[Illustration: _Richard Lepsius_]
RICHARD LEPSIUS
A BIOGRAPHY
BY
GEORG EBERS
_TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN_
BY
ZOE DANA UNDERHILL
WITH FRONTISPIECE
--AUTHORIZED EDITION--
NEW YORK
WILLIAM S. GOTTSBERGER, PUBLISHER
11 MURRAY STREET
1887
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1887
BY WILLIAM S. GOTTSBERGER
in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington
TO DR. JOHANNES DÜMICHEN,
REGULAR PROFESSOR OF THE EGYPTIAN LANGUAGE AND ARCHAEOLOGY AT THE
UNIVERSITY OF STRASBURG.
MY DEAR JOHANNES!
To you shall this biography be dedicated. As the eldest pupil of our
master you have in a certain sense a right to it. From many
conversations with you, and from your letters since his death, I have
seen with what cheerful alacrity you were always prepared to recognize
the great qualities of our Lepsius; and how often, behind your back, has
the departed spoken warmly to me of your enthusiastic and
self-sacrificing devotion to our science.
Accept this offering, then, as a slight countervailing gift for the many
donations which you have bestowed upon me and every Egyptologist.
Imitating the master’s example you have followed him to Egypt, and
there, like him, undertaken the task of disclosing to your colleagues at
home the wealth of unexplored inscriptions in which the temples and
tombs of the Nile valley are still so rich. From hundreds of walls you
have copied the pictorial and hieroglyphic decorations, and made them
accessible for investigation by collecting them in convenient volumes. A
stately row of folios,--yonder they stand and each contains cordial
words which assure me of your faithful remembrance,--bears witness to
your industry, the acuteness of your eye and intellect, and the
precision of your hand. But few know what great sacrifices of comfort,
sleep, health, and your own property, lie hidden within these volumes,
for without assistance worth mentioning, either from the government or
its chiefs, you, relying upon yourself alone, have achieved great
results. You were aided by no firmans to afford you protection, no
powerful patron to assume the cost of publication, no helpful
fellow-traveller, as for years you made your way up the Nile far into
the Sudān. Month after month have you been a self-invited guest of the
god to whom the sanctuary of your choice was dedicated, you have passed
the nights on a hard couch in a chamber of the temple which you desired
to examine, and shared their scanty meal with the Arabs. To me it will
ever be incomprehensible whence you derived the endurance to copy,
through weeks of labor, the inscriptions on the walls of the tomb of
Petuamenapt, the so-called bat sepulchre, while those misshapen
creatures which dread the day extinguished your lights, flapped about
you in swarms, and entangled themselves in that magnificent beard which
procured for you among the Arabs the name of Abu Dakn (Father of the
Beard).
But your endurance has borne admirable fruits. Through you and your
works the inscriptions of the time of Ptolemy, formerly neglected, have
for the first time received due honor. The keys to many mysteries lie
concealed within them, and with what sagacity have you established the
value of the enigmatical signs with which the priests during the Lagid
period knew how to withdraw from the understanding of the multitude the
mysteries to which they gave freer expression than their predecessors of
earlier epochs. Golden Hathor of the beautiful countenance, under whose
protection you spent such long months of privation, has endowed you with
her dearest sanctuary, that of Dendera, entirely for your own, and
Tehuti has aided you to apprehend correctly the fractional reckoning of
the Egyptians, to determine many of their measures, and to make clear
the division of the Egyptian land in ancient time.
It is a delight to offer a gift to such a giver, and if mine, my dear
Johannes, pleases you, I shall be happy.
I have allowed neither diligence nor care to be lacking in its
preparation, but nevertheless I should not have attained the goal which
from the first I have had in view, if the family of the deceased had not
committed to my use, with such great kindness and noble confidence, all
the materials at their disposal. Of the greatest service have been the
diaries of Mrs. Lepsius, her husband’s letters to her, to his parents,
to Bunsen and many others, and the master’s own memoranda in the form of
note-books and diaries, or on scraps of paper and in little books of
poetry, in which are also included the poems of Abeken, the family
friend.
The heads of the school, especially the principal, Professor Volkmann,
as well as Professor Buchbinder, willingly furnished me with such
information as I desired; memoirs and collections of letters already
published helped me to make good many deficiencies, and where I wished
to consult the records of public authorities I have everywhere met with
a courtesy which merits thanks. I owe special acknowledgment for the
many communications, both by letter and word of mouth, which I have
received from the eldest son of the deceased, Professor R. Lepsius of
Darmstadt.
As is natural, the principle materials have been drawn from the works of
the master, and my own vivid memories of his character.
The index to his writings will, I think, be welcome to you and to many
colleagues. To bring it to the perfection which he had desired was a
task attended with many difficulties.
You must yourself judge whether the old adage “a pupil’s praise is
lame,” is applicable to this biography. I am conscious of having handled
my brush with love indeed, but also with all fidelity. On account of the
great abundance of material there was far less need of original research
than of sifting and selecting, and this had to be done with special
pains and prudence in regard to the twenty-seven volumes of Mrs.
Lepsius’ interesting diary.
I hope that you, the master’s eldest pupil, will miss, in this likeness
painted by the hand of friendship, no essential trait of the dead who
was dear to us both, and that you will find that the artist has
introduced into it no more of his own personality than may be permitted
to an historian. He tenders you this book with affection, and knows that
you will receive it in the same spirit from
Your very faithful,
GEORG EBERS.
LEIPSIC, Easter, 1885.
CONTENTS.
PAGE.
PREFACE, 1
BOYHOOD AND APPRENTICESHIP, 3
THE SCHOOL, 5
LEIPSIC, 9
GÖTTINGEN, 18
BERLIN, 40
THE JOURNEYMAN, PARIS, 51
EGYPTOLOGICAL STUDIES, AS LEPSIUS FOUND THEM IN
1834, 69
LEPSIUS IN PARIS AS AN EGYPTOLOGIST, 79
ITALY, 93
HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND THE SEASON OF WAITING, IN
GERMANY, 123
THE PRUSSIAN EXPEDITION TO EGYPT, UNDER THE DIRECTION
OF LEPSIUS, 140
THE MASTER WORKMAN, 167
THE HOME OF LEPSIUS, 218
RICHARD LEPSIUS AS A MAN, 282
APPENDIX: I. THE GÖTTINGEN INSURRECTION, 301
“ II. LEPSIUS’ REPORT TO THE BERLIN ROYAL
ACADEMY OF SCIENCES ON THE COMMENCEMENT
OF HIS EGYPTOLOGICAL
STUDIES, 308
“ III. EXTRACT FROM THE REPORT ADDRESSED
TO THE MINISTRY, ON THE ACQUISITIONS
AND RESULTS OF THE EXPEDITION
TO EGYPT UNDER R. LEPSIUS, 314
INDEX TO THE WORKS OF R. LEPSIUS, 325
RICHARD LEPSIUS,
the head master of Egyptology, closed his eyes during the past summer,
and his departure has been deeply lamented, not only in our own country,
but among scholars of all lands. The task of portraying his life has
fallen to me, and this task I have willingly assumed, for I am--with the
exception of my dear and excellent friend and colleague, Dümichen of
Strasburg--the oldest of his pupils. Till his latter end an intimate
untroubled friendship united me to the beloved master, the benevolent
promoter of my studies, the colleague, the man who followed with
sympathy my poetical as well as my scientific productions. His family
have assisted me in the kindest manner by placing at my disposal
everything left by the deceased which could possibly aid my purpose.
Diaries, memorandum books, letters of great interest, were submitted to
my inspection, and these abundant materials confirmed my conviction that
the personality of a German scholar has seldom presented so rounded and
happily balanced a whole as that of the man whose life it has devolved
upon me to describe. In him are united all things which can be required
of a scholar in the highest sense of the word, and hence his biographer,
while depicting the development, the individuality, and the vast
activity of the man, can at the same time present to his nation such a
model, such a beautiful type, of the German master of science, as is
worthy of imitation.
In that great community which we call “the cultivated world,” and which
has its home in every civilized land, the name of Richard Lepsius stands
among those which are well known. Everyone within this circle knows,
too, that he was a great Egyptologist. As one holds the diamonds in a
king’s crown for genuine, even if he sees them only from afar, so one
believes in the value and importance of the works of the celebrated
scholar, although one may not even so much as know their titles, and
although it is scarcely granted to one amongst ten thousand to
comprehend them, or even to study them deeply.
The brief obituaries and biographical sketches published in the papers
and periodicals shortly after the death of the great master, could give
but a general idea of his labors, and yet these extended over many
important domains of science, and his strong and firm hand laid the
foundations upon which a long and varied series of future researches can
and must be based.
It will be ours to show, in a way accessible and intelligible to every
educated person, of what nature were the scientific achievements to
which Lepsius owed his high and well-deserved honor and renown, and what
a man the nation lost in him.
GEORG EBERS.
BOYHOOD AND APPRENTICESHIP.
Richard Charles Lepsius was born on the 23d of December, 1810, at
Naumburg on the Saal, a pretty town which rises pleasantly from the
grape-grown foothills of the Thuringian forest. Here he passed his
childhood among circumstances than which none more favorable could have
been imagined for the future scholar and antiquarian.
His father, afterwards President of the provincial court of justice and
Privy Counsellor, was at that time Saxon Finance Procurator for the
whole Thuringian district, and as such one of the leading men of the
place and region. Naumburg is rich in fine buildings of the middle ages,
and Charles Peter Lepsius, the father of young Richard, applied such
leisure as his exacting occupations afforded him to searching out the
history of these venerable monuments. It was he who founded the
Thuringian-Saxon Archæological Society, the seat of which was
subsequently removed to Halle, and the three volumes of his short papers
testify to his zeal and ability as an investigator. He is represented as
a strict and methodical official, of distinguished bearing, as well as
an indefatigable worker; and precisely these qualities fell as a
paternal inheritance to his son, and afterwards constituted the
conditions of his greatness.
Among those remarkable men who have compassed high aims by means of
marked qualities of temperament or of the imaginative faculty, the
maternal influence has usually predominated, while in those cases where
strength and acuteness of intellect have made a man great, the paternal
character has commonly had most weight. A poet like Goethe, a man of
faith like Augustine, a Napoleon Bonaparte, whose imagination
transgressed all limits, owed what was best in them to their mothers;
the mind of a Lepsius, severe, never seeking after uncertainties, but
always inclined to profound research, must be an inheritance from the
father.
Throughout Thuringia and Saxony all who were interested in antiquities
were connected with the archæologists and founders of the society at
Naumburg, the air of the house in which the boy grew up was permeated
with historical and antiquarian interests, and its master early
permitted his son to take part in those occupations which he himself
could only pursue as an amateur, and yet to which his tastes so entirely
inclined. Thus it is easy to understand how the Minister of Finance, as
soon as he recognized the scientific bent of his son, did everything to
further it and to make of his child what he himself, under more
favorable circumstances, might have become: a great investigator to whom
science should be all and everything, the end and aim of existence, in
short, the vocation of life.
THE SCHOOL.
Circumstances facilitated the attainment of this purpose, for in the
immediate vicinity of Naumburg was situated an excellent educational
institution which, at the time when young Lepsius was received among its
pupils, had already long attained that flourishing condition in which it
still rejoices.
Private teachers had given him his first instruction under the direction
of his father, and at Easter, 1823, he was already, as a boy of twelve,
qualified for admission to the school, which begins with the third class
of the Prussian gymnasiums. At that time Ilgen was principal of the
school, but Professor Lange, his tutor, seems to have exerted a stronger
influence than he over the pupils. The latter became principal after the
departure of Lepsius in 1831, but unfortunately died a few months after
assuming office. He is the only one of all his teachers whom Lepsius
especially mentions in the biography attached to his “dissertation” and
it is true that this man exercised a marked influence over his gifted
pupil by his moral fervor, his great learning and spirited
interpretations of the old classic writers.
Professor Koberstein had come to the school three years before Lepsius,
and had introduced new life into the teaching of German. He understood
how to interest the pupils in ancient and mediæval high German, and
after the fashion of Tieck he read German and Shakespearian dramas at
his own house in the evenings to a select circle. How greatly Lepsius
was affected by the instruction of this able pedagogue and scholar may
be seen from the so-called valedictory theme which he was obliged to
compose and hand in before his departure, according to the custom in the
school at that time. This painstaking essay, unusually mature for a lad
of eighteen, handles the following subject, selected by himself: “On the
Influence which must be Exerted on the Tendency of Philology in General,
and Especially of Classic Philology, by the Most Recent Methods of
Treating German Grammar, and the Universal Comparison of Languages
Arising from this and the Wider Knowledge of Sanscrit.” It appears from
the little sketch of his life appended to this essay that Koberstein had
also given Lepsius special instruction in ancient German and Italian.
“The time which I spent with you will ever appear to me the bright spot
of my life here,” writes the pupil, on his departure from the excellent
institution which he long remembered with affection and gratitude.
And he had reason to be grateful to Koberstein, for in the valedictory
theme mentioned above and composed under his auspices we see indicated,
as it were, the path which, after much groping and many essays, the
studies of Lepsius were finally to follow.
With him, as with so many others, a vigorous individuality had, even in
his school-days, exerted a decisive influence upon his subsequent
intellectual tendencies. The elder Lepsius, the antiquarian, and
Koberstein the accomplished linguist, indicated to their son and pupil
from afar the goal for which he afterwards strove, it was reserved for
others to be the guides who should determine and direct him thither.
At Easter, 1829, Lepsius, then seventeen years old, passed the final
examination with the general certificate I., and left the school with a
body invigorated by the merry games of boyhood on the gymnastic-ground
and skating-pond and in the swimming-school, with a mind well prepared
for every study, and a thorough mastery of the old classical languages.
How dear the school had been to him is shown by the following verses,
taken from the farewell poem which he dedicated to it:
“A thousand times I’ve wandered
High on the mount above,
And gazed with quiet rapture
On the valley that I love.
“Beyond, the silver river!
And above, the shining skies!
While, beneath the mountain’s shadow,
What a happy dwelling lies!
“The gray walls seem to beckon,
They summon me to go,
And join the throng that gathers
In the garden there below.
“There many a youthful figure
Weaves the merry game, I wis,
But whence, ah whence, arises
In my heart, this pensive bliss?”
His father who, as president of the provincial court and commissioner
for the examinations previous to matriculation, was a person of
influence with the directors of the school, had desired that in the
final scrutiny the performances of his son should be no more indulgently
judged than those of every other alumnus. After Richard had been honored
with the I., Ilgen wrote to his father in the following reassuring
manner, having first announced the results of the examination: “You must
on no account imagine that you are under obligations to any one. I
assure you for my part that I would have done as I have, even if you
were my worst enemy, and that I have only acted according to my
conscience, as you may hear from Neue and Jacobi.”
It need not be said that young Lepsius was among the most prominent
pupils of the institution. On the king’s birthday, on the third of
August, 1826, the task of composing and delivering a poem in honor of
the festival was imposed upon him. He chose for his subject “Albert of
Babenberge,” and handled it, skilfully enough, in the Nibelungen stanza.
He derived great pleasure, in after days, from poetical composition, and
although he ardently devoted himself to science from the very first, yet
among the poems lying before us many a gay song bears witness to the
vivacity of his youthful spirit.
LEIPSIC.
The elder Lepsius kept most of the letters which his son wrote him from
Leipsic, where he began his studies. They show how earnestly he took
hold of the matter from the start, and how attentively the president of
the court at Naumburg watched not only the practical daily life, but
also the scientific activity of his son. The methodical official wished
to be informed as to the expenditure of every groschen which he allowed
his son, and the accounts accompanying the student’s letters show us how
cheaply it was possible to live in Leipsic some fifty years ago. A good
dinner, with soup, roast, and salad or compote, cost three groschen,
Richard thought the morning coffee too dear at a groschen, the beer at
dinner for fourteen days came to seven groschen, a room at the inn for
one night was three groschen, a pat (half-pound) of butter was two
groschen, three pfennigs. However, the hard-working student seems to
have been absolved from this exact rendering of accounts in the third
term, but it had been of great advantage to him, for it would have been
impossible for him to bring the greatest of his subsequent works to such
a successful issue, or indeed to produce them at all, without the strict
sense of order which he had acquired both by inheritance and training.
For example, after his return from Egypt he was able without the
slightest error to join and fit into their proper places the thousands
of sheets of paper with which he had taken impressions of the
inscriptions. This shows a painstaking exactness in the marking and
numbering of each leaf such as had been practised by no previous
traveller, not even by Champollion and Rosellini, in whose works errors
are by no means rare.
From the first, it was clear to him that he wished to study philology,
but he hesitated for some time as to what course he should pursue
afterwards. He had presented himself at the proper time, but in those
days the professors took things easily. Godfrey Hermann, of whom he had
the highest expectations, only began to lecture after Whitsuntide, “most
of the others, such as Beck, Rost, Nobbe, Weiske, only at the beginning
of June.” The first course of lectures which he attended was Wachsmuth’s
“Universal History.” “I was much pleased,” he writes to his father,
“with his introduction, in which he expressed his views on the
exposition of the general conception, on the division and proper
treatment of history. He has besides an agreeable fluent delivery, and a
very pleasant voice. Yet his public lectures on Roman History, which
followed immediately, were almost more interesting to me. Here his
discourse is perfectly unfettered, because he has already laid his
foundations in the preceding lectures on Universal History. Roman
History is a department to which he has given special attention, and in
the treatment of which he repeatedly differs from those views of
Niebuhr’s which have introduced a new epoch. On this account it is very
interesting to hear him criticise Niebuhr, of whom, however, he speaks
with the greatest respect.”
The philosopher Krug he had imagined as quite a different person and
much younger. He writes to his father of him: “He has the face of an old
philosopher, and it is so beset with solemn wrinkles that at first I
could not reconcile it with the biting satirical wit which one finds in
his writings. His eyes, however, are very brilliant, and they wander
perpetually over the ceiling as if he were unaware of the presence of
auditors, during the quiet almost monotonous, but pointed discourse, in
which he never blunders or hesitates for a syllable.”
From what might be called the more fortuitous selection of the other
courses of lectures which he attended, it is apparent with how little
consciousness of his ultimate goal he began his studies, and he makes
his father the confidant of his indecision. The interesting letter of
the seventh of August, 1829, which we give herewith, shows the young
aspirant for the right path in the best light, and proves that he had
just discerned in the great philologist, Godfrey Hermann, the man in
Leipsic from whom he had most to gain.
Before the end of his first term he writes to his father in this letter:
“It will naturally be far more difficult for me to give you a
satisfactory explanation of my position regarding science, than
regarding practical affairs, since I will not even boast of having
come to fixed views on the subject myself. Indeed I consider it a
main point during the first part of my stay at the University, and
one by no means easily or quickly settled, to come to an
understanding with myself about this, and to take a steady survey
of my whole course in life, but particularly of my studies. For I
feel more and more this important distinction between the school
and the university, that here one is suddenly deprived of all
guidance and special instruction as to the direction which one
should pursue. The many beginnings made at school, without any
definite aim in view, must be either continued or abandoned, either
pursued more zealously or regarded as a side issue, according to
one’s own choice and judgment. On this account, too, I do not
reproach myself that as yet I have no unalterable plan nor perfect
system in my studies, since scarcely anyone could have made such a
decision so quickly, or, were such a hastily formed scheme adopted,
it might lead to a one-sided development which should be most
foreign to philology especially. Altogether, there is no science in
which this question can be more important and at the same time more
difficult, than in ours, since we have no positive series of
lectures to observe, like the lawyers, doctors, and theologians,
but each must choose and trace out his own road over the boundless
field of philology, according to his own powers and individual
character. Now, so far as my purely scientific education is
concerned, from the very beginning two main paths present
themselves, between which most students make a voluntary or
involuntary choice; namely, philology proper and archæology.
Naturally, they are so closely connected that one can never be
entirely divorced from the other, but nevertheless every one
devotes himself more to one than the other. Indeed either of the
two departments alone is sufficiently extensive to demand all the
powers of one person. This distinction between, and this
independence of, the two branches have been most fully illustrated
in our two greatest philologists, Hermann and Böckh, each of whom
has formed his own school, entirely distinct from the other. I
would think it rash and foolish at present to wish to decide in
favor of either, since I know too little of either to make such a
decision from my own conviction and independent judgment. In any
case it is well for me at first, as far as possible, to attach
myself to the school of Hermann, and apply myself entirely to
languages, for an accurate knowledge of languages is an
indispensable foundation in every other branch, and certainly there
can nowhere be found a more accomplished teacher than Hermann, even
if there actually are more learned men, which I will not dispute. I
learn daily to admire more his incomparable clearness and acuteness
in the exercise of the soundest criticism. I listen attentively and
with pleasure to his lectures, and perhaps in time will try to
become a member of his Greek club, which has already trained
eminent philologists and given the first impulse to many learned
works....
“Some time ago Graser[1] was in Leipsic, only in passing through,
but he let himself be persuaded to remain here several days in
order to have the pleasure of seeing Hermann. He went to Hermann’s
lectures regularly, and was quite enthusiastic about him. At six
o’clock he went as a guest to the Greek club, of which he had
previously been an honored member. I too went as a guest. There was
a discussion concerning a paper on several passages from Plato _De
legibus_, and it was not long before Graser broke in, with a
prodigious flood of compliments by way of preface, but with much
learning and great acuteness, and gave his opinion on several of
the passages. Hermann received it very well. Then they fell to
making panegyrics upon each other, and Graser was so inspired by
Hermann’s rejoinders that time after time he exclaimed, with every
gesture of admiration: _Admiror, admiror ingenii tui acumen
praestantissimum, vir illustris, venerande_, and so on, so that the
members were all in a great state of amazement over it. But he
spoke good, fluent Latin, and what he said was very scholarly and
clever. Finally, Hermann made another little eulogium upon him.
These two hours gave me far more pleasure than if I had spent an
evening at the theatre, for it is not every day that one can see
such enthusiasm as was expressed here for Hermann; it was so
genuine, and yet in its whole essence so intelligent and clear.”
This letter, certainly unusually mature and thoughtful for a lad of
eighteen, is followed by many others, from which we may see how
judiciously Lepsius knew how to divide his time, with what diligence he
not only attended lectures, but also twice a day read Greek and Roman
classics with his friend Schweckendieck for hours, and still found time
to practise music, play chess and visit socially, a welcome guest, among
families of good standing in Leipsic. Shortly before the outbreak of the
revolution of July, there was a significant fermentation among the
German students. After the momentous Carlsbad Decrees, and in
consequence of the “Executive Order” carried through by Metternich, the
University was placed under political supervision “for the security of
public order.” Thus it became not only dangerous to take an active share
in the movement for liberty, but even to have any close intercourse with
a fellow-student who was suspected of having taken part in “seditious
intrigues,” and what were not so styled by the wretched oppressors of
political liberty during the supremacy of Metternich’s influence?
How anxious must the Naumburg Landrath have felt when he learned that an
older fellow-student of his son’s, of whom the latter wrote to him with
great warmth, was involved in demagogic alliances in his native city of
Brunswick, at that time a centre of the political dissatisfaction which
was soon to lead to the expulsion of Duke Charles. This singularly
talented man, named Silberschmidt, was ten years older than young
Richard, and had interested him greatly. He had an eventful life behind
him, and was so thoroughly at home in the most diverse departments of
science, that Lepsius described him to his father as a “universal
genius.” In his nine-and-twentieth year he began to study law, had
essayed all possible branches of literature, had been page to the King
of Westphalia in Cassel, huntsman and fencing-master, said he had
studied in Giessen, written a dissertation “On the Immortality of the
Soul,” a book on the art of fencing, many dramas, reviews, etc., and
called himself also the author of a work on chess. Lepsius who, even as
a student, was already an able chess-player, recognized in his
fellow-lodger one of the greatest masters of this noble game, and when
he visited Silberschmidt in his apartment the latter showed him a very
remarkable testimonial. It contained a certificate from the parish of
Ströbeck, in Halberstadt, that it had been beaten at chess by
Silberschmidt. This was subscribed by the local town magistrate, and
stamped with the seal of the parish. The parish in question enjoyed a
wide celebrity on account of its chess playing, in which every peasant
was a master, and in which even the boys had to pass an examination. Old
electoral foundations had endowed the people of Ströbeck with great
privileges and possessions on account of their skill in this game. They
had never been beaten until Silberschmidt had appeared to conquer them.
A Jew from Brunswick had also told Richard’s landlord that his
remarkable new friend was the most famous of all living chess-players.
As he also proved to be “pleasant, and anything but conceited,” and
showed himself “an industrious man of excellent moral principles, and at
the same time always cheerful and interesting in his conversation,”
Richard supposed he could derive nothing but benefit from intercourse
with him. All that he writes to his father of the Brunswicker proves the
brilliant talents of the latter, but also shows that he tried to win his
younger fellow-student by boasting. Silberschmidt had spoken to Lepsius
about his demagogic associations, and as soon as the father had warned
his son against this dangerous man, Richard knew how to withdraw from
the connection with tact and address. Here, as in every similar case,
the youth, scarcely past his boyhood, shows himself entirely submissive
to the superior wisdom of his father, and at the same time he already
evinces the discretion which he afterwards exhibited in every position
in which he was placed during a long life in the midst of the world,
where there could not fail to be conflicts and collisions of every kind.
At the end of the second term at Leipsic he debated with his father
whether he should not exchange the Leipsic University for another, and
in this consultation also we see him weigh the pros and cons with a
clear head and great circumspection. To Leipsic he was attached by many
a good comrade and many a pleasant family, from whom he had received
kindness, and beneath whose roof he had sung and danced and been
treated like a son of the house. Of the academic instructors, Hermann
alone detained him on the Pleisse, and as the latter intended to travel
during the coming summer term, he decided on a change of University. At
first his father had some objection, we can no longer fathom what, to
Göttingen, whither Richard most desired to go. He therefore weighed
Berlin, to which he was particularly attracted by Böeckh, Lachmann, C.
Ritter and Bopp, against Bonn, where he had the highest expectations of
Welcker and Niebuhr. In his last letter from Leipsic the son decides for
the Rhenish University, but during the vacation, which brought him and
his father once more together, he seems to have succeeded in inducing
the latter to accede to his desire to enter the Georgia Augusta, and so
we see him, in the spring of 1830, proceed to Göttingen by way of
Eisenach and Cassel, where he saw Spohr conduct a performance of “The
White Lady.”
GÖTTINGEN.
On the eight of May Lepsius arrived in Göttingen, and found good
lodgings with the tailor, Volkmann, 129 Kurze Street. For fellow-lodger
he had again his friend Schweckendieck of Leipsic, with whom he
continued to work and to read Greek and Latin classics. He took with him
excellent letters of introduction to those professors of whom he
expected most, Otfried Müller, Dissen, and the Grimms, and was thus
received by them in the kindest manner. During the first term he
attended the lectures of Dissen, on Universal Science; of Müller, on
Archaeology and Thucydides; of J. Grimm, on Ancient Law, and of Beneke,
on the Poems of Walter von der Vogelweide.
All that he writes to his father concerning the more illustrious of his
teachers, is interesting enough. It shows us how here in Göttingen, and
especially through listening to and associating with Otfried Müller,
Dissen, and the Grimms, science was revealed to him in a new and clearer
light. We observe, too, how his mind became accustomed to take
cognizance of a subject as a whole, and to its fullest extent, and yet
preserve due regard to details; how he acquired his esthetic ideals, and
how he laid the foundation for those works which were afterwards to make
him famous, not only in philology, but also in history, the history of
art, and mythology.
His first visit was paid to the excellent scholar and sufferer, G. L.
Dissen, the illustrious editor of Pindar, Tibullus and Demosthenes.
“I can give you briefly,” he tells his father, “what I noted down of
Dissen’s views on my return from him. ‘Above all else,’ he said, ‘the
time has come to elevate hermenentics, the advanced science of exegesis,
for the old poets as well as prose writers, to a higher standard. Up to
this time scholars have usually been content to expound the words in
their grammatical connection, and according to their significance in the
dictionary or by the rules of syntax. They have sought to discover the
meaning of detached passages, or perhaps the _nexus sententiarum_. But
they have neither recognized nor expressed in a sufficient manner the
inestimable superiority of the Greek language especially, in the perfect
correspondence between thought and form,--in the possibility of easily
reproducing the least modulation of thought by an appropriate adaptation
of the expression. Nor have they known how to detect the deep technical
design, the economy of words, of poems, of choral songs, which can be
shown everywhere, and which is executed with admirable poetical
perfection, as well as with severe logical art. Yet the superiority of
the ancients consists precisely in this, that in their works they
develop in admirable harmony these two powers, lofty poetic inspiration
in the conception, and clear, penetrating judgment in the execution. It
is just this that separates them from the poesy of to-day, in which one
side is almost always cultivated at the expense of the other. Classic
poetry and the whole of classic literature is not yet, by any means,
valued as it should be, and it is now incumbent upon hermenentics to
instruct us therein, and to exhibit in detail all the treasures of
classical literature to their profoundest depths. Such commentaries as
are at present written upon the ancients usually contain explanations of
isolated words, and matters which often have but a very slight
connection with the text. They consist for the most part of general
remarks on grammar, and are compiled from collectanea. Such dull and
lifeless handiwork should at least be abandoned to those who can attain
no higher standpoint of science; but the higher hermenentics must
proceed from the basis of grammatical knowledge, which is requisite in
every case, to point out in their works the genius and art of the
ancients. A correct understanding of the separate parts can only be
attained by steadily keeping in view the essential order, the
fundamental idea, and it can be proved repeatedly with regard to Hermann
that he has neglected this in his writings and commentaries, or he would
have perceived that often, in a chorus, the notes to strophe and
anti-strophe contradict each other. Pindar especially must be treated in
this way.” Lepsius then describes the law which Dissen thinks he has
found to be observed, in an analogous manner, through all the poems of
Pindar.
“I was also received very cordially,” writes Richard to his father, “by
O. Müller. He is just such a man as I had expected, and that is saying a
great deal; his whole external appearance, even, corresponded amazingly
to the idea which I had formed of him. This morning he depicted himself
most aptly in describing the Greek character. He is at the same time
earnest and vivacious, enthusiastic and calm, imaginative and lucid.
This is, of course, most applicable to the manner in which he expresses
himself in his lectures, yet his whole character is so transparently
manifested in them, especially in the first lectures on the archaeology
of art, that it is safe to draw conclusions thence as to all other
relations. He has besides an almost ideally fine figure, an expressive
countenance which exhibits real humanity, and a distinct, sonorous
voice. His lectures are almost entirely extemporaneous, as far as the
subject permits, enthusiastic, yet calm too, clear and convincing.”
Jacob Grimm he calls a “very kind-hearted, unaffected man. This is
apparent in everything. He is also prodigiously learned in every
possible direction, but yet, it seems, very easily embarrassed in
expressing himself, perhaps because he does not yet feel at home among
the affectations of Göttingen life.” Later he learned to esteem the
brothers Grimm more and more highly, and met with the most cordial
reception in their house. “Eight days ago,” he writes to his father, “I
dined with the Grimms, and I cannot praise the family enough to you. The
whole family are simplicity and affection personified, and it is
especially funny to see these two men forget all their immense learning,
and play with their little Hermann, until the mother really becomes
quite troubled lest he should be spoiled. William, the husband, is still
more agreeable and easy in conversation,” (than Jacob).
In Otfried Müller’s Seminary, to which he, as well as his friends
Schweckendieck and Gravenhorst, was admitted, he reaped an abundant
intellectual harvest, and the Göttingen Philological Society, into which
he had been received as a member, was also of great benefit to him. This
consisted of seven or eight of the best young philologists, elected by
vote, who met once every week (on Tuesdays, at half past seven o’clock).
They began by discussing some critical paper presented by a member,
often in the presence of O. Müller. This was submitted for inspection to
each member, who was free to make remarks upon it, and defend his own
views. The business of the society was then transacted, and finally they
all sat sociably together, engaged in pleasant and serious conversation,
and cosily enjoyed their beer and tobacco, both of which the society was
bound to furnish. Lepsius informs his father that he, who always before
expected to play the _persona muta_, to his astonishment here became a
_homo disputax_, which he did not indeed, in its full sense, exactly
desire, but which still appeared to him a much more interesting role
than that of the _persona muta_.
Upon the whole, Müller, in Göttingen, exerted the deepest and most
lasting influence over him. Thus while, in Leipsic, he had still
hesitated whether he should devote himself to the grammatical or the
archaeological division of philology, he here decided in favor of the
latter, although without entirely losing sight of the former. No other
scholar of that time had such a lofty and far-reaching apprehension of
archaeology as Otfried Müller, and hence we see Lepsius allow himself to
be locked in daily for hours, in order to trace on transparent paper the
copper-plates from all the works which had at that time appeared on the
architecture and plastic art of the ancients. He wished to make their
forms his own, and to retain them in his possession, even if in the
unsatisfactory shape of copies. The architectural pictures thus traced
he afterwards copied at home.
All that Müller had to offer the students, whether in the lecture-room,
in the seminary, or by personal intercourse, was received by Lepsius
with enthusiasm, and at the close of the term, he wrote to his father:
“To-morrow Müller will finish the historical portion of his archaeology,
and thus once more lies fully extended before my vision a new branch of
science, which, if any so deserves, should be called the very flower of
science. It is fostered, too, with such unusual care as none other
receives, and rejoices in such noble foundations as the Institute for
Archaeological Correspondence, which, for two years, has been under the
patronage of our Crown Prince (afterwards Frederick William IV.). The
Central Board of Directors are in Rome, and thence it extends over the
whole of northern Europe, with the co-operation of almost all eminent
scholars and experts. Its results in the various departments of science
are recorded in several languages, and within a few weeks are spread
abroad from Syracuse to Belt, from Paris to Petersburg. So that any one
should indeed be accounted fortunate who is in a position to obtain even
a superficial comprehension of the whole of this immeasurable field,
whose boundaries cannot even be discerned, if we have regard only to the
material yet to be obtained. For even such comprehension will furnish
the means for a more thorough understanding and farther progress.”
To secure these very means, he continued to work hard under O. Müller’s
direction. Yet he could not, at that time, foresee that he himself was
destined, first to enter into close connection with that Archaeological
Institute at Rome of which he writes to his father, and finally to be
chosen one of its directors.
In Göttingen also he was a welcome guest in some of the best professors’
families, and his refined and reticent nature led him, as he wrote to
his father, to prefer social intercourse in pleasant families, and
profitable communion with one or two friends, even to the assemblies of
the Philological Society, where he took little pleasure in the rough
comradeship and the enforced intimacy with many a young fellow with whom
he had really little in common.
Whenever a superior artistic performance was produced, he know how to
profit by it here, as he had done before during his stay in Berlin. When
Paganini came to Göttingen, he and Schweckendieck took a seat together
(it cost a thaler and a half), and he went to the second half of the
concert after his friend had enjoyed the first. “It would be useless,”
he writes, “to try to describe in any way Paganini’s playing. One can
only comprehend the nature and method of such playing while he is
actually playing; afterwards one loses sight of nearly every measuring
scale that could be applied to it, in order to retain it in the
imagination.”
His interest in politics had also been excited by the revolution of
July, and in order to follow political events and changes, he
subscribed, at that time, to the _Hamburg Correspondent_. He prudently
keeps out of the way of the Brunswicker Silberschmidt, who was involved
in “seditious intrigues,” when he meets him again in Göttingen, and
mentions that by his fellow-students, who almost universally called
themselves “Republicans,” he was accounted a Conservative and
aristocrat, on account of his well-known monarchial tendencies.
During a pedestrian tour in the long vacation of 1830, which took him
into the Hartz, to Hanover, etc., he was to become witness of an
historical incident, and soon afterwards, at Göttingen, to be an
onlooker at a revolution.
Unfortunately, the limits of this biography forbid our giving in full
the letters addressed to his father by the active young wanderer through
the Hartz, so susceptible to all that was beautiful or remarkable. We
can only mention here his experiences in and around Brunswick. He had
been invited thither by Gravenhorst, his fellow-student at Göttingen,
whose parents were to be his hosts. His travelling-companions separated
from him at Blankenburg, and he had still nine post-miles to travel
alone. “As I walked on the ‘Faust’ which I had brought with me luckily
occurred to me, and for the rest of the way I occupied myself with
learning some of the scenes by heart, which shortened the road
wonderfully. Meanwhile the Brocken was brewing behind me, soon the whole
range was enveloped in thick mist, and thick rain clouds gathered, which
were driven towards me by a violent wind. It was indeed a splendid sight
as the storm came on, but it inspired me with no very pleasant
anticipations of the time when it should reach me, and now I regularly
began to run a race with the rain, which came more from one side; twice
it actually caught me, another time I could only escape it by hard
running. So it happened that I got over four post-miles in four hours
without once stopping, and I should soon have finished the fifth when a
postilion called to me to ask whether I would not like to ride back with
him to Brunswick in an hour.” The young traveller accepted the offer,
and sat down in the inn to wait for the conveyance. “While I,” he
writes, “sat with a glass of beer at the big oaken table, knapsack and
stick beside me, reading this poem of all poems (Faust), this poem which
unites the heights and depths of human life, conceived and represented
by such a genius, one by one there assembled at this and a neighboring
table some wagoners, a tipsy shopkeeper, and some mechanics, who
entertained themselves after their own fashion, talked politics, railed,
and so formed an incomparable foreground to some of the scenes in Faust.
The events at Brunswick particularly were represented and criticized in
the most glaring and original colors; in short, my Faust played upon a
stage such as could scarcely be found again.”
After this prelude, he was himself to take part, at Brunswick, in the
conclusion of the tragic-comic revolutionary drama which occurred there.
The father of his friend, Gravenhorst, was chief of police, and in the
hospitable house of this man, who had been concerned as an active
participant in all the phases of the expulsion and reinstatement of the
Duke, Lepsius had a good opportunity to obtain an authentic account of
all that had happened.