Imágenes de página
PDF
ePub

knowledge oftener by separation and division, rather than by union and combination rather by killing than by making alive.

One day an armed loadstone, very prettily sewed up in scarlet cloth, became the object for this spirit of enquiry. For the secret attraction which it exercised, not merely on the iron rod connected with it, but which, moreover, was of such a kind that it increased, and daily became capable of bearing a greater weight-this mysterious virtue had so conquered my admiration, that I was long satisfied with mere amazement at its effects. But at last I conjectured that I should obtain some nearer explanation if I removed the outward covering. This was accomplished, but made me none the wiser, for the naked iron casing taught me nothing further; I removed this also, and held in my hands the mere stone, with which I made endless trials on filings and sewingneedles, which, however, yielded no further advantage to my boyish brain but that of a varied experience. I could not put together the mechanism again; the parts were scattered; and I lost the wondrous phenomenon, together with the apparatus.

I was not more fortunate in putting together an electrical machine. A friend of the family, whose youth had fallen in the time when electricity employed all minds, often told us how, as a boy, he had often wished to possess such a machine how he had sought out the chief requisites, and, with the help of an old spinning-wheel and some medicine bottles, had produced tolerable results. As he gladly and frequently repeated this to us, and also gave us some general information as to electricity, we children thought the thing very plausible, and long tormented ourselves over an old spinning-wheel and some medicine bottles, without being able to produce even the smallest result. Nevertheless

we kept fast our faith, and were much delighted when at the fair time, among other rarities, magical and juggling tricks, an electrical machine also performed its wonders, which, as well as the magnetic ones, were for that time already much multiplied.

The distrust of the public mode of Instruction increased from day to day. People looked about for domestic tutors; and, because single families

could not incur the expense, several combined in order to secure their object. But the children seldom agreed; the young man had not sufficient authority; and, after frequently renewed vexations, the parties commonly separated in bitterness. No wonder, therefore, that people thought of making arrangements which might be at once more durable and more advantageous.

The thought of setting up boarding-schools had been suggested by the necessity felt by all for having the French language taught and communicated in living use. My father had brought up a young man in his house who had become his footman, valet, secretary, and in fine, successively all in all. This man, whose name was Pfeil, spoke French well, and understood it thoroughly. After he married, and his patrons had to think of some situation in life for him, they fell upon the project of making him set up a boarding-school, which extended gradually into a small academical institution, in which every thing needful, and at last even Greek and Latin, were taught. The widespread connexions of Frankfort brought young Frenchmen and Englishmen to this establishment, who were intrusted to it that they might learn German, and also be cultivated in other ways. Pfeil, who was a man in the prime of life, and of the most extraordinary energy and activity, governed the whole very laudably. As he never could have work enough, and was obliged to have music-masters for his pupils, he betook himself occasionally to music, and practised the harpsichord with such zeal, that, having never before touched a note, he very soon played readily and well. He seemed to have adopted my father's maxim, that nothing is more cheering and exciting to young people, than when, being already of mature years, one makes one's self again a learner, and at an age when it is hard to gain new accomplishments, yet by zeal and perseverance seeks to excel those who are younger, and have thus more natural facility.

By this taste for playing the harpsichord, Pfeil had his attention turned to the instruments themselves, and, hoping to obtain the best, got into correspondence with Friderici of Gera, whose work in this kind was celebrated far and wide. He took a number of them on commission, and now had the pleasure of seeing displayed in his house, not some single piano, but many, and of hearing himself practise on all.

This man's activity excited also in our house a great deal of musical performance. Except as to some points of difference, my father remained in lasting friendship with him. We, too, had a great piano of Friderici's bought for us, which I, preferring my harpsichord, hardly touched. It was the means, however, of increasing my sister's troubles, as, in order to do due honour to the new instrument, she was compelled to employ some hours more daily in practising on it; while my father as inspector, and Pfeil as example and animating friend, stood alternately beside her.

An odd fancy of my father's gave much discomfort to us children. It was the preparation of silk, of the advantage of which, if it were spread more extensively, he had a high conception. Some acquaintances in Hanau, where the worms were kept with great care, gave him the immediate impulsion. The eggs were sent to him from thence at the right time; and as soon as the mulberry-trees showed sufficient leaf, they were stripped, and the almost invisible animals were most sedulously attended to. Tables and frames were fixed up in a garret-room, that they might have more space and nourishment; for they grew fast, and after the last casting of the skin were so voracious, that it was hardly possible to give them leaves enough for their sustenance. They had even to be fed day and night, because all depends on their having no want of nourishment at the time when the great and wondrous change is to take place in them. If, indeed, the weather was favourable, this business might be considered a pleasant entertainment. But if it turned cold, so that the mulberry. trees suffered, there was great trouble. But it was still more unpleasant if rain fell during the last period for these creatures cannot at all bear moisture, and therefore the wetted leaves had to be carefully wiped and dried, which could not always be quite accurately done; and from this, or perhaps from some other cause, many diseases broke out among the flock,

by which the poor things were swept away in thousands. The subsequent corruption produced a truly pestilential smell; and as it was necessary to remove the dead and dying from the healthy, in order to save only a few, the business was in truth extremely laborious and disgusting, and caused many an unhappy hour to us children.

After we had passed the finest weeks of the spring and summer of one year in attendance on the silkworms, we had to help my father in another business, which, although simpler, did not give us less trouble. The Roman views had hung for many years on the walls of the old house, stretched by a black rod at top and bottom, and by the light, dust, and smoke, had become very yellow, and been defaced not a little by the flies. If this dirtiness could not be permitted in the new house, yet, on the other hand, those representations had become more and more interesting to my father by his lengthening absence from the places themselves. For at first such views serve to refresh and enliven the impressions lately received. They appear trifling in comparison with these, and seldom more than a melancholy substitute. But as the recollection of the original forms fades more and more away, the copies insensibly occupy their place, and become as dear to us as those once were; and what we formerly despised, now gains our esteem and love. Thus is it with all delineations, and particularly with portraits. It is hard for any one to be satisfied with the resemblance of a present object; but how highly do we value every shadow of an absent, and espe cially of a deceased person.

In fine, with this feeling of his former prodigality, my father wished those engravings to be as far as possible restored. That this might be done by bleaching was well known; and this operation, which as to large plates is always critical, was now undertaken in rather unfavourable circumstances; for the large boards on which the smoke-stained engravings were damped and exposed to the sun, stood before the garret windows in the gutters, leaning against the roof, and were thus exposed to many accidents. The chief point was, that the paper was never to dry, but re

quired to be kept always damp. This was the duty of my sister and me; and the weariness and impatience which it caused, and the continual watchfulness, admitting no relaxation, made an extreme vexation of the idleness which we should otherwise have so much enjoyed. The thing was nevertheless accomplished; and the bookbinder, who fixed each sheet on thick paper, did his best to re-unite and restore the margins which had here and there been torn by our negligence. All the sheets were collected into a volume, and were for this time saved.

That we children might not want variety of life and learning, an English language-master appeared just at this time, who engaged that within four weeks he would teach English to any one not quite new in acquiring languages, and advance him so far that, with a little labour, he would be able to go on by himself. He took a moderate honorarium, and was indifferent how many pupils took advantage at the same time of one of his lessons. My father immediately resolved to try the experiment; and agreed to take lessons with myself and my sister from the expeditious master. The appointed hours were faithfully kept, and we diligently went over the lessons by ourselves; and throughout the four weeks, we neglected some of our other studies rather than this. The teacher took leave of us and we of him with mutual satisfaction. As he remained afterwards in the town, and found many employers, he came now and then to see us, and help us, thankful that we had been among the first to place confidence in him, and proud that he could present us as examples to the others.

In consequence of this, my father had a new anxiety that English might be neatly fitted into the series of my other exercises in languages. Now, I acknowledge that it was always burdensome to me to take the ground work of my tasks now from one, now from another grammar or collection of examples; now from one, now from another author; and then with every hour to dissipate afresh my interest in my subject. The thought therefore occurred to me of carrying on the whole together; and I invented a romance of six or seven brothers and

sisters, who when separated from each other, and dispersed over the world, give each other alternately information of their position and feelings. The eldest brother gives an account in honest German of all the objects and occurrences of his journey. The sister, in a feminine style, with neat stops and short sentences, much as Siegwart was afterwards written, answers now him and now the other brothers, relating partly domestic events and partly affairs of the heart. One brother studies theology, and writes a very formal Latin, to which he often adds a Greek postscript. The English correspondence naturally fell to the share of a younger one, who was placed as a clerk at Hamburg; and the French was in the hands of one at Marseilles. A musician, on his first flight into the world, tock up the Italian; and the youngest, a kind of pert, unfledged booby, had betaken himself, the other languages being appropriated, to Jews' German ; and by his horrible hieroglyphics threw the rest of his family into despair and mine into laughter at the joke.

I looked out for matter to suit this strange form of composition, by studying the geography of the countries in which my personages were placed, and by filling those dry localities with many kinds of human life, suited to the characters of my heroes, and to their various employments. My exercise books became, in this way, much more voluminous, my father was better satisfied, and I became sooner aware what knowledge and what kinds of dexterity I was deficient in.

Now, as such things, when once set a-going, have neither end nor limits, so it was in this case with me. For, in trying to master the queer Jew-German, and to write it as easily as I could read it, I soon found that I required to know Hebrew, from which alone the modern, corrupt, and distorted language can be drawn, and so handled with certainty. I therefore explained to my father the necessity of my learning Hebrew, and very eagerly pressed for his consent, having in this a higher aim. I heard it always said that, in order to understand the Old Testament as well as the New, the original languages were requisite. I could read the latter quite easily, because, that I might have practice even on Sundays, I was obliged after church to recite, translate, and in a measure explain, the so-called gospels and epistles. I now thought of doing the same with the Old Testament, which, on account of its singularity, had always particularly interested me.

My father, who did not like to do any thing by halves, determined to ask Dr Albrecht, the rector of our gymnasium, to give me private lessons, until I should have acquired what was most essential in so simple a language; for he hoped that, if this could not be accomplished so quickly as the English, it might yet be done in twice the time.

The rector Albrecht was one of the most original figures in the world: little, not fat but broad; shapeless, though not deformed-in fine, an Æsop in gown and wig. A face of more than seventy was completely twisted to a sarcastic smile, while his eyes continued large, and, though red, were still brilliant and intelligent. He lived in the old convent of the Franciscans, the seat of the gymnasium. Even as a child I had often visited him, in com. pany with my parents, when the long dark passages, the chapels turned into reception-rooms, the place all broken up into stairs and corners, had impressed me with a fearful joy. Without annoying me, he examined me as often as we met, and gave me praise and encouragement. One day, at the new arrangement of the pupils after a public examination, he saw me standing not far from his chair as a mere spectator, while he distributed the silver præmia virtutis et diligentiæ. I was ooking very eagerly at the little bag out of which he took the medals. He beckoned to me, came down a step, and gave me one of the silver pieces. My joy was great; although others thought this gift, bestowed on a boy not of the school, quite out of order. But for this the honest old man cared little, being always an oddity, and that in a striking way. He had a very good reputation as a schoolmaster, and understood his trade, although his age no longer permitted him to practise it perfectly. But he was hindered almost more by greater circumstances than by his own infirmities. As I had already learned, he was satisfied neither with the consistories, nor the schoolinspectors, nor the clergy, nor even with the masters. His disposition in

clined him to lay wait for errors and defects, and to the use of satire, and he gave it free play, both in his pro. grammes and in his public discourses; and, as Lucian was almost the only writer whom he read or valued, he spiced all that he said or wrote with biting ingredients.

Happily for those he was discontented with, he never went to work directly, but only jeered at the faults which he wished to punish by hints, allusions, classical quotations, and Biblical sentences. Moreover, his delivery-he always read his speeches-was unpleasant, unintelligible, and besides often interrupted by a cough, and frequently by an inward paunch-convulsing laugh, with which he used to announce and accompany the pungent passages. I found this singular man gentle and obliging when I began to take my lessons from him. I went now daily at six o'clock in the evening, and always felt a secret satisfaction when the outer door closed behind me, and I had to travel through the long and dusky cloistered passage. We sat in his library, at a table covered with oil. cloth. A much-read Lucian never left his side. In spite of all my inclination, I could not get to the matter without difficulty; for my teacher could not suppress certain sarcastic remarks as to the real truth about Hebrew. Iconcealed from him my views towards the Jew-German, and talked of a better understanding of the original text. At this he smiled, and said I should soon be satisfied if I only learned to read. This vexed me in secret, and I collected all my attention when we began with the letters. I found an alphabet very similar to the Greek, of which the forms were easy, and the names mostly not strange to me. I had very soon caught and remembered all this, and thought we were now to begin reading. That this was done from the right to the left hand I was quite aware. But now suddenly there appeared a new host of little letters and signs, of points and strokes of all kinds, which in fact were to represent the vowels. I wondered at this the more, because there were manifestly some vowels in the larger alphabet, and the others appeared only to be hidden under strange designations. It was also told me that the Jewish nation, as long as it flourished, did, in fact, rest satisfied with their former signs, and knew no other mode of writing or reading. Most willing would I have adopted this ancient, and, as it seemed to me, more convenient fashion. But my old man declared, rather severely, that we must go by the grammar, as it had already been approved and set down. Reading without these points and strokes was a very difficult enterprise, and could be accomplished only by the learned, and those most accustomed to it. I must, therefore, make up my mind to learn these little additional signs. The business, however, seemed to me more and more confused. Now, it turned out that some of the first and greater primitive signs had no value in their own places, that their younger little rivals might not stand there in vain. At one time they indicated a light breathing, at another a softer or harsher guttural, and again served only as supports and buttresses. Nay, lastly, when one thought one had perfectly noticed every thing, some of the great, as well as of the little personages, were reduced to inaction, so that the eye had always a great deal and the lip very little to do.

As that of which I already knew the substance had now to be stuttered out in a strange jargon, while a certain snuffle and grunt, unattainable in its full perfection, were not a little recommended to me, I lost a good deal of my interest in the matter, and amused myself childishly with the old names of these accumulated signs. There were emperors, kings, and dukes, who, domineering here and there in accents, entertained me not a little. But these thin jests also soon lost their charm; while, nevertheless, I came off a gainer, as in reading, translating, repeating, learning by heart, the substance of the book came out the more vividly, and it was properly in this that I wished for explanation from my old friend. Even before this time, the discrepancy between the traditional and the actual and possible had struck me forcibly, and I had put my domestic teachers to much distress about the sun which stood still on Gibeon, and the moon in the valley of Ajalon, to say nothing of other difficulties. All this was now stirred up, while, in order to become master of Hebrew, I occupied myself exclusively with the Old Testament, and studied it through, no longer in Luther's version, but in the verbal

translation printed beside the text by Sebastian Schmidt. Here, unhappily, our lessons began to be cut short, so far as knowledge of the language was concerned. Reading, interpretation, grammar, transcription, and repetition of words, seldom lasted a full half hour; for I began immediately to attack the meaning, and although we were still engaged on the first book of Moses, to give vent to much which had been suggested to me by the later books. At first the kind old man attempted to recall me from such excursions; but at last he too seemed entertained by them. He now could not at all restrain his usual cough and laughter; and although he took good care to give me no pretext for compromising him, yet I did not relax in my zeal. Nay, as I was more concerned to propose my doubts than to have them solved, I advanced in vigour and boldness, which his demeanour seemed to justify. In fine, I could draw nothing from him, but that over and over, with his paunch-convulsing laugh, he exclaimed, "Ah, mad fellow! ah, mad boy!"

Nevertheless, my childish vivacity, which examined the Bible on all sides, must have seemed to him tolerably serious, and deserving of some help. He therefore referred me, after some time, to the great English Biblical work which stood at hand in his library, and in which the explanation of difficult and uncertain passages was attempted in an intelligent and judicious way. The translation had, by the great labours of German divines, obtained some advantages over the original. The different opinions were stated, and at last a kind of reconciliation attempted, by which the dignity of the book, the ground of religion, and our human understanding, were enabled in a manner to co-exist. Now as often as, towards the close of the hour, I expressed some of my common questions and doubts, he re. ferred me to the Repository. I took the volume, he let me read, turned over his Lucian, and when I uttered my remarks upon the book, his usual laugh was all the answer he gave to my acuteness. In the long summer day he let me sit as long as I pleased, often alone. By-and-by, he permitted

me to take one volume after another home with me.

A man may turn as he will, and

« AnteriorContinuar »