whole of the Frankfort artists:--the painter HIRT, who excelled in
animating oak and beech woods, and other so-called rural scenes, with
cattle; TRAUTMANN, who had adopted Rembrandt as his model, and had
attained great perfection in inclosed lights and reflections, as well
as in effective conflagrations, so that he was once ordered to paint
a companion-piece to a Rembrandt; SCHÜTZ, who diligently elaborated
landscapes of the Rhine country, in the manner of SACHTLEBENS; and
JUNKER, who executed with great purity flower and fruit pieces, still
life, and figures quietly employed, after the models of the Dutch.
But now, by the new arrangement, by more convenient room, and still
more by the acquaintance of a skilful artist, our love of art was again
quickened and animated. This artist was SEEKATZ, a pupil of Brinkmann,
court-painter at Darmstadt, whose talent and character will be more
minutely unfolded in the sequel.
In this way, the remaining rooms were finished, according to their
several purposes. Cleanliness and order prevailed throughout. Above
all, the large panes of plate-glass contributed towards a perfect
lightness, which had been wanting in the old house for many causes, but
chiefly on account of the panes, which were for the most part round. My
father was cheerful on account of the success of his undertaking, and
if his good humour had not been often interrupted because the diligence
and exactness of the mechanics did not come up to his wishes, a happier
life than ours could not have been conceived, since much good partly
arose in the family itself, and partly flowed from without.
But an extraordinary event deeply disturbed the Boy's peace of mind,
for the first time. On the 1st of November, 1755, the earthquake at
Lisbon took place, and spread a prodigious alarm over the world, long
accustomed to peace and quiet. A great and magnificent capital, which
was, at the same time, a trading and mercantile city, is smitten,
without warning, by a most fearful calamity. The earth trembles and
totters, the sea roars up, ships dash together, houses fall in, and
over them churches and towers, the royal palace is in part swallowed
by the waters, the bursting land seems to vomit flames, since smoke
and fire are seen everywhere amid the ruins. Sixty thousand persons,
a moment before in case and comfort, fall together, and he is to be
deemed most fortunate who is no longer capable of a thought or feeling
about the disaster. The flames rage on, and with them rage a troop
of desperadoes, before concealed, or set at large by the event. The
wretched survivors are exposed to pillage, massacre, and every outrage:
and thus, on all sides, Nature asserts her boundless capriciousness.
[Side-note: Earthquake at Lisbon.]
Intimations of this event had spread over wide regions more quickly
than the authentic reports: slight shocks had been felt in many places:
in many springs, particularly those of a mineral nature, an unusual
receding of the waters had been remarked; and so much, the greater was
the effect of the accounts themselves, which were rapidly circulated,
at first in general terms, but finally with dreadful particulars.
Hereupon, the religious were neither wanting in reflections, nor the
philosophic in grounds for consolation, nor the clergy in warnings. So
complicated an event arrested the attention of the world for a long
time; and, as additional and more detailed accounts of the extensive
effects of this explosion came from every quarter, the minds already
aroused by the misfortunes of strangers, began to be more and more
anxious about themselves and their friends. Perhaps the demon of terror
had never so speedily and powerfully diffused his terrors over the
earth.
The Boy, who was compelled to put up with frequent repetitions of
the whole matter, was not a little staggered. God, the Creator and
Preserver of Heaven and Earth, whom the explanation of the first
article of the Creed declared so wise and benignant, having given
both the just and the unjust a prey to the same destruction, had not
manifested Himself, by any means, in a fatherly character. In vain
the young mind strove to resist these impressions. It was the more
impossible, as the wise and scripture-learned could not themselves
agree as to the light in which such a phenomenon should be regarded.
The next summer gave a closer opportunity of knowing directly that
angry God, of whom the Old Testament records so much. A sudden
hail-storm, accompanied by thunder and lightning, violently broke the
new panes at the back of our house, which looked towards the west,
damaged the new furniture, destroyed some valuable books and other
things of worth, and was the more terrible to the children, as the
whole household, quite beside themselves, dragged them into a dark
passage, where, on their knees, with frightful groans and cries, they
thought to conciliate the wrathful Deity. Meanwhile, my father, who
was alone self-possessed, forced open and unhinged the window-frames,
by which we saved much glass, but made a broader inlet for the rain
that followed the hail, so that after we were finally quieted, we found
ourselves in the rooms and on the stairs completely surrounded by
floods and streams of water.
These events, startling as they were on the whole, did not greatly
interrupt the course of instruction which my father himself had
undertaken to give us children. He had passed his youth in the Cobourg
Gymnasium, which stood as one of the first among German educational
institutions. He had there laid a good foundation in languages, and
other matters reckoned part of a learned education, had subsequently
applied himself to jurisprudence at Leipzig, and had at last taken
his degree at Giessen. His dissertation, "_Electa de aditione
Hereditatis_," which had been earnestly and carefully written, is yet
cited by jurists with approval.
It is a pious wish of all fathers to see what they have themselves
failed to attain, realized in their sons, as if in this way they
could live their lives over again, and, at last, make a proper use
of their early experience. Conscious of his acquirements, with the
certainty of faithful perseverance, and distrusting the teachers of
the day, my father undertook to instruct his own children, allowing
them to take particular lesson from particular masters only so far as
seemed absolutely necessary. A pedagogical _dilettantism_ was already
beginning to show itself everywhere. The pedantry and heaviness of the
masters appointed in the public schools had probably given rise to
this evil. Something better was sought for, but it was forgotten how
defective all instruction must be, which is not given by persons who
are teachers by profession.
My father had prospered in his own career tolerably according to his
wishes: I was to follow the same course, only more easily, and much
farther. He prized my natural endowments the more, because he was
himself wanting in them; for he had acquired everything only by means
of unspeakable diligence, pertinacity, and repetition. He often assured
me, early and late, both in jest and earnest, that with my talents he
would have deported himself very differently, and would not have turned
them to such small account.
[Side-note: Juvenile Studies.]
By means of a ready apprehension, practice, and a good, memory, I very
soon outgrew the instructions which my father and the other teachers
were able to give, without being thoroughly grounded in anything.
Grammar displeased me, because I regarded it as a mere arbitrary law;
the rules seemed ridiculous, inasmuch as they were invalidated by so
many exceptions, which had all to be learned by themselves. And if the
first Latin work had not been in rhyme, I should have got on but badly
in that; but as it was, I hummed and sang it to myself readily enough.
In the same way we had a Geography in memory-verses, in which the most
wretched doggerel best served to fix the recollection of that which was
to be retained: _e. g.:_
Upper-Yssel has many a fen,
Which makes it hateful to all men.
The forms and inflections of language I caught with ease; and I also
quickly unravelled what lay in the conception of a thing. In rhetoric,
composition, and such matters, no one excelled me, although I was often
put back for faults of grammar. Yet these were the attempts that gave
my father particular pleasure, and for which he rewarded me with many
presents of money, considerable for such a lad.
My father taught my sister Italian in the same room in which I had to
commit Cellarius to memory. As I was soon ready with my task, and was
yet obliged to sit quiet, I listened with my book before me, and very
readily caught the Italian, which struck me as an agreeable softening
of Latin.
Other precocities, with respect to memory and the power to combine,
I possessed in common with those children who thus acquire an early
reputation. For that reason my father could scarcely wait for me to
go to college. He very soon declared, that I must study jurisprudence
in Leipzig, for which he retained a strong predilection, and I was
afterwards to visit some other university and take my degree. As for
this second one he was indifferent which I might choose, except that
he had for some reason or other a disinclination to Göttingen, to my
disappointment, since it was precisely there that I had placed such
confidence and high hopes.
He told me further, that I was to go to Wetzlar and Ratisbon as well as
to Vienna, and thence towards Italy, although he repeatedly mentioned
that Paris should first be seen, because after coming out of Italy
nothing else could be pleasing.
These tales of my future youthful travels, often as they were repeated,
I listened to eagerly, the more since they always led to accounts of
Italy, and at last to a description of Naples. His otherwise serious
and dry manner seemed on these occasions to relax and quicken, and thus
a passionate wish awoke in us children to participate in the paradise
he described.
Private lessons, which now gradually multiplied, were shared with the
children of the neighbours. This learning in common did not advance
me; the teachers followed their routine; and the rudeness, sometimes
the ill-nature, of my companions, interrupted the brief hours of study
with tumult, vexation, and disturbance. Chrestomathies, by which
learn learning is made pleasant and varied, had not yet reached us.
Cornelius Nepos, so dry to young people, the New Testament which was
much too easy, and which by preaching and religious instructions had
been rendered even common-place, Cellarius and Pasor could impart no
kind of interest; on the other hand, a certain rage for rhyme and
versification, a consequence of reading the prevalent German poets,
took complete possession of us. Me it had seized much earlier, as I
had found it agreeable to pass from the rhetorical to the poetical
treatment of subjects.
We boys held a Sunday assembly where each of us was to produce original
verses. And here I was struck by something strange, which long caused
me uneasiness. My poems, whatever they might be, always seemed to me
the best. But I soon remarked, that my competitors who brought forth
very lame affairs, were in the same condition, and thought no less of
themselves. Nay, what appeared yet more suspicious, a good lad (though
in such matters altogether unskilful), whom I liked in other respects,
but who had his rhymes made by his tutor, not only regarded these as
the best, but was thoroughly persuaded they were his own, as he always
maintained in our confidential intercourse. Now, as this illusion and
error was obvious to me, the question one day forced itself upon me,
whether I myself might not be in the same state, whether those poems
were not really better than mine, and whether I might not justly appear
to those boys as mad as they to me? This disturbed me much and long;
for it was altogether impossible for me to find any external criterion
of the truth; I even ceased from producing, until at length I was
quieted by my own light temperament, and the feeling of my own powers,
and lastly by a trial of skill--started on the spur of the moment by
our teachers and parents, who had noted our sport--in which I came off
well and won general praise.
No libraries for children had at that time been established. The old
had themselves still childish notions, and found it convenient to
impart their own education to their successors. Except the _Orbis
Pictus_ of Amos Comenius, no book of the sort fell into our hands; but
the large folio Bible, with copperplates by Merian, was diligently gone
over leaf by leaf: Gottfried's Chronicles, with plates by the same
master, taught us the most notable events of Universal History; the
_Acerra Philologica_ added thereto all sorts of fables, mythologies and
wonders; and, as I soon became familiar with Ovid's Metamorphoses, the
first books of which in particular I studied carefully, my young brain
was rapidly furnished with a mass of images and events, of significant
and wonderful shapes and occurrences, and I never felt time hang upon
my hands, as I always occupied myself in working over, repeating, and
reproducing these acquisitions.
[Side-note: Popular Works.]
A more salutary moral effect than that of these rude and hazardous
antiquities, was produced by Fénelon's _Telemachus_, with which I first
became acquainted in Neukirch's translation, and which, imperfectly
as it was executed, had a sweet and beneficent influence on my mind.
That _Robinson Crusoe_ was added in due time, follows in the nature
of things; and it may be imagined that the _Island of Falsenberg_
was not wanting. Lord Anson's _Voyage round the Globe_ combined the
dignity of truth with the rich fancies of fable, and while our thoughts
accompanied this excellent seaman, we were conducted over all the
world, and endeavoured to follow him with our fingers on the globe. But
a still richer harvest was to spring up before me, when I lighted on a
mass of writings, which, in their present state, it is true, cannot be
called excellent, but the contents of which, in a harmless way, bring
near to us many a meritorious action of former times.
The publication, or rather the manufacture, of those books which have
at a later day become so well known and celebrated under the name
_Volkschriften, Volksbücher_ (popular works or books), was carried on
in Frankfort. The enormous sales they met with, led to their being
almost illegibly printed from stereotypes on horrible blotting-paper.
We children were so fortunate as to find these precious remains of the
Middle Ages every day on a little table at the door of a dealer in
cheap books, and to obtain them at the cost of a couple of _kreutzer._
The Eulenspiegel, the Four Sons of Haimon, the Emperor Octavian, the
Fair Melusina, the Beautiful Magelone, Fortunatus, with the whole race
down to the Wandering Jew, were all at our service, as often as we
preferred the relish of these works to the taste of sweet things. The
greatest benefit of this was, that when we had read through or damaged
such a sheet, it could soon be reprocured and swallowed a second time.
As a family pic-nic in summer is vexatiously disturbed by a sudden
storm, which transforms a pleasant state of things into the very
reverse, so the diseases of childhood fall unexpectedly on the most
beautiful season of early life. And thus it happened with me. I had
just purchased Fortunatus with his Purse and Wishing-hat, when I was
attacked by a restlessness and fever which announced the small-pox.
Inoculation was still with us considered very problematical, and
although it had already been intelligibly and urgently recommended
by popular writers, the German physicians hesitated to perform an
operation that seemed to forestall Nature. Speculative Englishmen,
therefore, had come to the Continent and inoculated, for a considerable
fee, the children of such persons as were opulent and free from
prejudices. Still the majority were exposed to the old disease; the
infection raged through families, killed and disfigured many children;
and few parents dared to avail themselves of a method, the probable
efficacy of which had been abundantly confirmed by the result. The
evil now invaded our house and attacked me with unusual severity.
My whole body was sown over with spots, and my race covered, and
for several days I lay blind and in great pain. They tried the only
possible alleviation, and promised me heaps of gold if I would keep
quiet and not increase the mischief by rubbing and scratching. I
controlled myself, while, according to the prevailing prejudice, they
kept me as warm as possible, and thus only rendered my suffering more
acute. At last, after a woful time, there fell as it were a mask from
my face. The blotches had left no visible mark upon the skin, but the
features were plainly altered. I myself was satisfied merely with
seeing the light of day again, and gradually putting off my spotted
skin; but others were pitiless enough to remind me often of my previous
condition; especially a very lively aunt, who had formerly regarded
me with idolatry, but in after years could seldom look at me without
exclaiming--"The deuce, cousin! what a fright he's grown!" Then she
would tell me circumstantially how I had once been her delight, and
what attention she had excited when she carried me about; and thus I
early learned that people very often subject us to a severe atonement
for the pleasure which we have afforded them.
[Side-note: Diseases of Childhood.]
I neither escaped measles, nor chicken-pox, nor any other of the
tormenting demons of childhood; and I was assured each time that it
was a great piece of good luck that this malady was now past for ever.
But, alas! another again threatened in the back-ground, and advanced.
All these things increased my propensity to reflection; and as I
had already practised myself in fortitude, in order to remove the
torture of impatience, the virtues which I had heard praised in the
Stoics appeared to me highly worthy of imitation, and the more so, as
something similar was commended by the Christian doctrine of patience.
While on the subject of these family diseases, I will mention a brother
about three years younger than myself, who was likewise attacked by
that infection, and suffered not a little from it. He was of a tender
nature, quiet and capricious, and we were never on the most friendly
terms. Besides, he scarcely survived the years of childhood. Among
several other children born afterwards, who like him did not live long,
I only remember a very pretty and agreeable girl, who also soon passed
away; so that, after the lapse of some years, my sister and I remained
alone, and were therefore the more deeply and affectionately attached
to each other.
These maladies and other unpleasant interruptions were in their
consequences doubly grievous; for my father, who seemed to have laid
down for himself a certain calendar of education and instruction, was
resolved immediately to repair every delay, and imposed double lessons
upon the young convalescent. These were not hard for me to accomplish,
but were so far troublesome, that they hindered, and to a certain
extent repressed, my inward development, which had taken a decided
direction.
From these didactic and pedagogic oppressions, we commonly fled to
my grandfather and grandmother. Their house stood in the _Friedberg_
street, and appeared to have been formerly a fortress; for, on
approaching it, nothing was seen but a large gate with battlements,
which were joined on either side to the two neighbouring houses. On
entering through a narrow passage, we reached at last a tolerably broad
court, surrounded by irregular buildings, which were now all united
into one dwelling. We usually hastened at once into the garden, which
extended to a considerable length and breadth behind the buildings, and
was very well kept. The walks were mostly skirted by vine trellises;
one part of the space was used for vegetables, and another devoted to
flowers, which from spring till autumn adorned in rich succession the
borders as well as the beds. The long wall erected towards the south
was used for some well-trained espalier peach-trees, the forbidden
fruit of which ripened temptingly before us through the summer. Yet we
rather avoided this side, because we here could not satisfy our dainty
appetites; and we turned to the side opposite, where an interminable
row of currant and gooseberry bushes furnished our voracity with a
succession of harvests till autumn. Not less important to us was an
old, high, wide-spreading mulberry-tree, both on account of its fruits,
and because we were told that the silk-worms fed upon its leaves. In
this peaceful region my grandfather was found every evening, tending
with genial care and with his own hand the finer growths of fruits and
flowers; while a gardener managed the drudgery. He was never vexed by
the various toils which were necessary to preserve and increase a fine
show of pinks. The branches of the peach-trees were carefully tied to
the espaliers with his own hands, in a fan-shape, in order to bring
about a full and easy growth of the fruit. The sorting of the bulbs of
tulips, hyacinths, and plants of a similar nature, as well as the care
of their preservation, he entrusted to none; and I still with pleasure
recall to my mind how diligently he occupied himself in inoculating
the different varieties of roses. That he might protect himself from
the thorns, he put on a pair of those ancient leather gloves, of which
three pair were given him annually at the Piper's Court, so that there
was no dearth of the article. He wore also a loose dressing-gown, and a
folded black velvet cap upon his head, so that he might have passed for
an intermediate person between Alcinoüs and Laërtes.
[Side-note: Goethe's Maternal Grandfather.]
All this work in the garden he pursued as regularly and with as much
precision as his official business; for, before he came down, he always
arranged the list of causes for the next day, and read the legal
papers. In the morning he proceeded to the Council House, dined after
his return, then nodded in his easy chair, and so went through the same
routine every day. He conversed little, never exhibited any vehemence
and I do not remember ever to have seen him angry. All that surrounded
him was in the fashion of the olden time. I never perceived any
alteration in his wainscotted room. His library contained, besides law
works, only the earliest books of travels, sea voyages, and discoveries
of countries. Altogether I can call to mind no situation more adapted
than his to awaken the feeling of uninterrupted peace and eternal
duration.
But the reverence which we entertained for this venerable old man was
raised to the highest degree by a conviction that he possessed the
gift of prophecy, especially in matters that pertained to himself and
his destiny. It is true he revealed himself to no one, distinctly and
minutely, except to my grandmother; yet we were all aware that he was
informed of what was going to happen, by significant dreams. He assured
his wife, for instance, at a time when he was still junior Councillor,
that on the first vacancy he would obtain the place left open on
the bench of the _Schöffen_; and soon afterwards when one of those
officers actually died of apoplexy, my grandfather gave orders that
his house should be quietly got ready prepared on the day of electing
and balloting, to receive his guests and congratulators. Sure enough,
the decisive gold ball was drawn in his favour. The simple dream by
which he had learned this, he confided to his wife as follows: He had
seen himself in the ordinary full assembly of Councilmen, where all
went on just as usual. Suddenly, the late _Schöff_ rose from his seat,
descended the steps, pressed him in the most complimentary manner to
take the vacant place, and then departed by the door.