Therefore the oldest Vedas, the purely popular, cannot be younger than
3000; the _collection_ was made in the third period, the tenth book is
already in chief part written in a _dead language_. You see all depends on
whether I can authenticate the four periods with their three catastrophes;
for a new form of language presupposes a political change. Forms such as
Har-aqaiti I can explain just as that the Norwegian names of places are
younger than the corresponding Icelandic forms; in the colony the old
remains as a fixed form, in the mother country the language progresses.
For what concerns now seriously the _Mythology_, your spirited essay
opening the way was a real godsend, for I had just arrived at the
conviction which you will find expressed in the introduction to Book V.
(a): That the so-called nature-religion can be nothing but the _symbol_ of
the primitive consciousness of God, which only gradually became
independent (through misunderstanding) and which already lies prefigured
in organic speech. P——, K—— and Co., are on this point in great darkness,
or rather in utter error. _You_ have kept yourself perfectly free from
this mistake. I however felt that I must proclaim what is positively true
far more sharply, and have drawn the outlines of a method which is to me
the more convincing, as it has stood the test of the whole history of old
religion. For in taking up the Aryan investigations, I closed the circle
of my historical mythological inquiry. What will _you_ say to this? For I
have written the whole especially for you, to come to an understanding
with you. I arrive at the same point which you aim at, but without your
roundabout way, which is but a make-shift. But in the fundamental
conception of nature-religion, we do certainly agree altogether. If you
come to Germany, you will find here with me the proof-sheets of Book V.(b)
(about pages 1-200) which treat of this section, as well as the analysis
of the table of the Hebrew patriarchs. They will be looked through before
Haug’s journey to Paris and mine to Geneva (August 1), and will be
therefore all struck off when I return here on the 23d August.
Your essay holds a beautiful place in the history of the subject. The work
on that section gave me inexpressible delight, and a despaired-of gap in
my life is filled up, as far as is necessary for my own knowledge; and I
believe too not without advantage to the faithful.
How disgraceful it is that we do not instinctively understand the Veda
language, when we read it in respectable Roman letters, with a little
previous grammatical practice! Your Veda Grammar will be a closed book to
me, as you print in the later Devanagari goose-foot character. Haug shall
transliterate for me the grammatical forms into _your_ alphabet. He is a
noble Suabian, and much attached to me; also a great admirer of yours.
My “God-Consciousness” is printed (thirty-two sheets), twenty are
corrected (and fought through with Bernays). This work, too, will be
carried through the second revise before my journey. I wonder myself what
will come of the work. Its _extent_ remains unaltered (three volumes in
six books), but its contents are ever swelling. I hope it _will take_. I
shall strike the old system _dead forever_, if we do not go to ruin; of
this I am sure; therefore I must all the more lay the foundations of the
new structure in the heart, the conscience, and the reason.
O! what a hideous time! God be praised, who made us both free. So also is
Carl now, through his official efficiency and his happy marriage. The
wedding will take place in Paris between the 9th and 15th October. We
shall go there.
I take daily rides, and was never better. Please God I shall finish the
“God-Consciousness” (II. and III.) between the 25th August and the end of
October (the third volume is nearly ready), and then I shall take up the
“Biblework,” the proof-sheets of which lie before me, with _undivided_
energy. The contract with Brockhaus is concluded and exchanged. I shall
perhaps come to England in October, 1857; that is to say _with_ the first
volume of the Bible, but _not without_ it.
Neukomm and Joachim have been with us for six weeks, which gave us the
greatest enjoyment. Neukomm returns here at the end of August.
My children promise me (without saying it) to meet here for the 25th
August, to introduce the amiable bride to me. I am rejoicing over it like
a child.
Why do you not make a journey to the Neckar valley with your mother and
cousin? My people send hearty greetings. With true love, yours.
I am purposely not reading your Anti-Renan all at once, that I may often
read it over again before I finish it. I think it is admirably written.
Perhaps a distinguished philologist, Dr. Fliedner (nephew of the head of
the Deaconesses), may call on you. He has been highly recommended to me,
and is worthy of encouragement. What is Aufrecht about? I cannot cease to
feel interested about him.
[75.]
CHARLOTTENBERG, _October 7, 1856_.
Yesterday, my dearest friend, I sent off the close of the last volume of
“Egypt,” together with the printed sheets 13-19, and at the same time to
Brockhaus the last two revised sheets of the “God in History,” Volume I.;
and to-day I have again taken up the translation of the Bible (Exodus),
with Haug and Camphausen—that is, Haug arrived the day before yesterday.
(Between ourselves, I hope Bernays is coming to me for three years.) How I
should have liked to show you these sheets, 13-19 (the Bactrians and
Indians and their chronology). You will find in them a thorough discussion
of your beautiful essay (which has been admired everywhere as a perfect
masterpiece), not without some shakings of the head at K—— and B——. In
fact I have gone in for it, and by New Year’s Day you shall have it before
you. This, with the journey to Switzerland and three weeks of
indisposition afterwards, are an excuse for my silence.
It always gives me great and inexpressible pleasure when you _talk_ to me
by letter and _think aloud_. And this time I have been deeply touched by
it. I am convinced you have since then yourself examined the
considerations which oppose themselves to your bold and noble wish with
regard to the Punjab. What would become of your great work? I will not
here say what shall we in Europe do without you? Also; do you mean to go
_alone_ to Hapta Hendu, or as a married man? There you will never find a
wife. And would your intended go with you? And the _children_? All
Englishmen tell me it is just as unbearably hot in Lahore as in Delhi; in
_Umritsir_ there is no fresh air. No Sing goes to Cashmir because he who
reigns there would soon dispatch him out of the world at the time of the
fever.
By the by, what has become of your convert? Does he still smoke without
any scruple?
Your gorgeous Rig-veda at Brockhaus’ frightens people here because of its
extent (they would have given up the Sanhita, satisfied with various
readings) and the exorbitant price. Others would willingly have had your
own Veda Grammar besides the Indian grammatical treatise, especially on
account of the Vedic forms. In fact you are admired, but criticised. You
must not allow this to annoy you. I find that Haug thinks about the
mythology nearly as I do.
Everything in Germany resolves itself more and more into pettinesses and
cliques, and the pitiful question of subsistence. “The many princes are
our good fortune, but poverty is our crime.” Had not _Brunn_ offered
himself to take Braun’s place, giving up his private tutorship, we must
have given up the Archæological Institute at Rome! With difficulty Gerhard
has found _one_ man in Germany who could undertake the Italian printing of
the “Annali” (appearing, as you know, in Gotha). “Resta a vedere se lo
può!” All who can, leave Prussia—and only blockheads or hypocrites are let
in, with the exception of physical science; whoever can do so turns
engineer, or goes into a house of business, or emigrates. My decided
advice on this account therefore is, reserve yourself for better times,
and stay at present in England, where you have really won a delightful
position for yourself.
Now for various things about myself. Every possible thing is done to draw
me away from here (my third capitol, the first of my own). The King quite
recently (which I could not in the least expect) received me here at the
railway station, in the most affectionate way, and demanded a promise from
me that I would pay him a visit within a year and a day. But I have once
for all declared myself as the “hermit of Charlottenberg,” and hermits and
prophets should stay at home. I do not even go to Carlsruhe and Coblentz.
_Cui bono?_ What avails good words, without good deeds? But the nation is
not dead. Don’t imagine that. Before this month is out you will see what I
have said on this subject in the Preface to the “God in History.” Within
six to ten years the nation will again be fit to act. Palmerston will cut
his throat if nothing comes of the Neapolitan business, and just the same
if he cannot make “a good case;” the principle of intervention even
against Bomba is self-destruction for England, and disgraceful in the
highest degree. The _fox_ cannot begin war in Italy at _the present
moment_ from want of money, and his accomplices are afraid of losing their
stolen booty. So he tries to gain time. He will still live a few years.
I have seen ——: he knows a great deal more than he allows to appear, but
is the driest, and most despairing Englishman I have ever seen. He has
suffered shipwreck of everything on the Tübingen sand bank. The poor
wretches! Religion and theology without philosophy is bad; philosophy
without philosophy is a monster! So Comte is a trump-card with many in
Oxford! He is so in London. What a fall of intellect! what a decay of
life! what an abyss of ignorance! Jowett is a living shoot, and will
continue so; but John Bull is my chief comfort, even for my “God in
History.” America is my greatest misery after my misery for Germany; but
the North _will_ prove itself in the right.
With hearty greetings of truest attachment and love to your mother, truly
yours.
We expect George on the 18th. Ernst is here.
[76.]
CHARLOTTENBERG, _January 29, 1857_.
You have really inflicted it on me! For though I have but one leg to stand
upon (I cannot _sit_ at all), as the other has been suffering for four
days from sciatica (let Dr. Acland explain that to you, whilst you at the
same time thank him heartily for his excellent book on the cholera), still
I am obliged to place myself at the desk, to answer my dear friend’s
letter, received yesterday evening in bed. The last fortnight I have daily
thought of you incessantly, and wished to write you a dunning letter, at
the same time thanking you for the third volume of the Veda, which already
contains some hymns of the seventh book, as the admiring Haug read it out
to me. Out of this especially he promises me a great treasure for my Vedic
God-Consciousness, without prejudice to what the muse may perhaps prompt
you to send me in your beautiful poetical translation; for my young
assistant will have nothing to do with that. You will certainly agree with
him, after you have read my first volume, that much is to be found in that
Veda for the centre of my inquiries; the consciousness in the Indian
Iranians of the reality of the divine in human life. I find in all that
has yet come before me, almost the same that echoes through the Edda, and
that appears in Homer as popular belief; the godhead interferes in human
affairs, when crime becomes too wanton, and thus evil is overcome and the
good gains more and more the upper hand. Of course that is kept in the
background, when despair in realities becomes the keynote of the
God-Consciousness, as with the Brahmans, and then with the much-praised
apostles of annihilation, the Buddhists. You are quite right; it is a pity
that I could not let the work appear all at once, for even you
misunderstand me. When I say “_we_ cannot pray with the Vedas and Homer
and their heroes, not even with Pindar,” I mean, we as worshippers, as a
community; and that you will surely allow. Of course the thoughtful
philosopher can well say with Goethe, “worship and liturgy in the name of
St. Homer, not to forget Æschylus and Shakespeare.” But that matter is
nevertheless true in history without any limitation. I have only tried it
with Confucius, but it is more difficult; it is as if an antediluvian
armadillo tried to dance.
But what will my Old Testament readers say when I lead them into the glory
of the Hellenic God-Consciousness? Crossing and blessing themselves won’t
help! My expressions therefore in the second volume are carefully
considered and cautiously used. But the tragedy of my life will be the
fourth book. Yet I write it, I have written it!
You are quite right about the English translation; all the three volumes
at once, and the address at the beginning. But you must read the second
book for me. It is no good saying you don’t understand anything about it.
I have made it easy enough for you. I have asserted nothing simply,
without making it easy for every educated person to form his own opinion,
if he will only reflect seriously about the Bible. The _presuppositions_
are either as good as granted, or where anything peculiar to me comes in,
I have in the notes justified everything thoroughly, although apparently
very simply. Take the Lent Sundays for this, and you will keep Easter with
me, and also your amiable mother (from whom you never send me even a word
of greeting).
But now, how does it fare with “Egypt?” The closing volume, which, as you
know, I wrote partly out of despair, because you would not help me, and in
which I most especially thought of you, and reckoned on your guiding
friendship, must surely now be in your hands (the two preceding volumes,
of course, some time ago). Why don’t you read them?
I am not at all easy at what you tell me about yourself and your feelings;
even though I feel deeply that you do not quite withdraw your inmost
thoughts from me. But why are you unhappy? You have gained for yourself a
delightful position in life. You are getting on with your gigantic work.
You (like me) have won a fatherland in England, without losing your German
home, the ever excellent. You have a beautiful future before you. You can
at any moment give yourself a comfortable and soul-satisfying family
circle. If many around you are Philisters, you knew that already; still
they are worth something in _their_ own line. Only step boldly forward
into life. Then Heidelberg would come again into your itinerary.
One thing more this time. I have not received Wilson’s translation. I
possess both the first and second volumes. Has he not continued his useful
work? What can I do to remind him of the missing part? The third volume,
too, must contain much that is interesting for me.
I cannot forget Aufrecht. Is he free from care and contented? The family
greet you and your dear mother. We expect Charles and his young wife next
week. Ernst is, as you will know, back at Abbey Lodge. With unaltered
affection.
[77.]
CHARLOTTENBERG, _April 27, 1857_.
The month is nearly over, my dear friend, before the close of which I
must, according to agreement, deliver up my revised copy of the amendments
and additions to the English edition of my “Egypt.” (They are already
there.) I hoped that in this interval you would have found a little
leisure (as Lepsius and Bernays have done, who sent me the fruits of their
reading already at the beginning of the month, in the most friendly way)
to communicate to me your criticisms or doubts or thoughts or corrections
on that which I have touched on in your own especial territory, as I had
expressly and earnestly begged you to do. I have improved the arrangement
very much. As you have not done this, I can only entertain one of two
disagreeable suppositions, namely, that you are either ill or out of
spirits, or that you have only what is disagreeable to say of my book, and
would rather spare yourself and me from this. But as from what I know of
you, and you know of me, I do not find in either the one or the other
supposition a sufficient explanation of your obstinate silence, I should
have forced myself to wait patiently, had I not to beg from you alone a
small but indispensable gift for my “God in History.”
I have again in this interregnum taken up the interrupted studies of last
year on the Aryan God-Consciousness in the Asiatic world, and thanks to
Burnouf’s, yours, Wilson’s, Roth’s and Fausböll’s books, and Haug’s
assistance and translations, I have made the way easy to myself for
understanding the two great Aryan prophets Zaraduschtra and Sākya, and (so
far as that is possible to one of us now) the Veda; and this not without
success and with inexpressible delight. My expectations are far exceeded.
The Vedic songs are by far the most glorious, which in first going through
that fearful translation of Wilson’s, seemed to wish to hide themselves
entirely from me. The difficulties of making them intelligible, even of a
bare translation, are immense; the utter perverseness of Sâya_n_a is only
exceeded by that of Wilson, to whom however one can never be grateful
enough for his communications. I now first perceive what a difficult but
also noble work you have undertaken, and how much still remains doubtful;
even after one has got beyond the collectors and near to the original
poets. It is as if of the Hebrew traditions we only had the Psalms, and
that without an individual personality like David, without, in fact, any
one; on the contrary, allusions to Abraham’s possible poems and the
cosmical dreams of the Aramæans. But yet how strong is the feeling of
immediate relation to God and nature, how truly human, and how closely
related to our own! What a curious similarity to the Edda, Homer, and
Pindar, Hesiod, and the Hellenic primitive times! Nothing however gave me
greater delight than the dignity and solemnity of the funeral ceremonies,
which you have made so really clear and easy to be understood. This is as
yet the only piece of _real life_ of our blood relations in the land of
the five rivers. I have naturally taken possession of this treasure with
the greatest delight, and perfected the description for my problem by the
explanation of Yama (following on the whole Roth, who however overlooks
the demiurgic character), of the Ribhus (departing entirely, not only from
Nève’s mistaken views, but also from what I have read elsewhere,
representing them as the three powers which divide and form matter,
namely, Air, Water, and Earth, to whom the fourth, Agni, was joined under
the guidance of Tvash’ar), and of the funeral ceremonies as the condition
of the laws of inheritance; where I return to my own beginning. And here
it strikes me at once that in the Vedas, so far as they are accessible to
me, there is not a trace to be found of the _joining together of the three
generations_ (the departed and his father and grandfather), and making
them the unity of the race through the sacrificial oblations. And yet the
_idea_ must be older than the Vedas, as this precise, though certainly not
accidental limitation is found with Solon and the Twelve Tables, just as
clearly as with Manu and all the books of laws, and the commentaries
collected by Colebrooke. You would of course have mentioned this in your
account if anything of the sort had existed in the tenth book. But even
the Pitris, the fathers, are not mentioned, but it passes on straight to
Yama the first ancestor. Haug, too, has discovered nothing; if you know
anything about it, communicate it to me in the course of May, for my
second volume goes to press on the 1st June. I shall read it aloud to
George and Miss Wynn here, between the 25th and 31st.
But my real desire is that you should send me one of your melodious and
graceful metrical translations of _your_ hymn, “Nor aught nor nought
existed.” I must of course give it (it belongs with me to the period of
transition, therefore, comparatively speaking, late); and how can I
venture to translate it? I have, to be sure, done so with about five
poems, which Haug chose for me out of the first nine books, and translated
literally and then explained them to me; as well as with those which I
worked out of Wilson’s two first volumes by the help of Roth and Haug. But
that is _your_ hymn, and I have already written my thanks for your
communication in my MS. and then left a space. That good Rowland Williams
thinks it theistic, or at all events lets one of the speakers say so.
Rowland Williams’ “Christ and Hinduism” has been a real refreshment to me,
in this investigation of the Indian consciousness of God in the world. The
mastery of the Socratic-Platonic dialogue, the delicacy and freedom of the
investigation, and the deep Christian and human spirit of this man, have
attracted me more than all other new English books, and even filled me
with astonishment. Muir, that good man, sent it me through Williams and
Norgate, and I have not only thanked him, but Williams himself, in a full
letter, and have pressingly invited him for his holidays to our little
philosophers’ room. It is an especial pleasure to me that Mary and John,
whose neighbor he is in summer, have appreciated him, and loved and prized
him, and Henry also.
Henry will bring me “Rational Godliness.” This book, English as it is,
should be introduced into India, in order to convert the followers of
Brahma and the English Christians! One sees what hidden energy lies in the
English mind, as soon as it is turned to a worthy object, but for this of
course the fructifying influences of the German spirit are required. I
have, on the contrary, been much disappointed by G——’s communication
contained in Burnouf’s classical works, on that most difficult but yet
perfectly soluble point of the teaching of Buddha, the twelve points
“beginning with ignorance and ending with death.” G—— leaves the rational
way even at the first step, and perceives his error himself at the ninth,
but so far he finds Buddha’s (that is his own) proofs unanswerable. How
totally different is Burnouf. He is fresh, self-possessed, and clear. I
can better explain why William von Humboldt went astray on this subject.
But I have already gossiped too much of my own thoughts to you. Therefore
to Anglicis.
What are you about in Oxford? According to Haug’s account you have abused
me well, or allowed me to be well abused in your “Saturday Review,” which
passes as yours and Kingsley’s mouthpiece. If it were criticism, however
mistaken, but why personal aspersions? Pattison’s article on the
“Theologia Germanica” in the April number of the “Westminster Review” is
very brave, and deserves all thanks. He has learnt to prize Bleek: in all
respects he has opened himself more to me in the last few weeks, and I
like him. But the man who now writes the survey of foreign literature in
the “Westminster Review” might have just _read_ my book: this he cannot
have done, or else he is a thorough bungler; for he (1) understands me
only as representing the personal God (apparently the one in the clouds,
as you once expressed it, _a-straddle_, riding) and leaving out everything
besides; (2) that the last twenty-seven chapters of the book of Isaiah are
not, as one has hitherto conceived, written by one man, but by Jeremiah,
although he is already the glorified saint of the 53d chapter, _and_ by
Baruch. Now thank God that the sheet is finished, and think occasionally
in a friendly way of your true friend.
I shall to-day finish the ante-Solonic God-Consciousness of the Hellenes.
That does one good.
[78.]
CHARLOTTENBERG, _Friday, May 8, 1857_.
I must at least begin a letter to you to-day, because I feel I must thank
you, and express my delight at the letter and article. The _letter_
confirms my fears in the highest degree, namely, that _you are not well_,
not to say that you begin to be a hypochondriacal old bachelor. But that
is such a natural consequence of your retired sulky Don’s life, and of
your spleen, that I can only wonder how you can fight so bravely against
it. But both letter and article show me how vigorous are both your mind
and heart. It is quite right in you to defend Froude, though no one better
knows that the general opinion is (as is even acknowledged by members of
the German romantic school) that Shakespeare intentionally counteracted
the corrupt instinct and depraved taste of his nation in the matter of
Oldcastle. Whatever strange saints there have been in all countries, yet
the Wycliffites, true to their great and noble master, were martyrs, and
Milman has insisted on this most nobly. To misapprehend Wyeliffe himself,
that is, not to recognize him as the first and purest reformer, the man
between the Waldenses, Tauler, and Luther, is, however, a heresy more
worthy of condemnation than the ignoring of Germany in the Reformation,
and doubly deplorable when one sees such blind faith in the bloody
sentences of that most miserable court of judgment of Henry VIII. I must
therefore invert your formula thus, “L’histoire romanique (romantique) ne
vaut pas le Roman historique.” (I am not speaking of “Two Years Ago,” for
I only began to read the book yesterday.) _But_ I am very glad that you
think so highly of Froude personally, and therefore this matter does not
disturb me. On the other hand, I rejoice without any _but_, that you have
taken up Buddha so lovingly and courageously. (Do you know that extracts
from the article have found their way into the papers, through “Galignani”
as “Signs of the Times.”) You will soon see how nearly we agree together,
although I cannot say so much of the humanizing influence of Buddhism: it
makes of the Turanians what the Jesuits make of the people of Paraguay,
“praying machines.” In _China_ the Buddhists are not generally respected;
in _India_ they could not maintain their position, and would with
difficulty convert the people, if they tried to regain their lost ground.
But Buddha, _personally_, was a saint, a man who felt for mankind, a
profound man. I have said in my section, “Buddha has not only found more
millions of followers than Jesus, but is also even more misunderstood than
the Son of Mary.” Have you read _Dhammapadam_? What is the authority for
Buddha’s “Ten Commandments?” I have always considered this as an invention
of Klaproth’s, confirmed by Prinsep. I do not find them on Asoka’s
pillars, nor in that didactic poem; on the contrary, four or five _ad
libitum_. I shall, however, now read the sermons of the (really worthless)
convert Asoka at the fountain head, from Sprenger’s library.
You have represented the whole as with a magic wand. We really _edified_
ourselves yesterday evening with it. Frances read aloud, and we listened;
and this morning early my wife has made it into a beautiful little book in
quarto, with which I this afternoon made _Trübner_ very happy for some
hours. He is a remarkable man, and is _much_ devoted to you, and I have
entered into business relations with him about my “Biblework,” the first
volume of which goes to press on the 1st of January; the other six stand
before me as far finished as they can be, till I have the printed text of
“The People’s Bible” in three volumes before me, on which the “Biblical
Documents,” three volumes, and the “Life of Jesus and the Eternal Kingdom
of God,” one volume, are founded. He appears to me to be the right
negotiator between America, England, and Germany. He will before long call
on you some Saturday. (Write me word how you think of him as a
bookseller.) The duty you pay for your place, by putting together a
Chresthomathy, is very fair; whether you are obliged to print your
Lectures I cannot decide. I shall curse them both if they prevent you from
tearing yourself away from the Donnish atmosphere and bachelor life of
Oxford, and from throwing yourself into the fresh mental atmosphere of
Germany and of German mind and life. You must take other journeys besides
lake excursions and Highland courses. Why don’t you go to Switzerland,
with an excursion (by Berlin) to Breslau, to the German Oriental Congress?
There is nothing like the German spirit, in spite of all its
one-sidedness. What a _lœta paupertas_! What a recognition of the
sacerdocy of science! And then the strengthening air, free from fog, of
our mountains and valleys! You bad fellow, to tell me nothing of your
mother’s leaving you, for you ought to know that I am _tenderly_ devoted
to her; and it vexes me all the more, as I should long ago have sent her
my “God in History,” had I known that she was in Germany. (Query where?
Address?) Therefore fetch her, instead of luring her away to the walks
under the lime-trees. _George_ is going too at the end of June from here
to the Alps; we expect him in a fortnight. He is a great delight to me.
Now something more about Yama. I think you are _perfectly_ right with
regard to the origin. It is exactly the same with _Osiris_, the husband of
Isis, the earth, and then the judge of the dead and first man. Only we do
not on this account explain _Anubis_ as a _symbol of the sun_, but as the
watchful Dog of Justice, the accuser. So there are features in Yama (and
Yima) which are not to be easily explained from the cosmogonic conception,
although they can be from the idea of the divine, the first natural
representation of which is the astral one. I think, however, that Yama is
Geminus, that is “the upper and lower sun,” to speak as an Egyptian. _The
two dogs_ must originally have been what their mother the old bitch Saramâ
is; but with the God of Death they are something different, and the lord
of the dead is to be as little explained by the so-called nature-religion
_without returning to the eternal factor_, as this first phase itself
could have arisen without it as cosmical—_therefore_, as first symbol. How
I long for your two translations! The hymn which you give in the article
is _sublime_: the search after the God of the human heart is expressed
with indescribable pathos; and how much more will this be the case in your
hands in a new Indian translation! For we are most surely now the Indians
of the West. I am delighted that you so value Rowland Williams. We must
never forget that he has undertaken (as he himself most pointedly wrote to
me) the difficult task “to teach Anglican theology (and that to Anglican
Cymri).” He has not yet quite promised to pay me a visit,—he is evidently
afraid of me as a German and freethinker, and is afraid “to be
catechised.” He, like all Englishmen, is wanting in _faith_. He seems to
occupy himself profoundly with the criticism of the Old Testament. Poor
fellow! But he will take to Daniel.
The Harfords are determined to keep him there, in which Henry has already
encouraged them. I, however, think he _ought_ to go to Cambridge if they
offer him a professorship. Muir has written to me again,—an honest man;
but he has again taken a useless step, a prize, for which Hoffmann
(superintendent-in-general) is to be the arbiter; and the three judges
will be named by him, Lehnert as theologian (Neander’s unknown successor),
H. Ritter as the historian of philosophy (very good,—and who as
_Orientalist_)! No magister will touch his pen, _his ducibus_ and _tali
auspicio_. You should perform the Benares vow by a catechism drawn up for
the poor young Brahmans in the style of Rowland Williams, and yet quite
different, that is, in your own manner, telling and short. At all events,
no one in Germany will write half as good a book for the Brahmans as
Williams has done. The Platonic dialogue requires a certain breadth,
unless one is able and willing to imitate the Parmenides. At the same time
the ordinary missionaries may convert the lower classes through the Gospel
and through Christian-English-German life, in which alone they prove their
faith. By the by, it seems that Williams hopes for an article from you in
the “North British Review.” That you intend to read my “Egypt” is
delightful; only not in the Long Vacation, when you ought to travel about.
Have you read the friendly article on “God in History” in the “National
Review” (April), which however certainly shows an ignorance bordering on
impudence. Even the man in the “Westminster Review” pleases me better,
although he looked through my book fast asleep, and puts into my mouth the
most unbelievable discoveries of his own ignorance,—Isaiah chapters
xlix.-lxvi. are written by _Jeremiah_ and _Baruch_, and similar horrors!
When will people learn something? But in four years I hope, with God’s
help, to state this, in spite of them, and force them at last to learn
something through “the help of their masters and mine.” With true love,
yours.
[79.]
CHARLOTTENBERG, _Friday Morning, August 28, 1857_.
See there he remains in the centre of Germany for a month, and lets one
hear and see nothing of him! Had I not soon after the receipt of your dear
and instructive letter gone to Wildbad, and there fallen into
indescribable idleness, I should long ago have written to Oxford; for the
letter was a great delight to me. The snail had there crept out of his
shell and spoke to me as the friend, but now “Your Excellency” appears
again; so the snail has drawn his head in again.
Now, my dear friend, you ought to be thanked for the friendly thought of
paying me a visit, and writing to me. Therefore you must know that I
returned here on the 19th, in order to greet, in his father’s native
country, Astor, my now sixty-three years old pupil, who proposed himself
for the 20th to the 25th, and who for my sake has left his money-bags in
order to see me once again. And now Astor is really in Europe, and has
called at Abbey Lodge; but his wife and granddaughter have stayed on in
Paris or Brussels, and Astor is _not_ yet here. This, however, has no
effect on my movements, for I do not accompany him to Switzerland, where,
I know, Brockhaus would send a hue and cry after me.
That the Oxford Don should ask him if I would afford him a “few hours,”
shows again the English leaven. For you well know that my hermit’s life is
dear to me for this reason,—that it leaves me at liberty to receive here
the Muses and my friends. And what have we not to talk over? The “hours”
belong to the Don’s gown; for you know very well that we could in a “few
hours” only figure to ourselves _what_ we have to discuss by turns. So
come as soon as you can, and stay at least a week here. You will find my
house to be sure rather lonely, as Henry has robbed me of the womankind,
and Sternberg of Theodora; and that excellent princess keeps Emilia from
me, who is faithfully nursing her benefactress in an illness that I hope
is passing away. We two old people are, however, here and full of old
life. Perhaps you will also still find Theodore, who, however, soon after
Astor’s departure will be hurrying off to Falmouth for sea-bathing, in
acceptance of his brother Ernst’s invitation. Laboulaye has announced
himself for the 8th; Gerhard and his wife for the first or second week in
September; therefore, if you do find any one, they will be friends.
Besides Meyer, there is Dr. Sprenger, the Arabic scholar, as house friend,
whose library I have at last secured for us,—a delightful man, who is my
guide in the Arabian desert, so that I may be certain of bringing the
children of Israel in thirty months to the Jabbok, namely, in the fifth of
the eight volumes.
I can give you no better proof of my longing to see you than by saying
that you shall _even_ be welcome without your mother, who is so dear and
unforgotten to us all, although we by no means give up the hope that you
will bring her with you here. For I _must_ see her again in this life. I
ought to have thanked her before this for a charming letter, but I did not
know _where_ she had gone from Carlsbad; her son never sent me the
address. Should she _not_ come with you, you must pay toll for the delay,
which, however, must not be longer than one year, with a photograph, for I
_must_ soon see her.
So you have looked at my Genesis! I am pleased at this. But I hope you
will look at the chapters once again, when they are set _in pages_, after
my last amendments; also at my discussions on Genesis i. 1-4, ii. 4-7, as
i. and ii. of the thirty thorns (in the Appendix, p. cxxxv.) which I have
run into the weak side of the Bible dragon, though less than one thirtieth
of its heaviest sins. I feel as if I had got over three quarters of the
work since I sent the eleven chapters and the thirty thorns into the
world. My holidays last till the 21st of October. Haug is in the India
House, over Minokhired and Parsi Bundehesh. If you have a moment’s time,
look at my quiet polemic against you and Burnouf in favor of Buddha, in
reference to the Nirvâna. Koeppen has given me much new material, although
he is of your opinion. I am quite convinced that Buddha thought on this
point like Tauler and the author of the “German Theology;” but he was an
Indian and lived in desperate times. A thousand thanks for the dove which
you sent me out of the ark of the Rig-Veda. I had sinned against the same
hymn by translating it according to Haug, as I had not courage enough to
ask you for more. And that leads me to tell you with what deep sympathy
and melancholy pleasure your touching idyl has filled me. You will easily
believe me that after the first five minutes I saw you vividly behind the
mask. I thank you _very much_ for having ordered it to be sent to me. I am
very glad that you _have_ written it, for I would far rather see you
mixing in the life of the present and future, with your innate freshness
and energy. I must end. All love from me and Fanny to your incomparable
mother. So to our speedy meeting. Truly yours.
George will have arrived in London yesterday with wife and child; his
darling Ella has a serious nervous affection, and they are to try sea air.
He is much depressed.
[80.]
CHARLOTTENBERG, _February 17, 1858_.
Your affectionate letter, my dear friend, has touched me deeply. First
your unaltered love and attachment, and that you have perfectly understood
me and my conduct in this affair. Naturally my fate will be very much
influenced by it. I must be _every year_ in Berlin: this year I shall
satisfy myself with the last three weeks after Easter. In 1859 (as I shall
spend the winter in Nice) I shall take my seat, when I return in April
across the Alps. But later (and perhaps from 1859) I must not only live in
Prussia, which is prescribed by good feeling and by the constitution, but
I must stay for some time in Berlin. They all wish to have me there. God
knows how little effort it costs me not to seek the place of Minister of
Instruction, to say nothing of declining it, for everything is daily going
more to _ruin_. But it could only be for a short time, and
Bethmann-Hollweg, Usedom, and others can do the right thing just as well,
and have time and youth to drag away the heavy cart of a Chinese order of
business, which now consumes nine tenths of the time of a Prussian
minister (who works twelve hours a day).
What I wish and am doing with my “Biblework,” _you_ will see between the
lines of my first volume; other people, twelve months later, when my first
volume of the Bible documents “comes out:” and even then they will not see
where the concluding volume tends,—the world’s history in the Bible, and
the Bible in the world’s history. Already in the end of 1857 I finished
all of the first volume: the stereotyping goes on fearfully slow. You will
receive one of the first copies which goes across the Channel; and you
will read it at once, will you not? I am delighted that you are absorbed
in _Eckart_: he is the key to Tauler, and there is nothing better, _except
the Gospel of St. John_. For there stands still more clearly than in the
other gospel writings, that the object of life in this world is to _found
the Kingdom of God on earth_ (as my friends the Taipings understand it
also). Of this, Eckart and his scholars had despaired, just as much as
Dante and his parody, Reineke Fuchs. You will find already many pious
ejaculations of this kind in my two volumes of “God in History;” but I
have deferred the closing word till the sixth book, where _our_ tragedy
will be revealed, in order to begin boldly with a new epos. I send you
to-day four sheets by book-post, “The Aryans in Asia;” for I cannot finish
it without your personal help. You will find that you have already
furnished a great portion of the matter. The same hymn which I translated
with difficulty and trouble from Haug’s literal translation (in strophes
which you however do not recognize?) (Ps. li.), you have translated for
me, in your own graceful manner, on a fly-sheet, and sent to me from
Leipzig. Of course I shall use this translation in place of my own. I
therefore venture to request that you will do the same with regard to the
other examples which I have given. If you wish to add anything _new_, it
will suit perfectly, for everything fits in at the end of the chapter: the
number of the pages does not come into consideration in the present stage.
You will receive the leaves on Saturday; it would be delightful if you
could finish them in the course of the following week, and send them back
to me. (We have a contract here with France, which gives us a sort of
book-post.) I expect next week the continuation of the Brahmanism and
Buddha. I should like to send both to you. The notes and _excursus_ will
only be printed at the close of the volume, therefore not before May. The
rest (Books V., VI.) will be printed during the summer, to appear before I
cross the Alps. In this I develop the tragedy of the Romano-Germanic
world, and shall both gain many and lose many friends by it. I have read
your brilliant article on Welcker with great delight. I possess it. Have
you sent it (if only anonymously) to the noble old man? He has deserved
it. The article makes a great noise, and will please him very much. In
fact, everything would give me undisturbed pleasure, did I not see (even
without your telling me, which, however, you have done, as is the sacred
duty between friends) that you are not happy in yourself. Of _one_ thing I
am convinced,—you would be just as little so, _even less_, in Germany, and
least of all among the sons of the Brahmans. If you continue to live as
you do now, you would everywhere miss England,—perhaps also Oxford, if you
went to London. Of this I am not clear: in general a German lives far more
freely in the World-city than in the Don-city, where every English
idiosyncrasy strengthens itself, and buries itself in coteries.
Unfortunately I have neither read “Indophilus” nor “Philindus:” please
tell me the numbers of the “Times.” I can get a copy of the “Times” here
from the library from month to month. Trevelyan is an excellent man,
occasionally unpractical and mistaken, always meaning well and accessible
to reason. But does any one _study_ in London? _Dubito!_ But I don’t
understand the plan of an Oriental College. Perhaps it is possible to
undertake London without giving up Oxford entirely. The power of
influencing the young men, who after ten or twenty years will govern the
land, is far greater in Oxford or Cambridge than in London. I am curious
about your “German Reading Book.”
I maintain one thing,—you are not happy; and that comes from your bachelor
life. The progress of your Vedic work delights me: but how much in it is
still a riddle! Thus, for instance, the long hymn (2 Ash_t_aka, third
Adhyâya, Sûkta viii. CLXIV.) p. 125. The hymn is first of all, as can be
proved, beyond verse 41 _not genuine_; but even this older portion is
late, surely already composed on the Sarasvatî. The Veda is already a
finished book (verse 39), Brahma and Vish_n_u are gods (35, 36). The whole
is really wearisome, because it wishes to be mysterious without an idea.
(See 4 Ash_t_aka, seventh Adhyâya, vol. iii. p. 463.) Is not Brahma there
a god like Indra?
I depend on your marking all egregious blunders with a red pencil. Many
such must still have remained, leaving out of view all differences of
opinion. Tell me as much as you can on this point in a letter, for on the
Continent only notes for press are allowed to go as a packet. (But of
these you can bring in as much as you wish: the copy is a duplicate.) At
the end I should much like to write something about the present
impossibility of enjoying the Rig-Veda, and of the necessity of a
spiritual key. But I do not quite know, first of all, whether one can
really enter upon the whole: there is much that is conventional and mortal
by the side of what is imperishable. An anthology in about two or three
volumes would find a rapid sale, and would only benefit a more learned and
perfect edition. If you have arrived at the same conclusion, _I will blow
the trumpet_.
George greets you heartily, as do his mother and sisters. Perhaps I shall
move in April, 1859, to Bonn; _here_ I shall _not_ stay. _Deus
providebit._ With truest affection, yours.
Best remembrance to your mother. Have you read my preface to “Debit and
Credit?” I have poured out my heart about Kingsley in the Introduction to
the German “Hypatia,” and told him that everybody must say to himself,
sooner or late, “Let the dead bury the dead.”
[81.]
CHARLOTTENBERG, _July 31, 1858_.
With threefold joy, my loved friend, have I heard the news through your
great admirer Mme. Schwabe, of your charming intention of delighting us in
August with a visit. _First_, on account of the plan itself: _then_
because I can now compress into a few lines the endless letter I have so
long had in my thoughts, to develop it in conversation according to my
heart’s desire; _thirdly_, because really since yesterday the day has come
when the one half of the concluding volume (iii.) of “God in History” has
gone to press, so that its appearing is secured. A letter to you, and a
like debt to Lepsius, therefore open the list. And now before anything
else receive my hearty _thanks_ for your friendly and instructive letter,
and what accompanied it _in Vedicis_. It came just at the right time, and
you will see what use I made of it in the work.
And now here first come my _congratulations_. Nothing could be more
agreeable and suitable; it is personally and nationally an honor, and an
unique acknowledgment. I can only add the wish that you may enjoy the
dignity itself as short a time as possible, and take leave as soon as
possible of the Fellow-celibates of All Souls’. Your career in England
wants nothing but this crowning-point. How prosperous and full of results
has it been! Without ceasing to be a German, you have appropriated all
that is excellent and superior in English life, and of that there is much,
and it will last for life. I imagine you will bring your historical
_Chrestomathy_ with you, and propose to you, as you most probably give
something out of the Heliand and Ulphilas, to reserve my Woluspa for the
next edition, as I have just established the first tenable text of this
divine poem, on which the brothers Grimm would never venture. I have had
this advantage, of working on the good foundation of my studies (with a
Danish translation) of 1815 from Copenhagen. Neither Magnusson, nor Munch,
nor Bergmann has given the text of the only MS. (Cod. Regius); one has
disfigured it with the latest interpolations, another with unauthorized
transpositions. I have at last worked out the unity of the Helgi and the
Sigurd songs with each other, and the oldest purely mythological stratum
(the solar tragedy) of both, as an important link in the chain of
evidence, for the reality of the God-Consciousness of mankind and its
organic laws. What people will say to the “results” (Book VI.) which fall
into one’s hands, I do not know.
I have been obliged to postpone the journey to Italy from September to
November. October (the 23d) is the great crisis for Prussia, and I ought
not to forsake the Fatherland then, and have willingly agreed not to do
so. A brighter, better day is approaching. May God give his blessing.
Every one must help; it is the highest time.
But nothing disturbs me from the work of my life. The fourth volume of the
“Biblework” goes to press the day after to-morrow; on the 1st of
September, the fifth (Documents I. a). I have now finished _my_
preliminary work for the Old Testament in the main points, and only
reserved the last word before the stereotyping; so I begin at once on the
New Testament and Life of Jesus. The friendly and clever notice of the
first volume of the “Biblework” in the “Continental Review” gave me and my
whole family _great pleasure_: and Bernays is here since yesterday (for
August and September), which helps the printing of the Pentateuch very
much, as I always sent him a last revise, and now all can be worked off
here. I finish with Haug in the beginning of September; he will go
probably to Poonah with his very sensible bride. Charles and Theodore are
well. I expect George this week with Emilia for a visit. My family greet
you. Bernays sighs. He has again made some _beautiful discoveries_; that
of Aristotle (about the tragedies) I have carried further philosophically.
Suggest to that good Arthur Stanley (to whom I have sent my “Biblework”)
to send me his “Palestine.” I cannot get it here, and should like to say
something about it.
With most true love, yours.
[82.]
CHARLOTTENBERG, _July 23, 1859_.
My sons knew too well what delight they would give me through their
confidential communication, which has already given us all a foretaste of
the delight of your visit with your bride, and meanwhile has brought me
your expected and affectionate letter.
I have felt all these years what was the matter with you, and I sympathize
with your happiness as if it concerned one of my own children. I therefore
now, my loved friend, wish you all the more happiness and blessing in the
acquisition of the highest of life’s prizes, because your love has already
shown the right effect and strength, in that you have acquired courage for
finishing at _this present time_ your difficult and great work on the
Vedas. The work will also give you further refreshment for the future,
whilst the editing of the Veda still hangs on your hands.
Therefore let us all wish you joy most heartily (my wife has received the
joyful news in Wildbad), and accept our united thanks beforehand for your
kind intention of visiting us shortly with your young wife. By that time
we shall all be again united here. Your remarkable mother will alone be
wanting. Beg your bride beforehand to feel friendly towards me and towards
us all. You know how highly I esteem her two aunts, though without
personal acquaintance with them, and how dear to me is the cultivated,
noble, Christian circle in which the whole family moves. I have as yet
carried out my favorite plan with a good hope of success; six months in
Charlottenberg on the true spiritually historical interpretation of the
Old Testament, in the first volumes of the second division of the work
(the so-called documents); six months of the winter on the “Life of
Jesus,” and what in my view immediately joins on to that. The first volume
of the Bible documents is printed, _the Pentateuch_. You will see that I
have handled Abraham and Moses as freely here as I did Zoroaster and
Buddha in my last work; the explanation of the books and the history from
Joram to Zedekiah is as good as finished.
We shall keep peace; Napoleon and Palmerston understand each other, and
Palmerston is the _only_ statesman in England and Europe who conceives
rightly the Italian question. Russia follows him. I still hope by the
autumn to be able to bless the God of free Italy beside Dante’s and
Machiavelli’s graves. With us (Prussia) matters move fairly forwards; here
they have been fools, and begin to feel ashamed of themselves. So a speedy
and happy meeting.
Your heartily affectionate friend,