part a listener." 46 Mrs. Robinson 
 might have said, "to her youth and her sex" ; for she felt very 
 strongly the propriety of the tacit attitude of woman on many 
 questions ordinarily considered as a part of a man's world. 47 
 
 But, as we have said, her influence was none the less real for 
 being quiet and unobtrusive. Despite the unpretentious nature 
 of her work, no one, with the exception of Karl Pollen, Franz 
 Lieber and J. B. Stallo has so significantly brought out the two 
 chief elements of the American nation, the English and the 
 German. By her study of the folklore of the various nations 
 and Specially the Teutonic nations, she carried the American 
 into the inner life of the Germans, especially into 
 miitvolle". In her history of New England, written, 
 g to her own introductory remarks, primarily for Ger- 
 
 illparzer, Sammtliche Werke, vol. xv, p. 145 4. Auflage. 
 
 vj, Heloise chap. ix. , 
 
 e Germans more that any other nation perhaps felt that 
 
 sphere was in the home. 
 
man readers, she introduced the Germans to the forces which 
 lay at the foundation of the establishment of a free- thinking, 
 free-acting nation, showing how internal forces of minor im- 
 portance in themselves may accomplish all things when united 
 and aimed at one goal. 
 
 Therese Albertine Louise von Jakob was born January 26, 
 1797, the youngest daughter of the political scientist and 
 philosopher, Heinrich von Jakob. At the time of her birth, 
 her father was professor of philosophy at the University of 
 Halile. When Therese was nine years old Napoleon's devasta- 
 tions shook Germany like some great earthquake, and dis- 
 organized society. After v the battle of Jena her father, in order 
 to avoid army-service at a moment when his fatherland was 
 under French dominion, accepted a call to a professorship in 
 the University located at Charkow a small town in the southern 
 part of Russia. The great period of European political unrest 
 that drove her parent to this voluntary exile from Germany 
 wrought an unusual and irresistible influence upon the daugh- 
 ter; an influence, doubtless, which made her love her native 
 land far more intensely than would have been the case, had she 
 grown to womanhood surrounded by naught but its tranquil 
 culture. In 1840 she wrote a short autobiographical sketch for 
 the Brockhausische Conversations-Lexicon, in which these 
 words illustrate the awakening in her of "das deutsche Gefuhl", 
 together with what she considered its causes: "The strange, 
 half-Asiatic, half-European circumstances about me exercised 
 a decided influence upon me. They and the yoke of oppression 
 under which Germany was then bending and laboring awoke 
 in me, very early, a vivid and substantial recognition of my 
 better self. As early as my eleventh year, I often wept for 
 anger and grief over Germany's misfortune. Grief, indeed, 
 was my first muse." 48 Nothing, it seemed in after years, 
 had ever so thoroughly aroused her as the occasion when she 
 heard, for the first time, the Russians discussing the terrible 
 distress of the Germans. She heard nothing but scorn and 
 mockery for Germany's misfortune, in fact for everything 
 that was German. Her thoroughly aroused emotions found 
 
 48 Talvj, Gesammelte Novellen, p. viii. 
 29 
 
expression in poetry which in tone and meter resembled that 
 of Schiller. Even as a child, she realized how much richer 
 the German life was than the Slavic. She felt that a nation 
 with such a past as Germany's would glow again in the rays 
 of clear sunrise. 
 
 During her stay of three years in Charkow her education, 
 so far as direct instruction was concerned, advanced slowly. 
 In the university library, however, she found, among other 
 books, Eschenburg's Beispielsammlung and the supplement to 
 Sulzer's Theorie der schonen Kunste. She copied both of these 
 books, ponderous in material and dimensions as they are, in 
 their entirety; a labor of stupendous proportions for an adult 
 to say nothing of a twelve-year-old girl. But she was being 
 mentally starved and no task seemed too great that would 
 provide food to satisfy her intellectual cravings. 
 
 At the age of thirteen she accompanied her father to St. 
 Petersburg, whither he had been called to aid in the revision of 
 the Code of Criminal Laws. Here even the slight amount of 
 instruction she had been receiving was cut off. In a measure, 
 however, her more frequent intercourse with people and events 
 made up for this loss; but the ardent longing never ceased. 
 She tells us, "The inner desire remained, however, earnest and 
 full of yearning after something which the life about me did 
 not offer." 49 Her interest in and for Germany grew apace. She 
 read zealously every possible scrap of information about it, 
 devouring in particular all the German books she could get 
 hold of, books which from time to time found their way into 
 Russia through returning officers. In order to give assistance 
 to the miserable German prisoners brought to Russia she sold 
 her jewelry. Removed thus from the fatherland, it was only 
 natural that she should form an exalted image of Germany 
 which differed very radically from the reality. In later years, 
 she held for a time firmly, almost stubbornly to her ideal ; but 
 at last, for her penetrating mind could not long be blinded to 
 real conditions, she grew ashamed, laughed, and cast from her 
 the romantic picture she had formed by much reading of 
 Fouque and Hoffmann. She so realized and appreciated, never- 
 
 40 Talvj, Gesammelte Novellen, p. x. 
 30 
 
theless, the depth, the richness, and the spiritual intensity of the 
 German character, that even the final shattering of her ideal 
 never brought with it a reaction of discouragement or despair. 
 While in St. Petersburg she became extremely lonesome, and as 
 a consequence unusually serious. This seriousness never left 
 her, though at no time did it make her an uncomfortable or un- 
 welcome member of any social gathering. It was the serious- 
 ness of a rich inner life whose expression was hemmed in and 
 limited by external circumstances. None of the poems which 
 she wrote at this time were published during her lifetime; 
 in fact it is quite probable that she destroyed most of them, 
 for inasmuch as they expressed her deepest and holiest emo- 
 tions, to publish them would have been a profanation of her 
 inmost soul. Several, however, were preserved. Among them 
 the poem "Sehnsucht," written in 1813 and brought out after 
 her death, expresses her longing to return to Germany. One 
 verse reads as follows: 
 
 Ach, wird nie dies heisse Sehnen, 
 Nie der inn'ge Wunsch gestillt? 
 Was mein hoffend Herz erfiillt, 
 War es nur ein eitel Wahnen? 
 
 In St. Petersburg she had greater opportunity to satisfy 
 her craving to read. This, together with bits of conversation 
 which she gathered from the crowds that thronged the streets, 
 aroused in her a deep and abiding interest in popular poetry. 
 She became so interested in Russian popular poetry that she 
 would steal away to the horse-markets, and concealing herself 
 near the crowds, would listen to their songs. In order to be 
 able to understand them and appreciate them she began study- 
 ing Russian, a pursuit which very shortly led to a study of 
 Slavic history and the Slavic language, in order that she might 
 be able to translate the poetry of the race. Upon her return to 
 Germany her interest in languages expanded and she entered 
 into a serious attempt to gain a mastery of the classical 
 languages, Anglo-Saxon, Scandinavian, and English. Later 
 she studied French and Spanish. 
 
 In 1816 she returned to Germany, and her dearest 
 wish was thereby fulfilled. Her reintroduction to the 
 
 31 
 
the real Germany, as we have said before, shattered her ideal 
 but did not shake her love or faith. In this glow of happiness 
 in her new environment, the first eight or ten years were the 
 most prosperous of her life. She continued to write poetry 
 and short stories. A peculiar unwillingness to publish her 
 works asserted itself in rather an interesting way, for which 
 her excessive modesty alone can account. Those of her first 
 poems which she could be persuaded to share with the public 
 came out under the name of Reseda. In 1821, for the sake 
 a little "pin-money", and, if we may credit her own words, 
 quite against her own inclination, she translated two of Sir 
 Walter Scott's novels, Old Mortality and Black Dwarf. These 
 were signed Ernst Berthold. In 1822, in the Literarisches Kon~ 
 versationsblatt appeared three articles of a critical nature, 
 signed "Briefe eines Frauenzimmers". Finally, in 1825 she 
 coined for herself a name which remained her nom-de-plume 
 for the rest of her life. Using the initial letters of her full 
 name, Therese Albertine Louise von Jakob, she coined the 
 rather odd but attractive name Talvj, in which the j has its 
 original function as an i. This name she first signed to a little 
 book of three short stories, which she called Psyche, Bin 
 Taschenbuch filr das Jahr 1825. As late as 1840 she wrote to 
 a relative, "I will not deny that I have a strong aversion 
 to any publication whatsoever of my own productions. The 
 fact, that I had never written under my own name, justified 
 me, I felt, in separating all that pertained to Therese Robin- 
 son, formerly Therese von Jakob, entirely from Talvj. I see, 
 however, that sooner or later the two names will be identified 
 without my being able to prevent it, and so I prefer to let my- 
 self be known rather than be the subject of gossip in those 
 'Woman's Clubs'. 50 For a long time Talvj was thought to be 
 a man. Especially after her interest in the American Indian 
 became known, Mr. Talvj became a name of great concern in 
 English literature and men fairly broke their heads to discover 
 the owner of it. 
 
 In 1823, while Talvj was immersed in grief over the loss 
 of a dearly beloved sister, the first sorrow in her life, her 
 
 50 Loeher, Beitr'dge fiir Geschichte und Volkerkunde. 
 
eye fortuitously fell upon a copy of Jakob Grimm's criticism of 
 Servian folk song. It caught her attention and suggested a 
 means to her by which she might lessen the sting of her sor- 
 row. Hard work was ever a means to her of forgetting sorrow 
 and distress. In speaking to Jakob Grimm of leaving Germany 
 to take up her new home in America she said, "This sacrifice, 
 too, belongs to the least which I am making, inasmuch as the 
 literary activity into which I have thrown myself, in so far as 
 it was productive, never meant anything more to me than a 
 meager solace for bitter loss." 51 Her cousin said of her also, 
 "My poor cousin finds her consolation for many distressing 
 circumstances in such literary activity." 52 By the aid of the 
 young Servian Wuk Stephan Karadschitsch and her own untir- 
 ing effort and mental alertness she soon made good her decision 
 to study Servian by achieving a sound working mastery of its 
 forms. Into the very atmosphere of these strange national 
 songs which seemed to possess a Grecian charm for her, she 
 "lived, thought, and steeped herself." 53 Her work in this con- 
 nection will be more amply touched upon hereafter ; suffice it to 
 say here, the work she accomplished with these songs won for 
 her the life long friendship of Goethe, as well as that of Jakob 
 Grimm and many other prominent literary men. 
 
 In the summer of 1826 Professor Edward Robinson came 
 to Halle to study the language and literature of the Orient 
 under Gesenius, through whom Halle's theological school had 
 become the most famous in Germany, Roediger, an exceptional 
 student in oriental languages first at Halle and later at Berlin, 
 Tholuk the pietist, and others. His acquaintance in the home of 
 Professor von Jakob led to friendship and ultimate marriage 
 with Fraulein Therese, in August of 1828. A few words other 
 than what has been said in the Introduction about Robin- 
 son will show not merely the significance of Talvj's relations 
 with him but also the significance of German influence on 
 America's great scholars. He was born in Southington, Con- 
 
 51 Preussische Jahrbucher, vol. Ixxvi p. 357. 
 
 52 Preussische Jahrbucher, vol. Ixxvi, p. 357. 
 
 53 Franz von Loher, Beilage zur Allgemeinen Zeitung, <len 9. und 
 10 Juni, 1870. 
 
 33 
 
necticut in 1794, the son of a Congregational minister. As 
 a youth he enjoyed a liberal education, which later he im- 
 proved by much travel and study in other lands. Previous 
 to his residence at the University of Halle in 1826, he had 
 assisted Moses Stuart in publishing the second edition of the 
 latter's Hebrew Grammar, and through Stuart had been ap- 
 pointed to an instructor ship in Hebrew at Andover Semi- 
 nary, where, in collaboration with his patron, he translated 
 Wiener's Grammar of the New Testament; and alone, Wahl's 
 Clavis Philologica Novi Testamenti. Then he went to Halle. 
 At the time of his death he was recognized as the greatest 
 authority in the field of Biblical Topography, having received, 
 among other honors, a gold medal from the Royal Geographi- 
 cal Society of England. 
 
 His attitude toward research was in every way a counter- 
 part of his wife's. The Reverend Thomas Skinner, who 
 preached his funeral service, said of him, "No one's observa- 
 tion was more searching, minute, and accurate; he looked at 
 everything in its bearing on the true, the useful, the good; he 
 surveyed most exactly everything of real importance in the 
 field which his mind was to traverse, instinctively rejecting 
 what was of no consequence to his object, making the best 
 
 use of everything which properly belonged to it His 
 
 aim was not victory but truth He found in his family 
 
 unusual sympathies with himself as a man of letters and in- 
 tellectual pursuits. His wife was entirely competent to take 
 the liveliest interest in his learned labors." 54 It it very signifi- 
 cant of his character that during this first half of the nine- 
 teenth century he with others sought to become acquainted 
 with the spirit of German thought and teaching. In the first 
 part of the century it meant a great deal more for Americans 
 to seek the German universities than it did later. It was not a 
 fad; it was an honest pursuit of a higher intellectual life. 
 And it was of great significance that even theologians began 
 to visit the German universities, the seats of rationalism in 
 religious thought and life. The necessity of an introduction 
 of Germany's scholarship into America must have made a deep 
 
 s* The Evangelist, Feb. 5, 1863. 
 
 34 
 
impression upon Robinson, for upon his return, as we have 
 seen, he began the publication of the Biblical Repository, which 
 at once became the chief exponent of German theological and 
 philosophical thought. His wife proved of the utmost assist- 
 ance to him in interpreting and translating many of the German 
 contributions to the magazine. 
 
 It was hard for Talvj to decide to leave Germany, for in 
 so doing she was abandoning a circle of the highest culture and 
 refinement, and circumstances in which she was able to pursue, 
 unhampered, the studies she most enjoyed. In a letter to Jakob 
 Grimm, in which she introduced Edward Robinson to him, she 
 said, "I do not deny that it has cost me a long and bitter 
 struggle, and that even now I think I have not overcome either 
 the pain of separation from all that has been dear to me, or 
 
 the pain over the loss of my beloved mother-tongue 
 
 it seems to me as if all that pertains to my fatherland is again 
 as precious, since I have made my decision." 55 An awaken- 
 ing literary jealousy of her work, finding vent in literary 
 criticism that was at times spiteful, did much, however, to re- 
 concile her to leaving Germany. Some criticised her for not 
 writing in Latin, claiming that the use of the vernacular de- 
 tracted in a measure from the scholarliness of her work. Her 
 intellectual strength, which gained not only the respect but al- 
 so the admiration and approval of some of Germany's great- 
 est men, aroused the envy of less gifted women. Loeher 
 remarks : "The women said one could hear the scratch, scratch 
 of her pen throughout the whole town; and this pen was in 
 the hands of a young woman of less than thirty years, upon 
 whom noted men even lavished approving words of praise." a<J 
 The hopeless political conditions following the Wars of 
 Liberation seemed, moreover, to annihilate all her hopes for 
 Germany's future. Besides, the closest ties which bound her 
 to her fatherland were broken by the death of her beloved 
 parents; her father's in 1827 at Lauchstedt, her mother's in 
 1828 presumably at Halle. Although she became the wife of 
 Edward Robinson in August, 1828, they did not go to America 
 until to years later. During only a portion of these intervening 
 
 55 Preussische Jahrbucher, vol. Ixxvi p. 357. 
 35 
 
two years they remained in Halle, for they spent an autumn in 
 Switzerland, a winter in Paris, and a summer in Italy. In other 
 ways, too, they were eventful. During the seven years preceding 
 her coming to America she had lost a brother, a sister, and both 
 parents. She felt her loss deeply when she said, "For seven 
 years shock after shock has come to me, and even if I now pos- 
 sess new conditions of tenderest love, it seems, nevertheless, 
 as if all of my memories lie buried." 5T 
 
 Her first home in America was in Andover, where Edward 
 Robinson now occupied the chair of Biblical Literature at the 
 Andover Seminary. She did not quickly adjust herself to her 
 new surroundings for political and religious interests held 
 sway in all companies; and she withdrew for a time to her 
 own family circle and lived for it alone. Gradually, however, 
 she began to find leisure again for literary investigation and 
 soon, by her interest in America, in its industry, its history, 
 its natives, its language, and its literature, she formed a link, 
 as it were, between German and American culture. She 
 brought from her native land the idea of universality, and 
 in all the articles and reviews written during her life here, it 
 was one which she emphasized prominently. She worked 
 as few other writers have done for the adjustment of the two 
 languages, German and English. Jakob Grimm foresaw her 
 power to do this for in a letter written to her just before she 
 sailed, he spoke of the valuable benefits to be derived from a 
 more intimate relation to the English literature in which she 
 would soon find herself. Unnoticed but with effect she labored 
 always to inculcate respect for the German name in the new 
 world; wherever she could she urged young Americans to 
 study at the German universities ; and she used her influence 
 always to find for German fugitives, invariably men of edu- 
 cation, positions as teachers. 58 With an interest and mental 
 energy peculiar to her, she began very shortly after her ar- 
 rival in America, a study of the Indian, transferring, as it were, 
 her scientific investigation and study to the red race from the 
 
 57 Preussische Jahrbucher, vol. Ixxvi, p. 359. 
 86 Franz von Loher, Beilage 2. A. Zeitung. 
 
 58 Idea from Loher. 
 
 36 
 
Servian. She saw in the life and customs of all original peoples 
 the seed of present growth and the plant of future develop- 
 ment. She perceived behind the painted and savage exterior, 
 the real man. She realized, as many of us do not, that in order 
 to penetrate to the real motives and ambitions of a people, we 
 must seek them in its language, for language is the outgrowth 
 and development of the life of a people, and not a mere arti- 
 ficial commodity made to the order of its convenience or 
 necessities. 
 
 In 1831 Edward Robinson established the Biblical Reposi- 
 tory, to which during the first four years he was the chief 
 contributor. Mrs. Robinson's first resumption of literary work 
 took the form of contributions to this magazine. In speaking 
 of her papers in the Repository, which were collected and 
 translated by C. von Olberg in 1837, Jakob Grimm said, "It 
 is a work which bears the stamp of strong fundamental know- 
 ledge." 
 
 In 1833 they moved to Boston, where she helped her hus- 
 band with the publication of a Lexicon of the Greek Testa- 
 ment. Here she became acquainted with Karl Follen and his 
 talented wife, to whom she has testified her gratitude for the 
 inspiration of a renewed interest in philological studies. Her 
 extensive linguistic ability made her peculiarly fitted to carry 
 out a piece of work Follen had previously considered the in- 
 troduction of German popular poetry into America ; and at his 
 request she proceeded with the task, one as yet scarcely initiated, 
 although Follen had already succeeded in getting Longfellow, 
 John Quincy Adams, Bancroft, Prescott, Channing, Parker, 
 and others interested in German philosophy and literature. 
 Mrs. Robinson came as his great co-worker in extending 
 this interest. From time to time her articles on "Popular Songs 
 of the Teutonic Races" appeared in the North American Re- 
 view, and in 1840 they were put into book form under the 
 title of Charakteristik der Volkslieder. 
 
 In 1837, following her husband's appointment to the Union 
 Theological Seminary in New York, she left her circle of 
 friends at Boston. Immediately after entering upon this work 
 at the new institution Robinson went on a tour of investigation 
 
 37 
 
to Europe, Palestine, and Egypt, accompanied by his wife, 
 who, however, remained in Hamburg, Leipzig, and Dres- 
 den. During her stay in Germany she published more works 
 dealing with popular songs. With the knowledge, spirit, and 
 keenness of a German professor, and the intuition and sym- 
 pathy of a woman, she seemed to possess a peculiar aptitude 
 for such studies as this. In the naivete of primitive songs, 
 she traced the life-springs of a nation. There is no ques- 
 tion but that her already broad interest in mankind was 
 broadened and enlarged through these studies, which in their 
 scope touched upon the songs of France, Russia, Slavonia, 
 Spain, Germany, Scandinavia, England, Scotland, and Ameri- 
 ca. Through her critical essay on Ossian not Genuine in 1840, 
 she brought to a close, at least for many years to come, the 
 dispute over the genuineness of Macpherson's Ossian, which 
 Samuel Johnson had done so much to intensify. Her essay 
 called forth ,a storm of contradiction, which, however, was 
 totally incapable of destroying its effectiveness. 
 
 Upon her husband's return from Palestine in 1840, Mrs. 
 Robinson returned to America. Her home in New York be- 
 came the rendevouz for educated people, where some of 
 America's most famous literary men and women met in social 
 intercourse. A few personal letters to Mrs. Robinson, found 
 among the remnants of books and papers now in possession of 
 her grandson Edward Robinson of New York, show that 
 among others Bancroft, Bryant, Bayard Taylor, Olmstead, and 
 Kohl were her frequent guests. 59 With such an able, though 
 altogether modest, woman as hostess to the educated men and 
 women of her day, we can easily realize the charm of con- 
 versation, the brillancy of ideas exchanged, the unconscious 
 and subtle influence of one great mind upon another which 
 must have taken place within her walls ; in winter at her New 
 York residence, in summer at her picturesque seat among the 
 Catskill mountains. 
 
 In her own intellectual history these acquaintanceships, 
 some of them transient, others enduring, counted for much. 
 
 59 Unfortunately a fire destroyed almost all of the manuscripts left 
 by Mr. and Mrs. Robinson. 
 
 38 
 
A friendship with Friederich von Raumer, the German his- 
 torian, who visited her in her New York home in 1844, gave 
 her the idea of entering the field of history. This idea was 
 strengthened by Albert Gallatin and other of her friends in 
 the city. It was just the time when a great movement was on 
 foot to collect the sources of American history. The task ap- 
 pealed to her inclination to delve into national pasts. Societies 
 for such study were being formed everywhere, and to one 
 such of which Albert Gallatin was president, both Robinson 
 and his wife belonged. As her share in the programs Mrs. 
 Robinson wrote several historical sketches; among them was 
 "Die Geschichte des Kapitan John Smith", which was pub- 
 lished in 1847 in Raumers Historisches Taschenbuch. This 
 same year appeared one of her principal works, a history of the 
 colonization of New England from 1607 to 1692. Critics differ 
 as to the significance of this latter production ; but the gist of 
 contemporary comment as gathered from newspapers and 
 magazines of 1847, will be presented in a later chapter. Her 
 literary-historical works were in many respects epoch making, 
 even if her purely historical works were not. Duyckink says 
 of them, "Her style is simple and she is unsurpassed and 
 practical in her learned and scientific representation of such 
 literary historical subjects as 'Popular Poetry of the Slavic 
 Nations' etc. She also possesses the advantage of a finely 
 poetic culture, which because of her love for the original makes 
 it possible for her to translate with especial completeness in- 
 to German or English verse." 60 
 
 Her friendship with Washington Irving, which dated 
 from 1846, inclined her again toward the field of poetry. Her 
 development in this field of activity, however, does not stand 
 out prominently. Her poetry, while it cannot be said to have 
 detracted in any respect from the brilliancy of her work, can- 
 not on the other hand be said to have added anything. Aside 
 from her folk-songs, but fifteen poems have been published. 
 These occupy a very small portion of the book entitled Ge- 
 sammelte Novellen, published by her daughter after Talvj's 
 death. We know from what she herself said or implied that 
 
 60 Cyclopedia of American Literature, vol. ii, p. 169. 
 39 
 
she destroyed many of her first efforts. Between the years 
 1826 and 1845 we find no poems at all; for 1845 we have a 
 single verse, written in her daughter's album; while the next 
 which appears in this small group of fifteen bears the date 
 1850. We cannot be sure that these poems in any way repre- 
 sent the sum total of her poetic work, but they are the only 
 collection which has ever been published. We may perhaps 
 conclude rightly, that poetry as such was in no way a congenial 
 form of expression for her during her life in America until 
 after her friendship with Irving and even after that time not 
 an apt instrument. At this we cannot be surprised, however, 
 if we consider the fact that hers was the philological and 
 scientific type of mind, and not the philosophical and emotional 
 type. 
 
 Aside from her original works during her life in America, 
 she made several translations of the results of her husband's 
 investigations. Among them, perhaps the two most important 
 were Neue biblische Forschungen in Palestine and Physische 
 Geographic des heiligen Landes. The latter was made, in 1865, 
 amid greatly changed surroundings, for after the death of her 
 husband in 1863 she returned to her beloved Germany where 
 she spent the rest of her life. During these years she lived at 
 various times in Berlin, Italy, Strassburg, Karlsruhe, and 
 Hamburg. She died at the latter place on April 13, 1870; her 
 body was brought to America and buried in New York. 
 
 Her circle of friends was large both in America and in 
 Europe. In Germany it numbered K. L. W. Heyse, Franz 
 Bopp, Wilhelm and Jakob Grimm, Wilhelm and Alexander 
 von Humboldt, Friederich von Raumer, and Goethe; in 
 America, Bayard Taylor, William Cullen Bryant, Frederick 
 Olmstead, George Bancroft, J. C. Kohl, Washington Irving, 
 Edward Everett, E. A. Duyckink, and Margaret Fuller; in 
 Russia, Kaschin and Makarow; in Servia, Dawidowitsch and 
 Miklosch; in Italy, Manzoni, Emiliani, Gindici, and Madame 
 Ferrucci ; in England, Carlyle. She always held a remarkable 
 sway over youthful minds, both in inspiring them to definite 
 literary productions, and in infusing into them a measure of 
 her own ambition and energy. She was the inspiration behind 
 
 40 
 
Hermann Kriege's Die Vdter der Republik, his George Wash- 
 ington, Thomas Payne, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jef- 
 ferson. Her husband was indebted to her for a large part of 
 his knowledge of the German language and its literature. I 
 feel I have not judged wrongly when I say that much of the 
 work in the Biblical Repository during her husband's editor- 
 ship may be attributed to her either directly or indirectly. And 
 in all her books there is a wealth of thought expressed which 
 seems to bear the stamp of her keenly scientific brain and 
 sympathetically sensitive appreciation of all liberal and idealistic 
 tendencies. 
 
 She was deeply religious, for, as Loeher says, "How could 
 this truly strong spirit have lived and succeeded without a 
 deep childlike faith in God and his providence ?" 61 She ob- 
 jected to being considered "eine gelehrte Frau" only, for this 
 was not the goal of her ambition. She strove to awaken love 
 and confidence, to sympathize always where sympathy would 
 avail, to help the needy and distressed, to be a wife to her 
 husband and a mother to her children in the true sense. Hers 
 was a nature entirely free from pettiness and untruth, a na- 
 ture thoroughly feminine. She loved youth and was perfectly 
 at home with young people. Unlike many women, she took a 
 keen interest in the broader political movements in Germany 
 and America. This interest, however, did not lead her at any 
 time to assume an attitude which could be criticised as bold 
 and unwomanly. Indeed, in almost every personal reference 
 to her by contemporary critics the terms "modest" and "tender" 
 appear. She knew a woman's place, and although endowed 
 with unusual powers she held herself always within the 
 boundaries of her worthy station. 62 A glimpse of her attitude 
 
 181 Loher, Beitrage z. a. Zeitung. 
 
 62 In the Memorial History of the City of New York, vol. 3, p. 494, 
 Mrs. Robinson's name appears among the first signers of a circular ad- 
 dressed to the "Women of New York" and especially to those already 
 engaged in preparing against the time of "Wounds and Sickness in the 
 Army". It was the germ of the most important auxiliary to the medical 
 department of the Union armies which the war created The Sanitary 
 Commission. She was also president of a "Women's Association for 
 the care of Orphans". 
 
toward her home and its duties draws us even more closely 
 to her. It was a matter of pride with her that she never turned 
 her attention to her writing or study until she had put her 
 house in order for the day. A word of praise from her hus- 
 band about her skill as a housewife meant more to her than any 
 praise as a writer. But that he valued her literary skill we 
 also know from what she herself says of him : "Robinson be- 
 longs, indeed quite fortunately to the few men who know how 
 to appreciate a lively interest in art and science, even among 
 women; and he would rather arouse my enthusiasm toward 
 literary activity than hold me back from it." 63 
 
 From a description on a passport granted to her in 1851 
 at the age of 54 years, we learn that she was five feet, one and 
 one-half inches tall, had blue eyes, blond hair, and a fair com- 
 plexion. Her husband was a man six feet tall, dark of hair 
 and skin. Two children, Edward and Mary survived them. 
 The former was an officer in the Civil War at the time of his 
 father's death. He resigned his position, however, and ac- 
 companied his mother to Germany, where he filled the office 
 of consul at Strassburg and Hamburg during the years 1865 
 to 1875. In the latter year he returned to America, and 
 practiced law in New York City until his death in 1894. Two 
 sons and one daughter at present represent the family, Ed- 
 ward Robinson of the firm of Ruggles and Robinson, Engin- 
 eers, in New York City, and Hope Hobinson Hitchcock and 
 Herman Robinson, who reside in the Berkshires of Massa- 
 chusetts. Mary Robinson, Talvj's daughter died in New York 
 City in 1906. She attained considerable prominence in music, 
 being a composer as well as a finished pianist . 
 
 In all justice Mrs. Robinson may be called one of the most 
 important writers of her sex. Goethe spoke of her as one "who 
 had the heart of a woman, but the brain of a man." 64 Her 
 daughter pays her a beautiful eulogy in the introduction to 
 Gesammelte Novellen. In part she says, "The blessing of 
 these characteristics most loving mother and wife, most care- 
 ful and cautious housewife fell upon those who were nearest 
 
 163 Preussische Jahrbucher, vol. Ixxvi, p. 357. 
 64 Cyclopedia of British and American Authors. 
 42 
 
to her, those whose very existence was woven into hers. They 
 knew best her warm loving heart, her conscientiousness, her 
 stern feeling of duty, the entire lack of self-seeking in her 
 nature. To them she disclosed her deeply religious sentiment, 
 her reverence for God, and her complete resignation to His 
 will in order to attain to man's highest effort. They knew, 
 too, that the faults, from which naturally she was not free, 
 were a part of her temperament and not her character, and 
 that the shadows cast by these faults served only to intensify 
 the light of her character. And they are the ones who have 
 lost the most, and whose loss can never be replaced." 65 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 Literary Activity Prior to Coming to America. 
 
 It was not until Talvj's criticisms began to appear from 
 time to time in the Literarisches Conversationsblatt that she 
 really entered the literary field. These, as before, appeared 
 anonymously, but under the general title "Briefe eines Frauen- 
 zimmers iiber einige neue Erscheinungen der Literatur." In 
 the "Blatter" for 1822 there are three articles by her; and 
 in them reference is made to preceding as well as the follow- 
 ing articles. However, from the fact that as early as 1823 
 she became interested in Servian folk-songs, we may infer 
 that after that date her ventures into the field of criticism 
 were few. 
 
 Pustkuchen, a preacher and writer of the first half of the 
 nineteenth century had attracted no inconsiderable attention 
 by his captiously critical attitude toward Goethe's Wilhelm 
 Meister. The tone of hostility toward 'Goethe which pervaded 
 his books, uniting .a harsh judgment of both his personality 
 and works, excited the resentment of a hero-worshipping pub- 
 lic. Talvj's review of Pustkuchen's two works, "Ueber Wil- 
 helm Meisters Tagebuch vom Verfasser der Wander jahre, and 
 Ueber die Gedanken einer frommen Grafin, which had ap- 
 peared in 1821 and 1822 respectively, shows a keen and just 
 
 185 Gesammelte Novellen, Introduction, p. xxviii and xxix. 
 43 
 
intellect. Her whole examination is conducted in the spirit 
 of the eighteenth century essayists and reviewers who read into 
 the meaning of the word 'criticism' a much fuller significance 
 than we now ascribe to it; and she, like they, assumes in the 
 duty of the critic two functions, one to separate the genuine 
 from the non-genuine, as a second to judge or set a standard 
 for the beautiful. It is unfortunate that Talvj 's excursions 
 into the department of literary criticisms were not more nu- 
 merous after taking up her work in America, especially in 
 view of the fact that so much of America's literature bore the 
 stamp of a labored and artificial imitation. The check on such 
 literature, naturally is just such broad-based literary criticism 
 as that in which Talvj had exhibited her breadth of mind, 
 acuteness, and good judgment. To illustrate, in introducing 
 her critical review of Ueber Wilhelm Meister Tagebuch she 
 says: "There appear among the expressions of this clever 
 diary many which seem to me to be false, many distorted, and 
 then, too, many which are significant." She adds, "Among 
 all of them I find a truly ingenious connection and consequence 
 of an excellent thinker, self-reliant almost to stubborness some- 
 times." w She then proceeds to analyze the piece part by part. 
 But she does not stop with mere analysis; she draws compar- 
 isons and makes suggestions. She evinces in a letter to Jakob 
 Grimm a desire to be accorded just the sort of criticism she 
 herself tries to give. She says among other things, "... 
 in this case I wish to hear, fearlessly given, the voice of truth 
 only." 67 
 
 After discussing the weaknesses and deficiencies of Pust- 
 kuchen's book, Talvj turns to a consideration of its various 
 merits. "How gladly," she says "I pass to the excellent, the 
 new, and the beautiful, which form so predominant a part of 
 this book." In such a criticism an author cannot feel that the 
 view taken of his work by his critic has been colored by per- 
 sonal prejudice. It must appeal to him as the honest and un- 
 biased opinion of an acute and trained intellect; instead of 
 antagonizing, it must spur him on to greater effort. We are 
 
 **Conversationsblatt, No. 17, 1822. 
 
 167 Preussische Jahrbucher, vol. Ixxvi, p. 348. 
 -. 44 
 
told, or rather she tells us herself in her short autobiography, 
 that she enjoyed this kind of work. It was a challenge to her 
 ever-present inclination to investigate and to connect causes 
 and effects. 
 
 In her review and criticism of Ueber die Gedanken einer 
 frommen Gr'dfin, which appeared in No. 90 of the Conversa- 
 tionsblatt for 1822, she brings out very strongly a conviction 
 which we find her maintaining throughout her life. Pustkuchen 
 had expressed in this work a characteristically pessimistic sen- 
 timent : "Thus man torments himself to become religious and 
 
 for his efforts wins nothing but empty illusion My duty 
 
 is eternal love and still I cannot attain to it." Talvj answers, 
 "No one who recognizes the sublime happiness of inner faith 
 will be able to read these gloomy words without deep serious- 
 ness and painful sadness. If they were true, if all our efforts 
 and our strivings, if our deepest conclusions were in vain, if 
 the right physician did not lend a willing ear to our burning 
 desires, if we should have to wait until he came to us, in order 
 to lead us through his grace, how insignificant, how depressing, 
 how humiliating this human life would be." 
 
 In this criticism a chance but deeply serious allusion to 
 herself as an "ungelehrtes Frauenzimmer" bears witness to 
 her possession of a sense of unworthiness for the office of a 
 literary arbiter. In a way the term 'ungelehrt' was true, for 
 she lacked the formal preparation found within academic walls, 
 and had enjoyed little even of a tutor's training. However, 
 none but herself would have called her 'ungelehrt.' The scope 
 of her interest was very wide, and her scholarship in each of 
 her varied fields was far above the average. She speaks also 
 of the 'limitations of her capabilities.' Because of this very 
 consciousness of her limitations, what she says and the way 
 she says it appear absolutely genuine, and in being genuine 
 assume the character of the honest conviction of an unbiased 
 mind trained to think for and through itself. 
 
 The third article in the Conversationsblatt for 1822 is a re- 
 view of Grillparzer's Das goldene Vliess, in which the critical 
 element is greatly outweighed by a resume of the subject matter 
 
 45 
 
a rendition of the story in miniature. A few years later, 
 in 1826, she met Grillparzer at the home of Goethe in Weimar. 
 The most important piece of work done by Talvj during 
 this period, and indeed, according to the opinion of many, the 
 most important literary achievement of her lifetime, was her 
 Volkslieder der Serb en. As early as 1756 a Dalmatian, by 
 name Kacio-Miosic, made a collection of popular ballads of 
 Slavonic peoples, analogous to that which Bishop Percy did 
 for England and Scotland in 1765, when he published his 
 Reliques. In 1814 Wuk Stephanovitsch Karadschitsch pub- 
 lished a four volume collection at Leipzig, noatble in that it 
 inspired Jakob Grimm to give to the German people, in the 
 version of a German poet, the first of these songs that they had 
 read since the time of Herder. Through Jakob Grimm, more- 
 over, Wuk Stephanovitsch was brought into friendly relation 
 with Goethe, and was able to induce him, in turn, to entertain 
 a lively interest in Slavonic poetry. Goethe published some of 
 Wuk's translations, and some of Grimm's as well, in his Kunst 
 und Altertum. Finally, Jakob Grimm's public recommenda- 
 tion of the Servian popular poetry, aroused the curiosity of 
 Therese von Jakob, or Talvj, and she began the study of Ser- 
 vian, which, probably because of a strong foundation for it 
 which she had in her knowledge of Russian, she mastered with 
 unusual rapidity. By 1826 she had translated and published 
 two volumes of Volkslieder der Serben. She had heard that 
 Goethe was taking a decided interest in the Servian literature, 
 and so she ventured, despite an almost overpowering timidity, 
 to write to him and tell him of her proposed work. At the 
 time she sent her first letter to him, she also sent a few of the 
 songs she had already translated. 68 Goethe received her letter 
 and translations in the most cordial manner, and from that 
 time until the completion of her work she maintained a most 
 interesting and profitable correspondence with him. Three 
 times during the period, she met him personally at Weimar 
 and discussed the work with him. It had always been Goethe's 
 conviction that in order to arouse the proper atmosphere for 
 the reception of popular poetry, the songs or poems must be 
 
 68 April 12, 1824. 
 
 46 
 
presented in a mass and not in isolated form. Only in this 
 way, among so much of limitation, poverty, and superficiality 
 could its accompanying richness, breadth, and depth be realized. 
 It is no more fair to judge a nation by a few selections of pop- 
 ular songs than it is to judge an author by one or two of his 
 works. The fact that Talvj was aiming to present her transla- 
 tions in this collected form pleased Goethe very much, and he 
 encouraged her in most cordial phrases. In speaking of her 
 work in Kunst und Altertum he said, "In this matter, as things 
 now stand, nothing could be more pleasing than that a young 
 woman of peculiar talen and fitness for handling the Slavonic 
 language, acquired by a previous residence in Russia, should 
 conclude to make a study of the Servian, devoting herself to 
 this treasure of song with remarkable zeal She trans- 
 lates without external incentive, from an inner inclination and 
 
 judgment and she will arrange in a volume as many of 
 
 the poems as she needs in order to acquaint himself with this 
 extraordinary poetry." 69 Goethe's approval was the spark 
 of stimulation Talvj needed. Two motives lay back of her 
 work, one was to lessen the sting of her grief over the recent 
 death of a brother, and the other to please Goethe whom she 
 loved above all poets. 
 
 Jakob Grimm criticised her work as being too much a ger- 
 manizing of the Servian. When, at her request for his criti- 
 cism, he sent her this statement, "I do not understand why 
 much or all should be germanized, and I believe that our own 
 language is weakened in the process," 70 she replied with rather 
 astonishing frankness; "Indeed, if the folk-songs do not be- 
 long among that which is to be germanized, why should the 
 fables, so closely related to them, be translated? Whether 
 poetry or prose, it is one and the same." 71 And again she 
 says, "I cannot deny that my idea of a good translation does 
 
 not harmonize with yours I find that the better we 
 
 know a language, the less it occurs to us to translate it liter- 
 's 9 Kunst und Altertum. Weimar Ed., vol. xli xlii, p. 149. 
 
 70 Preussische Jahrbiicher, vol. Ixxvi, p. 348. 
 
 71 Ibidem, p. 349. 
 
 47 
 
ally. 72 In another reference to her translation she remarks 
 that she has tried to make it as faithful as the entirely different 
 spirit of the two languages will permit, often, for this rea- 
 son, throwing it into a purely literal form. She has never al- 
 lowed a simple or strong portrayal in the original to be changed 
 or swallowed up by rhetorical adornment. Goethe studied the 
 translations by both Grimm and Talvj, and then made the fol- 
 lowing statement : "Grimm's translation in its strict adherence 
 to the original, was for him the most desirable. Inasmuch as 
 he himself was not master of any Slavic dialect he, to a cer- 
 tain extent, approximated the original ; thus only could he pro- 
 cure a sympathy for the word-order and rythm of the Servian 
 songs. His aim was to lead back to the original text, but this 
 more scholarly attitude was not a feasible one for the more 
 general public, whose aim was appreciation rather than study. 
 On the other hand, Talvj 's more free and happy translation was 
 able to make the most vigorous hero-legends and the tenderest 
 love songs of this foreign nation the common property of Ger- 
 many." 73 
 
 In October of 1826 Talvj met Jakob Grimm in Cassel. His 
 attitude toward her at first seemed to lack the enthusiasm which 
 later marked it so strongly. Perhaps he who was then an au- 
 thority in the field of folk-lore and myth had an apprehensive 
 suspicion that hers was the work of a dilettante; and what 
 seemed like a jealous impatience of her intrusion upon his 
 interests was in reality the resentment of a highminded scholar 
 for anything which obscured the truth. At any rate, his at- 
 titude latter became one of decided admiration for both the 
 woman and her ability. This changed view-point was shown 
 twice once by his cordial expression of approbation when her 
 work appeared, and again by the expression of a concrete 
 act of kindness and deference. In 1837, when her hus- 
 band set out upon his tour of investigation to Palestine, she 
 returned to Germany, spending a part of the time during the 
 next three years in Dresden. While here, Jakob Grimm un- 
 expectedly paid her a visit and discussed his plan for a 'Wor- 
 
 Ibidem, p. 349. 
 
 73 R. Steig, Goethe und die Bruder Grimm, p. 180. 
 48 
 
terbuch' with her, in regard to which he was even then on his 
 way to Saxony. 
 
 A letter from Professor Jakob, a cousin of Talvj's, to Grimm 
 contains this acknowledgment, "You introduced the Servian 
 poems of my cousin to the public in such a friendly way." 74 
 Jakob Grimm's approval, no doubt, meant much, but Goethe's 
 cordial and lively interest was really the chief factor in assuring 
 to the book the instantaneous favor with which it met. I am 
 thoroughly convinced that the book would, if left to rest upon 
 its own merits, ultimately have attained to the same apprecia- 
 tion ; but without such adventitious aid the process would have 
 been a slow one. We must remember that Talvj was compar- 
 atively unknown in the field of literature, so that the name of 
 the author was not 'open sesame' to popularity! She quite natur- 
 ally wished to dedicate the book to Goethe. He accepted the 
 compliment with pleasure, but did not feel competent to comply 
 with her request that he write a preface ; however he recom- 
 mended it to the public through his Kunst und Alterum. The 
 dedication took the form of three beautiful verses, the last of 
 which is especially worth quotation : 
 
 Drum, hoher Meister, die zwiefach Dein eigen, 
 
 Die Blatter reich ich Dir, und zage nicht! 
 
 Dein Wink rief sie ermuthigend ans Licht. 
 
 Vielleicht, dass Manchem ihre Rathsel schweigen, 
 
 Dass unverstanden ihre Stimme spricht; 
 
 Dein Beifall geniigt und biirgt, sie offenbare 
 
 So Dichtrisch-Schones, wie das Menschlich-Wahre. 
 
 In speaking with Eckermann on January 18, 1825, Goethe 
 said, "I rejoice over this intellectual woman in Halle, who has 
 introduced us into the Servian world with a man's strength of 
 mind. The poems are excellent ! There are some among them 
 which are worthy of being placed beside the 'Song of Songs,' 
 and that means a great deal." 75 
 
 In Kunst und Alter turn we find the work mentioned as one 
 of the three beautiful gifts to German poetic literature. In 
 order of greatness, beauty, and worth Goethe mentions: Ser- 
 
 74 Preussische Jahrbiicher, vol. Ixxvi, p. 362. 
 
 75 Gesprache mit Eckermann. 1825. 
 
 49 
 
bische Lieder ubersetzt von Talvj, Lettische Lieder von Rhesa 
 and Frithiof durch Amalia von Helvig-Aus dem Schwedischen. 
 In another reference, again, she is mentioned with Jakob 
 Grimm and Herr Gerhard. To no one of these three writers 
 does Goethe give preeminence in this field. Wuk Stephano- 
 vitsch and Kopitar both gave her valuable assistance by sug- 
 gesting to her certain of those peculiarities of the Servian 
 language for which none but a native-born could possess a 
 real sympathy and appreciation. That the work met with the 
 approbation not merely of both these Servian scholars, but of 
 others as well, we may gather from a letter which she re- 
 ceived from some of the young Servian students who were 
 studying in Germany. What they wrote to her is of especial 
 interest at the present time: "The Servian people, robbed 
 of every interest in the activities and progress of the educated 
 world, were long known among the nations blessed with a 
 national culture, as a nation of slaves, often as a nation of 
 robbers and murderers. To the bearers of Europe's civili- 
 zation, the noble conceptions which nourished and inspired 
 the Servians were unknown. Instead of favor the nation ac- 
 quired disfavor, instead of sympathy, scorn To you, 
 
 O noble woman, and to your powerful mind belongs the honor 
 
 of having secured for our people protection and refuge 
 
 You have heralded the worth of the Occident. What a 
 sublime feeling for you has sprung up in the hearts of a nation 
 which has been placed on the stage of humanity not through 
 its own material might, but through your ability and effort. 
 Receive thanks, then, from us to whom your noble father- 
 land, Prussia, has so hospitably opened the doors of its 
 educational institutions. Your worthy name shall be enrolled 
 with respect and honor among the list of friends of that in- 
 tellectual progress, which you are advancing so wisely." ^ 
 
 Talvj accomplished in part what Herder in his Volkslieder 
 wished might yet be accomplished for the national poetry of 
 the less civilized older peoples. As yet this poetry seemed 
 veiled in darkness. Speaking of her work in this connection, 
 Menzel said, "He has gathered together in two volumes the 
 
 76 From an unpublished clipping found among her papers. 
 50 
 
most excellent love and epic songs of that nation. If he has 
 not given them to us with their whole natural atmosphere, still 
 he has made us acquainted with the very kernel of an entirely 
 peculiar folklore." 77 (Menzel was one of those who thought 
 'Talvj' was a man.) It was a surprise to the German people 
 to be brought to realize that such a wealth and depth of feel- 
 ing could exist in a nation which had always been looked upon 
 as barbarian. Whatever Goethe had done previous to this was 
 with isolated songs, and she, probably better than any one else, 
 realized how impossible it was to arouse an interest and ap- 
 preciation by means of isolated examples. The "Lamentation 
 of Asan Aga," which he had translated some years before, had 
 been received favorably, but it neither prepared the way for 
 nor anticipated the unusual appreciation of Servian literature 
 which followed the publication of Talvj 's book. Menzel cred- 
 ited to 'Herr Talvj' a deep natural sympathy for this so-called 
 barbarian people, which enabled him to give these songs the 
 charms of Ossian and Homer. 
 
 In these unspoiled sons of nature the Germans were brought 
 face to face with an old sacred strength and purity of heart 
 little dreamed of. Through all their ferocious wildness there 
 runs an almost incredible trace of mildness and tender honor. 
 Theirs is the naive expression of a feeling not yet restrained 
 by consciousness of civilization, or by the form of a stilted 
 and artificial language. The Servian and New Greek songs 
 bear some similarities, in as much as both peoples were on ap- 
 proximately the same plane of cultural development, and were 
 for centuries neighbors and fellow-servants under the same 
 tyranny. 
 
 A short history of the Servians, which successfully ful- 
 fills its design in creating an interest in the songs themselves, 
 constitutes an introduction to the first volume. A comparison 
 of Talvj 's translation with a literal translation of one of the 
 longer songs convinced both Goethe and Menzel that her ver- 
 sions moved with a swing and smoothness quite in accord with 
 the original. Both were free from even the restraint of rhyme. 
 Critics have said that Talvj 's and Goethe's translations seem, 
 
 " Literatur-Blatt, No. 77, Sept. 26, 1826. 
 51 
 
almost, to have been the work of one person. There is a 
 naturalness about the shorter poems of love, longing, fidelity, 
 and grief which effectually excludes all sentimentality. The 
 charm of truly artless spontaneity as attractive as the charm 
 of childish naivete hovers around the. The first volume con- 
 tains fifty-four poems of the lyrical variety, followed by ten 
 longer poems, or 'Romanzen/ depicting life within the family 
 circle and on the field of battle. A peculiar characteristic marks 
 all these longer poems; the mother and brother play a more 
 important role, it seems, than the father. Blood relationship, 
 again, as in all the earlier nations is a sacred tie. The vol- 
 ume closes with two long poems, of which one is built about 
 the heroic figure of Marko, while the other culminates in the 
 battle of Amselfeld. Marko is comparable to the German 
 Siegfried, the Greek Achilles, the Scandinavian Baldur, the 
 Ossian Oscar, and like them all succumbs to the irresistible 
 power of fate. 
 
 After the appearance of the first volume in 1825, repeated 
 complaints came that Talvj had not given to the public enough 
 of the shorter, so-called female songs ; and in the second volume 
 which appeared in 1826, she attempted to satisfy this demand 
 by the inclusion of ninety-two lyrics. Besides these, other 
 additions to the second volume include thirteen longer poems, 
 twelve legends and epics, another long Marko epic, and five 
 scenes from the last insurrection of the Servians. It was 
 currently believed that Talvj was acquainted with many more 
 songs, and a third volume, which never appeared, was long and 
 confidently awaited by many of her readers ; but whether fear 
 of offending the cultivated German ear with a presentation of 
 nature in her natural garb as manifested in a primitive and 
 natural people restrained her from further publications, I 
 have not been able to ascertain. One of her critics suggested 
 that as a possible reason. 
 
 Upon her arrival in Berlin, she was received as a writer of 
 recognized ability. Her work had already revived Savigny's in- 
 terest in Slavic poetry. On every hand she was met with praise 
 and thanks. All this meant much to Talvj, but with this pleas- 
 ure came keen sorrow, inasmuch as there no longer existed 
 
 52 
 
any occasion for a continuance of her correspondence with 
 Goethe. She says in one of her latest letters to him, "And 
 I am brought to realize with the deepest regret and sorrow how 
 this step (final publication) cuts loose every outer relation with 
 you whom I have honored with all the strength of my soul 
 since my earliest youth." 78 Her last letter to him bears her 
 thanks for two beautiful medallions which Goethe, as we know 
 from his Tagebuch of December 2, 1826, had sent her; medal- 
 lions of the same kind which he shortly afterwards (1827) 
 presented to Zelter and Grimer a picture of the Grand Duke 
 on one side and of Goethe and an eagle on the other. 
 
 And thus ended a chapter in Talvj's literary career which 
 in many respects has no counterpart in her later life. Actuated 
 in part by a desire to please Goethe, in part by a force of mind 
 which one of her critics found comparable to that of a German 
 professor, she had placed in German literature a monument to 
 herself and to the Servian nation. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The American Indian Translation of Pickering's Indian 
 
 Languages Essay on the Original Inhabitants of 
 
 North America. 
 
 The Indian, always picturesque and interesting, has come 
 to be considered the most romantic element in American his- 
 tory and early American life. He himself has not produced a 
 literature, but his language, his legends, and his songs have 
 been a study for scholars of various nations. In fact, the In- 
 dian had a great share in the development of the poetic inter- 
 est in folk songs which reached such a height in Germany dur- 
 ing the latter part of the eighteenth century, owing to the 
 belief that the original poetry of primitive nations manifested 
 the fundamental nature of man far more truly and power- 
 fully than the poetry of cultivated nations. Moreover, the 
 theory gained prominence that the Indians were the ten lost 
 tribes, and in consequence there arose a deep interest in their 
 origin, stimulating the study of their songs and legends. 
 
 78 Goethe Jahrbuch, ix, p. 58. 
 
 KO 
 
 OO ~~~" 
 
The theory of the Hebraic origin of the savage races, how- 
 ever, useful as it was in a literary, philological, and ethno- 
 logical interest in them, was, of course, without any scien- 
 tific value. Many alternative and conflicting hypotheses 
 concerning the various Indian dialects were advanced and in 
 consequence there arose a radical disagreement as to the Indian 
 language. To some it was harsh and altogether disagreeable ; 
 to others it was mellow, soft and sonorous. The character of 
 the wilderness tribes, too, became a matter of great dispute. 
 To some they were painted savages, cruel, revengeful, and ab- 
 solutely devoid of a single genuinely human feeling; to others 
 they were loyal, true, kind, and sincere. A remarkable fact, 
 noticeable in a comparative reading of French, English, and 
 German writers is that, generally speaking, the German at- 
 titude was more humane and lenient than that of the other na- 
 tions. Indeed Duponceau, one of the greatest scholars of the 
 Indian, sums up the attitude of nations other than German 
 very well in the words, "But who cares for the poor American 
 Indians? They are savages and barbarians and live in the 
 woods ; must not their languages be savage and barbarian like 
 them?" 79 But of the Teutonic writers he remarks: "I must 
 take this opportunity to express my astonishment at the great 
 knowledge which the literati of Germany appear to possess of 
 America and of the customs, manners, and languages of its 
 original inhabitants. Strange that we should have to go to 
 German universities to become acquainted with our own coun- 
 try." Before discussing Talvj's peculiar contributions to the 
 subject it may be well to consider what, in general, had been 
 done by the writers of various nations, and in particular by the 
 Germans. 
 
 The endeavors of John Eliot, Roger Williams, Cadwallader 
 Golden, Samuel Sagard, and Bryan Edwards to give the Indian 
 language and legends stability and permanence by reducing 
 them to writing must be acknowledged as a substantial effort 
 toward a general dissemination of knowledge concerning such 
 topics. Neither can we overlook the work of Baron de La 
 Hontan, Jonathan Carver, Father Charlevoix, Colonel John 
 
 79 Memoirs of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, vol. xii, p 367. 
 54 
 
Gibson, Dr. Barton, EHas Boudinot and others. However, 
 the real awakening of an interest in this huge task of pre- 
 serving the fast disappearing tongues and folk-stories of the 
 savages came through the Germans; and especially the Ger- 
 man missionaries, whose great intimacy with the Indians, 
 gained by the close contact of long years of residence among 
 them, inspired a sympathy and understanding which set it- 
 self gladly to the labor of recording their language. 
 
 As early as 1688 we find in a letter of Pastor ius, who studied 
 and worked at the University of Altdorf before coming to 
 America, an account of jthe Indians of Pennsylvania as he knew 
 them. He said in part: "The Indians, or as I prefer to call 
 them, the forest inhabitants of Pennsylvania," are large and for 
 
 the most part very muscular Of an open mind, the 
 
 speech is moderate and brief, but of decided worth. They can 
 neither read nor write. Notwithstanding, they are inventive, 
 sly, discreet, earnest, fearless, untiring, and alert, but always 
 exact and honest in business transactions." 80 In the second 
 letter is a list of some of the more common expressions and 
 terms of Indian speech, with their German equivalents. Thus 
 early the Germans made an attempt to become better acquainted 
 with the Indians by means of a knowledge of their language. 
 
 The most significant work, with respect to their language 
 and culture, however, was done about a century later by Zeis- 
 berger and, more especially by Heckewelder ; and it was 
 this which afforded Talvj much of her source material. It is 
 true that Alexander von Humboldt and Dr. N. H. Julius also 
 rendered her assistance by means of some original folk-lore 
 which they had collected; but of all the sources mentioned by 
 her, Heckenwelder seems to have been the most significant. 
 The great Moravian missionary first became an evangelist 
 to the Indians in 1762, as an assistant to Christian Friedrich 
 Post. This venture was not successful, however, and it was 
 not until 1771 that he entered upon his actual career as an 
 evangelist to them. In this year he began his labors as the 
 assistant of the already well-known David Zeisberger, work- 
 
 80 Goebel, "Zwei unbekannte Brief e von Pastorius," German Amer- 
 ican Annals, August, 1904. 
 
 55 
 
ing among the Moravian Indians, first in Pennsylvania and 
 then in Ohio. Almost the entire period of his life from this 
 time forward was filled with dealings with and for the Indians. 
 Nor was his pen idle, active as he was as a teacher and 
 proselyte. His book on the History, Manners, and Cus- 
 toms of the Indian Nations who once Inhabited Pennsylvania 
 and the Neighboring States, appearing in 1819, caused a 
 veritable uproar in the critical world for his attitude differed 
 almost diametrically from that which the majority of writers 
 before him had taken. Many of the judgments passed upon 
 his volume were favorable; many, also, were scathingly con- 
 demnatory. 
 
 A few of the more prominent phases of Indian life and cus- 
 toms which Heckewelder brought out may be interesting as 
 a background for Talvj's study; for many of her conclusions, 
 although arrived at from an altogether different method of 
 treatment, were similar. According to Heckewelder, the com- 
 plaints which the Indians made against European ingratitude 
 and injustice were long and dismal. They loved to repeat them 
 and always did it with the eloquence of nature, aided by an 
 energetic and comprehensive language whose force our polished 
 idioms could seldom imitate. "Often", he said, "I have listened 
 to these descriptions of their hard sufferings until I felt 
 ashamed of being a white man." 81 He heard one Indian re- 
 mark, "I admit that there are good white men, but they bear 
 no proportion to the bad; the bad must be the strongest, for 
 they rule. The white men are not like the Indians, who are 
 
 only enemies while at war and are friends in peace They 
 
 are not to be trusted." 82 This plaintive indignation Hecke- 
 welder found the more appealing from the fact that when the 
 Indians first saw the white men, they considered them superior 
 beings sent by the Great Spirit, and expected to be made hap- 
 pier by their coming. "And yet, for all their abuses," he quotes 
 these injured people, "the white men would always be telling 
 us of their great Book which God had given to them; they 
 would persuade us that every man was good who believed in 
 
 81 Memoirs of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, vol. xii, p. 76. 
 " Ibidem, p. 80 
 
 56 
 
what the book said, and every man was bad who did not be- 
 lieve in it. They told us a great many things which they said 
 were written in the good Book, and wanted us to believe it 
 all. We would probably have done so, if we had seen them 
 practice what they pretended to believe and act according to 
 
 the good words which they told us They killed those 
 
 who believed in their book as well as those who did not." 83 
 
 Heckewelder did not deny the horrors and cruelty of the 
 treatment which the Indians accorded their prisoners of war, 
 but he denied that torture and death were as frequent as many 
 of the writers had maintained. 84 Prisoners were generally 
 adopted by the families "of their conquerors in place of lost 
 or deceased relatives or friends. Burning and torturing 
 scarcely ever took place except when a nation had suffered 
 great losses in war, or when wilful and deliberate murders of 
 innocent women and children had occurred. The respect which 
 the simple savages had for old age was remarkable. In a coun- 
 cil no young man would presume to offer, unsolicited, one 
 word of advice in the presence of his elders. This very respect, 
 however, so laudable in itself, was sometimes carried to the 
 extreme, aand worked to the detriment of the Indians. 
 
 In their individual social relations, moreover, Heckewelder 
 pointed out that the aborigines were not quarrelsome, and were 
 always on their guard so as not to offend each other. When 
 one supposed himself hurt or aggrieved by a word which had 
 inadvertently fallen from the mouth of another, he would say 
 to him, "Friend, you have caused me to become jealous of you." 
 When the other explained and said he had no evil intentions 
 all hard feeling ceased. They did not fight with each other, 
 for they said fighting was only for dogs and beasts. The ver- 
 dict of Boudinot is in full accord with this opinion. "To 
 whom," says Boudinot, "should be attributed the evil pas- 
 sions, cruel practices, and vicious habits to which they are now 
 changed, but to those who first set the example, laid the founda- 
 tion, and then furnished the continual means for propagating 
 and supporting the evil ?" 85 
 
 ** Ibidem, p. 188. 
 
 84 See Lawson's Journal, p. 197. 
 
 85 Memoirs, vol. xii, p. 331. 
 
 57 
 
To the Indians the Almighty Creator was always present 
 as an almost visible reality. With reverence they felt and 
 acknowledged his supreme power. Much like the Greeks and 
 Romans, they believed that lesser gods had charge over the 
 elements. Combined with this worship was an ancestor-worship, 
 which inspired each of them with a hope to rise to fame and 
 glory, a hope, however, which they could expect to realize 
 only through submission and obedience. In illustration of this 
 religion and of the superstitious and poetic nature of the In- 
 dians, Heckewelder's book contains, besides the accounts of 
 savage life and customs, a great number of native legends 
 and bits of supernatural lore. 
 
 In a criticism of Heckewelder's work the North American 
 Review presented the following opinion, one characteristic of 
 the prevalent attitude of the English and the Americans : "The 
 range of thought of our Indian neighbors is extremely limited. 
 Of abstract ideas they are almost wholly destitute. They have 
 no sciences, and their religious notions are confused and 
 circumscribed. They have but little property, less law, and 
 no public offences. They soon forget the past, improvidently 
 disregard the future, and waste their thoughts, when they do 
 think upon the present. The character of all original languages 
 must depend, more or less, upon the wants, means, and oc- 
 cupations, mental and physical, of the people who speak them, 
 and we ought not to expect to find the complicated refinement 
 of polished tongues, among those of our Indians." 86 There 
 were, however, those already a pitiful minority who took 
 issue with this sentiment. Duponceau, for example, said, 
 "Alas! if the beauties of the Lenni Lenape language were 
 found in the ancient Coptic or in some ante-diluvian Babylonish 
 dialect, how would the learned of Europe be at work to display 
 them in a variety of shapes and raise a thousand fanciful 
 theories on that foundation! What superior wisdom, talents 
 and knowledge would they not ascribe to the nations whose 
 idioms were formed with so much skill and method!" 87 
 
 This, then, was the state of critical opinion in America in 
 
 86 North American Review, 1826, p. 79. 
 
 87 Memoirs, vol. xii, p. 367. 
 
 58 
 
regard to the Indians and their language, when Talvj became 
 interested in the various dialects, and in aboriginal culture as 
 manifested in their folk-lore. Her appearance served, in a 
 measure, as a response to the appeal of B. H. Coates made in 
 closing an address upon the "origin of the Indian" before the 
 Historical Society of Pennsylvania in 1834. "The occasion 
 is tempting", he said, "to urge the cause of the unhappy 
 aboriginals and must not be neglected. What are the in- 
 quiries of abstract research to the claims of living and suffering 
 humanity? It is to woman that we can ever appeal for all 
 that is generous in self-devotion and gentle and lovely in per- 
 formance. You possess the power to guide and control public 
 opinion. You mould the statesman and the warrior, and con- 
 vert their cold and cruel calculations into plans of benevolence 
 and humanity. Nothing but woman can bid the demon of 
 avarice to pause in his career. It is to woman, therefore, that 
 I address the cause of the unfortunate beings who have been 
 the subject of this discourse, a race suffering from every ill 
 that can be inflicted by the combined agency of the thirst for 
 land and the thirst for gold. They are still the same people 
 who were so long the faithful allies of Penn; the men who 
 succored our ancestors and enabled them to form a state." 88 
 
 The first work of Talvj in this new field was a translation 
 into German of John Pickering's Indian Languages of North 
 America, completed in 1834. 89 Her object in beginning this 
 task was to make Pickering's manual more accessible to Ger- 
 mans than it would have been in its English form. She 
 summed up the extent to which studies in the Indian tongues 
 had progressed. In Bethlehem, the central point of the Her- 
 renhuters, she said, there was a complete if small library of 
 essays, dictionaries, etc. of various Indian dialects, written by 
 missionaries of the brotherhood and put there to inform the 
 younger members. Unfortunately the work of both Germans 
 
 88 Memoirs, vol. iii, part ii. 
 
 89 Pickering wrote this essay for Francis Lieber's Encyclopaedia 
 Americana, an encyclopedia based on the Brockhaus Conversations-Lexi- 
 kon. Duponceau was the great influence upon Pickering, while Du- 
 ponceau in turn was influenced by Humboldt. 
 
 59 
 
and Americans up to this time had fallen into obscurity. A 
 significant step forward had been made when the American 
 Philosophical Society of Sciences in Philadelphia turned their 
 attention to this work in 1816. Massachusetts .and Rhode 
 Island followed in 1819. Many writers on the question had 
 not seen anything worthy of study in the Indian language, but 
 like Herder aand Wilhelm von Humboldt before her, she felt 
 that in a knowledge of the connection of languages lay the 
 key to the world's history. 
 
 The great difficulty, she continued, in learning the Indian 
 language lay in the lack of harmony in the various orthog- 
 raphies used by the grammarians. Men of various nations rep- 
 resented sounds by symbols equivalent only in their respective 
 languages ; so that in order to form a conception of the pronun- 
 ciation one had to refer constantly to the native language of 
 the men who studied and wrote this literature. Herder had 
 recognized another reason for difficulty, a difficulty which was 
 found in a great many other primitive languages; the fact 
 that the more life was inherent in a language, the less one 
 thought of restraining it in letters ; the more originally it ex- 
 pressed the unassorted sounds of nature, the less it was sus- 
 ceptible of reduction to written form. And it was almost be- 
 yond the power of a foreigner to form the sounds, let alone 
 represent them by letters. 80 Rasles, who spent ten years among 
 the Indians of North America, complained of the fact that, 
 even with the greatest care and attention, he was often able to 
 get only half a word. Chaumont, who spent fifty years among 
 the Hurons, complained of their inexpressible accent. Pickering 
 chose the pronunciation of the German letters as the simplest 
 and most useful inasmuch as they were not radically different 
 from the Spanish, Italian, Swedish, and Danish, and, as re- 
 gards most vowels, agreed with the French. The English 
 seemed built upon caprice more than principle, and so made a 
 mass of superfluous letters necessary. 
 
 Pickering said that the original inhabitants of this land pos- 
 sessed a language different in its idioms from all the languages 
 of the known world. Duponceau, who had made a study of all 
 
 90 Herder, Sdmtliche Werke (Suphan), vol. v. 
 60 
 
the languages of America from Greenland to Cape Horn, had 
 proved that the manifold forms of human speech which existed 
 in the Eastern Hemisphere did not exist in the Western. One 
 and the same system seemed to run through all of the Indian 
 languages; however, the variations of the objects made it 
 difficult for a knowledge of one to serve as an open gate to all. 
 Duponceau used the term polysynthetic in speaking of the In- 
 dian languages. 
 
 A prejudice of long standing against the dialects of wild 
 peoples blinded many of the students of language to the fact, 
 which seemed established in Pickering's mind, that the native 
 Americans had a language second to none in richness of 
 idioms. Compare this view with the following of Lawson's, 
 "Their languages or tongues are so deficient that you cannot 
 suppose that the Indian ever could express themselves in such 
 a flight of stile as authors would have you believe. They are 
 so far from it, that they are but just able to make one another 
 understand what they talk about." 91 In trying to explain such 
 a narrow and uninformed viewpoint, Pickering thought it might 
 be due to a general failure to appreciate the fact that philosophy 
 and science had little to do in the formation of a language. 
 This explanation seems plausible, and indeed logical, in view 
 of such statements as that made by one illiberal and superficial 
 student of language, that the language of the Indians pos- 
 sessed no real grammatical forms because it was not inflected 
 like the Greek, Latin, and Sanskrit. Consequently, judging 
 from the standpoint of its usefulness in assisting in the de- 
 velopment of abstract ideas, he gave it a Tow rank among 
 languages. But the falsity of this criticism is apparent from a 
 cursory examination of the inflectional power of various In- 
 dian parts of speech. Mattatsch gluppiweque, as Talvj tells 
 us, is equivalent to the Latin "nisi veneris" . 
 
 Matta negates an adverb. 
 
 tsch is the sign of futurity with which an adverb is inflected. 
 
 gluppiweque is the second person, plural, present subjunc- 
 tive of the verb. 92 
 
 91 Lawson, An account of the Indian of North Carolina, 1709. 
 
 92 Pickering Indianische Sprachen Amerikas Talvj, p. 6. 
 
 61 
 
Certainly these forms show a higher degree of inflection 
 than the English, French, or German. It was with reason that 
 Duponceau's study led him to conclude that, on the whole, 
 the native American's language was rich in words and gram- 
 matical forms. 
 
 In the construction of their rules of syntax there seemed 
 to exist among the savage dialects the greatest order, method, 
 and regularity. Most of the so-called students of the Indian 
 languages failed to go deep enough into their essential nature 
 to give a fair decision. Heckewelder, the friend of Dupon- 
 ceau, was the first to call the attention of the public to this. At 
 the time he was looked upon by critics as a benevolent ignora- 
 mus, and almost as a misrepresenter of a language he had 
 studied for forty years, in the same way that Duponceau was 
 considered an enthusiast whose feelings had run away with 
 his judgment. Nevertheless, the statements of these two men 
 are easily reinforced by conclusions drawn over a century be- 
 fore. The Indian apostle Eliot in 1666 spoke of the fact that 
 the aborigines possessed the faculty of combining syllables to 
 express various shades of meaning. Because of this system of 
 polysynthesis, as Duponceau called it, logically their vocabu- 
 lary would be boundless. 93 Roger Williams testified to the fact 
 that the Indian language was not impoverished. In 1648, in 
 describing a little English-Indian dictionary he was publishing, 
 he said: "The English for every Indian word or sentence is 
 in a straight line directly across from the Indian. At times 
 there are two words for the same thing for their language 
 is extraordinarily rich, and they often have five and six words 
 for one and the same thing." 94 
 
 To an exact translation of this little book by Pickering, 
 Talvj added a number of original notes, cotaining many in- 
 teresting anecdotes and facts, besides explanations of the text 
 itself. In these notes she gathered together the various philo- 
 
 "Indianische Sprachen Amerikas, p. 11. 
 
 94 Zeisberger wrote a complete dictionary of the Iroquois language 
 in three quarto volumes. The first from A to H is unfortunately lost, 
 but the remainder, which is preserved, contains over eight hundred 
 pages. This would show that the Indian languages are not so poor as 
 is generally imagined. 
 
 62 
 
logical explanations of all the greatest students of the Indian 
 language, Duponceau, Heckewelder, Zeisberger, Vater, Louis 
 Cass, Charlevoix, and Roger Williams. The fifth note is es- 
 pecially interesting as illustrating the nature of Talvj's in- 
 vestigations. The Cherokees, at the time of her early res- 
 idence in America, were becoming quite civilized, and in the 
 process were offering an interesting field for a study of 
 cultural development, especially in the origin and growth of a 
 written language. She translated for her German readers a 
 letter from Elias Boudinot, himself a Cherokee on his father's 
 side, to W. Woodbridge, the editor of Annals of Education. 
 In this letter the development of the alphabet was described, an 
 alphabet whose simplicity and directness were such, as she 
 said, that a child could learn to speak and read it within a few 
 days. Its content is of unusual interest, while as a contribution 
 to the history of languages it is very valuable. 
 
 Talvj's second work on the Indians dealt with their folk- 
 lore and is contained in her book entitled Charakteristik der 
 Volkslieder, a discussion of which is reserved until the chapter 
 on "Popular Poetry." Her research work on this phase of In- 
 dian culture did not take the shape of a personal investigation 
 among the Indians themselves, but rather that of a very 
 thorough examination of all the available reports of the ex- 
 plorers, colonists, and missionaries of various nations. Among 
 the sources thus probed were Heckewelder, Alexander von 
 Humboldt, Wilhelm von Humboldt, Kranz, Julius, Martius, 
 Carver, Williams, Dunne, and Charlevoix. Among other con- 
 siderations, she confronted the same question which had con- 
 fronted practically all other students of the private life of the 
 red-men; why did they produce practically no poetry? Their 
 life and customs possessed poetic elements, their language was, 
 in a measure, well adapted to poetic expression, and their sur- 
 roundings were romantic to a degree always picturesque and 
 often sublime. Her conclusions with regard to this subject 
 were peculiarly original. It must be admitted, she said, that of 
 all uncivilized peoples the American Indians in their original 
 condition stand out the most distinctively poetic. The African 
 races are either rough barbarians, or harmless children unable 
 
 63 
 
to approach the boundaries of an intellectual nonage. The 
 uncivilized peoples of Asia, on the other hand, are enslaved by 
 despotism; while the moutain dwellers and Nomads who 
 alone are free bear a certain resemblance to the warlike In- 
 dians, a resemblance, to be sure, modified by various local 
 conditions. The nationality of the Indians seems to harmonize 
 with their surroundings more than in the case of other un- 
 civilized peoples. Their misdeeds appear rather the natural 
 outgrowth of an immaturity of spiritual development than 
 evidence of innate wickedness. Their religion is the religion 
 of nature, wild, free, devoutly poetic for they are pantheists, 
 and invest God with the forms of natural surroundings in 
 which they live. 
 
 That the mental life of the aborigines was undeveloped, 
 she brought out clearly by the following analysis: The 
 Indians classified all objects as animate and inanimate. 
 Every animal had to them a soul and a claim to immortality. 
 Yet while nature was the object of their reverence, still their 
 belief in her powers was not materialism. Many of their 
 superstitious sayings, handed down secretly from father to 
 son, were without doubt as childish and absurd as the sayings 
 of other uncivilized peoples, but many among them had also a 
 wonderful depth and meaning. The Indians viewed the living 
 world as a great body whose members were all subject to the 
 same laws of birth and growth, endurance and release. The 
 earth was to them a common mother, who carried within her 
 the seed of all life, and from whom everything that existed 
 received its first form. Thus was it decreed by the great and 
 good spirit, the father of men, of animals, and of plants. The 
 regions below the earth were still peopled with many lower 
 races. The Delaware Indians would not eat a rabbit or a mole, 
 for some soul might be contained therein, retarded in its de- 
 velopment ; and they would have no way of telling whether or 
 not it was related to them. Their ancestors called the rattle- 
 snake grandfather, and neither could be induced by any price 
 to kill it themselves nor would they allow white men to slay it. 
 This idea of their relationship to animals was shown in their 
 tribe names, Wolf, Bear, Tortoise, Eagle. The superstitious 
 
 64 . 
 
fear of the owl among some of the tribes, and the belief in the 
 significance of the song and flight of certain birds came, no 
 doubt, from the same source. Similar bonds connected them 
 with the whole living world. Among many tribes even the 
 stars were considered members of a family. 
 
 One of the features among the customs of the tribes which 
 struck Talvj as being highly poetic was their tendency to use 
 specific instead of general names. We will agree with her, I 
 think, that poetry has been lost when descriptions become 
 general and vague ; the more specific and individual the terms 
 of expression, the more graphic aand clear the picture. With 
 such a treasure of poetic material lying within the inmost 
 nature of the Indians, she felt that strong counter-elements 
 must have been at work to prevent the production of poetry 
 and to make what they had produced in the way of songs and 
 short stories so meager and uninteresting. The Indians to her 
 were an example of a poetic temperament without poetic ex- 
 pression. Talvj cited with some exceptions in opinion the state- 
 ment given by Abbe Clavigero of the poetry of the old Mexican 
 Indians a statement differing in many respects from the one 
 ordinarily presented. "The language of the Aztecs", he said, 
 "was bright, pure, and pleasing, full of pictures and re- 
 current images of the most attractive objects in nature, such 
 as flowers, trees, and rivers. " But the flattering hues of the 
 Abbe's picture were dimmed by his failure to offer proof. Abbe 
 Molina, again, described the poetry of the Araucana Indians in 
 similarly glowing terms, but such descriptions, Talvj thought, 
 were based on what the poetry of these tribes theoretically 
 should have been, and not what it really was. In reality, Talvj 
 felt that they were not poetic largely because they were a people 
 in whom the passions were stronger than the imagination. In- 
 tense passions were never productive of poetry and, when filled 
 with these passions, the Indians were fairly robbed of their 
 human nature, and took on the aspect of a fiend. As to their 
 skill in the use of metaphors, it was rather the outgrowth of 
 their method of living than an outgrowth of the imagination. 
 Their metaphors were taken immediately out of nature, in 
 which they had more confidence than in the realm of the ab- 
 
 65 
 
stract, the realm from which so many educated people obtain 
 their metaphorical expressions. The innumerable traditions of 
 the Indians did not show many traces of imagination. 
 
 The love for solitude which the Indians possessed seemed 
 to spring from their love of independence and not from an 
 inclination to cultivate the imagination. Only when they had 
 cast off all bonds of companionship did they consider them- 
 selves absolutely free. Wilhelm von Humboldt told of a tribe 
 in South America which possessed this trait to such an ex- 
 tent that even the children at times left their parents for four 
 or five days, and wandered about in the forests, sustaining 
 themselves by herbs and roots of trees. Thus deeply in- 
 grained in their souls was the love of independence. 
 
 The Indians, again, continues Talvj, were by nature re- 
 served and not at all prone to disclose their emotions, a fact 
 which militated against the production of lyric poetry. Among 
 themselves the redmen were not gloomy, secretive people, 
 as they appeared to the white men. Before others they seemed 
 to be completely absorbed in themselves and given up to melan- 
 choly. All who had had an opportunity of observing them 
 when among their own people, and when not disturbed by 
 suspicious fears, described them as extraordinarily talkative 
 and cheerful, and full of a certain dry satirical wit. But Talvj 
 doubts whether their talk was ever of a very sensible nature. 
 
 Still another element which, in Talvj 's opinion, worked 
 against the production of poetry, was the absence of the pas- 
 sion of love among the Indians ; an absence as to which, how- 
 ever, she admits there was still some disagreement among 
 writers. Generally speaking, the Indians undoubtedly were not 
 demonstrative. A number of travelers agreed on the posses- 
 sion by the savages of a certain tender regard and affection 
 for the children, but the general attitude toward the wife was 
 one of indifference. Their friendships were based not so 
 much on the principles of affection as on the principles of 
 honor and duty. Talvj would not have us think that the In- 
 dians were incapable of the tenderer emotions, but they were 
 not dominated by them. Perhaps this explains an apparent 
 absence of jealousy among them. Two of the love songs which 
 
 66 
 
she succeeded in obtaining through the kindness of Dr. Julius 
 will suffice to show that the depth of feeling expressed is 
 not great. 
 
 I. 
 
 Zwei Tage ist's nun, zwei Tage, 
 Dass letzt ich Nahrung genommen, 
 Zwei Tage nun, zwei Tage! 
 
 Fur dich, fiir dich, mein Lieb 
 Fur dich, ist's, dass ich traure, 
 Fiir dich, fur dich, mein Lieb. 
 
 Die Fluth ist tief und breit, 
 Auf der mein Lieb gesegelt, 
 Die Fluth ist tief und breit! 
 
 Fiir dich ist's, dass ich traure, 
 Fiir dich, fur dich, mein Lieb! 
 Fur dich ist's, dass ich traure !. 95 
 
 II. 
 
 Wahrhaftig, ihn lieb ich allein, 
 Dess Herz ist wie der siisse Saft, 
 Der siisse Saft des Ahornsbaumes ! 
 Wahrhaftig, ihn lieb ich allein ! 96 
 
 Ihn lieb ich, ihn lieb ich, dessen Herz 
 Verwandt ist dem Laube, dem Espenlaub, 
 Dem Blatt das immer lebt und bebt, 
 Wahrhaftig, ihn lieb ich allein ! ** 
 
 The musical element, we are told by Talvj, was lacking 
 almost entirely in their songs ; and this was granted even by the 
 most enthusiastic advocates of the Indian language. Alexander 
 von Humboldt, in speaking of the Carabeans, said that they 
 spoke with great fluency, in a loud voice, and with a somewhat 
 accented expression. This would give a slight poetical nature 
 to their conversation. But their life was such, he continued, 
 that their conversation did not seem to grow out of an over- 
 powering emotion. Ambition was their motive force, not the 
 
 96 Talvj, Charakteristik der Volkslieder, p. 123. 
 e Ibidem, p. 123. 
 
 67 
 
emotions. These, then, were some of the reasons set forth by 
 Talvj as operating in restraint of poetic productions among 
 the Indians. 
 
 There was, however, one form of poetic expression current 
 among them besides their conversation, and that was their 
 dancing. In marked contradistinction to that of other nations, 
 as Talvj was especially qualified to judge from her extensive 
 acquaintance with the folk-lore of many other peoples, the 
 Indian dance was not merely a favorite pastime, but was a 
 language expressive of the most intimate feelings. The dance 
 was to the Indians what song was to other nations. The per- 
 fect abandon of their war-dance; the reverential tread of the 
 sacrifice-dance; the slow movement of the peace-dance, gave 
 perfect vent to their varying emotions. As accompaniment they 
 sang single ejaculatory words, which the expressive movements 
 of the dance rendered entirely intelligible. Talvj J s apprecia- 
 tion of the poetry of the Indian dances was certainly an evi- 
 dence of her German temperament, a temperament which saw 
 poetry in all harmony. To most students of the Indians their 
 dances were grewsome and savage, an appeal to the lowest 
 passions, and an expression of absolute barbarism. Charlevoix, 
 who wrote a book about the Iroquois Indians, gave the general 
 characteristics of their songs as wildness and pain. Their 
 tones, he said, were monotonous and rigid. Yet the terror as- 
 cribed to the Indian war-songs must have lain in the method of 
 singing them, for the words themselves do not strike terror to 
 the reader. The following war-song of the Iroquois tribes will 
 illustrate the mild character of the words. 
 
 Nun geh' ich, nun geh' ich zum freud'gen Geschafte 
 
 O grosser Geist, erbarme dich mein, 
 
 Im freud'gen Geschafte hab' Erbarmen mit mir! 
 
 Auf meinem Wege gieb gutes Gluck, 
 Und habe Erbarmen, o grosser Geist, 
 Mit meinem freud'gen Geschafte ! 97 
 
 In an interesting way Talvj describes the folk-lore of the 
 Greenlanders and Eskimaux, who, although of apparently dif- 
 
 97 Talvj, Charakteristik der Volkslieder, p. 119. 
 
ferent origin, spoke a language of almost the same construction 
 and character as that of the Indians. Their songs, like those 
 of the Indians, had neither rhyme nor meter ; they consisted of 
 short irregular sentences, which were recited with a sort of 
 rhythmic intonation. The funeral dirges of the Greenlanders 
 were very similar to those of the Indians, especially the Sioux ; 
 perhaps not so much in content as in the manner of singing. 
 She saw a truly poetic emotion evidenced as the mourners and 
 friends, in tones of woe and sorrow, chanted the songs of be- 
 reavement, interrupted, as it were, after each sentence by a 
 loud cry of grief from all present. It is upon the authority of 
 Carver, whose travels among the Indians were very extensive, 
 that Talvj traces the similarity between these northern dirges 
 and those of the Sioux of the west. As to similarity of content 
 the reader may judge for himself from a few verses of one of 
 each nation's funeral dirges. Through Kranz, the famous 
 Greenland traveler, Talvj was able to get a so-called Gron- 
 landische Leichenklage. 
 
 Wehe mir! dass ich deinen Sitz ansehen soil, der nun leer ist! Deine 
 Mutter bemiihet sich vergebens, dir die Kleider zu trocknen! 
 
 Siehe meine Freude ist ins Finstere gegangen und in den Berg 
 verkrochen ! 
 
 Ehedem ging ich des Abends aus und freute mich ! ich strengte meine 
 Augen an und wartete auf dein Kommen ! 98 
 
 Compare with this the Indian Leichenklage of a mother at the 
 grave of her little child. 
 
 O hatt'st du gelebt, mein Sohn, gelebt, 
 Bald hatte und wie! deine junge Hand 
 Den machtigen Bogen spannen gelernt! 
 
 Verderben, mein Sohn, o hatt'st du gelebt, 
 Verderben hatten bald deine Pfeil' 
 Den Feinden uns'res Stammes gebracht. 
 
 Du hattest getrunken ihr Blut, ihr Blut, 
 
 Und hattest verzehret ihr Fleisch, ihr Fleisch, 
 
 Und Sklaven in Menge hatt'st du gemacht ! " u. s. w. 
 
 99 Charakteristik der Volkslieder, p. 120. 
 os Charakteristik der Volkslieder, p. 118. 
 
The criticism made by many travelers of the absolute 
 spiritual poverty of the Indians was very distasteful to Talvj. 
 She felt that such a judgment was neither fair nor just, for 
 most of the Indian tribes with which civilized people had come 
 in contact had been warlike peoples, whose souls were deadened 
 to all poetic feeling by their unequal struggle for existence 
 against the white man. As she suggests, we have not judged 
 the Indians under original or even normal conditions. Such 
 a study was quite unusual. Among the innumerable accounts 
 of the Indians prior to her time and even after her time, Indian 
 culture as such was not considered. From the originality of 
 her work in this hitherto unexplored field, I think, I may justly 
 say that Talvj played an important part in creating an interest 
 in America's original inhabitants among the Americans them- 
 selves. 
 
 It seems logical to infer that Longfellow received inspira- 
 tion from her for his famous poem Hiawatha. This poetic in- 
 terpretation of the Indians and their surroundings made by 
 Talvj is the distinctive characteristic of Longfellow's poem. 
 If one follows a reading of Talvj 's essay with a reading of 
 Hiawatha, he is struck at once by the feeling of an indefinable 
 similarity. It cannot be attributed to any other cause than a 
 similarity of poetic interpretation. Both put into their in- 
 terpretation the romance of human existence and raise the 
 Indians out of the state of animal savagery so commonly at- 
 tributed to them. 
 
 A careful study of Longfellow's letters and journals, as 
 published by Samuel Longfellow, does not reveal any direct 
 mention of Talvj. In a letter written by Dr. N. W. Julius to 
 Longfellow on May 28, 1838, the former says, "This day I had 
 a long interesting letter from Mrs. Robinson [Talvj] who will 
 pass some time in Dresden." This indicates that Longfellow 
 knew Mrs Robinson, at least in a literary way. 100 Another 
 
 100 The following quotation from the review of her Literature of 
 the Slavic Nations found in volume 37 of Graham's Magazine seems 
 to indicate a literary acquaintanceship also: "Two or three poems 
 relating to the desolate conditions of motherless orphans are introduced 
 by a reference to a Danish ballad, which we trust that Longfellow will 
 search after and translate. 
 
 70 
 
indication which points toward his acquaintance with her was 
 their mutual friendship with the family of Karl Follen. Long- 
 fellow knew Duponceau and Pickering also, as is indicated 
 in a letter to his father dated October 25, 1840. The reference 
 is in regard to a French article which the poet had written for 
 the North American Review the preceding year. He says, "Mr. 
 Duponceau of Philadelphia has read it; and wrote to Mr. 
 Pickering to say that he liked it, and that I had taken the true 
 ground." Besides these mutual literary friends Longfellow's 
 enthusiasm for the German language and German romanticism 
 suggests another bond of acquaintance between him and Talvj. 
 On June 22, 1854, he writes in his Journal, "I have at 
 length hit upon a plan for a poem on the American Indian. It 
 is to weave their beautiful traditions into a whole." And on 
 September 19 he writes, "Working away with Tanner, Hecke- 
 welder, and sundry books about the Indian." Hiawatha ap- 
 peared in 1855; Talvj 's essay on Indian folk-lore in 1840. 
 The precedence of her work is significant to tne Inference 
 which I have drawn. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 Studies in Popular Poetry. 
 
 "Popular poetry is not the heritage of a few blessed in- 
 dividuals ; by it is meant that general poetic productivity which 
 pervades the mass of men as it pervades nature. Among the 
 nations of Europe it is a dying plant ; here and there a lonely 
 relic is discovered among the rocks, preserved by the invigorat- 
 ing powers of the mountain air. But for the most part civiliza- 
 tion has ruthlessly swept it from its path, and in the future we 
 may expect to find merely dried specimens, preserved between 
 two sheets of paper and securely guarded in a cabinet." This 
 was Talvj 's conception of popular poetry as she expressed it 
 in the introduction to her study of ^"Slavic Popular Poetry" in 
 the North American Review for 18#6. 101 
 
 101 This idea is refuted by Professor Adolph Hauffen (Prag) in 
 the Zeitschrift des Vereins fur Volkskunde, vol iv, (1894) p. 5 ff. "To- 
 day we can speak of a dying out of popular poetry only in those dis- 
 tricts and among those people where literary German poetry prevails. 
 
 71 
 
Before we consider the service she rendered to the science 
 of comparative literature and to the cause of human culture 
 by this remarkable study, a brief review of the historical growth 
 of interest in popular poetry may be in place. When old Ger- 
 man folk-lore was at its height, there seemed to be no definite 
 and sharp distinction between artistic and folk poetry, as there 
 was no marked difference in the education of the various 
 classes of people. The songs of the people were sung in city 
 and village alike by all classes, carried from one place to an- 
 other by wandering minstrels, or again printed on leaflets and 
 distributed at the fairs or even on the streets. Such ballads 
 or lyrics were named variously, according to the theme, "street 
 songs", "peasant songs", "love songs", "shepherd songs", etc., 
 but the idea of calling them popular or folk songs seems never 
 to have occurred to anyone. Soon, however, with the intor- 
 duction of Humanism and classical learning the nation be- 
 came divided into two distinct classes, the one composed of 
 those possessing a classical education, the other of those who 
 did not. In the seventeenth century the breach became es- 
 pecially pronounced. The old popular songs were ignored by 
 the learned scholars and everything that belonged to the un- 
 learned masses fell into disfavor. From this time on un- 
 til the time of Herder "Volk" stood for rabble. 102 The ver- 
 nacular and the classical languages were strictly differentiated, 
 and because of the supposed vulgarity of expression of the 
 people the former was driven out of literature. The deadening 
 theory of poetry as something purely formal, artistic, conven- 
 tional, and didactic a prerogative of the educated grew 
 apace. 
 
 From a literary-historical standpoint the erasure of this 
 division line marks the beginning of the great folk song move- 
 ment. At the head of the movement stood Michel Montaigne 
 with his study of Brazilian songs, from which he concluded 
 
 102 To Herder "Volk" meant the eternal source of all that was new 
 and original. Today, largely through the influence of the French Revo- 
 lution, the term has the added attribute of political. We are indebted to 
 Herder for the word "Volkslied", a word which practically defies Eng- 
 lish translation. Cf. also Hildebrand, "Materialien zur Geschichte des 
 deutschen Volkslieds," Zeitschrift fur den deutschen Unterricht, vol. v. 
 
 72 
 
that popular and purely natural poetry has a naive grace 
 which compares favorably with the beauty of artificial poetry. 
 An intense interest in some of the songs of the original in- 
 habitants of America sprang up in Germany, the same song 
 often appearing under various names. As remarked elsewhere, 
 it was considered a great discovery when it was found that 
 even the Indians had their poets. In England the impulse to 
 recognize popular poetry came through Addison, who was the 
 first to call attention to the old ballads; it was given further 
 strength by the appearance of Ossian; and finally, in 1765, 
 found its full expression in Percy's Reliques of Ancient Eng- 
 lish Poetry. An acquaintance with the existence and merits of 
 popular poetry, and a desire to collect it, were thus born in 
 many lands at once; but the nurturing into full growth and 
 fruitful significance of this appreciation became the task of 
 Germany. 
 
 When the Reliques came into Germany, Lessing had already 
 prepared the way by his words, "Poets are born under every 
 sky, and poetic expression is not the property solely of culti- 
 vated peoples/' 103 Opitz, Haller, Lessing, Hagedorn had each 
 in turn called attention to the store of popular songs. The 
 theory of its study, however, had not yet been developed fully 
 enough to afford popular poetry complete recognition; the 
 requisite atmosphere was still in the process of creation. During 
 the eighteenth century, indeed, a shortlived distinction between 
 natural and popular poetry was frequently advanced, especial- 
 ly by Klopstock and those of his school who scorned the "un- 
 poetic rabble," but reverenced the "song of soulful nature." 
 Into this pregnant atmosphere Percy's Reliques came. The 
 effect was immediate and far-reaching. Ballad poetry was 
 reborn, with Herder as its father ; and his epoch-making work, 
 Volkslieder, for which, it is true, he had laid a foundation 
 as early as 1770 and 1771 by his studies of Shakespeare, Os- 
 sian, and Oriental poetry, appeared in 1778. In 1772 he 
 had begun a diligent study of the Reliques which, his 
 wife tells us, became one of his great sources of re- 
 
 io3 Erwin Kircher, "Geschichte des Volkslieds" Zeitschrift fur deut- 
 sche Wortforschung, vol. iv. p. 6. 
 
 73 
 
creation. Indeed, he regarded the songs of primitive 
 peoples as a source of inspiration second only to his Bible. 
 The following year stood out as a great mountain peak in 
 German literature; Klopstock finished his epic the Messiah, 
 Goethe published his Gotz, Burger produced his Lenore, 
 and Herder wrote his essay on Ossian and the Songs of Old 
 Peoples. This latter came almost like a revelation, and re- 
 sulted immediately in a great flood of translations of various 
 ballads from the Reliques, with a consequent dissemination of 
 interest in this kind of poetry. But the most important pledge 
 of Herder's interest in folk-lore was, as we have remarked, his 
 Volkslieder, a work of incomparable influence upon the de- 
 velopment of German literature, in that it caused a just valua- 
 tion to be placed upon popular poetry. It has been called the 
 greatest forerunner in modern times of the scientific and 
 aesthetic development of Germany, because it recognized 
 the deep inner emotions of the most remote peoples and 
 respected their individuality; and because out of its romantic 
 conception of folk lore was born the philology or the scientific 
 study of folk languages. It pointed out that more than any 
 other form of expression folk poetry was truly the voice of 
 the people, beyond the powers of the individual, and the out- 
 growth of the dynamic strength of the whole unit. 104 Herder 
 did not realize at this time that countless treasures of song lay 
 concealed within the limits of Germany, awaiting the magic 
 word which should awaken them into new life. A few years 
 later, in 1805, the glad note of discovery was sounded by 
 Des Knaben Wunderhorn which awakened an echo of a 
 thousand tongues, and paved the way for Ludwig Uhland 
 with his great work, Alte hoch- und niederdeutsche Volks- 
 lieder in 1844 and 1845. Thus far popular poetry had been 
 studied from a cultural and aesthetic point of view and not by 
 philological methods. As a cultural element it greatly influenced 
 the poets of romanticism, Heine, Morike and Eichendorff. With 
 Uhland's critical edition the study of popular poetry became a 
 
 104 Burger expresses somewhat the same idea in his Herzens-Erguss 
 iiber Volkspoesie written in 1775. He says in substance that all poetry 
 should be popular in order to have the seal of perfection. 
 
 _ 74 _ 
 
matter of scholarship and its great influence on poets seemed 
 to stop. 
 
 Just twenty years before this Talvj had entered upon the 
 study of popular poetry, and through her work with the Volks- 
 lieder der Serben had gained an enviable position among the 
 scholars of Europe. Ten years later by a paper in the Biblical 
 Repository on the "Historical View of Slavic Literature," she 
 took her place among those who were beginning to introduce 
 this kind of literature into America. This paper was followed 
 in 1836 by a discussion of the "Popular Poetry of the Teu- 
 tonic Nations" in the North American Review; in 1840 by 
 the epoch-making work, Charakteristik der Volkslieder; 105 in 
 1842 by a paper on "Spanish Popular Poetry" again in the 
 North American Review, in 1852 by an enlarged and revised 
 book form of her early work on Slavic literature; in 1853 by 
 an article on "French Poetry" in Putnam's Magazine; and in 
 1869 by a short sketch entitled "Die Kosaken und ihre histo- 
 rischen Lieder" in Westermanris Monatshefte. 
 
 The work of native Americans in this field was at that time 
 practically a negligible quantity. Longfellow felt the strength 
 and power of the movement, but never gave any extensive ex- 
 pression to it. An article which he wrote for the North Amer- 
 ican Review on "Moral and Religious Poetry of Spain" could 
 not, as may be inferred from the title, compare with the kind 
 of work done in Germany and in later years, by American 
 scholars such as F. J. Child and F. B. Gummere. 
 
 A close investigation of TalVj's two larger works, Characte- 
 ristik der Volkslieder and Literature of the Slavic Nations, will 
 reveal the character of her contributions, and the justice of the 
 claim that they were truly cultural in nature. The Literature 
 of the Slavic Nations, while it did not assume its present book 
 form prior to 185f, originally appeared in the form of a 
 rather lengthy paper in the Biblical Repository for 1834. In 
 speaking of this article in the preface which he wrote for its 
 
 105 "The simplicity of the ballads which Mrs. Robinson has so co- 
 piously translated," says Graham's Magazine, "will win many readers who 
 take but little interest in intellectual history." Cf. Graham's vol. xxxvii, 
 p. 66. 
 
 75 
 
later expansion her husband said, "The essay was received with 
 favor by the public ; and awakened an interest in many minds, 
 as laying open a new field of information, hitherto almost in- 
 accessible to the English reader." An insistent request on the 
 part of scholars and public libraries led to its recasting into 
 book form. These requests undoubtedly growing out of the 
 excessive meagerness of sources of information regarding 
 Slavic literature represented a general anticipation that this 
 contribution would come very close to presenting this literature 
 as one great whole. Other studies had been made, but, for the 
 most part, merely were sketches of separate phases. 106 
 
 At the time Talvj wrote, the Slavic population amounted 
 to nearly three times that of the United States. The gigantic 
 strides of Russia, the fate of Poland, the cry of Panslavism 
 that had recently resounded through Europe, had excited an 
 intense interest in the Slavonic race throughout the civilized 
 world. Thoughtful men often asked themselves whether the 
 Slavic nations were yet to overflow the Germans of Western 
 Europe as did the Celts, to form a new element of population 
 with a new political and intellectual life. The mere considera- 
 tion of such a possibility suggested the question, what was the 
 nature of the moral and intellectual impulses, what the 
 tendencies and spirit of these new men? 
 
 The literature of the Slavs had been studied and discussed 
 in various ways and for various purposes. More or less critical 
 ingenuity was manifested in all of the studies, and all pos- 
 sessed a certain element of thorough research; but until the 
 appearance of Talvj 's book no author had succeeded in pre- 
 senting the results in a pleasing and thoroughly intelligible 
 manner. In the words of the Independent for July 11, 1850, 
 "It introduces the reader to a field of literary research which 
 has long lain in comparative obscurity, but to which recent 
 
 106 She herself called it merely an outline. The North American Re- 
 view (vol. Ixxi, p. 329 ff) in speaking of it said: "The outline is not 
 only drawn with correctness and precision but the filling up is very 
 
 thorough and satisfactory Even one who is a Slavic scholar by 
 
 parentage and early education can recur with profit to this work for 
 information concerning the literary character and pursuits of his country- 
 men." 
 
 76 
 
political struggles have given a melancholy interest All 
 
 are eager to learn more of races, some of which, hitherto un- 
 known almost in public affairs, have burst like a torrent upon 
 the field of political strife, shaking Europe to its center, per- 
 forming prodigies of valor, and exhibiting a degree of en- 
 thusiasm, energy, persistence, and tact, and an extent of re- 
 sources almost unparalleled in the history of modern warfare." 
 
 In the details of her work Talvj showed an almost per- 
 fect knowledge of her subject matter. There were opportuni- 
 ties for difference in opinion as to certain theories of origin 
 of the Slavic languages, as to certain viewpoints of predomi- 
 nance of the Russian branch over all other Slavic branches, 
 and, without doubt, there was room for a decided variance with 
 her treatment of the Polish people. But this was necessarily 
 true in the case of a work worth while. Those who differed 
 with her, and there were some, had seldom as good grounds 
 for their views as she. The book first presented the theolog- 
 ical background, and then considered in turn the political, philo- 
 sophical, and literary history with a depth of investigation, 
 vigor of analysis, and a comprehensiveness rarely exhibited 
 in a study of this sort. "The volume is characterized by 
 the extent and thoroughness of its investigation, its acute 
 and judicious criticisms, its warm-hearted recognition of true 
 poetry, even in an humble garb, and the forces and facility 
 of its style," said Harper's Magazine which, with the North 
 American Review was then perhaps the official organ of 
 expression of the American public in literary matters. 
 
 Her treatment of the subject was divided into four parts, 
 exclusive of an introduction in which the author gave briefly 
 but concisely an historical sketch of the Slavs in regard to their 
 origin, their mythology, their early language, and the various 
 branches of their language. Part one was in a measure a 
 continuance of the introduction, in that it gave a history of the 
 old or church languages and literature, a literature over which 
 scholars and philologists had never agreed, but which had 
 ever afforded a tempting field of research. In parts two and 
 three the Slavs were treated under two general divisions : the 
 Eastern, embracing the Russians, the Illyrico-Servians, the 
 
 _ 77 _ 
 
Croatians, the Slovenzi, and the Bulgarians ; and the Western, 
 embracing the Bohemians, the Slovaks, the Poles and theVendes 
 in Lusatia. The work gave some account of the characteristics 
 which distinguished these different dialects, and traced their 
 literature from its earliest period down to the time at which 
 she wrote. She showed that the principal divisions of the Slavic 
 literature were the Russian, the Bohemian, and the Polish; 
 that the other branches of this great family possessed a litera- 
 ture of humbler pretensions, while some of them like the 
 Slovaks, who inhabited the northwestern part of Hungary 
 had little that deserved the name. The fourth part of the book 
 dealt with the folk lore of the Slavic nations, and was perhaps 
 the most interesting portion. 
 
 About twenty-five years before, Talvj had been the means 
 of making known and appreciated the exquisite charm of Ser- 
 vian poetry throughout Europe. Now she again paid tribute 
 and homage to its merit, which, as she showed, lay not in its 
 studied elegance and careful polish, but in its unequalled sim- 
 plicity and naturalness. She put it thus : "All that the other 
 Slavic nations, or the Germans, or the Scotch, or the Spaniards 
 possess of popular poetry can at the utmost be compared with 
 the lyrical part of the Servian songs, called by them female 
 songs, because they are sung only by females and youths ; but 
 the long extemporized epic compositions, by which a peasant 
 bard sitting in a large circle of other peasants, in unpre- 
 meditated but perfectly regular and harmonious verse, cele- 
 brates the heroic deeds of their ancestors or contemporaries, 
 has no parallel in the whole history of literature since the days 
 of Homer." 107 It seemed to be the general consensus of 
 opinion that this was the most interesting phase of her book, 
 largely, as one New York paper remarked, because the speci- 
 mens of poetry furnished by the author are remarkable , for 
 their freshness, purity, and energy of thought, and are rendered 
 into graceful and well chosen English. The Evening Post also 
 esteemed this portion of the book the most interesting. "The 
 peculiar genius of this literature," it said, "is delineated in a 
 skillful analysis and samples of the poems are given in Eng- 
 
 107 Talvj, Literature of the Slavic Nations, p. 114. 
 78 
 
lish preserving 1 the peculiar rhythm, and, as far as may be, the 
 verbal characteristics of the original. In these we seem to have 
 a sort of key to the character of the race, and we rise from a 
 perusal of these delightful pages with a feeling of closer ac- 
 quaintance with the nations of the Slavic race." The force and 
 ease with which she translated these poems was indeed re- 
 markable, inasmuch as she was turning them into a language 
 which was not her mother tongue, and which many hold to be 
 one of the hardest of all languages to master. Her quick adap- 
 tation to the idioms of English is one of the strongest tributes 
 to her keen intellect and her wonderful power of intellectual as- 
 similation. She had been in this country only six years when she 
 wrote the article for the Biblical Repository. Even in this 
 article, which we may term the foundation of her book, there 
 was very little which would make one conscious that the pro- 
 duction was from a foreign-born hand. The North American 
 Review spoke of this part of the book as a "precious gem, 
 which gives brilliancy and animation to the whole." The 
 woman's heart and hand were seen in it ; the touch was tender 
 and sympathetic, the very characteristics which caused Goethe 
 to rejoice that the work with the Servian poetry, twenty-five 
 years before, had fallen into the hands of a woman, who was 
 at the same time a scholar in every sense of the world. 
 
 In considering Slavic popular poetry as a whole Talvj said 
 that the poetry of the Slavic nation was wild, passionate, and 
 tender; love and war were its common themes. The love 
 expressed in the Slavic songs was the natural love of the human 
 breast, from its most tender and spiritual affection to irre- 
 pressible sensuality. It was not the sophisticated love of civili- 
 zation, it was the pure deep love of the unrestrained heart. 
 The Slavs still followed the dictates of nature, and no artificial 
 point of honor kept the hero from fleeing when he had met 
 one stronger than himself. In its general tone the Slavic 
 popular poetry was oriental. To enjoy it fully the reader had 
 to let himself drift into an atmosphere of foreign views and 
 prejudices. In this atmosphere all elements blended as one, the 
 North and South, the East and West. "The suppleness of 
 Asia and the energy of Europe, the passive fatalism of the 
 
 79 
 
Turk and the active religion of the Christian, the revengeful 
 spirit of the oppressed, and the child-like resignation of him 
 who cheerfully submits, all these seeming contradictions find 
 an expressive organ in the Slavic popular poetry." 108 
 
 The interest in this work was widespread. In the St. 
 Petersburg German paper for 1834, No. 227, I found a very in- 
 teresting notice which was a reecho of the admiration ex- 
 pressed by some Servian scholars upon the appearance of her 
 work with Servian folk lore. 109 "A ship from Boston has just 
 arrived," this notice read, "bringing us this article from 
 the pen of a highly esteemed German authoress. It 
 is the same whom we have to thank foor a transla- 
 tion of Servian folk songs published by Wuk Stephan- 
 
 owitsch Karadschitsch It was scarcely to be 
 
 hoped that Mrs. Robinson, as such, would continue her interest 
 in the Slavic world, now so far removed; but behold, here 
 comes an essay to us, in which the writer gives information 
 to her new countrymen and to learned England in regard to 
 a race of people hardly known by name. With wonderful 
 skill, using all the sources of information at hand, she has 
 presented the relation of the various Slavic peoples, their 
 languages and their dialects. Certainly every friend of the 
 Slavs must thank her for this, but above all should the Eng- 
 lish be thankful, for whom she has illumined a new field, and 
 in so doing rendered them a true service. We feel all the more 
 moved to acquaint our readers with the existence of this work, 
 inasmuch, as far as we know, only very few similar works have 
 come to us in Russia." 
 
 The first publication of the book attracted an unusual 
 interest, and it obtained almost at once the distinction 
 of being the most thorough and complete, as well as the 
 first analysis of Slavonic literature extant. How Goethe 
 woud have rejoiced over this work had he lived to 
 see it ! The Evening Post saw in it a "work of which we ought 
 to be proud, as the production of one of the adopted daughters 
 of our country, who, having acquired a reputation among the 
 
 108 Talvj, Slavic Literature, p. 320. 
 109 See chapter II. 
 
 80 
 
authors of her native literature, now became engaged in adding 
 to the riches of ours." The North American Review also 
 recognized the volume as a valuable accession to our literature ; 
 and even the conservative English magazines spoke in most 
 glowing terms of it. 
 
 From an earnest and thorough study of the songs of one 
 branch of the Slavic nation, Talvj had thus added to her field 
 of research the whole Slavic nation; and now she gradually 
 extended her consideration to all the nations of Europe. Her 
 Charakteristik der Volkslieder, which was published in 1840, 
 occupies a unique place in comparative literature. "Not with- 
 out hesitation," she said, "do I send these leaves out into the 
 world. Above all I would not have them regarded as a collec- 
 tion of folk songs. The collection is altogether too incomplete 
 for that. Nor would I have them regarded as an historical 
 text book, for the background of many parts of the picture 
 must of necessity be concealed in shadow. I would wish the 
 volume, however insignificant, to be regarded solely as a con- 
 tribution to cultural history/' 110 By the phrase "concealed 
 in shadow" she had reference to such obscure sections of na- 
 tional folk lore that of the Norwegians, concerning which 
 she could find not a single publication of popular songs. Some 
 of the older Saxon songs were omitted because they came to 
 her notice too late. 
 
 Poetry is the natural language of the human race. Prim- 
 itive peoples must needs use a form of expression which is at 
 once creative, figurative, and imitative. The poetry of the 
 earliest childhood of a people is like the speech of a stammering 
 child. The people go into ecstacy over sensual pleasures just 
 as a child does ; and like a child they vent their grief and pain 
 in loud and unrestrained lamentations. The more man comes 
 under the dominion of external circumstances of government, 
 civilization, and culture, the greater becomes the distance be- 
 tween life and poetry. His vocabulary develops until it 
 gradually loses its imaginative and figurative qualities. The 
 subjective gives way to the objective. But the origin of all 
 speech, poetic, figurative, and subjunctive, remains at the basis 
 
 110 Talvj, Charakteristik der Volkslieder, Vorwort. 
 81 
 
of all languages of the world in spite of all refinement of thought 
 and expression, in spite of all boundary lines of logic. It is quite 
 probable that originally poetry, as the expression of the emo- 
 tions, was once identical with song. If this be true, we must con- 
 sider "song" as a term applied to a certain rhythmic raising and 
 lowering of the voice, similar in measure to a chant. As one 
 listens to a very young child sitting on the floor amusing him- 
 self with his blocks and other toys, entirely unconscious of his 
 surroundings, the sounds which come to the listener certainly 
 bear a resemblance to artless melody. Herder said that for a 
 long time singing and speaking were one among the old races. 
 In Wilhelm Meister, Goethe said, "Song is the first step in 
 education; all else connects itself with it and is harmonized 
 by it." 1U 
 
 Chamisso, in his investigations among primitive nations 
 found that none of the peoples whom he visited were entirely 
 ignorant of poetry and song. As the various peoples differed in 
 their cultural development, so their songs differed also, varying 
 from mere wild shrieks, as it seemed, to rhythmic and melod- 
 ious intonations. These intonations seemed to represent the 
 satisfaction of an inborn need. Wide difference in national 
 character gave rise to nature-poetry and folk-poetry, which, 
 despite their many contrasts, Talvj attributed to the same 
 source. Very frequently folk poetry and national poetry are 
 conceived as one and the same thing; which, however, in a 
 strict sense is not true. Talvj draws the distinction very well 
 when she says : "In the broad sense of the word all the poetic 
 literature of a people was national; in a narrower sense only 
 that poetry was national which dealt primarily with the pe- 
 culiarities and conditions of nations to which the various so- 
 called national poets belonged. The poets, not the people, pro- 
 duced this type of poetry. Shakespeare, Goethe, Victor Hugo 
 were national poets. On the other hand, folk poetry was not 
 always poetry which was read and sung by the common people, 
 nor even necessarily a part of such poetry ; for if this were the 
 case, the Bible would 'be folk poetry." 
 
 Folk lore, whether in the form of songs or of fables, is 
 
 111 Goethe, Wilhelm Meisters Wander jahre, chap, i, Book II. 
 
 82 
 
that production which, originating among a people in their 
 internal and domestic relations has an influence in the develop- 
 ment of this people. Folk songs are the common property of 
 all, for all had a hand in producing them. Storm in his Im- 
 mensee has put a beautiful description of folk song into the 
 mouth of Reinhardt : "They are not made, they grow, they fall 
 from the air, they fly over the land like gossamers, here and 
 there, and are sung in a thousand different places at the same 
 time. In these songs we find our very own acts and sufferings ; 
 it is as if all of us had helped to make them, all working to- 
 gether." Talvj's own definition carries with it the same 
 thought: "Whether they proceed from the past or present 
 they are the blossoms of popular life born and nurtured by the 
 care of the people, cherished by their joys, watered by their 
 tears, and because of this are characteristic through and 
 through of the great mass of a nation and its condition." 112 
 
 In connection with this Talvj's theory regarding the rela- 
 tive age of the lyric and the epic is worthy of consider- 
 ation; for although it is a theory not generally accepted, 
 some of her views may help adjust rival explanations. The 
 oldest monuments of poetry are, as we know, epic in character. 
 But in these very epics there are enough traces and evidences 
 to lead one to say that back of the epic was the lyric. To put 
 it more directly, the lyric embodies the present, the epic the 
 past. Each new situation calls forth its expression, and the 
 resulting songs are consequently not guarded within the strong 
 box of script, but within the minds and hearts of the people 
 themselves, principally of the women and youths. The epic 
 is in reality a development of the lyric, or a sequence of it. 
 As we look over the ballads of various primitive peoples we 
 find, for example, of the songs before a battle, some that are 
 bright and strong, filled with encouraging cheer for the war- 
 riors ; some that are deeply pathetic, filled with the heartache 
 of a sweetheart as she bids her lover farewell, or of a mother 
 as she sends her son forth to serve his country. Always, how- 
 ever, we find even beneath the pathos an heroic recognition of 
 necessity and duty. After the battle, there are songs of victory, 
 
 112 Talvj, Charakteristik der Volkslieder, p. 11. 
 83 
 
wildly ecstatic, or songs of defeat touchingly pathetic in their 
 tone of resignation. And thus in countless instances the epic 
 gives evidence of having developed from the lyric. 113 
 
 In the three great collections of folk lore, Herder's, Ar- 
 nim and Bretano's, and Talvj's, the last alone drew a sharp 
 distinction between folk songs and popular songs, and so may 
 be said to have succeeded better in depicting the cultural de- 
 velopment of primitive peoples. Herder did not restrict himself 
 to folk songs in his collection, probably because of a general 
 indifference on the part of the public; Arnim and Brentano 
 followed his example in their Des Knaben Wunderhorn, probab- 
 ly for the same reason. So with other collections; for one 
 reason or another they became popular and national in charac- 
 ter. 
 
 In her Charakteristik der Volkslieder the author did not 
 content herself with compiling great quantities of material at 
 hand. She strove rather to study the material, and, by com- 
 paring it with the historic conditions of the people, to arrive 
 at a clear view of the very essence of folk song ; if possible, she 
 wished even to recognize the historical development of the 
 poetry of separate peoples, from its naive to its conscious state. 
 The work was a real contribution to cultural history, for the 
 author succeeded in showing how very close was the connec- 
 tion between the customs of a people and the peculiarities of 
 its songs. She demonstrated that changes which took place in 
 a people's mode of thinking and living could be found in its 
 poetry. 
 
 The first division of the work contained four chapters de- 
 voted to a description of the folk songs of the Asiatic, Malayan, 
 Polynesian, African, and the original Americans, all peoples 
 who were more or liess primitive. Talvj gave to a compar- 
 atively uninformed public a vast number of facts with regard 
 to these nations ; facts, which, for the most part, had hitherto 
 been inaccessible. Her ingenuity combined these with exam- 
 ples of their poetry in a manner altogether pleasing, interest- 
 ing and instructive. A quotation from Blatter fur literarische 
 Unterhaltung expressed the appreciation and interest which 
 
 113 Talvj, Charakteristik der Volkslieder, Introduction. 
 
 84 
 
this division aroused in literary Europe. "We consider alto- 
 gether excellent this latter description which, in all probabil- 
 ity, is based on first hand knowledge of the author, and which 
 shows how the Indian possesses no real talent for poetry as we 
 should naturally expect, but rather, because of a predominant 
 power of reason and a passionate ambition, seems capable of 
 and inclined in the highest degree toward eloquence." 114 
 
 The second division of the book, which dealt with Euro- 
 pean people, Talvj introduced by a chapter presenting the 
 characteristics of Germanic folk lore. Especial attention was 
 drawn to the family likenesses which, despite outward differ- 
 ences, existed among the traditional songs of all European 
 peoples. In this way only could a repeated use of certain ex- 
 pressions, the repeated presence of the riddle, and the fre- 
 quency of the question and answer form be accounted for. In 
 the thoughts themselves marked similarities could be traced. 
 For instance, almost all nations believed in the endurance of 
 true love ; in the power of inordinate grief to disturb the rest 
 of the departed one; in divine destiny and justice. 115 She 
 divided the Germanic peoples into three large groups; the 
 Scandinavian, the German, and the British. The British fell 
 under two heads, English and Scotch; the German, under 
 German and Dutch; the Scanliavian under Icelandic, 
 Faroish, Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish. The Norwegian 
 and Swedish divisions were, much to the author's regret, left 
 in an uncompleted state. Each division was prefaced by in- 
 troductory remarks, historical, philological, and political in 
 character, according as history, philology, or politics played an 
 important role in the cultural development of the people under 
 discussion. Talvj made use of every opportunity to compare 
 the various poetical forms of the different peoples, and she 
 combined with all her general discussions illustrative and 
 characteristic songs. These three elements, introduction, dis- 
 
 114 Blatter fur literarische Unterhaltung, Jan. 18, 1841. 
 
 115 Cf. Anhang zu Wilhelm Grimm's Uebersetzung der ddnischen 
 Heldenlieder. In regard to this idea of likenesses Jakob Grimm said, 
 "The divine, the spirit of poetry, is the same among all people and knows 
 only one source." 
 
 85 
 
cussion, and poetry, made the book what she wished it to be, 
 a contribution to cultural history. 
 
 Some criticism was expressed of her treatment of German 
 poetry, upon the ground that it was lacking both in material 
 and in theory of development. One of her critics excused 
 her partially on the ground of her long absence from Germany 
 during early youth. There was a noticeable predomin- 
 ance of love lyrics. The popular German drinking songs 
 were entirely lacking. It cannot be doubted that these songs 
 are quite as really folk-productions as some of the Weihnachts- 
 Lieder, and their absence from her collection is a genuine 
 flaw in her work. 
 
 Her treatment of Scotch poetry was perhaps the best part 
 of the book; for in addition to a perfect familiarity with her 
 material, the author seemed to have a sincere love for this 
 division of her subject. She herself said that there was no 
 richer field in all Europe for the collector of folk songs than 
 Scotland. Her statement of likenesses and differences be- 
 tween the English and the Scotch poetry is well worth any 
 scholar's consideration. It is keen, searching, and well ex- 
 pressed. im 
 
 K. A. Varnhagen von Ense 117 saw in this book a revival 
 of Herder's thoughts, extended and elevated, however, to fit 
 the measure of an advanced knowledge. In another sense it 
 seemed to him a new form of the Wunderhorn, raised out of 
 German limitations into the field of all folk song. Open- 
 mindedness, genuine sympathy, sane reason, comprehensive 
 knowledge, and sound judgment had, he felt, given the author 
 an unusual equipment for handling such a subject. Chance, 
 moreover, assisted her by first affording her a residence in 
 Russia during the most susceptible years of her life, and later 
 by giving her a residence in America during years of more 
 mature thought and sympathy, thus leading her into a more 
 intimate knowledge of English and Scotch characteristic's 
 through her ever increasing mastery of the English langu- 
 age. 
 
 116 Charakteristik der Volkslieder, p. 603. 
 
 117 JahrbUcher fur wissenschaftliche Kritik, No. 86, 1840. 
 
 86 
 
Some critics felt that she had taken the idea of "Volks- 
 lieder" in too narrow a sense. She herself, however, had a 
 compiler's natural sense of the necessity for selecting and 
 choosing most carefully. Goethe warned the authors oi the 
 W under horn against the sing-song of the Minnesingers, and 
 the wretched commonness and flatness of the Meistersingers ; 
 and some of the omissions in Talvj's book miay be due to the 
 influence of such a warning, although it was never extended to 
 her. 
 
 From the criticisms and comments which I have considered 
 worthy of mention in this chapter, we may feel certain that 
 Talvj's position in the literary world was now firmly estab- 
 lished. 
 
 CAPTER V. 
 
 HISTORY OF THE COLONIZATION OF NEW ENGLAND 
 
 FROM 1607-1698. 
 History of the Colonization of New England from 1607-1698. 
 
 American historiography is of comparatively recent origin. 
 In her introduction to her Colonisation von Neu England 
 Talvj states : "Throughout the whole eighteenth century here 
 and everywhere else the spirit of historical research slumbered. 
 Valuable documents lay dust covered in undisturbed rest in 
 public archives or private libraries. Uninterpreted manu- 
 scripts served as wrapping paper." The catalog of writers who 
 manifested any noteworthy interest in investigation and com- 
 pilation is a brief one. One of the chief of them, Thomas 
 Prince, gathered material with wonderful diligence and pa- 
 tience, and succeeded in presenting to the public a Chronolog- 
 ical Plistory of New England up to 1633. To Call'ender and 
 Backus, minor names, we are also grateful for many original 
 documents which in one way or another throw light upon the 
 darkest periods of American history. Hutchinson's History 
 of Massachusetts, which appeared toward the close of the Rev- 
 olution, should have been a mine of valuable historical mate- 
 rials, for as royal governor of Massachusetts the author had 
 
 87 
 
access to the very authentic manuscript material; but unfort- 
 unately much that he had collected was lost or destroyed during 
 the Stamp Act riots." 
 
 Amid this poverty of formal collections of facts or man- 
 uscripts, Talvj found four main sources of historical data upon 
 New England; Cotton Mather's Ecclesiastical History, Wil- 
 liam Bradford's diary, John Winthrop's History of New Eng- 
 land, and Edward Johnson's Wonder-working Providence of 
 Zioris Savior. The first of these, known also as the Magnolia 
 Christi Americana, Talvj considered authentic, but very nar- 
 row in viewpoint. This history extends over the period be- 
 tween 1620 and 1698. It is regarded as the most important 
 book produced in America during the seventeenth century. 
 It has been suggested that as a history it was unsatisfactory 
 because the author was too near events to be strictly impar- 
 tial. His personal feelings perhaps unconsciously colored his 
 judgments. In regard to facts he is charged with being care- 
 less and inaccurate. However, the work is indispensible to an 
 understanding of New England history. The diary of Wil- 
 liam Bradford, governor of New England, was still in man- 
 uscript in 1847, and was not known except in fragments. 
 vSome fifty years later the manuscripts were collected and pub- 
 lished. Much of the original material became a part of the 
 church records of Plymouth through Nathaniel Morton, a 
 nephew of Bradford. Morton also used many of Bradford's 
 accounts in his New Hnglands Memorial, but many of the 
 manuscripts were k>st during the Revolution and have never 
 been found. Until 1790 John Winthrop's History of England 
 remained in manuscript form. Cotton Mather and Hubbard 
 used it, the latter quoting much of it word for word without 
 mentioning the source. In 1790 the part dealing with the 
 history of Massachusetts was published under the title of 
 A Journal of the Transactions and Occurrences in the Settle- 
 ment of Massachusetts. Not until 1825 was Winthrop's 
 entire collection given to the public. He was, in Talvj 's 
 estimation, the leader in the history of the period from 
 1630 to 1649. The chief value of Edward Johnson's history, 
 which appeared in 1654, lay in the fact that the author was 
 
 88 
 
a contemporary of the events which he described. However, 
 its style was weak and difficult to read because of a rather 
 absurd and artificial piety running through the whole. In 
 1658 it was plagiarized by Ferdinand Gorges and published 
 as the work of Gorges' grandfather under the title, America 
 painted to Life, A True History. 
 
 There were, of course, many lesser sources deserving of 
 a brief mention. Those for Massachusetts comprise several 
 small manuscripts by Edward Winslow; the personal letter 
 of the vice-governor Thomas Dudley to the Countess of 
 Lincoln, patroness of the colonies; manuscripts by Higgin- 
 son, Wood, Welde, Lecliford and Josselyn which recorded 
 personal experiences ; and Sir Ferdinand Gorges' Brief Narra- 
 tion of the Original Undertaking and the Advancement of the 
 Plantations. The latter was valuable as showing an English- 
 man's theories and plans for American settlements. For the 
 Indian Wars Mason, Underbill, Gardiner, and Vincent con- 
 tributed much. The history of Providence and Rhode Island 
 is based almost entirely on rather imperfect accounts of the 
 first founders, Clark, Gorton, and Roger Williams, largely 
 in the form of letters. Finally, for the settlement of Con- 
 necticut, with the exception of a very few letters, there was 
 really no authentic contemporaneous account. The govern- 
 mental chronicles and various church archives of later times 
 furnished practically all of the historical information of this 
 colony. A General History of Connecticut, published in Lon- 
 don in 1781 was so unreliable that it was of little value as 
 history. Talvj said of this book, "Nothing can be more 
 characteristic of the sentiment against America then ruling in 
 England, than this bungling piece of work which had its second 
 edition the following year." 
 
 Talvj had a single criticism for all these sources: they 
 lacked an independent viewpoint and a sense of detached his- 
 torical perspective. English historians, on the other hand, 
 she condemned for their lack of intimacy with American 
 conditions and events, and their inability to grasp the spirit 
 of what they recorded. Chalmers alone was an authority on 
 New England. Neat's history was little more than a reorgan- 
 
 89 
 
ization of Cotton Mather's, with greater purity of style. The 
 prejudice against Americans was such as to make perverted 
 and false statements more acceptable than facts, and thus many 
 errors circulated by these careless early historians are, today, 
 regarded as authentic facts. But these were not, in her mind, 
 the most deplorable phases of early histories, whether English 
 or American. Our so-called standard histories clothed the 
 events of the formative days of our country in a mantel of 
 myth and legend. The very criticisms of Talvj's history 
 made at the outset by the North American Review gave evi- 
 dence of the tendency to require of a history a novelistic style, 
 in order that it might be popular with the masses. Unfor- 
 tunately the truth did not always make a popular appeal to 
 the masses, and as a consequence truth had been sacrificed for 
 the sake of popularity in a large number of our historical writ- 
 ings. Even Bancroft, who was generally considered the stand- 
 ard American historian, wrote, it is claimed, "most cautiously, 
 with the greatest dread of the slightest admission, and with 
 intense straining to make out a perfect case." 118 Why, it 
 might well be asked did not Talvj translate Bancroft for her 
 German readers, instead of undertaking to write a hisory her- 
 self? As I see it, the answer lies in this fact: no American 
 history told the truth as gleaned entirely from original sources 
 and as evolved out of a clear unbiased view of these sources. 
 Talvj was almost a century ahead of her time in her scien- 
 tific investigation and use of original sources in these pictures 
 of early colonial history. Only within recent years have the 
 many sad deficiencies in American historical writings begun 
 to be generally felt. Of late, through the almost universal 
 dissemination and improvement of public libraries, the mul- 
 tiplied opportunities of gaining access to old pamphlets and 
 original evidences of all sorts, American scholarship has every- 
 where been aroused to a desire for a clearer knowledge and 
 a more tangible grasp of events upon this continent. 119 
 
 118 Fischer, Myth Making Process in Histories of the U. S., p. 68. 
 
 119 Cf. Proceedings of American Philosophical Society, vol. li, p. 54. 
 Truth is winning over fiction, as may be seen from some of the recent 
 historical writings. The names of some of Sydney G. Fischer's works 
 
 i 90 
 
A brief comparison of Talvj's history with Bancroft's will 
 show how in some respects hers fulfilled even a greater mis- 
 sion than his. First of all, Bancroft, as an American writing 
 for an American public, wrote from an American viewpoint, 
 while Talvj, a German- American writing for a German pub- 
 lic, chose a German viewpoint. We may characterize the dif- 
 ference between these two positions as a difference between 
 a fervid patriotism and a calm, scientific interest, which made 
 an unbiased search among original sources for materials which 
 should present all sides of the historical situations, the side 
 of the unsuccessful, as well as of the successful. In the sec- 
 ond place, Bancroft's work" was not as concentrated as Talvj's, 
 inasmuch as it encompassed a much greater space and period 
 of time. In comparison with his history she called hers "a 
 single room of a whole big house." 12 Naturally, since the 
 German viewpoint woul'd, in many instances, be different from 
 that of an enthusiastic American, a German would dwell on 
 the smaller details more than an American. To all appearances 
 America was advancing by leaps and bounds, fairly striding 
 through the fields of industrial and political development. It 
 was only logical that an American historian should pay 
 little or no attention to many of the small and, to him, in- 
 significant details in the early years of colonization. It 
 was only logical that a foreigner with a keenly scientific and 
 wide-awake mind should, after the first surprise at such rapid 
 advancement, seek its causes in the details of early establish- 
 
 are significant. (Mr. Fischer is a writer and lawyer of considerable 
 prominence in Philadelphia 1856 ) We find above his name such 
 titles as these: True Benjamin Franklin; The True William Penn; 
 The True History of the American Revolution; The True Daniel 
 Webster, etc. Mr. Fischer says in regard to this realization of the 
 importance of truth in historical writings, "Within the last two years, 
 in writing a life of Daniel Webster, I had occasion to examine the 
 original evidence of our history from the war of 1812 to the Compro- 
 mise of 1850, and I found that it had substantially been used in our 
 histories of that period. There was no ignoring of it or concealment of 
 it such as I had found when I investigated the original evidence of the 
 Revolution." 
 
 120 Colonisation von Neu England, p. xiii. 
 91 
 
ment and development. An American's enthusiasm does not 
 in any way deprecate his ability; it is merely a reflex of the 
 life and development about him. This reflex could not exist 
 in a foreigner. The fact that Talvj admired Bancroft and his 
 work led her to consider many of his views very carefully, 
 and in many instances the two agreed. Yet, with her decided 
 leaning toward the great historian, she remained independent 
 in her judgments ; and in some instances, again, the two writers 
 seemed to be almost diametrically opposed. In speaking of 
 Bancroft's History of the United States, Francis J. Grund said, 
 "Bancroft's history seems on the whole to have fallen short of 
 its purpose it lacks a philosophical and calm view which 
 should put the life of the states into accord with the general 
 tone of humanity." 121 
 
 Another great point of difference between Talvj 's history 
 and Bancroft's was in the distribution of emphasis. Talvj 
 laid great emphasis on settlements, dwelling at length on 
 customs and religious views, and the development of law and 
 order out of the inner life and character of the colonists. Ban- 
 croft, on the other hand, perhaps because of the greater scope 
 of his work, set forth monumental figures in the early history 
 of New England, and focused the minor developments in these. 
 The former's was a history of colonial spirit rather than of 
 colonial activity. It contained the elements of a "Kulturge- 
 schichte", a form of history as yet undeveloped. 
 
 But the question naturally arises, why did she write this 
 history for German readers? In spite of an almost perfect 
 mastery of English style, she always felt more at home with 
 the German language, and as a consequence the greater part 
 of the work was written in German. This fact, however, 
 would not stamp her work as written for German readers. It 
 is undoubtedly true that, although she wrote from a point of 
 view whose chief consideration was the interest in America 
 and the knowledge of American affairs which then existed in 
 Germany, she sincerely hoped that her work would find read- 
 ers on both sides of the Atlantic, and was by no means un- 
 mindful of a possible American audience. There were many 
 
 121 Francis J. Grund, Die Amerikaner, p. 106. 
 92 
 
Americans who read the German fluently, and whose ever- 
 increasing interest in German ideals and methods had al- 
 ready shown that they considered the tongue no barrier to an 
 understanding of a new work of learning. But in the main, as 
 she herself consciously asserted, her ambition was to interest 
 the Teutonic race in the land which was destined to become 
 yearly the home of more and more of its children. She 
 felt that intimate relations must in time grow up between 
 the Germans of the Fatherland and those of the New World; 
 and inasmuch as conditions in the two countries were so dif- 
 ferent, she believed a knowledge of America necessary in 
 order that Germany might the better and more readily adjust 
 herself to the demands of this new relationship. She realized 
 the significance of the role America was playing in the 
 world's history, and she wanted the Germans to realize this 
 significance in terms of early development. Before Talvj, 
 Ebeling and Knfahl were the only Germans who had made a 
 study of the colonial United States. At the time they wrote 
 many of the main sources were still hidden, and furthermore 
 they lacked personal knowledge of the locality, the people, and 
 the institutions about which they wrote. Both, like Bancroft, 
 included a field of far greater scope in time and place. Already, 
 however, so considerable an interest was being manifested in 
 Germany about America's history, that a history from the pen 
 of a German-American was tacitly demanded. Nothing bears 
 better witness to Talvj 's hope of bringing about an under- 
 standing between the two nations than her copious notes which 
 made many expressions and view-points clear to the foreign 
 reader, and prevented in advance the confusion which often 
 arose out of misundertanding. 
 
 The task of the historian was not small, as Talvj realized. 
 His task it was to give the reader a clear view not merely of 
 salient events, but of details which, seeming in themselves 
 cumbersomely trivial, assumed the greatest significance when 
 the proper relation to their far-reaching consequences was 
 shown. In doing this, Talvj showed exceptional skill. Her 
 viewpoint as we have before intimated, was larger than that 
 of the ordinary historian of political events, for her work 
 
 93 
 
involved a consideration of social development in which private, 
 public, religious, moral, individual, and general relations 
 entered. Her treatment of the subject matter was of such 
 specific and concrete nature that the situations portrayed bore 
 the stamp of truth and reality to the reader. 
 
 She portrayed the Puritans justly and impartially. 122 A 
 pride in the Puritan fathers had grown up, especially in New 
 England, which stifled all recognition of other forces back of 
 American progress. Again, America was becoming a great 
 nation ; she was trying hard to develop a national culture, and 
 nothing was more natural than that, in this conscious effort, 
 she should be blinded to all but present achievement. To lose 
 sight of humble beginnings and to credit failure and success 
 impartially is a natural consequence of ill-restrained enthusi- 
 asm in any new project whose development and progress are 
 rapid. A careful reading of Talvj's history will show very 
 plainly why an American national culture did not develop dur- 
 ing the early days of settlement. Many highly cultured men 
 and women came to America but they alone could not exert 
 decided humanitarian influence ; likewise pioneer life did not in 
 itself present the conditions in which to develop a native cult- 
 ure. For a people to exchange the surroundings of a highly 
 developed civilization for the less advanced or primitive cul- 
 tural environment of a new country, always involves an abase- 
 ment of ideal's. "Despondency, homesickness, and a general 
 lowering of all the higher aspirations and ideals seems the 
 inevitable result until the psychic transformation has taken 
 place, from which the energetic personality emerges with a 
 
 1252 Prof. C. E. Stowe of Cincinnati said, " We have read no work 
 which on the whole appears to us to give so accurate a picture of the 
 Puritan character as that of Talvj. It is just; discriminating, disposed 
 to commend and not fearing to censure. The author is in a good posi- 
 tion to develop the subject according to its real merit She stands 
 
 in the attitude of a spectator, yet with enough of interest in the scene 
 and of sympathy with it to give a lively and glowing picture of it." (It 
 refers to the task of giving this picture). For complete criticism by 
 Stowe see Bibliotheca Sacra, vol. 7, p. 91108, 1850. 
 
 94 
 
resolution to create a new world of his own out of new sur- 
 roundings." 123 
 
 Hard, unyielding primitive conditions of life and sus- 
 tenance left the early settlers neither time nor inclination for 
 the development of music, art, literature, or even religion. 
 Later, when the time and inclination came, as life became less 
 strenuous, America was forced to seek the seeds of culture 
 without herself. What culture the pioneers brought with them 
 had been destroyed by the harshness of nature and the seeds 
 had not been planted in their descendants forcefully enough 
 to warrant their development without external aid. Talvj 's 
 treatment of the Puritans makes us feel the force of this truth 
 in such a way that, while we continue to admire the virtues 
 and the courage of the New England fathers just as much as 
 before, we begin at the same time to investigate other sources 
 of national culture. The Puritans did not even have time to 
 develop a religion. They fought to maintain certain forms of 
 worship, but religion as such was swallowed up in the struggle. 
 
 In a number of personal letters Talvj presented a glimpse 
 into the household of an English Puritan family, which 
 afforded the best and most vivid "Sittenbild" of the times. 
 One could not fail to realize that these early settlers were as 
 cruel and stubborn as nature herself. Back of the establish- 
 ment of many of the colonies lay the attempt to force certain 
 individuals to a strict adherence to many customs, barbarian 
 almost in their simplicity and crudity. Infringement of per- 
 sonal liberty was found on every hand. With a strict regard 
 for truth Talvj did not see the mildness in the laws of the 
 Puritans which almost all other writers of history extolled. 
 True, they made no attempt to base their institutions on any 
 of the bloody decrees of the darkest period of the middle 
 ages ; but the fact was lost sight of that many of these bloody 
 decrees, found in the laws of European nations, would be 
 empty and meaningless on the statute books of the Puritan 
 settlers. As Talvj said, in the wilderness of America there 
 was not even the possibility of many of the crimes found 
 
 123 Goebel, Annual Report of American Historical Association for 
 1909, p. 188. 
 
 95 
 
among the kingdoms of Europe. Want of provision for the 
 punishment of impossible crimes is no evidence of mild- 
 ness. The infringement of personal liberty, certainly, was 
 not a mark of mildness to be extolled. The Puritans were 
 not a free people. The stocks, branding, ducking, whipping, 
 and other equally harsh forms of punishment stared them in 
 the face for the slightest offence. It was an offence to wear 
 certain forms of head dress and hair dress; certain kinds of 
 clothes were forbidden; smoking and chewing were forbid- 
 den ; the celebration of Christmas or Easter was a serious 
 offence. There was even an ordinance against the use of the 
 word saint as a part of the name of a town. If such acts 
 were considered an offence, one can easily see what must 
 have been the attitude toward offences which we would con- 
 sider real. But this harshness, as Talvj pointed out, was 
 only a reflex of the times in which tolerance was considered 
 indifference. 
 
 To explain this intolerance and to temper the judgment 
 toward the. Puritans, which might otherwise seem too harsh, 
 she worked out very carefully a background of religious in- 
 tolerance in England which drove men and women into the 
 wilderness of America in order to worship as their conscience 
 dictated. Her account comprehended the whole development 
 of the protestant spirit which led to the emigration, showing 
 what influence the ideas and ideals of other countries had 
 in hastening it. She demonstrated the connection of this bit 
 of local history with world history by giving it a cultural 
 background, not a statistical one. Step by step she traced the 
 growth of discontent, the growth of suppression of individ- 
 ual freedom of thought and action, the gradual growth of 
 royal dominance over the very souls of the subjects. With 
 influences of similar nature pouring in from all sides she 
 showed how this discontent finally became the bomb of revo- 
 lution and evolution. Having completed this background, 
 she showed how the process of development went on logically 
 to the history of the first settlers in New England. The very 
 nature of their separation anticipated intolerance after coming 
 to this country. The material which Talvj used was 
 
 96 
 
not new, nor was her handling of it entirely original, but he 
 collected into one book a network of facts which, though re- 
 lated, had not seemed so, because they had to be sought in a 
 number of widely scattered sources. 
 
 Talvj's treatment of the Puritans showed plainly dem- 
 ocracy was not an original condition, as so many enthusiastic 
 American writers claimed. The primary object of the first 
 settlers in coming to America was to replant the Church of 
 England in America, instituting in the process a few changes 
 from the prescribed ritual. Their whole energy seemed to be 
 directed toward establishing new congregations, and each new 
 one in turn was greeted with great rejoicing. There was no 
 democratic spirit to be found in these various congregations, 
 what happened in one happened in all. Excommunication in 
 New England during the seventeenth century was not less 
 serious than the papal excommunication. Only those who 
 were church members and who subscribed to all the ordin- 
 ances of the church had a voice in the government; the colon- 
 ists were swayed by a limited monarchy, with the church 
 as the monarch. Out of the very necessities of primitive 
 life the democracy developed in America from an original 
 theocracy. From a representative church assembly the step 
 to a representative state assembly was not great. At first 
 an aristocracy threatened but the trial's and hardships of 
 pioneer life gave birth to democratic tendencies which could 
 not be quelled. "Thus early," Talvj said, "began the demo- 
 cratic tendencies of the people, the natural product of a 
 wilderness and a condition in which physical strength 
 was at a premium." 124 The church did not exist because of 
 the state, but the state because of the church, and if the state 
 attained to a complete demorcracy it was only due to the fact 
 that the constitution of the Purian church, in as far as dem- 
 ocracy harmonized with theocracy, was democratic. This view 
 was quite different from that ordinarily expressed that the 
 origin of our democracy was in the Puritan church. 
 
 Another and valuable feature of Talvj's book was her 
 estimate of the Indian. On the whole, as we have remarked 
 
 124 Talvj, Colonisation von Neu England, p. 225. 
 97 
 
before, it was generous and charitable. While she did not 
 try to excuse the Indian for his blood curdling acts of cruelty, 
 she sought for and, in many cases, found definite causes for 
 such cruelty. Beneath the cruelty which caused many trav- 
 elers and writers to class him as a beast, she found the man, 
 with a man's feelings and a man's honor. Over and over 
 again she showed that the first relations between the whites 
 and the redmen were friendly, that the redmen venerated 
 the whites and believed that through them great happiness 
 would come; and that gradually, as their simple dream 
 failed to come true, suspicion was aroused. They began to 
 feel that the white man was not dealing honestly with them, 
 bvj.t was slowly and surely dispossessing them of what was 
 theirs by the natural right of original occupation. When this 
 dispossession reached the form of slavery, a crime which the 
 Indians hated above all others, their passions were thorough- 
 ly roused, and then many of their acts were bestial in the 
 highest degree. She did not minimize Indian treachery, but 
 described it quite as vividly as the treachery of the whites to- 
 ward the Indians. We sometimes feel the Indian cared less 
 for a human life than he did for that of one of the wild 
 animals of the forest, but the white man earned the title to 
 the same indifference by the manner in which he dealt with 
 the savages. In most cases, as Talvj pointed out, the savage 
 was pursuing the one and only law of life known to him, 
 self-preservation. That the same could hardly be said for 
 the white man, she illustrated by an incident first related by 
 Hutchinson. During the war with the Indians in 1637, after 
 suprising them in their fortifications, Mason set fire to a 
 wigwam. The blaze, spreading rapidly among the dry under- 
 brush, burned the inmates out like so many rats. Escape was 
 absolutely impossible. The few who did escape the flames 
 fell into the hands of the English as prisoners. Later, in the 
 division of prisoners a dispute arose over the ownership of 
 four women. In order to settle the dispute the four women 
 were executed. As Hutchinson said, "The cleverness 
 as well as the morality of this act can well be questioned." 
 Talvj 's chapter on the conversion of the Indians is 
 
worthy of especial attention, because the failure of the Indians 
 to embrace the Christian religion has given rise to many of 
 the harshest condemnations of their character. The chief 
 cause of this failure, as she saw it, was the fact that too many 
 of the missionaries did not know the Indian language. One 
 need only glance over the accounts of the Indians as given 
 us by travelers, to realize at once that the successful mission- 
 aries were those who knew their language and who thus 
 could enter into their real thoughts and feelings. Many of 
 the German missionaries, as well as John Eliot, Roger Wil- 
 liams, and Pierson owed their success to having learned the 
 language before attempting to convert the ,'Indians. The 
 success of one Daniel Gookin's sons in training helpers for 
 missionary work among the Indians themselves, struck a de- 
 cided blow at the theory advanced by so many that these na- 
 tive Americans were incapable of culture. As early as 1664 the 
 Indians were taught to read and write English and some 
 were even sent to Harvard to be trained in theology. As 
 John Eliot said; "The Indians must become men, that is, 
 they must be civilized before they can become Christians." 125 
 But the civilizing of the Indians seemed almost a hopeless 
 task. Talvj realized it was hard to point out a cause for this. 
 There was no justice in saying that they were incapable of civ- 
 ilization and culture, at least as far as innate traits of character 
 were concerned. It is true that Roger Williams, after having 
 loved the Indians, grew to hate them, and applied to them the 
 terms envious, revengeful, treacherous, and deceitful. But 
 Talvj added this in her note, "Truly his judgment in this 
 respect changed only after the influence of the whites, espe- 
 cially their liquor, had ruined the Indians." 126 It woul'd seem 
 that the advent of the white man was as a breath of poison to 
 the Indians. Nothing in the culture and civilized life of the 
 whites attracted the savages but the cultivation of the fields. 
 Double gain alone seemed to move them. In order to ex- 
 plain this attitude as well as to offer an apology for her 
 lengthy discussion of the Indians Talvj said: "If we have 
 
 125 Colonisation von Neu England, p. 424. 
 Ibidem, p. 416. 
 
been too minute for many readers in recounting a condition 
 of the Indians whose meager traces seem scarcely to warrant 
 it a place in history, we would offer the excuse that we believed 
 we could answer the seemingly unanswerable assertion, that 
 the Indians were incapable of civilization. We believed this 
 could be done by a simple presentation of certain remark- 
 able accomplishments of a few individuals during the short 
 period of twenty-five years. The assertion in question arose 
 during the eighteenth century and the present age gladly re- 
 peats it. It is certain that from Eliot's time to the present 
 not a single earnest effort was made to elevate the condition 
 of the savages. The demoralized tribes of the east, sunken 
 almost into a state of bestiality, no longer afford an oppor- 
 tunity for such effort. But the numerous tribes of the west, 
 wild, barbaric, and degenerated by the influence of self-seek- 
 ing, bartering or arrogant whites, offer a rich field to the 
 missionaries of the Christian world. These Indians are not 
 yet brutalized. The force of love can reclaim them." 127 
 
 Another evidence that the history is cultural is the part 
 the "Volk' plays throughout. Again and again we are brought 
 to realize the importance of this "Volksgeist/ This is brought 
 out very definitely in the account of the movement toward 
 democracy within the colony. The movement itself is as 
 subtle and intangible as this popular spirit which so many 
 have tried to define without success. But despite its subtlety 
 and intangibility it contains the germ of freedom which later 
 grew into the American Revolution. The Germans, more than 
 all other nations, seemed to appreciate the power of this 
 "Volksgeist"; we may not say that they laid an undue em- 
 phasis upon it when we look at present day Germany and 
 consider that the force which made it what it is was born 
 from the same "Volksgeist". Besides this term, she uses 
 such expressions as "Volksgunst", "Grimm des Volkes", Her- 
 zen des Volkes", "Volksaberglauben" and others. All of 
 these are terms found in cutural histories, but represent as 
 well circumstances of unbounded significance to the political 
 and industrial development of a country. The word "Volks- 
 
 127 Colonisation von Neu England, p. 430. 
 100 
 
geist" in particular has been interpreted by the enthusiastic 
 American as meaning "sovereign will of the people", and too 
 often, also has become the mere slogan of the demagogue. 
 Her view of the sovereign will of the people stood in rather 
 bold opposition to Bancroft's, but was, I believe, the deeper 
 and clearer interpretation of a German in such matters. She 
 said, "The sovereign will of the people is seldom anything 
 else than the blind feeling of an ignorant and passionate mob." 
 128 Bancroft, on the other hand, looked upon it almost as upon 
 something sacred. However, Talvj's viewpoint did not pre- 
 vent her seeing in the very passion of the mob the germs of 
 democracy and freedom. It was merely that she would handle 
 this passion in a more careful way, so that it might not be- 
 come a rebellion. 
 
 Still another chapter in her history which reads like a 
 chapter in a cultural history is the last entitled, "The tone 
 and spirit of the colonies." It is a chapter so worth the 
 reading that a brief summary of it may not seem out of 
 place The pestilence of the body which prevailed was not 
 so deadly as the diseased spirit of the people which led to 
 the saying that the devil in person was in their midst. The 
 belief in witchcraft seized the people like a convulsion. Neither 
 the advance of science nor the revelation of the reformation 
 had allayed the idea of a living personal devil. Becker and 
 Thomasius in Germany had not yet brought forth victorious 
 weapons against this belief. When the Puritans left England, 
 superstition was at its height, and certainly life in the Ameri- 
 can wilderness with its accompanying terrors and dangers did 
 not offer any cultural conditions which might remove these 
 superstitions. Superstitious fancies rather found nourish- 
 ment on every hand. God was angry and heaven had to be 
 appeased, and this could be accomplished only through prayer, 
 fasting, and penance. When, however, in an ecstatic moment 
 of prayer, one or another seemed by his gestures and actions 
 to be beside himself, he was immediately considered to be 
 under the influence of the devil'. 
 
 At one time, Talvj tells us, there existed in the colonies, 
 
 128 Colonisation von Neu England, p. 453. 
 101 
 
a veritable mad-house where for days the 'possessed' raved and 
 howled. The whole village was thrown into the most intense 
 excitement and assembled to witness the work of the devil. 
 As prayers and fasting availed nothing, a frightful state of 
 affairs ensued. Superstition made it possible to give vent to 
 personal jealousy and hatred and with this as the real motive 
 many innocent victims suffered tortures and even death. 
 These persecutions were enough to drive the accused mad 
 and so they really seemed to justify the accusation. Talvj's 
 recital of the imprisonments, trials, and punishments is most 
 vivid and impressive, but at the same time it may be said 
 that her treatment of the situation is that of the dispassionate 
 scientist. Most historians either omit the portrayal of this 
 condition of affairs, or, if they discuss it, make only super- 
 ficial observations. But it ought not to be ignored for, better 
 than anything else, this outbreak of religious perversion ex- 
 plains many extraordinary events and movements in the early 
 history of America, as well as in our present time. 
 
 As may have been gathered from even the brief remarks 
 which have been made, the heaviness of her style might offer 
 a basis for criticism ; and, indeed, the North American Review 
 did point this out as a defect. The justification of her solid 
 and weighty prose seems to me, however, to be plain ; for her 
 style is an inevitable consequence both of the purpose of his- 
 torical narration as well as of the point of view of the author. 
 One can scarcely expect a history to possess the vigorous 
 style so much a necessity of successful writings of fiction. The 
 question arises, is the student of history to be amused or in- 
 formed? The details which were so largely responsible for 
 the criticism were necessary to her development of the subject, 
 for as she said, "As in physical so in political bodies, little 
 things have developed to maturity quite as remarkably, as 
 great things." 129 
 
 The North American Review considered both the German 
 language and the subject matter which she chose rather too 
 unwieldy for the production of an attractive history. In com- 
 paring her style with Bancroft's it said, "Talvj's style is not 
 
 129 Colonisation von Neu England, Introduction xiv. 
 102 
 
more vivacious or epigrammatic than that of her country- 
 men in general; it is somewhat tedious, hardly fresh enough, 
 either of fact or disquisition to justify its length for an Am- 
 erican reader. Bancroft's success is due to a vigorous imagin- 
 ation and a crisp nervous style. It reveals startling and bril- 
 liant pictures, being a work of genius rather than laborious 
 detail." 13 In the face of the critic's national bias and his 
 limited knowledge of German, such a criticism hardly seems 
 fair; nor was it voiced by the nation for whom she wrote. In 
 a Bucherschau for 1851 the following statement gives evidence 
 of the very favorable reception of her history in Germany: 
 "Her style is simple, but vivid and warm, and where the 
 circumstance demands, not without force and emphasis." But 
 that not all American critics took the attitude of the North 
 American Review is shown by the following extract from a 
 clipping of one of the contemporary New York papers: "The 
 style of this history is always clear and forcible, and men 
 and things are brought into distinct relief. Without exagger- 
 ating the Puritans, it does them justice, and while treating 
 them in a friendly and sympathetic spirit, it betrays no sense 
 of hereditary obligation to set their virtues too strongly forth. 
 The author has examined what she saw with German in- 
 dustry and thoroughness. Not only ought it be read bv Ger- 
 mans in Germany but also the Germans here, and all the 
 Americans who can read German." 
 
 Talvj's own judgments, whenever they occur, are clear, 
 pointed, reasonable, and sound. While often diametrically 
 opposed to those of American historians, they are never an- 
 tagonistic in temper. She has always stood firmly upon her 
 own convictions, and given expression to them in the most 
 direct manner. In 1852 William Hazlitt, recognizing how 
 great a store house of historical information this work was, 
 edited a translation of it into the English language. The 
 translation does not by any means do the original justice, as 
 can readily be inferred from the following article found in 
 the International Magazine for 1852, "Mrs Robinson who 
 left New York several months ago to visit her relations in 
 
 130 North American Review, vol. Ixix. 
 103 
 
Germany writes from Berlin to the Athenaeum under date of 
 Feb. 2, 'A work appeared in London last summer with the 
 following title: Talvj's History of the Colonization of Am- 
 erica, edited by Wm. Hazlitt in two volumes. It seems proper 
 to state that the original work was written under favorable 
 circumstances in Germany and published in Germany. It 
 treated only of the colonization of New England and that 
 only stood on its title page. The above English publication, 
 therefore, is a mere translation, and it was made without the 
 consent or knowledge of the author. The very title is a 
 misnomer; all references to authorities are omitted; and the 
 whole work teems with errors, not only of the press, but 
 also of translation, the latter such as could have been made 
 by no person well acquainted with the German and English 
 tongues. For the work in this form, therefore, the author 
 can be in no sense whatever responsible." 131 
 
 This is exceedingly unfortunate, for the original is probab- 
 ly one of the best source books of early Colonial history in 
 American literature to-day. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 Miscellaneous Essays. 
 
 With a view, probably, of diffusing among her German 
 countrymen a knowledge of America that would otherwise 
 have been possessed only by the cultivated, Talvj wrote articles 
 for several of the most popular German magazines of the 
 time, giving interesting bits of description of places she vis- 
 ited, as well as charming pictures of early American life. In 
 one of these papers, which will be considered at some length 
 later, we have, so far as I have been able to discover, the only 
 direct expression of her views regarding slavery. In a con- 
 tribution to the North American Review she had described 
 Russian slavery, but in this German paper she expressed her 
 view regarding the curse of slavery to America. With the 
 same desire to awaken in America an interest in Europe, be- 
 cause only in mutual exchange of interests did she feel that 
 
 131 International Monthly Magazine, vol. v, p. 556, 1852. 
 104 
 
the highest development of either was possible, she wrote for 
 several of the leading American magazines of the time ; among 
 them, besides the aforementioned North American Review, 
 Putnam's, Sargent's and the Atlantic Monthly. Not only is 
 the versatility of the writer shown in. the wide scope of sub- 
 jects treated, but the German idea of universality, so definite 
 a purpose of her life, is also brought out by her effort to com- 
 bine German and American culture. 
 
 For the most part I shall touch upon these articles very 
 briefly. Of the eight which appeared in the American maga- 
 zines, all, with the exception of the one printed in Sargent's, 
 are accessible to any who may care to read them. Of Sargenfs 
 Magazine, however, only six issues were published between 
 the years 1843 and 1846; and after a long search I found in 
 the Chicago Public Library the number which contained Talvj's 
 article on "Goethe's Loves", a subject of obvious interest. 
 Several of the longer essays which appeared in the North 
 American Review and Biblical Repository appeared in book 
 form later, and have already been discussed. Four of the 
 seven dealt with Popular Poetry of the Teutonic, Slavic, 
 Spanish, and French nations respectively and are reserved for 
 discussion in the chapter on Popular Poetry, which furnishes 
 a comprehensive view of all her work upon that subject. The 
 other three articles were: "The Household of Charlemagne" 
 in the North American Review for 1855 ; "Russian Slavery" 
 in the North American Review for 1856; and "Dr. Faustus" 
 in the Atlantic Monthly for 1858. 
 
 "The Household of Charlemagne" was called forth by 
 a review of two German histories expressive of the first zeal 
 on the part of national historians to clear up the comparative 
 darkness of their early history. Recognizing the peculiar 
 charm of a close observation of the private life and individual 
 habits of a truly great man, Talvj confined her remarks en- 
 tirely to the private life of Charlemagne, and this she presented 
 in an exceedingly interesting manner. So far as I know, 
 there is no other similar discussion in the English language 
 of this phase of the great monarch's life. Its chief value lay 
 in the fact that it stripped off, partially, the cloak of myth 
 
 105 
 
and legend in which many were wont to cl'othe this monumental 
 figure of history. 
 
 There is no doubt that the article on "Russian Slavery" 
 was called forth by the situation in the United States. As 
 will be seen later in this chapter, Talvj did not come out 
 as a militant abolitionist, although her views as expressed in 
 one of her papers indicate that she was one of its most bit- 
 ter opponents. That she made a thorough investigation 
 of the question of servitude, both white and black, 
 is evidenced throughout both articles. While she did not 
 draw parallels between Russian and American slavery, for 
 each in itself was an independent institution, a burning hatred 
 for its effects and principles pervaded the article. In the 
 main it was a history of the development of serfdom in 
 Russia, pointing out how liberty among the working classes 
 diminished little by little until even the mere remnant of it 
 disappeared. She concluded with the only reference to negro 
 slavery throughout the whole discussion, in expressing her 
 opinion that Russian slavery was superior to negro slavery, 
 since even under its worst iniquities moral relations were 
 more respected. 
 
 The "Dr. Faustus, " article, which appeared in 1858, set 
 forth the legend of Faust as well as its historical background. 
 An interest in Germany and its culture had been growing con- 
 stantly since 1840. Goethe had at once appealed to the Amer- 
 icans as one of the foremost of writers and thinkers, and 
 his "Faust" was arousing the greatest enthusiasm, so that this 
 article met a demand which was felt if not voiced. 
 
 Turning now to Talvj 's German magazine articles, we find 
 them appearing as follows: 1845, "Aus der Geschichte der 
 ersten Ansiedelungen in den Vereinigten Staaten", Raumers 
 Taschenbuch; 1856, " Ausflug nach Virginien, "Westermanns 
 Monatshefte; 1858, "Anna Louisa Karschin," Westermanns; 
 1860, "Die weissen Berge von Neu Hampshire", Aus der 
 Fremde; 1860, "Die Shaker," Westermanns; 1861, "Die Falle 
 des Ottawas", Westermanns; 1861, "Deutsche Schrifstellerin- 
 nen bis vor 100 Jahren," Raumers Taschenbuch; 1869, "Die 
 Kosaken und ihre historischen Lieder," Westermanns. 
 
 106 
 
The first of these articles may be somewhat specifically 
 termed a critical biography of Captain John Smith, whose 
 name and story have become a veritable national legend. It 
 was a forerunner of her history of New England, which ap- 
 peared in 1847, and bore the same stamp of thorough investi- 
 gation of original sources. The history of Virginia could 
 not be better given anywhere. The romantic element in the 
 settlement of the old Dominion colony was brought out with 
 remarkable skill. No new and startling facts appeared, but 
 the old were presented with such a novel and instinctive 
 grasp of causal sequence and significant interrelation, that 
 they were lighted up by a remarkable vividness and interest 
 and the reader was scarcely conscious of reading history as 
 such. Naturally, in a work of this sort, her love of investiga- 
 tion of the Indian and his history found much satisfaction, 
 for the name of John Smith is inseparably associated with 
 that of the Indian King of Virginia, Powhatan, and his heroic 
 daughter, Pocahontas, to whose intervention his life is so 
 customarily ascribed. To Germany, then intensely interested 
 in America and things American, this bit of early history 
 must have been most welcome. For the student of American 
 history today it contains valuable source material. 
 
 The next article, "Ausflug nach Virginien," was perhaps 
 the most interesting and most valuable of them all. It was 
 characteristic of the woman that her views regarding slavery, 
 an institution which she hated with all her strength, should 
 have made their first modest, if positive appearance, in a 
 literary work so retired from American notice as a bit of 
 travel description in a German magazine, and in the German 
 language. She was always keenly interested in political and 
 social situations both in Germany and America, but never 
 felt that the expression of opinion upon them, with the im- 
 mediate purpose of reform, was becoming to a woman. It 
 is therefore only by a scrupulous study of her works that we 
 find, here and there, concealed under cover of novel or history, 
 certain of her expressions of sentiment that, from their force, 
 were intrinsically worthy of broadcast publication. 
 
 With impartial and fearless judgment she struck at the 
 107 
 
cause of conditions in the United States in the middle of the 
 nineteenth century. As she was not a native of either north 
 or south, and as she loved her adopted country deeply and 
 truly, her view was clear and unobstructed by prejudice. 
 "A dark cloud hangs over the inner conditions of this land," 
 she said. "The haughty presumption and blinded selfishness 
 of the South have conjured forth this cloud; the narrow greed 
 for money of the North and the cowardly fear of the specter 
 of disruption of the Union have inactively watched it arise 
 without making any plans for protection. And now it hangs 
 over our heads black and foreboding, threatening to break 
 every minute. It is incomprehensible how carelessly and 
 indifferently the North has looked upon the presumption of 
 the South for years." 132 Opposed to slavery as she was, she 
 did not approve the methods of some of the abolitionists, as 
 is evidenced by her remark, "offended by the passionate cry 
 of rage of the abolitionist party and aroused by their demands 
 for an immediate and unconditional surrender of all their 
 property rights, they began to view 'our own perculiar insti- 
 tution' of slavery from another viewpoint; indeed, they began 
 to nurse and pamper it." 133 Such extremists tried to set up 
 the argument that the slave could appreciate freedom only 
 through having once been a slave, just as the Spartans taught 
 the Helots to appreciate the vices of drunkenness by making 
 them all drunk. Again, the Christians of the South attempted 
 to defend slavery on a religious basis, saying that it was the 
 only means of bringing these ignorant untaught Africans into 
 the light of the gospels. This, as Talvj commented, was a 
 horrible mockery, when one considered that legal marriage was 
 forbidden to negroes in certain parts of the South, and that in 
 South Carolina, at least, the laws forbade them to read the 
 Bible for themselves. She pointed out that a view not uncom- 
 monly given utterance, that slavery was a natural condition of 
 the laborer, and freedom, of the owner of the land, was indica- 
 tive of a terrible state of affairs in a country based on princi- 
 ples of democracy. The disgraceful assault upon Sumner, the 
 
 Westermann's Monathefte, Oct. 1856 Mch. 1857, p. 376. 
 "3 Westermann's Oct. 1856 Mch. 1857, p. 377. 
 108 
 
senator from Massachusetts, by Brooks, the senator from South 
 Carolina, following Sumner's eloquent attack upon the Kansas 
 affair and Butler's part in it, was, in her estimation, one of 
 the chief of the incidents which finally awakened the North 
 to action. The half-hearted concern of the free states in 
 regard to slavery, as well as to the presumption of the South, 
 could in no wise find an excuse in her eyes. That the chains 
 of the cursed institution had stifled progress was a fact patent 
 on every hand as she travelled through Virginia; yet slavery 
 found its defenders and advocates. Ohio, Illinois, Michi- 
 gan, and Wisconsin had, from a cultural standpoint, long 
 since outstripped the southern states. The most primitive 
 methods of travel were still in use in the South ; bridges across 
 streams, if there were any at all, consisted of tree trunks ; the 
 houses and hotels were crude and lacking in ordinary com- 
 forts; nature alone seemed at its best. "Like a destructive 
 mildew slavery lay upon the land's success; like a treacher- 
 ous cancer it gnawed upon its otherwise healthy body." 134 To 
 her this blight was no longer a question of politics, but one 
 of Christianity and humanity. Yet these sentiments, partisan 
 and heartfelt as they were, were interwoven with admirable 
 literary skill into what purported to be a purely descriptive 
 sketch. 
 
 Interested as she was in America and its development, she 
 could not see merely the external conditions and objects which 
 came in turn to her notice as she traveled from place to place. 
 When in Washington she did not fail to attend meetings of 
 the Senate ; and her descriptions of the more important mem- 
 bers of that body must have been most interesting to her 
 German readers. Nineteen years before this, at a ttimd 
 when some of America's greatest orators were at their height, 
 she had attended sessions of the same deliberative assembly, 
 to hear very different discussions, for then the tariff, the 
 national finances, and the right of nullification were prob- 
 lems which called forth bursts of oratory and eloquence. Now 
 for the most part, the higher flights of oratory were lacking, 
 but the eloquence called forth by the vital questions of right 
 
 "4 Westermann's, 185657, p. 637. 
 
 109 
 
and wrong was deep and sincere, and in, her mind greater 
 than the polished speech of Clay, Webster, and Calhoun. 
 The men who debated these questions were greater statesmen 
 than the men of nineteen years before. 
 
 Impartial, unbiased writers, such as she, were needed in 
 America at this time more than ever, and as suggested, it 
 was America's misfortune that Talvj modestly held her views 
 so completely in the background. 
 
 A second biography in this group was that of Anna 
 Louise Karschin, a victim of unfortunate circumstances who 
 produced verses which received the commendation of Lessing. 
 The career of this woman afforded one of the most remarkable 
 and characteristic pictures of the times, and a rather extended 
 treatment of the life of her mother, which Talvj included, 
 justified itself in that it afforded a true portrait of a middle 
 class character of the times. This 'Natur-Dichterin', the 'Ger- 
 man Sapho', as Sulzer called her, could only be criticised justly 
 in the light of her time and her environment. Talvj did not 
 in any way attempt to exaggerate the general estimate placed 
 upon her worth, and I feel convinced that the subject appealed 
 to her less from the standpoint of the woman and her genius 
 than as affording an excellent opportunity to mirror the life 
 of the first and second quarters of the eighteenth century. 
 Nevertheless, the character of the woman was presented in 
 a most vivid, interesting, and compassionate manner. 
 
 In her article upon the "White Mountains of New Hamp- 
 shire", Talvj gave some very interesting descriptions of pro- 
 vinical life as well as of scenery, and showed how the hard, 
 unyielding granite mountains were reflected in the narrow 
 conservatism of the inhabitants of this state. 
 
 A Sunday with the Shakers at Hancock, Pennsylvania, 
 formed the basis for an interesting sketch of the rather fan- 
 atic and intellectually stultifying belief then so dominant in 
 certain parts of Pennsylvania. She seemed to have the 
 knack of describing just those details which added to the 
 realism and interest of situations and conditions. 
 
 Her article on "Die Falle des Ottawas" again gave her 
 opportunity to satisfy her inclination toward historical nar- 
 
 110 
 
rative; she dealt for the once not with the history of Am- 
 erican colonization, but rather with a phase of the struggle 
 between the English and French. 
 
 Quite naturally she was interested in the German women 
 who had previously contribuated to literature. The article on 
 "Germany's Women Authors up to a Century Ago" was 
 replete with much valuable information. Except in choice of 
 material and facts, however, very little chance was given for 
 original judgment in this paper. 
 
 As late as 1869, a year before her death, she once more 
 found expression for her life-long interest in popular poetry in 
 an essay entitled, "Die Kosaken und ihre historischen Lieder." 
 In all of her work in the field of folk-song she showed the 
 keenest appreciation and sympathy with the natural birth and 
 unconscious development of poetry. While the interests of 
 her life were varied and her efforts were invariably successful, 
 her one supreme concern was still the study of popular poetry 
 and its bearing on the culture of civilization. This last article, 
 unimportant as it was, would have completed the cycle of 
 activity in the study of the ballad and related forms which 
 she had begun forty-four years before with the work on Ser- 
 vian folk-lore, and would thus have formed the most appro- 
 priate close of a life dedicated chiefly to that subject. 
 
 The variety of material dealt with in these magazine arti- 
 cles is a tacit witness to the wide interests of Talvj and the 
 comprehensive scope of her mind. She never manufactured 
 literature, but wrote for her love of expression and investiga- 
 tion. This love for the work left an invariable mark upon 
 the style of her production: an intimacy which attracted Ger- 
 mans and Americans alike. 
 
 One point of great interest, probably of even greater in- 
 terest to her American than her German readers, was her 
 detailed explanation of many names of places, rivers, and 
 houses names which at this remote period of time frequently 
 seem to us so extremely odd as to defy explanation. All too 
 often nowadays, if we cannot find an explanation for a name, 
 we disregard all possibility of legendary or real sentiment 
 which may have been attached to the name, and manufacture 
 
 Ill 
 
a new name or appropriate one from another country. Yet 
 a study of original names is tantamount to a study of history, 
 for invariably, as T'alvj often unconsciously demonstrated, 
 the name is intimately connected with some bit of local 
 or personal history. In the early years of this country 
 personal element played an important role in the development 
 of our political as well as our cultural history. It was by 
 means of little details such as these, that she succeeded in 
 making her papers very readable as well as valuable sources 
 of information. The American need not dread to read her 
 German articles, for the subject matter and her method of 
 treatment have given them an incisive briskness which Am- 
 ericans claim to be lacking in ordinary German prose. Un- 
 fortunately the German articles are not accessible for general 
 reading. However, she has drawn such splendid pictures of 
 American life in the earlier years of the republic, in her book 
 called "The Exiles', that a translation of the magazine articles 
 is not warranted. The question of slavery is settled forever, 
 and excellent and sound as her views of this vital question 
 are, they fill their place in the literature on the subject in 
 their original German form. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 A Study of the Ossian Question with especial emphasis on 
 Macpherson's Ossian. 
 
 At the time when the cry "Back to Nature" was resound- 
 ing through all Europe, when artificiality was giving way to 
 spontaneity, when the emotions were assuming their place as 
 a guide to right living, when the poetry of primitive peoples 
 was being studied as a means to the revivifying of formal 
 literature, when the vague and sentimental deism of Rousseau 
 was swaying the minds of many, James Macpherson startled 
 the literary world with his songs of Ossian. An interest in 
 the Scottish Highlanders was already well established, for they 
 seemed the exemplars of a natural mode of existence, unre- 
 strained and unaffected by an artificial civilization. They 
 were still children of nature, and a wild nature at that. In 
 
 112 
 
order better to understand the situation that gave rise to Talvj's 
 discussion, it will be well to give a brief survey of the so-called 
 Ossian question, which has been more or less actively dis- 
 cussel and disputed for more than a century. 
 
 In 1759, when James Macpherson was at the Spa of Mof- 
 fat in the capacity of a traveling tutor, he struck up an ac- 
 quaintance with the author John Home. When Home ex- 
 pressed an interest in Highland poetry, Macpherson told him 
 that he possessed several specimens of this traditionary poetry. 
 Not knowing a word of Gaelic, Home suggested that Mac- 
 pherson choose one poem and turn it into English prose. 
 Macpherson reluctantly consented, and chose for translation 
 the "Death of Oscar" and several smaller poems. The de- 
 lighted Home, showed them to several learned friends, and 
 finally gave them to Dr. Hugh Blair, a famous theologian and 
 literary critic. The latter, becoming enthusiastic, sent for 
 Macpherson and begging him to translate all he had in 
 his possession. Macpherson refused, saying that he could 
 not do justice to the spirit of the poems and that he 
 feared an unfavorable reception of them. Finally Blair 
 prevailed upon him, and Macpherson translated some 
 sixteen pieces. These were published in Edinburgh in 
 1760 under the title Fragments of Ancient Poetry, Collected 
 in the Highlands of Scotland and translated from the Gaelic 
 or Hrse Language. Blair wrote the preface. The book was 
 immediately successful. David Hume, Horace Walpole, Wil- 
 liam Shenstone, and Thomas Gray were all enthusiastic and 
 eagerly demanded further details of Gaelic poetry. Blair was 
 convinced that an old epic composed by Ossian, the blind son of 
 Fingal, lay hidden somewhere, and wrote to London proposing 
 that a subscription be raised to encourage Macpherson to 
 make a search for it. Macpherson at first shrank from the 
 proposed task, but in the end he could not resist Blair's zeal 
 and enthusiasm, and when 100 was raised to defray expenses 
 he accepted the commission. He knew what he was expected 
 to find. In September of 1760 he began his journey, going 
 through the shires of Perth and Argyle to Inverness, thence 
 to Skye and the Hebrides, while later he extended his inves- 
 
 113 
 
tigations to the coast of Argyleshire and the Island of Mull; 
 picking up Mss. here and there, and committing to paper some 
 oral recitations. In 1761 he returned to Edinburgh and, set- 
 tling near Blair, began to translate. Ten months later his book, 
 Fingal, appeared. Unfortunately, his Mss. as well as the 
 copies of songs taken from oral recitation disappeared entirely, 
 so that his own word, to which his personal morals did not 
 give a very redoubtable backing, remained the only testa- 
 ment to the genuiness of his sources. His reference to what 
 he had found was always ambiguous. Johnson, a member of 
 the East India Company, and others urged him to strengthen 
 his assertions by a publication of the originals, but in vain. 
 Fear that a comparison would reveal the forged nature of 
 much of his so-called translations, was the verdict of ninety- 
 nine out of a hundred men. Suspicion as to their authenticity 
 was fanned into a flame, and fierce disputes arose, in the course 
 of which Samuel Johnson almost came to blows with Mac- 
 pherson. Walpole's summary of the quarrel was that Mac- 
 pherson was a bully and Johnson a brute. Hume, who at the 
 beginning was one of the most ardent believers in Macpher- 
 son, changed his attitude to one of equally ardent condemnation. 
 While Macpherson is still believed to be an impostor, Eng- 
 land does not now take Dr. Johnson's extreme view that 
 every one of the so-called poems of Ossian was forged. That 
 there was some genuine Gaelic ballad poetry was proved by the 
 Highland Society of Edinburgh which sent a commission, in 
 1797, to inquire into the nature and authenticity of Ossianic 
 literature. The result of this investigation was not very satis- 
 factory for, as published in 1805, they reached the general 
 conclusion that Ossian poetry of an impressive and striking 
 character was to be found generally and in great abundance 
 in the Highlands, but thus far no one had unearthed a poem 
 similar in title or tenor to Macpherson's publication. It 
 was impossible, the report decided, to determine how far 
 Macpherson had taken liberties in supplying connections and 
 adding to or shortening certain incidents, refining language, etc. 
 Subsequent researches by Scottish antiquaries have had little 
 better success. One manuscript of consequence was found, 
 
 114 
 
The Dean of Lismore's Book, which was dated 1512 to 1529. 
 This dispute over the authenticity of Ossian certainly had one 
 great result in that it led directly to researches into the antiqui- 
 ties of the Kelts, Teutons, and Slavs. 
 
 So much, then, for a brief survey of the situation in Eng- 
 land. In no land was Ossian greeted with such general and 
 unbounded enthusiasm as in Germany. Wilhelm Scherer said, 
 "Addison had already directed attention to the English ballad 
 poetry and Klopstock, Gleim, and others had profited by his 
 example. Bishop Percy's collection of English ballads was, 
 therefore, received with general rapture in Germany, and the 
 sentimental heroic poetry of Celtic origin, which Macpherson 
 published under the name of Ossian was greeted with enthusi- 
 astic applause by a race of poets full of sentiment and war-like 
 sympathies." 135 There were two reasons for this enthus- 
 iastic reception. In the first place, it had long been the 
 belief that the Celtic and Germanic nations had one and the 
 same origin, the Celtic, perhaps, being the more ancient; Os- 
 sian then was the long hoped for German Homer. In the 
 second place, it seemed as if this ancient bard was truly 
 the voice of nature, the representation of primitive man 
 unadorned. Up to this time all that poetic feeling had to 
 feed upon and to satisfy its longings, aside from the classics, 
 of course, was the works of such writers as Boileau and 
 Batteux. Two years before, in 1762, an incomplete transla- 
 lation of Shakespeare had come to Germany and had com- 
 manded immediate attention. It is a matter of small wonder, 
 then, that when Ossian appeared in Geramny in 1764, it 
 received such an enthusiastic welcome, for it meant satisfaction 
 for a long felt want. 
 
 The number of writers whose productions assumed an 
 Ossianic hue, or the number of discussions and translations 
 of Macpherson's work, would indicate the extent of the new 
 Celtic interest. Translation folowed translation, Talvj tells 
 us in her introduction ; Denis, Harold, Petersen, Rhode, Schu- 
 bert, Jung, Huber, Stollberg, all claimed German origin for 
 
 135 Scherer, A History of German Literature, translated by Cony- 
 beare, vol. ii, p. 56. 
 
 115 
 
this bard of nature. Kjlopstock, Herder, and Goethe came 
 forward as enthusiasts for him; indeed "the best and the no- 
 blest of the nation called him their favorite poet." Klopstock 
 and Herder never doubted the authenticity of the poems. 
 Herder, the father of the 'Volkspoesie' movement in Ger- 
 many, based many of his theories in regard to popular poetry 
 upon the songs of Ossian. He spoke of him as the "man I have 
 sought." Klopstock in his enthusiasm cried out, "Thou, too, 
 Ossian, wert swallowed up in oblivion; but thou hast been 
 restored to thy position ; behold thee now before us, the equal 
 and chalenger of Homer the Greek." 1316 Goethe, in his first 
 glow of appreciation derived great inspiration from the songs 
 for his Werthers Leiden, but in his later years, in the light 
 of scientific investigation of Germany's own past, which de- 
 stroyed the old belief in a mutual origin of the Celtic and 
 Germanic nations, he became thoroughly convinced that these 
 songs were not genuine. 
 
 The enthusiasm did not stop in Germany, for Italy, Spain, 
 France, and even Poland and Holland had their eras of Os- 
 sianic literature. In the meantime the dispute raged blindly in 
 England. From the controversy there, the seed of suspicion 
 was slowly and surely carried across the waters to the con- 
 tinent, and in turn new disputes and investigations arose which 
 finally worked against the popularity of Ossian as a piece of 
 original literature. Within a short time it was generally 
 accepted that Macpherson had not translated the songs of 
 Ossian but had cleverly, and, it must be admitted, with con- 
 siderable genius, collected and arbitrarily fitted together a 
 number of unrelated short fragments. To the whole he had 
 imparted the tone and effect of a connected narrative. Mac- 
 pherson's great and unpardonable sin, as Talvj saw it, lay not 
 in the publication of his Ossian, but in imposing himself upon 
 the public as a translator instead of an author. As the latter, 
 considering the tendency of his mind, he might have occupied 
 a most honorable and significant position in the history of lit- 
 erature, for as Saintsbury said, "The imposture of Mac- 
 pherson is more interesting as a matter of tendency than of 
 
 136 Moulton, Library of Literary Criticism, vol. iv. 
 116 
 
essence. The world wanted romance; it wanted the Celtic 
 vague/' 137 
 
 During the same year in which Talvj's Die Unachtheit der 
 Lieder Ossians und des Macpherson'schen Ossian insbeson- 
 dere was published, her Charakteristik der Volkslieder also 
 appeared ; whether written earlier or later is of small moment. 
 From that part of the Charakteristik dealing with Scottish 
 folklore we realize how rich she considered the field of Scot- 
 tish poetry. This interest, together with her unquenchable 
 thirst for truth, brought into play both the knowledge she 
 had gained from a study of the German interpretation of 
 the question and from a study of the English. This included 
 all the research that had been going on since 1797, as was 
 evident from the sources she cited in her discussion. 
 
 In the manner characteristic of her studies in popular 
 poetry, Talvj introduced her Ossian discussion by giving her 
 readers an historical survey of the primeval period in Scot- 
 land, and of Scotland's early relations with Ireland. The 
 relation between these countries, she said, became closer by 
 intermarriage and education until, as early as the thirteenth 
 century, the Irish language changed from a court language 
 into a common language among the inhabitants of the Scottish 
 lowlands. The Gaelic remained in the mountains and on the 
 islands. 
 
 Following the historical background was a brief resume 
 of the quarrel, beginning with Hume's first suspicions aroused 
 immediately upon the publication of Ossian in 1760 and 1761, 
 Talvj next presented her German readers with arguments 
 against the antiquity of Macpherson's Ossianic poetry. She 
 admitted the presence of anachronisms in popular poetry, due 
 to the fact that it was the product of various times and var- 
 ious authors, but never, she declared, could the anachronisms 
 of an historical personage who sang of events either immedi- 
 ate, recent or contemporary, be justified. The Ossian of the 
 third century certainly must have known that his father was 
 not Cuchullin's contemporary, for Cuchullin died in the sec- 
 ond century. He must have known also that neither in Scot- 
 
 137 Social England, vol. v, p. 262. 
 
 117 
 
land nor Ireland were there "castles and moss covered tur- 
 rets" 138 in the third century. Stone came into general use only 
 shortly before the English invasion in the twelfth century. 
 These and other anachronisms, according to Talvj, made it 
 seem almost impossible that Macpherson's Ossian should ever 
 have been looked upon as possessing historical accuracy. 
 
 Without denying verbal transmission of legend and history, 
 Talvj pointed out that the transmission of some twenty thou- 
 sand lines, together with the main facts in the history of five 
 generations, became a second weighty argument against the 
 genuineness of the work. 
 
 A third argument was the question of the language itself. 
 Some of the greatest Gaelic and Irish scholars before Mac- 
 pherson had been unable to interpret the Erse dialect, and 
 Macpherson did not profess to be a great scholar. To attempt 
 to prove the genuineness of the songs of Ossian by means of 
 manuscripts found in recent centuries was to deny the con- 
 stant flux of language from one period to another . "Tradi- 
 tional folk-songs," said Talvj, "are in this sense comparable to 
 ships, which are ever being repaired with new wood, until in 
 the end scarcely a single part in them is exactly the same 
 as it was originally." 139 To pick out the original from the 
 interpolations was the work of an expert philologist; and 
 Macpherson himself said that it was very difficult for him, on 
 many occasions, to translate the Gaelic. Macpherson's Os- 
 sianic manuscript, what there was of it, was in modern Gaelic, 
 and not in the Gaelic of the third century. Furthermore, 
 Macpherson's Ossianic manuscripts, when compared with pro- 
 ductions of the earliest times, showed clearly that both con- 
 tent and form were not what they purported to be. The verse 
 of the undisputed MSS. seemed uniformly to consist of fifteen 
 to sixteen syllables, with a caesura in the middle, and with the 
 first division rhyming with the last ; the verse of Macpherson's 
 original songs, however, occurred nowhere in the oldest histor- 
 ical Gaelic documents. The variance in content was equally 
 obvious. 
 
 138 Talvj, Assian, p. 48. 
 189 Talvj, Sssian, p. 54. 
 
 118 5 
 
Talvj did not attempt to disprove that Finn remained for 
 centuries the central figure of Gaelic legend. "Just as Arthur 
 and his round-table for the Britons and later for all the west- 
 ern peoples, Dietrich and his heroes for the Germans, Charle- 
 magne and his peers for the Franks and Spaniards, Wladimir 
 and his 'Bojaren,' Lasar and his 'Woiwoden' for the Russians 
 and Servians, Dschanger and his twelve warriors for the Kal- 
 mucks, Finn and his followers remained for the Gaels the cen- 
 tral point of the great cycle of legend which imbedded it- 
 self, with all its peculiarities, in the various localities of the 
 country." 140 
 
 The original Irish Ossian documents displayed a language 
 which was always simple ; similies and metaphors were not fre- 
 quent. The action as well as the language of Macpherson's 
 Ossian was refined to such an extent that even the superficial 
 student of popular legend realized an unnatural nicety. The 
 heroes in the original Ossian fragments were quite as noble as 
 those of Macpherson, even if they were less shadowy and more 
 the creatures of human passions; the women were quite as 
 beautiful and charming, even if less refined and polished. 
 The characters of the original bore the stamp of their time. 
 "Folklore is often rough and harsh, but it is always fresh, 
 direct, sensual, and artistic," said Talvj, and for this very 
 reason the sublime and pure speech, the commanding char- 
 acter of Macpherson's Ossian argued against its genuineness. 
 
 The Highlanders were a credulous people and intensely 
 proud of their nation. This patriotism had blinded them to 
 the fact that the home of Ossian was Ireland. There was 
 scarcely a song found among the Highlands that did not have 
 its original counterpart, written or traditional, somewhere in 
 Ireland. In earlier years, it was realized that, from a literary 
 viewpoint, Scotland was entirely dependent upon Ireland. 
 If a Gael wanted to learn more than warfare, he went to Ire- 
 land, where, even amid war and bloodshed science flour- 
 ished in the convents and monasteries. After the English 
 invasion it is not at all improbable that the Scotch attend- 
 ants of the Irish princes carried the songs back to their homes. 
 
 140 Talvj, Ossian, p. 67. 
 
 119 
 
For the sake of argument Talvj granted that Macpherson 
 might have possessed some old Erse manuscripts that served 
 him as originals. But with this supposition four questions arose 
 at once : Were the manuscripts really from a single period of 
 antiquity? Was the language Erse? Was it Ossianic poetry? 
 Was Macpherson able to decipher it? Nothing in the nature 
 of this kind of manuscript was found among his papers. A 
 repeated reference, however, was made to a Gaelic manuscript 
 in the possession of the family of Clanronald. It was said that 
 Macpherson secured this manuscript, but what developed from 
 it was not known. All Highland poetical composition of cer- 
 tain periods was written in Irish Gaelic. The folksingers 
 imitated this as best they could in dialect. The Erse language 
 was regarded as a dialect of the Irish-Gaelic. As far as Talvj 
 could discover it had never been written or printed prior to 
 1754, when a minister by the name of Macfarlane used the 
 Erse in a popular appeal. With the Reformation the High- 
 land's dependence on Ireland ceased, and in 1684 a Gaelic ver- 
 sion of the Psalms was made in Scotland, Latin letters being 
 used. And so, if Macpherson possessed old manuscripts these 
 would have been Irish-Gaelic. He himself admitted once that 
 he could not read an Irish manuscript of the fourteenth cen- 
 tury which was shown to him ; yet according to O'Reilly it was 
 not unusual for Irish scholars of even slight training to de- 
 cipher fourteenth and fifteenth century manuscripts. 
 
 From these arguments against the possibility that Macpher- 
 son had been a translator of Gaelic, Talvj proceeded to prove 
 that in all probability he was himself the clever author of Ossian. 
 Undoubtedly, at first, he had no idea of going so far with the 
 work as he did. Choosing the third century as the background 
 in which to give his fancy free rein, was a clever method of 
 arousing the attention of the public to extraordinary themes. 
 Another ingenious stroke of Macpherson's was that he gave to 
 all the poems of his first publication an apparent authenticity, 
 as for example in the case of his great epic Fingal. This was 
 based on the "Song of Magnus the Great." His "Schlacht von 
 Lora" was based on ''Ergons Landung" etc. In his second 
 publication, however, very few if any had any basis of author- 
 
 120 
 
ity. The success of the first volume probably made him feel 
 that a second would be quite as generally accepted, on the 
 reputation of the first, even if he did not take the added pre- 
 caution of giving it an authentic basis. 
 
 Literary forgery such as Macpherson's was not at all an 
 unheard-of thing in England. Lauder before Macpherson, and 
 Chatterton, contemporary with him, were both forgers. The 
 former made Latin verses which he gave to the public as the 
 original of Milton. The latter composed poems which for a 
 time he made the public believe to be productions of the fif- 
 teenth century. But, said Talvj, "Such an artistic assertion, such 
 hoods, lies, misrepresentations, and unfounded assertions, such 
 a hodge-podge of historical events, had never before appeared 
 in the history of any land, and this it is which despite all his 
 fame as a poetic genius will ever be the constant reproof to 
 Macpherson." 141 
 
 In one very important point Macpherson was not far- 
 sighted enough in his cleverness; he left out the element of 
 religion almost completely. In all of the Ossianic poetry of 
 both Ireland and Scotland there is a great intermixture of 
 religious feeling, even of Christian religion ; yet in substitution 
 for it he introduced only a species of mythology of the super- 
 natural. Whatever critical or general approbation was given 
 to this spirit world was a clear tribute to Macpherson's genius, 
 for not a hint of it was discernible in the Gaelic folk-songs. 
 
 The history of how, in the face of an unceasing insistence 
 upon the publication of the original documents, Macpherson 
 still delayed, making excuse after excuse until finally, when he 
 did present them, the critics felt firmly convinced that they were 
 Gaelic translations of his own English, and poor translations at 
 that, is known to all who followed this question with any de- 
 gree of thoroughness. Sir Walter Scott, among many others, 
 had no doubt whatever that Macpherson himself had trans- 
 lated his own English, making good use of his innate feeling 
 for the form and style of the old Scotch bards. "I am com- 
 pelled to admit," he said, "that incalculably the greater part 
 of the English Ossian must be ascribed to Macpherson him- 
 
 1*1 Talvj, Ossian, p. 110. 
 
 121 
 
self, and that the whole introduction, the notes, etc., are an ab- 
 solute tissue of forgeries." 142 "In the translation of Homer," 
 
 he again remarked, "he lost his advantage A tartan 
 
 plaid did not fit his old Greek friend." 143 The success of his 
 Ossian misled him into believing that the could master the 
 style of Homer ; he was a man whom talent led astray. 
 
 In closing her discussion, Talvj presented a concise ac- 
 count of Gaelic folklore in Scotland in her own time. She 
 pointed out that, as such, it was fast disappearing, and unless 
 the most strenuous effort were made to preserve what frag- 
 ments were yet available, this treasure of song and poetry 
 would be irrevocably lost like the great mass of primitive 
 folklore had been. 
 
 This, then, was the contribution which Talvj made to the 
 discussion concerning the authenticity of Macpherson's Ossicm. 
 No one in England or Germany was more qualified to end the 
 dispute ; for since the time of Herder no scholar had possessed 
 so comprehensive and deep a knowledge of folksong as she, 
 not even Wilhelm Grimm. The disputes in Great Britain had 
 become mere sectional squabbles with England on one side, en- 
 tirely ignorant of the nature of the Volkslied, and Scotland on 
 the other, entirely carried away by a blind and false patriotism. 
 Lacking scientific basis for the arguments, these squabbles be- 
 came so petty and involved that their solution seemed almost 
 impossible. At this juncture, viewing the whole situation 
 calmly and without bias, in the light of the discovery of Ger- 
 many's own past, and of the new vision revealed by the old 
 Norse folklore and, what is even more significant, in the light 
 of the knowledge which she herself had brought before the 
 world by unearthing the very springs of a living poetry among 
 the Slavic nations, Talvj took up the discussion. The result 
 of her work was a triumph not only for her but for truth, for 
 the disputes in both England and Germany came to an end. 
 It is only within very recent years that Saunders and Smart 
 have again taken up the question. But a careful investigation 
 of their work merely reveals the fact that as early as 1840 
 
 142 Lockhart, Life of Scott. 
 148 Talvj, Ossian, p. 110. 
 
 122 
 
Talvj had access to practically all of the material which is to 
 be obtained even at the present day; and she used it more 
 scientifically. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 Her Novels. 
 
 In the early part of the eighteenth century questions of 
 the relation of life to moral standards became objects of pop- 
 ular consideration, and a new interest awoke in everyday exist- 
 ence. Those who had once attended merely to external cir- 
 cumstances in human affairs came more and more to investi- 
 gate the inner thoughts and feelings of man. Out of this 
 subjective tendency of the age was evolved a new psychology 
 and a new morality. In the family, as Richardson showed in 
 his Pamela, lay new motivations and new conflicts; and prob- 
 lems of the family are a prominent, if not a dominant, factor 
 in literature to the present day. The women characters lost 
 their stereotyped character and became, according to David 
 Swing, 144 the white ribbon that binds together the truths gath- 
 ered in the fields of science, religion, and politics. This Talvj 
 illustrated in her Heloise. 
 
 The tendency to introspection led, as we know, to the 
 melancholy romance of passion of which Goethe's Werthers 
 Leiden was the foremost example. The whole period is some- 
 times characterized as the 'Empfindsame Werther-Zeitalter*. 1 ** 
 This introspection was a marked characteristic in Talvj 's 
 novels and short stories, whose common theme was a sen- 
 sitive heart brought into conflict with the rough world, and 
 frequently overcome by the struggle. This romantic tone was 
 maintained even in her last novel, Funfzehn Jahre, (1868) in 
 which she developed a nature almost antipodally removed from 
 the realistic creations of the later nineteenth century. Again 
 and again, especially in her short stories, her characters were 
 embodiments of that vagrant, self-centered romanticism which, 
 following its own free inclinations, wandered inevitably into 
 
 144 Modern Eloquence, vol. ix. 
 i Mlelke. 
 
 123 
 
wrong paths. Through the favor of external circumstances 
 conjoined often with the pure love of a good woman, they 
 were brought back from the very brink of self-destruction into 
 the sane, well-ordered atmosphere of practical activity from 
 which they had wandered. This was especially shown in Life's 
 Discipline, Bin Bild aus seiner Zeit, Der Lauf der Welt, and 
 others. In Das vergebliche Opfer the development was en- 
 tirely subjective, and in every way displayed the influence of 
 romanticism. 
 
 . It is significant that out of eleven productions, generally 
 classed as novels, eight were novelets, that form of Ger- 
 man narration which, while corresponding in many respects 
 to the English short story, in many others stands midway 
 between it and the novel. As a literary form it was un- 
 doubtedly much better calculated to appeal to the popular taste 
 than the German Roman, but whether Talvj consciously adopted 
 it for this reason or not, is unknown. At any rate, she was not 
 a novel writer in the ordinary sense of the word 'novel' ; while 
 as a writer of sketches, especially those with a romantic color- 
 ing, she was decidedly successful. The following quotation 
 from a New York newspaper of 1851 expresses the sentiment 
 I have in mind in regard to her works in this field: "The 
 tales of Talvj will not charm the simpering Miss of the board- 
 ing school. They will be pronounced uninteresting in the 
 drawing room of fashion. But in the domestic circle, where 
 intellect is admired and purity is reverenced, where knowledge 
 and virtue are sought in the book that is to entertain the family 
 group, these truthful tales of the human heart will be more 
 than welcomed as guests, will be loved as friends." The names 
 of the characters in Talvj 's books will undoubtedly be for- 
 gotten by her readers, as will the characters themselves, but 
 the moral will continue to exist either as an example or as a 
 warning. The tragedy of life, as she showed us, lies not within 
 the realm of the tangible, but rather within that of the spirit. 
 Jealousy played an important part in her representations of 
 life, sometimes prevailing, sometimes vanquished by reason 
 and by the steadfastness of a woman's devotion, the latter a 
 prominent element in almost all of her works of this nature. 
 
 124 
 
All of her novels were written in German; four, at least, 
 have been translated into English. The fact that Heloise 
 passed through three English editions in one year testified 
 strongly to the general acceptance of her work by American 
 readers. Die Auswanderer also had several English editions, 
 appearing first under the title of The Exiles, and later as 
 Woodhill. It would of course have been preposterous to ex- 
 pect that her works, psychological as they were, should attain 
 great popularity; and if popularity be measured by circu- 
 lation, her novels fell far short of it. Although lacking a wide 
 appeal, they possess a depth and truth in the portrayal of char- 
 acters and situations wjiich should insure for them a lasting 
 existence in literature. One of the New York papers in 
 speaking of her works said, "They possess a classic simplicity 
 of style and clearness, and of refinement of presentation. They 
 are true pearls of literature in the field of novel writing." 14<fe 
 
 Her novels fall into four divisions. In the first are six 
 short tales which her daughter, Mary, published after Talvj's 
 death, under the title of Gesammelte Novellen and two, Maria 
 Barcoczy and Kurmark und Kaukasus, which I was unable to 
 find. The second division is represented by Heloise, the third 
 by Funfzehn Jahre and the fourth by her most important novel, 
 Die Auswanderer. I shall discuss them in this order, with 
 especial emphasis on the last. 
 
 The tales contained in the book, Gesammelte Novellen, repre- 
 sented, in a certain measure, the beginning and the end of a long 
 literary career. Nearly a half century elapsed between the first 
 story, "Die Rache," written in 1820, and the last, "Ein Bild 
 aus seiner Zeit," written in 1868. The author herself realized 
 that several of the earlier ones bore, too plainly, the stamp of 
 youth, and intended to reconstruct them; but death overtook 
 her before she accomplished this task. 
 
 The characters, as Talvj herself said, are "not ideal charac- 
 ters, such as the heart creates out of immature poetic fancy; 
 they are human beings whom I portray truly human in their 
 sins and their virtues. The reader will seldom wonder about 
 
 146 New Yorker Belletristisches Journal. 
 125 
 
them, but perhaps he will sympathize with them and love them. 
 It is not the force of an exterior fate which will attract the 
 reader's attention for a time; their peculiar characteristics, 
 their feelings, their reason, their hatred and their love, their 
 insight and their deceptions, these traits form the attractive 
 features. Not external but internal necessity leads the char- 
 acters on to their happiness, or their misery/' This last sen- 
 tence particularly expresses the whole underlying thought of 
 her stories "in each human breast rests the power over one's 
 own destiny." 
 
 Of all her novels Die Auswanderer was perhaps of greatest 
 interest to her American readers, because it dealt with Amer- 
 ica and Americans. Before entering upon a discussion it may 
 be well to consider briefly certain works of another author 
 which were similar in nature to Talvj's Die Auswandercr. As 
 early as 1828 Charles Sealsfield saw the influence of European 
 politics upon America and expressed this in The Americans as 
 They Are. During the year 1823 he made an extended trip 
 through the southern and western parts of the United States. 
 In 1824 he was active in Jackson's compaign for the presidency ; 
 and in 1825 he took part in the Harrisburg convention, whose 
 proceedings he later depicted vividly. In 1825 he made another 
 trip south, passing through parts of Illinois and Indiana on his 
 way to New Orleans. The two books which were the outgrowth 
 of this tour, the one just mentioned and Lebensbilder in der 
 westlichen Hemisphere, are exceedingly valuable as cultural- 
 historical studies. 147 His works are among the few American 
 historical novels that are true to life, because written by one 
 unrestrained by prejudice or political or social connection. He 
 gave a photograph of Americanism in all its details, national 
 and moral, public and private, spiritual and material, religious 
 and political. Until the beginning of the fifties his books were 
 eagerly read. With the establishment of the Republican party 
 a great change in attitude toward the past swept over the whole 
 
 147 Sealsfield was the founder of a school of romance in German 
 literature, known as the "Exotische Culturroman". This school gave 
 great impetus to realism in Germany and may be considered a stepping 
 stone to the "Zeitroman" of Gutzkow. See Americana Germania, vol. i. 
 
 126 
 
country, and America began to forget her own origin. Now 
 the importance of a past culture and history is being recognized 
 more and more, and these early pictures of Americans and 
 American life are being brought forth for reconsideration. 
 
 Just at the time when the political and social change of the 
 early fifties began to sweep over the country, we see a rival 
 to Sealsfield in Talvj. There are no other novelists of this 
 period worthy of being classed with these two writers. Both 
 were German, yet both loved America impartially. Franz von 
 Loner placed Talvj above Sealsfield, despite a statement that 
 Sealsfield was the "greatest American stylist." "No one," said 
 Loher, "has ever penetrated so deeply into the real American 
 thought and feeling, which contain just as much of the bizarre 
 as of the charming." To him SealsfiekTs portrayals seem over- 
 drawn and clouded in comparison with Talvj 's clear, naive 
 truth. This statement is slightly unfair, inasmuch as the sub- 
 ject matter is treated from a different viewpoint. Talvj pen- 
 etrated into the secret recesses of American thought ; Sealsfield 
 observed more superficially, and portrayed what he saw. The 
 two supplement each other, and together supply a unique con- 
 tribution to American literature. Some other writers on 
 phases of this early life are Buckingham, Dwight, Thwaite, 
 Trollope, Martineau and Mlargaret Fuller, but none of them 
 have given us such vivid pictures as Sealsfield and Talvj. 
 Their descriptions are in the nature of impressions gained 
 through travel, and a reading of them gives one a feeling of 
 better acquaintance with his American ancestors, and an insight 
 into the existence of forces working for or against a national 
 culture. In this Talvj succeeded better than Sealsfield, and 
 I would, therefore, place her first in this particular field of 
 American literature. 
 
 Let us turn now to a consideration of Die Auswanderer, 
 which appeared in 1852. Judged as a connected tale, it has 
 many faults of technique; but as a series of sketches it is 
 above criticism. Talvj would have us consider it in this light, 
 for in her introduction she said : "I do not aim to give a full 
 picture of North America to my readers, but rather only 
 detached pictures out of American life, as they have appeared to 
 
 -4 127 
 
me during the experience of many years." 148 She purposely 
 omitted politics, for in her estimation they were outside of the 
 sphere of a true woman. Some of the characters are drawn 
 so vividly and with such startling adherence to reality that 
 they seem to be real personages. To those, however, who 
 voice this impression she answers that individual truth is not 
 always personal truth. None of the characters are portrayals 
 of definite persons, none of the situations are descriptions of 
 actual occurrences. A calm quiet tone pervades her scenes. 
 Even sketches which picture intense moments of pain and 
 suffering are characterized by quietness and restraint. 
 
 A brief consideration of the beginning of the story will 
 suffice to show the trend of the book and to suggest its de- 
 velopment. A wealthy German girl, an orphan, comes of age 
 and inherits her property. In an interview with her guardian, 
 she announces her intention of proceeding at once to America 
 with her lover, Franz Hubert. She has succeeded in obtain- 
 ing Hubert's release from prison, where he had been thrown 
 for a political offense, only on condition that they should 
 emigrate to the United States. 149 Neither Hubert nor Klothilde, 
 the heroine, are temperamentally fitted for the trials and hard- 
 ships to be encountered in settling in a new country. Types 
 of the highest culture, they little realize what it will mean to 
 live the life of a pioneer in the midst of primitive conditions. 
 Klothilde's guardian, who is himself desirous of marrying her, 
 uses all his power to dissuade her from taking this step, but in 
 vain. She joins her lover at Bremen, expecting to be married 
 before stepping upon the ship. But as the ship in which they 
 are to sail for America is on the point of departure and all is 
 hurry and bustle, the lovers have no time for the marriage 
 service, for Klothilde will not rush through the sacred cere- 
 mony as one rushes through a meal while the coach waits at 
 the door. As there is no pastor on board, they are obliged to 
 postpone the ceremony until they reach the New World. The 
 destination of the voyage is New Orleans. When near the 
 coast of Florida the ship takes fire and nearly all on board 
 
 148 Talvj, Die Auswanderer, Vorwort. 
 
 14 Talvj, The Bxiles, chap. vi. 
 
 _ 128 
 
perish, either in the burning vessel, or through the sinking of 
 the overcrowded row boats. Only one boatload of passengers 
 escapes, and, after being driven about on the ocean for days, 
 with tortures beyond human endurance, it reaches the shores 
 of Florida. Klothilde is among the rescued. Hubert would 
 have been also, but at the last moment he had rushed back to 
 secure Klothilde's property, and when he returned the boat was 
 crowded. Insane with fear and excitement, one of the men 
 already in the boat beats him back with an oar, and Klothilde 
 sees him disappear into the gaping jaws of a huge wave. The 
 boat gains the land with its occupants more dead than alive. 
 Alonzo Castleton, the planter to whose home Klothilde is 
 carried, gives her hospitality and care during a terrible illness 
 of three months, during which a kind Providence robs her of 
 consciousness. After her recovery she realizes the necessity of 
 supporting herself. All of her property has been sacrificed; 
 the house in New York, through which her money had been 
 sent to America, has failed and she is penniless. Through 
 Alonzo, she obtains a situation as teacher of German and music 
 in a private family at Charleston. The household scenes here 
 are admirably drawn, and the two sisters, Virginia and Sarah, 
 are especially well done. Virginia's fiery Spanish blood makes 
 her daring enough to run off with an adventurer, to bid de- 
 fiance to her relatives, and outwit the keenest of them. In 
 the pages of an undisguised romance, the part Virginia's tem- 
 perament plays in uniting Klothilde and the miraculously saved 
 Hubert would be acceptable; but the boldness with which the 
 author binds together the threads of the theme, constitute the 
 weakness of the work as a novel. 
 
 The first volume of the story ends with Klothilde's 
 recognition of Hubert and her subsequent marriage to him. 
 The second volume is taken up largely with their trials and 
 difficulties in making a home of their own. Klothilde and 
 Hubert have many things to tell each other, and it is in these 
 conversations that the author so skillfully works in her German 
 ideals. At last the two are settled at Woodhill, a beautiful 
 New England village. Here, on the very eve of Klothilde's 
 becoming a mother, Hubert is ruthlessly snatched from her, 
 
 i 129 
 
the victim of a duel which is the outgrowth of jealousy caused 
 by his former relations with Virginia. The young mother 
 cannot withstand the shock of a second parting and dies. 
 
 One of the most successful portions of the book deals 
 with Klothilde's life with the Castletons. Sarah is the 
 exact opposite of her dashing sister. She is pious, after 
 a fashion dear to the heart of Cotton Mather, with whom, 
 indeed, she is able to claim relationship. Her library is thus 
 described: "In the middle of the plain white marble mantel- 
 piece lay an enormous Bible, bound in velvet and gold, and 
 concentrating in its outer garment, as it were, all the splendor 
 which otherwise was carefully avoided in the whole room ; on 
 both sides of this stood, in tasteful and regular groups, some 
 smaller books, mostly memoirs of pious missionaries, Dodd- 
 ridge's Rise and Progress, Hannah More's Practical Piety, 
 Melville's Bible Thoughts, and several other books of the 
 kind. On the toilet table lay another Bible, smaller in size 
 and plainer in dress. This was obviously meant for reading, 
 the large one only to reverence." 152 Almost the first question 
 Sarah puts to Klothilde is, "How many hours daily do you 
 spend in prayer, Miss Osten?" "I would wish you/ she con- 
 tinued, "to look upon this humble chamber as the haven to 
 which the Lord has brought you to learn to praise his 
 Almighty name even for the storms by which he has shat- 
 tered the slight vessel of your earthly happiness." AIL of 
 her conversation is in this strain, sincere beyond all doubt, 
 but stamped by the narrowness of formal orthodoxy. The 
 following excerpt shows the lifelessness of such a faith : 
 "Klothilde approached Sarah's table, and opened the Bible at 
 the mark which she had left in it. She wished to see what 
 part of the Holy Scriptures had exerted such a strangely 
 soothing influence over her, after her heart had just been 
 pained by her conversation about her sister's dangerous course, 
 her father's indifference, and the early loss of her mother. She 
 saw with astonishment that Sarah had just been reading the 
 twelfth chapter of Joshua, the record of the great warrior's 
 victory, which contains a topographical description of the 
 
 130 
 
conquered land and the names of the thirty-one vanquished 
 Kings. And yet in reading it, she looked as attentive as if 
 she were reading the Sermon on the Mount, or some other 
 immediate outpouring of the Spirit. Klothilde did not know 
 that Sarah made it a rule to read the Bible through in order, 
 from beginning to end, at her morning and evening devotions, 
 and only at other times allowed her heart the luxury of 
 drinking in its favorite portions. And are there not among 
 her brethren in the church many most estimable families, 
 where the genealogies and the reports of the bloodiest 
 atrocities of the degenerate people of God, serve just as much 
 for an introduction to family prayer as other parts of the 
 Bible, because it might appear like sinfully despising the Word 
 of God to pass over these and certain other portions, at the 
 readings of which the mistress of the house, at least, would 
 prefer not to have her daughters and young maid-servants." 
 Sarah was so overwhelmingly pious that, when difficulty 
 occurred in getting help, she thought it right to pray that God 
 would send them "a very good servant-girl/' She knew a lady 
 who prayed for an excellent girl, and "lo and behold! the 
 next morning the Lord sent her an uncommonly able girl from 
 New Hampshire." This girl was a real blessing in the house. 
 She cooked, baked excellent bread, washed and ironed, helped 
 wash and dress the children, and took two of them to church 
 with her." But her pious mistress was not able to keep her, 
 for a still more pious lady offered her a quarter of a dollar 
 a week more ! 
 
 Another admirable bit of satire in character portrayal is 
 contained in the following: "Besides the question about the 
 restoration of the Jews, Mrs. Gardiner had another favorite 
 subject, upon which she liked to turn the conversation and 
 gather different opinions. It was this: What had become of 
 the ten lost tribes of Israel ? Mrs. Weller, with whom she often 
 used to discuss the subject, adhered firmly to the old view, that 
 they are to be found in the North American Indians. But for 
 Mrs. Gardiner, who had inherited from her ancestor, the 
 celebrated Dr. Cotton Mather, an unconquerable repugnance to 
 the filthy, stiff-necked race of Indians, it being, as it were, 
 
 131 
 
in her blood, this origin was far too good for them, and 
 although she did not acknowledge it, she was inwardly much 
 more inclined to put faith in the old theory which Hubbard, 
 the historian mentions as a possible one, namely that this 
 brood was begotten by Satan himself, during his banishment, 
 when he took a couple of witches with him for company. The 
 ten lost tribes, she believed with other learned persons, to have 
 been discovered in Persia among the Nestorians, or rather 
 among the ancient Chaldeans, for she was of the firm opinion 
 that these two nations were one and the same, and could not 
 refrain from some doubts of the Orthodoxy of those scholars 
 
 who rejected this arbitrary supposition There was 
 
 another point in which the two ladies differed that threatened 
 sometimes to have more serious consequences. It was the 
 question whether the Sabbath commenced on Sunday at sun- 
 rise or on Saturday at Sunset." 15 
 
 Mrs. Weller, who was born in Connecticut, was of the 
 latter opinion, so that in her home the housework of the week 
 had to be finished before sunset on Saturday a requirement 
 which, in view of the demands of her four children, and the 
 lack of help, often wrought upon her a considerable hardship. 
 It was the duty of the eldest little daughter to gather the 
 children's toys and lock them up in the cupboard until 
 Monday morning. Even the two-year old baby dared not 
 murmur. If it were winter they might listen to the parents' 
 stories of their own childhood and at times interrupt them with 
 laughter or with questions. This description is continued in 
 a most attractive way. With others, it portrays a domestic 
 life piteously misled by the narrow teachings of a senseless 
 orthodoxy. 
 
 The quiet home scenes in Richard Castleton's home sudden- 
 ly change into a picture of terrible storm. Virginia, growing 
 more and more restless and irritable under the secret of her 
 love, vents her ill humor on her slave, Phyllis. With malice 
 in her heart, the latter dashes to pieces the picture of her 
 mother, Virginia's dearest treasure. The subsequent whipping 
 
 150 Talvj, The Exiles, chap, x, part 1. 
 132 
 
of the slave and the successful attempt to bribe her back into 
 good humor by gratifying a material desire, give Talvj 
 a chance to express her views upon the slavery question. 
 "Klothilde sighed deeply. For the first time she saw clearly 
 how terrible a curse the condition of slavery was to mankind. 
 Abuse of the body, infringement of personal liberty, exorbitant 
 demands of work what are all these compared with the 
 degradation of one's finer sensibilities, with the humiliation of 
 self-respect, with the very deadening of all desire to be free 
 and masters of one's own soul." 
 
 Talvj did not approve of the methods of many of the 
 abolition leaders, but this did not mean she opposed abolition. 
 Her attitude is clearly brought out in this story of The Exiles. 
 Nothing in Uncle Tom's Cabin had a greater abolitionist 
 tendency than many of her views expressed by Bergmann. 
 But her method was altogether innocent of the antagonistic 
 sting which she so severely condemned in others. 
 
 Another great movement which she did not overlook was 
 the emancipation of woman. In one of Klothilde's conversa- 
 tions with Mrs. Gardiner she answers, in Goethe's spirit the 
 question, "What language, Miss Osten, do you think was first 
 spoken in the world?" "I have no idea, such learned investiga- 
 tions we German women gladly leave to our philological 
 students." The American woman was clamoring for an equal 
 position with men not only in educational but in political 
 matters as well. Hubert's reply to Klothilde's complaint over 
 an act of discourtesy well deserves a repetition in the twentieth 
 century "It may be, at least I know, her behavior made it 
 right for me to keep my seat undisturbed." The movement 
 was then in its earliest stages, and was calling forth little more 
 than ridicule. 
 
 Both Sealsfield and Talvj were struck by the emptiness of 
 the "Young Ladies' Seminary" type of education. Talvj said: 
 "The advantage of a regular school education is recognized 
 among all classes of society to such an extent that the young 
 girls whose instruction in youth was necessarily neglected be- 
 cause of the poverty of the parents, often engage in domestic 
 
 133 
 
service for some years, in order to get a little money with 
 which to attend a 'Young Ladies' Academy' for one or two 
 years. 151 And thus they obtain a higher education!" Fre- 
 quently, as she pointed out, the result was arrogance on the 
 part of the daughter which often inspired a refusal to recog- 
 nize her ignorant mother; or, on the other hand, the mother's 
 empty pride in her daughter's wonderful achievements. Seals- 
 field said about the same subject: "Now to make a passing 
 remark, this is the manner and fashion in which our mushroom 
 aristocracy is formed. A couple of daughters are sent to a 
 fashionable school. On their return home, they attract with 
 their companions a few dozen young coxcombs, and their 
 daughters' glory naturally reflects on the good papa and the 
 dear mamma." 152 
 
 Where Sealsfield remarked upon the emphasis placed on 
 money, Talvj remarked upon that placed on birth. She 
 said: "The Germans notice with a secret smile what im- 
 measurable worth this son of a democratic republic places 
 upon noble origin and family relationship. A longer res- 
 idence in America should teach them that no nation on earth 
 places more value on excellent birth and bonds of relationship 
 than the democratic Americans." 153 Sealsfield, on the other hand, 
 said : "No nation in the universe has so stiff an appearance as 
 ours, and especially our good families; for thank Heavens! 
 our middling classes, the real nation, know nothing of it. But 
 our aristocracy that is, those who would like to be it if it 
 depended on them our popular independence would soon be 
 destroyed. The man who has a hundred thousand dollars will 
 not condescend to look at one who has fifty thousand, and the 
 latter is as arrogant toward him who has only ten thousand. 
 You are just as respectable as you are heavy." 154 
 
 Conditions in America in regard to music, art, poetry, and 
 religion were impartially considered by her, not as invit- 
 ing superficial criticism, but as one offering explanation for 
 
 151 Talvj, The Hxiles, chap, iv, part 2. 
 
 152 Sealsiield, Sketches of American Society, p. 7. 
 
 153 Talvj, The Exiles, chap, iv, part 2. 
 
 154 Sealsiield, Sketches of American Society, p. 74. 
 
 134 
 
the slow advance of general refinement. The practical trend of 
 American affairs, the material interests of the whole nation, 
 made the American spirit less ready to receive the influences of 
 culture than the German. Did Francke have a material 
 motive in founding his orphans' asylum in Halle? Have the 
 great academies of science and art in Germany been evolved 
 out of worldly motives? And yet Talv doubted this general 
 opinion, for she did not feel that a painting need be less beauti- 
 ful when painted to fulfill an order than if produced by inner 
 feeling. The development of art and literature in America 
 was hindered, in part, she said, by national self-love, which 
 made the country wish to stand in the front rank and dictate to 
 her neighbors, and partly fry the absence of true criticism:. A 
 lack of discrimination and a senseless enthusiasm for everything 
 written crippled and retarded the development of poetry. 
 Architecture in America already showed great promise, which 
 Talvj recognized and praised. She believed, however, that 
 speculative philosophy, so fertile in Europe, could never become 
 national in America. A group in Boston were pursuing it 
 under the form of Transcendentalism, but for philosophy to be 
 popular nationally seemed to her out of the question. It was 
 not practical, not useful the great slogan of the American 
 nation. And, said Talvj, "It lies in the very nature of things 
 that a democratic republic in itself cannot be an especial pro- 
 motor of the fine arts and science but this will not pre- 
 vent the true genius blazing a path for himself." 155 
 
 With such descriptions and observations Talvj wove a 
 story of charm and interest. Truth to life, clearly reflective 
 of actual experience, is so evident that one must needs believe 
 in the character without having seen any even faintly similar. 
 Her pictures are not merely hard, accurate reproductions ; they 
 are photographs, enriched and vitalized by feeling and senti- 
 ment. The power of her keen observation and her individuality 
 of expression are constantly seen. Her style is simple and 
 unstudied, clear and readable. 
 
 155 Talvj, The Exiles, chap, iv, part 2. 
 135 
 
CONCLUSION. 
 
 As one considers the works of Talvj in their entirety, a 
 very simple and logical division suggests itself, namely : scien- 
 tific and aesthetic. Under the latter head may be grouped her 
 poetry, comparatively insignificant in bulk, and her novels; 
 under the former all her other writings, for the most part 
 either purely historical, or to use a term especially applicable 
 to her work in popular poetry cultural historical. 
 
 For a young nation, lacking a long period of historical 
 development, it is not hard to realize how significant a really 
 scientific treatment of the events of early settlement was. 
 Mute evidence to the fact that previous to the Revolution 
 America possessed practically no historical literature is fur- 
 nished by the poverty of material covering this period. The 
 long chronicles and records of events and dates cannot be 
 viewed as the organized product of historical research, and, 
 as has been pointed out in a previous chapter, their very authen- 
 ticity is doubtful. Into a nation lacking historical sense, Talvj 
 came as the representative of a country where the historical 
 viewpoint was paramount. She had absorbed the influence of 
 that whole period in which the present, gropingly trying to 
 bring itself into communication with the classical past, dis- 
 covered that changed and progressive condition of life made 
 a union with bygone ages impossible, and thus became con- 
 scious of a brilliant future. The time was instinct with a 
 desire to embrace the whole cycle of development and the cul- 
 mination of this desire was the historical viewpoint. In her 
 whole historical method we may trace the influence of Herders 
 and Humboldt's views concerning history. I mention the 
 names of these two authors, because Herder's view of history 
 was very thoroughly developed by Humboldt, especially in the 
 latter's essay Ueber die Aufgabe eines GescJvichtsschreibers. 
 Herder regarded the whole development of the world as his- 
 torical. Lamprecht has expressed this point of view very 
 well when he says, "As the Greeks developed art, the Romans 
 law, so each nation in turn will develop other sides of life until 
 the cycle of culture is complete and God's purpose is accom- 
 
 136 
 
plished." 156 With this idea as a basis, Humboldt defined the 
 task of the historian as representing, simply and sincerely, what 
 had happened. The events of the past are evident to our senses, 
 through their results, only in part ; the rest must be arrived at 
 by a process of analysis and reasoning. What appears is dis- 
 sociated, out of its proper relation, and isolated ; the real truth 
 of what has happened rests upon the discovery of these invisible 
 parts which, joined with the visible, will make the whole ap- 
 parent and tangible. And this work of juncture, said Hum- 
 boldt, was the task of the historian. That Talvj derived much 
 help and inspiration from both of these great representatives 
 of German culture is evidenced by her effort to act upon this 
 very idea. This is especially well illustrated in the last chapter 
 of her history. From the saliency of resulting events we ap- 
 preciate more clearly that causes were hidden during this 
 period of unrest at the close of the seventeenth century. Her 
 success in combining the scattered facts of chance records into 
 a related unity, thereby achieving a communication in which 
 Humboldt says the historian is like the poet, in my judgment, 
 makes Talvj 's treatment of this phase of American history 
 stand out conspicuously above that of any of her contem- 
 poraries. Her tracing of the inner history of religious evolu- 
 tions, for example, shows how an idea strove and grew until 
 it won for itself an existence in reality. Her work here is a 
 sound illustration of Humboldt's principles that in all that 
 happens there rules an underlying idea not immediately perceiv- 
 able, but clearly recognizable in the occurrences. Again, in her 
 History of John Smith, she embodies both Herder's and Hum- 
 boldt's belief, that the spirit of humanity is the spirit of the 
 world. By making her History of John Smith an intensive 
 study of the History of Virginia she showed how great indi- 
 viduals are more likely to be the results of great political 
 movements than the causes of them. She thus, of course, 
 anticipated a method of historical presentation which today 
 is very popular. 
 
 Turning now to the consideration of the other sphere of 
 her scientific writing, her books upon folk lore, we see her 
 
 15i6 Lamprecht, Deutsche Geschichte, vol. viii, p. 323. 
 137 
 
again embodying the idea of the three great scholars, Herder, 
 Goethe and Grimm. Herder's aim was to penetrate to the 
 innermost nature of man by a study of his folk songs. His 
 interest was not the interest of the abstract scholar or collector, 
 but a vivid practical desire to implant the fundamental prin- 
 ciples of human nature into the culture of his times, thereby 
 furthering its development. Goethe and Grimm both held this 
 view and each in his own way influenced German culture by 
 the results of his studies in the ballad and popular poetry. 
 Talvj's actual purpose with her Charakteristik der Volkslieder 
 was not to undertake a scientific examination of popular poetry, 
 but rather to place emphasis upon poetry as a natural expres- 
 sion, and as a simple safeguard against the danger of ultra- 
 refinement and artificiality, which even then seemed to be 
 making itself felt in America. By introducing Herder's 157 
 great point of view she opened the eyes of Americans to that 
 source of human culture which had saved Germany from the 
 disastrous effects of artificiality. 
 
 Through Goethe and Grimm, Talvj received her first in- 
 spiration to study popular poetry. This inspiration became an 
 earnest purpose which carried her father into the field than 
 most of her predecessors, and than any of her contemporaries. 
 She did not follow Grimm's steps into philological research, 
 but she was as great an enthusiast as he in collecting old songs. 
 Herder had hoped for a German Percy, who, like the good 
 English Bishop would discover and gather together a similarly 
 rich harvest of old songs. In a measure she fulfilled his hope. 
 Her treatment was original in that she made these songs the 
 basis for a cultural history, first giving the significance to it by 
 prefixing a political-historical setting. Again, her work was 
 original in that she undertook to explain the importance of 
 folk lore, pointing out that as the natural expression of a 
 
 157 In a short biographical sketch of Mrs. Robinson the Interna- 
 tional Magazine for 1850 and 51 says of this book : "This is a work of a 
 most comprehensive character and fills up a deficiency which was 
 constantly becoming more apparent in the direction opened by Her- 
 der." The highest praise of the book and its author's ability follows. 
 vol. i, p. 306. 
 
 138 
 
primitive people it was important for literature and for national 
 culture. 
 
 In her aesthetic works she shows the influence of move- 
 ments and tendencies rather than personages. In tone and 
 meter her poetry bore a great similarity to Schiller's; but it 
 hardly seems profitable to pause upon it longer than to point 
 out this fact. In her novels, however, which reflect the in- 
 toward romanticism, then in its wholesome and promissing 
 youth, made her work worthy of greater attention. The 
 Exiles, written in 1852, gives poetic expression to the great 
 contemporary tendency in Germany, and indeed in all Europe, 
 to seek freedom of thought and action. It is remarkable in 
 itself as well as significant that her work alone among 
 America's writers gave atistic expression through the pages 
 of a novel to this great contemporary movement, one of 
 whose immediate results was the immigration of 1848. It is 
 significant also that she should have caused her heroine to be 
 cast upon the coast of Florida instead of New England, that 
 the German thoughts and ideals embodied in Klothilde should 
 have been implanted first of all in the home of southern aris- 
 tocracy, thence slowly wending their way northward. A narrow 
 and provincial pride in the Puritan fathers had kept people 
 from realizing that the real seat of culture was then in the 
 South and that this was the most fertile field in which to 
 develop new ideals. 
 
 How successfully Talvj transmitted these cultural in- 
 fluences to the American people can as yet be gauged only 
 indirectly, by a logical inference from its value and the im- 
 pressionability of the public to whom it was presented, for 
 critical estimates of her work in American magazines and news- 
 papers were few. 158 The lack of them is by no means due to 
 any want of appreciation of her services by American editors, 
 but to the undeveloped state of literary criticism in this country 
 at that early period. The crudity and inadequacy of this de- 
 partment of national literature was but natural in a country 
 
 158 The following American magazines contain critical notices and 
 reviews: North American Review, Harper's Monthly, International 
 Monthly, Graham's Magazine and Bibliotheca Sacra. 
 
 139 
 
placing more emphasis on quantity than on quality of literary 
 out-put, and, while frankly imitating English and French mas- 
 ters in all its performances, had not yet realized its potential 
 value. The development of criticism was hampered, moreover, 
 by the fact that America's energy was being consumed in an 
 effort to readjust, and to establish a firm basis for government, 
 that its cultural forces were being consumed by the harsh- 
 ness and difficulties of material existence. In general, we 
 know from the journals and diaries of some of America's 
 most highly cultured men, that German ideals and thought 
 exerted a marked influence upon them. Furthermore, we 
 may infer from Talvj's personal acquaintance with many of 
 these men that she helped exert this influence. First in 
 Boston and then in New York, her home, we are told, was 
 the frequent center of social gatherings. Her membership 
 and her highly-appreciated work in the New York Historical 
 Society bespeak a recognition of her scholarly attainments; 
 and as her historical presentations were always calm, scientific 
 investigations we know certainly that to some Americans, at 
 least, she was interpreting the German point of view. The 
 ready acceptance of her papers on the part of the leading 
 American magazines indicates, also, a very substantial recog- 
 nition of her ability. 
 
 Recognition was also accorded her by contemporary New 
 York newspapers at the various times her works appeared. 
 Upon the publication of Heloise in 1851, a number of flatter- 
 ing comments appeared. The hope was invariably expressed 
 that more books might follow from the pen of the author of 
 Heloise. Through this book, one American newspaper re- 
 marked, Talvj brought to many the atmosphere of Russian 
 life; a service of especial interest and timeliness at a moment 
 when translations of many Russian stories were being dis- 
 seminated both in Germany and America. A new work by 
 Talvj, as another paper expressed it, was an event which could 
 not fail to attract considerable attention, and was not likely 
 to be overlooked by her numerous and intelligent circle of 
 readers. 
 
 Critics were well agreed as to the significance of her treatise 
 140 
 
upon the Literature of the Slavic Nations. To be credited with 
 having supplied a noted deficiency in English, American, and 
 even German scholarship, as one New York paper did, is 
 unusual praise, and carries with it a recognition of her ability 
 and keen intellect. The London Athaeneum of 1850 speaks 
 of this work in the following terms: "This is an American 
 publication, by, we believe, a German lady settled in that 
 country. It has no pretentions to profound learning; but as it 
 treats in a light and and popular manner a subject on which 
 English readers have very scanty means of obtaining informa- 
 tion, it will not fail of a welcome. Indeed we know of no 
 book in our own language which gives anything like so complete; 
 and attractive an epitome of the great Slavonic nations North 
 and South." 15& In this work she entered a field rarely trodden 
 even by those scholars in Germany who push their researches 
 into regions which the mass of philologists never think of ex- 
 ploring. Still another significant statement discovered in one of 
 the newspaper comments related to the translation she made of 
 her own work, Life's Discipline, in 1851. "Talvj is teaching 
 us," said this article, "to appreciate the Hungarians in spite of 
 the North American. 3 ' This would imply a somewhat active 
 interest in the Hungarians and their history just about this time. 
 May it not have been this very interest that led her to translate 
 a book which so artistically but faithfully portrays Hungarian 
 history and political intrigue? 
 
 An unfortunate feature in regard to these criticisms, which 
 are pitifully meager and lacking in detail, is that they are 
 accessible only in the shape of clippings, to which the names 
 of the respective newspapers and magazines have not been 
 attached. One, recognizable by its type, is from the New 
 Yorker Belletristisches Journal, a German weekly of the highest 
 literary standing. Another, as we know from a slight refer- 
 ence made in the course of the discusion is from some theolog- 
 ical paper. During these years many of the theological pub- 
 lications, in the east especially, presented reviews, criticisms, 
 and even productions of high literary merit. Criticisms of 
 secular productions were at that time of perhaps greater 
 
 139 London Athaeneum, 1850, p. 1069. 
 141 
 
frequency and significance than they have since been, for 
 today magazines of this nature are inclined to treat only those 
 works which bear directly on theological subjects. 
 
 From the critical resources available, unsatisfactory as they 
 are, is evident that in the early and middle years of the 
 nineteenth century, Talvj fulfilled a great service to Amer- 
 ican culture as a disseminator and interpreter of the cul- 
 ture of a nation which has always been recognized as distinctive 
 for its universality. The mission of the German- Americans to 
 the future civilization of America, is, we may say, to pre- 
 serve and cultivate the best of their inheritance in music, 
 literature, art, religion, and philosophy, in order that each in- 
 dividual may become the highest possible exponent of German 
 ideals and principles. Through the Germans a healthy senti- 
 ment has been infused into a sort of Puritan ascetism, and 
 German ideals have tempered materialism and regenerated 
 orthodoxy by representing humanity and religion as one. This, 
 too, we may say, was Talvj 's mission in America; to bring 
 the New World into the higher spheres of human life by unit- 
 ing the best German spirit with the best of American spirit, 
 in the hope of establishing on this side of the Atlantic, a truly 
 national culture, worthy to rank with the culture of the older 
 nations beyond the seas. 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 Adams, H. B. Thomas Jefferson and the University of Virginia. U. S. 
 Bureau of Education, Circular of Information No. 2. Washington, 
 1888. 
 
 Boswell Life of Samuel Johnson. Edited by Hill. Oxford, 1887. 
 
 Brauns, Ernst Ideen iiber die Auswanderung nach Amerika. Gottin- 
 gen, 1827. 
 
 Bristed, John Die Hilfsquellen der Vereinigten Staaten Amerika's. 
 New York, 1818. Uebersetzt Weimar, 1819. 
 
 Carver, Jonathan Travels in Wisconsin. New York, 1838. 
 
 Duponceau Memoir of the celebrated Treaty made by Willam Penn 
 in Memoirs of the Pennsylvania Historical Society, vol. xii, Phila- 
 delphia, 1876. 
 
 Duyckinck Cyclopedia of American Literature, vol. ii, New York, 
 1866. 
 
 142 
 
Encyclopedia Britannica Celtic and Gaelic Literature, vol. v. 
 
 Eckermann Gesprache mit Goethe. Leipzig. 
 
 Faust, A. B. Das Deutschtum in den Vereinigten Staaten. Leip- 
 zig, 1912. 
 
 Fisher, Sydney G. The Legendary and Myth-Making Process in His- 
 tories of the American Revolution. New York and Philadelphia, 
 1912. 
 
 Geiger, L Goethe Jahrbuch, vol. xii. Frankfurt a. M. 1891. 
 
 Goebel Das Deutschtum in den Vereinigten Staaten. Miinchen, 1904. 
 
 Goethe Kunst und Altertum. Weimar Edition. 
 
 Goethe Briefe 18231828. Weimar Edition. 
 
 Goethe Tagebiicher 1824 1826. Weimar Edition. 
 
 Goethe Wilhelm Meister. Weimar Edition. 
 
 Goodnight, S. H. German Literature in American Magazines prior 
 to 1846. Madison, Wisconsin 1907. 
 
 Grund, Francis J. Die Aristocratic in Amerika. Stuttgart und Tubin- 
 gen 1839. 
 
 Grund, Francis J. Die Amerikaner in ihren moralischen, politischen 
 und gesellschaftlichen Verhaltnissen. Stuttgart und Tubingen, 1837. 
 
 Haertel, M. H. German Literature in American Magazines. 18461890. 
 Madison, Wisconsin, 1908. 
 
 Haym Herder nach seinem Leben und seinen Werken dargestellt. 
 Berlin 1880-1885. 
 
 Haym Die Romantische Schule. Berlin 1870. 
 
 Hecke welder Life, Manners, and Customs of the Indians. Phila- 
 delphia 1819. Also found in Memoirs of the Pennsylvania Histor- 
 ical Society. 
 
 Heinrici, Max Das Buch der Deutschen in Amerika. Philadelphia, 
 1909. 
 
 Humboldt, Wilhelm Ueber die Aufgabe des Geschichtschreibers, 
 Sammtliche Werke, Leitzmann, 1905. 
 
 International Encyclopedia, New Ossian, vol. xiii. 
 
 Jaeck Madame de Stael. Thesis, University of Illinois, 1910. 
 
 Julius, N. H. Nordamerikas sittliche Zustande 1834 36. Leipzig 1839. 
 
 Korner, Gustav Das deutsche Element. New York, 1884. 
 
 Korner, Gustav Beleuchtung des Duden'schen Berichtes iiber die west- 
 lichen Staaten Nordamerikas von Amerika aus. Frankfurt a. M., 
 1834. 
 
 Lamprecht Deutsche Geschichte Ueber die Romantik. Berlin, 1894 . 
 
 Lawson, John L. An Account of the Indians of North Carolina, 1709. 
 London 1714. 
 
 Loher Geschichte und Zustande der Deutschen in Amerika. Leipzig, 
 1847. 
 
 Loher Beitrage zur Geschichte und Volkerkunde. Ueber Talvj. Leip- 
 zig. 
 
 i 143 
 
Loher Beilage zur Augsburgischen Allgemeinen Zeitung den 9ten und 
 
 lOten Juni, 1870. Talvj ein deutsches Frauenleben. Konigliche 
 
 Bibliothek, Berlin. 
 
 Lohre Von Percy zum Wunderhorn. Palaestra 22. Berlin, 1902. 
 Longfellow, Samuel Life, Letters, and Journals of Henry Wadsworth 
 
 Longfellow. Boston, 1893. 
 Loskiel Indian Missions. London, 1794. 
 Luden, H. Reise Sr. Hoheit des Herzogs Bernhard zu Sachsen-Wei- 
 
 mar-Eisenach durch Nord-Amerika, 1828. Weimar, 1828. 
 Macpherson, James Ossian. London, 1807. 
 Mielke Geschichte des deutschen Romans. Leipzig, 1904. 
 Moulton Library of Literary Criticism Mrs. Edward Robinson. 
 
 New York, 1910. 
 
 Moulton Library of Literary Criticism McPherson. N. Y., 1910. 
 Pancoast Introduction to American Literature New York, 1900. 
 Panzer, F. Das deutsche Volkslied der Gegenwart. Frankfurt a. M., 
 
 1911. 
 Rattermann, H. A. Deutsch-Amerikanisches Biographikon und Dich- 
 
 ter-Album. Erster Teil. Talvj und Sealsfield. Cincinnati, 1911. 
 Rattermann Der deutsche Pioneer. Vol. xii. Talvj. Cincinnati. 
 Richardson, Chas. F. American Literature 16091885. Vol. I and II. 
 
 New York and London, 18871889. 
 Saunders, Bailey Life and Letters of James Macpherson. London 
 
 and New York, 1895. 
 
 Sealsfield Sketches of American Society. New York, 1828. 
 Smart, J. S. James Macpherson, London, 1905. 
 Spielhagen Theorie und Technik des Romans. Leipzig, 1883. 
 Steig, Reinhold Goethe und die Gebriider Grimm. Berlin, 1892. 
 Tombo Ossian in Germany. New York, 1901. 
 Vater Amerikas Bevolkerung. Leipzig, 1810. 
 Wagner, H. F. Das Eindringen von Percy's Reliques in Deutschland. 
 
 Heidelberg, 1897. 
 Wagner, Ludwig Talvj 17971870. Biographische Skizze zur Erin- 
 
 nerung an ihren lOOsten Geburtstag. Pressburg, 1897. 
 Wette de, L- Reise in den Vereinigten Staaten und Canada im Jahre 
 
 1837. Leipzig, 1838. 
 
 MAGAZINES. 
 
 Academy Vol. xxxix & xlvi. Ossian. 
 
 Americana Germanica Vol. i-iv. 
 
 American Quarterly Review 1837, Review of Grund's Work. 
 
 Athaeneum Vol. i. Ossian. 
 
 Atlantic Monthly Vol. Ixxxii Article by Chas. K. Adams. Some 
 
 neglected Aspects of the Revolutionary War. 
 Biblical Repository Vol. i. Article by Edward Robinson. Theological 
 
 Education in Germany. 
 
 144 
 
Bibliotheca Sacra Vol. iv. Article by Philip Schaf. German Literature 
 in America. 
 Vol. vii. Article by Prof. C. E. Stovve. Review of Talvj's History. 
 
 Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine. Vol. cxci. Articles Musings with- 
 out Method. 
 
 Blackwood's Vol. ci. Article on Ossian. 
 
 Deutsche Rundschau January 1913. Article on Wilhelm Dilthey von 
 Bernhard Groethuysen. 
 
 The Dial Vol. i. German Literature. 
 
 Eraser's Magazine Vol. ci. Ossian. 
 
 Graham's Magazine Vol. vii. Slavic Literature and Heloise. 
 
 Hallesche Nachrichten. 
 
 Harper's New Monthly Vol. i & ii. Criticism of Talvj's Works. 
 
 International Monthly Vol. ii. & v. Biographical Sketch of Mrs. Ro- 
 binson and article on translation of her History. 
 
 Knickerbocker Vol. xxiii. Sealsfield. 
 
 Memoirs of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania Vol. i. Defence 
 of Heckewelder by Rawle. 
 
 Living Age Vol. Iv. Article on Ossian. 
 
 Morgen-Blatt 1823. Pustkuchen und Goethe. 
 
 Morgen-Blatt 1826. Volkslieder der Serben von Talvj. 
 
 Morgen-Blatt 1840. Charakteristik der Volkslieder von Talvj. 
 
 North American Review 1819. Review of Heckewelder's Work. 
 
 North American Review 1849. Review of Talvj's History of New 
 England. 
 
 Preussische Jahrbucher May 1894. Briefwechsel zwischen Jakob 
 Grimm und Therese von Jacob. Berlin, 1904. 
 
 Southern Literary Messenger Vol. x. Sealsfield. 
 
 Spectator Vol. Ixxiii. Ossian. 
 
 Studien zur Literaturgeschichte. Der Untergang des Volkslieds von 
 Alfred Gotze. Leipzig, 1912. 
 
 Zeitschrift fur deutsche Wortforschung. Vol. iv. Article on Volks- 
 lied und Volkspoesie in der Sturm- und Drangzeit von Erwin 
 Kircher. 
 
 Zeitschrift fur den deutschen Unterricht Vol. v. Materialien zur Ge- 
 schichte des deutschen Volkslieds von Rudolf Hildebrand. 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 The following is a list of her works arranged with regard to their 
 publication. 
 
 Gedichte signed Reseda. Theodor Hell's Abendzeitung 1820 
 
 Ein Aufsatz iiber einen Gegenstand der englischen Literatur Lite- 
 
 rarisches Wochenblatt. December 1821 
 
 *Briefe eines Frauenzimmers Literarisches Conversationsblatt. .1821-22 
 Uebersetzung des Walter Scottischen Romans signed Ernst 
 
 Berthold Black Dwarf. Taschenbibliothek Nos. 43-44 1821 
 
 145 
 
Old Mortality Taschenbibliothek Nos. 71-74 1821 
 
 Eine kritische Anzeige von Wuk Stephanowitsch Karadschitsch, 
 Sammlung serbischer Volkslieder. Literarisches Conversa- 
 
 tionsblatt, May 1824 
 
 Psyche ein Taschenbuch bei Fr. Ruff. Halle 1825 
 
 * Volkslieder der Serben 3 editions, Brockhaus, Leipzig 1825-26 
 
 *Das vergebliche Opf er Tiibinger Morgenblatt 1826 
 
 *Der Lauf der Welt Ein Taschenbuch 1834 
 
 *Ueber die indianischen Sprachen Amerikas. Aus dem Englischen 
 des Amerikaners John Pickering, iibersetzt und mit Anmer- 
 
 kungen begleitet von Talvj. Leipzig 1834 
 
 *Historical View of the Slavic Languages. Biblical Repository. 
 
 Andover and New York 1834 
 
 *Popular Poetry of the Teutonic Nations. North American Review 1836 
 *Versuch einer Charakteristik der Volkslieder germanischer Natio- 
 nen, mit einer Uebersicht der Lieder aussereuropaischer V61- 
 
 kerschaften. Brockhaus, Leipzig 1840 
 
 *Die Unachtheit der Lieder Ossians und des Macpherson'schen 
 
 insbesondere. Brockhaus, Leipzig 1840 
 
 *Spanish Popular Poetry. North American Review 1842 
 
 *Aus der Geschichte der ersten Ansiedlungen in den Vereinigten 
 Staaten (Captain John Smith). Raumers Historisches Ta- 
 schenbuch. Brockhaus, Leipzig 1845 
 
 *Geschichte der Colonisation von Neu-England. Von der ersten 
 Niederlassung daselbst im Jahre 1607 bis zur Einfuhrung der 
 Provincialverfassung von Massachusetts im Jahre 1692. Nach 
 den Quellen bearbeitet. Nebst einer Karte von Neu-England 
 
 im Jahre 1674. Brockhaus, Leipzig 1847 
 
 *The Loves of Goethe Sartain's Union Magazine New Monthly 1850 
 
 *Life's Discipline, New York 1850 
 
 *Heloise or The Unrevealed Secret. New York 1850 
 
 ^Historical View of the Languages and Literature of the Slavic 
 
 Nations. New York and London 1850 
 
 *Heloise (German) . Brockhaus, Leipzig 1852 
 
 *Die Auswanderer. Brockhaus, Leipzig 1852 
 
 Kurmark und Kaukasus Bibliothek der neuen belletrischen Lite- 
 
 ratur. Nos. 575576. Wurzen Verlags-Comptoir 1852 
 
 Maria Barcoczy. B. d. n. b. Literatur. No. 613 1852 
 
 *Uebersichtliches Handbuch einer Geschichte der slavischen Spra- 
 chen und Literatur. Nebst einer Skizze ihrer Volkspoesie von 
 Talvj. Mit einer Vorrede von Edward Robinson. Deutsche 
 Ausgabe iibertragen und bevorwortet von Dr. B. K. Briihl, 
 
 Brockhaus, Leipzig 1852 
 
 *The Exiles, New York 1853 
 
 *The Poetry of Southern France. Putnam's Magazine 1853 
 
 146 
 
Eine deutsche Uebersetzung von Edward Robinson's "Biblical Re- 
 searches in Palestine" under dem Titel, "Neuere biblische For 
 
 schungen in Palestine" 1853-54 
 
 *Charlemagne and his Household. North American Review 1855 
 
 *Russian Slavery North American Review 1856 
 
 *Ein Ausflug nach dem Gebirge Virginiens im Sommer. Wester- 
 
 manns Monatshefte Nos. 4-6 1856 
 
 *Dr. Faustus Atlantic Monthly 1857 
 
 *Anna Louisa Karschin Westermann's Nos. 23-24 1858 
 
 *Die Shaker. Westermann's No. 48 1860 
 
 *Die weissen Berge in Neu Hampshire Zeitschrift aus der Fremde. 
 
 Nos. 30-32 1860 
 
 *Die Falle des Ottawas Westermann's No. 53 1861 
 
 *Deutschlands Schriftstellerinnen bis vor 100 Jahren Raumer's 
 
 Historisches Taschenbuch. Brockhaus, Leipzig 1861 
 
 Physicshe Geographic des heiligen Landes. Aus dem Nachlass des 
 
 Prof. Robinson Vorrede von Talvj '. 1865 
 
 *Fimfzehn Jahre. Brockhaus, Leipzig 1868 
 
 *Die Kosaken und ihre historischen Lieder. Westermann's No. 59.. 1869 
 
 . .Ein Bild aus seiner Zeit. Westermann's Nos. 69 72 1870 
 
 *Gesammelte Novellen. Edited by her daughter 1874 
 
 * * * 
 
 The following personal notes are of interest, perhaps, because of 
 their authors: 
 
 New York, Nov. 1, 1858. 
 My dear Mr. Robinson : 
 
 My wife is not well enough to come into town and attend your 
 party on Wednesday evening, though she is rather on the mend- 
 ing hand. I do not often pass the night in town but hope to be able to 
 
 do so on that occasion My wife desired me to express to you 
 
 her love and her regrets. 
 
 I am dear Madam, 
 
 truly yours, 
 
 W. C. Bryant. 
 
 * * * 
 
 New York, Nov. 1, 1858. 
 
 Mr. Olmstead regrets that a previous engagement will prevent his 
 acceptance of Mrs. Robinson's kind invitation for Wednesday evening 
 
 next. 
 
 * * * 
 
 New York, January 9, 1850. 
 My dear Mrs. Robinson: 
 
 Mrs. Bancroft, who isn't very well this morning, begs me to write 
 to you that for tomorrow evening she has two engagements of rather 
 
 *Books I have been able to obtain. 
 
 147 
 
long standing It is particularly a source of regret to us, as 
 
 nothing would be more agreeable to us than to visit you and Mr. R. 
 in the social friendly manner you propose. 
 I remain, 
 
 Dear Mrs. Robinson, 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 George Bancroft. 
 
 * * * 
 
 New York, July 25, 1854. 
 
 Dear Madam: I shall be most happy to avail myself of your kind 
 invitation to take tea with you this evening. 
 
 Very sincerely yours, 
 
 Bayard Taylor. 
 
 148 
 
VITA 
 
 The writer was born in Quincy, Illinois, September 1, 1882. 
 After graduation and one year of post-graduate work at the 
 Quincy High School, she continued her education at the Illinois 
 State Normal University at Normal, graduating from that in- 
 stitution in 1902. Subsequently she was an assistant in the High 
 School at Lexington, Illinois, for one year; Principal of the 
 Fulton, Illinois High School for three years; and instructor 
 in Latin in the Dixon, Illinois High School for three years. 
 In the summer of 1909 she entered the University of Illinois 
 from which institution she received her Bachelor's degree 
 in June of 1910. In 1910 she was given a scholarship in the 
 Graduate School of the University of Illinois and received 
 her Master's degree in 1911. From 1911 to 1913 she held a 
 fellowship in the Graduate School of the same institution and 
 was given the Doctor's degree in June 1913. Since Septem- 
 ber, 1913, she is occupying the position of Dean of Women 
 in Ohio University, Athens, Ohio. 
 

 14 DAY USE D 
 
 DEPT. 
 
MAKERS 
 
 SYRACUSE, - N.Y, 
 
 PAT. JAN. 21, 1908 
 
 U.C. BERKELEY LIBRARIES 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY