PARIS
My stay in Paris from March, 1845, to June, 1846, was a very useful
intermezzo. It opened my mind and showed me a new world; showed me, in
fact, that there was a world besides Germany, though even of Germany
and German society I had seen as yet very little. I had been working
away at school and university, but with the exception of my short stay
in Berlin, I had little experience of men and manners outside the
small sphere of Dessau and Leipzig.
I had been at Berlin some nine months when, in December, 1844, my old
friend Baron Hagedorn came to see me, and invited me to spend some
time with him in Paris. He had his own apartments there, and promised
to look after me. At the same time my cousin, Baroness Stolzenberg,
whom I have mentioned before as wishing me to enter the Austrian
diplomatic service, offered to send me to England at her expense as a
teacher. I hesitated for some days between these two offers. I knew
that my own patrimony had been nearly spent at Leipzig and Berlin, and
the time had come for me to begin to support myself; and how was I to
do that in Paris? On the other hand, I had long felt that for
continuing my Sanskrit studies a stay in Paris, and later perhaps in
London also, was indispensable. I had also to consider the feelings of
my mother, whose whole heart was absorbed in her only son. However,
Sanskrit, and my love of an independent life won the day, and I
decided to accept Hagedorn’s proposal. My mind once made up, I wanted
to be off at once, but Hagedorn could not fix the exact time when he
would be free to leave, and told me to keep myself in readiness to
start whenever he found himself free to go. I accordingly went to stay
with my mother and my married sister at Chemnitz, and indulged in
idleness and the unwonted dissipations of parties, dances, and long
skating expeditions. At last, feeling I could not afford to wait any
longer, I went off to Dessau to see Hagedorn, and found to my great
disappointment that he was detained by important legal business in
connection with his property near Munich, and could not yet fix a date
for his departure. So it was settled that I was to go on to Paris
without him, and instal myself in his apartment, 25, Rue Royale St.
Honoré.
I got my passport wherein I was carefully described with all my
particular marks, and started off on my foreign travels. At first all
went well. I stopped a few days at Bonn, and again at Brussels, where
I had my first experience of hearing a foreign language spoken round
me, and found that my French was sadly deficient. But from Brussels
on, my experiences were anything but agreeable. The journey to Paris
took twenty-four hours, and we travelled day and night without any
stop for meals. Most of the passengers were well provided with food
and wine, but had it not been for the kindness of some old ladies, my
fellow-travellers, I should really have starved. When we crossed the
frontier the luggage of all passengers was carefully examined. But the
_douanier_, in trying to open my portmanteau, broke the lock, and then
began a fearful cursing and swearing. I was perfectly helpless. I
could hardly understand what the French _douaniers_ said, still less
make them understand what I had to say. They had done the damage, but
would do nothing to remedy it. The train would not wait, and I should
certainly have been left behind if the other travellers had not taken
my part, and I was allowed to go on to Paris. I looked a mere boy,
very harmless, not at all the clever smuggler the officials took me to
be. If they had forced the portmanteau open they would have found
nothing but the most essential wearing apparel and a few books and
papers all in Sanskrit.
But my miseries were not yet over, on the contrary, they became much
worse. On my arrival in Paris I got a _fiacre_ and told the man to
drive to 25, Rue St. Honoré; _Royale_ I considered of no importance;
but, alas! at the right number of the Rue St. Honoré, the _concierge_
stared at me, telling me that no Baron Hagedorn lived there. Try
Faubourg St. Honoré, they said, but here the same thing happened. And
all this was on a rainy afternoon, I being tired out with travelling
and fasting, and perfectly overwhelmed by the immensity of Paris. I
knew nobody at Paris, having trusted for all such things to Baron
Hagedorn, in fact I was _au désespoir_. Then as I was driving along
the Boulevard des Italiens, looking out of window, I saw a familiar
figure—a little hunchback whom I had known at Dessau, where he
studied music under Schneider. It was M. Gathy, a man well known by
his musical writings, particularly his _Dictionary of Music_. I
shrieked Gathy! Gathy! and he was as much surprised when he recognized
the little boy from Dessau, as I was when in this vast Paris I
discovered at last a face which I knew. I jumped out of my carriage,
told Gathy all that had happened to me, being all the time between
complete despair and perfect delight. He knew Hagedorn and his rooms
very well. It was the Rue Royale St. Honoré. The _concierge_ was quite
prepared for my arrival, and took us both to the rooms which were _au
cinquième_, but large and extremely well furnished. I was so tired
that I lay down on the sofa, and called out in my best French,
_Donnez-moi quelque chose à manger et à boire_. This was not so easily
done as said, but at last, after toiling up and down five flights of
stairs, he brought me what I wanted; I restored myself in the true
sense of the word, and then began to discuss the most necessary
matters with M. Gathy. He was the most charming of men, half German,
half French, full of _esprit_, and, what was more important to me,
full of real kindness and love. As soon as I saw him I felt I was
safe, and so I was, though I had still some battles to fight. First of
all, I had taken but little money with me, looking upon Hagedorn as my
banker. Fortunately I remembered the name of one of his friends, about
whom Hagedorn had often spoken to me and who was in Rothschild’s Bank.
I went there to find that he was away, but another gentleman there
told me that I could have as much as I liked till Hagedorn or his
friend came back. So I was lucky, unlucky as I had been before.
The next step I had to consider was what I should do for my breakfast,
luncheon, and dinner. Breakfast I could have at home, but for the
other meals I had to go out and get what I wanted wherever I could. It
was not always what I wanted, for it had to be cheap, and even a
dinner _à deux francs_ in the Palais Royal seemed to me extravagant. I
became more knowing by-and-by, and discovered smaller and simpler
restaurants, where Frenchmen dined and had arranged for a less showy
but more wholesome diet.
The impression that my first experience of life in one of the great
capitals of the world made on me is still fresh in my memory. My
principal amusement at first was to go on voyages of discovery through
the town. The beauty of the city itself, and the rush and crowd in
the streets delighted me, and I remember specially a few days after my
arrival, when I went to watch “le tout Paris” going out to the races
at Longchamps, that I was so struck by the difference between these
streets full of equipages of all sorts, ladies in resplendent dresses,
and well-groomed gentlemen, and the quiet streets that I had been
accustomed to in Dessau and Leipzig, that I could hardly keep myself
from laughing out loud. However, when the novelty wore off there was
another contrast that struck me, and made me more inclined to cry this
time than to laugh, and that was, that while at home I knew almost
every face I passed, here in these crowds I was a stranger and knew no
one, and I suffered cruelly from the solitude at first.
I began my work, however, at once, and on the third day after my
arrival I was at the Bibliothèque Royale armed with a letter of
introduction from Humboldt, and the very next day was already at work
collating the MSS. of the _Kathaka Upanishad_. I had also to devote
some hours daily to the study of French; for, much as I grudged these
hours, I fully realized that in order to get full advantage from my
stay in Paris, I must first master French.
Next came the great question, how to make the acquaintance of Burnouf.
I did not know the world. I did not know whether I should write to him
first, in what language, and to what address. I knew Burnouf from his
books, and I felt a desperate respect for him. After a time Gathy
discovered his address for me, and I summoned up courage to call on
him. My French was very poor as yet, but I walked in and found a dear
old gentleman in his _robe de chambre_, surrounded by his books and
his children—four little daughters who were evidently helping him in
collecting and alphabetically arranging a number of slips on which he
had jotted down whatever had struck him as important in his reading
during the day. He received me with great civility, such as I had not
been accustomed to before. He spoke of some little book which I had
published, and inquired warmly after my teachers in Germany, such as
Brockhaus, Bopp, and Lassen. He told me I might attend his lectures in
the Collège de France, and he would always be most happy to give me
advice and help.
I at once felt perfect trust in the man, and was really _aux cieux_ to
have found such an adviser. He was, indeed, a fine specimen of the
real French savant. He was small, and his face was decidedly German,
with the _tête carrée_ which one sees so often in Germany, only
lighted up by a constant sparkle, which is distinctively French. I
must have seemed very stupid to him when I tried to explain to him
what I really wanted to do in Paris. He told me himself afterwards
that he could not make me out at first. I wanted to study the Veda,
but I had told him at the same time that I thought the Vedic hymns
very stupid, and that I cared chiefly for their philosophy, that is,
the Upanishads. This was really not true, but it came up first in
conversation, and I thought it would show Burnouf that my interest in
the Veda was not simply philological, but philosophical also. No doubt
at first I chiefly copied the Upanishads and their commentaries, but
Burnouf was not pleased. “We know what is in the Upanishads,” he used
to say, “but we want the hymns and their native comments.” I soon came
to understand what he meant; I carefully attended his lectures, which
were on the hymns of the Rig-veda and opened an entirely new world to
my mind. We had the first book of the Rig-veda as published by Rosen,
and Burnouf’s explanations were certainly delightful. He spoke freely
and conversationally in his lectures, and one could almost assist at
the elaboration of his thoughts. His audience was certainly small;
there was nothing like Renan’s eloquence and wit. But Burnouf had ever
so many new facts to communicate to us. He explained to us his own
researches, he showed us new MSS. which he had received from India, in
fact he did all he could to make us fellow workers. Often did he tell
us to look up some passage in the Veda, to compare and copy the
commentaries, and to let him have the result of our researches at the
next lecture. All this was very inspiriting, particularly as Burnouf,
upon examining our work, was very generous in his approval, and quite
ready, if we had failed, to point out to us new sources that should
be examined. He never asserted his own authority, and if ever we had
found out something which he had not known before, he was delighted to
let us have the full credit for it. After all, it was a new and
unknown country, that had to be explored and mapped out, and even a
novice might sometimes find a grain of gold.
His select class contained some good men. There were Barthélemy St.
Hilaire, the famous translator of Aristotle, and for a time Minister
of Foreign Affairs in France, the Abbé Bardelli, R. Roth, Th.
Goldstücker, and a few more.
Barthélemy St. Hilaire was a personal friend of Burnouf, and came to
the Collège de France not so much to learn Sanskrit as to hear
Burnouf’s lucid exposition of ancient Indian religion and philosophy.
Bardelli was a regular Italian Abbé, studying Sanskrit at Paris, but
chiefly interested in Coptic. He was, like St. Hilaire, much my
senior, but we became great friends, and he once confided to me what
had certainly puzzled me—his reasons for becoming an ecclesiastic. He
had been deeply in love with a young lady; his love was returned, but
he was too poor to marry, and she was persuaded and almost forced to
marry a rich man. Dear old Abbé, always taking snuff while he told me
his agonies, and then finishing up by saying that he became a priest
so as to put an end for ever to his passion. Who would have suspected
such a background to his jovial face? I don’t know how it was that
people, much my seniors, so often confided to me their secret
sufferings. I may have to mention some other cases, and I feel that
after my friends are gone, and so many years have passed over their
graves, there is no indiscretion in speaking of their confidences. It
may possibly teach us to remember how much often lies buried under a
grave bright with flowers. I saw Bardelli’s own grave many years later
in the famous cemetery at Pisa. R. Roth and Th. Goldstücker were both
strenuous Sanskrit scholars. Both owed much to Burnouf, Roth even more
than Goldstücker, though the latter has perhaps more frequently spoken
of what he owed to Burnouf. Roth was my senior by several years, and
engaged in much the same work as myself. But we never got on well
together. It is curious from what small things and slight impressions
our likes and dislikes are often formed. I have heard men give as a
reason for disliking some one, that he had forgotten to pay half a
cab-fare. So in Roth’s case, I never got over a most ordinary
experience. He and two other young students and myself, having to
celebrate some festal occasion, had ordered a good luncheon at a
restaurant. To me with my limited means this was a great extravagance,
but I could not refuse to join. Roth, to my great surprise and, I may
add, being very fond of oysters, annoyance, took a very unfair share
of that delicacy, and whenever I met him in after life, whether in
person or in writing, this incident would always crop up in my mind;
and when later on he offered to join me in editing the Rig-veda, I
declined, perhaps influenced by that early impression which I could
not get rid of. I blame myself for so foolish a prejudice, but it
shows what creatures of circumstance we are.
With Goldstücker I was far more intimate. He was some years older than
myself and quite independent as far as money went. He knew how small
my means were, and would gladly have lent me money. But through the
whole of my life I never borrowed from my friends, or in fact from
anybody, though I was forced sometimes when very hard up for ready
money, and when I knew that money was due to me but had not arrived
when I expected it, to apply to some friend for a temporary advance. I
will try and recall the lines in which I once applied to Gathy for
such a loan.
Versuch’ ich’s wohl, mein herzgeliebter Gathy,
Mit schmeichelndem Sonnet Sie anzupumpen?
Ich bitte nicht um schwere Goldesklumpen,
Ich bitte nur um etliche Ducati.
Auch zahl’ ich wieder ultimo Monati.
Auf Wiedersehn bei Morel und Frascati
Und Nachsicht für den Brief, den allzu plumpen!
Zwar reiche Nabobs sind die braven Inder,
Doch arme Teufel die Indianisten!
Reich sind hienieden schon die Heiden-Kinder,
Doch selig werden nur die armen Christen!
Reimsucher bin ich, doch kein Reimefinder,
Und _sans critique_ sind all die Sanscritisten.
This kind of negotiating a loan I have to confess to, but the idea of
borrowing money, without knowing when I could repay it, never entered
my mind. Relations who could have helped me I had none, and nothing
remained to me but to work for others. Indeed my want of money soon
began to cause me very serious anxiety in Paris. Little as I spent, my
funds became lower and lower. I did not, like many other scholars,
receive help from my Government. I had mapped out my course for
myself, and instead of taking to teaching on leaving the University,
had settled to come to Paris and continue my Sanskrit studies, and it
was in my own hands whether I should swim or sink. It was, indeed, a
hard struggle, far harder than those who have known me in later life
would believe. All I could do to earn a little money was to copy and
collate MSS. for other people. I might indeed have given private
lessons, but I have always had a strong objection to that form of
drudgery, and would rather sit up a whole night copying than give an
hour to my pupils. My plan was as follows: to sit up the whole of one
night, to take about three hours’ rest the next night, but without
undressing, and then to take a good night’s rest the third night, and
start over again. It was a hard fight, and cannot have been very good
for me physically, but I do not regret it now.
Often did I go without my dinner, being quite satisfied with boiled
eggs and bread and butter, which I could have at home without toiling
down and toiling up five flights of stairs that led to my room.
Sometimes I went with some of my young friends _hors de la barrière_,
that is, outside Paris, outside the barrier where the _octroi_ has to
be paid on meat, wine, &c. Here the food was certainly better for the
price I could afford to pay, but the society was sometimes peculiar. I
remember once seeing a strange lady sitting not very far from me, who
was the well-known Louve of Eugène Sue’s _Mystères de Paris_. One of
my companions on these expeditions was Karl de Schloezer, who was then
studying Arabic in Paris. He was always cheerful and amusing, and a
delightful companion. He knew much more of the world than I did, and
often surprised me by his diplomatic wisdom. “Let us stand up for each
other,” he said one day; “you say all the good you can of me, I saying
all the good I can of you.” I became very fierce at the time, charging
him with hypocrisy and I do not know what. He, however, took it all in
good part, and we remained friends all the time he was at Paris, and
indeed to the day of his death. He was very fond of music, but I was,
perhaps, the better performer on the pianoforte. He had invited me, a
violin, and violoncello, to play some of Mozart’s and Beethoven’s
Sonatas. Alas! when we found that he murdered his part, I sat down and
played the whole evening, leaving him to listen, not, I fear, in the
best of moods. He took his revenge, however; and the next time he
asked me and the two other musicians to his room, we found indeed
everything ready for us to play, but our host was nowhere to be found.
He maintained that he had been called away; I am certain, however,
that the little trick was played on purpose.
He afterwards entered the Prussian diplomatic service and was the
protégé of the Princess of Prussia, afterwards the Empress of Germany.
That was enough to make Bismarck dislike him, and when Schloezer
served as Secretary of Legation under Bismarck as Ambassador at St.
Petersburg, he committed the outrage of challenging his chief to a
duel. Bismarck declined, nor would it, according to diplomatic
etiquette, have been possible for him not to decline. Later on,
however, Schloezer was placed _en disponibilité_, that is to say, he
was politely dismissed. He had to pay a kind of farewell visit to
Bismarck, who was then omnipotent. Being asked by Bismarck what he
intended to do, and whether he could be of any service to him,
Schloezer said very quietly, “Yes, your Excellency, I shall take to
writing my Memoirs, and you know that I have seen much in my time
which many people will be interested to learn.” Bismarck was quiet for
a time, looking at some papers, and then remarked quite unconcernedly,
“You would not care to go to the United States as Minister?” “I am
ready to go to-morrow,” replied Schloezer, and having carried his
point, having in fact outwitted Bismarck, he started at once for
Washington. Bismarck knew that Schloezer could wield a sharp pen, and
there was a time when he was sensitive to such pen-pricks. They did
not see much of each other afterwards, but, owing to the protection of
the Empress, Schloezer was later accredited as Prussian envoy to the
Pope, and died too soon for his friends in beautiful Italy.
One of my oldest friends at Paris was a Baron d’Eckstein, a kind of
diplomatic agent who knew everybody in Paris, and wrote for the
newspapers, French and German. He had, I believe, a pension from the
French Government, and was, as a Roman Catholic, strongly allied with
the Clerical Party. This did not concern me. What concerned me was his
love of Sanskrit and the ancient religion of India. He would sit with
me for hours, or take me to dine with him at a restaurant, discussing
all the time the Vedas and the Upanishad and the Vedanta philosophy.
There are several articles of his written at this time in the _Journal
Asiatique_, and I was especially grateful to him, for he gave me
plenty of work to do, particularly in the way of copying Sanskrit MSS.
for him, and he paid me well and so helped me to keep afloat in Paris.
Knowing as he did everybody, he was very anxious to introduce me to
his friends, such as George Sand, Lamennais, the Comtesse d’Agoult
(Daniel Stern), Lamartine, Victor Hugo, and others; but I much
preferred half an hour with him or with Burnouf to paying formal
visits. I heard afterwards many unkind things about Baron
d’Eckstein’s political and clerical opinions, but though in becoming a
convert to Roman Catholicism he may have shown weakness, and as a
political writer may have been influenced by his near friends and
patrons, I never found him otherwise than kind, tolerant, and
trustworthy. His life was to have been written by Professor
Windischmann, but he too died; and who knows what may have become of
the curious memoirs which he left? At the time of the February
revolution in 1848, he was in the very midst of it. He knew Lamartine,
who was the hero of the day, though of a few days only. He attended
meetings with Lamartine, Odilon, Barrot, and others, and he assured me
that there would be no revolution, because nobody was prepared for it.
Lamartine who had been asked by his friends, all of them royalists and
friends of order, whether he would, in case of necessity, undertake to
form a ministry under the Duchesse d’Orléans as regent, scouted such
an idea at first, but at last promised to be ready if he were wanted.
The time came sooner than he expected, and the Duchesse d’Orléans
counted on him when she went to the Chamber and her Regency was
proclaimed. Lamartine was then so popular that he might have saved the
situation. But the mob broke into the Chamber, shots were fired, and
there was no Lamartine. The Duchesse d’Orléans had to fly, and
fortunately escaped under the protection of the Duc de Nemours, the
only son of Louis Philippe then in Paris, and the dynasty of the
Orléans was lost—never to return. Baron d’Eckstein lost many of his
influential friends at that time, possibly his pension also, but he
had enough to live upon, and he died at last as a very old man in a
Roman Catholic monastery, a most interesting and charming man, whose
memoirs would certainly have been very valuable.
But to return to Burnouf, I never can adequately express my debt of
gratitude to him. He was of the greatest assistance to me in clearing
my thoughts and directing them into one channel. “Either one thing or
the other,” he said. “Either study Indian philosophy and begin with
the Upanishads and Sankara’s commentary, or study Indian religion and
keep to the Rig-veda, and copy the hymns and Sâyana’s commentary, and
then you will be our great benefactor.” A great benefactor! that was
too much for me, a mere dwarf in the presence of giants. But Burnouf’s
words confirmed me more and more in my desire to give myself up to the
Veda.
Burnouf told me not only what Vedic MSS. there were at the
Bibliothèque Royale, he also brought me his own MSS. and lent them to
me to copy, with the condition, however, that I should not smoke while
working at them. He himself did not smoke, and could not bear the
smell of smoke, and he showed me several of his MSS. which had become
quite useless to him, because they smelt of stale tobacco smoke. I
did all I could to guard these sacred treasures against such
profanation.
Another and even more useful warning came to me from Burnouf. “Don’t
publish extracts from the commentary only,” he said; “if you do, you
will publish what is easy to read, and leave out what is difficult.” I
certainly thought that extracts would be sufficient, but I soon found
out that here also Burnouf was right, though there was always the fear
that I should never find a publisher for so immense a work. This fear
I confided to Burnouf, but he always maintained his hopeful view. “The
commentary must be published, depend upon it, and it will be,” he
said.
So I stuck to it and went on copying and collating my Sanskrit MSS.,
always trusting that a publisher would turn up at the proper time. I
had, of course, to do all the drudgery for myself, and I soon found
out that it was not in human nature, at least not in my nature, to
copy Sanskrit from a MS. even for three or four hours without
mistakes. To my great disappointment I found mistakes whenever I
collated my copy with the original. I found that like the copyists of
classical MSS. my eye had wandered from one line to another where the
same word occurred, that I had left out a word when the next word
ended with the same termination, nay that I had even left out whole
lines. Hence I had either to collate my own copy, which was very
tedious, or invent some new process. This new process I discovered by
using transparent paper, and thus tracing every letter. I had some
excellent _papier végétal_ made for me, and, instead of copying,
traced the whole Sanskrit MS. This had the great advantage that
nothing could be left out, and that when the original was smudged and
doubtful I could carefully trace whatever was clear and visible
through the transparent paper. At first I confess my work was slow,
but soon it went as rapidly as copying, and it was even less fatiguing
to the eyes than the constant looking from the MS. to the copy, and
from the copy to the MS. But the most important advantage was, that I
could thus feel quite certain that nothing was left out, so that even
now, after more than fifty years, these tracings are as useful to me
as the MS. itself. There was room left between the lines or on the
margin to note the various readings of other MSS.; in fact, my
materials grew both in extent and in value.
Still there remained the question of a publisher. To print the
Rig-veda in six volumes quarto of about a thousand pages each, and to
provide the editor with a living wage during the many years he would
have to devote to his task, required a large capital. I do not know
exactly how much, but what I do know is that, when a second edition of
the text of the Veda in four volumes was printed at the expense of the
Maharajah of Vizianagram, it cost that generous and patriotic prince
four thousand pounds, though I then gave my work gratuitously.
While I was working at the Bibliothèque Royale, Humboldt had used his
powerful influence with the king of Prussia, Frederick William IV, to
help me in publishing my edition of the Rig-veda in Germany. Nothing,
however, came of that plan; it proved too costly for any private
publisher, even with royal assistance.
Then came a vague offer from St. Petersburg. Boehtlingk, the great
Sanskrit scholar, as a member of the Imperial Russian Academy, invited
me to come to St. Petersburg and print the Veda there, in
collaboration with himself, and at the expense of the Academy. Burnouf
and Goldstücker both warned me against accepting this offer, but,
hopeless as I was of getting my Veda published elsewhere, I expressed
my willingness to go on condition that some provision should be made
for me before I decided to migrate to Russia, as I possessed
absolutely nothing but what I was able to earn myself. Boehtlingk, I
believe, suggested to the Academy that I should be appointed Assistant
Keeper of the Oriental Museum at St. Petersburg, but his colleagues
did not apparently consider so young a man, and a mere German scholar,
a fit candidate for so responsible a post. Boehtlingk wished me to
send him all my materials, and he would get the MSS. of the Rig-veda
and of Sâyana’s commentary from the Library of the East India Company,
and Paris. No definite proposition, however, came from the Imperial
Academy, but an announcement of Boehtlingk’s appeared in the papers
in January, 1846, to the effect that he was preparing, in
collaboration with Monsieur Max Müller of Paris, a complete edition of
the Rig-veda.
All this, I confess, began to frighten me. For me, a poor scholar, to
go to St. Petersburg without any official invitation, without any
appointment, seemed reckless, and though I have no doubt that
Boehtlingk would have done his best for me, yet even he could only
suggest private lessons, and that was no cheerful outlook. The Academy
would do nothing for me unless I joined Boehtlingk, but at last
offered to buy my materials, on which I had spent so much labour and
the small fund at my disposal. If the Academy could have got the
necessary MSS. from Paris and London, I should have been perfectly
helpless. Boehtlingk could have done the whole work himself, in some
respects better than I, because he was my senior, and besides, he knew
Pânini, the old Indian grammarian who is constantly referred to in
Sâyana’s Commentary, better than I did. With all these threatening
clouds around me, my decision was by no means easy.
It was Burnouf’s advice that determined me to remain quietly in Paris.
He warned me repeatedly against trusting to Boehtlingk, and promised,
if I would only stay in Paris, to give me his support with Guizot, who
was then Minister for Foreign Affairs, and very much interested in
Oriental studies.
Boehtlingk seems never to have forgiven me, and he and several of his
friends were highly displeased at my ultimate success in securing a
publisher for the Rig-veda in England. Their language was most
unbecoming, and they tried, and actually urged other Sanskrit
scholars, to criticize my edition, though I must say to their credit
that they afterwards confessed that it was all that could be desired.
Many years later, Boehtlingk published a violent attack on me,
entitled _F. Max Müller als Mythendichter_, but I thought it
unnecessary to take up the dispute, and preferred to leave my friends
to judge for themselves between me and this propounder of accusations,
the legitimacy of which he was utterly unable to establish. However,
as I discovered later that he accused me of having acted
discourteously towards the Imperial Academy of St. Petersburg, with
whom I had never had any direct dealings, and stated that he had
prevented that illustrious body from ever making me a corresponding
member, I thought it right to offer an explanation to the Secretary,
and I have in my possession his reply, in which he wrote that there
was no foundation whatever for Professor Boehtlingk’s statements.
However, the outcome of it was that I did not go to St. Petersburg,
but went on with my work at the Library in Paris, till one day I found
it necessary to run over to London, to copy and collate certain MSS.,
and there I found the long-sought-for benefactors, who were to enable
me to carry out the work of my life.
Of course, during my stay in Paris there was no idea of my going into
society, or of buying tickets for theatres or concerts. I went out to
dinner at some small restaurant, but otherwise I remained at home, and
viewed Paris life from my high windows, looking out on the Chambre des
Députés on one side, the Madeleine close to me on the left, and the
Porte St. Martin far away at the end of the Boulevards. Baron
d’Eckstein, as I have said, was willing to introduce me into society,
but I refused his kind offers. In fact, I was more or less of a bear,
and I now regret having missed meeting many interesting characters,
and having kept aloof from others, because my interests were absorbed
elsewhere. Burnouf asked me sometimes to his house; so did a Monsieur
Troyer, who had been in India and published some Sanskrit texts, and
whose daughter, the Duchesse de Wagram, made much of me, as she was
very fond of music. There were some German families also, some rich,
some poor, who showed me great kindness.
I was too much oppressed with cares and anxieties about my life and my
literary plans to think much of society and enjoyment. Even of the
students and student life I saw but little, though I was actually
attending lectures with them. I must say, however, that the little I
did see of student life in Paris gave me a very different idea from
what is generally thought of their vagaries and extravagances. A
Frenchman, if he once begins to work, can work and does work very
hard. I remember seeing several instances of this, but it is possible
that I may have seen the pick of the Quartier Latin only. One who was
then a young man, preparing for the Church, but already with an eye to
higher flights, was Renan. At first he still looked upon all young
Germans with suspicion, but this feeling soon disappeared. I remember
him chiefly at the Bibliothèque Royale, where he had a very small
place in the Oriental Department. Hase, the Greek scholar, Reinaud,
the Arabist, and Stanislas Julien, the Sinologue, were librarians
then. Hase, a German by birth, was most obliging, but he was greatly
afraid of speaking German, and insisted on our always speaking French
to him. Often did he call Renan to fetch MSS. for me: “Renan,” he
would call out very loudly, “allez chercher, pour Monsieur Max Müller,
le manuscrit sanscrit, numéro ...,” and then followed a pause, till he
had translated “1637” into French. In later years Renan and I became
great friends, but we German scholars were often puzzled at his great
popularity, which certainly was owing to his style more even than to
his scholarship. Some time later, when I was already established in
England, we had a little controversy, and I printed a rather fierce
attack on his _Grammaire Sémitique_. But we were intimate enough for
me to show him my pamphlet, and when he wrote to me, “Pardonnez-moi,
je n’ai pas compris ce que vous vouliez dire,” I suppressed the
pamphlet, though it was printed, and we remained friends for life. He
translated my first article on Comparative Mythology, and I had a
number of most interesting letters from him. It was his wife who did
the translation, while he revised it. That French pamphlet is very
scarce now; my own pamphlet was entirely suppressed; even I myself can
find no copy of it among the rubbish of my early writings, and what I
regret most, I threw away his letters, not thinking how interesting
they would become in time.
With all my work, however, I found time to attend some lectures at the
Collège de France, and to make the acquaintance of some distinguished
French _savants_ of the _Institut_. I went there with Burnouf, or
Stanislas Julien, or Reinaud, little dreaming that I should some day
belong to the same august body. Many of my young French friends, who
afterwards became _Membres de l’Institut_, rose to that dignity much
later. I was made not only a corresponding, but a real member of the
Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres in 1869, before my
friends, such as G. Perrot 1874, Michel Bréal 1875, Gaston Paris 1876,
and Jules Oppert 1881, occupied their well-merited academical
_fauteuils_. The struggle when I was elected in 1869 was a serious
one; it was between Mommsen and myself, between classical and Oriental
scholarship, and for once Oriental scholarship carried the day.
Mommsen, however, was elected in 1895, and there can be little doubt
that his strong and outspoken political antipathies had something to
do with the late date of his election.
I am sorry to say that one result of my seeing so little of French
life was that my French did not make such progress as I expected.
Though I was able to express myself _tant bien que mal_, I have always
felt hampered in a long conversation. Of course, the French themselves
have always been polite enough to say that they could not have
detected that I was a German, but I knew better than that, and never
have I, even in later years, gained a perfect conversational command
of that difficult language.