consumed at once in some momentary enjoyment,--as I can scarcely call to
mind that we ever took a walk together, and spent any thing in a place
of amusement,--he was, on the other hand, not niggardly in procuring
such things as had a good external appearance in addition to inward
value. No one could desire peace more than he, although he had not felt
the smallest inconvenience during the last days of the war. With this
feeling, he had promised my mother a gold snuff-box, set with diamonds,
which she was to receive as soon as peace should be publicly declared.
In the expectation of the happy event, they had labored now for some
years on this present. The box, which was tolerably large, had been
executed in Hanau; for my father was on good terms with the gold-workers
there, as well as with the heads of the silk establishments. Many
designs were made for it: the cover was adorned by a basket of flowers,
over which hovered a dove with the olive-branch. A vacant space was left
for the jewels, which were to be set partly in the dove and partly on
the spot where the box is usually opened. The jeweller, to whom the
execution and the requisite stones were intrusted, was named Lautensak,
and was a brisk, skilful man, who, like many artists, seldom did what
was necessary, but usually works of caprice, which gave him pleasure.
The jewels were very soon set, in the shape in which they were to be put
upon the box, on some black wax, and looked very well; but they would
not come off to be transferred to the gold. In the outset, my father let
the matter rest: but as the hope of peace became livelier, and finally
when the stipulations,--particularly the elevation of the Archduke
Joseph to the Roman throne,--seemed more precisely known, he grew more
and more impatient; and I had to go several times a week, nay, at last,
almost daily, to visit the tardy artist. Owing to my unremitted teasing
and exhortation, the work went on, though slowly enough; for, as it was
of that kind which can be taken in hand or laid aside at will, there was
always something by which it was thrust out of the way, and put aside.
The chief cause of this conduct, however, was a task which the artist
had undertaken on his own account. Everybody knew that the Emperor
Francis cherished a strong liking for jewels, and especially for colored
stones. Lautensak had expended a considerable sum, and, as it afterwards
turned out, larger than his means, on such gems, out of which he had
begun to shape a nosegay, in which every stone was to be tastefully
disposed, according to its shape and color, and the whole form a work of
art worthy to stand in the treasure-vaults of an emperor. He had, in his
desultory way, labored at it for many years, and now hastened--because
after the hoped-for peace the arrival of the emperor, for the coronation
of his son, was expected in Frankfort--to complete it and finally to put
it together. My desire to become acquainted with such things he used
very dexterously to divert my attention by sending me forth as his dun,
and to turn me away from my intention. He strove to impart a knowledge
of these stones to me, and made me attentive to their properties and
value; so that in the end I knew his whole bouquet by heart, and quite
as well as he could have demonstrated its virtues to a customer. It is
even now present to my mind; and I have since seen more costly, but not
more graceful, specimens of show and magnificence in this sort. He
possessed, moreover, a pretty collection of engravings, and other works
of art, with which he liked to amuse himself; and I passed many hours
with him, not without profit. Finally, when the Congress of Hubertsburg
was finally fixed, he did for my sake more than was due; and the dove
and flowers actually reached my mother's hands on the festival in
celebration of the peace.
I then received also many similar commissions to urge on painters with
respect to pictures which had been ordered. My father had confirmed
himself in the notion--and few men were free from it--that a picture
painted on wood was greatly to be preferred to one that was merely put
on canvas. It was therefore his great care to possess good oak boards,
of every shape; because he well knew that just on this important point
the more careless artists trusted to the joiners. The oldest planks were
hunted up, the joiners were obliged to go accurately to work with
gluing, painting, and arranging; and they were then kept for years in an
upper room, where they could be sufficiently dried. A precious board of
this kind was intrusted to the painter Junker, who was to represent on
it an ornamental flower-pot, with the most important flowers drawn after
nature in his artistic and elegant manner. It was just about the spring-
time; and I did not fail to take him several times a week the most
beautiful flowers that fell in my way, which he immediately put in, and
by degrees composed the whole out of these elements with the utmost care
and fidelity. On one occasion I had caught a mouse, which I took to him,
and which he desired to copy as a very pretty animal; nay, really
represented it, as accurately as possible, gnawing an ear of corn at the
foot of the flower-pot. Many such inoffensive natural objects, such as
butterflies and chafers, were brought in and represented; so that
finally, as far as imitation and execution were concerned, a highly
valuable picture was put together.
Hence I was not a little astonished when the good man formally declared
one day, when the work was just about to be delivered, that the picture
no longer pleased him,--since, while it had turned out quite well in its
details, it was not well composed as a whole, because it had been
produced in this gradual manner; and he had committed a blunder at the
outset, in not at least devising a general plan for light and shade, as
well as for color, according to which the single flowers might have been
arranged. He scrutinized, in my presence, the minutest parts of the
picture, which had arisen before my eyes during six months, and had
pleased me in many respects, and, much to my regret, managed to
thoroughly convince me. Even the copy of the mouse he regarded as a
mistake; for many persons, he said, have a sort of horror of such
animals: and they should not be introduced where the object is to excite
pleasure. As it commonly happens with those who are cured of a
prejudice, and think themselves much more knowing than they were before,
I now had a real contempt for this work of art, and agreed perfectly
with the artist when he caused to be prepared another tablet of the same
size, on which, according to his taste, he painted a better-formed
vessel and a more artistically arranged nosegay, and also managed to
select and distribute the little living accessories in an ornamental and
agreeable way. This tablet also he painted with the greatest care,
though altogether after the former copied one, or from memory, which,
through a very long and assiduous practice, came to his aid. Both
paintings were now ready; and we were thoroughly delighted with the
last, which was certainly the more artistic and striking of the two. My
father was surprised with two pictures instead of one, and to him the
choice was left. He approved of our opinion, and of the reasons for it,
and especially of our good will and activity; but, after considering
both pictures some days, decided in favor of the first, without saying
much about the motives of his choice. The artist, in an ill humor, took
back his second well-meant picture, and could not refrain from the
remark that the good oaken tablet on which the first was painted had
certainly had its effect on my father's decision.
Now that I am again speaking of painting, I am reminded of a large
establishment, where I passed much time, because both it and its
managers especially attracted me. It was the great oil-cloth factory
which the painter Nothnagel had erected,--an expert artist, but one who
by his mode of thought inclined more to manufacture than to art. In a
very large space of courts and gardens, all sorts of oil-cloths were
made, from the coarsest, that are spread with a trowel, and used for
baggage-wagons and similar purposes, and the carpets impressed with
figures, to the finer and the finest, on which sometimes Chinese and
grotesque, sometimes natural flowers, sometimes figures, sometimes
landscapes, were represented by the pencils of accomplished workmen.
This multiplicity, to which there was no end, amused me vastly. The
occupation of so many men, from the commonest labor to that in which a
certain artistic worth could not be denied, was to me extremely
attractive. I made the acquaintance of this multitude of younger and
older men, working in several rooms one behind the other, and
occasionally lent a hand myself. The sale of these commodities was
extraordinarily brisk. Whoever at that time was building or furnishing a
house, wished to provide for his lifetime; and this oil-cloth carpeting
was certainly quite indestructible. Nothnagel had enough to do in
managing the whole, and sat in his office surrounded by factors and
clerks. The remainder of his time he employed in his collection of works
of art, consisting chiefly of engravings, in which, as well as in the
pictures he possessed, he traded occasionally. At the same time he had
acquired a taste for etching: he etched a variety of plates, and
prosecuted this branch of art even into his latest years.
As his dwelling lay near the Eschenheim gate, my way when I had visited
him led me out of the city to some pieces of ground which my father
owned beyond the gates. One was a large orchard, the soil of which was
used as a meadow, and in which my father carefully attended the
transplanting of trees, and whatever else pertained to their
preservation; though the ground itself was leased. Still more occupation
was furnished by a very well-preserved vineyard beyond the Friedberg
gate, where, between the rows of vines, rows of asparagus were planted
and tended with great care. Scarcely a day passed in the fine season in
which my father did not go there; and as on these occasions we might
generally accompany him, we were provided with joy and delight from the
earliest productions of spring to the last of autumn. We now also
acquired a knowledge of gardening matters, which, as they were repeated
every year, became in the end perfectly known and familiar to us. But,
after the manifold fruits of summer and autumn, the vintage at last was
the most lively and the most desirable; nay, there is no question, that
as wine gives a freer character to the very places and districts where
it is grown and drunk, so also do these vintage-days, while they close
summer and at the same time open the winter, diffuse an incredible
cheerfulness. Joy and jubilation pervade a whole district. In the
daytime, huzzas and shoutings are heard from every end and corner; and
at night rockets and fire-balls, now here, now there, announce that the
people, everywhere awake and lively, would willingly make this festival
last as long as possible. The subsequent labor at the wine-press, and
during the fermentation in the cellar, gave us also a cheerful
employment at home; and thus we ordinarily reached winter without being
properly aware of it.
These rural possessions delighted us so much the more in the spring of
1763, as the 15th of February in that year was celebrated as a festival
day, on account of the conclusion of the Hubertsberg peace, under the
happy results of which the greater part of my life was to flow away.
But, before I go farther, I think I am bound to mention some men who
exerted an important influence on my youth.
Von Olenschlager, a member of the Frauenstein family, a Schöff, and son-
in-law of the above-mentioned Dr. Orth, a handsome, comfortable,
sanguine man. In his official holiday costume he could well have
personated the most important French prelate. After his academical
course, he had employed himself in political and state affairs, and
directed even his travels to that end. He greatly esteemed me, and often
conversed with me on matters which chiefly interested him. I was with
him when he wrote his "Illustration of the Golden Bull," when he managed
to explain to me very clearly the worth and dignity of that document. My
imagination was led back by it to those wild and unquiet times; so that
I could not forbear representing what he related historically, as if it
were present, by pictures of characters and circumstances, and often by
mimicry. In this he took great delight, and by his applause excited me
to repetition.
I had from childhood the singular habit of always learning by heart the
beginnings of books, and the divisions of a work, first of the five
books of Moses, and then of the "Aeneid" and Ovid's "Metamorphoses." I
now did the same thing with the "Golden Bull," and often provoked my
patron to a smile, when I quite seriously and unexpectedly exclaimed,
"/Omne regnum in se divisum desolabitur; nam principes ejus facti sunt
socii furum./" [Footnote: Every kingdom divided against itself shall
be brought to desolation, for the princes thereof have become the
associates of robbers.--TRANS.] The knowing man shook his head, smiling,
and said doubtingly, "What times those must have been, when, at a grand
diet, the emperor had such words published in the face of his princes!"
There was a great charm in Von Olenschlager's society. He received
little company, but was strongly inclined to intellectual amusement, and
induced us young people from time to time to perform a play; for such
exercises were deemed particularly useful to the young. We acted
"Canute" by Schlegel, in which the part of the king was assigned to me,
Elfrida to my sister, and Ulfo to the younger son of the family. We then
ventured on the "Britannicus;" [Footnote: Racine's tragedy.--TRANS.]
for, besides our dramatic talents, we were to bring the language into
practice. I took Nero, my sister Agrippina, and the younger son
Britannicus. We were more praised than we deserved, and fancied we had
done it even beyond the amount of praise. Thus I stood on the best terms
with this family, and have been indebted to them for many pleasures and
a speedier development.
Von Reineck, of an old patrician family, able, honest, but stubborn, a
meagre, swarthy man, whom I never saw smile. The misfortune befell him
that his only daughter was carried off by a friend of the family. He
pursued his son-in-law with the most vehement prosecution: and because
the tribunals, with their formality, were neither speedy nor sharp
enough to gratify his desire of vengeance, he fell out with them; and
there arose quarrel after quarrel, suit after suit. He retired
completely into his own house and its adjacent garden, lived in a
spacious but melancholy lower room, into which for many years no brush
of a whitewasher, and perhaps scarcely the broom of a maid-servant, had
found its way. He was very fond of me, and had especially commended to
me his younger son. He many times asked his oldest friends, who knew how
to humor him, his men of business and agents, to dine with him, and on
these occasions never omitted inviting me. There was good eating and
better drinking at his house. But a large stove, that let out the smoke
from many cracks, caused his guests the greatest pain. One of the most
intimate of these once ventured to remark upon this, by asking the host
whether he could put up with such an inconvenience all the winter. He
answered, like a second Timon or Heautontimoroumenos, "Would to God this
was the greatest evil of those which torment me!" It was long before he
allowed himself to be persuaded to see his daughter and grandson. The
son-in-law never again dared to come into his presence.
On this excellent but unfortunate man my visits had a very favorable
effect; for while he liked to converse with me, and particularly
instructed me on world and state affairs, he seemed to feel himself
relieved and cheered. The few old friends who still gathered round him,
often, therefore, made use of me when they wished to soften his peevish
humor, and persuade him to any diversion. He now really rode out with us
many times, and again contemplated the country, on which he had not cast
an eye for so many years. He called to mind the old landowners, and told
stories of their characters and actions, in which he showed himself
always severe, but often cheerful and witty. We now tried also to bring
him again among other men, which, however, nearly turned out badly.
About the same age, if indeed not older, was one Herr Von Malapert, a
rich man, who possessed a very handsome house by the horse-market, and
derived a good income from salt-pits. He also lived quite secluded; but
in summer he was a great deal in his garden, near the Bockenheim gate,
where he watched and tended a very fine plot of pinks.
Von Reineck was likewise an amateur of pinks: the season of flowering
had come, and suggestions were made as to whether these two could not
visit each other. We introduced the matter, and persisted in it; till at
last Von Reineck resolved to go out with us one Sunday afternoon. The
greeting of the two old gentlemen was very laconic, indeed almost
pantomimic; and they walked up and down by the long pink frames with
true diplomatic strides. The display was really extraordinarily
beautiful: and the particular forms and colors of the different flowers,
the advantages of one over the other, and their rarity, gave at last
occasion to a sort of conversation which appeared to get quite friendly;
at which we others rejoiced the more because we saw the most precious
old Rhine wine in cut decanters, fine fruits, and other good things
spread upon a table in a neighboring bower. But these, alas! we were not
to enjoy. For Von Reineck unfortunately saw a very fine pink with its
head somewhat hanging down: he therefore took the stalk near the calyx
very cautiously between his fore and middle fingers, and lifted the
flower so that he could well inspect it. But even this gentle handling
vexed the owner. Von Malapert courteously, indeed, but stiffly enough,
and somewhat self-complacently, reminded him of the /Oculis, non
manibus/.[Footnote: Eyes, not hands.--TRANS.] Von Reineck had already
let go the flower, but at once took fire at the words, and said in his
usual dry, serious manner, that it was quite consistent with an amateur
to touch and examine them in such a manner. Whereupon he repeated the
act, and took the flower again between his fingers. The friends of both
parties--for Von Malapert also had one present--were now in the greatest
perplexity. They set one hare to catch another (that was our proverbial
expression, when a conversation was to be interrupted, and turned to
another subject), but it would not do; the old gentleman had become
quite silent: and we feared every moment that Von Reineck would repeat
the act, when it would be all over with us. The two friends kept their
principals apart by occupying them, now here, now there, and at last we
found it most expedient to make preparation for departure. Thus, alas!
we were forced to turn our backs on the inviting side-board, yet
unenjoyed.
Hofrath Huesgen, not born in Frankfort, of the Reformed [Footnote: That
is to say, he was a Calvinist, as distinguished from a Lutheran.--
TRANS.] religion, and therefore incapable of public office, including
the profession of advocate, which, however, because much confidence was
placed in him as an excellent jurist, he managed to exercise quietly,
both in the Frankfort and the imperial courts, under assumed signatures,
was already sixty years old when I took writing-lessons with his son,
and so came into his house. His figure was tall without being thin, and
broad without corpulency. You could not look, for the first time, on his
face, which was not only disfigured by small-pox, but deprived of an
eye, without apprehension. He always wore on his bald head a perfectly
white bell-shaped cap, tied at the top with a ribbon. His morning-gowns,
of calamanco or damask, were always very clean. He dwelt in a very
cheerful suite of rooms on the ground-floor by the /Allée/, and the
neatness of every thing about him corresponded with this cheerfulness.
The perfect arrangement of his papers, books, and maps produced a
favorable impression. His son, Heinrich Sebastian, afterwards known by
various writings on art, gave little promise in his youth. Good-natured
but dull, not rude but blunt, and without any special liking for
instruction, he rather sought to avoid the presence of his father, as he
could get all he wanted from his mother. I, on the other hand, grew more
and more intimate with the old man, the more I knew of him. As he
attended only to important cases, he had time enough to occupy and amuse
himself in another manner. I had not long frequented his house, and
heard his doctrines, before I could well perceive that he stood in
opposition to God and the world. One of his favorite books was "Agrippa
de Vanitate Scientiarum," which he especially commended to me, and so
set my young brains in a considerable whirl for a long time. In the
happiness of youth I was inclined to a sort of optimism, and had again
pretty well reconciled myself with God or the gods; for the experience
of a series of years had taught me that there was much to counterbalance
evil, that one can well recover from misfortune, and that one may be
saved from dangers and need not always break one's neck. I looked with
tolerance, too, on what men did and pursued, and found many things
worthy of praise which my old gentleman could not by any means abide.
Indeed, once when he had sketched the world to me, rather from the
distorted side, I observed from his appearance that he meant to close
the game with an important trump-card. He shut tight his blind left eye,
as he was wont to do in such cases, looked sharp out of the other, and
said in a nasal voice, "Even in God I discover defects."
My Timonic mentor was also a mathematician; but his practical turn drove
him to mechanics, though he did not work himself. A clock, wonderful
indeed in those days, which indicated, not only the days and hours, but
the motions of the sun and moon, he caused to be made according to his
own plan. On Sunday, about ten o'clock in the morning, he always wound
it up himself; which he could do the more regularly, as he never went to
church. I never saw company nor guests at his house; and only twice in
ten years do I remember to have seen him dressed, and walking out of
doors.
My various conversations with these men were not insignificant, and each
of them influenced me in his own way. From every one I had as much
attention as his own children, if not more; and each strove to increase
his delight in me as in a beloved son, while he aspired to mould me into
his moral counterpart. Olenschlager would have made me a courtier, Von
Reineck a diplomatic man of business: both, the latter particularly,
sought to disgust me with poetry and authorship. Huisgen wished me to be
a Timon after his fashion, but, at the same time, an able jurisconsult,
--a necessary profession, as he thought, with which one could, in a
regular manner, defend one's self and friends against the rabble of
mankind, succor the oppressed, and, above all, pay off a rogue; though
the last is neither especially practicable nor advisable.
But if I liked to be at the side of these men to profit by their
counsels and directions, younger persons, only a little older than
myself, roused me to immediate emulation. I name here, before all
others, the brothers Schlosser and Griesbach. But as, subsequently,
there arose between us greater intimacy, which lasted for many years
uninterruptedly, I will only say, for the present, that they were then
praised as being distinguished in languages, and other studies which
opened the academical course, and held up as models, and that everybody
cherished the certain expectation that they would once do something
uncommon in church and state.
With respect to myself, I also had it in my mind to produce something
extraordinary; but in what it was to consist was not clear. But as we
are apt to look rather to the reward which may be received than to the
merit which is to be acquired; so, I do not deny, that if I thought of a
desirable piece of good fortune, it appeared to me most fascinating in
the shape of that laurel garland which is woven to adorn the poet.
FIFTH BOOK.
Every bird has its decoy, and every man is led and misled in a way
peculiar to himself. Nature, education, circumstances, and habit kept me
apart from all that was rude; and though I often came into contact with
the lower classes of people, particularly mechanics, no close connection
grew out of it. I had indeed boldness enough to undertake something
uncommon and perhaps dangerous, and many times felt disposed to do so;
but I was without the handle by which to grasp and hold it.
Meanwhile I was quite unexpectedly involved in an affair which brought
me near to a great hazard, and at least for a long time into perplexity
and distress. The good terms on which I before stood with the boy whom I
have already named Pylades was maintained up to the time of my youth. We
indeed saw each other less often, because our parents did not stand on
the best footing with each other; but, when we did meet, the old
raptures of friendship broke out immediately. Once we met in the alleys
which offer a very agreeable walk between the outer and inner gate of
Saint Gallus. We had scarcely returned greetings when he said to me, "I
hold to the same opinion as ever about your verses. Those which you
recently communicated to me, I read aloud to some pleasant companions;
and not one of them will believe that you have made them."--"Let it
pass," I answered: "we will make and enjoy them, and the others may
think and say of them what they please."
"There comes the unbeliever now," added my friend. "We will not speak of
it," I replied: "what is the use of it? one cannot convert them."--"By
no means," said my friend: "I cannot let the affair pass off in this
way."