ilBlii; ninifiiiiiniiifninifnfinniiuKiiuifnMi ' ' iKllil!!.,, WllljllHlliiilliliillili THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Rare Book Room GIFT OF John W. Beckman •.»• Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2007 with funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/carolineperthescOOtuthrich CAROLINE PERTHES THE CHRISTIAN WIFJE CONDENSED FROM THE LIFE OF FREDERICK CHRISTOPHER PERTHES, BY MRS. L. C. TUTHILL. NEW YORK: ROBERT CARTER & BROTHERS, No. 530 BROADWAY. 1860. EDWARD O. JENKINS, printer & .Stcrcotaper, No. 2i Frankfort Street. PREFACE. In the " Life of Frederick Christopher Perthes," it is evident, there was " a power behind the throne greater than the throne itself." That " power " was the influence of a Christian wife ; — a woman of remarkably good sense, of superior education, ardent affections, and earnest piety. She was the good angel, given by God, to reveal to Perthes " the beauty of holiness." Her true womanliness, her devotedness to her family, over whom she exerted, whether present or absent, a felicitous influence, and her success in the education of her children, render Caroline Perthes a noble and a cheering example for all who would " do likewise." It is fervently hoped, that many, who would never else have heard of Caroline Perthes, may now be bene- fited by her beautiful example. Pr{nceto7i, N. J. L. C. T. CONTENTS. CHAP. PAO« L-CAROLINE CLAUDIUS T II.— FKEDERICK CHRISTOPHER PERTHES 11 III.— STUDIES AND FRIENDS 25 IV.— FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF HAMBURGH 86 v.— ESTABLISHMENT IN BUSINESS 50 VI.— NEW ACQUAINTANCES 69 VII.— THE BETROTHAL AND WEDDING 68 VIII.— THE BUSINESS AND THE FAMILY 82 IX.— FAMILY FRIENDS 91 X.— PROGRESS IN RELIGION... 101 XL— EVENTS OF THE YEARS 1805 AND 1806 119 XII.— LOSSES AND TRIALS 125 XIII.— THE FRENCH IN HAMBURGH 185 XIV.— PATRIOTISM 150 XV.— CAROLINE'S ESCAPE FROM HAMBURGH 163 X 71.— CAROLINE AND HER CHILDREN AT ASCHAU— 1813. . 178 XVII.— THE WIFE'S TRIALS 183 XVIIL— THE HAMBURGH SUFFERERS 198 XIX.— PERTHES AND CAROLINE AT BLANKENESE— 1814... 206 XX.— THE RETURN 21T XXI.— MOMENTOUS EVENTS 230 XXII.— DEATH OF CLAUDIUS 240 XXIIL— JOURNEY TO FRANKFORT-ON-THE-MAIN 251 XXIV.— PERTHES' LETTERS TO CAROLINE 265 XXV.— CORRES PONDENCE CONTINUED 2T5 XXVI.— THE SUMMER OF 1819 293 XXVII.— RELIGIOUS CONFLICTS OF THE PERIOD 300 (V) 6 CONTENTS. XXVIII.— MARRIAGE OF THE ELDEST DAUGHTER 809 XXIX.— MARR I AGE OF THE SECOND DAUGHTER 825 XXX.— DEPARTURE OF THE ELDEST SON FOR THE UNI- VERSITY 835 XXXr.— THE LAST DAYS OF CAROLINE 852 XXXII.— PERTHES AND HIS MOTHERLESS CHILDREN 867 XXXIII.— GOTIIA 374 XXXIV.— PERTHES' VIEWS OF MEN AND THINGS 887 XXXV.— PERTHES' INNER LIFE-1822 TO 1825 405 XXXVI.— CHANGES IN LIFE 424 XXXVII.— CORRESPONDENCE ON THE RELATIONS OF LIFE... 488 XXXVIII.— CHRISTIAN ENTERPRISE 456 XXXIX.— DEATH OF NIEBUHR 466 XL.— DOMESTIC AND SOCIAL LIFE 471 XLL— LAST YEARS 487 XLIL— SICKNESS AND DEATH 607 CAROLINE PERTHES THE CHRISTIAN WIFE I. N the high-road to the city of Lubeck, in Northern Germany, is the neat and pleasant town of Wandsbeck, in Holstein. Near the entrance to Wandsbeck, in the year 1796 was the residence of Matthias Claudius. Claudius was an excellent, popular author, and was familiarly called the " Wandsbeck Messenger," from a periodical which he edited, entitled the " Wandsbecker Bote." He was at once earnest and humorous in his writings, and cared less for the graces of diction, than for the inculcation of honest, noble, charitable and patriotic sentiments. The sickly complexion, the hair tightly drawn back and fastened with a comb, the ungainly figure, the homely dressing- gown, and the Low-Saxon dialect, would hardly have revealed the treasure that was hidden in this extraor- dinary man, had it not been for the heavenly fire which flashed from his fine blue eye. Altogether opposed to the prevailing notions of the period, which had a tendency to subject religion and (7) 8 CAROLINE PERTHES. politics, more or less, to the wavering opinions of man, Claudius found in the revelation of Holy Writ the only source of true religion. The belief that he was rec- onciled to God, being to him not a mere speculative doctrine, b«t a state of mind acting upon his whole inner being, all sad and disturbing, all gloomy and anxious thoughts, were unknown to him and his house- hold. " I found Claudius as harmless and as full of German humor as ever," said Ewald, when he visited him in 1796, in the expectation of finding a gloomy fanatic ; " and," he adds, " whatever may be said of his religious and political opinions, they have not chaiiged the man : he has no gloomy views, and is kindly to- wards all; indeed, he laughs at many things which would half kill with vexation many of our humanity and tolerance and stoicism preachers." The characteristics of the father's mind, which was incapable of developing intellectual greatness and depth otherwise than in a garb of unattractive comeli- ness, or invested in forms that were all but ludicrous, as well as the noble and womanly simplicity of the mother, were reflected in the daily life of the family. The great works of Palestrina, Leonardo Leo, Bach, Handel, and Mozart, the language and literature of England, and intellectual pursuits of all kinds, found a home here, side by side with an extreme simplicity of life. The daughters were brought up to discharge the daily routine of domestic work. Claudius was most careful to develop and strengthen the germ of spiritual life in his children, but in every other respect left them to themselves. It is true, that he had himself to struggle with the enemy in the human heart, which in his case led to the exhibition, in many circumstances, CAROLINE CLAUDIUS. 9 of a seemingly inborn harshness of nature, and to his allowing a greater influence to the impressions of the moment than was reasonable ; this infirmity, however, in no way disturbed the free and unrestrained move- ments of the family life. Affected and pretentious alternations from the earthly to the heavenly were not known among them ; their life was simple and natural. Caroline Claudius, the eldest daughter of the Wands- beck Messenger, was born in 1774. Althougli there was nothing remarkable or dazzling in her general ap- pearance, notwithstanding her fine regular features, her slender figure, and her delicate complexion, yet the treasures of fancy and feeling, the strength and repose of character, and the clearness of intellect which shone in her deep liazel eyes, gave her a quiet but irresistible charm. Throughout her whole life she inspired unbounded confidence in all who approached her. To her the glad brought their joys, secure of finding joyous sympathy, and to many of the afflicted both in body and in mind, she ministered consolation, taught resignation, and inspired them with fresh cour- age. Accustomed to the simple life of her parental home, contact with the bustle of the outward world appeared to her as fraught with danger to her child- like, simple walk with God. Household duties, study, and music, occupied her time. When more advanced in life, she retained a rich, clear voice, and a fine musi- cal taste. She was acquainted with the modern lan- guages, and had gone far enough in Latin to enable her subsequently to assist her sons. While Caroline had remained at home, she had received but few impressions from witliout. She clung with reverential affection to the Princess Gallitziu, 1^ 10 CAROLINE PERTHES. who was a frequent visitor at her father's house, and who reciprocated the attachment with so much warmth, that to the end of her life she preserved a motherly friendship for her. By the Countess Julia Reventlow, Caroline was equally beloved. She had been to Em- kendorf on a visit of some months in the summer of 1795, and had become so great a favorite with the family, that they would have taken her with them to Italy, had they been able to obtain her father's consent. The first great event in her life was the death of her sister Christian, who was only a year or two younger than herself. A letter that she wrote at this time to the Countess Reventlow at Rome, has been preserved. " I am," she says, " like a little child, who, when it is in trouble, stretches out its arms to those it loves, and finds pleasure in weeping on their bosom. How often have I tlius wished to be witli you, dear Countess ! but though my arms cannot reach you, my letter may. We have had a sad time ! Our dear Christian was attacked with nervous fever, and died on the 2d July. Gently she fell asleep, after having suffered much ; and now that the pains of death are over, I would not Avish her back. How dear has the death-bed become to me ! — it is at such times that we feel deeply, and in a manner that we can never forget, how necessary it is to seek for something that may support us in death, and ac- company us beyond." It was on the 27th of November, 1796, that Perthes first saw Caroline in her father's house. " Her bright eyes, and her open, clear look pleased me, and I loved her," said Perthes. And who was Perthes ? This short question demands a long answer. n. HE year 1772 was a very calamitous year for Germany. Dearth and famine were almost everywhere prevalent, while scarcely any dis- trict escaped the visitation of a malignant pestilence. It was in this, " the great hun- ger-year," as it was called, that Frederick Christopher Perthes was born at Rudolf- stadt, on the 21st of April. His father studied jurisprudence at the University of Jena, and on his return to Rudolfstadt entered into the service of the court. In the course of time lie was promoted to the office of Secretary of the Exchequer, and exercised jurisdiction over the estates of many noble families. He was but seven-and-thirty yeai^'s of age when his wife Margaretha Heubel stood by hi^ death-bed. The secretary left his family almost destitute. The widow found her pension of twenty-one florins entirely inadequate. She was soon received, however, as an inmate into a kinsman^s family, which stood in need of her services as a nurse. Her mother, almost as desti' tute of means as herself, offered a home to the father- (11) 12 CAROLINE PERTHES. less boy. But the grandmother died, when he was only seven years old, leaving him to the compassionate care of Frederick IJeubel, his maternal uncle. In 1779, when still a youth, Heubel had returned from the University to his native district, penniless like the rest of his brothers and sisters. An office in the Prince's service, though a help, was by no means a provision. He kept house in Rudolfstadt with an un- married sister, Caroline Heubel. Though not pos- sessed of beauty, Miss Caroline had great strength of character. Ever ready to help others, to accept help herself was even in extreme age intolerable to her : to independence in every form, even though associated with grinding poverty, she was almost passionately attached. Such was the household into which the little Fred- erick Christopher was received and brought up, with tender and even parental affection. The impressions of liis childhood were so deeply graven as to influence him throughout life. Born with a very excitable tem- perament, he always ascribed to his uncle and aunt the horror with which he regarded every kind of immor- ality ; and he also attributed to them that respect for the rights of others which is alien to extremely ener- getic characters such as his, in which there is too fre- quently a tendency to inconsiderateness. The boy's first instructor was his uncle : he subse- quently took part in the lessons of the tutors of some noble families ; and, finally, after frequenting for some time the classes of the court-pages, he entered the gymnasium of Budolfstadt, when twelve years old, but not sufficiently advanced to profit by the instructions which he there received. FREDERICK CHRISTOPHER PERTHES. 13 Heubel was promoted to the office of Master of the Horse, and Overseer of Forests, and resided in the castle of Schwartzburg. He took a deep interest in all the great movements of the time, and like his con- temporaries hailed the French Revolution with delight. Yet, in the cause of his prince, he was ready, at any moment, to have sacrificed both fortune and life. The young Perthes was not fond of study, but his uncle, who was an ardent admirer of nature, succeeded in rousing into activity the same hitherto undeveloped "faculty." Heubel would keep Perthes for months together in his apartments at Schwartzburg, and take him with him when he wandered over hill and valley in his offi- cial visitations of the forests, or when sojourning for a time in the huts of the fowlers. On these occasions he would exact from him great physical exertions. The remembrance of these excursions was never oblit- erated from the boy's mind. The dusky pines that clothe the mountain-slopes of that wondrously beauti- ful region, the roar of the Schwarza, as far below in the valley it winds round the base of the liill on which the castle is built, were indelibly impressed upon his memory. AVhen he had reached his fourteenth year, and had been confirmed, it was thought necessary to choose a calling for him. To allow him to continue his studies was impossible, and from the mercantile life, as known in Rudolfstadt, he shrank with aversion. His father's youngest brother, Justus Perthes, was a successful pub- lisher and bookseller at Gotha, and it was natural for them to think of that business for the boy. Of its na- ture and details he was utterly ignorant, for there was 14 CAROLINE PERTHES. no bookseller in Rudolfstadt ; but that there must be books for him to read seemed certain, and this was decisive. In the year 1786, Schirach the printer took the boy with him to the fair at Leipzig, to seek a master. He was then fourteen years of age. The first person to whom he introduced him was Herr Ruprecht of Got- tingen, an aged man, who spoke kindly to him, and desired him to conjugate the verb amo ; but when he found this too great a demand on his learning, he re- fused to engage him. He was then taken to Herr Siegert at Liegnitz ; but tlie tall, gaunt figure of the man in his long, flame-colored overcoat, reaching to the heels, so frightened him that he could not say a word ; " he was too shy for the book-trade,'' it was said. At last, however, Adam Frederick Bohme, who carried on business in Leipzig, and supplied the Ru- dolfstadt library with books, showed himself disposed to take him, but '' the boy must go home for a year ; he is too delicate for the work yet." When a year had elapsed, indentures were sighed by the uncle and the future master. On Sunday, the 9th of September, 1787, the boy of fifteen took his seat in the open mail, to begin Die great journey of life. " In the evening, at Saalfeld, I felt very sad," he wrote to his uncle, " but I met with many kind people." On a cold and rainy day lie passed through Neustadt, Gera, and Zeitz ; and on Tuesday, the 11th of September, at three o'clock in the afternoon, reached his master's house in Leipzig. " Why, boy, you are no bigger than you were a year ago, but we will make a trial of it, and see how we get on together," exclaimed Bohme. His wife and her FREDERICK CHRISTOPHER PERTHES. 15 six daughters and little son, as well as an apprentice who had been resident four years, all received him kindly. '^ I like Leipzig very much," wrote Perthes, imme- diately on his arrival ; " and I hope all will go well, especially as my comrade is a very honest fellow. The young ladies also seem extraordinarily kind ; Fred- erika, my master's second daughter, came into my room in order, as she said, to drive away fancies and whims." " Herewith," writes his master, " I have the honor to inform you that young Perthes has arrived safe and in good health. I hope we shall be pleased with each other. His pocket-money, which, according to this day's exchange, amounts to one dollar and twenty groschen, I have taken charge of, for we cannot tell into what company he might fall. One request I have to make, and that is, that when in future you favor me with your letters, you will have the goodness to omit the * Well-born'* on the address, for it is not at all appropriate to me." On the morning after his arrival, the first words young Perthes heard were these, — " Frederick, you must let your hair grow in front to a brush, and be- hind to a cue, and get a pair of wooden buckles — lay aside your sailor's round hat — a cocked one is or- dered." This once universal custom had latterly dis- appeared, but Bohme tolerated no new fashions among his apprentices. " You are not to leave the house, either morning or evening, without my permission. On Sundays you must accompany me to church." The two apprentices certainly were not spoiled by wen— Esquire. 16 CAROLINE PERTHES. over-indulgence. Their master's house was in Nicholas street, and there they had an inner chamber up four pair of stairs, so overcrowded with two beds and stools, the table and the two trunks, wliich constituted its whole furniture, as scarcely to admit of their turn- ing in it. One little window opened on the roof ; in the corner was a small stove, heated during the winter by three small logs of wood, doled out every evening as their allowance. Every morning at six o'clock they both received a cup of tea, and every Sunday, as a provision for the coming week, seven lumps of sugar, and seven halfpence to purchase bread. " What 1 find hardest," said Perthes to his uncle at Schwartzburg, " is, that I have only a halfpenny roll in the morning — I find this to be scanty allowance. In the afternoon, from one till eight, we have not a morsel — that is what I call hunger ; I think we ought to have something." Dinner and supper they took with the family, plentifully and well ; but, alas ! for tliem, when some fat roast, with gourd-sauce, was set upon the table, for it was a law that whatever was put upon the plate must be eaten. The "Er,"* with which Bohme was always addressed, not only by his children, but also by his servants and dependants, mortified Perthes, but he wrote cheerfully, '' Not the slightest thing is required of me which could hurt my feelings ; while other apprentices have to clean their master's buckles, to cover the table, and take the cof- fee to the warehouse, none of these things are required of us." ^ Used by children towards a parent only when a constrained re- spect is stronger than affection. FREDERICK CHRISTOPHER PERTHES. 17 Bohme was not indeed a man of varied learning or great mental powers ; but he had a good understand- ing, a character of the strictest integrity, and was not without reverence for knowledge and all noble things. He labored uninterruptedly every day, from seven in the morning till eight at night, with the intermission of one hour at noon. Sunday, after service, was de- voted to the *' Jena Literary Gazette," every word of which he faithfully perused, and then took a walk round the city. He never played, never entered a public-house, never received company at home, and drank nothing stronger than water. Occasionally in the summer he would go over to Entritzsch with his family, and drink a bottle of gose,'^ and once in the course of the year he was accustomed to make an ex- cursion to the valley of Storm, about twelve miles from Leipzig, in company with his whole household — wife, children, and apprentices. He was exceedingly good-natured, but equally irritable, and apt when ex- cited to give vent to a torrent of abuse. Great were the sufferings of Perthes from this irritability, during the two years of his inexperience in the business. " That which troubles me most," writes the boy, "is my master's passionate temper. If we have made the slightest blunder, he breaks out upon us ; this is very different from what I have been accustomed to, and I feel it very hard to bear, but I shall get used to it in time." When the fit of passion was over, Bohme would good-naturedly endeavor to make peace with the boy by bringing him fruit, or sharing with him his after- * A kind of liirht-colored beer. 18 CAROLINE PERTHES. noon coffee, and the accompanying lumps of sugar. This most temperate man, and stern disciplinarian, had a heavy domestic sorrow to bear. His wife was addicted to strong drinks, and the household economy accordingly, so far as it depended on her, fell into disorder. This melancholy failing frequently put the poor apprentices in the most painful position. " I am often in perplexity," wrote Perthes, " out of which i cannot extricate myself, for Madame has things brought to her in secret, which she quickly disposer of. The master would fain know all that passes, and I woilld gladly, like an honest servant, tell all to one. who though weak is so good at heart, were it not that I should thus only insure my own misery, for many occasions arise in which he cannot protect me, and which he is powerless to alter : from seven o'clock in the morning till eight at night, he is at business, and the children do as they please, the mother being quite unable to restrain them." The time of the apprentice was wholly occupied by the work at the warehouse, which was situated in the old Neumarkt. " I have not much enjoyment of our little room," he writes, " for we begin work at seven o'clock, return to dinner at half-past twelve, and are at business again from one till eight ; then comes sup- per, and it is only after this that we have any time to ourselves. We dare on no account leave the house in the evening. On Sunday we must go early to church, and to none but St. Peter's. In the afternoon, after a sharp cross-examination, he lets us out for a couple of hours." The employment was, during the first year and -a half, wholly mechanical. When books published by a Leipzig bookseller were ordered, if not among FREDERICK CHRISTOPHER PERTHES. 19 Bohme's stock, they had to be obtained from other warehouses. This part of the business fell to the youngest apprentice, and gave him at first enough to do. " There are so many little details in our business," he writes, " that it takes some time for a beginner to understand them, and the master booksellers use ab- breviations for everything, such as the titles of books, and so forth. After a year or so one understands this, but a beginner is sure to make blunders, and if I ask a question, I get for answer nothing but * Don't you understand German ? ' " The work which fell to him as the youngest appren- tice, kept him in the streets or in the warehouses of other publishers during the whole of the first winter. His vivacity, united with great modesty of demeanor, won for him the favor of all the trade ; he was the only apprentice who was allowed the privilege of warming himself in the counting-houses while the books he came for were being fetched. His hard lot excited sympathy. When towards dusk he returned half frozen and with wet feet to the warehouse, he had to stand for hours upon the stone flags collating. Bdhme, who had never been ill in his life, and was particularly hardy, never had the shop heated, but kept himself warm by dint of stamping his feet and rubbing his hands. He was not more considerate of others than careful of himself. The consequence was, that in the first winter of his residence at Leipzig, Perthes' feet were frost-bitten ; Bohme saw his distress, but took no notice until he was unable to walk, when the nearest surgeon was at last sent for. Eckhold came, and at once declared that if another day had been allowed to 20 CAROLINE PERTHES. pass, it would have been necessary to amputate the feet. Nine long weeks the boy lay in his bed in the little attic chamber, but not neglected — for his master's second daughter, Frederika, a lovely child of twelve years, took him under her charge, and tended him with care and affection. All day long she sat, knitting- needles in hand, by the bedside of the invalid, talking with him, consoling, and ministering. Upon the floor, among other old books, lay a trans- lation of Muratori's " History of Italy ;" and the poor girl, with never-failing kindness, read through several of the ponderous quartos in the little dusky attic. A devoted friendship between the children, the result of these tender attentions, continued long after he had need of her nursing. But apart from the sufferings of these months, the boy who, under the faithful and kind though strict training of his relations, had grown up in the free and unlimited enjoyment of wood and mountain, often felt oppressed by the great city and its flat, treeless suburbs, no less than by the unhappy relations subsisting in his master's family, and that restraint and unbroken daily routine of business-life, which permitted freedom neither of thought nor of action. His heart turned with yearn- ing to the years of early childhood, and especially to the little incidents of the residence with his uncle at Schwartzburg, where he had wandered at will over hill and dale. All the letters written at this time, and even those of a later date, bear witness to his tender recollections of those happy hours which he was never again to enjoy. " All is well with me," he writes on one occasion, " but for a sort of melancholy of quite a special kind ; for when I am alone I fall to thinking FREDERICK CHRISTOPHER PERTHES. 21 of my former happy life, now forever passed away. Now this well-known rock, now another, rises before me. Then the path to the fowling-floor, to Dettens- dorf, and the spot where Spitz couched and Matzen yelped. Every bush is imprinted on my memory : often when I awake at night, or look out upon tlie early morning mist, I think now my uncle is saying to Mat- zen, ' To-day there will be good sport upon the fowling- ground.' Then I see you ranging the woods with your lanterns, and when you have caught anything, I fancy I hear you crying out, ' that Fritz were here !' . . . Ah ! how many sweet recollections of Schwartzburg, and of that bygone time, are in my heart." And he writes on another occasion, " Here, in a neighboring village, called Gohlis, there is a cowherd who blows his horn as skilfully as the Schwartzburg trumpeter of yore. I can hear him in my bed, and you can not imagine what a strange feeling comes over me, and the peculiar kind of sadness to which it gives rise." Still the longing after his beloved Schwartzburg had not taken such absolute possession of the boy as to hinder his enjoyment of new books, and of such events as the varied life of Leipzig brought before him. Now it was a comment on some facetious scene out of Sieg- fried von Lindenberg, or the fine comedy of " Frederick with the Bitten Cheek," or a passage out of Yillaume's " Logic," that filled his letters ; again Blanchard's ascent in an air-balloon, or some procession of the Leipzig students, delighted his boyish fancy ; six pos- tilions in front, then the riding-master Herzberg, fol- lowed by eighty students on horseback, and sixteen curricles — a magnificent spectacle ! " To-day," he writes, " I have seen a military funeral ; 22 CAROLINE PERTHES. it was very grand, but I wish I had not seen it, for the officer lived in the suburbs, and I cannot go there now, the spectacle has made me so sad." But it was the annual Book-fair, the first he had seen in Leipzig, that excited him more than anything else. It brought in- deed days of severe toil : " but I do not even feel the labor," he wrote, " when I think of the few minutes which I may spend with my uncle, who arrived from Gotha on Monday. He has been so kind to me during the whole time of liis stay, that I often felt as if I had a father, and could confide all my thoughts and feelings to him." During the first year and a half of his residence at Leipzig, Perthes had, indeed, gained but little knowl- edge and small insight into business from his own special labor, but he had acquired experience and considerable moral strength, for both of which he was chiefly in- debted to the influence that his fellow-apprentice, Rabenhorst, exercised over him. The inward shrink- ing from all coarseness and impurity, implanted and cherished by the lessons of his aunt and uncle in his childish years, was to him an invaluable possession, of wliich he was deeply sensible. '' Dearest uncle," he writes, '* if I am good now, and continue so, I have to thank you and my aunt for it ; — certainly not myself, for if 1 had fallen into bad hands, my levity of disposition might easily have led me into vice." His lively and excitable temperament could not dispense with some moral support even after he entered into Leipzig life, and this he found in Raben- horst, then eighteen years of age, distinguished equally for his acquirements, for his business talents, and gen- eral character. FREDERICK CHRISTOPHER PERTHES. 23 " I thank God," writes Perthes to his uncle, " that I came here, and that entirely on account of my com- rade, whose conduct is so good an example for me ; if it had not been f©r this, the ways of the world would inevitably have led me quite astray. You thought that I should get into good society here, but this is impossible without money ; for those who have posi- tion or fortune are very exclusive, and the pride of the merchants' sons, who can afford to play a four-groschen game at billiards, and drink a bottle of wine out of their very pocket-money, presents an impassable bar- rier to my intercourse with them. The booksellers' apprentices are, with only two exceptions, dissipated youths, who spend the Sunday, their only holiday, at the taverns in all kinds of excess. Now you will con- fess, that had I been left to mix with these, I should have made shipwreck of all the good principles I derived from you. Men liere must live like others, or make up their minds to be persecuted ; but Rabenhorst has been my support." In other respects, the elder comrade was of great service to the inexperienced boy ; he taught him pru- dence in the troubled economy of their master's house, he made him attentive to such details of business as he could master without extraneous help, and was always urging him to exert himself in order to redeem lost time. But what he was chiefly, though unconsciously, the means of bestowing on his friend was, ease in his intercourse with others. " You will think, dear uncle," he writes, " that I agree well with my companion, when I can praise him so highly ; but it is not so. Rabenhorst by no means possesses all tlie virtues that go to make a good com- 24 CAROLINE PERTHES. panion ; he is very proud, and most obstinate in main- taining his opinion ; impetuous, and, withal, so sus- ceptible and suspicious, that I often provoke him ten times in an hour without knowing why. Many a time I have to give up my own opinion, though fully per- suaded that it is right ; and when I have done so, and am thinking that our difference is made up, he will ex- claim, ' How can you say yes to everything ? — you fancy that I am deceived by your assent, but you are much mistaken.' I know, dear uncle, that you will regard this as very useful training, and you are right ; for, from having been brought up alone, I used to be a most insufferable fellow in the society of young people, but I have now learned how to behave to others, and every one is surprised to find that I get on so well with Rabenhorst ; he has, indeed, an unfortunate tem- perament, but he loves me, and that is enough." In the summer of 1789, Rabenhorst left Leipzig to enter a bookseller's house at Berlin, and from hence- forward Perthes stood quite alone. III. N the first year after Rabenhorst's departure, Perthes had worked diligently, and acquired the confidence of his master to such an extent, as to be left by him in charge of the business during an absence of some weeks. He man- aged things so admirably, that, in acknowledg- ment of his services, he received a pair of silken garters. But Perthes now began to crave more leis- ure than business allowed, for the purposes of educa- tion. *'My principal, indeed, teaches me all that is necessary for one who is to continue a servant, but very little suffices for that ; a special knowledge of the trade I certainly do not learn from him, for he con- ducts his business in the most mechanical manner — he does everything in the way that first occurs to him, without being guided by any principle ; if a question is asked, he replies, ' We will do it in this way,' but can never give a reason why it is done so, and not otherwise, for if the same thing occur again, he will do it in some other way. All the MSS. that he re- ceives are submitted to the old antiquary, and then whether they treat of the three bread-earning studies— 2 (25) 26 CAROLINE PERTHES. reading, writing, and arithmetic — or of mathematics, philology, psedagogy, farriery, or polite literature, if the oracle declares 'it will do,' the thing is settled, and if it were by Geiker, junior, it would be taken ; does he say, ' it will not do,' it is as certainly rejected. The antiquary is sagacious, no doubt, but it does not follow that he has travelled through all the realms of learning." That satisfaction which he did not immediately find in his calling, Perthes sought in pursuits of his own. From 1790, when he attained his eighteenth year, he had been possessed by an evident desire for literary employment, but time and money were alike wanting. The entrance of a junior apprentice had, indeed, re- lieved him from the wear and tear of running the streets, and in winter he could now spare himself; still the only hours that he could call his own, were those before seven in the morning and after nine at night. He would, however, have taken lessons in languages at these seasons, had not his extreme poverty put it quite out of the question. The widow's pension of one-and- twenty florins, which his mother had with generous self-sacrifice given up to him, scarcely sufficed to pro- vide him with shoes ; his uncle contributed his half- worn clothes, but except in a case of extreme necessity, could do no more. His linen was taken by a carrier every fortnight to Rudolfstadt, where his aunt super- intended the washing and mending. At Christmas his master always made him a present of two dollars, as pocket-money for the year. An extraordinary piece of good fortune would now and then come in the shape of a present, from his uncle at Gotha. " If you could see me now, my dear uncle, you would STUDIES AND FRIENDS. 27 not know me," he writes in the summer of 1789, " for I am much taller, and through my uncle's kindness, very well dressed in a green coat with a short waist, and buttons behind, after the English fashion, trow- sers of new English nankin, and a white waistcoat. What would you have more? But I must have a great-coat at Michaelmas, and then the old dollars must spin. Hurrah! I have the two still, but I shall look my last at them then." Such a state of things made it impossible for him to remunerate a teacher, and though Perthes frequently tried, grammar in hand, to gain some knowledge of French or English, after nine o'clock at night, he could make nothing of it, and invariably fell asleep. His inclination and talents would have led him to the study of history and geography, but the prevailing fashion required of every young man who would enjoy any re- spect for his abilities, that he should be a philosopher as it was called, and Perthes could not resist the man- date. " Dearest, best uncle," he wrote towards the end of the year 1791, " it is certainly true that he who strives after improvement, is thereby capable of exalted en- joyment ; and I have myself often had such bright hours when, by meditation on the perfections of God and his works, and by the consciousness of my own dignity as a human being, I enjoyed a foretaste of the destiny ultimately in store for me. At such seasons, all, all was joy, and I saw everything around me labor- ing onward to perfection — then all men were my broth- ers advancing with me to the same goal." At other times the youth had to confess tha't he often deviated both to the right and to the left of the path 28 CAROLINE PERTHES. which he saw to be the true one. " You say," he writes in a letter to his uncle at Schwartzburg, " that you are delighted with the principles expressed in my letters ; and encourage me to cleave to them, and practise them in my life. I do indeed cleave to them, dear uncle, for they are not a mere result of reasoning : Oh no ! they are so interwoven with my whole being that I have no power to think of myself without them, but allowing them to actuate my life is quite another matter. I should be a hypocrite if I were to tell you that they had been the never-failing guide of my con- duct. Now passion triumphs, now habit, again a con- stitutional levity which is quite at variance with the results of my reflection ; and then I have to pay for the errors which reason has made in deluding me by the exhibition of a perfection which seemed within my grasp, but which, I find, cannot be reached by a bound, but must be slowly and painfully worked out. The attempt to make such a leap always insures a heavy fall." There were seasons when the youth had so absolutely lost courage, as to give up all hope of fulfilling what he conceived to be the destiny of man. '*! must in- deed struggle hard, if I am to expel from my heart all that disturbs my peace ; for, alas! when I feel tranquil, it is but the sleep of evil inclinations which are gather- ing strength for a more violent outburst when oppor- tunity offers. Ah ! my want of firmness and my hot blood often destroy in one hour what it has been the labor of weeks to build up, and then I am the victim of a remorse which is not soon succeeded by the unre- proaching self-possession of a heart at peace with itself. How often have I, with tears, deplored my perverse- STUDIES AND FRIENDS. 29 iiess, when, after some stedfast resolution to cling to the good, I have fallen, because too weak to overcome some passion ! At such times every one seems better than myself, even those wlio have openly transgressed, while I liave erred only in thought ; for I say to my- self, — had others the same impulses to good as thou hast, they would assuredly have been better." Then, again, came seasons in which the young man was inclined to look complacently on these self-con- demnations. " You see, dear uncle,'' he writes, " that I have made a good beginning, for the being dissatis- fied with myself is a sure proof of this." The activity of Perthes both in his business and his personal pursuits, as well as in the political and gene- ral movements of the age, by which he was profoundly attracted, had developed his understanding, made him acquainted with life in its varied relations, and given him an intelligent interest in all the events of the pe- riod ; but this very culture had at the same time made him conscious of a void in his spiritual life, which caused him many hours of sorrow. Frank, open, and truthful, he keenly felt the want of some one to whom he might pour out his whole heart in the unreserved freedom of mutual intercourse, and be met by a frankness and attachment equal to his own. The natural devotedness of a child to father and mother, had been denied him ; for his interviews with his motlier had been too few and short to exer- cise any influence in the formation of his character. To the uncle and aunt who had supplied to him the place of parents, Perthes turned with ardent affection, and never allowed an opportunity to pass of express- ing the gratitude which he felt towards them. He 30 CAROLINE PERTHES. opened his heart to his uncle unreservedly ; to him he imparted the struggles of youth, the grief which his weakness occasioned, his honest joy at having been at least enabled to prevent evil thoughts from running into evil deeds, — all was communicated to this his fa- therly friend. Still he yearned for the daily inter- change of thoughts with some companion about his own age, whose sympathies would be in unison with his own. " The most earnest wish of my heart," he writes, "is for a friend to whom I might freely unbosom myself, who would strengthen me when I am weak, and en- courage me when I begin to despair; but, alas! I find no such friend, and yet 1 feel an irresistible necessity to unburden my heart ; and so overpowering is this longing, that I could press every man to my breast and say. Thou, too, art God's image." While thus deplor- ing the want of a friend as one of the misfortunes of his life, he had been powerfully attracted by the kindly, though childish advances of his master's second daugh- ter, who, by the force of a benevolent nature, had won the affection of the friendless boy from the first day of his residence under the same roof with her. Frederika, then twelve years of age, was, as we have seen, his faithful nurse during the illness of his first winter, and continued to be his playfellow and com- forter in subsequent years. She provided for all his wants, giving him food, fuel, and light, and never fail- ed to cheer him with her sprightliness. She had often much to endure from the disorders of the house, and when she or Perthes suffered from the unhappy rela- tions which prevailed, they found comfort in each other's sympathies. STUDIES AND FRIENDS. 8i " We were sensible children." writes Perthes subse- quently ; " we comforted each other, read together, and talked over all our troubles.'' Together they grew out of childhood : the boy be- came silent and embarrassed, the girl shy and reserved. About this time a second apprentice, Nessig by name, came into the house ; a smart, good-natured lad, with a wonderful gift for entertaining himself and others with light and lively talk. This was unbearable to Perthes when addressed to Frederika. He had been able to hold earnest discourse with her only touching the dignity of man and the perfectibility of the human race, of the love of God and of our neighbor, and such high topics, and when these were inappropriate, Per- thes had nothing to say. " On this account," he writes to his uncle, " Nessig is more regarded than I am ; people talk with him, while they leave me standing and treat me almost contemptuously." Perthes felt irritated by the neglect, and soon became the victim of jealousy. He first became conscious of this by the ill- will that he felt towards the favored Nessig. This ill- will he determined to overcome ; he opened his whole heart to the favorite, and promised to conceal nothing from him. A warm friendship between the youths, founded on their common feeling towards the beloved maiden, was the result ; and this afterwards exposed Perthes to much ill-natured raillery, and eventually to many vexations. His former playfellow had grown into a very hand- some girl of sixteen, and tlie admirers of the elder sister, who had hitherto been regarded as the helle of Leipzig, were now dazzled and tempted from their al- legiance by the spriglitliness and superior intelligence 32 CAROLINE PERTHES. of the dark-haired Frederika. Lovers without number soon gathered round her, and yet she could not do without the shy and anxious apprentice at the other side of the room, who numbered only nineteen years, and who never expressed his feelings to her except by the involuntary attention that he bestowed on every- thing she did and said. " She is still," he writes, " most kind to me ; she knows how, by a few words, to cheer me when I am troubled and depressed, and she speaks to me of her position in her father's house, as she does to no other. Ah ! my dear good uncle, how sincerely I thank God that my former struggle with evil thoughts, which surely came without any intention on my part, is over I What the most serious reflections on the greatness and perfectibility of man could never accomplish, has been effected by the influence of a pure and innocent love. God will still protect me ; may He also protect you and your wife and children, and what is my most earnest prayer, may He make Frederika happy. — Good-night." The next letter from his uncle, as might have been expected, brought the inquiry, " What next?" " Assuredly she is not in love with me," was the reply ; " she has the choice of so many highly-educated men, that I, with my youthful twenty-year face, cut but a sorry figure among them, to say nothing of the ad- vantages of dress and social position which they pos- sess. It is true tliat the last-mentioned have no great value in Frederika's eyes ; but a young man is at this very moment paying attentions to her, whose acquire- ments I respect so highly, that I should be the vainest of living men were I for an instant to put myself in STUDIES AND FRIENDS. 33 competition with him. Yet one word, dear uncle : even if she loved me, and I were able to maintain her, I could never make her my wife ; for nothing on earth would induce me to commit myself irrevocably with Bohme's family, nor would I marry one who has first known me in the humble position which I occupy here. My heart is ready to break while I write thus, yet be not' anxious on my account, dear uncle, I never felt so confident of my steady adherence to the right as I do now." At this time Perthes would sit up half the night, seeking to allay the storm in his bosom, by the arduous study of treatises upon Kant's Philosophy and Cicero Be Officiis. A better help than any which these weari- some studies could afford, and one of which he, up to that time, had had no experience, was at hand, in the society of young men of great mental activity and high moral character. Accident had given rise to an intimacy with seven young Swabians, considerably older than himself, who formed an affection for him, and drew him into their circle. The names of four principal members of this circle were Schroder, Dut- tenhover, Trefftz, and Meier. They were men of talent and good education, of pleasant humor, and consider- able poetical enthusiasm. Perthes soon devoted all his leisure hours to them. Through them he became acquainted with Herder, Schiller, and Goethe ; and, moreover, had his first genuine experiences of the joy- ous life of youth. " Never, since I came here," he writes, " have I en- joyed such pleasant heart-quickening hours as now, in the society of my beloved new friends. They are all Swabians, and closely united, and cultivate no society 9* 34 CAROLINE PERTHES. beyond their own limited circle ; but the moment I enter, I read my welcome in their eyes." " I am one of the happiest of men," he tells his Schwartzburg uncle. " The friendship, and regard, and affection of good men accompany me at every step, and an annoyance of a particular kind that oppressed me, has now disappeared. The annoyance I refer to was this : when I saw other young men of my own age setting about everything with a sort of sprightliness that I could never command, I was grieved at heart, because I was convinced that nothing great or noble could be accomplished without ardor and vivacity. My weak spirits vexed me, and I even went so far as to blame all that was good in me, ascribing my good tendencies merely to the coldness of my temperament, which I consequently mortally hated. And now, dear uncle, all this is changed ! — yes, I feel that there is entliusiasm in me ; but when this enthusiasm, which is now satisfied with lower ob- jects, shall have religion, perfection, and virtue for its inspiration, then the last vestige of selfishness will disappear, and I shall love all, — all as my brethren." The circumstances in which Perthes had grown up to youth, had, indeed, been narrow and limited, but his mind had been formed and strengthened by much valua- ble experience. " When I think of the years I have passed here," he writes in 1793, " when I carry myself back within the circle of ideas that I brought with me to this place, I am astonished at the transformation I have undergone. I shall ever look back upon Leipzig with affection and blessings ; for here my mind began to develop and to apprehend the greatness of human- ity. I have had seasons of trial, but they have brought STUDIES AND FRIENDS. 35 forth much good. I came here a light-minded youth, with many failings ] I have still many, but many too are corrected. For all the good I have enjoyed I thank God, who placed so many inducements to good in my way, in order that my levity might not get the upper hand." It was not without a feeling of pride that, as the term of his apprenticeship drew near, he contemplated his actual position. " It gives me pleas- ure," he writes, " to say to myself, Thou hadst no father, no means, and yet thou hast been a burden to no one, and in a few weeks wilt be independent of all but thyself!" According to agreement the term ex- pired at Michaelmas, 1793 ; but Bohme's friend, Hoff- mann the Hamburgh bookseller, who had carefully ob- served Perthes and admired his business qualities, requested his master to set him free before the close of his term, as he wished to engage him as an assistant in the Easter of the same year. Bohme consented ; at a grand entertainment he came up to Perthes, told him to rise, gave him a gentle slap on the face, presented him with a sword, addressed him as ">&*e," (they,^) and the apprenticeship to the book-trade was at end, but not the apprenticeship to life. * The Germans use the third person plural instead of the second, vhen addressing others— "they," instead of you. Children and ser- yants are addressed by the second person singular — " thou." IV ^N the 13th of May, 1793, Perthes took leave of the city in which he had spent six years — " happy years of earnest striving," as he called them himself ; he had now left behind behind him extreme poverty and abject de- pendence. He exchanged his cold little cham- ber in the roof for the comfortable travelling carriage of his new master, and the roughness of hon- est Bohme for the cultivated society of his travelling companion Hoffmann, a man of education, and one who also possessed considerable knowledge of the world. The country was in tlie first bloom of spring, and a bright moonlight night induced meditation on the past and the future. At Hochweisig, the first stage, the travellers fell in with Hoffmann's friend^ Campe of Brunswick, his wife, daughter, and nephews. Campe was a member of the Council of Education* and enjoyed a wide-spread reputation as a man of talent and a distinguished author, and was on intimate terms with the most noted men of the period. By Helmstadt and Uelzen, Hoffmann and he now journeyed to Hamburgh. "The next morning at five (36) FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF HA.MBURGH. 37 o^clock," he writes to his uncle, " we reached the Elbe, and had to be ferried over in a large boat to Zollens- picker, the first point in the Hamburgh territory ; this gave me great pleasure, as it was all new to me. From Zollenspicker to Hamburgh is eighteen miles, but the constant variety in the scenery made it seem hardly a league. The whole tract is one continuous village, a village cradled by the Elbe, surrounded by garden grounds, and houses such as one does not often see in cities — all kept with the greatest neatness, finely painted, and fitted up with Bohemian plate-glass win- dows. It is a fine sight ! And just think, there are peasants who give to their daughters portions of ten and even twenty thousand dollars. It was at ten o'clock at night, on the 17th of May, the day before Whit-sunday, that we entered Hamburgh. I was aston- ished at the crowds of people, far greater than in Leipzig, even during the most thronged days of the Fair. Everything is grand and beautiful, surpassing all I have yet seen." He was favorably impressed by the polite manners and kind-heartedness, the open candor and regular habits of the Hofi'mann family. " Madame Hoffmann," he writes, " is a woman of superior intelligence. She is admirable as a wife and mother. But I find I must take heed to my manners, for you cannot think how particular she is, and what a way she has of managing us. The daughter is handsome, very handsome, and very good, too, but one is somehow compelled to keep at a distance from her." Hoffmann was a good man of business, and, both as a man and a bookseller, thoroughly well-informed. He liked the luxurious, hospitable style of Hamburgh life. 38 CAROLINE PERTHES. The contrast between the dry tranquillity of his man- ner and the excitable vivacity of his wife, in nowise disturbed the harmony of the family. " Were you to see this respectable couple," writes Perthes, " you could not refrain from laughing ; for she is like quicksilver, and would know everything, while he, as you know, is rather phlegmatic. Though fond enough of talking, he has a great dislike to answering questions. She has consequently to keep up an incessant fire of interroga- tories, as, * I say ? — Do you hear ? — Hoffmann ? — Tell me? — Don't you hear ? — Answer me ?' — and not unfre- quently she pours out all these in rapid succession be- fore she can extract a reply. At last he rejoins with, ^ I have told you already,' and yet no one has heard a word. If she is too hard upon him, he growls a little ; it is of no use, he must do as she bids." The business in which Perthes was now, under Hoff- man's direction, to work, was one that called forth all his powers. Half a year after his entrance on it, he thus writes : " I was ignorant of many things, as is mostly the case with apprentices who have served their time ; but I have hit upon a situation particularly favorable for extending my information, for I have work to do here which is unusual even for an experi- enced hand. That this keeps my brain in excitement you may well believe ; happily, being left to myself, I can work as I like, and this is the only way in which I can get through much. Reflection has always been my best teacher, and just for this reason I find it very difficult to comprehend and to imitate any one who sets liimself to show me tlie way to do anything." Perthes did not find many leisure hours in his new employment: "We never close," he writes, "till nine FIRST IMPRESSIONS OP HAMBURGH. 39 o'clock at night, and once in the week we have to sit up half through the night. This is in ordinary sea- sons, but at the approach of a fair the work can scarcely be overtaken." Perthes had already learned in Leip- zig to take advantage of the few hours which the un- interrupted routine of business life left at his disposal for mental cultivation and for recreation, and in Ham- burgh, too, he found time to accomplish much. He had been deeply interested with Herder's " Let- ters on Humanity," and Jacobi's " Waldemar." Schil- ler's " Essay on Grace and Dignity " had charmed and captivated him. " It is singular," he writes, " that works of this kind make the most profound impression on me, while special treatises on morality, and grave exhortations, however excellent, fail to interest, and even many leave me restless and unhappy. These suggest things which rouse all sorts of doubts and questionings in my mind, but a treatise, which, like that of Schiller's, is so convincing and exhaustive, and gives birth to so many new thoughts, has power to move me deeply. On the holidays, the fine environs of Hamburgh afforded him recreation and numerous sources of pleasure. " He must be dead to the beauties of nature," he writes, " who could be unhappy here. You can imagine nothing finer or grander than the neigh- boring country. Every turn of the Elbe below Al- tona is unique of its kind, and reflects in its peculiar beauty the greatness and goodness of the Creator." Acquaintances he had readily found, and was no longer, as he had been in Leipzig even during leisure hours, dependent on the will of a master : he was quite dis- posed to avail himself of the many pleasures which were to be enjoyed in a great city. 40 CAROLINE PERTHES. But amid all the shifting scenes and impressions that the change of life brought with it, Frederika's image was still present with him. When Perthes left Leipzig, they had promised that they would not forget the days of childhood, and that they would correspond ^^occasionally. He was deeply affected at hearing that, on the day he took his departure, she had sat for hours at the window weeping. In his first letter to his Leipzig friends, he says, " I still live wholly in the past, and am now first aware how fondly I love Fred- erika ; she is ever the centre round which all my thoughts turn." True to the obligations he had taken on himself, to keep back nothing bearing on his rela- tions with Frederika from his friend Nessig, he sent to him their whole correspondence. A strange inti- macy thus grew up between the rivals, grounded solely on their common affection for the girl. " You may- have secrets from me," writes Perthes, but " nothing, nothing may you conceal of your feelings and thoughts regarding me. Here the least reserve would be the grave of friendship. Keep back neither doubt nor reproach ; write all, even though it should cost me many a bitter tear." Perthes was able to comment to his friend with calmness, nay, even with some severity, on whatever seemed wrong in Frederika, but he found excuses for all in the trying circumstances of her home. ** Men may indeed blame her, but God condemns no one for single and isolated failings. He has appointed a stern discipline for the poor, dear, noble girl, and hereafter she will reap the reward. If I knew any way to make her happy," he writes again, " I would joyfully do so at any cost. I have been long thinking how I can write FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF HAMBURGH. 41 to her an affectionate letter of advice ; but though you may let a girl feel that you think her wrong, and although she is quite conscious of it, yet you must not venture to say it, or you will at once be made aw^are of the power which in such a case a woman always has over a man." " Be her friend, her guide and counsellor," he writes to Nessig, " but guard against yourself, and do not harbor a feeling of security which is only imaginary. Your last letter betrayed the height of passion, and shows that you are given up to its intoxication. It were folly to strive to tear it from your heart, even if you could. No ; keep this love-sickness, be still an enthusiast, only forget not virtue and religion.'^ The calm judgment and self-forgetting anxiety which Perthes at one time exhibited, were at another over- powered by an outburst of passion : " You are still living," he writes, " under the eyes of my Frederika I — My Frederika ? Yes, so I call lier, for come what may, a part of her soul is mine, and will be mine for ever." In another letter he says, " Frederika begins every- thing with me, Frederika is with me while I am occu- pied with it, Frederika ends it with me — in a word, Frederika is in my heart by night and by day. Ah ! my suffering is sometimes great, and it is truly terrible to have to will to subdue such a passion as mine, and yet I must and will subdue it." Perthes had the firm conviction that the maiden loved his friend better than himself. " I would fain not confess it," he writes, " but I have long been aware of Frederika's preference for you — a preference ground- ed on your noble character, which is much stronger 42 CAROLINE PERTHES. than mine. Believe me, brother, it often cost me a struggle, yes, a terrible struggle, not to be unjust to you, and not to make you smart for the preference you en- joyed. Once I was on the point of becoming your en- emy, but I overcame, and now I am calm, though I must still weep. Write and tell me what is to be the issue of your love, and I will do all I can for you." In such a mood Perthes would seek for solitude, where he might give himself up undisturbed to melan- choly thoughts. " I have just returned,'' he writes, " from a solitary walk, which has done me much good ; I was penetrated by the glory of Nature ; certainly I was never better in soul than now. Dearest brotlier, be it what it may that now inspires me — God — Nature — Heart — do not grudge it me, but rather rejoice with me. In the twilight of memory, visions rise before me, and the misty figures of the distant loved ones hover around me." '* Imagination !" he says in another letter, " Imag- ination I no dependence is to be placed on thy vota- ries, says Campe ; and yet, though thou hast caused me many sorrows, I would not be without thee. Im- agination gave me blessedness — gave me love and mel- ancholy. Oh, the melancholy which is the offspring of imagination, is the sweetest thing that I know ! My brother, to lie in the stillness of nature, not knowing what one feels or thinks, and yet to know it so well ! In such moments every blade of grass, every leaf is my friend — while as fancy prompts I can extract from each, food for my imagination, and would fain shed tears of sweetest sadness ; there and then is it revealed to man that God is the soul of all." ' Grateful as Perthes was for the happiness of his Ham- FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF HAMBURGH. 43 burgh life, it was not lon^ till he felt its insufficiency to satisfy him. " You cannot imagine, dear Campe,'^ he writes, " what it is to be confined exclusively to the company of the young, and to be quite sliut out from that of older men, and from all family gatherings, ex- cept on some rare festive occasions. Among the young men, however extended the circle of acquaint-, auce, an unbearable sameness prevails, and the whole conversation turns upon trifles. There can be nothing more perilous than constant intercourse with common- place men ; even if the cliaracter do not sustain direct injury, a dry, dull, reserved condition of mind is in- duced, more or less inimical to freedom. When I first came here I was foolish enough to associate with a multitude of young persons, who at the outset appeared tolerable ; now that I have discovered how many pre- cious hours they make me waste, I must take decided measures to get quit of them." But though anxious to free himself from these con- nexions, Perthes by no means sought to avoid all so- ciety. His natural disposition, fostered by early habits, made it impossible for him to find entire satis- faction in what books alone could afford ; to become what he was capable of becoming, he needed both correspondence and personal intercourse with men ca- pable of exercising influence over his mind, men of different positions, different degrees of culture, and of various tendencies. He became more and more con- scious of this want. " My heart," he tells his uncle, " yearns for the society of many, and of cultivated men. Such society is a necessity for me, and I must compass it unless I am to sink entirely." Hamburgh, the most stirring city of Germany at that time, was exactly the 44 CAROLINE PERTHES. place where an ardent desire for the variety and ex- citement of improving society miglit best be satisfied. As the first commercial city, and the first sea-port of Germany, its world-wide trade had made it the centre of the most varied interests, and consequently the resort of strangers of all nations. A comparatively small number of congenial families formed the centre around which citizens and strangers of distinction alike gathered. Biisch, whose writings on political economy and commerce enjoyed a great and wide-spread celebrity was already advanced in years ; but the Commercial Academy, of which he was President, was the means of bringing strangers from all parts of Europe to his liouse, where all that was most distinguished for wit, talent, or learning, was to be met with. When Perthes, then in his twenty-second year, first came to live in Hamburgh, he was wliolly unacquainted with the opinions and objects that formed the centre- point of this society ; but he saw that the life there led was one of some significance, and longed to obtain ad- mission into the circle. " How my heart beats," he writes to his uncle, " when I think of such eminent families, as those of Biisch, Reimarus and Sieveking, and when I meet with young men who are privileged to enjoy in their society the genuine pleasures of life. I must and I will find an entree speedily." This was not, however, so easy a matter. The dis- tinction between the business of the wholesale and that of the retail dealer, a distinction grounded in the nature of the occupations, was strongly marked at Hamburgh, by the fact of its being recognized in the yery constitution of the city. The merchant might FIRST IMPRESSIONS OP HAMBURGH. 45 become a member of the Senate, the tradesman only of what are called the burgher colleges. Perthes, moreover, was poor, and had neither con- nexions nor introductions. It was a happy accident that first brought him in contact with the Sievekings ; and his first appearance among them was an event of some importance to a youth brought up in the most limited circumstances — an entrance into an entirely new sphere of life. " My neighbor at the table," he tells his uncle, *' was Biisch, a man of seventy, almost blind, and not a little deaf; he would insist on my helping him to everything ; and as each dish was pre- sented, he said, 'What's that?' Now I, you know, had neither seen, smelt, nor tasted any of the dishes before in my life, and as each dish was presented, I was obliged to proclaim my ignorance, in a loud voice, which was laughable enough both to me and to every one else ! " The intimacy here quickly gained for him a welcome among the friends and relations of the fam- ily. Numerous invitations and much consequent men- tal excitement followed, but still the inward struggle and uncertainty were the same. " I have," he writes to a friend, " tasted the intoxi- cating pleasures of a world in which all is collision and opposition ; carried away by them, like many others, I am not : I have had my experiences, but I am not the better for them, and not to become better is to ^become worse." In the society of the most distinguished families of Hamburg]), Perthes had hoped to meet with influences of an improving kind, which might give a new direc- tion to liis character ; but the difference of years, of social position, and the fact that his spiritual wants 46 CAROLINE PERTHES. were not experienced by his new friends, made this quite hopeless. Three men about his own age were now destined to exercise a powerful influence on his moral progress. " I have now," he writes in Septem- ber, 1794, " become acquainted with three men, who, in spite of their very different characters, participate in each others' sentiments on almost every subject. One of them, Speckter, is a scholar, entirely devoted to the critical philosophy, and the intimate friend of the phi- losopher Reinhold. The second, Runge, is a merchant, the ablest mind with which I have yet come in contact; the other, Hulsenbeck, is inferior to neither." Perthes was two-and-twenty years of age when he was introduced to these new friends. His small and slender, though firm and well-formed body, his curling hair and fine complexion, and a peculiarly delicate curve in the formation of the eye, gave to his appear- ance an almost girlish charm. Singularly susceptible, the slightest allusion to women brought the color to his cheeks. When he had determined on carrying out some settled purpose, the decision and resoluteness of his mind were manifest in the expressiveness of his slender form ; his strong sonorous voice, his bearing, and every gesture, indicated that he both could and would carry out his resolution. " Little Perthes has the most manly spirit of us all," said his friends ; and they had many stories to tell of the surprising power which his invincible will had exercised over the stub- bornness and physical superiority of strong rough men. Perthes was conscious of his power, and in reliance on it, would often, both then and in more advanced life, advance boldly to encounter difficulties in circum- stances under which men wlio possessed more physical FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF HAMBURGH. 47 strength would have quietly held on their way. He was not generally afraid of a coming evil, though he would tremble at the recollection of a danger past. At the beginning of tlieir acquaintance, Perthes ex- erted a gently constraining influence on the three friends, and on Herterich, who had recently been ad- mitted to their circle. " Perthes is a man to whom I feel marvellously attracted by his tender susceptibility, and his earnest striving after all that is noble," writes Speckter at this time : " I thank you for having made me acquainted with such a man." Range writing at a later period says, " I could not withdraw my eyes from him — the charm of his external appearance I could not but regard as the true expression of his inner nature." But the impression that Perthes on his side received was one of a far deeper kind : "I am now," he tells his uncle, " enjoying to the uttermost all that a quick and ardent sensibility can enjoy. I have found three friends full of talent and heart — of pure and upright minds — and distinguished by great and varied culture. When they saw my striving after the good, and my love for the beautiful, — when they perceived how I sought and endeavored, they gave me their friendship, and, oh ! how happy I now am ! Througli them I have attained what I stood most in need of. They know how to call into life and activity all that is best in me. I am like a fish thrown from the dry land into the water. Do not say that this is enthusiasm ; for a feel- ing is not to be regarded as enthusiastic because a man experiences it in its full power only in hours of peculiar elevation ; such hours are rather to be regarded as those in which a man is most truly himself." This friendship with men whose minds were more matured 48 CAROLINE PERTHES. than his own, gave him a deeper interest in the appear- ance of the great literary works of that period. " Have you read Goethe's ' Lehrjalire," he writes ; how sim- ple, and how grand ! and that there is anything finer than ' Iphigenie' I do not believe." It was Speckter who first directed the inquiring youth to Schiller's poem, " Die Kiinstler," (the Artists,) con- stantly urging upon him the lines, " It is only through the morning gate of the beautiful that you can penetrate into the realm of knowledge," and " that which we here feel as beauty, we shall one day know as truth." Runge then helped him to comprehend Schiller's assthetic let- ters. It soon appeared to him as if a grand error, embracing all time, had been overthrown by Schiller, when he said, " It is not enough that all enlightenment of the understanding is worthy of respect only in so far as it reacts upon character ; this enlightenment must also flow from the character, because the way to the head is only through the heart. The cultivation of our feelings is therefore the grand necessity." " I entreat you to read the aesthetic letters," he wrote to Campe ; " take pains to comprehend them, make them your own, and you will reap your reward ; for the views therein opened up of the beautiful, and of the whole condition and capabilities of man, are the most sublime and the truest that have ever penetrated my soul." And again, " brother ! let us become good, genuine men, approaching more and more within the sphere of the moral and the beautiful. When we have ourselves attained a sure footing, we may then influence others ; we may attain it, but only tlirough the beau- tiful, for through it alone can goodness find entrance." He was now penetrated w^ith the liveliest gratitude FIRST IMPRESSIONS OP HAMBURGH. 49 towards his friends for the new convictions which they had awakened within him. "I had despaired of myself," he writes, " while I was striving in vain to become virtuous by the sacrifice of all feeling, spiritual as well as sensuous. Constantly failing to fulfil my purpose, I lived in the constant dread of being an ob- ject of contempt to the men whom I loved. Where was I to find support ? I had discarded as worthless all that was most peculiar to my character. You it was who taught me to recognize what I had thus discarded, and strengthened it in me by your love ; and your love will guarantee it to me as long as I am upon earth. You it was who led me to ' the morning gate of the beautiful ;' and now it stands open before me — and now I may, and will strive after that which is most wanting in me, — constancy and equipoise." Perthes was soon to discover, that even within the portals of the beautiful there were paths of darkness and perplexity ; and it was well for him, that just as this experience was beginning to dawn upon his mind, he was forced to concentrate all his powers on the business of active life. V. HE society in which Perthes now mixed made him feel keenly the defects of his own educa- tion, defects which he saw little likelihood of his now being able to supply. The daily calls of business occupied every hour. " In cul- ture," he says, " I make no progress, and can- not hope to make any : this is a source of grief to me." He hoped, one day, to be able to retire, with a small sum, to some secluded spot, where he might devote himself to study, and give unity to his various but only partially digested knowledge. " Campe," he writes, " stigmatizes this desire for culture as vanity : *A man must not live for himself,' he maintains, * but to be useful to others.' But he is certainly wrong, and I do not agree with him." His future was pretty sure, as his uncle in Gotha had promised him the reversion of his business. " My plan of life is so simple," he said, " that I do not see how anything could occur to thwart it." It was only a few weeks after he had thus expressed himself, that Reimarus and Sieveking proposed to him to enter into the publishing trade with a young friend of their own, promising to provide the necessary means: but not feeling sufficient confidence in his knowledge (50) ESTABLISHMENT IN BUSINESS. 61 of business, (he was then two-and-twenty,) or in the partner whom they destined for him, he gratefully de- clined the offer. But from that moment he formed the resolution to establish a business of his own in Ham- burgh, as soon as he had acquired the requisite expe- rience. He hoped to get his friend Nessig for a part- ner, and meanwhile succeeded in securing for him an engagement in Hoffmann's establishment. At the outset indeed, Perthes regarded the book-trade as the means of acquiring property and achieving in- dependence ; but a sense of the importance of his *' be- loved book-trade," as he was wont to call it, to the whole intellectual life of the German people, soon took such entire possession of his soul, that during the whole course of his long life, we are justified in saying, the mere question of gain had little weight with him. Where a large conception of the nature of the book-trade did not exist, it seemed to him that learning and art were endangered by its operations. " If there be no blower,'' he would say, " the greatest artiste would strike the organ to no purpose.'' In more than one district where literature lay dead, he had seen it revive and flourish by the settlement of an active bookseller in the locality. Regarding the business from this point of view, he could not but complain that far too little attention had hitherto been devoted to this most interesting branch of industry. He had further observed, that where a bookseller possessed an educated taste, works of a high class were in demand ; and that where, on the other hand, the bookseller was a man of low taste and im- moral character, a licentious and worthless literature had a wide circulation. Supported by these facts, Perthes ascribed to the book-trade in general, and to 52 CAROLINE PERTHES. each individual bookseller, an important influence on the direction in which the public sought its mental food ; and clearly perceiving the influence of literature upon thought and life, he was convinced both then and throughout his whole life, that the book- trade, and the manner in which it was conducted, had a most impor- tant part to play in giving direction to the course of events. He was aware that the book-trade could be managed mechanically, and viewed merely as a means of liveli- hood, but he saw elsewhere also, among priests and professors, ministers and generals, some who, in giving their services, thought only of their daily bread. A shudder came over him when he saw booksellers make common cause with a crew of scribblers who hired out their wits for stabling and provender. " Where," writes he in 1794, " where will you find a body of men so deficient in the requisite information, and so negligent of the duties of their calling, as the booksellers ? Germany is deluged with wretched and abominable publications, and will be delivered from this plague only when the booksellers shall care more for honor than for gold." His friend Campe had proposed to institute a tribu- nal of booksellers, and thus to render impossible the publication of injurious works. But earnestly as Per- thes desired the elevation of the calling to which with all the' energy of his nature he had now devoted him- self, he nevertheless regarded the execution of such a proposal to be not only impracticable but dangerous — introducing, in fact, a censorship of the press in an- other form. It was only in the elevation of the whole body and of each individual member, that he hoped for ESTABLISHMENT IN BUSINESS. 63 progress. " Dear Campe/' he writes, " in order to bring about all that is possible and desirable, let us first see that we ourselves are what we ought to be ; let us also increase our knowledge, and strive as much as possi- ble to win for our opinions friends and advocates among the young people of our own standing. There are now five of us, and what may not five accomplish if only they be in earnest ? Let each strive to diffuse a high tone over his peculiar circle ; let each seek out some choice spirits, and if we persevere, and God favor us, what may we not accomplish ? — what good may we not be the means of bringing about ? Write me your views on this subject, I entreat you, quickly, and at length." Perthes desired to be independent, and to exercise a widespread influence by means of his calling. He had become so much attached to Hamburgh, that it seemed almost impossible to leave it ; he was constant- ly revolving in his mind the practicability of founding a business there, and the change introduced shortly before into the manner of conducting the book-trade, appeared likely to facilitate the carrying of his wish into effect. Perthes was of opinion that in the present position of the book-trade he might, without running any im- proper risk, found a business in Hamburgh, and by conducting it on liberal principles, stimulate the liter- ary appetite to such an extent as to benefit ratlier than to damage the existing " Houses." He was only four- and-twenty, but " more at liberty on that account," he wrote to his uncle, " to enter on a great undertaking, as I may look forward to ten years of labor without thinking of marriage." 54 GAROLINE PERTHES. A thousand pounds of capital, however, was neces- sary, and Perthes had nothing. Nessig, however, was willing to become his partner, and to bring a capital of £300. A loan from one of his old Swabian friends, and the associating in the enterprise of a young Ham- burgh merchant, gave him command of the necessary funds. The firm was to be under Pertlies' name. In Easter, 1796, he left his situation and proceeded to Leipzig Fair, in order to open up comn^iunications with publishers. The circular which he issued was to the following effect : — " I wish to signify to you my intention of establish- ing myself in Hamburgh as a bookseller, and to beg your confidence and support in this undertaking. In asking this, it becomes my duty to give some informa- tion concerning my past experience in the business I propose to conduct. Allow me to refer you to Herr Bohme of Leipzig, under whom I served six years, and to Herr Hoffmann of Hamburgh, whom I have served for the last three years. If you think it necessary to make any further inquiries, I shall endeavor to give you every possible satisfaction, either orally or in writing." The old men were not without misgivings as to the prudence of giving credit to a young man of four-and- twenty, who so boldly established a business of his own. Perthes required larger sums of money than he had anticipated ; he fell into the most painful perplex- ity ; but the faithfulness of his three Hamburgh friends extricated him from his difficulties. '' You will have heard," he writes to Campe, " how things fell out at the Fair, but happily, amid so many other childish pleasures, I had also that of procuring a few thousand dollars ; and that was pleasant, — very pleasant ! " ESTABLISHMENT IN BUSINESS. 5^^ In the midst of tlie throng and tumult of business, his old passion for Frederika returned. He had per- suaded himself that his love was no longer a passion, nothing but pleasure in reflecting on the intelligence and gracefulness of the maiden, and had, indeed, en- gaged to renounce her in favor of his friend. But, in the presence of the beautiful girl, the fire that had warmed his earlier youth was rekindled. " There she stands before me," he writes, " in all her power and in the full consciousness of her freedom — earnest — free from all petty vanity — her eye full of thought, every feature beaming with life and expression ; and, when her eye looks into mine, passion takes possession of me, and in the depths of my heart I feel that I am on the threshold of a great decision." The promise he had made to himself to win her for his friend, not for himself, he now regarded as an evil destiny. " Such overflowing happiness," he exclaimed, " I saw for my- self in that beaming eye ! and I find that in all — all, I have been the victim of self-delusion, and that I am poor and helpless. I ought to withdraw from her presence, and I cannot. Must I keep my purpose, even when it is I, not he, whom she loves ? No ; I cannot, for love to me gleams in her eye." He saw but one way of escaping from this struggle between passion and duty. He at once wrote frankly to Nessig explaining all, and while awaiting his an- swer, he employed a friend to break the matter to Frederika. Perthes and Nessig each made an offer of his hand ; the choice was to rest with her, and the rejected was to withdraw in peace, and, in all fidelity, to live and labor for the beloved pair. " Frederika," wrote Perthes, " listened without chang- 66 CAROLINE PERTHES. ing color, remained silent for a short time, and then, with deep earnestness, replied, — ' I love Perthes, I love Nessig ; but my hand I can give to neither.' And now," proceeds Perthes, " I feel sad and perplexed ; for is it not I who have called forth this decision of Nessig's destiny ? " A letter from his friend relieved him from the load of self-reproach, but the future now appeared empty and desolate. " My whole life-plan is ruined — ruined by her ! I have done with life. God give me comfort and strength ! " In another letter he thus expresses himself, — "You think the hard coldness with which I endure all this sorrow unnatural ; you would have me give way to tenderness and melancholy. Well, I will obey you, and in future learn to submit ; hitherto I have trusted too much in myself." The necessity of working hard in order to give a fair start to the new business, was now a grievous burden to Perthes. " Would that I had never begun I but the thing is done. Already I am under heavy engagements to others, and these I must and I will fulfil, like an honorable man." He returned to Hamburgh, and there had the delight of receiving his mother and sister, to whom he was now in a position to offer a home. He now devoted himself, with all the energy of his nature, to those pre- liminary labors on which the successful opening of the business depended. He was the first bookseller who displayed a selection of the best works, old and new, in all the various branches of literature, classified and arranged. His shop presented the appearance of a small but well-chosen library, and the addition of the ESTABLISHMENT IN BUSINESS. 67 periodicals of the day oJBFered the means of gaining a general view of the actual state of literature, its move- ments and its tendencies. Perthes started business in a stirring quarter of the city. " The house which I have rented," he writes, " for a thousand marks, is quite a wonder in Hamburgh, for, from top to bottom, all is literary. On the ground floor book-shelves ; up one stair the same ; up two stairs Dr. Ersch, as editor of the newspaper, recently set on foot ; on the third story. Dr. Ersch as littera- teur and helper's helper to Meusel and his associates ; on the fourth, French booksellers in front, and at the back, the sleeping apartments of the young German booksellers ; up five stairs a loft, which may be used for a storeroom." " My own domestic arrangements," he tells his aunt, " are on a small scale, but tolerably neat ; I think you would approve of them ; at least my love of order is becoming a terror to all the household." The preparations being all made, Perthes announced the opening of his business by the following advertise- ment in the " Hamburgh Correspondent," of the 11th July, 1796 : — '* I hereby make known that I have established a new bookseller's shop, which is now opened. In my shop the best books published in Ger- many, old and new, are to be found ; and I venture to promise, that I will procure any book which is to be had in other parts of Europe. A portion of my as- sortment is ready bound, in order to meet the wishes of the reading public more readily, to facilitate to the purchaser the knowledge of what he is buying, and to supply the wants of the passing traveller more ade- quately. 3* 58 CAROLINE PERTHES. " I am persuaded that by beginning in this manner, I have engaged in a useful enterprise. Whatever may be incomplete and defective in the manner of carrying out my arrangements, I shall endeavor to remedy as soon as I have acquired a better acquaintance with the wishes of the public. In order to make a visit to my shop agreeable, and, so far as I am able within my own sphere, to aid in diffusing a knowledge of recent liter- ature, 1 shall take care that a copy of every German journal, every novelty of the day, and all writings of general interest, shall always lie in my shop for inspec- tion. To attention, punctuality, and politeness to those who shall visit me, I pledge myself in all circumstances as a duty." The biisiness was now established with good hope of success. It was, as Perthes said later in life, a bold and adventurous youthful undertaking ; but it was founded on a correct insight into the important move- ments and necessities of the literary life of that period. VI N July, 1796, only a few weeks after Perthes had J) commenced business, a tall, slender man, with a finely-formed face, a darkish complexion, and glorious, thoughtful blue eyes, entered the shop. He appeared to be about fifty, but in all his movements there was the ease and power of youth. His dress, expression, and bearing, had the air of being studied and yet perfectly natural. His fine and noble bearing soon attracted the attention of Perthes ; it was Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi, who having left Diisseldorf, was at that time residing in Holstein and Hamburgh. Superiority was stamped upon him, but it was neither cold nor repulsive. The attractiveness of his appearance inspired immediate confidence ; and Perthes had scarcely given the neces^ sary replies to his inquiries, when he expressed to the astonished author of Waldemar, the reverence and af- fection with which he had instantaneously been i^- spired. He, at the same time, gave the friendly listener a glimpse into his own earnest striving, and the uncer- tain ground on whicli he stood. Jacobi was pleased with his candor and animation, returned after a few days, and from that time became a frequenter of the shop, now turning over the leaves of the new French, (59) 60 CAROLINE PERTHES. English, and German publications, and now conversing with their owner. A few weeks later, in August, 1796, Perthes was in- vited to visit Jacobi at Wandsbeck, where he was then living. There he saw Jacobins youngest son Max, who had just finished his medical studies in England, and the two sisters of his host, Charlotte and Helena. Clever, lively, and deeply interested in all the literary movements of the period, the sisters at the same time discharged all household duties with praiseworthy energy and self-denying care. From this time Perthes enjoyed the privilege of joining the circle at Jacobi's as often as he pleased, and that was not seldom. Helena became a real, motherly friend to him, and her brother a paternal counsellor, ever ready to enter into the feelings, to sympathize with the inward struggle, and to answer the doubts and questionings of his young friend, admonishing and instructing him, and thus doing much to further his mental development. " I love and honor the glorious man as I love and honor none beside," he writes to his uncle. " I met him with a full heart ; he recognized it, and thought it worth his while to occupy himself with my inner being." Jacobi and Claudius were closely connected with the most cultivated society of Holstein. A number of eminent men, most of whom were more or less intimate, were at this time living in Hol- stein, either on their estates, or in the smaller towns ; and these diffused life and activity throughout the whole duchy. The Greeks and Romans, nature and art, religious topics and politics, — all had their friends and partisans in this country. Niebuhr the father had been living at Meldorf in the Siiderditmarsh since NEW ACQUAINTANCES. 61 1778, intimately associated with Boie, the editor of "The German Museum," who held the office of Land- vogt ; and, at the same time, like Niebuhr, liad an ex- tensive connexion with the men and affairs of foreign countries. Count Leopold Frederick Stolberg had, on his return from Italy in December, 1792, fixed his residence at Eutin, as president of the government of the principality. He was then, as during his whole career, full of life, spirit, and love, and yet restless and unsettled, because, as a Protestant, he could not find for his religious convictions that firm external support of which he felt the necessity. Nicolovius, the late director of the ministry of public worship in Prussia, worked under Stolberg. Yoss had come to Eutin as Rector of the Academy of Otterndorf, and had long been known and esteemed among the Holstein circles. Both the Stolbergs had been united with him in the association of poets at Gottingen, and from 1775 to 1778 he declared that he had led the happiest life at Wandsbeck, in the society of Claudius and his noble friends. At Emkendorf, between Kiel and Rendsburg, lived Count Frederick Reventlow, who had retired to this estate after his recall from London, where he had filled the office of Danish ambassador. As a zealous cham- pion of the necessity of the closest adherence to the Augsburg Confession, as Curator of the National Uni- versity, and as a stanch maintainer of the rights of the nobility, he incurred much odium ; but his talents and integrity, joined to the refinement of his manners and his knowledge of the world, excited general ad- miration. His wife Julia, (born Countess Schimmel- mann,) by her intellectual vivacity, her unassuming 62 CAROLINE PERTHES. piety, and her cheerful resignation under severe per- sonal sufferings, as well as by her judicious kindness to her dependants, had won the friendship and respect even of those who did not share her opinions. This house was the frequent resort of Jacobi, Claudius, the Stolbergs, Cramer the father, and Hensler ; and the gravity and refinement by which it was distinguished were free from all formality, and interfered neither with the pleasures of literature, nor with the animation and cheerfulness of their social life. The brother of Count Reventlow, the Count Caius, had his residence at Altenhof, near Eckernford, on the Baltic. In refinement of manner and general culture he was perhaps inferior to his brother ; but in energy, in business capacity, and activity of character, he sur- passed him ; while in intelligence and extent of knowl- edge he was not his inferior. Closely connected with both was Count Christian Stolberg, at that time War- den of Tremsbiittel, a town situated about three miles from Hamburgh. It was not owing so much to the Count himself as to his wife Louisa, (born Countess of Reventlow,) that his house was peculiarly attractive to the friendly circle. By the acuteness of her under- standing, and the thoroughness of her education, the Countess stood high in the estimation of her friends ; and she did not hesitate to assert, with spirit and inde- pendence, opinions, political and religious, that were diametrically opposed to those of the kindred and friendly families of Holstein. Holstein was separated from Hamburgh by essential differences of character — differences which affected their mode of viewing all the events of the day and all relations of life. Notwithstanding this, Claudius, NEW ACQUAINTANCES. If Jacobi, and the two Stolbergs, were fond of Hamburgh, and, overlooking religious and political diversities, were often to be found there, enjoying its intellectual advantages. But the controversy regarding the Con- fession was connected rather with the influential circles of Miinsterland, with the Princess Gallitzin as their centre, than with Hamburgh. For the elevated position which, since the year 1770, the archbishopric of Miin- ster had occupied, it had been indebted solely to the Bar- on Frederick William Francis von Fiirstenberg, who, as Minister of Max-Frederick von Konigseck, Archbish- op of Cologne and Bishop of Miinster, had governed Miinster since 1764. Fiirstenberg was a statesman in the noblest sense of the word. But, apart from his merit as a statesman, Fiirstenberg enjoyed a high lit- erary reputation. He had at his command an amount of knowledge and experience seldom to be met with, and was quite at home in all the literary and philosophical movements of the period. Having been greatly ad- dicted to the art of war in early life, and, in conse- quence, active in promoting the cultivation of mathe- matical studies and of a vigorous and manly style of education, he now, in his advanced years, devoted himself to the study of religion and philosophy. To this man and to this country came the Russian Princess Gallitzin, on a visit, in the summer of 1779. She was the wife of the ambassador at the Hague. Her object in visiting Miinster was to consult Fiir- stenberg about her son, with the intention of devoting herself to his education, in some country residence on the banks of the lake of Geneva. But so great was her admiration of the Minister, that she would not withdraw herself from his counsel and support, and, 64 CAROLINE PERTHES. consequently, became permanently established in Miin- ster. The princess, wlio was the daughter of the Prussian Field-Marshal Count Schmettau, had received an edu- cation calculated only to fit her for entrance into the fashionable world. In 1768, when in her twentieth year, she had accompanied the Princess Ferdinaud to the baths of Spa, as her maid of honor, and there be- came acquainted with Prince Gallitzin, to whom, at the end of a few weeks, she was married. In the course of her travels she had acquired some experience of court-life in Vienna, Paris, and London, and was then called to play a distinguished part at the Hague, as the consort of the Russian ambassador. Her ambi- tion and vanity were flattered by the homage which her talents no less than her position commanded, but she was nevertheless far from being satisfied with her condition. From her earliest youtli she had experi- enced an earnest desire for the knowledge of the truth, and the attainment of the ideal of moral perfection which ever floated before her in a variety of forms. The distractions of the great world had never quenched this desire. From the unbroken circle of amusements and visiting, of balls and theatrical representations, she returned night after night with a craving after some- thing better, that grew in intensity till it became a tor- ture. Slie felt a wish to withdraw from society, and to quiet the internal struggle by devoting herself entirely to the acquisition of knowledge and the education of her two children. It is somewhat remarkable that it should have been Diderot who obtained the consent of the Prince to her plan, although the philosopher had been unable to comply with her request, that he NEW ACQUAINTANCES. 65 would introduce her into the realm of knowledge. At the age of twenty-four, the princess had retired to a small secluded house near the Hague — there with an energy bordering on passion, to follow out a course of scientific study. In 1783, when she and her physicians alike despaired of her life, she had dismissed the priest whom Fiisten- berg had desired to attend her, because she was absolutely witliout faith in the efficacy or importance of the Sacraments. During her long and tedious recovery, she for the first time, and much to her alarm, became alive to the fact that she was a slave to literary ambition and the pride of learning. "With this discovery," she said, " all pleasure in myself vanished." About this time her cliildren were of an age to receive religious instruc- tion, and she considered it to be her duty as a mother to impart it. In order at once to preserve her own integrity, and to keep from her children her doubts on the subject of Christianity, she resolved that the instruc- tion should be purely historical. For this purpose she gave herself up to the earnest study of the Holy Scrip- tures, reading them by preference in the Latin version. What she liad entered on for her children's sake, she soon continued for her own. The truth of Christianity, as set forth in the Scriptures, penetrated her heart ; and once convinced, she ever after strove, with all the energies of her powerful mind, to bring her life and actions into the strictest conformity to the truths which she had imbibed. A small but distinguislied circle gathered round this extraordinary woman. A woman who, like the Princess Gallitzin, surpassed, in breeding and culture, all her contemporaries of the 66 CAROLINE PERTHES. ' same rank, and who now linked with her dazzling talents the faith of a little child, could not but make a deep impression on these powerful intellects. Goethe and Lavater, Herder and Hamann, felt themselves in a like degree, though in different ways, attracted and elevated by this remarkable character. All the literary men of distinction lived in intimate union during the latter portion of the last century. Holstein and Miinster also were brought into closer relations through Hamann. "Those times," said Pertlies, fifty years later, *' were very unlike these in which we now live. The Holstein families, as well as the Gallitzin-Droste circle, stood apart on account of their Christian tendencies. The prebendaries, and other dignitaries of Miinster, with the single exception of the family of Kersenbrock, looked upon the Church with the eyes of mere men of the world ; while, among the burgher class, luxury and vice were universally prevalent. Earnest Christians, whether Catholics or Protestants, were closely united. There was no mutual suspicion or bitterness ; Claudius, Reventlow, Jacobi, and the Stolbergs, were often to be found in Miinster, and the Princess paid frequent visits to Hamburgh and Holstein ; Claudius and his family especially attracted her. Their confessions of faith were indeed dissimilar ; Claudius was a decided Lutheran, the Princess a zealous Catholic. Her Catholicism was that of all times, so far as dogma and ceremonial were concerned ; but in so far as it was a life, and presented itself as such, it differed as widely from the new-poetic, and the historico-political Catholicism of the present, as it did from the frivolity of the French and the torpidity of the German Catholicism of last century. The great NEW ACQUAINTANCES. 67 fact of the Redemption, the common ground of Protest- antism and Catholicism, exercised such a vital and governing influence on the Princess, that, so far as the Holstein circle was concerned, the diversity of confes- sions appeared comparatively unimportant ; while again the names of FUrstenberg, Overberg, and the Princess, were never mentioned in Holstein save with the great- est affection and respect." No sooner had Perthes become a familiar guest in the houses of Jacobi and Claudius, than his attention was directed to these Holstein circles. They were destined to exercise a powerful influence both on his intellectual development and on his worldly position, out for a while he knew them only by report. An event of an important kind, one which was to be the source of all his earthly happiness, was awaiting him. VII. FEW weeks after Perthes had become ac- quainted with Caroline Claudius, he had been spending the morning, along with Jacobi, at the house of Caroline Rudolphi, the superin- tendent of the well-known Educational Insti- tute, and had received an invitation from the former to spend the evening of the Christmas festivities with him. Among the guests, Perthes found Claudius and his whole family. Before the entertainment commenced, accident threw him alone with Caroline in a side-room ; he had not a word to say, but he experienced a calm and a happiness which he had never felt before. The Christmas games began, but Perthes had eyes for noth- ing but the expression of quiet pleasure which beamed in Caroline's face. In his opinion the best that the evening offered was hers by right, and yet her younger sister's gift seemed better tlian hers. On the topmost branch of the Christmas tree hung an apple, finer and more richly gilt than any ; Perthes dexterously reached it, and, blushing deeply, presented it, to the no small surprise of the company, to the conscious Caroline. From that evening things went on between them as they usually do between those who are destined to share (68; THE BETROTHAL AND WEDDING. 69 the joys and sorrows of life together as husband and wife. *' Indeed," said Klopstock, as he was returning to Hamburgh with Perthes, after Claudius' silver wed- ding-day festival, on the 15th of March, 1797, " you young people are quite unconscious of the love that we have long seen in you both ! " But Perthes was well aware of the affection that had taken possession of his heart, and which was daily growing deeper. He felt, however, that the distance between himself and Claudius was too great to justify his approaching him without friendly mediation. He at once told his secret to Jacobi and his sisters, and entreated them to ascertain for him whether there was any hope. " Thank God ! my dear Perthes," wrote Helena Jacobi on the 27th of April, " you are truly loved, and inas- much as my courage is as great as yours is small, I see a prospect of great happiness for you. I could not hear anything yesterday from Caroline herself, for I did not find her one minute alone, but I ascertained from her mother enough to inspire me with great con- fidence, and Caroline looked so friendly that it was clear that she had something pleasant in her thoughts." A few days later, on the 30th of April. Perthes ap- plied to Caroline in person. " How can I ever for- get that day of deep emotion in which I first revealed my love to you ! Silent and motionless you stood be- fore me ; not a word had you to say to me, but as I was sorrowfully turning to leave you, you affection- ately put your liand in mine." So in after days wrote Perthes. Caroline's love was frankly confessed and pledged in the course of the evening, but to her father the de- 70 CAROLINE PERTHES. cision not unnaturally appeared a hasty one. Perthes had only just entered his twenty-fifth year ; he had boldly established a business which was attended with considerable risk, and he was too candid to conceal from the father the struggle of the conflicting moral principles that were fermenting in his mind. More- over, Claudius was not altogether free from a species of jealousy. It was a pain to him to have to resign the protection of his daughter to another, and it was almost with grief that he discovered that she loved a young and inexperienced man better than her father. The saying, " Thou shalt leave father and mother," was to him a hard one. All he could do was to assure Perthes that he would not oppose the marriage, but his formal and full consent he could not yet be per- suaded to give. Perthes was not uneasy on this ac- count, and two days later, took his departure for Leip- zig, with love and thankfulness in his heart. " Know, my beloved Caroline," he wrote in his first letter, " that I would fain do, or leave undone, every- thing with sole regard to you. I am indeed happy, and have never loved the good God since my child- hood so well as I love Him now. I have, indeed, felt love before, but it was torture and distraction ; now it is peace and joy, and I thank thee for it, my dearest Caroline.'' He long expected news from Wandsbeck in vain. At the end of a fortnight came a letter from Claudius himself, which ran thus : "Dear Mr. Perthes, — We are glad to hear that you arrived happily and safe, and that you are well and mindful of us. Caroline has received and read your letters from Brunswick and Leipzig, and thanks you kindly for them. She would answer them herself; 1*^ THE BETROTHAL AND WEDDING. 71 but while the consent of her parents is not formally given, she is not at liberty to open her heart fully. It is better, therefore, that she should postpone her answer till your return." A letter from Helena Jacobi explained matters. " Your Caroline said to her father, when he told her not to reply as if his consent were already given, — ' If I may not write all that is in my heart, I cannot write at all ; you must write and say why I remain silent.' I pressed your dear Caroline more closely to my heart than ever," adds Helena, " on hearing this." From Leipzig Perthes wrote to inform his three Hamburgh friends of the state of his heart. An alli- ance which drew him still nearer to Claudius and Jacobi, could not be regarded by them as a desirable one for their friend. " Why should the news of my engagement to Caroline have caused such bitterness in you ? Were you thinking of my former unhappy love ? It will live as long as I live! or, were you thinking on the fleeting and changing fancies that have often filled my heart ? It is possible that these too may move me again at some future time. If thoughts like these have suggested your letter, I cannot blame you. But listen to me. When I had succeeded in extinguishing my rejected love, I was horror-stricken to find that such love, — love with which the highest aspirations of my soul were associated, could he extinguished, A death- like coldness took the place of the burning flame. Shall love, then, whose source is in God, and in all goodness, be annihilated by external, adventitious cir- cumstances? There must at all events be something that is stable. If it be not love, it must be friendship. Friendship ! I have nothing to say against friendship 72 CAROLINE PERTHES. — and yet shudder to think that this is all. Where, then, shall I find deliverance and help for my inner being ? My soul craves something that shall not pass away ; my heart craves one who shall be all to me ; my spirit de- sires some abiding good ; my personality longs for union with some other being, — a union which shall endure even when the world is shivered to atoms ; and nothing but love is greater and more enduring than the world. If I can in any way he 'preserved^ it is only throiogh Caroline ; in her I find peace and stability, devotion and truth. The passion of love implanted by my former attachment is latent* within me, but the' love itself is no longer there. The passion which I then experienced can exist but once ; I can never love Caroline as I loved Frederika, but with her I can again lift my eyes to God, and this is the help from above which my soul requires." On the return of Perthes from Hamburgh at the end of May, Claudius no longer withheld his formal con- sent. It was to the Princess Gallitzin that Caroline first communicated her happiness. " To you, my dear mother Amelie, I must myself tell the news of my being a bride, and a happy bride. This would at one time have seemed to me impossible, even if you had assured me of it, but my beloved Perthes has reconciled me to the step. I know and feel its importance for time and for eternity ; but I believe that I have taken it in accord- ance with the will of God, and now can only close my eyes and entreat God^s blessing ; and you, too, must pray for me, dear Princess. I can say, in all truth, that my Perthes is a good man, who does not regard himself as formed, but who knows and feels that he is not yet perfect ; and I think, therefore, that he and I THE BETROTHAL AND WEDDING. 78 may make common cause, and, b}^ God's help, make progress." Perthes was now frequently to be found on the way to Wandsbeck* and letters were almost daily exchanged. Many of these have been preserved. On the 15th of July, the betrothal, which in Hol- stein is a church-ceremony, was celebrated. The so- lemnity was graced by the presence of the Princess Gallitzin and her daughter, by Overberg, who was tlien on a visit to Claudius, and, much to Caroline's satisfaction, by the Count Frederick-Leopold Stolberg. Shortly before the commencement of the ceremony, the bride was reminded by the pastor, that after it had taken place she was no longer free, and could be re- leased from her vows only by the Consistory. " It is long since I took the step,'' she replied, " from which I could be released neither by you nor by the Consis- tory." In the quiet of Caroline's maiden-life, the bride-like love grew deeper and stronger, and put even her tran- quil nature in commotion. " Caroline would fain act the philosophic bride," writes the daughter of the Prin- cess Gallitzin, " but in vain ; her love perpetually be- trays itself, and I believe that she dreams of nothing but the letter P, and if for a moment she devotes her- self to me, you well know who it is that quickly comes and displaces me." " Your brother Hans," writes Perthes to his bride, " brought the rose safely into the room, but then broke it. Thank you for this rose ! Hans slanders you. He says that you can never find anything you are looking for. Even if you have this failing it matters not, since once, although not seeking, you yet found him who was 4 T4 CAROLINE PERTHES. seeking the good angel of his life, and suffered your- self to be found by him." The 2d of August was the day fixed for the wed- ding. On the previous day Perthes received the last letter from Caroline as his betrothed bride. " I have a great desire for a little black cross," she writes, "and don't know how better to get it than through you, dear Perthes, and why not ? I have been to the pastor this morning. The formula by which we are to be united is neither cold nor warm, neither old nor new, — a wretched neither one thing nor another. But it will do us no harm, dear Perthes ; we will ask God to bless us after the old fashion, and He will bless us after the old fashion. Do it with me, dear Perthes, opening your arms and clasping me to your heart. I am thine, body and soul, and trust in God that I shall find it to be for my happiness." The marriage was solemnized on the following day, the 2d of August, 1797. In the first months and years of their married life, the diversity of their minds and their habits was to be brought into strong relief. Perthes had been fitted for the sphere in which he now moved by natural charac- ter, by the circumstances of his early life, and by his actual position in Hamburgh, by the variety of external relations and impressions, by the efforts he had to make in difficult and changing circumstances, but, above all, by contact with men of the most opposite opinions. On the contrary, Caroline had never come in contact with the noisy outer world, but had lived a life entire- ly from within. To her the duty of man seemed to consist in withdrawing as much as possible from world- ly business and motives, and in abstaining from all THE BETROTHAL AND WEDDING. 75 lively participation in the transitory. The first three books of Thomas-d-Kempis, taken as a whole, might be regarded as reflecting her views of life. Now that she had left her father's house, and experienced on all sides an infinite variety of new impressions, she could not fail to be disturbed and disquieted under their in- fluence. Her afi"ection for her husband was, however, strong, and in the depths of her soul she felt that her new po- sition was one of happiness and blessing. On one occasion, a few weeks after her marriage, when her father surprised her weeping in her room, he exclaim- ed, not without a measure of complacency, — " Did I not tell you that the first flush of happiness would not last if you left your father and mother?" "And if I am to pass the rest of my life in weeping," she instant- ly replied, " I should still rejoice that I am to spend it with my Perthes." But this confidence, which was an essential characteristic of her nature, could not over- come the uneasiness caused by the frequent disturb- ance and the many real or apparent hindrances to which the inner life was exposed from things without. In her sorrow and perplexity she thus writes to her husband : " A thousand times has my soul spoken out and told me, that I am no longer what I was. For- merly, God always held me by the hand and led me in all my ways, and I never forgot Him ; now I see Him afar off with an outstretched arm, that I am unable to grasp. This must not be always so, for the heart could not endure such a prospect. But I have made up my mind that so it will be upon earth ; and may God grant me the continuance of this inward longing, and suffer me rather to die of it, than to be content without it. 76 CAROLINE PERTHES. There are moments in whicli I take courage again, but they do not last, and it is no longer with me as it was once." In another letter she says, "When you are away, my beloved Perthes, I feel quite lonely and for- saken ; when you are not at my side to support me, I am a picture of grief. Is this to continue — ought it to be so ? It was otherwise once." The letters written by Perthes, during short absences at Leipzig, Holstein, and Westphalia, show, that while he took pleasure in the exercise of his powers in pub- lic life, he knew how to appreciate the value of a life which looked within rather tlian without. " Believe me," he wrote to his wife, in the summer of 1709, " believe me, my good angel, when I tell you, that you have much spiritual life ; do not then disquiet yourself. Our father acted wisely in keeping his chil- dren from active life and an artificial existence. Even if he had carried this too far, if he had rendered you unfit for the business of life, so that to vou the whole world were foolishness, still you would have had the spirit of love, and the spirit of love is all in all." The respect in which Perthes held the rights of in- dividuality would have withheld him from any attempt to force his own mode of life upon Caroline, even if her character and her manner of looking upon life had not claimed respect from their own inherent merits. " To force upon one mind the opinions of another ; to graft the fruit of our own tree upon another stem, is sin," wrote Perthes to a friend. Besides, he clearly perceived that any such attempt upon Caroline's mind would be futile. "My Caroline," he wrote to his Schwartzburg uncle, "makes me unspeakably happy. She is a pious, faithful, true-hearted, and submissive THE BETROTHAL AND WEDDING. 77 creature ; but her inward course she shapes for her- self, and pursues it with a steady step." As steadily did Perthes himself tread the path that seemed marked out as his. In 1798 he says to his wife, " I am more than ever persuaded that my destiny is an active, masculine career ; that I am a man born to turn my own wheel and that of others with energy." He was not diverted from his course by the difference between his wife and himself. " Can you then, indeed, believe," he wrote in 1799, " that my restless labors, my activity and energy, can be detrimental to you ? To you, Caroline ! You should rather thank God that he has enabled me to take pleasure in things that might have been a weari- ness and a burden to me. How otherwise could I wish to exist ? Dear Caroline, I am not always so good as you think me, but in this respect I am better than you think me." Doubts, indeed, would occasionally arise as to the distracting and hurtful influence of his mode of life upon Caroline. "You have to fight against many failings in me," he writes. " I have asked myself what I would do, if it depended on me to remove you to a situation in every respect congenial to your tastes — whether to a convent or into the hands of a man who not only loved you as I love you, but whose disposition and liabits entirely coincided with your own. No, dearest Caroline, I could not do it. You must live with me, or not live at all ; and, dearest wife, I know that in this you feel as I do." That Caroline's dislike to all contact with the world, and her extreme susceptibility under the disturbing circumstances of her new position, were sanctioned by 78 CAROLINE PERTHES. the claims of the inner life, Perthes did not for a mo- ment believe. He was of opinion that a character like hers ought to show itself as an example in the world. " Believe me," he writes, " I understand you and your present feelings thoroughly. While you lived in your father^s house, you maintained, it is true, a constant walk with God. You had but one thought and but one path. But then your walk with God was the walk of a child, who knew sin and the world, and life, not at all, or only by name ; still there was a unity in your existence. Now, simply because you are in the world, this condition must be disturbed. I have torn you from that childlike life, and brought you into the bustle of the world ; you recognized in me an honest heart, full of love for you, but you have also seen in me, and through me, and in yourself, the sin of man- kind. For a while, but it was not long, your love for me concealed all this. Now you can no longer walk so confidingly as formerly with the Unseen, and He no longer speaks to you as before. You are perplexed, and would gladly regain the purity and simplicity of the child, and are unable to bring order and unity into your thoughts. My dear Caroline, the want which you feel is entirely the offspring of your own imagination. You have, pious child, ardent faith in your heart, and in your mind entire subjection to the liigher decrees of conscience : but where others would be contented and at peace, you are full of care and anxiety, because you would fain lead again the undisturbed and simple life of childhood, and cannot. Here, on earth, man has but a changing and unsettled existence ; he does not all live in any single moment, but only a part of himself. THE BETROTHAL AND WEDDING. 79 The only things of value are love and truth, but would you, therefore, disregard all besides ? Would you live apart from everything ? But even if you were to with- draw to some retirement where no sorrow, no disquiet, could reach you, you would become cold because you love only the Highest and no other object, and cold- ness is always a horrible thing. No, we are not to drift away from the world ; God demands-not the sacrifice of natural ties, but the submission of our will to His. The sorrow and annoyances which may be our lot in the world where He has placed us, we should bear with inward tranquillity rather than seek to es- cape from them." " Caroline does not find life easy," said Perthes to a friend ; " in spite of her calm temper, and her rich and lively fancy, she feels it hard to have to do with the ever-changing and finite things of the world and of time. And yet, when I see her holding fast by her in- ward life, in spite of the annoyances which the tumult and distractions of her daily existence too often cause her, and also fulfilling the outward duties of her position in a manner so self-denying, kind and noble, she imparts strength to me, and becomes truly my guiding angel." " Two creatures more different than Caroline and myself, in culture and tendency, it would have been hard to find," said Perthes later ; and yet, in the first hour of our acquaintance, Caroline recognized what of worth there was in me, and loved me ; and in spite of all that she subsequently discovered in my charac- ter, that was opposed to her own modes of thought and life, her confidence has remained unshaken and unalterable. I, on my part, soon perceived her love, and at once appreliended the true and noble nature, 80 CAROLINE PERTHES. the lofty spirit, the life-heroism, the tumility of heart, and the pure piety which now constitute the happiness and blessing of my life." If Perthes and Caroline had not met till later in life, they would probably have repelled each other ; but now the fusion of two characters so diverse was facilitated by the passionate ardor of youthful affection, — an ardor which long survived their marriage. Many of the letters written by Perthes at this time have been preserved. They are often full of tender playfulness ; frequently, too, we find in them the ex- pression of fervid passion, and of deep reverence for that spiritual life of Caroline, still unattained by him- self. In a letter written in the third year of his marriage, during her absence for a few weeks, he says : " During my bachelor life, when one affection used to give place to another, when I loved Frederika, when I first knew you, my only aim was to conquer, to please ; I sought only myself — was always /. But now in you I have lost myself — without you, I am nothing — I have noth- ing — am to myself nothing." " You, yes you, my ever-youthful love, have given me a new life," he writes on the following day ; " through you I am born again. While you are absent, all around me is cold and uninteresting ; you alone give tone and coloring to everything. I did not know that my heart had retained such feelings ; I had thought that the first love had passed away ; but no ! ever since you were mine, the first love is the first and the never-ending love. Where can it cease ? Love, ' ever-strengthening love ! every morning I rise to new love, and every evening I repose on thy heart. Ah ! I THE BETROTHAL AND WEDDING. 81 can well understand now, how one may be cold and desolate, while yet, in the stillness, the heart is beating warmly." " Dear child ! dear Caroline ! " he says in another letter, " I am exactly like our Bishop Kaspar ; I would, without interruption, cry, Love, love, nothing but love I When I rise in the morning, I ask — Why should I ? my Caroline is not here. When I am at work, I am thinking only of my return to you ; and, alas ! you are not here, and I have no home, no place of rest. If at evening I have done the day's work, and would assume a happy face — ah ! for whom ? my heart is not here. If you were to leave me, my angel, to leave me en- tirely, the good spirit would go with you. I believe, indeed, that I should love again, but how ? " Again he writes : " You fancy that I am jealous of our little daughter, because I would share your love as well as she ; ah ! I could wish you had twelve strong and healthy children, to be your joy ; for you would have to thank me for all the twelve, my noble, excel- lent wife ! " Caroline's return from a short excursion having been unexpectedly delayed for some days, Perthes wrote that the days passed as though a thou- sand pounds' weight were hung upon each : — Just as the traveller's aching sight Explores in vain the morning sky, Where, hidden in a flood of light, 'J he soaring lark sings joyously : So glance I anxious to and fro, Through wood and field, o'er hill and plain, My songs one only burden know, come, beloved, to me again 1 '^ 4* VIII. 'HE partnership into which Perthes had en- tered in 1796, was only provisional, and its continuance was contingent on the success which attended the undertaking. The returns during the first two years were so trifling as to cause a dissolution of the partnership in December, 1798. Perthes, when left alone, found himself in a position of considerable difficulty ; but, relying upon the attention which his mode of con- ducting business had already attracted among the literary circles of Hamburgh, Westphalia, Hanover, Holstein, and Mecklenburg, he did not lose hope of ultimate success. Nothing, however, could be done without additional capital. The confidence which he inspired was such as soon to put 30,000 dollars at his disposal, and, so supported, he was enabled to weather the great com- mercial and monetary crisis of 1799. From the nature of the business, Perthes had escaped the immediate influence of this wide-sweeping calamity, but indirectly he felt severely the general scarcity of money. By the help of his own energy and prudence, and the friendly assistance of his three Hamburgh friends, he not only stood firm at this great crisis, but was enabled to extend his business considerably, and (82) THE BUSINESS AND THE FAMILY. 83 amid the universal ruin, it acquired a name and re- ceived an impulse. He far overstepped, however, the means which he had in hand, and this prepared for him much anxiety and many painful perplexities. " My engagements," wrote Perthes in 1799, " are now so manifold, that all my time and all my strength are required for the superintendence. What men com- monly call good fortune, I may be said to possess, for success attends all my undertakings ; but this good fortune has been anything but easily won, and when I weigh the hours of ease and tranquillity against the hours of labor and anxiety, the latter have an over- whelming preponderance. You know me well, and know what it has cost me hitherto to ask, to entreat, to put on a bold face ; you know how difl&cult it has always been for me to seem harsh, stern, inflexible ; and all this I have been obliged to be, or to appear. God, indeed, has come to my help, 'when most I re- quired His aid. Good fortune, and that activity and energy which are called forth only by enterprise, never fail me." Perthes had a lofty aim in the business which he had founded. Hamburgh, Holstein, and Mecklen- burg were to be only the basis of his operations, from which it was to attain a position which would consti- tute it the medium of literary intercourse for all European nations, and would render accessible to each people the literature of every other. Hamburgh seemed to be the right place for a business so extensive in its relations : a branch was to be established in London as a support. But Perthes had not resources for carrying out so great a plan without assistance. He felt keenly the want of the necessary information, 84 CAROLINE PERTHES. and more keenly still the inadequacy of his educa- tion — a want not then to be supplied. He looked around for help, and found it in John Henry Besser, who, from this period, may be regarded, both in joy and in sorrow, as his truest and most confidential friend, and who shortly became by marriage with his sister, a near and much-loved connexion. Besser was one of those happy persons who are liked as soon as seen, whose society is sought by all, and with whom every one feels happy. His exterior was prepossessing, and as a young man he had been distinguished for his handsome figure ; his loving and love-desiring heart shone in his friendly eye, and gave expression to his delicate features. He had an instinc- tive perception of the wishes and wants of others, and without information or inquiry, he was ever ready to help to the utmost of his power. The favors of all kinds that he had conferred were innumerable. He attracted children as the magnet attracts iron, and could scarcely defend himself from their demonstra- tions of aJQTection. Always, and in all circumstances, he acted with the purest integrity without the ^slightest effort, and without requiring to will to do so : that a man should speak contrary to his convictions seemed to him impossible. During the occupation of Hamburgh by the French, he would, with alarming naivete, tell the plainest truths to the officers and functionaries, and yet, strange to say, he enjoyed their confidence. His many little peculiarities, his absence of mind, his habit of devolving on the morrow the business of to-day, often occasioned the most extraordinary incidents ; but these peculiarities were regarded by his friends as component parts of a character of such rare ami a- THE BUSINESS AND THE FAMILY. 85 bility, that they would not williDgly have missed them. Besser was born in 1775. His father was chief pas- tor at Quedlinburg, and had sent his son, well instruct- ed in the modern languages, to Hamburgh, to learn the business of a bookseller. Here he so early won the confidence of his master Bohn, that, at the end of three years, he was sent to Kiel to take the sole charge of a branch-business in that town. Perthes, who had seen Besser in passing through Leipzig, was drawn in- to his society soon after he came to Hamburgh, and each recognized in the other a turn of mind which led to a strong mutual attachment. In 1797, Besser went to pursue his literary education in Gottingen. There he made good use of his opportunities, and attended lectures on the history of literature. On liis return, in 1798, he entered into partnership with Perthes ; and althougli the business was still carried on in the sole name of the latter, the services of Besser became hence- forward indispensable. *' It would be hard to find in any individual book- seller," said Perthes, at a later period, " so extensive a knowledge as Besser possesses, of the most celebrated books in all languages, their character and value ; and there is no one who knows, so well as he does, where to find, and how to procure them." Besser, moreover, in spite of the gentleness of his disposition, maintained a calmness and presence of mind under harassing and complicated circumstances, which, united with the vigorous mind and active in- vincible spirit of Perthes, carried the business through great difficulties to a position of consideration and in- fluence. The plan of making it the medium of the 86 CAROLINE PERTHES. literary intercourse of the various European nations, was necessarily, in a great measure, abandoned, in con- sequence of the troubles and losses of the year 1806. Till then, it was steadily kept in view, and in the German book-trade, Perthes and Besser took an estab- lished and influential position. Even so early as 1802 Perthes could write from Leipzig, — " I do not think that any of our brethren in the trade have met with such distinguished kindness as I have ; every one is ready to take trouble for me." So great was the confidence inspired by Perthes, that numerous families in the north-west of Germany era- ployed him to select periodically the works which he thought best suited to their respective characters and tastes — a duty which he performed with equal consci- entiousness and success. It was impossible for Perthes, in his relations as a man with men, to be actuated by any mercenary considerations. " I can forgive everything but selfishness," he once wrote ; and in more advanced life nothing made him so indignant as petty narrow-mindedness in money mat- ters. " Even the narrowest circumstances," he said, " admit of greatness with reference to mine and thine ; and none but the very poorest need fill their daily life with thoughts of money, if they have but prudence enough to arrange their housekeeping within the limits of their income." In accordance with these opinions, Perthes, in time of pressure could accept freely from his literary friends the assistance they freely olQfered. Many of those who subsequently became his most intimate friends were originally only connected with him by the ties of business ; while his extensive literary acquaint- ance was of considerable advantage to his interests. THE BUSINESS AND THE FAMILY. 87 But notwithstanding the flourishing aspect of affairs, he was very far indeed from being free from great and continual anxiety, and frequent anticipations of pecuniary embarrassment. The business meanwhile continued steadily to increase. " I am still/' he writes in 1805, " in occasional straits for money, but yet in a sure way of becoming rich. I desire fortune only as a means of freedom and for the general good. God grant that I may one day be in a position to work with a more tranquil mind !" It w^as with the warmest gratitude that Perthes ac- knowledged the blessings that had attended him in his calling. " A week ago," he writes, " I entered on the tenth anniversary of my establishment in business ; how thankful should I be ! For if the enterprise of 1796 had not succeeded, I should not now possess my dearest Caroline, nor my faithful partner Besser, nor my friends, nor my present wide and glorious sphere of action. I feel that I have found myself through my calling ; for, owing to my previous negligence, this was the only way in which my powers were susceptible of development." His family circle afforded a resting-place from the ceaseless turmoil and anxious cares of business, and maintained in him that cheerfulness and vigor neces- sary for the proper discharge of his daily duties. *' You have penetrated into the profoundest recesses of my being," he writes to his wife ; " there is no mo- ment of my existence in which you are not with me, in me, and before me ; and all I see, feel, and observe, I seem to see, feel, and observe only for your sake." On the 28th of May, 1798, his daughter Agnes was born ; on the 16th January, 1800, a son, Matthias ; '88 CAROLINE PERTHES. on the lOtli of January, 1802, a daughter, Louisa ; and on the 25th of February, 1804, another daughter, Matilda. Joys and troubles, whicli are found in every family, become, wherever there are cliiidren, a means of education to the parents. One may indeed be in- duced by the love of God to withdraw from the exter- nal w^orld, in order to give himself exclusively and without distraction to the cultivation of the spiritual nature ; but the love of a mother for her children is, in its very nature, the closest of all links to outward and practical life, a direct and continual doing and caring, which leaves no time for a life of contempla- tion. Caroline's maternal love was the school in which she first learned wisely and vigorously to give to the hidden " man within the heart" an outward di- rection. Increasing household cares, the influence of her husband, and varied intercourse with men of the most opposite characters, further tended to bring out her capabilities, and to make her move freely in the world, so that amid the variety of external circum- stances she was able to preserve an inward calm and self-control. She retained indeed to the end of her days a desire after a life of unruffled tranquillity, — a longing which would occasionally dispose her to mel- ancholy. " It is still the old story with me," she writes to the Countess Sophie Stolberg ; " I desire much, and can do but very little ;" and again to her husband, in the spring of 1804 on the day after his departure on a journey, " Agnes sends you word, she hopes you will cross the water safely, and is anxious — my daughter ; Matthias only desires to know how his rocking-horse is, and is happy — thy son." Notwithstanding the continued THE BUSINESS AND THE FAMILY. 89 longing for a life of outward repose, she had in the first ten years of her marriage attained to a measure of freedom, self command, and tranquillit}^, whicii, when she was subsequently threatened witli the loss of prop- erty, family, and all external happiness, she maintained with true womanly heroism. She was now no longer disquieted, as she had often been at first, by the influence of her husband's position and mode of life. " I have just looked out into the night, and thought of thee," she once wrote to the ab- sent Perthes. " It is a glorious night, and the stars are glittering above me, and if in thy carriage one ap- pears to thee brighter than the rest, think that it show- ers down upon thee 4ove and kindness from me, and no sadness ; for I am not now unhappy when you are ab- sent. Yet am I certain that this does not proceed from any diminution of affection. If I could only show how I feel towards you, it would give you joy ; after all I may say or write, it is still unexpressed, and far short of the living love which I carry in my heart. If you could but apprehend me without words, you would understand me better." " AVhat you have now," wrote Caroline, in 1803, to a newly-married friend, " is only a foretaste, and will every day increase. At least, the merciful God has so ordered it for me these six years, and my eyes overflow as I think of it." " My beloved Perthes," she writes a year later, on the anniversary of the day on which he had declared his attachment, " this is the 30th of April, and it is just nine o'clock. Do you remember this very mo- ment this day seven years ? I thank God from the bottom of my heart for having made you think of me. 90 CAROLINE PERTHES. I have just come from looking at the children, who are already in bed, and while I gazed on them I had you in my heart ; thus, although you are so far away, we are still united. I bless the happy moment in which sev- en years ago you looked on me, and said ' I love you.' Yes, my ever-beloved Perthes, I thank God, and I thank you, for our happiness. May God continue to be with us and with our children, and preserve us to a peaceful and blessed end." IX J^milg ^xuuU. HE affection and ardor with which Perthes followed his calling, and the moral strength which he drew from his domestic life, enabled him to escape becoming the victim of vacil- lating indecision or of confused fancies — a dan- ger to which his intercourse with men of such diverse and influential characters pecu- liarly exposed him. Next to his own, the house of his father-in-law was that which possessed the greatest attractions for him. " I have confidence in every one who esteems your father," wrote Perthes, in the sum- mer of 1797, to his bride ; and in a letter dated in 1802, he says, " There is no one on earth that I think more highly of than our father. May God long preserve to us the noble, beloved man !" The uninterrupted and ever-increasing influence of Claudius was strengthened by many kindred impressions. Perthes was a frequent and willing visitor at Klop- stock's house, till his death in 1803. " The repose of death was greatly to be desired for Klopstock," wrote Perthes, shortly after his decease. " He said to me three weeks before he died, ' I prefer a state of pain to any other — all else is but torpor.^ He died as he had lived, peacefully, simply, and with composure. No one, not even his brother, saw him during the last (91) 92 CAROLINE PERTHES. fortnight. Only his wife, Meta, and the physicians, were with him. His wife seems to have entertained mistaken ideas of upholding Klopstock's greatness, even in liis last hours. I am sorry for this ; every- body knows that people do not die artistically. His funeral procession showed the respect in which the people of Altona and Hamburgh held their fellow-cit- izen. As the body was borne from the church to the grave, a chorus of young girls sang, ' To rise again, yes, to rise again !' It was a moment of general emo- tion ; but, even in death, Klopstock had to do penance for his toleration of the spirit of the times, and of his own insipid and shallow disciples, for N. delivered an oration over him." In Hamburgh, Perthes still kept up his former inti- macy witli the Sieveking circle, and lived in free and familiar intercourse with his old friends, Runge, Speck- ter, Hiilsenbeck, and Herterich ; but it was from Hol- stein that the deepest and most abiding impressions were now received. The Countess Julia Reventlow of Emkendorf contin- ued till her death to be the warm friend of Caroline ; and the unpretending sprightliness and gentleness of her disposition, which revealed itself even in lier cor- respondence, made others more open to the influence of her opinions. Her husband's brother, Count Caius Reventlow of Altenhof, won the confidence of all who approached him by his genuine earnestness, and by his spirited and liearty manliness of character. Attracted by the goodness and candor of Perthes, the Count be- came his faithful friend in word and deed, notwith- standing the difference of age and position. "The Count was the last of the high-minded nobles of a I^AMILY FRIENDS. 93 bygone time," wrote Perthes to the widowed Countess Louisa, in 1804, shortly after her husband's death, " and a nobler than he our fatheriand never possessed. He was a good friend and a benefactor to me at the period of my greatest need ; and there are many who will think of him with love and regret as I do now." At Altenhof, Caroline and Perthes had become inti- mately acquainted with the Countess Augusta, (born Stolberg,) who, as second wife of Count Andreas Petrus Bernstorff was the stepmother of the Countess Louisa. Many might have overlooked the gentle, pious woman without suspecting the treasure which lay concealed in her heart, but Goethe showed his wonder- ful power of discerning mental endowment in the well- known inscription to this unseen friend of his youth. To Perthes the Countess was wont frequently to refer, in letters full of intelligence and affection, and she always found in him a trustworthy friend. On his final departure from Hamburgh, she wrote, " Your life has taken such deep hold of mine, so intimately is it connected with many of the earlier and later associa- tions of my heart, that your departure makes me very sorrowful. Forget me not." Manifold were the impressions which Perthes was to receive from Holstein. His intimacy with the pious and venerable Kleuker introduced him to a more ex- tensive acquaintance with theological questions, while the friendship of Reinhold exhibited to him the mental confusion engendered by the mutual repulsion of philo- sophical and theological views. " Reinhold has received m,e in his old fashion, and with his accustomed kindness," wrote Perthes to his wife in 1799, " and has given up his own room to me. 94 CAROLINE PERTHES. He wins upon me as a man, the longer I know him ; but his monotonous many-sidedness obstructs him in his progress towards truth. He pushes back the cur- tain little by little, but he cannot draw it up. It will be difficult to break down the partition-wall that sep- arates him from Kleuker, because neither will allow the two points on which the wall of partition rests, and on which all depends, to be touched ; while, by their mutual sarcasms, they continually provoke each other." Jacobi's influence with Perthes was also an abiding one, and he was ever ready to converse with his young friend on the works in which he was engaged. " Yes- terday, Jacobi gave me his new MS. treatise to read," writes Perthes to Caroline, from Eutin, in 1801 ; " it was hard work. I labored at it the whole of yester- day, and the * tall papa' said admirable things apropos of it ; to-day I have studied it again with him in right earnest." In all his visits to Holstein, whether long or short, Perthes felt himself improved and elevated by the influence of the country and the people. He says to Caroline, " I was at Sielbeck with Nicolovius ; the day was glorious. Nicolovius is a charming man. I felt so youthful, and so rich, and so thankful to God : He has bestowed on me so many gifts I such a long and happy youth, and you, my love!" With Catholic Miinster, Perthes was no less closely connected than with Protestant Holstein. It was in the winter of 1798 that he had first become personally acquainted with it, and on his journey thither he was greatly impressed by the grand aspect of the lofty oak forests and deep valleys of Westphalia, or more prop- erly of Osnaburg. This short and hurried .visit to FAMILY FRIENDS. 95 Miinster was sufficient to give him an idea of the life with which, from other causes, he was afterwards to be so intimately associated. The Princess Gallitzin, till her death, kept up her correspondence with Caroline ; and, notwithstanding the difference of creed, stood godmother to Perthes' eldest s6n, Klopstock and Claudius being godfathers. Caroline, on her part, preserved her affection and rev- erence for the Princess. In 1806, on hearing of her fatal illness, she wrote, " No one ever made so deep and so lasting an impression on me as she ; and from the first moment of our meeting, she has been, I may say. my guide to God." Perthes had made the acquaintance of the Baron von Droste, a few weeks after his marriage to Caroline, when the three brothers, Kaspar, Clemins, and Francis had visited Hamburgh in company with Kellermann and Brockmann. He had been their cicerone, and they had gladly shared the frugal meals of the youthful couple. They were about the same age, and a friend- ship so intimate was then established, that neither dif- ferences of position nor of opinion had any power to shake their mutual affection and esteem. " I was par- ticularly attracted by Kaspar," said Perthes, in his later years, " even then a suffragan -bishop, and one who, in depth of love, might have been compared with the beloved disciple." In 1806, the Princess Gallitzin died. "The last few hours," writes Kasper to Perthes, " were hours of severe suffering, and yet rich in mercy. She met her end in perfect consciousness, and committing herself entirely to God, receiving her Lord and Saviour in the most holy sacrament about a quarter of an hour before 96 carolin:^ Perthes. her death ; and thus her beautiful, purified, sanctified soul departed in the most blessed and intimate union with Christ. A beautiful death, dear Perthes ; pray especially for her beloved daughter, that God may give her grace." " You believe as I do," he says in another letter, " in the necessity of illumination and grace from above, and that is everything." And somewhat later he writes, — "I am sure that you cannot rest on your present stand-point. The striving and hasten- ing after the truth, which characterize you, and the need you feel of some firm footing, cannot continue ; for, dear Perthes, we are not now searching for the truth — we have it, we are not looking for the true faith, it is already ours. This only is our task and our duty, to show our faith by a real Christian walk, in all we do or leave undone. All our striving ought to have for its object progress in this path, and since we cannot advance without the grace of God, we pray to Him daily for this grace. Forget me not, dear Perthes." Philip Otto Runge, the artist, a man animated by a deeply religious spirit, had for Perthes singular attrac- tions. His morality was stern, his mind vigorous and racy, and full of humor. While to strangers he was, without intending it, a sealed book, he opened his whole heart without reserve to his friends, and displayed all the riches of his lively, witty, and original mind. A great religious idea would often unconsciously in- sinuate itself into the merest play of his pencil ; for everywhere in nature he saw traces of the mysteries of creation, redemption, and sanctification, and he re- garded it as the great duty imposed upon him, to seek out those traces, and to represent them to others FAMILY FRIENDS. 97 through his art. His apprehension of them was not always attainable by others, and thus many things in his compositions are unintelligible. When asked for an explanation, he used laughingly to say, " If I could have said it in words, I need not have painted it." Runge could declare with the most solemn sincerity, that the artist who had gone so far as to make art a religion, should have a millstone hung about his neck, and be thrown into the deepest part of the sea. " You have fully understood me," writes Runge in 1802, " and I think of myself just as you think of me, and not at all more highly." Even in his old age Per- thes retained the impression he received on his visit to the Dresden Gallery with Runge in 1802. " Yesterday afternoon," he wrote to his wife at the time, " I saw Raphael's Holy Family, alone and unaccompanied, and I trust that this heaven will never pass away from my soul. To see creations such as these, from the hands of our fellow-creatures, is ennobling ; pictures of this kind are the direct effluence and evidence of the Divine within us, and words are poor in comparison." The friendships that Perthes had now formed were chiefly with men whose grand object, though pursued in diverse ways, was the cultivation of the inner life. His natural disposition, and the necessities of a calling that demanded the greatest activity, preserved the equipoise of his own mind in the midst of the various influences to which he was subjected. Two men of great eminence who shared his intimacy. Count Adam Moltke, and Schonborn, were perpetually exerting themselves to give intensity to Perthes' easily excited interest in the affairs of the world. Count Moltke, a fine-looking man, with a noble fore- 's 98 CAROLINE PERTHES. head and a sparkling eye, had lived from the beginning of the present century at Nntschau, a small estate in Holland, which he had received as a trifling indemnity for the lost family fiefs in Zealand. His restless energy and glowing imagination had been deeply stirred by the French revolution, and he remained, for many years, one of its most ardent, but, at the same time, purest well-wishers. After having travelled over a great part of Europe, and experienced not a few of life's bitterest sorrows, he returned to Nutschau, and there, far from the cares of State, though deeply inter- ested in political movements, he strove with a forced resignation to live patiently through that iron time. He required but little sleep, and sought to still the in- ward sorrow by the earnest and persevering study of history ; particularly the history of the rise of the Italian Republics of the middle ages, with which he was minutely acquainted. He had often undertaken to present his own thoughts in poetry, or to give the history of remarkable political events of former times, but he was unable to express his ideas with that clear- ness and precision which were necessary to fit them for appearing before the public. He was thus excluded from writing as well as from acting history ; but as, in the days of his fervid youth, he had exercised a pow- erful influence on all with whom he came in contact, so in his mature age he infused energy into every circle that he frequented. " He had attained the perfection of his nature," said Niebuhr in 1806, of this the friend of his youth ; " he had tamed the lion, the ever-restless spirit within him, and he had used the fire of his youth to animate Greek forms." Perthes had met Moltke at Kiel in 1799. " What a FAMILY FRIENDS. 99 man !" he wrote to his wife ; " what power ! and what self-control ! I wish, Caroline, that you could see this * mad Moltke,' as they call him. I esteem him as highly as any of my acquaintances. His wife, too, is a charming person." A few months later the two had become intimate, and mutually attached. " Thank the Countess for her delightful letter," wrote Perthes to the Count, in the autumn of 1799. " Caroline and I may well read with surprise what she wishes, and I wish I had matters of corresponding weight and inter- est to write of to her." Moltke came frequently to Ham- burgh at that time, as he did in later years ; and then, all thought of rest for that night was at an end. Be- tween nine and ten in the evening, when Perthes had left business and had joined his family, he would find Moltke waiting his arrival. Before many minutes were over, they were involved in an earnest and im- passioned conversation, and many a time the rising sun reminded the disputants that it was time to break off. When Moltke was in Florence in 1803, a report reached him that Perthes was about to stop payment. " Help my friend immediately with all that I have, if I be yet in time," wrote Moltke to his man of business in Hamburgh, at the same time sending the necessary powers with the letter. The Councillor of Legation, Schonborn, was in almost every respect the direct opposite of Count Moltke. Rist has preserved his name from oblivion in a charac- teristic sketch. From 1802 to 1806, he lived as a guest in the house of Perthes. This extraordinary man, whose unpleasing exterior was somewhat relieved by the expression of resolution and depth in his coun- tenance, would frequently remain in the house for 100 CAROLINE PERTHES. weeks together, rejoicing in the comfort of his dress- ing-gown and the disorder of his apartment, or buried in the literary treasures that the warehouse afforded. He was now nearly seventy years of age, and there was no person or thing in the circuit of the busy city that had any claim upon him ; and thus in the enjoyment of a long-desired independence, he would submit to no restraints, except those which his own habits and his constitutional sluggishness imposed. About noon he was frequently to be seen standing in the door-way, dressed in a loose overcoat, with his stick under his arm, looking about in all directions, pondering with what friend or in what tavern to bestow himself for the hour, and then, after a while, reentering the house to shut himself up again in his own room. In the house of Perthes he was regarded as a member of the family^ and went and came just as he pleased, at one time en- joying the lively and ever-varying society, at other times passing hours in silent abstraction, or in a kind of dreamy, silent enjoyment with the children, or the visitors. " Silence," says Rist, " was no burden to him, even when fools were talking ; but in later years, he would give vent to his displeasure in some one of those strong expressions which he had borrowed from the rude mode of speech not uncommon in Lower Saxony." When, however, Schonborn could be led to converse, and Perthes well understood how to bring him to the point, he became at once the centre of the circle, and the rare treasures of learning, and of general knowl- edge and experience of life, that lay hidden in his mind, were brought out in surprising turns, and in ex- pressions emphatic and racy, the suggestions of the moment. X. 'HE manifold relations in which Perthes stood to active life, and the distinguished men among whom he moved, could not fail to ex- ercise a great influence upon him, and almost to fashion his mind anew. " I know," he says in a letter to his Schwartzburg uncle, " that you often think of your Fritz ; but I am no longer the Fritz of whom you are thinking. You only know ' little Fritz -/ you have to begin to learn to know me. Where shall I commence, and where leave off, in order to explain to you who and what I am ? You knew me as a child who had something good in him, who was lovable and who was thankful to be loved, warmly returning the love that was given ; as a child of quick perceptions and some cleverness, but also of most perilous vivacity, and of almost morbid suscepti- bility. Many years have since rolled away, and of all that the child cherished in his bosom, what is left? — what is added ? — what has the child preserved of the childlike ? If I were to endeavor to trace the path I have trodden, who shall certify me that I really and truly know it ? " From his earliest childhood, and amidst anxiety and poverty, Perthes had uniformly and earnestly striven iioi) 102 CAROLINE PERTHES. to bring his soul and his whole course of action into harmony with the Eternal Will. As he grew in knowl- edge and in culture, he had always endeavored to at- tain his objects by spiritual means ; and yet where anxiety regarding his inward condition was stronger than levity and self-confidence, he was forced to ac- knowledge that the will in his bosom was far from be- ing the will of God, and that the tendency to oppose his own will to the will of God, was still the master tendency. Disturbed as he was by a consciousness of this kind, the society of so many eminent persons, who regarded the discovery of man's real position with re- gard to God, as the first and great business of life, could not fail to give a religious direction to the fur- ther development of his mind. He had long ago given up, as limited and perverse, his early stand-point ac- cording to which man was to fashion himself to a ra- tional existence by virtue of an intelligent will. In 1799 he thus wrote to Caroline, — " N. was with me yesterday ; he thoroughly displeases me ; his for- mal knowingness has dried up his brain and hollowed out his heart. After all his much-boasted reflection, he has merely satisfied a sort of tabular ethical system ; but in the (so-called) desire always to do right, he has no share, he has lost spirit and vitality. He dare not follow the promptings of his inner genius, for he must needs reflect perpetually ; and yet his reflection has not been able to preserve him from a commonplace style of mind, which was not natural to him.'' Perthes had long regarded Feeling — the immediate consciousness of the soul — as the only power that could lead man through life with cheerful and courageous views of God and the world. He had renounced the PROGRESS IN RELTfilOX. 103 hope kindled by Schiller, of seeing feeling purified and perfected by means of Art. " If," he writes to Count Moltke, " we could indeed so elevate and ennoble the Physical as to harmonize with the Spiritual, humanity would be perfected. But we are soon aroused from the delusive dream of such a hope, in a world where sorrow, want, and death, meet us at every turn." Perthes had next, as we have seen, been brought under the influence of Jacobi, and listened to the voice of God speaking to and in Feeling ; still there was disunion and discord in his mind. '* Man is a twofold being," he writes to Jacobi, " the one mocks the other, and the latter in its turn despises the former. This is the state of every man who is not in harmony with himself."* Latterly, in his intercourse with the circles of Holstein and Miinster, Perthes had met with men who, in a manner tliat had not previously come under his observation, seemed to be in harmony with them- selves. That it was the supremacy of Love that en- abled them to preserve peace, joy, and inward harmo- ny in the midst of the tumults of life, he was fully per- suaded, " It is only one overpowering idea that can uphold a man, and make him forget sorrow and death, earth and heaven." He writes to Moltke, "All such for- getfulness is greatness ; but the greatness may be good and may be evil, according to the nature of the idea that lias called it forth. We have seen men of angelic and of devilish minds, equally ready, firmly and fearlessly to confront the terrible. What is great is not always good, but what is good must always be great. Now, there is a something which is in God, and which He has kindled in us, that is always both good and great, and this is Love. Love can make even weakness great, and what 104 CAROLINE PERTHES. the highest greatness is without love we may see in the devil. Your stumbling-block, dear Moltke, is not the want of Christian love in your heart, but the prepon- derance of Roman greatness in your head. But why should we think of greatness at all ? It is but a poetic dream for us now ; if we have made love our para- mount idea, greatness will follow of itself." " Only the man who is possessed by love," he writes to Jacobi, " can solve the riddle of our being and of our freedom. Love is the visible form of freedom. He who loves, and even he who does not love, can see if he will that love is free as nothing in the world be- sides. I am in bondage if I do not love, and I cannot love if I am in bondage ; and he who loves knows, as none else does know, that individual freedom and the will of God are one and the same thing." But in order to abide in love, as the permanent con- dition of the soul, Perthes felt the necessity of a hu- man and personal medium,- and no one stood nearer to him than Caroline. It was then through her, and her alone, that he expected the essence of life, as he called love, to be incorporated with his own being. " That I have something within me which lives and will live eternally," he writes to his wife, " I feel with a degree of certainty that is not to be expressed in words ; I also feel that this eternal individuality can only find its satisfaction in the love of God. To him who strives after this love, and who, in the midst of stum- bling and falling, praying and thanksgiving, is in ear- nest, God will be gracious even if he worship a bit of wood instead of the Crucified One. For as the invis- ible is hidden behind the curtain of the outward world of sense, every medium by which I venture to draw PROGRESS IN RELIGION. 105 near to the glory of God, is a sanctified means of es- cape from sin, and is not in itself idolatry. Evil rages within me and is powerful ; my prayers are but signals of distress, and do not help ; for I am not pen- etrated, as you are, by the holiness of the Supreme Being, by His light and glory ; but I am penetrated by the love of thee, my angel, and through the love of thee I shall rise higher, and draw nearer to Him, in .whom I find I cannot participate without some medi- um." And in another letter, " Do not lose heart, my pious Caroline, and make me, by your instrumentality, as pious as you are yourself." But Perthes now began to be conscious that the love of God is not a spontaneous development of that which he had spoken of as the love of man, but that it differs from this not only in degree, but in its ob- ject, and therefore in its essence. Although deeply conscious that his affection for Caroline was ever deep- ening and strengthening, he yet drew back timidly from God. He regarded his past life, and the present condition of his soul, as a partition-wall between him- self and God, which even love had no power to throw down, and he could not but confess a desire to be with- out God, and a struggling against God as the predom- inant tendency of his heart. It seemed to him impos- sible that the alienation of man from God should be overcome by any human means. " My internal anxiety," he writes to Caroline, " calls for some one who in my stead gives satisfaction ; and undefined feelings come across me, which seek after a God who as man has felt the agony of man. I have leaned upon many a staff that has given way, and have seen many a star fall from heaven. What is true, is 106 CAROLINE* PERTHES. given to us in science, but not The Truth. Human science can measure many things, but can take the/w?? measure of none, and the great mysteries of life must for ever elude her grasp ; — have they, therefore, no existence, or are they, therefore, less certain or less vital r He thus writes to Moltke, " That which is unusual, which does not repeat itself, but happens once only, we call unnatural, and if we have not ourselves been con- scious of it, we call it untrue, and characterize the be- lief of it as superstitious ; and yet Nature itself, which is assuredly the most unnatural of all miracles, delights us, and we find it quite natural : and thus we, whose whole history forms but a moment of this great na- ture-miracle, pretend to decide upon the naturalness or unnaturalness of a particular event ! No, the great mysteries of the world are not to be sought and found without us — the intuition of them is born in us ; our soul is intuitively christian, and that which exists in us as intuition, the mercy of God has revealed exter- nally as actual, objective existence." Jacobi had maintained against Perthes, " I shall become a Chris- tian, according to Claudius, if I can be certified of the perpetuity of the Pentecostal miracle ; but no histori- cal belief can make up to me for the cessation of the Pentecostal miracle." To which Perthes had replied, " An individual man cannot be justified in disbelieving the perpetuity of the Pentecostal miracle simply be- cause he has not himself experienced it." To Perthes the facts of Revelation were indubitable historical events ; '' but," he says to Moltke, " the time when these facts are to become vital to me, and the measure of their vitality, depend on the grace of God." PROGRESS IN REFJC^TON. 107 An inward wrestling and striving now took place to realize in himself, as he expressed it, " the uncreated Son of the Father as in reality his God." The (to him) undeniable fact of the incarnation he desired for himself as the idea that should take entire possession of his being. Holy Scripture now appeared to his soul in all its majesty, and Claudius was at his side, to aid, to ani- mate, and to confirm, at one time in person, at another by his writings. Their personal intercourse had been continually growing more intimate and confidential, and Claudius^ tract, " A Father's Simple Instructions about the Christian Religion," which appeared in 1803, in the seventh part of his collected works, had made a deep impression upon his son-in-law ; and he reached a certainty of conviction, and a repose of mind which he had never before known. " You ask how it fares with me, dear Moltke ; I hioio what truth is, I know what man is, and what he shall be ; I hioio how to estimate the world ; I know that the richer a man becomes in himself, the poorer he is in the world. I thank God for this knowledge, and especially for the consciousness that I am a poor sinner, in myself helpless and comfortless. Those men are now a problem to me who seek satisfaction in themselves, and, if unsuccessful, try to find it in one fruit after another, in the hope of being satisfied at last, and are never awakened to the alarming consciousness that the sap is not tliere." And in a letter to Caroline, " My youth," he says, " was healthy, and an unquenchable longing and an intense striving upwards possessed me, much more trur 108 CAROLINE PERTHES. ly than now. But, on the other liand, I have now a clear insight into life ; I am conscious of power and vigor, of an assurance and actuality such as I never possessed before ; I know God, and this state of peace- ful certainty is not indeed so pleasing, not so flattering I might say, as ray former condition ; but perhaps, on this account, it is a surer evidence of the truth. If passions were less violent, and if we could escape from the troubles of the world, it might be better for us ; but it is presumption to require what God has not been pleased to ordain for us. An undisturbed inter- nal assurance and perfect peace were possible to only one in this world, and that one was the God-man. Dear Caroline, when we have learned to be content, and to accommodate ourselves to times, circumstances, and out- ward relations, with tolerable calmness and composure, we thus advance more steadily than by all our striving and self-tormenting, towards the goal to which through the grace of God we are drawing nearer, but to which we can never attain on earth." To Jacobi he says, " I thank you from my heart, my fatherly friend, for the kind tone of the letter in which you declare the difference between our inmost convic- tions ; I have only now to add, that by the words, * Philosphical unbelief satisfies me as little as poetical superstition,' I certainly did not intend to indicate that which you, with an implication of censure, desig- nate romantic. I believe that I take surer ground than others in my opposition to a wild, wanton, vain, and ever-wandering belief, because I take my stand on the revealed word of God, as the only word, the only law which is cthove us j all besides is only in us, and PROGRESS IN RELIGION. 109 whether it be a simple and compact, or a romantic and parti-colored philosophy, it wanders in a perpetual maze, till at last it finds tliat all is vanity." '*I am, like you, disturbed by Jean Paul's fluctuations whenever I read his works ; he indeed longs for truth and a settled faith, and yet he cannot abstain from representing the God-man as a mere creature of human imagination. But poems about the Messiah, whether written by Klopstock or by others, will never do." " It is far better," he says, after having read that amusing book, " Scenes from the World of Spirits," " to become a fool by philosophizing, than to graft our twn imaginations upon the great truths of religion." " Winckelmann's letters are interesting, yet, like Winckelmann himself, they have afforded me but little pleasure," he says in another letter to Jacobi, " and Goethe honored him too much, when he called him a true-born Pagan, at the same time making him the representative of his own views of man and the world. But, on the other hand, I find in these letters the Goe- thean paganism more beautifully and forcibly developed than it is anywhere else, as the opposite pole of Chris- tianity ; on this side, we have strength and unity through love, on that, self-renunciation. Christianity is a free-gift-investiture — and in Christianity all is given by the grace of God, and received by love ; while in heathenism all is nature, and every product is a self. The religious feelings of men appear as if begotten by nature alone ; every creature as if self-created is to stand only upon its own feet, man is to enjoy all things, and to resist or endure all unavoidable evil witli a strength whose origin is in himself. Heathenism and Christianity exhaust everything ; and that which lies 110 CAROLINE PERTHES. between, call it by what name you please, is a mere inconsistent fragment, mere patchwork and vanity, resulting either in despondency or in pride. That Goethe should hate the pole that is opposed to him is only natural ; and why should not the Christian also choose rather the opposition of an avowed enemy, than that of ten hobbling praters ? Let any man honestly strive to become a Goetliean Pagan, and truly to stand on his own feet, it will give him work enough, and will bring many proselytes to Christianity. I must confess to having received a good lecture from the Countess Louisa for my praise of this Goethean work ; but by appealing to Reinhold she herself proves that I am right and that she is wrong." Jacobi left Holstein in the spring of 1805, to settle at Munich. " God be with you," wrote Perthes. "How can I ever sufficiently tliank you, who have been the means of giving a fixed direction to my development? It is through you that I have attained to the convic- tion, the religious certainty which I now enjoy, and shall enjoy throughout eternity ; that conviction which, though seeking, you had not, and I am compelled to say, have not yourself yet found. None but you per- suaded me of the nothingness of self ; but that which you have not been able to grasp, to seize, or retain with your head or with your heart, was to be souglit in a direction different from that pursued by you. Farewell ! God bless you and all your doings." It was through anxiety and labor and after many wanderings, that Perthes had won his way to the sav- ing truths of Christianity, but he had won them as part and parcel of his life. It is true, indeed, that neither at this nor at any later period did they reign PROGRESS IN RELIGION. Ill alone, nor did they hold habitual ascendancy in his heart : the natural man too often asserted itself, in sorrow and in joy, in the midst of the cares and activ- ities of life ; but the truths he had gained were never lost sight of ; and when, after many years, he lay on his death-bed, they filled his whole soul, and had power to take its sting from death. XI. §vmU &t tto §eaw 1805 m& 1806. HEN the imperial deputies met at Ratisbon in 1803, to parcel out the territories of the weaker powers, and divide them among the stronger, Hamburgh had had the good for- tune to preserve its independence as an im- perial city. Nevertheless, it was plain to all who looked at the power and violence of Napoleon on the one side, and the weakness of the empire on the other, that if there was any future for Hamburgh, it was to be found in its own political wis- dom and strength ; and of political vitality, there was little then within the walls of the free imperial city. That indifference to all political affairs which pervaded the whole of Germany, had extended its benumbing influence to the council of the city, and to the once proud and sturdy burgesses. The citizens, careless and indifferent, had left the gorernment of the city entirely to the council, formerly the object of so much jealousy and suspicion. The burgher colleges, whose duty it was to watch the proceedings of the senate, were deserted by all, save those whose duties compelled them to be there, for the citizens had ceased to avail themselves of this field of political activity. The civic government of the preceding century was, indeed, one (112) EVENTS OP THE YEARS 1805 AND 1806. 113 of great convenience, alike for governors and for the governed ; but it was not of a kind to develop strength, confidence, or ability, either in the council or in the citizens, so as to enable them to act with independence in difiicult and important circumstances ; and the men whose eyes were open to European events, found it morally impossible to arouse to any lively political sympathies the torpid life which pervaded the imperial city. The enthusiasm with which Perthes had, as a very young man, received the intelligence of the French Revolution, was converted to hostility when France de- clared war against the German empire. It was not in Prussia or in Austria, but in the smaller principalities, that the true national, imperial feeling was to be found, and Perthes, who had been born in pne of the petty states, had grown up with a true Kaiser-loving heart. Hamburgh, it is true, relying on its foreign relations for its importance, did not afford the materials for a thoroughly German national enthusiasm, but the op- posite feeling, at least, had no influence. The earlier leaning in that town towards the French Republic had been weakened by the growing connexion with Eng- land. Although in the distinguished men with whom Perthes associated, the religious was the predomi- nating element, he still took a lively interest in political events. He was not then committed to any definite political tendencies or doctrines ; he remained entirely free, also, from a limited narrow-minded zeal for a particular part of the fatherland to the exclusion of all the rest. His political feelings, thoroughly German, were opposed to the cosmopolitanism which places 114 CAROLINE PERTHES. greater value on political doctrines than on national- ities, as well as to that local or territorial patriotism which cannot see the wood on account of the trees. He saw Hamburgh only through Germany. He had an ardent desire to gain insight into its great political relations ; and the circumstances of life in which he was placed were of a kind to afford facilities for the realization of this desire. Among his ac- quaintances were many men who had come into per- sonal contact with European affairs. Schonborn had opened his eyes to the internal condition of England and its relation to the Continent, while the Danish poet, Baggesen, who had moved for many years in the most distinguished circles of Paris, and whose political views were at once intelligent and profound, threw much light on the confused politics of France. Reinhard, the French consul in Hamburgh, was a member of the circle in which Perthes moved, and by frequent intercourse with him, Perthes imbibed en- larged views of political affairs. Perthes longed for a political connection with men who would not only give breadth to his political views, but also share his political feelings, and by a commu- nity of hope and fear, waiting and striving, might im- part warmth, clearness, and strength to his own con- victions. It was easier to find political fellowship then than in later times ; for there were at that period but two parties — a small one that saw political salvation only in opposition to Napoleon — another and much larger one which hoped to achieve it through his in- strumentality. All who took up a hostile position to- wards France, and sought, at whatever cost, to preserve the internal, and to retrieve the external independence EVENTS OP THE YEABS 1805 AND 1806. 115 of the German nation, felt themselves politically one. All the striving after this or that definite form of the German political future, which subsequently gave rise to numerous parties, was tlien merged in the general desire to free Germany from the supremacy of Napo- leon. Of all the men of German sentiment with whom Perthes had intercourse, Johannes von Miiller and Nie- buhr exercised the most powerful influence over liim. Johannes von Miiller had left Vienna for Berlin in 1804, as Prussian historiographer, and, in closest con- cert with Gentz, had put forth all his power to remove the difficulties which opposed a simultaneous and united rising of Austria and Prussia. Miiller was at the same time incessantly seeking to arouse the national feeling of the Germans, and to excite their wrath against the oppressor, by a series of spirited and powerful appeals. It was one of these that led Perthes to write his first letter to Miiller, dated August, 1805. He turns to him with warm and generous confidence, and concludes with these words, " old and young, rich and poor, strong and weak, all who love their fatherland, freedom, law, and order, must now act together." — " Thanks, no- ble-minded man, for your letter," was Miiller's reply ; " it is refreshing to find such genuine feeling, and with- out having seen you, I have become your friend. The time is come when all who are like-minded must em- brace each other as brethren, and work together for the national deliverance. This is now the only charm that life has for me. There is an unspoken language, an invisible brotherhood among the like-minded, by which they recognize each other. This brotherhood to which you, my friend, belong, is the salt of the earthy and they who are united in it are brethren and friends, 116 CAROLINE PERTHES. far more really than many who have passed a lifetime together." From this first exchange of letters sprung a corres- pondence, which, as a key to the opinions and tenden- cies of the years 1806, 1807, and 1808, is of great im- portance. A portion of it was afterwards printed. At Easter, 1806, Perthes went to see Miiller at Berlin, and in the autumn of the same year, Miiller came to Hamburgh to return the visit. Of this personal inter- course Perthes thus wrote to Miiller: — "The esteem that is felt for a lofty spirit, for a great name, for a frank correspondent, is a very different thing from the personal attachment and affection felt towards the man ; and, now that I have seen you, believe that I entertain this personal feeling towards you. I for my part make no claim on you, except that you should re- cognize that a strong and warm heart beats in ray bo- som, and that I have some knowledge of the necessities of the times." The friendship with Niebuhr, who had been long known in the circles frequented by Perthes, was of slower growth, but of greater depth. He had spent his sixteenth summer in Hamburgh with BUsch, in 1792, and had at that time made the acquaintance of Klopstock, Reimarus, and Sieveking ; and while studying at Kiel, from 1794 to 1796, had formed a close intimacy with the Stolbergs, Reinhold, Jacobi, and especially with Moltke. In the spring of 1798, he again passed some time at Hamburgh before his departure for England, and it was then that an acquaintance began with Perthes, who was about the same age with himself; this acquaintance soon ripened into a friendship that continued to increase in warmth, in depth, and in power, up to the period of EVENTS OF THE YEARS 1805 AND 1806. 117 Niebulir's death, in spite of one interruption that seem- ed to threaten its continuance. While Perthes was captivated by the noble character and the cultivated intellect of the great man, whom he seldom named ex- cept as " My dear Niebuhr," Niebuhr, on his side, was no less attracted by the " glorious power," as he was wont to call it, and the manly aptitude for the business of life that characterized his unlearned friend. It was to the uncultivated man of business that he sent his first volume of his Roman History, in 1811, with these words : " I am anxious to have your unreserved opinion of my book. I do not ask for a learned judgment ; but if the great features of the work please you, I shall be delighted. On some points I fancy we are not agreed ; but on others, I believe we are quite at one." To Perthes' answer, Niebuhr replied some months later, — " Your opinion of the first volume of my book has been of inexpressible value to me. Do not take it as an overstrained compliment, when I say that Goe- the's praise and your feeling about it suffice me, even if hostile voices should be raised, as we may naturally expect, at Gottingen." Niebuhr's intellectual superiority, together with a certain sharpness of manner, which not unfrequently broke through the natural gentleness of his disposition, caused even men who were themselves eminent in the literary world, to feel a degree of restraint in his society ; and this made the perfect freedom, and the unconstrained ease of Perthes' intercourse with him, a matter of surprise. This perfect ease, which Perthes never lost, even in his intercourse with the most dis- tinguished men, was owing partly to his position, part- ly to his consciousness of desiring to pass for no more 118 CAROLINE PERTHES. than he was. His calling and his whole career pre- cluded any expectation of learning or of statesmanship, and yet nevertheless he must have been conscious that he stood for something in society. In a letter to Miil- ler he thus expresses himself on this subject : " I know who and what I am, and am always anxious to reveal rather than to conceal my ignorance, in order to pre- vent waste of time. Don't, however, give me to too* much credit for modesty, for though I am aware that I knoio nothing, I am also aware that I can do much. The terrible years 1805 and 1806 were years of animated correspondence between Perthes and those last-named friends. The greater part of this has in- deed been lost, and the letters written after the battle of Jena, show how heavily French espionage pressed upon epistolary imtercourse ; but enough remains to show the political principles and the hopes by which Perthes was animated. It was with bitter vexation and deep sorrow that he witnessed the stolid apathy which, since the peace of Luneville and the Diet of Ratisbon, had fallen upon men who were regarded as the pride of Germany, and from which neither the unutter- able sufferings of their native land, nor the audacity of her tormentors, could arouse them. He was indig- nant at -felie appearance of Goethe's Eugenie at this season. " Our hearts must and should be filled with shame, burning shame, at the dismemberment of our father- land," he writes to Jacobi in 1804 ; " but what are our noblest about ? Instead of keeping alive their shame, and striving to gather strength, and wrath, and cour- age to resist the oppressor, they take refuge from their feelings in works of art!" EVENTS OF THE YEARS 1805 AND 1806. 119 A new hope of deliverance dawned, when, in the summer of 1805, the report of an alliance between Eng- land, Russia, and Austria, was propagated. But Per- thes saw with dismay the political leaders of Germany array themselves on the side of Napoleon against Eng- land, and strive to work upon the minds of the people through the leading journals. " Our journalists," he writes, " take up the cause of the tyrant and the ' Grande Natjgn,^ either from meanness, stupidity, fear, or for gold. I need name only Woltmann, Archenholz, Voss, and Buchholz ;" and in a letter to Miiller of the 25th of August, he gives vent to his stifled feelings. " Your letter distressed me, by the deep emotions that it stir- red in my soul. If such men grow faint-hearted — what then ? I am not so hopeless ; my courage, indeed, has grown of late. True, I am young, and not well read in history. From the past you form conclusions as to the present, and so despond ! But has not every peo- ple, till consolidated into unity, been ready to receive a leader, a deliverer, a saviour ? This readiness is, I think, very observable among us. There is a univer- sal panting, longing, grasping after some point (Pappui. Much is already cleared away ; I instance only this, — the end of the paper times. Twenty years more of such coquetting with literature, such playing at intel- lectual development, such hawking of literary luxury, and we, too, should have passed through a siMe liite- raire still more insipid than that of our neighbors. Are not our youth now persuaded that the country does not exist to serve knowledge, but knowledge to serve the country ? How many are now convinced that strength and virtue grow out of moral principles, and are the fruit of no other soil ! Do not men regard 120 CAROLINE PEllTHES. the love and care for their own houses as more important than a widely-diffused love capable of no intensity ? Are they not now disposed to honor a hearty and even passionate love of country, rather than a cold cosmo- politanism ? And even as regards religion, although through the long-standing abuse of theological tenets, infidelity and indifference have struck their roots deep in our soil, still the want of religion is increasingly felt. I grant you that a miracle must be wrougjjt be- fore the country or the people can again have a faith, but then many, many lament this, and would pray without ceasing to revive the religion of the nation." *' Ought we not to feel ourselves great," he added, '' just because we are born in such evil times ? " "I can give you but a very imperfect idea of the impression made by your letter," wrote Miiller in reply. " You regard what we see around us as a preparation for something better. I wish it may be so ; but what element of good has ever been found in a monstrous empire full of the spirit of rapine, mockery, and vain- glory ? The cold hand of death is its sceptre, and humanity and learning perish at its touch. And yet that is a sublime saying of yours, — ' Must we not there- fore feel ourselves great since we are born in such evil times ?' You are a man of a rare soul, and I love you." It was but a few weeks after this letter was written, that Austria, she scarcely knew how, found herself allied with Russia and drawn into the war against Napoleon ; and on the 20th of October, the Austrian General surrendered his whole noble army to the French. After the disastrous day of Ulm, Perthes regarded all lost if Prussia persevered in her indecision, and much EVENTS OF THE YEARS 1805 AND 1806. 121 gained if Prussia, uniting her forces with those of Russia, should resist Napoleon. " What are we yet to pass through ?" he writes to Miiller ; " what sufferings, what indignities, what degradation, are still in store for Germany, and for the world ? And yet what oppor- tunities Providence offers to men who have energy ! Prussia can and must be the deliverer of Austria, even at her own peril. ... Go to the King of Prussia and tell him what he, as a German, can do for the freedom of Germany. Prussia does not stand in this prominent position to no purpose. Let her raise the standard of Germany and all will flock to it, and will gladly give up their cherished local independence and look the danger in the face, as a united nation, rather than become the slaves of a people that has suffered itself to be made the instrument, by means of which one man may reduce the whole earth to the same degraded level. Should the historian have eyes only behind him ? Never was a man so high in his position as you are. You can have no motive for holding back when duty says, Go forward. The anticipation of failure, and consequently, of doing something ridiculous, is nothing. Does one man know what is in another, and what there is to be aroused ? It is not I who call you, — Germany calls you ; if you knew our city it would inspire you, and be assured all Germany feels as we do. This hour is pregnant with greatness ; but it is passing away and will never return." Soon after this he writes, — "I am not dispirited and will not be ; free German hearts will never be wanting, and God will take care of the rest." The battle of Austerlitz was fought on the 2d of December, 1806, and on the 26th of the same month the 6 122 CAROLINE PERTHES. luckless peace of Presburg was concluded. Bavaria and Wiirtemburg had assumed the kingly title. It soon became certain that P russia, through its commis- sioner Haugwitz, had pledged herself deeply to Napo- leon. In January 1806, Eussian troops invaded the Hanoverian dominions, and closed the Elbe against England. In July was formed the Confederation of the Rhine, and thus the very form of the Germanic Empire was destroyed. " Events have now outgrown all political calculation," writes Miiller. " All customary expedi- ents fail, and there is no appearance of help from any quarter. God must remove one man, or raise up a greater, or bring about something yet quite unforeseen. I no longer feel either indignation or fear. The scene is become too solemn. The Ancient of Days is sitting in judgment ; the books are opened, and the nations and their rulers are weighed in the balance. What will be the end ? A new order of things is in prepara- tion very different from what is imagined by those who are the blind instruments of its establishment. That which now is, is not abiding ; that which was, will hardly be restored : and the difference will not consist in the mere substitution of Corsican rule, for that of some weakling of Italy, Germany, or Sclavonia." By the annihilation of the empire, Hamburgh had become, from a free imperial city, a sovereign state. Perthes deslared that there were but few Germans who would shed a tear over the downfall of the empire ; the majority, and that composed of sensible men too, rejoiced to be relieved of their disbursements to Vienna and Ratisbon, and believed that Hamburgh would be Hamburgh still. EVENTS OF THE YEARS 1805 AND 1806. 123 Immediately after the battle of Jena, and while Murat, Bernadotte, and Soult were advancing upon Lubeck in pursuit of Blucher, Mortier had occupied Hanover, and on the 19th of November, 1806, marched into Hamburgh. " How you will have mourned over the fate of these districts," writes Perthes to Jacobi, " and over that of our city I Why should I describe to you the awful fate of Lubeck ?" Alarming accounts were now received from all parts. *' Prussia will be annihilated," writes Niebuhr from Dantzig, " and that without leaving a single deed of heroism, daring, or patriotism on record." " Our blunders are of such a kind," wrote Scharnhorst on the 11th of July, 1807, " that nothing short of a miracle can save us." From Berlin, Miiller wrote despairingly : " I call to mind the great seer of antiquity, who knew, by the signs of the times, that God was about to create a new thing upon earth. Jeremiah had wept himself blind, but yet he saw that Asia, and also his own people, were given into the hand of the Babylonians, and he counselled submission as the only prudent course, although even when doing so he forgot neither his country nor the desire of his heart. In like manner, in these days, in this wonderful year, are the nations taken as in the net of the fowler ; from Cadiz to Dantzig, from Ragusa to Hamburgh, and soon, every- where, it will be L'Empire Frangais^ whether for seventy years as in Babylon, or for seven hundred as it was in the case of Roman sway, who can tell ? Immediately after the French occupation of Ham- burgh, all intercourse with England was prohibited on pain of death ; all English property declared 124 CAROLINE PEIITIIES. forfeited, and all goods purchased from English dealers, although paid for, were demanded from the owners, and trade was allowed to be carried on only under the restraint of a system of certificates. " All that was is annihilated," writes Perthes to Jacobi. " There is no longer any trade as it existed formerly." Owing to the general insolvency which followed the issue of the French regulations, Perthes's personal losses involved all that ten years of toil and anxiety had realized. In Mecklenburg alone, he reckoned his losses at 20,000 marks. Still his courage and hopefulness did not desert him. XII. 0^^t& uuA MttuU. N those sad years of political oppression, the importance of the family life, in all its calm independence, revealed itself to many. It is true, indeed, that the family must always share largely in the joys and sorrows of the State ; but as in seasons of the greatest national pros- perity the family has still sorrows of its own, so in a season of national torpor and calamity it may yet be gathering strength and spirit, and generating courage and vigor for outward activity. The darker the political horizon appeared, the more gratefully did Perthes acknowledge the value of the gift that had been bestowed on him in Caroline. His four children were strong and healthy, and on the 23d of January, 1806, another son, John, was added to the number, and on the 15th of September, 1807, a daughter, Dorothea. The domestic sorrows which grow only out of the family were now, for the first time, ex- perienced by Perthes in the death of this infant, three months later. " Dear mother," wrote Caroline immediately after, " God has taken my angel gently and calmly to Him- self. I thank our heavenly Father that He has heard (125) 126 CAROLINE PERTHES. my prayer, and taken my darling child without pain. She looks so peaceful that we must be so too." Perthes had, as we have seen, sustained lieavy losses in 1806 ; but the excitement of the times, which left so many houses in anxious suspense, or led them to cautious limitations, afforded to liis bold and active spirit, opportunities of extending his business. He could say with truth, " No one in Hamburgh has any- thing to do, but my business is more active than ever, and I look for a still further extension." His library was now regarded as the finest in North Germany. In 1807, Hiillmann had written from Frankfort on the Oder, — "You have the most extensive collection in Germany ;" and Niebuhr had sportively called him " the king of the booksellers from the Ems to the Baltic.'' The spirit that animated him, and the domestic happiness which he enjoyed during those years of ex- ternal and political suffering, are exhibited in a letter to Jacobi of October, 1807 : " My mind becomes every year stronger and more free, and thus I am able to meet all events with courage and cheerfulness. I am, indeed, an ever-erring mortal, but unhappy I am not ; I am, indeed, singularly happy, for one who has so restless a career allotted him. A multiplicity of interests for this world and the next ; — much love, much passion, many friends, many children, much labor, much business, much to please, much to displease me, much anxiety, and little gold ; moreover, a dozen Spaniards in the house, and for the last nine days three gens-d'armes to boot, who drive me almost to distrac- tion." '* You ask how I am and how I get on," he says in LOSSES AND TRIALS. 12T another letter of the same period ; " I will tell you, as far as it is safe to write such things in these times. I am, then, rich in correspondence. Countess Louisa Stolberg writes to me diligently, and never without having something of importance to communicate. I receive regularly every fortnight a letter from Johannes Miiller ; and Niebuhr, frank as ever, has frequently something remarkable to communicate. Here we have Mar^chal Brune for our governor, and find ourselves tolerably contented, as he on his part may well find himself. The ci-devant printer has already paid his compliments to the craft by visiting me. Old Zimmer- mann of Brunswick is still living at Altona ; he is one of the most sensible men I ever knew, and deeply in- teresting to me. I love without trusting him. We occasionally see at our own house, or at Madame Sieveking's, Walmoden, and the young Countesses of Lippe-Biickeburg, two very interesting girls, and the youngest positively enchanting. Besides these, there are many eminent men coming and going, who keep life from stagnating, and put some spirit into us." Bernadotte made a deep impression on Perthes ; •' He is in person, as in many peculiarities of manner and of habit," he writes, " very like Jacobi. He is un- commonly fond of philosophizing. Yillers is often in Hamburgh, and likes it : he is very dear to me still ; but it is singular that while he will no longer recognize, and cannot understand the French, he looks the French- man all over." To shut himself up within the happy and attractive circle of his family and his business was not, however in Perthes's nature ; his inclination and the influence of the times led him rather to take a lively interest in 128 CAROLINE PERTHES. those events which commanded the attention of the whole civilized world. He now began, like many others, to consider Napoleon to be, and likely for some time to continue, an historical necessity. " Napoleon, the ruler of the earth, is a unity, and is secure and firm in himself as no other is, because, more than any other, he seeks only himself : and like no other, he is a devil incarnate, because, like no other, he has made himself his god. * He does not will, he is willed,' said Baggesen to me, with striking emphasis." To this demon-like man Perthes believed the world given over by God — not to continue subject to his sway, but that through suffering, even of the most dreadful kind, the paralyzed energy of goodness might be resuscitated. All that was," he says, " is ruined ; what new edifice will rise on the ruins I know not ; but the most fearful result of all would be the restora- tion of the old enfeebled time with its shattered forms. By a practical path of suffering and distress, God is leading us to a new order of things ; the game can- not be played backwards, therefore onward must be the word. Let that which cannot stand, fall. Noth- ing can escape the crisis, and it is some consolation to see that events are greater than the circumstances that called them forth. He who would now turn the wheel backwards cares only for repose, comfort, and private happiness, and to these indeed the times are not favor- able ; but to such things Providence cannot accommo- date itself. We should rather consider ourselves to be the growth of the epoch ; and who could expect to compress the beginning and end of such a revolution into one lifetime ?" Despairing of external help, and expecting nothing LOSSES AND TRIALS. 129 from the existing governments of Germany, Perthes centred all his hopes for the German people in their unity. " Whatever may be impending over Germany," he says in another letter written after the surrender of Ulm, " our first object must be, where special pro- vincial interests still exist, to arouse the national German feeling and to keep it alive, bringing it more and more into the consciousness of the people." The spirit to stake all in a worthy cause was inborn in Perthes ; once aroused to action, he knew no re- treat. " And I thank God," he writes, " that I have a wife who shares my feelings, and who, if it come to the worst, will not shake my courage. He who has in him any element of intellect or power, of greatness or passion, cannot but turn his attention to what is now passing around him, in order, so far as he can, to influ- ence the direction of events. He who has only an in- ward life in these times, has no life at all." Perthes, however, was too practical and clear-sighted to involve himself enthusiastically in any undefined and ill-digested plans. He well knew that every deed of violence, and every individual act of resistance to the existing state of things, was mere madness, and was also criminal, notwithstanding the dissolution of political order. He knew, moreover, that it was im- possible for any private individual to have any direct influence on the attitude of statesmen and govern- ments, or on the political supremacy of armies and of gold. Still he regarded it as the right and the duty of every German to arouse and to strengthen, by every possible means, the hatred and the exasperation of the Germans against the oppressor. Yet even here it 6* 130 CAROLINE PERTHES. was impossible to his practical nature to stand, as it were, beating the air in his attempts to act upon others ; he must work from a centre, and that centre he found in his calling as a German book-seller. He regarded it as his first duty to provide for the printing and the general diffusion of the most weighty and stirring writings of men animated by true German feeling. Sensible at the same time that isolated individuals could exert but little influence on the great mass of the people, Perthes regarded it as the duty of all who felt themselves capable in any way of arousing the spirit of the nation, to unite in some definite association. Perthes had thought of Johannes Miiller as the intellectual centre of a league of German patriots. Miiller was thoroughly well informed as to the con- dition of Western Germany, and the secrets of Aus- trian and Prussian policy. He had the most extensive acquaintance with German statesmen, and with literary men of all shades of opinion : he was highly and uni- versally respected ; and both as a man and as an author, he had shown that he was ready and resolved to act for Germany and against Napoleon when the time should come. There was no man who seemed so well suited as he to be the soul of the desired Germanic Union. But the results of the war of 1806 forced him into a different path. When Berlin was occupied by the French, Miiller did not leave the city : Napoleon invited him to an interview, and he wrote in high spirits to Bottiger at Dresden, that he had talked for an hour and a half with the conqueror about all the great events of history, and all the great subjects of politics. Miiller now delivered his celebrated oration LOSSES AND TRIALS. 131 on the glory of Frederick at the Academy of Sciences, went in the autumn of 1807 to Paris, and early in 1808 to Cassel as Secretary of State, and Minister to the King of Westphalia. " I shall no more forget Germany," he said, " than Daniel — who was never thought the worse of for having taken office at Baby- lon — forgot Jerusalem in that foreign court." But this change placed Perthes in a very painful position. He had loved Miiller, and a man whom he had onced loved, it was almost impossible for him to cease to reverence. " Give utterance to no harsh judgment against Mtlller," he says in a letter to Max Jacobi ; " you have never seen him, and one must have seen him to recognize his greatness, to know his good- ness, and to have the key to all his weaknesses and failings." Perthes had regarded Miiller as a man who meant truly and well to his fellow-countrymen, and he still believed that he had associated himself with the foreigner in order to work for Germany in the only way which was left open to him. "As to the manner in which you will shape your future," he writes, " I have no fears. As surely as I know what right is, so surely am I persuaded that you will do nothing that can lead you to forget what you owe to yourself. I believe that you will take office dans V Empire Franc^ais f^ and he adds, sorrowfully, " where else could you take office ?" Again he writes, '' Your criticism of the Rhenish Confederation is fine, sensible, and spirited. It is the business of the scholar and spokesman of the country to take the nation under his protection in whatever form it is compelled to assume, and to give utterapce to its rights and its nationality," When Miiller^s appointment to CasseJ 132 CAROLINE PERTHES. was decided, Perthes writes thus:— "God give you strength, and arm your heart and mind with firmness. That is my special prayer for you. I would not be the last to congratulate you on the important work now before you. What we expect of you is, that you stand forward as the peacemaker, the comforter, and the arouser of your country. Such a" destiny as yours is rare. I know your piety too well not to be assured that you recognize in all this the hand of the highest wisdom." And when Miiller had undertaken the Ministry of Public Instruction in Westphalia, Perthes writes — " Happen what may, you can and will be a laborer in the Lord's vineyard. You are called to preside over those establishments and institutions which are the special organs of the German mind and people. May God strengthen and preserve you for the work ; I have never distrusted you, and I have pledged myself for your fidelity and your truth." But notwithstanding this personal confidence, Per- thes could not mistake the nature of the impression that the conduct of Miiller had made on the people at large. *'To me," he says to Jacobi in 1807, "to me he is what he ever was, but he is certainly wrong, and is now lost to Germany." And shortly after the bat- tle of Jena, he writes to Miiller himself, "Your letter was a great source of consolation to my friendship ; I believe with you that God has delivered the earth into the hands of Napoleon the Great, and that he is therefore invincible. We must have patience with the noble-minded of the nation. Your influence with the people is no more. This should not have been." Perthes himself was also greatly distressed, not by any doubt as to the uprightness of Miiller, but as to LOSSES AND TRIALS. 133 the correctness of the principles on which he had acted, Miiller, dazzled by the unparalleled successes of Na- poleon, had given up all for lost, and regarded him as the instrument chosen by God for establishing a new order of things in the world. He believed it impos- sible to form any idea of what lay hidden behind the curtain of futurity, and he viewed it as mere folly to oppose himself to this future. He felt that duty called him to consider how the intellectual energy lavished on the past might best be employed in the service of the present. The earth was given to Napoleon ; that was fate, the finger of God was there. ''It is God who sets up governments ; who, then, is at liberty to set himself against them ? '' he exclaimed, " Men must rather accommodate themselves to them, and seek to make the best of things as a whole ; not allowing themselves to degenerate, but awaiting patiently the further development of events over which they have no control." In March, 1807, Perthes had communicated to Miil- ler in a letter, all the anxieties and torturing doubts that agitated him on his account. " A whole friend or no friend,' ' he writes, " is my motto, and I therefore feel compelled to tell you all that I see and hear about you. These things have given me many a sad week, and I have occasionally been quite overcome. They declaim about hypocrisy, falsehood, treachery to the cause of freedom and fatherland : and it is not only the rabble yielding to the popular feeling of the day who do so ; but men, who still love and honor you, weep and lament over the grave of Johannes Miiller." *' Believe me," he writes again, " amid all the troubles of these uncertain and disturbed times, your present 134 CAROLINE PERTHES. relation to your country is to me one of the most pain- ful. The nation, believe me, is in perplexity and with- out leaders, and knows not if in future it is to hear your voice or not. I torture you — but I must have ceased to respect myself and to love you, before I could refrain from speaking. God be with you and with us all ! The judgment of God will soon be given : I feel that I have still spirit and strength to be German, whatever turn things may take, and I trust that the road we are to follow will shortly be clear to us all." XIII ORTIER had taken possession of Ham- burgh on the 19th of November, 1806, but it had remained a free sovereign city, al- though occupied by the troops of Napoleon. French, Italian, Dutch, Spanish, or German legions, under imperial generals, succeeded each other. Externally every vestige of independence was gone ; but the internal administra- tion of the city, as in the towns of the Rhenish Con- federation, remained in the hands of the former mag- istracy, subject, however, to the French code. The revenues of Hamburgh being derived wholly from its commerce, its territory being of no importance, were entirely annihilated by the continental system. More than three hundred Hamburgh vessels were now lying unrigged in the harbor, and the Assurance Companies sustained, in the course of the three years following the occupation, a loss of twenty millions of francs. While trade returns were thus incalculably diminished, the 130,000 persons who made up the population of the city and its territory, were given up to the unprece- dented extortions of the French Government, and the shameless exactions of the French officials, among whom Bourrienne attained an infamous distinction. (135) 136 CAROLINE PERTHES. Many wealthy men left Hamburgh, that they might not lose what they had, and those that remained went about in sullen sadness, tortured by anxiety and want. Yague reports of great preparations in Austria, and of associations of resolute men in Prussia and West- phalia, reached Hamburgli, and kept Perthes in a state of continual excitement. At Easter, 1809, he went as usual to Leipzig. " I rejoice that I have come here," he writes to his wife ; " you would hardly imagine the general unanimity, Germany was never before so united." On the 25th of April the news of the series of victo- ries in which Napoleon, on the 18th, 19th, and 20th of that month, had defeated Austria, arrived at Leipzig. " Yesterday evening we got the tidings of the lost battles," he writes, " and with the greatest precipita- tion the people illuminated." The battle of Wagram, fought on the 6th of July, and the peace of Yienna, signed on the 14th of Octo- ber, 1809, confirmed the dominion of Napoleon. There appeared but one means of developing German nationality, without running the risk of exposing it to the prying eye and crushing power of the enemy. Science, so long as it was only science. Napoleon neither feared nor regarded ; and for centuries inde- pendent scientific life had been one of the essential characteristics of Germany as a nation. This con- sciousness of scientific independence and unity was not indeed sufficient of itself to upliold the national spirit, but it might help to do so ; it might be the veil beneath which the national hatred of the tyrant might gather strength ; it might be the undisputed medium of com- munication between patriotic men in all parts of Ger- THE FRENCH IN HAMBURGH. 137 many, who, thus prepared, might, when the hour for action came, be found armed with other weapons than those of science. In the months following the fresh conquest of Aus- tria, Perthes had sought consolation for the present, in the history of the past. It appeared to him that the period of the Reformation, on account of the great changes that it was the means of effecting — and that of the Italian Republics, on account of the political divisions of a spirited people — presented analogies with the circumstances of Germany since the outbreak of the Revolutionary war. " For the inner life of the sixteenth century," he writes, " I committed myself to Benvenuto Cellini, and then Robertson's ' Charles Y' was my guide. I have learned that a steadfast purpose and will, that calm reflection and the attainment of great objects, are possible even in times of the most terrible outward disturbance and revolution. Sis- mondi's ' Italian Republics' delights and cheers me at present. For centuries Italy was without a centre of influence and without political cohesion ; but in the little circle of those republics there was power ; there were men of understanding ; and Italy flourished anew and produced men of deathless spirit, the memory of whose glorious deeds is imperishable. And should we despair ? No ! although our previous hopes have died away, I am still full of confidence ; I love my father- land — have often prayed, often trembled, and would have fought for it, had there been hope of achieving aught. ' I am,' to use Adam Miiller's expression, ' af- flicted with the disease of patriotic madness,' and, therefore, not in despair ; but feel strongly convinced that although the old form of the Germanic Empire is 138 CAROLINE PERTHES. fallen to pieces, the future history of Germany is never- theless, not destined to be the history of its downfall, if every one does what he can in his own station : I, for my part, shall try what I can do in mine :" individ- uals can, and will do much. It was only through his own calling that Perthes hoped, individually, to be able to accomplish anything. " The German newspapers," writes Perthes to Jacobi, " are, with few exceptions, in bad hands. Some are deliberately bad in their objects ; others, having been established solely for gain, seek only to please the pal- ates of their customers with the most recent novelty. Such a state of things is at all times lamentable ; in our own times, it is alarming. It is important, since things will tell only when uttered at the proper mo- ment, that Germans should know where they can at once bring before the public anything which demands and deserves publicity. A journal, appearing at short intervals, which shall uphold the vital union of all German-souled men, is a pressing want. I have this object at heart, and my position is favorable ; the first men of Germany are known to me either personally or by connection, and I am sure of their cooperation, while my shop offers facilities for the publication such as are nowhere else to be met with. But perhaps you will say. What avails your having it at heart ? — dare you do it ? I answer with Jean Paul, ' The silence of fear is not to be excused by the plea of coercion.' There are many things that may be said, even under the government of Napoleon, if only we learn liow to say them, and take care not to overlook the good we have because of our hatred of the foreign medium through which it comes to us. Indeed, there is much THE FRENCH IN HAMBURGH. 189 to be learned from the French, and it is the native ten- dency of the German mind, to recognize and assimilate the good from whatever source it may come. The new journal shall be called the * The National Museum.^ It must not be prohibited, and must, therefore, be char- acterized, especially at the outset, by caution and cir- cumspection ; it must, at the same time, be read, and its object and tendency must, therefore, be evident to Germans. I shall go quietly forward in the firm con- viction of reaching the goal, and, probably, without interruption." Towards the end of November, 1809, Perthes began to send the prospectus of his " National Museum" to all parts of Germany, wherever men were to be found of whose patriotism and intelligence he had knowledge. In the private letters that accompanied it, many of which have been preserved, we find him presenting the enterprise to each in the point of view that seemed most likely to attract him. To one he urges the pro- motion of German science ; to another the efi'ect which such a periodical would exercise over the public mind ; to a third the encouragement which the journal might afford to patriotic men who had been abandoned and oppressed by their respective governments, to reserve themselves for better times. To some he set himself to prove that a scientific association was the only possible bond of union in Germany, and that German Science should hold the first place in the ' National Museum ;^ while to a few, such as Jean Paul, he opened his whole heart. He trusted that an alliance, unsuspected by their oppressors, might thus be formed among those who were called to be the intellectual leaders of Germany, 140 CAROLINE PERTHES. every member of which, according to his ability and his position, might, without attracting observation, act as a centre of influence. When the right time came, the scientific alliance was to be transformed into a politi- cal one possessing the strength and union necessary for vigorous action. In order to extend this union as widely as possible among the people, the literature of Germany was to be presented in all its aspects. Ru- mohr was applied to for information relating to the works of ancient German art ; Wilken for old nation- al manners and customs, and for the truth or falsehood of the diversities of North and South Germany ; Feu- erbach was to write on German law and jurisprudence ; Augustus William Schlegel on German, and Freder- ick Schlegel specially on Austrian literature ; Sailer, at Landshut, on the religious life of German Catholi- cism ; Marheineke, of Heidelberg, on the importance of the German pulpit ; Schleiermacher on the philosoph- ical, and Plank on the historical theology of Germany. Schelling was reminded, by a reference to his oration on the Plastic Arts, how well he could adapt himself to the public mind, and Gentz was recommended not to keep silence, because he could not utter all he might wish. Innumerable answers poured in from the cities and from the most remote corners of Germany ; and there were few that did not express enthusiasm for the undertaking, and gratitude to the man who had planned it. Goethe, however, declined participation : — " I must, though reluctantly, decline to take part in so well- meant an institution," was his reply. " I have every reason for concentrating myself in order to meet, in any measure, my obligations ; moreover, the character THE FRENCH IN HAMBURGH. 141 of our times is such that I prefer to let it pass before I speak either of it or to it. Forgive me, then, for de- clining to share in the undertaking, and let me hear frequently how it succeeds." Count F. L. Stolberg, on the other hand, writes, " I rejoice to associate my- self with you and yours, dear Perthes, and I need not say how highly I love and honor the boldness of your Address. Those parts of the announcement intended for the public cannot but appear somewhat constrained, but that is of no consequence : the unpractised reader will not observe it, the practised will at once detect the reason, and the patriotic will be deej)ly indebted to you." The numerous replies which he received from his widely scattered correspondents breathed similar warmth and cordiality. The •' Museum" made its appearance in the spring of 1810. It contained contributions from Jean Paul, Count F. L. Stolberg, Claudius, and Fouqu6, with pos- thumous papers of Klopstock ; essays by Heeren, Sar- torius, Htillmann, and Frederick Schlegel, by Gorres and Arndt, Scheffner and Tischbein, and many other eminent men. Although Perthes was forced to confess that but lit- tle of what he would fain utter could be said in the pages of the " Museum," its reception far exceeded his expectations ; but the labor involved in editing it, combined with the great political excitement to which he was exposed, and the continual efforts for the ex- tension of his business, almost exceeded the limits of human strength. Joys and sorrows in the family, too, added to his anxiety. On the 2d of March, 1809, his son Clement was born. " We rejoice in the birth of a boy," he 142 CAROLINE PERTHES. writes ; " through the youth now growing up weinay exert an influence on the future, which we cannot exer- cise upon the present." His daughter Eleonora came into the world on the 4th of April, 1810 ; while his second son, Johannes, a lively and promising boy, had been removed by death on the 18th of December, 1809. " His heart was overflowing with love and merriment," wrote Caroline, " so that he was our joy and delight. We yearn after him, and cannot yet fully believe that we must continue our prilgrimage without him ; we have but a melancholy pleasure in the blessings that God has left us." After many years of labor, Perthes snatched a short interval of leisure to revisit the beloved Schwartzburg home. The two younger children were committed to the care of their Wandsbeck grandparents, and in the beginning of July, 1810, Perthes and Caroline set out with the other four, by Brunswick and Naumburg to Thuringia. From Schwartzburg Caroline wrote to her mother, — " Would that I could describe to you the grandeur, the beauty, the loveliness of this country ; but words can convey no idea of it. I thank God that we are capable of feeling more than we can express : speech is but a poor thing when we are in earnest. The hills and valleys of Thuringia impress one just in the right way. I love them, and shall remember them with affection while I live. It is too much, I sometimes think, and one has no power to repress the excitement which this scenery stirs in the heart. In our flat country, we cannot attain to such a height of joy in the Lord of this glorious Nature, or to such intense gratitude towards Him, as are possible in the midst of THE FRENCH IN HAMBURGH. 143 scenes like these ; and I consider that it is a great gift that the good God has permitted me to see all this, while yet on earth. The valley of Schwartzburg surpasses all the rest. There is an inconceivable wealth of min- gled grandeur and beauty about it which rivets the spectator to the spot, and compels him to stretch out his arms in adoration of the Creator and Sustainer of all this wondrous work. On the one side are vast masses of rock, piled one upon another ; on the other, hills of surpassing loveliness, adorned with meadows, houses, men, and cattle ; in the midst of all, the Schwarza runs clear and sparkling, rushing and roar- ing bravely, far below in the hollow. Our reception was very agreeable ; we had left the carriage, and were walking towards Schwartzburg ; suddenly, from behind the rock, the lieutenant-colonel made his ap- pearance, and caught Perthes in his arms. My beloved Perthes, thus disturbed in the tranquil current of his thoughts, forgot nature like the rest of us in the pleas- ure of the reunion. This lieutenant-colonel is a fine, vigorous, frank, and very dear old man, and I already like him much. When we had walked a few paces farther, we came to a broad, flat rock on which a breakfast, brought in his own game-bag, was spread. He -was quite overjoyed, and never weary of recount- ing the pleasure he had experienced long ago, in walk- ing tours and fowling expeditions with Perthes. A little further on we met the other uncle with his troop of children ; we packed the little folk into the car- riage, and walked slowly after it. The very depths of my soul are stirred when I perceive the great and general happiness which the return of my Perthes has diffused ; my dear Perthes himself is like a child with 144 CAROLINE PERTHES. delight, and I thank God that He has let us live to see this time. They live the past over again, and are all twenty years younger." After a stay of a few weeks, Perthes proceeded with his wife and children to Gotha, the home of Justus Perthes, his paternal uncle. " Here, too," wrote Caroline, " we were received with inexpressible kindness, but our dear Thuringian hills are now only seen in the distance. The children long for the freedom of the woods, and to speak the truth, so do I ; and it is with difficulty that I can conceal my feelings. We had quite forgotten the French in our beloved woods ; but here we are daily reminded of them. For months cannon of enormous calibre had been passing through the town from Dantzig and Mag- deburg on their way to Paris. Ah ! here we have the world and artificial life with all their annoyances, con- tinually suggested to us ; there is no place like hills and woods for forgetting ourselves and all our wants and infirmities." They returned to Hamburgh by way of Cassel and Gottingen. "A journey such as we have enjoyed," writes Perthes to Schwartzburg, " is a real picture of life ; but that part of a journey which remains aftei the travelling, is, properly speaking, the journey. This still remains with us." Ere long, rumors were afloat of new and violent changes contemplated by Napoleon in the German governments. The French Ambassador, Reinhard, had been in Hamburgh ever since the autumn of 1809, in order to settle the final destiny of the city. " He holds continual conferences," writes Perthes, " with deputies and others, as to the maintenance and perpetuation of THE FRENCH IN HAMBURGH. 145 the Hanse-towDS. The Emperor, after hearing the real state of matters, is to determine the future of the cities." More than a year after this letter was written, and just before Christmas, 1810, the decision of the French Senate was announced at Hamburgh. The Hanse- towns with the whole north-west of Germany were henceforward to be considered as forming part of the French Empire. " Hamburgh, built by Charles the Great," so ran the decree, " was no longer to be de- prived of the happiness to which it had a hereditary right, of acknowledging the supremacy of his greater successor." Hamburgh had now become a French city, and its burghers subjects of Napoleon. At the same time, Perthes, finding the impossibility of carrying out his original object, in the form which it had up to this time assumed, gave up the " National Museum.'^ " My sole aim in the establishment of this journal," he says, at the close of the last part, " was to unite the well-disposed and wisest of our countrymen, and en- able them to contribute, by teaching and counsel, in a variety of forms, to th