No. II.
_Letter from Mr. Carlyle referred to in_ vol. ii. p. 160.[526]
EDINBURGH, 21 COMELY BANK, _13th April_ 1828.
SIR,--In February last I had the honour to receive a letter from Von
Goethe, announcing the speedy departure, from Weimar, of a Packet for
me, in which, among other valuables, should be found "two medals," to be
delivered "_mit verbindlichsten Grüssen"_ to Sir Walter Scott. By a slow
enough conveyance this _Kästchen_, with its medals in perfect safety,
has at length yesterday come to hand, and now lays on me the enviable
duty of addressing you.
Among its multifarious contents, the Weimar Box failed not to include a
long letter--considerable portion of which, as it virtually belongs to
yourself, you will now allow me to transcribe. Perhaps it were thriftier
in me to reserve this for another occasion; but considering how seldom
such a Writer obtains such a Critic, I cannot but reckon it pity that
this friendly intercourse between them should be anywise delayed.
"Sehen Sie Herrn Walter Scott, so sagen Sie ihm auf das
verbindlichste in meinem Namen Dank für den lieben heitern Brief,
gerade in dem schönen Sinne geschrieben, dass der Mensch dem
Menschen werth seyn müsse. So auch habe ich dessen Leben Napoleon's
erhalten und solches in diesen Winterabenden und Nächten von Anfang
bis zu Ende mit Aufmerksamkeit durchgelesen.
"Mir war höchst bedeutend zu sehen, wie sich der erste Erzähler des
Jahrhunderts einem so ungemeinen Geschäft unterzieht und uns die
überwichtigen Begebenheiten, deren Zeuge zu seyn wir gezwungen
wurden, in fertigem Zuge vorüberführt. Die Abtheilung durch Capitel
in grosse zusammengehörige Massen giebt den verschlungenen
Ereignissen die reinste Fasslichkeit, und so wird dann auch der
Vortrag des Einzelnen auf das unschätzbarste deutlich und
anschaulich.
"Ich las es im Original, und da wirkte es ganz eigentlich seiner
Natur nach. Es ist ein patriotischer Britte der spricht, der die
Handlungen des Feindes nicht wohl mit günstigen Augen ansehen kann,
der als ein rechtlicher Staatsbürger zugleich mit den
Unternehmungen der Politik auch die Forderungen der Sittlichkeit
befriedigt wünscht, der den Gegner, im frechen Laufe des Glücks,
mit unseligen Folgen bedroht, und auch im bittersten Verfall ihn
kaum bedauern kann.
"Und so war mir noch ausserdem das Werk von der grössten Bedeutung,
indem es mich an das Miterlebte theils erinnerte, theils mir
manches Uebersehene nun vorführte, mich auf einem unerwarteten
Standpunkt versetzte, mir zu erwägen gab was ich für abgeschlossen
hielt, und besonders auch mich befähigte die Gegner dieses
wichtigen Werkes, an denen es nicht fehlen kann, zu beurtheilen und
die Einwendungen, die sie von ihrer Seite vortragen, zu würdigen.
Sie sehen hieraus dass zu Ende des Jahres keine höhere Gabe hätte
zu mir gelangen können. Es ist dieses Werk mir zu einem goldenen
Netz geworden, womit ich die Schattenbilder meines vergangenen
Lebens aus den Lethes-Fluthen mit reichem Zuge herauszuforschen
mich beschäftige.
"Ungefähr dasselbige denke ich in dem nächsten Stücke von _Kunst
und Alterthum_ zu sagen."
With regard to the medals, which are, as I expected, the two well-known
likenesses of Goethe himself, it could be no hard matter to dispose of
them safely here, or transmit them to you, if you required it, without
delay: but being in this curious fashion appointed as it were Ambassador
between two Kings of Poetry, I would willingly discharge my mission with
the solemnity that beseems such a business, and naturally it must
flatter my vanity and love of the marvellous, to think that, by means of
a Foreigner whom I have never seen, I might now have access to my native
Sovereign, whom I have so often seen in public and so often wished that
I had claim to see and know in private and near at hand.--Till
Whitsunday I continue to reside here; and shall hope that some time
before that period I may have opportunity to wait on you, and, as my
commission bore, to hand you these memorials in person.
Meanwhile I abide your further orders in this matter; and so, with all
the regard which belongs to one to whom I in common with other millions
owe so much,--I have the honour to be,
Sir, most respectfully your servant, THOMAS CARLYLE.
Besides the _two_ medals specially intended for you, there have come
_four_ more, which I am requested generally to dispose of amongst
"_Wohlwollenden_," Perhaps Mr. Lockhart, whose merits in respect of
German Literature, and just appreciation of this its Patriarch and
Guide, are no secret, will do me the honour to accept of one and direct
me through your means how I am to have it conveyed?
_Translation of the Letter from Goethe_.
Should you see Sir Walter Scott, be so kind as return to him my most
grateful thanks for his dear and cheerful letter,--a letter written in
just that beautiful temper which makes one man feel himself to be worth
something to another. Say, too, that I received his Life of Napoleon,
and have read it this winter--in the evening and at night--with
attention from beginning to end. To me it was full of meaning to observe
how the first novelist of the century took upon himself a task and
business, so apparently foreign to him, and passed under review with
rapid stroke those important events of which it had been our fate to be
eye-witnesses. The division into chapters, embracing masses of
intimately connected events, gives a clearness to the historical
sequence that otherwise might have been only too easily confused, while,
at the same time, the individual events in each chapter are described
with a clearness and a vividness quite invaluable.
I read the work in the original, and the impression it made upon me was
thus free from the disturbing influence of a foreign medium. I found
myself listening to the words of a patriotic Briton, who finds it
impossible to regard the actions of the enemy with a favourable eye,--an
honest citizen this, whose desire is, that while political
considerations shall always receive due weight, the demands of morality
shall never be overlooked; one who, while the enemy is borne along in
his wanton course of good fortune, cannot forbear to point with warning
finger to the inevitable consequences, and in his bitterest disaster can
with difficulty find him worthy of a tear.
The book was in yet another respect of the greatest importance to me, in
that it brought back to my remembrance events through which I had
lived--now showing me much that I had overlooked, now transplanting me
to some unexpected standpoint, thus forcing me to reconsider a question
which I had looked upon as settled, and in a special manner putting me
in a position to pass judgment upon the unfavourable critics of this
book--for these cannot fail--and to estimate at their true value the
objections which are sure to be made from their side. From all this you
will understand how the end of last year could have brought with it no
gift more welcome to me than this book. The work has become to me as it
were a golden net, wherewith I can recover from out the waves of Lethe
the shadowy pictures of my past life, and in that rich draught I am
finding my present employment.
I intend making a few remarks to the same purpose in the next number of
_Kunst und Alterthum_.[527]
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