THE London Magazine. APRIL, 1823. DEATH OF A GERMAN GREAT MAN. WAS Herder a great man? I protest, I cannot say. He is called the German Plato. I will not be so satirical as Mr. Coleridge, who, being told by the pastor of Ratzeburg, that Klopstock was the German Milton, said to himself, “ Yes,—a very German Milton." The truth is, Plato himself is but an idea to most men; nay, even to most scholars; nay, even to most Platonic scholars." Still, for that very reason, the word "Plato" has a grandeur to the mind-which better acquaintance, if it did not impair, would tend at least to humanise and to make less seraphic. As it is, with the advantage, on Plato's side, of this ideal existence, and the disadvantage on Herder's of a language so anti-Grecian as the German in every thing except its extent, the contest is too unequal. Making allowances for this, however, I still find it difficult to form any judgment of an author so "many-sided" (to borrow a German expression)so poly-morphous as Herder: there is the same sort of difficulty in making an estimate of his merits, as there would be to a political economist in appraising the strength and weakness of an empire like the Chinese, or like the Roman under Trajan: to be just, it must be a representative estimate-and therefore abstracted from works, not only many but also various, and far asunder in purpose and tendency. Upon the whole, the best notion I can give of Herder to the English reader, is to say that he is the German Coleridge; having the same all-grasping erudition, the same spirit of universal research, the same occasional superficiality and inaccuracy, the same indeterminateness of object, the same obscure and fanciful mysticism (schwärmerey), the same plethoric fulness of thought, the same fine sense of the beautiful-and (I think) the same incapacity for dealing with simple and austere grandeur. I must add, however, that in fineness_and compass of understanding, our English philosopher appears to me to have greatly the advantage. another point they agree,-both are men of infinite title pages. I have heard Mr. Coleridge acknowledge that his title pages alone (titles, that is, of works meditated but unexecuted) would fill a large volume: and, it is clear that, if Herder's power had been commensurate with his will, all other authors must have been put down: many generations would have been unable to read to the end of his works. The weakest point about Herder that I know of was his admiration of Ossian- a weakness from which, I should think, Mr. Coleridge must have been pre In As, for example, to our English translators, who make the Attic bee talk like an old drone both as to sense and expression. See, too, for a specimen of what Plato does not mean, the "Geist der Speculativen Philosophie," by a tedious man—one Tiedemann. APRIL, 1823. 2 C # served, if by nothing else, by his much more accurate acquaintance with the face and appearances, fixed and changing, of external nature. I have been lately much interested by a life of Herder, edited by Professor J. G. Müller, but fortunately written (or chiefly so) by a person far more competent to speak of him with love and knowledge: viz. Maria Caroline, the widow of Herder. Herder had the unspeakable blessing in this world of an angelic wife, whose company was his consolation under a good deal of worldly distress from secret malice and open hostility. She was admirably fitted to be the wife of a philosopher; for, whilst her excellent sense and her innocent heart enabled her to sympathise fully with the general spirit of Herder's labours, she never appears for a moment to have forgotten her feminine character, but declines all attempt to judge of abstruse questions in philosophy-whatever weight of polemic interest may belong to them in a life of Herder. Her work is very unpretending, and, perhaps, may not have been designed for the public: for it was not published until more. than ten years after her death. The title of the book is Erinnerungen aus dem Leben Joh. Gottfrieds von Herder (Recollections from the Life of J. G. Herder). 2 vols. Tübingen, 1820. It appears that Herder rose from the very humblest rank; and, of necessity, therefore, in his youth, but afterwards from inclination, led a life of most exemplary temperance: this is not denied by those who have attacked him. He was never once intoxicated in his whole life: a fact of very equivocal construction! his nerves would not allow him to drink tea; and, of coffee, though very agreeable to him, he allowed himself but little. All this temperance, however, led to nothing: for he died when he was but four months advanced in his sixtieth year. Surely, if he had been a drunkard or an opium-eater, he might have contrived to weather the point of sixty years. In fact, opium would, perhaps, have been of service to him. For all his sufferings were derived from a most exquisite and morbid delicacy of nervous temperament: and of this it was that he died. With more judicious medical advice, he might have been alive at this hour. His nervous system had the sensitive delicacy of Cowper's and of Rousseau's, but with some peculiarities that belong (in my judgment) exclusively to German temperaments. I cannot explain myself fully on this occasion: but, in general, I will say, that from much observation of the German literature, I perceive a voluptuousness an animal glow-almost a sensuality in the very intellectual sensibilities of the German, such as I find in the people of no other nation. The French, it will be said, are sensual. Yes: sensual enough. But theirs is a factitious sensuality: a sensual direction is given to their sensibilities by the tone of a vicious literature-and a tone of public and domestic life certainly not virtuous. The fault however in the French is the want of depth and simplicity in their feelings. But, in Germany, the life and habits of the people are generally innocent and simple. Sensuality is no where less tolerated: intellectual pleasures no where more valued. Yet, in the most intellectual of their feelings, there is still a taint of luxury and animal fervour. Let me give one illustration :--in the Paradise Lost, that man must have an impure mind who finds the least descent into sensuality in any parts which relate to our first parents in Eden: in no part of his divine works does the purity of Milton's mind shine forth more bright and unsullied: but there is one infirm passage; viz. where Raphael is made to blush on Adam's questioning him about the loves of the heavenly host. The question, in fact, was highly improper, as implying an irregular and unhallowed curiosity not incident to a paradisiacal state. But to make the archangel blush, is to load him with a sin-born shame from which even Adam was free. Now this passage, this single infirm thought of Milton's, is entirely to There is, indeed, a metrical version of Niny-what? "Ninithoma," or Ninysomething in Mr. Coleridge's earliest volume of Poems: but that was a very juvenile performance. the taste of Germany; and Klopstock even, who is supposed to support the Hebraic-sublime-and unsensualizing nature against the more Grecian-voluptuous-and beautiful nature of Wieland, &c. yet indulges in this sensualism to excess. vate interview; in the course of which, the Elector, who was a prince of great talents and information, paid him a very high and just compliment." The impression which the noble-minded prince made upon Herder," says Mrs. Herder," was But, to return to Herder: his letters deep and memorable. On his part, to his wife and children (of which the Elector was highly pleased with many are given in this work) are de- Herder, as we have learned from the lightful; especially those to the for- best authority; and is represented as mer, as they show the infinite-the im- having afterwards consulted a minismeasurable depth of affection which ter on the possibility of drawing him united them. Seldom, indeed, on into his service." From Dresden this earth can there have been a fire- Herder returned home in high spiside more hallowed by love and pure rits, but soon began to droop again. domestic affections than that of His last illness and death soon folHerder. He wanted only freedom lowed; which I shall translate from from the cares which oppressed the beautiful narrative of Mrs. Herhim, and perhaps a little well-boiled opium, combined with a good deal" Full of gratitude, and with many of lemonade or orangeade (of which, delightful remembrances, did Herder as of all fruits, Herder's elegance of leave Dresden. The three last weeks taste made him exceedingly fond), to of his residence in that city were have been the happiest man in Ger- the last sun-gleam that illumined his many. With an angel of a wife, life. He purposed for the future to with the love and sympathy of all spend a few weeks there every now Germany, and with a medicine for and then, in order to make use of the his nerves,-what more could the superb library. On the 18th of Sepheart of man desire? Yet not having tember he arrived at home happy the last, the others were flung away and in high spirits. He found our upon him; and, in his latter years, William with us, and gave him such he panted after the invisible world, consolation as he could upon the merely because the visible (as he loss of his Amelia. William had often declared) ceased to stimulate come, as if sent from heaven, to our him. That worst and most widely- support in the months of affliction spread of all diseases, weariness of which succeeded, and to tend the daily life-inirritability of the nerves sick-bed of his father with Godfrey, to the common stimulants which life Emilius, and Louisa. Herder was supplies, seized upon him to his very full of plans of intense labour for the heart's core: he was sick of the approaching winter, such as the conendless revolution upon his eyes of solidation of the secondary schools; the same dull unimpassioned spec- the third part of the spirit of the tacle: tædet me harum quotidianarum Hebrew poetry; and the letters from formarum, was the spirit of his cease- Persepolis; of all which, however, less outcry. He fought with this it was the will of God that nothing soul-consuming evil, he wrestled was ever to be accomplished. Somewith it, as a maniac. Change of times, even up to the last weeks of scene was suggested; undoubtedly his life, he confessed to me a strange one of the best nervous medicines. misgiving, seated in the very depths Change of scene he tried: he left of his heart-that he should soon be his home at Weimar, and went to summoned away from Weimar.-On Dresden. There one would think the last day of September he held an the magnificent library was alone examination for orders, and in a tone sufficient to stir the nerves even of a of extraordinary elevation of mind, paralytic. And so it proved. Herder as all who were present afterwards grew much better: the library, the declared. The subject was-Upon the picture gallery, the cathedral service, Heavenly Hierarchies. The tenth No. all tended to regenerate him: he re- of the Adrastea (a periodical work ceived the most flattering attentions: conducted by Herder) was almost the Elector of that day (1803) ex- arranged and written, in the former pressed a wish to see him. Herder half, when the first attack of indiswent, and was honoured with a pri- position seized him (on the 17th or 18th of October). He soon recover ed, and did not keep his bed. At favourable opportunities he continued to labour upon the Adrastea up to that impressive passage with which that number concludes." [This passage speaks of the Northern mythology as given in the Edda, and closes with a few verses describing the awe-stricken state of a human spirit on its first entrance into the presence of God. Mrs. Herder, whose tenderness makes her superstitious, sees in this, as in other incidents of this period, ominous signs of Herder's approaching death.] "Something it was his intention to have added, and so the sheet lay open on his writing-table. Our dear Godfrey saw that prophetic leaf daily, which was constantly drawing nearer to its fulfilment, with an anxious and foreboding heart, as he afterwards told me. Two months long did the conflict last between his powerful nature and his debilitated and shattered nerves. All his old complaints were re-awakened. If the physicians prescribed remedies for them, then it irritated his nerves; and so vice versa. At length a total atony of all the vital functions came on, which was susceptible of no relief fron medicine. And thus he witnessed all his powers sinking, in the fulness of his consciousness, in perfect possession of his intellectual faculties, and in daily hopes of amendment. Except Godfrey, (for whose attendance he yearned with inexpressible anxiety,) and our own family circle, he would see nobody,at least, not with pleasure. To read, or to hear another read, was his dearest consolation. Among the books which were at that time read aloud at his request, I still remember these which follow:-Ossian, Lipsius De Constantia, Thorild's Maximum (but this was soon laid aside, because it affected him too much), G. Müller's Remains, and the Bible, especially the Prophets. These we exchanged by turns for other works of a more amusing class that would less affect his head; but we never advanced far in any, being soon obliged to lay them by reading, we found, must not be persevered in for any length of time; so we varied it with talking and with silence. Even the harpsichord, for which he longed so often, affected him too powerfully; and we were soon obliged to interrupt the performance.-Often, in the first weeks of his illness, often did he say: 'Oh! if some original, some grand, some spiritual idea would but come to me from whatsoever quarter, would but possess and penetrate my soul, I should be well in a moment.' Yet this feeling was unsteady and often fluctuated. When his sleepless and agitated nights continued, he said, My complaint is quite incomprehensible to me; my mind is well, and nothing but my body sick: could I but quit my bed, oh! what labours I would go through!' Certainly he would most gladly have lived, if but for a short time longer, for the sake of executing many designs; at any rate, to give utterance once again fully and finally to the thoughts which lay nearest to his heart.* This is more fully expressed by Mrs. Herder upon another occasion, viz. at p. 219, vol. ii. in the course of the interesting account she gives of Herder's gigantic plans and sketches:-" A few only of his later works were written not altogether from any strong impulse of his own nature, but chiefly with a view to the benefit of others. Hence, alas! more important labours went unfinished-labours that lay near to his inmost heart. In the last day of his life he said to our Godfrey," He wished he might be permitted to write but two Numbers more of the Adrastea: those two should be his last and consummate labour; in them he would deliver his entire Confession of Faith, seeing that many subjects now appeared to him in a far different light." He complained that "He had accomplished so little in his life;" said "that men pitched the tone of their investigations too high and too artificial, when yet human nature lay broad and open before our eyes-like an unrolled manuscript: nothing was required of us but that we should read; instead of which, we fancy and devise all sorts of difficulties." It may be judged, from all this, how straitened in point of time Herder must have found himself: so delusive is the impression which Mr. Coleridge has sought to convey in his Biographia Literaria, that Herder had found his various duties, as a man of business, reconcileable with his higher duties as an intellectual being, working for his own age and posterity Indeed, of no man who ever lived, is this more emphatically untrue: but of a hundred similar complaints, in the same passionate style, I select two by way of correcting the misrepresentation of Mr. Coleridge. 1. At p. 214, Mrs. Herder says This feeling he confessed to the physician, Dr. Stark, and to Godfrey. Often did he fling his arms about dear Godfrey's neck, and said, Oh! friend, oh! most beloved friend, deliver me-even yet save me, if it be possible.' Ah! heavens! what a spectacle of anguish for us all! Our hopes, though continually weaker, did not wholly decline, up to the last day: not until, after a mighty struggle of pain in his breast, he fell into his final slumber on Sunday morning, December 18. The whole day through he slept in profound tranquillity; nor in this world ever woke again; but at half past eleven at night, gently and without a groan, slumbered away into the arms of God. Oh! tears and anguish that could never waken him again! him that was the only one for whom we lived-our guardianangel that lived for us. Oh! counsels of the unfathomable God !-But thou, heavenly Father, wilt take away the veil from my eyes: all will be revealed; and, perhaps, in no long period of time!" Having expressed my inability to adjust the balance of Herder's claims, even to my own satisfaction, it will gratify the reader to see this deficiency supplied by one of the most original men of any age-John Paul Richter, the Rousseau and the Sterne of Germany; whose opportunities for judging of Herder were great beyond those of any other contemporary, with talents equal to the task. Herder was in the habit of holding weekly conversaziones to save his own time from unprofitable interruptions: but John Paul was so select a favourite, that, on his visits to Weimar, he seldom attended the public nights, being a privileged guest in the family circle at all times, and when others were excluded. "Of this dear friend," says Mrs. Herder, "I must His "How often would he ejaculate- Ah that I had but time-time-time!' heart was ready to break at the thought of how much that he wished to communicate must be sealed up with himself in the grave." 2. (p. 224)" Many a time in company, when the conversation happened to turn upon confinement in a fortress, he would say pleasantly, but at the same time earnestly- For my part, I envy the man who is thrown into a dungeon, provided he has a good conscience, and knows how to employ his time. To me no greater service could be rendered, than just to shut me up for some years in a fortress, with permission to pursue my labours and to procure the books I might want. Oh! never was poor soul more wearied out than I am with this hurry of business amongst crowds.'" If, therefore, Herder contrived to do a great deal of business in the common sense of the word, combined with a great deal of intellectual work, he did it only by sacrificing just that proportion of the latter: to do that which any stout man might have been hired to do far better for a guinea a day, he left undone that which only intellectual men, sometimes only himself, could have done. Mr. Coleridge's object could not have been to show us that by a sacrifice to that extent a man might gain time for ordinary business: that had never been doubted. His thesis was, that the performance of this ordinary business might be so managed as not only to subtract nothing from the higher employments, but even greatly to assist them: and Herder's case was alleged as a proof and an illustration; with what countenance from Herder himself we here see. How immense were Herder's plans, may be judged by the reader, when he is informed that the following are but a slight fraction of his entire scheme of outlines: 1. Spanish Literature..... 2. Hebrew; the elder, and the latter Jewish Litera ture. 3. Icelandic.................... 4. Grecian Mythology to be delivered and interpreted. to be exhibited on a great scale. 5. Natural Philosophy to be studied for some years: this plan was much ripened and extended on occasion of the discovery of galvanism-of his personal acquaintance with Werner, who explained to him in conversation his system of geology—and on occasion of Dr. Gall's Craniological Lectures. 6. Select Tragedies from Shakspeare and from the Greek 7. Horace......... 8. Pindar....... 9. The Bible................................ 10. Ossian....... 11. A History of Poetry to be composed: in 4to. of course. 12. A Life of Luther • She died about two years after writing this passage. to be translated. |