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diff --git a/33818-h/33818-h.htm b/33818-h/33818-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1059dc8 --- /dev/null +++ b/33818-h/33818-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,10311 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<html> +<head> +<title>Pictures of German Life in the XVIIIth and XIXth Centuries. Vol. I.</title> +<meta name="Author" content="Gustav Freytag"> +<meta name="Publisher" content="Chapman and Hall"> +<meta name="Date" content="1863"> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"> +<style type="text/css"> +body {margin-left:10%; + margin-right:10%; background-color:#FFFFFF;} + + + +p.normal {text-indent:.25in; text-align: justify;} +p.center {text-align:center; margin-top:9pt;} + + +p.section {letter-spacing:1em; text-align:center; margin-top:24pt; margin-bottom:24pt;} +p.right {text-align:right; margin-right:10%;} + +p.continue {text-indent: 0in; margin-top:9pt;} +.text10 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:10%; margin-right:0px; font-size:90%;} +.text20 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:20%; margin-right:0px; font-size:90%;} + +.t0 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0em; margin-right:0px;} +.t1 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:1em; margin-right:0px;} +.t2 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:2em; margin-right:0px;} +.t3 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:3em; margin-right:0px;} +.t4 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:4em; margin-right:0px;} +.t5 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:5em; margin-right:0px;} +.t6 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:6em; margin-right:0px;} +.t7 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:7em; margin-right:0px;} +.t8 {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:8em; margin-right:0px;} + +.quote {font-size:90%; margin-top:24pt; margin-bottom:24pt} +.dateline {text-align:right; font-size:90%; margin-top:24pt; margin-bottom:24pt} + +h1,h2,h3,h4,h5 {text-align: center;} + +span.sc {font-variant: small-caps; font-size:100%} +.space {letter-spacing: 1em; text-align:center; margin-bottom:24pt; margin-top:24pt;} + + +hr.W10 {width:10%; margin-top:12pt; margin-bottom:12pt; + color:black;} + +hr.W20 {width:20%; margin-top:12pt; margin-bottom:12pt; + color:black;} + +hr.W50 {width:50%; margin-top:12pt; color:black;} +hr.W90 {width:90%; margin-top:12pt; color:black;} + +p.hang1 {margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em;} +p.hang2 {margin-left:2em;} + +.poem { + margin-top: 24pt; + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + text-align: left; + margin-bottom: 24pt + } + .poem .stanza { + margin : 1em 0; + margin-top:24pt; + } + +</style> + +</head> + +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Pictures of German Life in the XVIIIth and +XIXth Centuries, Vol. I., by Gustav Freytag + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Pictures of German Life in the XVIIIth and XIXth Centuries, Vol. I. + +Author: Gustav Freytag + +Translator: Georgiana Malcolm + +Release Date: September 29, 2010 [EBook #33818] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PICTURES OF GERMAN LIFE V. 1 *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by the Web Archive + + + + + +</pre> + + + + + + + + +<p class="hang1">Transcriber's Note:<br> + +1. Page scan source: +http://www.archive.org/details/picturesgermanl04freygoog</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h1>PICTURES OF GERMAN LIFE</h1> + +<h4>IN THE</h4> +<br> +<h3>EIGHTEENTH AND NINETEENTH CENTURIES.</h3> +<br> +<h4>SECOND SERIES.</h4> +<br> +<hr class="W20"> +<br> +<h2>VOL. I.</h2> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h1>PICTURES</h1> +<br> +<h4>OF</h4> +<br> +<h1>GERMAN LIFE</h1> +<br> + +<h3>In the XVIII<sup>th</sup> and XIX<sup>th</sup> Centuries.</h3> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>Second Series.</h2> +<br> +<br> +<h4>BY</h4> +<h2>GUSTAV FREYTAG</h2> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h3>Translated from the Original by</h3> +<h2>MRS. MALCOLM.</h2> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h3><i>COPYRIGHT EDITION.--IN TWO VOLUMES</i>.</h3> +<br> +<br> +<h2>VOL. I.</h2> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h3>LONDON:</h3> +<h2>CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193 PICCADILLY. +1863.</h2> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h4>LONDON:<br> +BRADBURY AND EVANS, PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS.</h4> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CONTENTS.</h2> +<br> +<h3>SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES.</h3> +<br> + +<p class="hang1"><span class="sc">Introduction</span>.--The nation and the individual--Aim of the +book--Peculiarities in the development of the German people since +the Thirty Years' War</p> +<br> +<br> +<h3>CHAPTER I.</h3> +<br> +<p class="hang1"><span class="sc">Life of the German Peasant</span> (1240-1790).--The duration of modern +nations--German agriculture in the time of the Romans, the +Carlovingians, and the Hohenstauffen--Description of the peasants by +Neidhart von Reuenthal--<span class="sc">Narrative of young Helmbrecht, by Wernher +the Gardener</span>--The fifteenth century--The Peasant War--Eberlin von +Günzburg--Condition of the peasants after the war; their service and +burdens; their different condition according to districts, and +deterioration by oppression--First signs of improvement--<span class="sc">Description of +the German peasant by Christian Garve</span>--Insurrection of the peasantry in +1790, and their present position</p> +<br> +<br> +<h3>CHAPTER II.</h3> +<br> +<p class="hang1"><span class="sc">The Life of the Lower Nobility</span> (1500-1800).--The country nobles +in the sixteenth century--The court nobles--The detrimental effects +of the Great War--Description of a wealthy nobleman from +1650-1700--Patents of nobility--Description of the life of the +newly-ennobled merchants from 1650-1700--The country nobles and +Krippenreiters from 1660-1700--<span class="sc">Description of the same from "The +Nobleman," by Paul Winckler</span>--Better condition after 1700--Privileges of +the nobles--Introduction of a new culture--Gellert--Union of the nobles +with the citizens</p> +<br> +<br> +<h3>CHAPTER III.</h3> +<br> +<p class="hang1"><span class="sc">The German Citizen and his Shooting Festivals</span> (1300-1800).-Gradual +development of the citizen class--Decline after the Thirty Years' +War--The prize shooting as an example of their former wealth and +importance--May feasts of the old citizens--Prize shooting before +1400--Preparations for the festival--The Pritschmeister and +procession--Prizes and fortune's urn--Hospitality, and conclusion of +the festival--Zurich and Strasbourg--Differences of the festivals +according to districts--Their decline--<span class="sc">Description of the Breslau +"Königschiessens" of</span> 1738, <span class="sc">by Kundmann</span></p> +<br> +<br> +<h3>CHAPTER IV.</h3> +<br> +<p class="hang1"><span class="sc">The State Policy and the Individual</span> (1600-1700).--The dissolution of +the German Empire--The Prince's parties--The despotic official +administration--The statesmen after the war--The insecurity of the +subject; its influence on the character--<span class="sc">Characteristics of the State +system in a flying sheet of</span> 1678--Tendencies up to 1740</p> +<br> +<br> +<h3>CHAPTER V.</h3> +<br> +<p class="hang1"><span class="sc">The "Stillen im Lande," or Pietists</span> (1600-1700).--Tendencies +of Protestantism till 1618--Consequences of the war--The older +Pietism--Spener--Hatred of worldly pleasures--The +women--Self-contemplation and social intercourse--Good effects on +morals--The revival--Characters of Petersen and his wife--<span class="sc">Narrative +of Johanna Eleonora Petersen</span>--<span class="sc">Narrative of Dr. Johann Wilhelm +Petersen</span>--Fate of this couple, and their revelations--The later Pietism +and its aberrations--Opposition--<span class="sc">Lamentations of the student, Ernst +Johann Semler</span>--Progress of the people through Pietism</p> +<br> +<br> +<h3>CHAPTER VI.</h3> +<br> +<p class="hang1"><span class="sc">The Dawning of Light</span> (1750).--Changes in the human mind from +the invention of printing--Mathematical discipline and natural +science--Law--Philosophy and its position with respect to theology--The +leaders--Change of literature by Wolf and his disciples--Description +of a German city about 1760, its police and artisans--The +gentry--Merchants and their commerce--Ecclesiastics, teachers, and +schools--Post and travelling--Dress and manners--Sentimentality, tears, +and self-contemplation--Marriage a business matter--Women and house +duties--<span class="sc">Narrative of Johann Salomo Semler</span>--<span class="sc">Letter from a bride to her +bridegroom in the year</span> 1750</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h1>PICTURES OF GERMAN LIFE.</h1> +<br> +<br> +<h3>Second Series.</h3> +<br> +<br> +<hr class="W20"> +<br> +<br> +<h2>INTRODUCTION.</h2> +<br> + +<p class="normal">The Man and the Nation! The course of life of a nation consists in the +ceaseless working of the individual on the collective people, and the +people on the individual. The greater the vigour, diversity, and +originality with which individuals develop their human power, the more +capable they are of conducing to the benefit of the whole body; and the +more powerful the influence which the life of the nation exercises on +the individual, the more secure is the basis for the free development +of the man. The productive power of man expresses itself in endless +directions, but the perfection of all powers is the political +development of the individual, and of the nation through the State. The +mind, the spirit, and the character are influenced and directed by the +political life of the State, and the share which the individual has in +the State is to him the highest source of honour and manly happiness.</p> + +<p class="normal">If in the time of our fathers and grandfathers the German contemplated +his own position among other men, he might well question whether his +life was poor or rich, whether hope or sorrow predominated; for his +earthly position was in every way peculiar. Whilst he felt with +pleasure that he was in the enjoyment of a free and refined +cultivation, he was daily oppressed by the harsh despotism, or the weak +insignificance of his State, in which he lived as a stranger without +the protection of the law; he looked with pride on the gigantic +workings of German science, but he perceived, with bitter sorrow, that +millions of his countrymen were separated by a deep chasm from the +highest results of scientific labour. He found himself amidst the +working of a popular energy, which ventured with heroic courage on the +boldest conclusions in the realm of mind; and, on the other hand, saw +around him narrow-hearted obstinacy, where simple and close results +ought to have been the aim. He felt with thousands an eager desire for +an object of life which would exalt and animate him, and again he found +himself surrounded and shackled by narrow-mindedness and by provincial +and local exclusiveness. Whoever should thus feel, may well inquire +whether we Germans are old or young, whether it is destined by fate +that the German nature should only find expression in the individual +virtuosoship of art and science, or whether an harmonious development +of the nation in its practical and ideal tendencies, in labour and +enjoyment. State, church, science, art, and industry, lies before us in +the future: whether we shall ever again, as members of a great State, +play the part of masters in Europe, which old records inform us our +ancestors, in remote ages, won by their swords and the energy of their +natures. There is still a time in our memory when hope was so faint, +that one may be excused for giving a doubtful answer to such questions.</p> + +<p class="normal">After the War of Freedom, the decay of the old method of culture became +the characteristic of the time; but we now approach, with youthful +vigour, new ideas and an energetic will, to a new and higher climax. In +the characters of that past time we find, only too frequently, +isolation, hopelessness, and deficiency in political morality; in the +new time we have a sharper vision, a higher interest for the nation as +a whole, and a power of viewing things in a practical light which makes +us feel the need of close union between all of like mind. The realism, +which is called, either in praise or blame, the stamp of the present +time, is in art, science, and faith, as in the State, nothing but the +first step in the cultivation of the rising generation, which +endeavours to spiritualise the details of present life in all +directions, in order to give a new tendency to the spirit.</p> + +<p class="normal">But, though it may be no longer necessary to cheer the soul with hope, +yet it is a pleasing task to demonstrate the point to which we have +attained in comparison with the past, and in comparison with other +civilised nations; why we were obliged to remain behind in many things +which our neighbours possess in abundance, and why we have made other +acquisitions in advance of them. It is instructive for us to make such +inquiries, and the answer that we shall find may be instructive to +other nations. No individual can give a satisfactory solution to each +single question; even the strongest mind can but imperfectly comprehend +the great life of his nation: the clearest eye and the most ingenuous +judgment is contracted in comparison with the great unity of the +people. But, however imperfect may be the portrait given by individuals +of the life of their nation, yet each contemporary will discover some +main features of the picture lying in his own soul, more especially he +who stands in the same grade of cultivation with the delineator.</p> + +<p class="normal">This kind of delineation of the period of the Reformation and the +Thirty Years' War, was the object of the former series of pictures of +the past life of Germany; the following will be a sketch of some of the +phases of development of German character during the last century up to +the present day. Again shall the narratives of those who are gone, as +well as the living, portray the times in which they figure; but the +nearer we approach the present, the less do the records of individuals +give an impression of the nature of the general community. First, +because from the greater proximity we are able more accurately to +distinguish the individual from the community, and also, because the +diversity of character and the difference of culture become ever +greater the further the German mind advances in profound investigation; +therefore these examples will probably lose for the reader some of the +charm afforded by those of former centuries. And in addition to this, +the records of these latter times are far more known and realised by +our popular writers. Lastly, the political history, as well as the +development of the German mind, since the time of Frederick the Great, +has, through copious works, become the property of the nation. It is +not therefore intended here to enter upon a representation of the +scientific mind, or of the political condition of the nation; but only +to represent those phases of the spirit and social circumstances, which +more especially define the character of a people. By these the +continuity and many peculiarities of our present cultivation will be +illustrated.</p> + +<p class="normal">The new time began in Germany, after the invention of printing, by a +struggle in which Germans broke the fetters of the Papal Church of the +Middle Ages, and passed from submissive belief in authority, to an +energetic, independent search after truth. But they did not at the same +time succeed in building up a compact monarchy out of the unsymmetrical +feudalism of the Middle Ages. The Imperial House of Hapsburg became the +zealous opponent of the national development. Owing to this opposition +arose the power of separate territorial princes, and the political +weakness of Germany became the more perceptible, the more the rising +vigour of the nation demanded an answering development of political +energy. From this the German character suffered much. Ecclesiastical +disputes were for a long period the only national interest; there was +but too great a deficiency in Germans of that pride and pleasure in a +fatherland, and of that whole circle of moral feelings, to which +political independence gives life, even in the most obscure individual.</p> + +<p class="normal">After the Reformation it became the fate of the German nation to +develope its character under conditions which were materially different +from those of the other civilised people of Europe. In France, the +Protestant party was struck down with bloody zeal by the crown under +the despotic government of Louis XIV.; and the Revolution was the +growth of this victory. In England, the Protestant party gained the +dominion under the Tudors; the struggle against the Stuarts and the +completion of the English constitution was the result. In Germany, the +opposition of parties was not followed either by victory or +conciliation; the result was the Thirty Years' War, and the political +paralysis of Germany, from which it is only now beginning to recover.</p> + +<p class="normal">This Thirty Years' War, the worst desolation of a populous nation since +the national exodus, is the second period of German history which gave +a peculiar tendency to the character of the people. The war shattered +into ruins the popular strength, but it also certainly removed the +dangers which threatened German cultivation, by the alliance of the +Imperial House with the Roman Hierarchy. It also separated the Imperial +State, politically, from the rest of Germany; what was lost to France +in the west by the Hapsburgers, was gradually regained to Germany in +the east by another Royal House. The great destruction caused by the +war, changed the State life of Germany to a hollow form; it threw the +Germans almost two centuries back, in comparison with their English +kinsmen, in wealth, population, and political condition. It must again +be repeated that it destroyed at least two thirds, probably three +fourths of the population, and a still greater portion of their goods +and cattle, and deteriorated the morals, arts, education, and energies +of the survivors. Out of these remains of German life, the modern +character of Germans was slowly and feebly developed--individual life +under despotic government.</p> + +<p class="normal">It is this period, in which our popular strength was slowly raised from +the deepest degradation, which will be here portrayed by the narratives +of contemporaries. Again a great time, but a period of German +development of which the last and highest results have not yet become +history.</p> + +<p class="normal">The way in which the people raised themselves from this abyss is +peculiar to the Germans. Marvellous as was the destruction, so also was +the revival. More than one nation has been overpowered by outward +enemies or cast down under political oppression, each of which has had +to undergo special trials which have given them from time to time a +hopeless aspect, but through the whole course of history a renovation +has been effected, so that the strengthening of the State has gone +hand-in-hand with intellectual progress. When the Greeks during the +Persian war felt their own political worth, their science and art +blossomed almost simultaneously; when Augustus had given a new support +and constitution to the declining Roman republic, there began forthwith +a new Imperial culture in enjoyment-seeking Rome: the intellectual +life, from Horace and Virgil to Tacitus, followed the destiny of the +State; the increased expansive power of the Empire ever gave a wider +stretch and stronger independence to individual minds. And again in +England,--when the war of the Red and White Roses was ended, when the +people peacefully danced round the maypole, and a brilliant court life +enforced courtly manners upon the wild Barons, when daring merchants +and adventurers waylaid the Spanish galleons, and conveyed the spices +of India up the Thames,--then the popular energies found expression in +the greatest poetic soul of modern nations. Even in France the splendid +despotism of Louis XIV., after the wars of the Huguenots and the +Fronde, gave suddenly to the tranquillised country a brilliant courtly +bloom of art and literature. It was quite otherwise in Germany. Whilst +everywhere else the State might be compared to the body whose abundant +energy calls forth the creative development of the nation, in Germany, +since the Thirty Years' War, owing to the awakening popular energy, a +new national civilisation has gradually arisen in a shattered, decaying +government, under corrupting and humiliating political influences of +every kind,--first dependent upon strangers; then independent and free; +finally, a shining pattern for other people, producing blossoms of +poetry, and blossoms of science of the greatest beauty, of the highest +nobility, and the greatest inward freedom: it was developed by +individuals who were deficient in just that discipline of the mind and +character, which is only given to them when they are members of a great +State. The German culture of the eighteenth century was indeed the +wonderful creation of a soul with out a body.</p> + +<p class="normal">It is still more remarkable that this new national cultivation helped, +in an indirect way, to turn the Germans into political men. From it the +enthusiasm and struggle for an endangered German State, passions, +parties, and at last political institutions were developed. Never did +literature play such a part or solve such great problems, as the +German, from 1750 to the present day. For it is thoroughly unlike the +modern endeavours of other nations, who from patriotism, that is to +say, from the need of political progress, mature an objective +literature. In these cases art and poetry serve, from the beginning, as +handmaids to politics; they are perhaps artificially fostered, and the +artistic and scientific worth is probably less than the patriotic aim. +In Germany, science, literature, and art only existed for their own +sake: the highest creative power and the warmest interests of the +educated classes were engrossed with them alone; they were always +German and patriotic, in opposition to the overpowering French taste; +but, with the exception of a few outbreaks of political anger or +popular enthusiasm, they had no other aim than to serve truth and +beauty. Nay, the greatest poets and scholars considered the political +condition under which they lived, as a common reality out of which art +alone could elevate mankind.</p> + +<p class="normal">As therefore in Germany art and science desired nothing but honourable +exertion within their own sphere, their pure flames refined the +sensitive disposition of Germans till it was hardened for a great +political struggle.</p> + +<p class="normal">Before giving pictures of the German character during the last two +centuries, we will endeavour to portray the peculiarities which are +developed in the family relations of the different classes of ancient +Germany, both the peasantry, the nobility, and the citizens. But the +aim of the book is to show how, by means of the Hohenzollern State, +Germans changed gradually from private to public men; how dramatic +power and interest entered into lyrical individual life; how the +Burgher class was strengthened by increasing education, and the +nobility and peasantry submitted to its influence; finally, how it cast +aside the specialities of classes, and began to form characters +according to its own needs and points of view.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER I.</h2> +<br> +<h3>THE LIFE OF THE GERMAN PEASANT.</h3> +<h4>(1240-1790.)</h4> +<br> + +<p class="normal">In seven hundred years the independent life of the Greeks terminated; +about a thousand embraces the growth, dominion, and decline of the +Roman power; but the German Empire had lasted fifteen hundred years +from the fight in the Teutoburg Forest,<a name="div2_01" href="#div2Ref_01"><sup>[1]</sup></a> before it began to emerge +from its epic time. So entirely different was the duration of the life +of the ancient world to that of the modern; so slow and artificial are +our transformations. How rich were the blossoms which Greek life had +matured in the five centuries from Homer to Aristotle! How powerful +were the changes which the Roman State had undergone, from the rise of +the free peasantry on the hills of the Tiber to the subjection of the +Italian husbandmen under German landlords! But the Germans worked for +fifteen centuries with an intellectual inheritance from the Romans and +the East, and are now only in the beginning of a development which we +consider as peculiar to the German mind, in contradistinction to the +Roman, of the new time, to the ancient. It is indeed no longer an +isolated people which has to emerge from barbarism by its own +creations; it is a family of nations more painstaking and more +enduring, which has risen, at long and laborious intervals, from the +ruins of the Roman Empire, and from the intellectual treasures of +antiquity: one nation reciprocally acting on the other, under the law +of the same faith.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Romans from free peasants had become farmers, and they were ruined +because they could not overcome the social evil of slavery. The German +warriors also, in the time of Tacitus, took little pleasure in +cultivating their own fields, and were glad to make use of dependents. +It was only shortly before the year 1500, that the German cities +arrived at the conviction that the labour of freemen is the foundation +of prosperity, opulence, and civilisation. But in the country, even +after the Thirty Years' War, the mass of the labourers--more than half +of the whole German nation--were in a state of servitude, which in many +provinces differed little from slavery. It is only in the time of our +fathers that the peasant has become an independent man, a free citizen +of the State: so slowly has the groundwork of German civilisation and +of the modern State been developed.</p> + +<p class="normal">All earthly progress does not take the straight course which men expect +when improvement begins; thus the position of the German husbandman in +1700 was worse in many respects than a hundred years before; nay, even +in our time it is not comparatively so good as it was 600 years +earlier, in the time of the Hohenstaufen.</p> + +<p class="normal">The German peasant for centuries lost much that was valuable in order +to attain a higher condition; his freedom and elevation to citizenship +in our State was effected in an apparently indirect way. At the time of +the Carlovingians more than half the peasants were free and armed, and +the pith of the popular strength; at the time of Frederick the Great, +almost all the country people were under strict bondage,--the beasts of +burden of the new State, weak and languishing, without political object +or interest in the State. Somewhat of the old weakness still clings to +them.</p> + +<p class="normal">We shall therefore first take a short review of an earlier period, +comparing it with the peasant life of the last two centuries.</p> + +<p class="normal">What the Romans mention of the condition of the German agricultural +districts, is only sufficient to give us a glimpse of ancient peasant +life. According to their accounts, the Germans were long considered to +be a wild warrior race, who lived in transition from a wandering life +to an uncertain settlement, and it was seldom inquired how it was +possible that such hordes should for centuries carry on a victorious +resistance to the disciplined armies of the greatest power on earth. +When Cheruskers, Chattens, Bructerers, Batavers, and other people of +less geographical note, occasioned terror, not only to single legions, +but to large Roman armies, not once, but in continual wars for more +than one generation,--when a Markomannen chief disciplined 70,000 +infantry and 4000 cavalry after the fashion of legions; when a Roman, +after a century of devastating wars between the Rhine and the Elbe, +puts before us with great emphasis the powerful masses of the +Germans,--we may conclude that single tribes which, with their allies, +could sometimes bring into the field more than 100,000 warriors, must +have counted a population of hundreds of thousands. And we equally +approach to a second conclusion, that such a multitude in a narrowly +limited space, surrounded by warlike neighbours, could only exist by +means of a simple, perhaps, but regular and extensive cultivation of +field products. That the agriculture of the Germans should appear +meagre to the Romans, after the garden cultivation of Italy and Gaul, +is comprehensible; nevertheless they found corn, millet, wheat, and +barley; but the common corn of the country was oats, the meal of which +they despised, and rye, which Pliny calls an unpalatable growth of the +Alpine country, productive of colic. But in the year 301, the corn +which made the German black bread, was introduced as the third article +of commerce in the corn bourse of Greece and Asia Minor. And from +barley the German brewed his home drink, beer; he also brewed from +wheat.</p> + +<p class="normal">Now we know that in the time of the Romans, most of the German races +lived in a condition similar to that in which it appears from records +they lived shortly after their great exodus, in the early centuries of +the Christian era: sometimes on single farms, but generally in enclosed +villages, with boundaries marked out by posts. They had a peculiar +method of laying out new village districts, and the Romans found it +difficult to understand the mode of farming customary to the country. +Probably the dwellers in the marshes near the North Sea had, as Pliny +writes, made the first simple dykes against the encroachments of the +water; already were their dwellings built on small hillocks, which, in +high tides, raised them above the water, and their sheep pastured in +the summer on the grass of the new alluvial soil;<a name="div2_02" href="#div2Ref_02"><sup>[2]</sup></a> but further from +the coast the peasant dwelt in his blockhouse, or within mud walls, +which he then loved to whitewash. Herds of swine lay in the shadows of +the woods,<a name="div2_03" href="#div2Ref_03"><sup>[3]</sup></a> horses and cattle grazed on the village meadows, and +long-woolled sheep on the dry declivities of the hills. Large flocks of +geese furnished down for soft pillows; the women wove linen on a simple +loom, and dyed it with native plants, the madder and the blue woad; and +made coats and mantles of skins, which had already borders of finer fur +introduced from foreign parts. Well-trod commercial roads crossed the +territory from the Rhine to the Vistula in every direction. The foreign +trader, who brought articles of luxury and the gold coins of Rome in +his wagon to the house of the countryman, exchanged them with him for +the highly-prized feathers of the goose, smoked hams, and sausages, the +horns of the ure ox and antlers of the stag, fur skins, and even +articles of toilet, such as the blonde hair of slaves, and a fine +pomade to colour the hair. He bought German carrots, which had been +ordered as a delicacy by his Emperor Tiberius; he beheld with +astonishment in the garden of his German host, gigantic radishes, and +related to his country-people that a German had shown him honeycombs +eight feet long.</p> + +<p class="normal">The warlike householder, it is true, held his weapons in higher esteem +than his plough, not because agriculture was unimportant or despised, +but because in the free classes there was already an aristocratic +development. For, although the warrior did not employ himself in any +field labour, he insisted upon his household cultivating his ground, +and his bondmen had to pay a tribute in corn and cattle. The bondman +dwelt with his wife and child near his master in special huts, which +were erected on the land that was allotted to him for cultivation. +Freemen were not only associated in communities, but several races were +joined in one confederacy, being by the old constitution knit together +by religious memories and public worship. The boundaries of the +province were marked out, like those of the village, by casts of the +holy hammer, and consecrated by processions of divine cars. +Notwithstanding the numerous feuds of individual tribes, there +were many points of union which served to reconcile and keep them +together,--blood relationship and marriage alliances, similitude in +customs and privileges, and, above all, the feeling of the same origin, +the same language, and those pious rites which keep alive the memory of +ancient communion.</p> + +<p class="normal">Although the German of Tacitus appears to us as a fierce warrior, who, +clothed in skins, watched with spear and wooden shield over the abatis +which guarded his village against the assaults of enemies; yet this +same German is shown, by the results of new researches, to have been a +householder and landlord. He looked with satisfaction on the great +brewer's copper which had been wrought by his neighbour, the skilful +smith; or he stood in coloured linen smock-frock before the laden +harvest wagon, on which his boy was throwing the last sheaf of rye, and +his daughter placing the harvest wreath with pious ejaculations.</p> + +<p class="normal">The German is incomprehensible to us, when, according to the Roman, he +worshipped Mercury as the highest god; but we can realise the figure of +the Asengott Woden, when we see the connection, of the wild hunter of +our traditions and the sleeping Emperor of Kyffhäuser, with German +antiquity. Now, we know how lovingly and actively the gods and spirits +hovered round the hearths, farms, fields, rivers, and woods of our +forefathers. From this tendency also the old Chatte or Hermundure has +been transformed into a Hessian or Thuringian householder, who in the +twilight looks wistfully up to his rooftree, on which the little +household spirit loves to sit, and who, when the storm rages, carefully +covers the window-openings, in order that a spectral horse's head from +the train of the wild god who rides on the blast may not look into his +hall.</p> + +<p class="normal">Even from the productions of the Germans in that century that were most +full of heart and soul, their songs, which no careful hand transcribed +on parchment, we may draw some conclusions. Their oldest kind of +poetry is not entirely unknown to us,--the native epic verse, with its +alliterations--and in some of the popular songs and proverbs which have +been preserved, we still find the ancient love of contests of wit and +of enigmas, with which a troubadour delighted his hearers by the hearth +of the Saxon chief.</p> + +<p class="normal">After the great national exodus, written records begin slowly to appear +in Germany. They came, together with that irresistible power which +changed so much of the whole spirit of the German people,--with +Christianity. However energetically religion turned the mind into new +paths, and however fearful was the destruction occasioned by popular +tumults at that period of immigration, the changes in the Germans +arising from both sources were not sufficient to shatter everything +ancient into ruins. We are too apt to consider the national exodus as a +chaotic process of destruction. It is true that it drove from their +homes many of the most powerful German nationalities that were located +in and beyond East Germany, and the depopulated domiciles were filled +with the Sclavonians who followed. The Bavarians migrated from Bohemia +to the Danube; the Suevi, Allemanni, and Burgundians, southwards to +their present localities. The names of old nationalities have +disappeared, and new ones have spread themselves far across the Rhine. +But nearly half the Germany which was known to the Romans--the wide +territory from the North Sea to the Thuringian woods and the Rhone, +from the Saal to near the Rhine--retains, on the whole, its old +inhabitants; for the Thuringians, the Chattens, and indeed most of the +races of Lower Saxony, only came in partial swarms; they probably +greatly diminished in marching through foreign lands, and by +emigrations of their kinsmen; they were also, as for example the +Thuringians, frequently intermingled with foreign hordes, who settled +among them. But the nucleus of the old inhabitants remained through all +fluctuations, and maintained their own old home traditions, +peculiarities of speech, customs, and laws.</p> + +<p class="normal">About the year 600 the oldest law books and records in the new +Franconia, afford us the richest insight into the life of the German +countryman. Each had a right to a holding, generally of 30 morgans, on +the common land, the morgan being decided according to the nature of +the soil. On each holding there was a yard fenced round, closed by a +gate, within which was the dwelling-house with stables and barn, and by +the side of it a garden; and in the southwest of Germany frequently a +vineyard. These homesteads formed villages divided by lanes; it was +only in part of Lower Saxony that the inhabitants of the marsh and +hilly country lived in separate farms, in the midst of their holdings. +But amongst most Germans the holding is not a connected tract of land. +The collective arable land of the village was divided into three +portions--winter, summer, and fallow fields; each of these fields, +according to soil and situation, again into small parcels; and in each +of these parcels in every field each holder had his share. Thus the +arable land of every holding consisted of a number of square acres +which, lying dispersed through the three principal divisions of the +village district, gave, as far as possible, an equal measure of land in +each. Besides this, a share of the pastures, meadows, and wood of the +community belonged to the holding; for round the arable land lay the +meadow land of the community, and its woods, in which were the +treasured acorns. Already the boundaries were carefully marked, and on +the boundary hills boys received blows on their cheeks and had their +ears pulled, and already was it called an old custom to set up a small +bundle of straw as a warning on a forbidden footway. Already we find +the property not unfrequently divided, where the vassals dwell in the +house and farm, the grades of their vassalage and their burdens being +various. The households of freemen also contained bondservants, who +differed little from Roman slaves; only in the service of God could +they be equal with the free; they shared in all the holy usages of the +Church; they could become priests and perform marriages with the +permission of their masters, but the master had a right over their +life.</p> + +<p class="normal">Among the farms of freemen and vassals might be found the farm of a +larger landed proprietor, who had a manor house with a hall, and a +great number of huts for domestics and labourers. For as yet, artisans, +wheelwrights, potters, armourers, and goldsmiths were most of them +bondmen; as the number of markets and cities were small, their +influence in the country was still unimportant. All kinds of grain were +cultivated in the fields, which are now used in our succession of +crops, and in the gardens, almost all the vegetables of our markets, +also gherkins, pumpkins, and melons; the laws were vigilant for the +protection of the orchards. The clergy brought from Italy costly +grafts, and peaches and apricots were to be found in the gardens of the +wealthy. Already the old Bavarian house began to appear, formed of +beams, with galleries outside, and its flat projecting roof; and it may +be assumed also, that the old Saxon house with its heathen horses' +heads on the gable ends, its thatched roof over the porch, its hearth, +sleeping cells, and cattle stalls, spread widely over the country, and +that the Thuringians, even then, as in a century later, lived in the +unfloored hall, in the background of which a raised daïs--the most +distinguished part of the house--separated from the hall the women's +apartments and the sleeping-rooms. Dwellings were seldom without a +bathhouse; for their winter work the women descended into their +underground chamber, which had already astonished the Romans, where +stood the loom; the places for the mistresses and servants were +separated. In the court-yard fluttered numerous poultry, amongst them +swans and even cranes, which, up to the Thirty Years' War, were +treasured as masters of the German poultry yard. The greatest pleasure +of the countryman was the training of his horse, and the steeds which +were used in war were of great value. They pastured with their feet +hobbled; any one was severely punished who stole them from their +pasture; the impositions of horse dealers also were well known, and the +laws endeavoured to afford protection against them. All the South +Germans fastened bells round the necks of their cattle, and the +Franconians round the swine in the woods.</p> + +<p class="normal">Every means of ascertaining the relative number of bond and freemen in +the time of Charles V. is deficient, even in that part of the country +which had for a long time been won over to Christianity; yet we see +distinctly that the whole strength of the nation lay in the masses of +free yeomen. But even in his time, larger landed proprietors, +tyrannical officials, and the not less domineering Church, eagerly +endeavoured to diminish the number of the free by obtruding upon them +their protection, and thus placing them under a gentle servitude. The +position of the free peasant must have been frequently insupportable; +the burdens laid upon him by the monarchy were very great, such as the +tithes, the military service, and the supply of horses and vehicles for +the journeys of the king and his officials. There was no law to protect +him against the powerful, and he was especially tormented by robber +hordes and the violence of his neighbours. Therefore he found safety by +giving up his freedom, surrendering his house and farm into the hands +of a powerful noble, and receiving it back again from him. Then he +delivered to his new master as a symbol of his service, a fowl from his +farm yard, and a portion of the produce of his field or of his labour +as a yearly tax. In return for this, his new master undertook to defend +him, and to perform his military service for him by means of his own +followers.</p> + +<p class="normal">Thus began the diminution of the national strength of Germany, the +oppression of the peasants, the deterioration of the infantry, and the +origin of the feudal lords, and of their vassal-followers, from which +arose in the next century the higher and lower German nobility. Every +internal war, every invasion of foreign enemies,--of Normans, of +Hungarians, or of Sclaves,--drove numerous freemen into servitude, and +without ceasing did the Church work to recommend itself or its saints +as feudal lords to repentant sinners.<a name="div2_04" href="#div2Ref_04"><sup>[4]</sup></a></p> + +<p class="normal">Yet about the year 1000, under the great Saxon emperors, the free +peasant had still some consciousness of strength. The bondman, indeed, +was still under severe oppression; he was slightly esteemed, and +obliged to give outward proof of the difference between himself and the +freeman, by bad dress and short hair. The free peasant then wore the +long linen or cloth dress of a similar cut to the Emperor himself; with +his sword by his side he went to the assembly under the tree, or to the +judgment stone of his village. And if he descended from four free +ancestors, and possessed three free hides, he was, according to Saxon +law, higher in rank than some of the noble courtiers who had serf blood +in their veins, and whoever injured him had to make atonement as to one +of princely blood. It was then he began to cultivate his fields more +carefully; it appears to have been about this time that the practice +arose of ploughing a second time before sowing the summer seed. In the +neighbourhood of rich cloisters, fine garden-culture progressed, +vineyards were carefully cultivated, and in the low countries of the +Rhine, in Holland and Flanders, there was a husbandry of moor and marsh +grounds, which in the next century was carried by numerous colonists of +these races, into the Elbe country, and far into the east.</p> + +<p class="normal">The peasant in the time of Otto the Great, had become a good Christian, +but the old customs of the heathen faith still surrounded him in his +house and fields, his phantasy filled nature, beasts, and plants with +warm life. Whatever flew or bounded over his fields, whether hare, +wolf, fox, or raven, were to him familiar forms, to whose character and +fate he gave a human turn, and of whom with cheerful spirit he used to +sing in heroic terms, or tell beautiful tales. In his house were +numerous trained birds; and those were valued the highest which could +comport themselves most like men. The starling repeated in a comic way +the paternoster; the jackdaw welcomed him on his return home; and he +rejoiced in the dance of the trained bear. He loved his cattle with all +his heart, he honoured his horses, oxen, cows, and dogs with the names +of the ancient gods, to whom he still continued to attach ideas of +dignity and sanctity. This craving for familiar intercourse with all +that surrounded him was the peculiar characteristic of the German +peasant in the olden time. This great love of beasts, tame birds, dogs +and horses continued long, as late as Luther's time, a few years before +the great peasant war. A true-hearted peasant having in the fullness of +his joy kissed his decorated foal upon the neck, a lurking monk who +happened to see it, cited him before the ecclesiastical court, and +inflicted a heavy fine upon him, because it was unseemly. On this +account Karsthans clenched his fists at the priests.<a name="div2_05" href="#div2Ref_05"><sup>[5]</sup></a> In the eleventh +century, the countryman still sang by his hearth the stirring heroic +songs, the subject-matter of which is in part older than the great +exodus,--those of Siegfried and the Virgin of Battle Brunhild, of the +treachery of the Burgundian King, Gunthar; of the struggle of the +strong Walthar with Hagen, and of the downfall of the Nibelungen. +Though his language was clumsy in writing, it flowed from his lips +solemn and sonorous, with full terminations and rich in alternations of +the vowels. Still had the solemnly spoken word in prayer, in forms of +law, and in invocations, a mysterious power of magic effect: not only +is the meaning of the speech, but also its sound full of significance. +A wise saw was the source of great good fortune to him who possessed +it; it could be bought and sold, and the buyer could return it again if +it was useless to him.</p> + +<p class="normal">About the beginning of the twelfth century there was a change in the +life and position of the peasant. The disquiets and passions of the +Crusades reached him also by degrees. To the serf, who lived in an +insecure possession of his hut, from which the landed proprietor could +eject him and his children, it was very attractive to obtain, by a sign +affixed to his shoulder by the hand of a priest, freedom for himself, +exemption from rent and other burdens, and the protection of the Church +for his family left at home. From this the Lord of the Manor was +himself in danger of losing his husbandmen, and becoming a beggar by +the departure of his serfs; in order therefore to avert this danger +bondmen had often the inheritance of their possessions given to them, +and greater personal freedom, thus the position of serfs became more +favourable. Besides this, the distinction between the old freemen and +bondmen, both in the agricultural districts and the cities, was +obliterated by the new societies of citizens and officials. In the +cities bond and free-men were under the same law; in the palaces of +princes, freemen claimed the same privileges which were originally for +the advantage of the vassal retinue of territorial lords, and both bond +and free-men bore, as serving men, the knightly shield.</p> + +<p class="normal">We can obtain an insight into the spirit of the country-people of this +period, and many details of their life. Since the middle of the twelfth +century, the manuscripts of the Hohenstaufen time have handed down to +us many invaluable features of the life of the lower orders. We +discover, with astonishment, from these sources, that the countryman of +that time formed a portion of the national strength, very different +from what he did some centuries later. The thriving peasant lived on +his farm; the young people gambolled about, blythesome and fond of +enjoyment, on the village green and in the lanes; the countryman passed +through life in the calm consciousness of strength, the preserver of +old customs, in contradistinction to the nobleman, with his new-fangled +modes, who adorned himself with foreign discourse and language, and +with great pretentions set up distinguished court usages in opposition +to country manners. Great was the pleasure of the country people in the +awakening of nature: impatiently did the maidens await the breaking +forth of the first catkins on the willow and hazel; they look for the +leaves that burst from the buds, and search the ground for the first +flowers. The earliest summer game is with the ball, in the village +streets or on the tender grass of the green,--it is thrown by old and +young, men and women. Whoever has a coloured feather ball to throw +sends it with a greeting to her he loves. The agile movements, the +powerful throw, the short cheer to friends and opponents, are the +pleasures both of players and spectators. When sunny May comes, then +the maidens get their holiday attire from the press, and twine wreaths +for their own hair and that of their friends. Thus they go, crowned +with garlands and adorned with ribbons, the hand-glass as an ornament +by their sides, with their playfellows to the green; full a hundred +maidens and women are there assembled for the dance. Thither also +hasten the men, smart also is their dress, the waistcoat trimmed with +coloured buttons, perhaps even with bells, which for a long time had +been the most choice attire of persons of distinction; there is no want +of silk, nor in winter of fur trimmings. The belt is well inlaid with +shining metal, the coat of mail is quilted in the dress, and the point +of the sword, in walking, clinks against the heel. The proud youths are +defiant, take great pleasure in fight, and are jealous of their own +importance. Vehement is the energy displayed in the great dances, they +are venturesome in their springs, jubilant in their joy; everywhere +there is the poetry of enjoyment of the senses. The chorus of +bystanders sing loudly to the dance, and the maidens join softly in the +melody. Still greater becomes our astonishment when we examine closer +the rhythm and words of these old national dances, there is a grace not +only in the language but in its social relation, which reminds us much +more of the ancient world than of the feelings of our country people. +Introductory strophes, which extol in countless variations the advent +of spring, are followed by others which have little coherence, and are, +as it were, improvised, like the <i>schnader hüpflen</i>, which is still +retained in Upper Germany among the popular dances. The subject is +often a dispute between mother and daughter, the daughter dressing +herself for the festivity, the mother wishing to keep her back from the +dance; or it is the praise of a beautiful maiden, or droll enumerations +of dancing couples; often the text conveys attacks upon opposite +parties amongst the dancers, who are depicted and turned into ridicule. +Parties are easily formed amongst the dancers, the opponents are +challenged in caustic verses; the glory of the young lad is not to put +up with any slight, and to be the most vigorous dancer, cheeriest +singer, and the best fighter. The dances are followed by feasting, with +loud and boisterous merriment. The winter brings new pleasures; the men +amuse themselves with dice, and with sledging on the ice, and the +people assemble in a large room for the dance. Then stools and tables +are carried out; the music consists of two violins; the conductor +begins the melody, and the head dancer leads off. The rondes and other +dances are various in character; more antique and popular is the +measure and text of the chain dance in the old national style of two +parallel rows; the winter dances are more artistic and modish. For in +the song dances, which we may consider as the beautified copy of the +old rhythm and text, the courtly law of triplets in the strophes is +everywhere followed; one perceives in them the imitation of Romanesque +knightly customs. Among the different kinds of dances may be mentioned +the Sclave Reidawac. The noble dances and drinks with the peasants in +these village diversions, though with the pride of more refined +manners; but however much he may be inclined to ridicule those around +him, he fears them, not only their fists and weapons, but also the +strokes of their tongues. The long-haired and curly peasant offers the +goblet to the <i>Junker</i>, and snatches it back as he attempts to grasp +it, places it then according to court custom before drinking, on his +head, and dances through the room, then the knight rejoices if the +goblet falls from the lout's head and is spilt over him; but the knight +has no scruple in making use of contemptuous oaths, when the indignant +village youths call him to account for having shown too much attention +to their wives and sweethearts.</p> + +<p class="normal">Such is the aspect of village life given us in the songs of Neidhart +von Reuenthal, the most witty and humorous songster of the thirteenth +century. All his poetry dwells on the joys and sufferings of the +peasantry, and the greater part of his life was spent amongst them. He +has the complete self-dependence of a refined and cultivated man, but +in spite of that, he had not always the advantage over the country +people. A peasant youth, Engelhard, occasioned him the greatest sorrow +of his life. It appears that he had made his love Friderun, a peasant +girl, unfaithful to him; the thorn remained in the heart of the knight +as long as he lived; but afterwards, also, in his courtship of the +village maidens, the nobleman had much to fear from the wooing of the +young peasants, and was frequently tormented by bitter jealousy.</p> + +<p class="normal">This connection of the knight, Neidhart, and the peasantry was no +exception in the beginning of the thirteenth century; for though in the +period that immediately followed, the pride of the nobles, with respect +to the citizen and peasant, quickly hardened into an exclusive class +feeling, yet in 1300, when knightly dignity was in great request, and +pride in noble quarterings had risen high, at least in Swabia, Bavaria, +and Upper Austria, still the knight married the daughter of the rich +peasant, and gave him his daughter in marriage; and the rich peasant's +son became vassal and knight, with one knightly shield.<a name="div2_06" href="#div2Ref_06"><sup>[6]</sup></a> Even in the +sixteenth century this state of things continued in some provinces--for +example, in the Isle of Rügen. After the Reformation also, the wealthy +peasants put themselves on an equality with the nobles. They lived, as +a nobleman of that time relates, arrogantly and contentiously, and +these lamentable marriages were not unfrequent.</p> + +<p class="normal">Some score of years after Neidhart, in the same districts of Germany, +the idealism of knighthood, its courtly manners and refined form, were +lost; a large portion of the nobles had become robbers and highwaymen. +The ceaseless and sorrowful complaints of the better sort of the +nobility testify how bad were the doings of the greater part. In +comparison with such fellows, in spite of their privileges, the peasant +might well regard his own life with pride. It was still with a sense of +wealth and power that he entered on the beginning of a hard period. At +this time a travelling singer, Wernher, the Gardener, gave a +portraiture of the life of the peasantry, particularly rich in +characteristic features--a picture of the times of the highest value, +and a poem of great beauty. Unfortunately only an abstract of the +contents can be given here; but even in extracts, his narrative gives a +surprising insight into the life of the country people in 1240. The +poem, "Helmbrecht," is edited by Moriz Haupt, according to the +manuscripts in volume iv. of the Zeit periodical on German antiquity.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The old former, Helmbrecht--in Bavaria, not far from the Austrian +frontier--had a son. The blonde locks of the young Helmbrecht hung upon +his shoulder; he confined them in a beautiful silk cap, embroidered +with doves, parrots, and many figures. This cap had been embroidered by +a nun who had run away from her cell on account of an amour, as happens +to so many. From her, Helmbrecht's sister, Gotelind, learned to +embroider and sew; the maiden and her mother deserved well of the nun, +for they gave her a cow, much cheese, and eggs. The mother and sister +attired the boy in fine linen, a doublet of mail and a sword, with a +pouch and mantle, and a beautiful surcoat of blue cloth, adorned with +gold, silver, and crystal buttons, which shone bright when he went to +the dances; the seams were trimmed with bells, and whenever he bounded +about in the dance, they tinkled in the ears of the women.</p> + +<p class="normal">"When the proud youth was thus attired he said to his father, 'Now I +will go to court; I pray you, dear father, give me somewhat to help +thereto.' The father answered, 'I could easily buy you a swift steed +that would leap hedge and ditch; but, dear son, desist from your +journey to court. Its usages are difficult for him who has not been +accustomed to it from his youth. Take the plough and cultivate the farm +with me, thus will you live and die in honour. See how I live--true, +honourable and upright. I give my tenths every year, and have never +experienced hatred or envy throughout my life. Farmer Ruprecht will +give you his daughter in marriage, and with her many sheep and pigs, +and ten cows. At court you will have a hard life, and be deprived of +all affection; there you will be the scorn of the real courtiers,--in +vain will you endeavour to be like them; and, on the other hand, you +will incur the hatred of the peasants, who will delight in revenging on +you what they have lost by the noble robbers.' But the son replied, +'Silence, dear father. Never shall your sacks graze my shoulders; never +will I load your waggon with dung; that would ill suit my beautiful +coat and embroidered cap; and I will not be encumbered with a wife. +Shall I drag on three years with a foal or an ox, when I may every day +have my booty? I will help myself to strangers' cattle and drag the +peasants by their hair through the hedges. Hasten, father, I will not +remain with you any longer.' Then the father bought a steed, and said, +'Alas, how this is thrown away!' But the youth shook his head, looked +at himself and exclaimed, 'I could bite through a stone so wild is my +courage; I could even eat iron. I will gallop over the fields, without +care for my life, in defiance of all the world.' On parting from him +his father said, 'I cannot keep you--I give you up; but once more I +warn you, beautiful youth, take care of your cap with the silken birds, +and guard your long locks. You go amongst those whom men curse, and who +live upon the wrongs of the people. I dreamt I saw you groping about on +a staff, with your eyes out; and again I dreamt I saw you standing on a +tree, your feet fall a fathom and a half from the grass. A raven and a +crow sat on a branch over your head, your curly hair was entangled; on +the right hand the raven combed it, and on the left the crow parted it. +I repent me that I have reared you.' But the son exclaimed, 'Never will +I give up my will as long as I live. God protect you, father, mother +and children.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"So he trotted off and rode up to a castle, whose lord lived by +fighting, and was glad to retain any who would serve him as a trooper. +There the lad became one of the retainers, and soon was the most nimble +of robbers. No plunder was too small for him, and none too great; he +took horses and cattle, he took mantles and coats, what others left he +crammed into his sack. The first year everything went according to his +wishes; his little vessel sailed with favourable winds. Then he began +to think of home; he got leave of absence from the court, and rode to +his father's house. All flocked together--man and maid-servant did not +say, 'Welcome, Helmbrecht;' they were advised not to do so. But they +said, 'Young gentleman, God give you welcome!' He answered, '<i>Kindeken, +ik yunsch üch ein gud leven</i>'<a name="div2_07" href="#div2Ref_07"><sup>[7]</sup></a> (Children, I wish you a good life). +His sister ran and embraced him; then he spoke to her, '<i>Gratia +vestra!</i>' The old people followed, and oft embraced him; then he called +to his father, '<i>Dieu vous salut!</i>' and to his mother he spoke in +Bohemian, '<i>Dobraybra!</i>' The father and mother looked at one another, +and the latter said to her husband, 'Goodman, are we not out of our +senses? it is not our child; it is a Bohemian or a Wend.' The father +exclaimed, 'It is a foreigner; he is not my son whom I commended to +God, however like he may appear to him.' And his sister Gotelind said, +'He is not your son, he spoke Latin to me; he must truly be a priest.' +And the servant, 'From what I have seen of him he must belong to Saxony +or Brabant; he said <i>ik</i> and <i>Kindeken</i>; he must, undoubtedly, be a +Saxon.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then the master of the house spoke in homely phrase, 'Are you my son +Helmbrecht? Show your respect for your mother and me by speaking a word +of German, and I myself will rub down your horse--I, and not my +servant.' '<i>Ei wat segget ihr Gebureken? min parit</i>,<a name="div2_08" href="#div2Ref_08"><sup>[8]</sup></a> <i>minen klaren +Lif soll kein bureumaun nimmer angripen</i>' (What are you boors saying? +my steed and my fine body shall be touched by no boors). Then the +master of the house, quite horrified, replied, 'Are you Helmbrecht, my +son? In that case I will this very night boil one hen and roast +another; but if you are a stranger--a Bohemian or a Wend--you may go to +the winds. If you are of Saxony or Brabant, you must take your repast +with you; from me you will receive nothing, though the night should +last a whole year. For a Junker, such as you, I have no meal or wine; +you must seek that from the nobles.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"Now it had waxed late, and there was no host in the neighbourhood who +would have received the youth, so, having weighed the matter, he said, +'Truly I am your son, I am Helmbrecht; once I was your son and +servant.' The father answered 'You are not him.' 'But I am so.' 'Tell +me the four names of my oxen.' Then the son mentioned the four names, +'<i>Auer</i>, <i>Räme</i>, <i>Erke</i>, <i>Sonne</i>. I have often flourished my switch +over them; they are the best oxen in the world; will you recognise me +now? Let the door be opened to me.' The father cried out, 'Gate and +door, chamber and cupboard, shall all be opened to you now.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"Thus the son was well received, and had a soft bed prepared for him by +his sister and mother, and the latter called out to her daughter, 'Run, +fetch a bolster and a soft cushion.' That was put under his arm and +laid near the warm stove, and he waited in comfort till the meal was +prepared. It was a supper for a lord; finely minced vegetables with +good meat, a fat goose as large as a bustard, roasted on the spit, +roasted and boiled fowls. And the father said, 'If I had wine it should +be drunk to-day; but drink, dear son, of the best spring that ever +flowed out of the earth.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"The young Helmbrecht then unpacked his presents for his father, a +whetstone, a scythe, and an axe, the best peasant-treasures in the +world; for his mother, a fur cloak, which he had stolen from a priest; +to his sister, Gotelind, a silk sash and gold lace, which would have +better suited a lady of distinction,--he had taken it from a pedlar. +Then he said, 'I must sleep, I have ridden far, and rest is needful for +me to night.' He slept till late the next day in the bed over which his +sister Gotelind had spread a newly washed shirt, for a sheet was +unknown there.</p> + +<p class="normal">"So the son abode with his father.</p> + +<p class="normal">"After a time the father inquired of his son what were the court +customs where he had been living. 'I also,' he said, 'went once when I +was a boy, with cheese and eggs to court. The knights were then very +different from now, courteous, and with good manners; they occupied +themselves with knightly games, they danced and sang with the ladies; +when the musician came with his fiddle, the ladies stood up, the +knights advanced to them, took them elegantly by the hand, and danced +featly; when that was over, one of them read out of a book about one +<i>Ernst</i>;<a name="div2_09" href="#div2Ref_09"><sup>[9]</sup></a> all was carried on then with cheerful familiarity. Some +shot at a mark with bow and arrows, others went out hunting and deer +shooting; the worst of them would now be the best. For now those are +esteemed who are liars and eaves-droppers, and truth and honour are +changed for falsehood; the old tournaments are no longer the custom, +others are in vogue instead of them. Formerly one heard them call out +in the knightly games "Hurrah, knight, be joyful!" There now only +resounds through the air, "Hunt knight, hunt; stab, strike, and +mutilate this one, cut off this man's foot for me, and the hands of +that one, and hang the other for me, or catch this rich man who will +pay us a hundred pounds." I think, therefore, things were better +formerly than now. Relate to me, my son, more of the new manners.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'That I will. Drinking is now the court fashion. Gentlemen exclaim +"Drink, drink; if you drink this, I will drink that." They no longer +sit with the ladies, but at their wine. Believe me, the old mode of +life which is lived by such as you, is now abjured both by man and +woman. Excommunication and outlawry are now held in derision.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Son,' said the father, 'have nothing to do with court usages, they +are bitter and sour. I had much rather be a peasant than a poor +courtling, who must always ride for his living, and take care that his +enemies do not catch, mutilate, and hang him.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Father,' said the young man, 'I thank you, but it is more than a week +that I have drank no wine; since then I have taken in my girdle by +three holes. I must capture some cattle before my buckle will return to +its former place. A rich man has done me a great injury. I saw him once +riding over the standing crops of my godfather the knight; he shall pay +dear for it. I shall trot off his cattle, sheep, and swine, because he +has trampled over the fields of my dear godfather. I know another rich +man who has also grievously injured me; he eat bread with his tartlets; +by my life I will revenge that. I know yet another rich man who has +occasioned me more annoyance than almost any other; I will not forgive +it him, even if a bishop should intercede for him, for once when he was +sitting at table he most improperly dropped his girdle. If I can seize +what is called his, it shall help me to a Christmas dress. There is yet +another simple fool who was unseemly enough to blow the froth of his +beer into a goblet. If I do not revenge that, I will never gird sword +to my side, nor be worthy of a wife. You shall soon hear of +Helmbrecht.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"The father answered 'Alack! Tell me who are the companions who taught +you to rob a rich man if he eats pastry and bread together.' Then the +son named his ten companions; 'Lämmerschling (lamb devourer), +Schluckdenwidder (ram swallower), Höllensack (hell sack), Ruttelshrein +(shake press), Kühfrass (cow destroyer), Knickekelch (goblet jerker), +Wolfsgaumen (wolf's jaw), Wolfsrüssel (wolf's snout), and Wolfsdarm +(wolf's gut)<a name="div2_10" href="#div2Ref_10"><sup>[10]</sup></a>--the last name was given by the noble Duchess of +Nonarra Narreia--these are my schoolmasters.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"The father said, 'And how do they name you?'</p> + +<p class="normal">"I am called Schlingdengau. I am not the delight of the peasants; their +children are obliged to eat porridge made with water; what the peasants +have is mine; I gouge the eyes of one, I hack the back of another, I +tie this one down on an ant-hill, and another I hang by his legs to a +willow.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"The father broke forth. 'Son, however violent those may be whom you +have named and extolled, yet I hope, if there is a righteous God, the +day will come when the hangman may seize them, and throw them off from +his ladder.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Father, I have often defended your geese and fowls, your cattle and +fodder, from my associates, I will do it no more. You speak too much +against the honour of my excellent companions. I had wished to make +your daughter Gotelind the wife of my friend Lämmerschling; she would +have led a pleasant life with him; but that is over now, you have +spoken too coarsely against us.' He took his sister Gotelind aside, and +said to her secretly, 'When my companion, Lämmerschling, first asked me +about you, I said to him; you will get on well with her; if you take +her do not fear that you will hang long upon the tree, she will +take you down with her own hands and carry you to the grave on the +cross-road, and she will fumigate your bones with frankincense and +myrrh for a whole year. And if you have the good fortune to be only +blinded, she will lead you by the hand along the highways and roads +through all countries; if your foot is cut off, she will carry your +crutches every morning to your bed; and if you lose your hand, she will +cut your bread and meat as long as you live. Then said Lämmerschling to +me, "I have three sacks, heavy as lead, full of fine linen, dresses, +kirtles, and costly jewels, with scarlet cloth and furs. I have +concealed them in a neighbouring cave, and will give them to her for a +dowry." All this, Gotelind, you have lost, owing to your father; now +give your hand to a peasant, with whom you may dig turnips, and at +night lie on the heart of an ignoble boor. Go to your father, for mine +he is not; I am sure that a courtier has been my father, from him I +have my high spirit.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"The foolish sister answered, 'Dear brother Schlingdengau, persuade +your companion to marry me, I will leave father, mother, and +relations.' The parents were unaware of the conversation held secretly +by the brother and sister. The brother said, 'I will send a messenger +to you, whom you are to follow; hold yourself in readiness. God protect +you, I go from hence; the host here is as little to me as I to him. +Mother, God bless you.' So he went on his old way, and told his +companion his sister's wish. He kissed his hands for joy, and made +obeisance to the wind that blew from Gotelind.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Many widows and orphans were robbed of their property when the hero +Lämmerschling and his wife Gotelind sat at their marriage feast. Young +men actively conveyed in waggons and on horses stolen food and drink to +the house of Lämmerschling's father. When Gotelind came, the bridegroom +met her, and received her with, 'Welcome, dame Gotelind.' 'God reward +you, Herr Lämmerschling.' So they gave each other a friendly greeting. +And an old man, wise of speech, rose, and placing both in the circle, +asked three times of the man and the maiden, 'Will you take each other +in marriage, yea or nay?' So they were united. All sang the bridal +song, and the bridegroom trod on the foot of the bride.<a name="div2_11" href="#div2Ref_11"><sup>[11]</sup></a> Then was +the marriage feast prepared. It was wonderful how the food disappeared +before the youths, as if a wind blew it from the table; they eat +incessantly of everything that was brought from the kitchen by the +servants, and there remained nothing but bare bones for the dogs. It is +said that any one who eats so immoderately approaches his end.<a name="div2_12" href="#div2Ref_12"><sup>[12]</sup></a> +Gotelind began to shudder and to exclaim, 'Woe to us! Some misfortune +approaches; my heart is so heavy! Woe is me that I have abandoned my +father and mother; whoever desires too much, will gain little; this +greediness leads to the abyss of hell.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"They had sat awhile after their meal, and the musicians had received +their gifts from the bride and bridegroom, when a magistrate appeared +with five men. The struggle was short; the magistrate with his five, +was victorious over the ten; for a real thief, however bold he may be, +and willing to confront a whole army, is defenceless against the +hangman. The robbers slipped into the stove and under the benches, and +he who would not have fled before four, was now by the hangman's +servant alone dragged out by the hair. Gotelind lost her bridal dress, +and was found behind a hedge terrified, stripped, and degraded. The +skins of the cattle which the thieves had stolen were bound round their +necks, as the perquisite of the magistrate. The bridegroom, in honour +of the day carried only two, the others more. The magistrate could +sooner have been bribed to spare a wild wolf than these robbers. Nine +were hung by the hangman; the life of the tenth was allowed to the +hangman as his right, and this tenth was Schlingdengau Helmbrecht; the +hangman revenged the father, by putting out his eyes, and the mother, +by cutting off a hand and a foot. Thus the blind Helmbrecht was led +with the help of a staff, by a servant, home to his father's house.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Hear how his father greeted him: 'Dieu salue, monsieur Blindman, go +from hence, monsieur Blindman; if you delay, I will have you driven +away by my servant; away with you from the door!'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Sir, I am your child.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Is the boy become blind, who called himself Schlingdengau? Now do you +not fear the threats of the hangman or all the magistrates in the +world! Heigh! how you 'ate iron' when you rode off on the steed for +which I gave my cattle. Begone, and never return again!'</p> + +<p class="normal">"Again the blind man spoke. 'If you will not recognise me as your +child, at least allow a miserable man to crawl into your house, as you +do the poor sick; the country people hate me; I cannot save myself if +you are ungracious to me.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"The heart of the host was shaken, for the blind man who stood before +him was his own flesh and blood--his son; yet he exclaimed with a +scornful laugh, 'You went out daringly into the world; you have caused +many a heart to sigh, and robbed many a peasant of his possessions. +Think of my dream. Servant, close the door and draw the bolt; I will +betake me to my rest. As long as I live, I had rather take in a +stranger whom my eyes never beheld, than share my loaf with you.' Thus +saying, he struck the servant of the blind man. 'I would do so to your +master, if I were not ashamed to strike a blind man; take him, whom the +sun hates, from before me!' Thus did the father exclaim, but the mother +put a loaf in his hand as to a child. So the blind man went away, the +peasants hooting and scoffing at him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"For a whole year he endured great hardships. Early one morning when he +was going through the forest to beg bread, some peasants who were +gathering wood saw him, and one of them from whom he had taken a cow +called to the others to help him. All of them had been injured by him, +he had broken into the hut of one and stripped it; he had dishonoured +the daughter of another; and a fourth, trembling like a reed with +passion, said, 'I will wring his neck; he thrust my sleeping child into +a sack, and when it awoke and cried, he tossed it out into the snow, so +that it died.' Thus they all turned against Helmbrecht. 'Now take care +of your hood.' The embroidery which the hangman had left untouched was +now torn, and scattered on the road with his hair. They allowed the +miserable wretch to make his confession, and one of them broke a +fragment from the ground and gave it to the worthless man as gate money +for hell fire. Then they hung him to a tree.</p> + +<p class="normal">"If there be still any children living with their father and mother who +feel disposed to be jovial knights, let them take warning from the fate +of Helmbrecht."</p> + +<p class="normal">Thus ends the story of young Helmbrecht, who was desirous of becoming a +knight. And such on the whole we may consider was the condition and +disposition of the free peasantry at the beginning of the long period +of decline, which loosened the connection of the German Empire, founded +the power of the great princely houses, made the burgher communities of +fortified cities rich and powerful, and which was also the beginning of +that wild time of self-help and free fraternization of cities, as of +nobles. But the details of the changes which the German peasant +underwent from 1250 to 1500, can no longer be accurately discerned by +us. The wild deeds of violence and oppression of the robber-nobles, +drove the helpless into the cities, and the enterprising into foreign +countries. There were always opportunities of fighting under the sign +of the cross against Sclavonians, Wends, and Poles, and on the east of +the Elbe, broad countries were opened for the weapons and the plough of +the German countryman. There was agitation also in the minds of men. +The new despotism of the Roman papacy and of the fanatical Mendicant +friars, drove the Katharers on the Rhine, and the Stedingers in Lower +Saxony, to apostacy from the church. Where the free peasants were +thickly located and favoured by the nature of their country, they rose +in arms against the oppression of feudal lords. In the valleys of +Switzerland and in the marsh lands on the German ocean, the associated +country people gained victories over the mailed knights, which still +belong to the glorious reminiscences of the people. But in the interior +of Germany, the peasantry under the increasing oppression of the nobles +and a degenerate church, became weaker, more incapable, and coarser; +ever more powerfully did the barons lord it over them. Even the +resident free peasant of Lower Saxony was cast down from the place of +honour, which he once maintained above the knightly serving man. The +consciousness of a higher civilisation and more refined manners caused +the citizen also to despise the countryman,--his love of eating, his +rough simplicity, and his crafty shrewdness were treated with endless +derision.</p> + +<p class="normal">And yet the countryman in the fifteenth century still retained much of +his good old habits and somewhat of his old energy. He still continued +to extol his own calling in his songs, and was inclined to view with +ridicule the unstable life of others. In a well-known popular song, +three sisters married--one a nobleman, another a musician, and the +third a peasant. Both brothers-in-law came with their wives to pay a +visit at the peasant's farm. "There the gay musician played, the hungry +nobleman danced, and the peasant sat and laughed." At the end of the +fifteenth century a dancing scene in a Hessian village is described in +a city poem, the same customs as in the time of Neidhart, only wilder +and coarser. The proud labourers come from different villages, armed +with halberds and pikes, to dance under the Linden tree; the parties +are divided by distinctive marks, willow and birch twigs and hop +leaves on the shoulder and on the cap. From one village the whole +four-and-twenty labourers are clothed in red plush, with yellow +waistcoat and breeches. A gaily-attired maiden, a favourite dancer, +will only dance with one party, sharp words follow, and weapons are +drawn, the citizen, being a clerk, is persecuted with such forcible, +pungent words, that he is obliged to withdraw himself by ignominious +flight from the wild company.<a name="div2_13" href="#div2Ref_13"><sup>[13]</sup></a></p> + +<p class="normal">The life of the countryman within the village gates was still rich in +festivals and poetical usages, his privileges--so far as they were not +interfered with by deeds of violence--were valuable, and interwoven +with his life; and all his occupations were established by customs and +etiquette, by ceremonies and dramatic co-operation with his village +association.</p> + +<p class="normal">But the oppression under which he lived became insupportable. After the +end of the fifteenth century he began to make a powerful resistance to +his masters.</p> + +<p class="normal">It is probable that the great agitation in the European money-market +contributed to the excitement of the countryman. The sinking of the +value of metal since the discovery of America, was considered by +producers at first as a lasting rise in the price of corn. To the +peasant every sheffel of corn, and his labour also, became of higher +value; and, in the same measure, both were of higher importance to the +landed proprietor. It was natural, therefore, that the peasant should +take a proportionate view of his freedom, and here and there think of +relief from his burdens, whilst it became the interest of the landed +proprietor to maintain his servitude--nay, even to increase it. Yet, +one need not ascribe the great movement to such reasons. The pride of +victory of the Swiss who had prostrated the Knights of Burgundy, the +self-dependence of the new Landsknechts, and, above all, the religious +movement, and the social turn which it took in South Germany, made a +deep impression on the mind of the peasant. For the first time his +condition was viewed by the educated with sympathy. The countryman was +almost suddenly introduced into the literature as a judge and +associate. His grievances against the priesthood, and also against the +landed proprietors, were ever brought forward in popular language with +great skill. A few years before, he had played the standing <i>rôle</i> of a +clown in the shrove-tide games of the Nürembergers, but now even Hans +Sachs<a name="div2_14" href="#div2Ref_14"><sup>[14]</sup></a> wrote dialogues full of hearty sympathy with his condition, +and the portraiture of the simple, intelligent, and industrious +peasant, called Karsthans,<a name="div2_15" href="#div2Ref_15"><sup>[15]</sup></a> was repeatedly assumed, in order to show +the sound judgment and wit of the people against the priests.</p> + +<p class="normal">But, dangerous as the great peasant insurrection appeared for many +weeks, and manifold as were the characters and passions which blazed +forth in it, the peasants themselves were little more than an +undulating mass; the greater part of their demagogues and leaders +belonged to another class; on the whole, it appears to us that the +intelligence and capacity of the leaders, whether peasants or others, +was but small, and equally small the warlike capacity of the masses. +Therefore here where the peasant for the first time is powerfully +influenced by the literary men of the period, more pleasure is +experienced in the contemplation of the minds that roused up his soul. +It was the case here, as it always is in popular insurrections, that +the masses were first excited by those who were more influential and +far-sighted, nobler and more refined; then they lost the mastery, which +was seized by vain, coarse demagogues, like Andreas Karlstadt and +Thomas Münzer. But the way in which, in this case, the more rational +lost their control is specially characteristic of that time.</p> + +<p class="normal">Next to Luther, no individual before the war exercised so powerful an +influence on the dispositions of the country people of Southern +Germany, as a barefooted Franciscan, who came among the people at Ulm +from the cloisters of the Franciscan monastery, Johann Eberlin von +Günzburg. He had many of the qualities of a great agitator, and was one +of the most amiable among those that figure in the early period of the +Reformation. More than any other, he took up the social side of the +movement. In the year 1521, he published, anonymously, in the national +form of a small popular flying sheet, his ideal of a new state and a +new social life. The old claims which were subsequently drawn up by a +preacher, in twelve articles, for the peasantry, are to be found, with +many others, collectively in the fifteen "<i>Bundesgenossen</i>."<a name="div2_16" href="#div2Ref_16"><sup>[16]</sup></a> The +eloquence of Eberlin irresistibly influenced the listening multitudes; +a flow of language, a poetical strain, a genial warmth, and at the same +time a vein of good humour and of dramatic power, made him a favourite +wherever he appeared. To that was added a harmless self-complacency, +and just sufficient enjoyment of the present moment, as was necessary +to make his success valuable and the persecutions of his opponents +bearable. And yet he was only a dexterous demagogue. When he left his +order from honourable convictions, with a heart passionately excited by +the corruption of the church and the distress of the people, he could +hardly pass, even according to the standard of the time, for an +educated man; it was only by degrees that he became clear on certain +social questions; then he conscientiously endeavoured to recal his +former assertions; with whatever complacency he may speak of himself, +there is always a holy earnestness in him concerning the truth. He had, +withal, a quiet, aristocratic bias; he was the child of a citizen; his +connections were people of consideration, and even of noble origin; +coarse violence was contrary to his nature, in which a strong common +sense was incessantly at work to control the ebullition of his +feelings. He clung with great devotion to all his predecessors who had +advanced his education, especially to the Wittemberg reformers. After +he had restlessly roamed about the South of Germany for many years, he +went to Wittemberg; there Melancthon powerfully influenced the fiery +southern German; he became quieter, more moderate, and better +instructed. But later he belonged--like his monastic companion, +Heinrich von Kettenbach--to the preachers who collected round Hutten +and Sickengen. This personal union, which lasted up to Sickengen's +catastrophe, kept the national movement in a direction which could not +last. For a short time it appeared as if the religious and social +movement of South Germany, even if not led, could be made use of, by +the noble landed proprietors; it was an error into which both the +knights and their better friends fell; neither Hutten nor Sickengen had +sufficient strength or insight to win the country people really to +them. This came to light when Sickengen was overpowered by the +neighbouring princes. The peasants became the most zealous assistants +of the princes in persecuting the junkers of the Sickengen party and +burning their castles; this warfare may, indeed, be considered as the +prelude to the present war. It had unshackled the country people in the +neighbouring provinces, and accustomed them to the pulling down of +castles. A dialogue of the year 1524 has been preserved to us, in which +the fury of the country people against the nobles already breaks +forth.<a name="div2_17" href="#div2Ref_17"><sup>[17]</sup></a></p> + +<p class="normal">From that period the decided demagogues gained the ear of the peasants, +and the moderate amongst the popular leaders lost their supremacy. +Eberlin had once more, at Erfurt, an opportunity of showing, as a +mediator, the power of his eloquence over the revolted peasant hosts; +under its influence the assembled populace fell on their knees, pious +and penitent; but the weakness of his advice made this last endeavour +fruitless. He died the following year, and with him passed away most of +the poetry of the Reformation.</p> + +<p class="normal">Cruelly was the revolt against the terrified princes punished, and the +smaller tyrants were the most eager to bring the conquered again under +their yoke. Yet in South Germany and Thuringia there was a real +improvement in the condition of the country people; for it happened at +a period in which a learned class of jurists spread over the country, +and the working of Roman law in Germany became everywhere perceptible. +The point of view taken by the jurists of the Roman school, of the +relations between the landed proprietors and their villeins, was indeed +not always favourable to the latter; for the lawyers were inclined to +fix every kind of subjection upon the peasant from the deficiency in +his right of property in his holding; but they were equally ready to +recognise his personal freedom. Thus, in the first half of the +sixteenth century, the old serfdom which still existed in a very harsh +form in many provinces was mitigated, and villeinage substituted. +Besides this, a more patriarchal feeling began to prevail among the +higher German Sovereigns, and in the new ordinances which they +projected in conjunction with their clergy, the welfare of the +peasantry was taken into consideration. This was the case above all +with the Wettiner princes in Franconia, Thuringia, and Meissen; and, +lastly, with Elector August. The authority, also, of the Saxon +chancery, which had been established in Germany since the fifteenth +century, contributed essentially to this, by making the Saxon laws a +pattern for the rest of Germany.</p> + +<p class="normal">But some ten years before the Thirty Years' War, an advance in the +pretensions of the nobles became apparent, at least in the provinces +beyond the Elbe; for example, in Pommerania and Silesia. Under weak +rulers the courtly influence of the nobility increased, the constant +money embarrassments of the princes raised the independence of the +States, which granted the taxes; and the peasants had no +representatives in the States, except in the Tyrol, East Friesland, the +old Bailiwick of Swabia, and a few small territories. The landed +proprietors indemnified themselves for the concessions made to the +princes by double exactions on the peasantry. Serfdom was formally +re-established in Pommerania in 1617.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was just at this period of reaction that the Thirty Years' War broke +out. It devastated alike the houses of the nobles and the huts of the +peasants. It brought destruction on man and beast, and corrupted those +that were left.<a name="div2_18" href="#div2Ref_18"><sup>[18]</sup></a></p> + +<p class="normal">After the great war--in the period which will be here portrayed--a +struggle began on the part of the landed proprietors and the newly +established Government against the wild practices of the war time. The +countryman had learned to prefer the rusty gun to handling the plough. +He had become accustomed to perform court service, and his mind was not +rendered more docile by disbanded soldiers having settled themselves on +the ruins of the old village huts. The peasant lads and servants bore +themselves like knights, wearing jack-boots, caps faced with marten's +fur, hats with double bands, and coats of fine cloth; they carried +rifles and long-handled axes when they came together in the cities, or +assembled on Sundays. At one time perhaps these had been useful against +robbers and wild beasts; but it had become far more dangerous to the +nobles and their bailiffs, and still more insupportable to their +villeins,--it was always rigorously forbidden.<a name="div2_19" href="#div2Ref_19"><sup>[19]</sup></a> The settlement of +disbanded soldiers, who brought their prize money into the village, was +welcome; but whoever had once worn a soldier's dress revolted against +the heavy burdens of the bondsman. It was, therefore, established that +whoever had served under a banner became free from personal servitude; +only those who had been camp-followers continued as bondsmen. The +inhabitants of the different States had been interspersed during the +war; subjects had wilfully changed their dwellings, and established +themselves on other territories, with or without the permission of the +new lords of the manor. This was insupportable, and a right was given +to the landed proprietor to fetch them back; and if the new lord of the +manor thought it his interest to protect them, and refused to give them +up, force might be used to recover them. Thus the noblemen rode with +their attendants into a district to catch such of their villeins as had +escaped without pass-tickets.<a name="div2_20" href="#div2Ref_20"><sup>[20]</sup></a>--The opposition of the people must +have been violent, for the ordinances even in the provinces, where +villeinage was most strict--as, for example, in Silesia--were obliged +to recognise that the villeins were free people, and not slaves. But +this remained a theoretical proposition, and was seldom attended to in +the following century. The depopulation of the country, and the +deficiency in servants and labourers, was very injurious to the +landowner. All the villagers were forbidden to let rooms to single men +or women; all such lodgers were to be taken before the magistracy, and +put into prison in case they should refuse domestic service, even if +they maintained themselves by any other occupation--such as labouring +for the peasant for daily hire, or carrying on business with money or +corn.<a name="div2_21" href="#div2Ref_21"><sup>[21]</sup></a> Through a whole generation we find, in the ordinances of the +territorial lords, bitter complaints against the malicious and wilful +menials who would not yield to their hard conditions, nor be content +with the pay assigned by law. It was forbidden to individual +proprietors to give more than the tax established by the provincial +States. Nevertheless, the conditions of service shortly after the war +are sometimes better than they were a hundred years later; in 1652 +menials in Silesia had meat twice in the week; but in our century there +are provinces where they get it only three times in the year.<a name="div2_22" href="#div2Ref_22"><sup>[22]</sup></a> The +daily pay also was higher immediately after the war than in the +following century.</p> + +<p class="normal">Thus was an iron yoke again bound slowly round the necks of the +undisciplined country people, closer and harder than before the war. +During the war small villages, and still more the single farms, which +had been so favorable to the independence of the peasants, had vanished +from the face of the earth; in the Palatinate, for example, and on the +hills of Franconia, they had been numerous, and even in the present day +their names cling to the soil. The village huts concentrated themselves +in the neighbourhood of the manor house, and control over the weak +community was easier when under the eye of the lord or his bailiff. +What was the course of their life in the time of our fathers will be +distinctly seen when one examines more closely the nature of their +service. A cursory glance at it will appear to the youth of the present +generation like a peep into a strange and fearful world. The conditions +under which the German country people suffered were undoubtedly +various. Special customs existed, not only in the provinces, but in +almost every community. If the names by which the different services +and imposts were designated were arranged they would form an unpleasant +vocabulary.<a name="div2_23" href="#div2Ref_23"><sup>[23]</sup></a> But, notwithstanding the difference in the names and +extent of these burdens, there was an unanimity throughout the whole of +Europe on the main points, which is, perhaps, more difficult to explain +than the deviations.</p> + +<p class="normal">The tenths were the oldest tax upon the countryman--the tenth sheaf, +the tenth portion of slaughtered beasts, and even a tenth of wine, +vegetables and fruit. It was probably older in Western Germany than +Christianity, but the early church of the middle ages cunningly claimed +it on the authority of scripture. It did not, however, succeed in +retaining it only for itself; it was obliged to share it with the +rulers, and often with the noble landed proprietors. At last it was +paid by the agricultural peasant, either as a tax to the ruler or to +his landlord, and besides as the priest's tithe to his church. However +low his harvest yield might be valued, the tenth sheaf was far more +than the tenth share of his clear produce.</p> + +<p class="normal">But the countryman had, in the first place, to render service to the +landed proprietor, both with his hands and with his team; in the +greatest part of Germany, in the middle ages, three days a week,--thus +he gave half of the working time of his life. Whoever was bound to keep +beasts of burden on his property was obliged to perform soccage, in the +working hours, with the agricultural implements and tools till sunset; +the poorer people had to do the same with hand labour--nay, according +to the obligations of their tenure, with two, four, or more hands, and +even the days were appointed by the landlords: they were well off if +during such labour they received food. These obligations of ancient +times were, in many cases, increased after the war by the encroachments +of the masters--chiefly in Eastern Germany. These soccage days were +arbitrarily divided into half or even quarter days, and thereby the +hindrance to the countryman and the disorder to his own farm were +considerably increased. The number of the days was also increased. Such +was the case even in the century which we, with just feelings of pride, +call the humane. In the year 1790, just when Goethe's "Torquato Tasso" +made its first appearance in the refined court of Saxony, the peasants +of Meissen rose against the landowners, because they had so +immoderately increased the service that their villeins seldom had a day +free for their own work.<a name="div2_24" href="#div2Ref_24"><sup>[24]</sup></a> Again in 1799, when Schiller's +"Wallenstein" was exciting the enthusiasm of the warlike nobility of +Berlin, Frederick William III. was obliged to issue a cabinet order, +enjoining on his nobility not to lay claim to the soccage of the +peasants more than three days in the week, and to treat their people +with equity.</p> + +<p class="normal">The second burden on the villeins was the tax on change of property by +death or transfer; the heriot and fine on alienation. The best horse +and the best ox were once the price which the heir of a property had to +pay to the landowner for his fief. This tax was long ago changed into +money. But though in the sixteenth century, even in countries where the +peasant was heavily oppressed, the provincial ordinances allowed that +peasant's property might be bought and sold, and that the lord of the +peasant who sold could take no deduction upon it,<a name="div2_25" href="#div2Ref_25"><sup>[25]</sup></a> yet in the same +province in 1617, before the Thirty Years' War, it was established that +landlords might compel their villeins against their will to sell their +property, and that in case no purchaser should be found they themselves +might buy it at two-thirds of the tax. It was under Frederick the Great +that the inheritance and rights of property of villeins were first +secured to them in most of the provinces of the kingdom of Prussia. +This ordinance helped to put an end to a burden on the country people +which threatened to depopulate the country. For in the former century, +after the landowners had resolved to increase the revenue of their +estates, they found it advantageous to rid themselves of some of their +villeins, whose holdings they attached to their own property. The poor +people, thus driven from their homes, fell into misery; and the burdens +became quite unbearable to the remaining villeins, for they were +expected by the landed proprietor to cultivate those former holdings, +whose possessors had hitherto by their labour assisted in the +cultivation of the whole estate. This system of ejection had become +particularly bad in the east of Germany. When Frederick II. conquered +Silesia there were many thousand farms without occupiers; the huts lay +in ruins, and the fields were in the hands of the landed proprietors. +All the separate homesteads had to be reformed and reoccupied, +furnished with cattle and implements, and given up to the farmer as his +own heritable property. In Rügen this grievance occasioned a rising of +the peasantry, in the youth of Ernst Moritz Arndt; soldiers were sent +thither, and the rioters were put in prison; the peasants endeavoured +to revenge themselves for this by laying in wait for and slaying +individual noblemen. In the same way in Electoral Saxony as late as +1790 this grievance occasioned a revolt.</p> + +<p class="normal">The children also of villeins were subject to compulsory service. If +they were capable of work they were brought before the authorities, +and, if these demanded it, had to serve some time, frequently three +years, on the farm. To serve in other places it was necessary to have a +permit, which must be bought. Even those who had already served +elsewhere had once a year--frequently about Christmas--to present +themselves to the lord of the manor for choice. If the child of a +villein entered into a trade or any other occupation, a sum had to be +paid to the authorities for a letter of permission. It was considered a +mitigation of the old remains of feudalism, when it was decided that +the daughters of peasants might marry on to other properties without +indemnifying their lord. But then the new lord had to greet the other +in a friendly letter in acknowledgment of this emancipation.<a name="div2_26" href="#div2Ref_26"><sup>[26]</sup></a> The +price which the villein had to give for the emancipation of himself and +his family varied extremely, according to the period and the district. +Under Frederick II. it was reduced in Silesia to one ducat per head. +But this was an unusually favourable rate for the villein. In Rügen, at +a still later date, the emancipation was left to the valuation of the +proprietor; it could even be refused: a fine-looking youth had there to +pay full a hundred and fifty, and a pretty girl fifty or sixty, +thalers.</p> + +<p class="normal">But the peasant was employed in other ways by the landed proprietor. He +was bound to aid, with his hands and teams, in the cultivation of the +estate; he was also bound to act as messenger. Whoever wished to go to +the town had first to ask the bailiff and lord of the manor whether +they had any orders. No householder could, except in special cases, +remain a night out of the village without the previous sanction of the +magistrate of the place. He was obliged to furnish a night watch of two +men for the nobleman's mansion. He had, when a child of the lord of the +manor was to be married, to bring a contribution of corn, small cattle, +honey, wax, and linen to the castle; finally, he had almost everywhere +to carry to his lord his rent-hens and eggs, the old symbol of his +dependence for house and farm.</p> + +<p class="normal">But what was still more repugnant to the German peasant than many +greater burdens, was the landlord's right of chase over his fields. The +fearful tyranny with which the right of chase was practised by the +German princes in the middle ages, was renewed after the Thirty Years' +War. The peasant was forbidden to carry a gun, and poachers were shot +down. Where the cultivated ground bordered on the larger woods, or +where the lord of the manor held the supreme right of chase, a secret +and often bloody war was carried on for centuries betwixt the foresters +and poachers. As long as wolves continued to prowl about the villages, +the irritated peasant dug holes round the margin of the wood which he +covered with branches, and the bottom of them was studded with pointed +stakes. He called them wolf-pits, but they were well known to the law +as game-traps, and were forbidden under severe penalties. He ventured +to let such portions of ground as were most exposed to be injured by +game, to soldiers or cities, but that also was forbidden him; he +endeavoured to defend his fields by hedges, and his hedges were broken +down. In the Erzgebirge of Saxony the peasants, in the former century, +had watched by their ripening corn; then huts were built on the fields, +fires were lighted in the night, the watchers called out and beat the +drum, and their dogs barked; but the game at last became accustomed to +these alarms, and feared neither peasant nor dog. In Electoral Saxony, +at the end of a former century, under a mild government, where a +moderate tax might be paid as indemnity for damage to game, it was +forbidden to erect fences for fields above a certain height, or to +employ pointed stakes, that the game might not be injured, nor +prevented seeking its support on the fields, till at last fourteen +communities in the Hohnstein bailiwick in a state of exasperation +combined for a general hunt, and frightened the game over the frontier. +The logs which the sheep dogs wore round their necks were not +sufficient to hinder them from hurting the hares, so they were held by +cords on the fields. But the countrymen were bound, when the lord of +the manor went to the chase, to go behind the nets and, as beaters, to +swing the rattles. The coursing, moreover, spoilt his fields, as the +riders with their greyhounds uprooted and trampled on the seed.</p> + +<p class="normal">To these burdens, which were common to all, were added numerous local +restrictions, of which only some of the more widely diffused will be +here mentioned. The number of cattle that villeins were permitted to +keep was frequently prescribed to them according to the extent of their +holdings. A portion of the pasture land upon his holding before seed +time, and of the produce after the harvest, belonged to the landowner. +This right, to which pretensions had been already made in the middle +ages, became a severe plague in the last century, when the noblemen +began increasing their flocks of sheep. For they made demands on the +peasants' fields generally, when fodder for cattle was failing: how, +then, could the peasants maintain their own animals?</p> + +<p class="normal">As early as 1617 it was held as a maxim in Silesia, that peasants must +not keep sheep unless they possessed an old authorisation for it. The +keeping of goats was altogether forbidden in many places. This old +prohibition is one of the reasons why the poor in wide districts of +Eastern Germany are deprived of these useful animals. Elector August of +Saxony in 1560 denounced in his ordinances the pigeons of the peasants, +and since that time they have been prohibited in other provincial +ordinances. Other tyrannies were devised by the love of game. Shortly +after the war it was held to be the duty of peasants to offer +everything saleable, in the first instance, to the lord of the +manor,--dung, wool, honey, and even eggs and poultry: if the +authorities would not take his goods, he was bound to expose them for a +fixed period in the nearest town; it was only then that the sale became +free. But it was truly monstrous, when the authorities compelled their +subjects to buy goods from the manorial property which they did not +need. These barbarisms were quite common, at least in the East of +Germany, after 1650, especially in Moravia, Bohemia, and Silesia. When +the great proprietors drew their ponds and could not sell the fish, the +villeins were obliged to take them, in proportion to their means, at a +fixed rate. The same was the case with butter, cheese, corn, and +cattle. This was the cause of so many of the country people in Bohemia +becoming small traders, as they had to convey these goods into +neighbouring countries, often to their own great loss.<a name="div2_27" href="#div2Ref_27"><sup>[27]</sup></a> In vain did +the magistrates in Silesia in 1716 endeavour to check this abuse.<a name="div2_28" href="#div2Ref_28"><sup>[28]</sup></a></p> + +<p class="normal">We will only mention here the worst tyranny of all. The nobleman had +seigneurial rights: he decreed through the justices, who were dependent +on him, the punishments of police offences: fines, imprisonment, and +corporal punishment. He was also in the habit of using the stick to the +villeins when they were at work. Undoubtedly there was already in the +sixteenth century, in the provincial ordinances, a humane provision, +which prohibited the nobles from striking their villeins; but in the +two following centuries this prohibition was little attended to. When +Frederick the Great re-organized Silesia, he gave the peasants the +right of making complaint to the government against severe bodily +punishment! And this was considered a progress!</p> + +<p class="normal">But other burdens also weighed upon the life of the peasant. For, +beside the landowner, the territorial ruler also demanded his impost or +contribution, a land-tax or poll-tax; he could impress the son of the +peasant under his banner, and demand waggons and gear for relays in +time of war. And again, above the territorial ruler, was the Holy Roman +Empire of the German nation, which claimed in those parts of Germany +where the constitution of the circles was still in force, a quota for +their exchequers.</p> + +<p class="normal">The peasants, however, were not everywhere under the curse of bondage. +In the old domain of the Ripuarian Franks, the provinces on the other +side of the Rhine from Cleves to the Moselle, and the Grafschaft of +Mark, Essen, Werden, and Berg, had already in the middle ages freed +themselves from bondage: those who had not property as landowners were +freemen with leases for life. In the rest of Germany, freedom had taken +refuge in the southern and northern frontiers, on the coasts of the +North Sea and among the Alps. East Friesland, the marsh lands on the +coasts of the Weser and the Elbe up to Ditmarschen,--those almost +unconquerable settlements of sturdy peasant communities,--have remained +free from the most ancient times. In the south, the Tyrol and the +neighbouring Alps, at least the greatest portion of them, were occupied +by free country-people; in Upper Austria also the free peasantry were +numerous; and in Steiermark the tenths, which was the chief tax paid to +the landed proprietors, was less oppressive than soccage was elsewhere. +Wherever the arable land was scarce, and the mountain pastures afforded +sustenance to the inhabitants, the legal condition of the lower orders +was better. On the other hand, in the countries of old Saxony from the +time of the Carlovingians, with the exception of a few free peasant +holdings, a severe state of bondage had been developed. The +Brunswickers, the dwellers on the Church lands of Bremen and Verden, +were in the most favourable condition, those of Hildesheim and the +Grafschaft of Hoya in the worst. In the bishopric of Münster the +soccage service of villeins was generally changed into a moderate money +payment; the only thing that pressed heavily on them was the compulsory +leading, and the necessity of buying exemption from their burdens. On +the other hand, the right of the landed proprietor over the inheritance +of villeins existed to the greatest extent. As late as the year 1800 +the country-people, who--exceptionally--desired to save money, +endeavoured to preserve their property to their heirs, by fictitious +transactions with the citizens; consequently more than a fourth portion +of the Münster land remained uncultivated. A similar condition, in a +somewhat milder form, existed in the bishopric of Osnabruck. Among the +races of the interior, Hessians, Thuringians, Bavarians, Suabians, and +Allemanni, the number of free peasants was continually decreasing +during the whole of the middle ages: it was only in Upper Bavaria that +they still formed a powerful part of the population. In Thuringia also +the number of freemen was not inconsiderable. There the rule of the +princes over the serf peasantry was lenient.</p> + +<p class="normal">Far worse, except in a large part of Holstein, was the condition of all +the countries east of the Elbe,--in fact wherever Germans colonized +Sclave countries, that is almost half present Germany; but worst of all +was the life of the villeins in Bohemia and Moravia, in Pomerania and +Mecklenberg: in the last province villeinage is not yet abolished. It +was in these countries that villeinage became more oppressive after the +Thirty Years' War; only the free peasants, and the "<i>Erb-und +Gerichtsscholtiseien</i>," as they were still called in memory of the +circumstances of the old Germanization, formed themselves into a pauper +aristocracy.</p> + +<p class="normal">In the last century it might easily be perceived, from the agriculture +and the prosperity of the villagers, whether they were freemen or +serfs; and even now we may sometimes still discover, from the +intelligence and personal appearance of the present race, what was the +condition of their fathers. The peasants on the Lower Rhine, the +Westphalian inhabitants of the marshes, the East Frieslanders, the +Upper Austrians and Upper Bavarians, attained a certain degree of +prosperity soon after the war; on the other hand, the remaining +Bavarians, about the year 1700, complained that the third portion of +their fields lay waste, and we learn of Bohemia in 1730 that the fourth +part of the ground which had been under culture before the Thirty +Years' War was overgrown with wood. The value of land there was lower +by one half than in the other provinces.</p> + +<p class="normal">Undoubtedly those freemen were to be envied who felt the advantage of +their better position, but only a small portion were so fortunate. +Generally, even in the eighteenth century, freemen with little or no +land of their own, preferred being received as villeins on some great +landed property. When Frederick I. of Prussia, shortly after 1700, +wished to free the serfs in Pomerania, they refused it, because they +considered the new duties imposed upon them more severe than what they +had hitherto borne. And in fact the free peasants were scarcely less +burdened with new service than those who had been the villeins of the +old time.</p> + +<p class="normal">It is difficult to judge impartially of the human condition which +developed itself under this oppression. For such a life looks very +different in daily intercourse, to what it does in the statute-book. +Much that appears insupportable to us was made bearable by ancient +custom. Undoubtedly the kind-hearted benevolence of the nobles, of old +families who had grown up with their country-people through many +generations, mitigated the severity of servitude, and a cordial +connexion existed between master and serfs. Still more frequently the +brutal selfishness of the masters was softened and kept within bounds +by that prudence which now influences the American slaveholders. The +landed proprietor and his family passed their lives among the peasants, +and if he endeavoured to instil fear, he also had cause for fear. +Easily on a stormy night might the flames be kindled among his wooden +farm buildings, and no province was without its dismal stories of harsh +landlords or bailiffs who had been slain by unknown hands in field or +wood. However much we may admit the goodness or prudence of masters, +the position of the peasants still remains the darkest feature of the +past time. For we find everywhere in the scanty records of the +seventeenth and eighteenth centuries an unhealthy antagonism of +classes. <i>And it was the larger portion of the German people which was +ruined by this oppression.</i><a name="div2_29" href="#div2Ref_29"><sup>[29]</sup></a></p> + +<p class="normal">Men even of uncommon strength and intelligence seldom succeeded in +extricating themselves from the proscribed boundaries by which their +life was fenced in. Ever greater became the chasm which separated them +from the smaller portion of the nation, who, by their perukes, bagwigs, +and pigtails, showed from afar that they belonged to a privileged +class. Up to the end of the seventeenth century these polished classes +seldom entertained a friendly feeling towards the peasant; on all sides +were to be heard complaints of his obduracy, dishonesty, and +coarseness. At no period was the suffering portion of the people so +harshly judged as in that, in which a spiritless orthodoxy embittered +the souls of those who had to preach the gospel of love. None were more +eager than the theologians in complaining of the worthlessness of +the country people, among whom they had to live; they always heard +hell-hounds howling round the huts of the villeins; their whole +conception of life was, indeed, dark, pedantic, and joyless. A +well-known little book, from the native district of Christopher von +Grimmelshausen, is especially characteristic. This book, entitled "Des +Bauerstands Lasterprob"--the exposure of the vices of the peasant +class<a name="div2_30" href="#div2Ref_30"><sup>[30]</sup></a>--never ceased to point out from the deeds of the villagers, +that the lives of the peasantry, from the village justice to the +goose-herd, were worthless and godless; that they were in the habit of +representing themselves as poor and miserable, and of complaining on +all occasions; that they were rude and overbearing to those whom they +did not fear; that they considered none as their friends, and +ungratefully deceived their benefactors. This book is much more +cruel than "The Lexicon of Deceit," by the hypochondriacal Coburger +Hönn, which some centuries later analysed the impositions of all +classes,--and amongst others, those of the peasants,--alphabetically, +morosely, and with apt references.</p> + +<p class="normal">To such defects, which are peculiar to the oppressed, others must, +indeed, be added, the consequences of the long war and its +demoralization. In the rooms of the village inns, about 1700, neither +candlesticks nor snuffers were to be seen, for everything had been +pilfered by the wayfarers; even the prayer-book had been stolen from +the host; a small looking-glass was a thing not to be thought of, +though 500 years earlier the village maiden, when she adorned herself +for the dance, took her little hand-glass with her as an ornament; and +if a householder lodged carriers, he was obliged to conceal all +portable goods, and to lock up all barns and hay-lofts. It was even +dangerous sometimes for a traveller to set foot in an inn. The desolate +room was filled, not only with tobacco-smoke, but also with the fumes +of powder; for it was a holiday amusement of the country people to play +with powder, and to molest unlucky strangers by throwing squibs or +small rockets before their feet or on their perukes; this was +accompanied by railery and abuse.<a name="div2_31" href="#div2Ref_31"><sup>[31]</sup></a> We are frequently disposed to +observe with astonishment, in these and similar complaints of +contemporaries, how the German nature maintained, amidst the deepest +degradation, a vital energy which, more than a hundred years after, +made the beginning of a better condition possible; and we may sometimes +doubt whether to admire the patience, or to lament the weakness, which +so long endured such misery; for, in spite of all that party zeal has +ever said in excuse of these servile relations, they were an endless +source of immorality both to the masters, their officials, and to the +people themselves. The sensuality of landed proprietors, and the +self-interest of magistrates and stewards, were exposed to daily +temptation at a period when a feeling of duty was weak in all classes. +More than once did the sluggish provincial governments exert themselves +to prevent bailiffs from compelling the peasant to feed cattle, sow +linseed, and spin for them; and foresters were in ill repute who +carried on traffic with the peasants, and winked at their proceedings +when the stems of the lordly wood were felled.<a name="div2_32" href="#div2Ref_32"><sup>[32]</sup></a> What was the feeling +of the country people against the landed proprietors, may be concluded +from the wicked proverb which became current about 1700, and fell from +the mouth of the rich Mansfeld peasant--"The young sparrows and young +nobles should have their heads broken betimes."<a name="div2_33" href="#div2Ref_33"><sup>[33]</sup></a></p> + +<p class="normal">Slowly did the dawn of a new day come to the German peasant. If we +would seek from whence arose the first rays of the new light, we shall +find them, together with the renovation of the people, in the studies +of the learned, who proclaimed the science, which was the most strange +and most incomprehensible to the country-people, then called +philosophy. After the teaching of Leibnitz and Wolff had found scholars +in a larger circle of the learned, there was a sudden change in the +views held about the peasant and his state. Everywhere began a more +human conception of earthly things, the struggle against the orthodox +errors. We find, again, in the scholars and proclaimers of the new +philosophy, somewhat of the zeal of an apostle to teach, to improve, +and to free. Soon after 1700 a hearty interest in the life of the +peasant appears again in the small literature. The soundness of his +calling, the utility and blessings of his labour, were extolled, and +his good qualities carefully sought out; his old songs, in which a +manly self-consciousness finds graceful expression, and which had once +been polished by the single-minded theologians of the sixteenth +century, were again spread in cheap publications. In these the poor +countryman modestly boasts that agriculture was founded by Adam; he +rejoices in "his falconry"; the larks in the field, the swallows in the +straw of his roof, and the cocks in the farm-yard; and amidst his hard +labour again seeks comfort in the "heavenly husbandman, Jesus."<a name="div2_34" href="#div2Ref_34"><sup>[34]</sup></a></p> + +<p class="normal">On the other hand, there was even help in the severity of a despotic +State. The oppressed peasant gave, through his sons, to the ruler the +greater part of his soldiers, and, through his taxes, the means of +keeping up the new State. By degrees it was discovered that such +material ought to be taken care of. About 1700 this may everywhere be +perceived in the provincial laws. The Imperial Court, also, was +influenced in its way by this awakening philanthropy. In 1704 it even +gave a grand privilege to the shepherds, wherein it declared them and +their lads honourable, and graciously advised the German nation to give +up the prejudice against this useful class of men, and no longer to +exclude their children from being artisans, on account of magic and +plying the knacker's trade. A few years afterwards it gave armorial +bearings; it also granted them the rights of a corporate body, with +seal, chest, and banner, on which a pious picture was painted.<a name="div2_35" href="#div2Ref_35"><sup>[35]</sup></a> More +stringent was the interference of the Hohenzollerns, who were +themselves, during four generations, the princely colonists of Eastern +Germany. Frederick II. made the most fundamental reforms in the +conquered provinces; many examples are cited of the blessings resulting +from them. When he took possession of Silesia, the village huts were +block-houses, formed from the stems of trees, and roofed with straw or +shingles, without brick chimneys; the baking ovens, joined on to the +houses, exposed them to the danger of fires; the husbandry was in a +pitiful plight; great commons and pastures covered with mole-hills and +thistles, small weak horses, and lean cows; and the landed proprietors +were for the most part harsh despots, against whom the clumsy Imperial +and magisterial administration could scarcely enforce any law. The King +carried on three severe wars in Silesia, during which his own soldiers, +the Austrians, and the Russians, consumed and ravaged the province. +Yet, only a few years after the Seven Years' War, 250 new villages and +2000 new cottages were erected, and frequently stone houses and tiled +roofs were to be seen. All the wooden chimneys and all the clay ovens +had been pulled down by the conqueror, and the people were compelled to +build anew; horses were brought from Prussia, and the sheep shorn once +in the year; peat cutters from Westphalia, and silkworm-breeders from +France, were introduced into the country. Oaks and mulberries were +planted, and premiums were given for the laying out of vineyards. At +his command the new potato was introduced; at the beginning of the +Seven Years' War, by the celebrated patent of the Minister of Justice, +von Carmer, commons and general pastures were abolished, and divided +among separate holders. With far-sighted forethought, a state of things +was introduced which has only recently been carried out. The +inheritance of property, also, was secured by law to the villeins. The +peasant obtained the right of complaint to the royal government, and +this right became for him a quick and vigorous law, for, however much +the King favoured the nobility when it was serviceable to the State, +yet he was constantly occupied, together with his officials, in +elevating the mass of tax-payers. The most insignificant might present +his petition, and the whole people knew, from numerous examples, that +the King read them. Many of this great Prince's attempts at +civilization did not succeed; but on all sides the pressure of a system +was felt which so assiduously raised the strength of the people, in +order to utilise them to the utmost in the State. Nowhere is the work +of this mighty ruler so thankfully acknowledged by contemporaries as by +the peasantry of the conquered province. When, on his numerous journeys +through Silesia, the country-people thronged round his carriage with +respectful awe, every look, every fleeting word that he addressed to a +village magistrate was treasured as a dear remembrance, handed down +carefully from generation to generation, and still lives in all hearts.</p> + +<p class="normal">Ever greater became the sympathy of the literary classes. It is true +that poetry and art did not yet find in the life of the peasant, +material which could foster a creative spirit. When Goethe wrote +"Hermann and Dorothea," it was a new discovery for the nation that the +petty citizen was worthy of artistic notice; it was long, however, +before any one ventured lower among the people; but the honourable +philanthropists, the popular promulgators of enlightenment in the +burgher classes, preached and wrote with hearty zeal upon the singular, +uncouth, and yet numerous fellow-creature, the peasant, whose character +frequently only appeared to consist of an aggregate of unamiable +qualities, but who, nevertheless, was undeniably the indispensable +foundation of the other classes of human society.</p> + +<p class="normal">One of the most influential writings of this kind was by Christian +Garve, "Upon the Character of the Peasants, Breslau, 1786," taken from +lectures given shortly before the outbreak of the French revolution. +The author was a clear-sighted, upright man, who was anxious for the +public weal, and was listened to with respect throughout the whole of +Germany, whenever he spoke upon social questions. His little book has a +thoroughly philanthropic tendency; the life of the peasant was +accurately known by him as it was by many others who were then occupied +with the improvement of the country people. The propositions which he +makes for the elevation of the class are sensible, but unsatisfactory; +as indeed are almost all theories with respect to social evils. Yet, +when we scan the contents of this well-meaning book, we are seized with +alarm; not at what he relates concerning the oppression of the peasant, +but at the way in which he himself seems necessitated to speak of +two-thirds of the German people. They are strangers to him and his +contemporaries: it is something new and attractive to their +philanthropy to realize the condition of these peculiar men. There is +an especial charm to a conscientious and feeling mind in ascertaining +clearly, what is the exact nature and cause of the stupidity, +coarseness, and evil qualities of the country people. The author even +compares their position with that of the Jews; he discusses their +condition of mind much in the same way that our philanthropists do +those of gaol prisoners; he sincerely wishes that the light of humanity +may fall on their huts; he compares their sloth and indolence with the +energetic working power which, as was even then known, the colonists +developed in the ancient woods of the new world. He gives this +well-meaning explanation of the contrast, that in our old and as it +were already becoming antiquated state, the many work for the one, and +a multitude of the industrious go without remuneration, therefore zeal +and desire are extinguished in a great portion of them. Almost all that +he says is true and right, but this calm kindliness, with which +enlightened men of the period of Immanuel Kant and the poetic court of +Weimar regarded the people, was unaccompanied by the slightest +suspicion, that the pith of the German national strength must be sought +in this despised and ruined class; that the condition of things under +which he himself, the author, lived, was hollow, barbarous, and +insecure; that the governments of his time possessed no guarantee of +stability, and that a political state--the great source of every manly +feeling, and of the noble consciousness of independence--was +impossible, even for the educated, so long as the peasant lived as a +beast of burden; and little did he think that all these convictions +would be forced upon the very next generation, after bitter sufferings +in a hard school, by the conquest of an external enemy. His work, +therefore, deserves well to be remembered by the present generation. +The following pages depict not only the condition of the peasantry, but +the literary class. Garve speaks as follows:--</p> + +<p class="normal">"One circumstance has great influence on the character of the +peasantry: they hang much together. They live far more sociably one +with another than do the common burghers in the cities. They see each +other every day at their farm work; in the summer in the fields, in the +winter in the barns and spinning-rooms. They associate like soldiers, +and thus get an <i>esprit de corps</i>; many results arise from this: first, +they become polished after their fashion, and more acute through this +association. They are more fit for intercourse with their equals; and +they have better notions than the common artisan of many of the +relations of social life; that is to say, of all those which occur in +their class and in their own mode of life. This constant intercourse, +this continual companionship, is with them, as with soldiers, what +lightens their condition. It is a happy thing to hare much and constant +companionship with others, if they are your equals; it gives rise to an +intimate acquaintance and a reciprocal confidence, at least in outward +appearance, without which no intercourse can be agreeable. The noble +enjoys this advantage; he associates for the most part only with his +equals, being separated by his pride from those below him, and he and +his equals live much together, as leisure and wealth enable him to do +so. The peasant enjoys singular advantages from opposite reasons. His +insignificance is so great that it prevents his having the wish, still +more the opportunity, of associating with those above him; he hardly +ever sees anything but peasants, and his servitude and his work bring +him frequently in companionship with these his equals.</p> + +<p class="normal">"But this very circumstance causes the peasants to act in a body; thus +the inconveniences of a democratic constitution are introduced, so that +a single unquiet head from their own body exercises great power over +them, and often influences the whole community. It is, moreover, the +reason why persons of another class have so little influence over them, +and can only sway them by authority and compulsion. They seldom see or +hear the judgments, conceptions, and examples of the higher orders, and +only for a brief space.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I have long studied the special signification of the word <i>tückisch</i>, +which I have never heard so frequently as when the talk has been of +peasants. It denotes, without doubt, a mixture of childish character, +of simplicity, and weakness, with spite and cunning.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Every one, without doubt, remembers having seen faces of peasant boys, +in which one or both eyes leer out, as if by stealth, from under the +half-closed eyelids, with the mouth open and drawn into a jeering yet +somewhat vacant laugh, with the head bent down, as if they would +conceal themselves; in a word, faces which depict a mixture of fear, +shamefacedness, and simplicity, with derision and aversion. Such boys, +when one speaks to or requires anything of them, stand dumb and +motionless as a log; they answer no questions put to them by the +passersby, and their muscles seem stiff and immovable. But as soon as +the stranger is a little way off, they run to their comrades, and burst +out laughing.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The low condition of the peasant, his servitude, and his poverty +produce in him a certain fear of the higher orders; his rearing and +mode of life make him on the one hand unyielding and insolent, and on +the other, in many respects, simple and ignorant; the frequent +antagonism of his own will and advantage, to the will and the commands +of those above him, implants in his mind the germs of animosity. Thus, +if the failings of his class are not counteracted by his personal +qualities, he becomes such as the boy described, especially in his +demeanour to his superiors. It is these superiors and lords of the +peasants who are to blame for his <i>tückischen</i> character. He will use +dissimulation in place of open resistance; he will be humble and +yielding, nay, even appear devoted in their presence; but when he +thinks he can act secretly, he will do everything against their will +and interest. He will think of tricks and intrigues, which, +nevertheless, are not so finely woven but that they may be easily seen +through.</p> + +<p class="normal">"One may discover two main differences, both in the fate and the +character of the peasantry. He who is entirely under subjection, who +sighs under the yoke of a complete slavery, will, under usual +circumstances, submit to everything with apathy, without attempting the +least resistance, and even without a wish to lighten his own lot; he +will throw himself at the feet of any one who will tread on him. But if +he is roused from this torpor by special circumstances, by agitators, +by a cunning and bold leader, then he will become like a raging tiger, +and will lose at once, with the humility of the slave, all the feelings +of humanity.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The half-serf who has property, and enjoys the protection of the laws, +but under more or less burdensome conditions, is bound to the glebe, +and at the same time to the service of the proprietor, to whose +jurisdiction he is amenable; this peasant does not usually bear his +burdens without wincing. There is no fear that he will endeavour to +throw them off his neck by open violence as a rebel; but he will carry +on a continual secret war with his master. To diminish his profit, and +to increase his own, is a wish that he has always at heart, and an +object which covertly, and as often as is practicable, he endeavours to +pursue. He practises crafty and small thefts on the property of his +master, and does not consider them so disgraceful as if he did the same +by his equal. He is not the entirely humble slave, nor yet the dreaded +enemy of his master, but he is not an obedient dependent, from free +will and a good heart; he is that which probably has been intended to +be expressed in some sort by the word <i>tückisch</i>.</p> + +<p class="normal">"One may add, as an ingredient or as a consequence of the +'<i>tückischen</i>' nature, a certain amount of stubbornness which +distinguishes the peasant when his mind is agitated, or when a +prejudice is once rooted in him. His soul in this case appears to +become stiff, like his body and his limbs. He is then deaf to all +representations, however obvious they may be, or however capable he +might be, in an impartial state of mind, of seeing their justice. The +lawyers employed in the lawsuits of peasants will sometimes have known +such individuals, in whom it is doubtful whether the obstinacy with +which they cling to an obviously absurd idea, arises from their +blindness or from determined malice. Sometimes whole communities become +thus addle-headed. They then resemble certain crazy people, who, as it +is expressed, have a fixed idea, that is, a conception which their mind +takes up incessantly or returns to on the slightest occasion, and +which, however false it may be, can neither be removed by the evidence +of the senses nor by the representations of reason, because it is not +really in the mind, but has its foundation in the tenor of their +organization."</p> + +<p class="normal">Thus speaks Christian Garve. His final counsel was: "Better village +schools." Some among the landed proprietors acted with a similar +philanthropic feeling. We would gladly say that their number was great; +but the frequent complaints to the contrary, and the zeal with which +benevolent commentators bring forward individual examples--like one +Rochow, of Rekahn, who established village schools at his own +cost--justify the conclusion that such benevolence would have been less +striking had it been more frequent. In fact it required individuals to +be very prudent in showing their good feeling for the peasants in +deeds, as it was often observed that they gave their service far more +willingly to strict nobles than to citizen proprietors; and that when +these, with a warmer feeling for the peasant, wished to show him +kindness, their goodwill sometimes met with a bad return. Thus a +citizen proprietor, taking possession of his property, gave each of his +peasants a present in money, and showed consideration for them in many +ways; the not unnatural consequence was, that they renounced all +service to him, and broke out into open resistance.</p> + +<p class="normal">Whilst the German philanthropists were anxiously thinking and writing +for the countryman, a storm was already brewing on the other side of +the Rhine which in a few years was to destroy in Germany also, the +servitude of the peasants, together with the old form of government. +About 1790 the peasants began to occupy themselves eagerly with +politics. The schoolmaster read and explained the newspapers to them; +the hearers sat motionless, amidst thick tobacco smoke, all ears. In +Electoral Saxony some already made use of the new circulating library +in the neighbouring city.<a name="div2_36" href="#div2Ref_36"><sup>[36]</sup></a> In the Palatinate, and in the Upper +Rhine, the country people became disturbed, and refused service. In the +same year, in the richest part of Electoral Saxony, in the Lommatzscher +district, and on the property of the Graf von Schönburg, a peasant +revolt once more broke out. Once more did the insurgents seize the +weapon of the slave, the wooden club with iron hoops. The peasants, by +a deputation, renounced all villein service to the landholders; they +sent to the neighbouring communities; from village to village hastened +the secret messengers; the magistrates, in the service of noblemen, +were expelled or beaten with sticks; the quiet parishes were threatened +with fire and sword; in every village saddled horses were standing to +send information to the neighbours of the march of the military. There +were the same secret conspiracy, the same outbreak, spreading with the +speed of lightning, the same union of measureless hate, with a natural +feeling of their rights, as in the peasant war of the sixteenth +century. Reciprocal agreements were laid before the landed proprietors, +which most of them subscribed amicably; and severe nobles were +threatened with the worst. Their demands quickly increased; soon they +required, not only exemption from tenths and soccage service, but also +the reimbursement of fines that had been paid. The peasants collected +in troops of more than a thousand men; they threatened the town of +Meissen, and attacked small detachments. But they never withstood +larger divisions of military. The most daring bands threw their caps +and clubs away, as soon as the cavalry were ordered to charge through +them. One of the chief leaders, a stubborn, daring old man of seventy +years of age, while still in chains, complained of the faintheartedness +of his bands. The movement was suppressed without much bloodshed. It +was characteristic of the time, that the landowners, from fear, did +everything in their power to bring about a mutual forgiveness and +forgetfulness, and that the condemned, during their penal labour, were +separated from other criminals and treated with leniency; they were +also excused the prison dress. From records of that period it may +clearly be seen how general was the feeling among the higher +magistrates, that the position of the peasant did not come up to the +requirements of the times.</p> + +<p class="normal">Two years later, also, the German peasants in the Palatinate and in the +Electorate of Mainz danced round the red cap on the tree of freedom. +Incessantly did French influence overspread Germany. The State of the +Great Frederick was shattered; Germany became French up to the Elbe. In +the new French possessions, villeinage and servitude were abolished, +with a haste and recklessness which was intended to win the people to +the new dominion. The Princes of the Rhine Confederation followed this +example, with greater consideration for those whom they patronised; but +still under the strong influence of French ideas. In Prussia the +Governments and people saw, with alarm, how insecure was the +constitution of a State which employed so much the bodies and working +powers of the peasants, and took so little account of their souls. In +the year 1807 the great change in the relations of the country people +began in Prussia; the definition of the rights of the landowners and +peasants has lasted there, with many fluctuations and interruptions, +for half a century, and has not yet arrived at a full conclusion.</p> + +<p class="normal">At this period the position of the countryman throughout Germany has so +improved, that no other progress of civilization can be compared to it. +The villein of the landowner has--with the exception of Mecklenburg, +where the condition of the middle ages still exists--become the free +citizen of his State; the law protects and punishes him and the +landowner alike; he sends representatives, not of his class only, but +of the nation, in union with the other classes of voters, to the +capital; he has legally ceased everywhere to be a separate order in the +State--in many provinces he has laid aside, with his present dress, his +old frowardness; he begins to dress himself <i>à la mode</i>, and--sometimes +in a clumsy, unpleasing form--to take his share in the inventions and +enjoyments of modern civilization. But, however great these changes may +be, they are not yet great enough generally, in Germany, to give the +countryman that position which, as a member of the State, a citizen, +and an agriculturist, he must attain, if the life of the people is to +give an impression in all respects of perfect soundness and power. His +interest in, and comprehension of, that highest earthly concern of +man--the State--is much too little developed; his craving for +instruction and cultivation, considered on the whole, is too small; and +in the larger portion of the Fatherland his soul is still encumbered by +some of the qualities which are nurtured by long oppression, hard +egotism, distrust of men differently moulded, litigiousness, +awkwardness, and a deficient understanding of his rights and position +as a citizen. The minds which have shaken off the old spell are still +in the form of transition which gives them a specially unfinished and +unpleasing aspect.</p> + +<p class="normal">The agriculture of the German peasantry may still be considered as not +having, on the whole, reached that point which is necessary for an +energetic development of our national strength; nevertheless, we have +reason to rejoice in having made great progress in this direction. +Intellect is everywhere incessantly occupied in introducing to the +simple countryman new discoveries--machines, seeds, and a new method of +cultivation. In some favoured districts the agriculture of the small +farmer can scarcely be distinguished from the well-studied system of +the larger model farms. Nor has the German peasant, in the times of the +deepest depression, like the oppressed Slavonian, ever lost the +instinct of self-acquisition. For the very qualities which are his +characteristics, enduring systematic industry and strict parsimony, are +the groundwork of the highest earthly prosperity. There still subsists, +however, in wide districts, the old thraldom of the three-course system +with rights of common, and all the pressure which this system entails +on individuals. Even well-tested improvements are therefore difficult +to the countryman; because, with all his perseverance, he is yet +wanting in enterprising activity, and because the great scantiness of +his youthful instruction and technical education makes it difficult for +him to comprehend anything new. Thus the development of the German +peasant to greater inward freedom and capacity is steady, but slow. The +noble landed proprietor also, from entirely different reasons, +frequently neglects to raise the culture of the soil by energy, +technical knowledge, and the utmost exertion of his power; and, in like +manner, we find in other branches of production--in manufactures, +trade, commerce, and political life--a corresponding slowness of +progress. It places us still at a disadvantage in comparison with the +better-situated countries of Europe. For the position of Germany among +the States of Europe is such, that all other progress depends on the +development of its own agriculture, that is, on the degree of +intelligence and productive power which is perceptible in this primeval +manly occupation. We have no command of the sea; we have no colonies, +and no subjected countries, to which we can export the produce of our +industry. If this circumstance is perhaps a surety for our stability, +on the other hand it raises the vital importance which the German +countryman and the system of his agriculture exercise on the other +classes of the German people.</p> + +<p class="normal">If therefore it is allowable to compare two very different phases of +human development, one may well say that the peasant of 1861 has not +yet gained, comparatively with the other classes of the people, the +independence and the conscious power which existed six centuries ago in +the provinces of Reithart von Reuenthal and Farmer Helmbrecht. And +whoever would teach us from the life of the past, how it has happened +that the strength of the nation has passed from the rural districts +into cities, and that the nobleman has raised himself so much above his +neighbour the peasant, must beware of asserting, that this depression +of the country-people is the natural consequence of the establishment +of a higher culture and more artistic forms of life by the side of the +simple agriculture of the lower class. He who follows his plough will +seldom be a member of a company which extend their speculations to the +distant corners of the earth; he will not read Homer in the original, +he will hardly read the work of a German philosopher upon logic, and +the easy intercourse of a modern <i>salon</i> will scarcely be enlivened by +his wit. But the results of the collective culture, of that which the +learned find, which the artist forms, which manufacturers create, must, +at a period when the nation is vigorous and sound, when accessible to +the simple countryman of sound judgment, be comprehended and valued by +him.</p> + +<p class="normal">Is it necessary that our neighbour the countryman should so seldom read +a good book, and still less often buy one? Is it necessary that he +should, as a rule, take in no other newspaper than the small sheet of +his own district? Is it necessary that it should be unknown to him, and +unfortunately sometimes also to his schoolmaster, how an angle is +determined, a parallelogram measured, and an ellipse drawn? Whoever +would now place a poem of Goethe's in the hand of a peasant woman, +would probably do a useless thing, and raise a dignified smile in a +"well-educated spectator." Must all that we possess of most beautiful +be incomprehensible to half our nation? Six hundred years ago, the poem +of Farmer Helmbrecht was understood in the village parlour, and the +charm of his sonorous verse, the poetry and the warm eloquence of his +language, were appreciated; and the rhythm and measure of those old +songs that accompanied the dances of the thirteenth century are just as +elegant and artistic as the finest verses now in the poems of the +greatest modern poets. There was a time when the German peasant had the +same lively susceptibility for noble poetry which we now assume as the +privilege of the highly educated. Is it necessary that the peasant of +the present day should be deficient in it? The Bohemian village +musician still plays with heartfelt delight the harmonious tones +produced by the genius of Haydn and Mozart; is it necessary that few +other musical sounds should be permitted to the German peasant than the +stale measures of spiritless dances? All this is not necessary; +something of the same barbarism benumbs our life which we perceive with +astonishment in the time of Christian Garve.</p> + +<p class="normal">What, however, we consider at first as one of the still remaining +weaknesses of the peasants, is also the characteristic weakness of our +whole culture, which has become too artificial, because it has bloomed +in comparatively small and isolated circles of society, without the +regulation and ever-increasing invigoration which the collective +popular mind would have afforded it by cordial reciprocity and warm +sympathy. The peasant's having for so many centuries been a stranger to +social culture has, in the first place, made him weak, and also made +the culture of the other classes too unstable, over-refined, and +sometimes unmanly and impracticable.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER II.</h2> +<br> +<h3>THE LIFE OF THE LOWER NOBILITY.</h3> +<h4>(1500-1800.)</h4> +<br> + +<p class="normal">The lot of the German peasant and of the German noble are closely bound +together; the sufferings of the one become the disease of the other: +the one has been lowered by servitude; the capacity, cultivation, and +worth of the other to the State have been impaired by the privileges of +a favoured position. Now both appear to be convalescent.</p> + +<p class="normal">The lower German noble, before the beginning of the Thirty Years' War, +was experiencing an important transition; he was about to forget the +traditions of the middle ages, and on the point of gaining a new +importance at court. The predatory Junkers of the saddle had become +quarrelsome, drink-loving landed proprietors.</p> + +<p class="normal">At the end of the sixteenth century it was still difficult for the sons +of the old robber associates to keep the peace. Whilst they were +fighting with the pen, and intriguing at the Kammergericht,<a name="div2_37" href="#div2Ref_37"><sup>[37]</sup></a> they +were frequently tempted to take forcible revenge; not only the +turbulent knights of the Empire in Franconia, Suabia, and on the Rhine, +but also the vassals of the powerful princes of the Empire who were +under the strong law of the land. Even where they were in the exercise +of their rights, they preferred doing it by violence, from pride in +their own power. Thus George Behr, of Düvelsdorf, in Pomerania, shortly +before the storm of the Thirty Years' War broke upon his province, +hired an armed band in order to obtain club law in a private quarrel; +he also claimed supreme jurisdiction on his property, in 1628 he caused +a former secretary of his family who had forged the seal of his master +and drawn a false bond, to be hung on a gallows without any further +ado, and at his leisure gave a laconic account of it to his duke.<a name="div2_38" href="#div2Ref_38"><sup>[38]</sup></a></p> + +<p class="normal">Much of the old roistering remained in the daily life of the country +noblemen; they were still prone, as once in the middle ages, to excite +quarrels in the inns and under the village lindens. The young wore +embroidered clothes with concealed weapons, an iron ring in the hat, +and low morions; besides this, very long rapiers and stilettoes, and in +the eastern frontier countries, also Hungarian axes. Thus they went in +crowds to the popular festivals and marriages, especially when these +took place in the households of the hated citizens. There they began +quarrels with the populace and invited guests; they behaved with +offensive petulance, and sometimes committed grievous outrages; they +burst open the doors of the houses, broke into the women's rooms when +they had gone to rest, and into the cellars of the householders. It was +not always easy to obtain justice against the offenders, but in some +provinces the complaints were so loud and general that, as for example +in the Imperial hereditary lands, numerous ordinances appeared +enforcing the duty of giving information of such villanies. Those most +complained of were the rovers who settled here and there in the +country. They were, in the worst cases, compelled to serve at their own +cost against the hereditary enemy,<a name="div2_39" href="#div2Ref_39"><sup>[39]</sup></a> so difficult is it to eradicate +old evil habits. The quarrels also of the country nobles among +themselves were endless. In vain were they denounced by the ordinances +of the rulers, in vain did they declare that it was not necessary for +the person challenged to come forward.<a name="div2_40" href="#div2Ref_40"><sup>[40]</sup></a> The language of the Junker +was rich in strong expressions, and custom had stamped some of these as +unpardonable offences. At this period, after the termination of +tournaments, armorial bearings and ancestors became of great +importance; marriages with ladies not of noble birth became less +frequent; they were eager to blazon coats of arms and genealogies, and +endeavoured to show a pure descent through many generations of +ancestors, in which there was frequently great difficulty, not only +from the want of church books and records, but from other causes. +Whoever endeavoured, therefore, to force a quarrel with another, found +fault with his pedigree, his knightly position, name, and armorial +bearings, and questioned his four descents. Such an offence could only +be appeased by blood. To diminish these brawls, shortly before the +Thirty Years' War, courts of honour were here and there introduced. The +ruler of the country or feudal lord was president; the assessors, +noblemen of distinction, formed the court of honour. The parties chose +three companions, through whom letters of challenge and apologies were +transmitted; and in order to make these subtle formalities easy to +those who had little practice in writing, a form was accurately +prescribed for such letters of summons.</p> + +<p class="normal">Whilst thus the poorer nobles of the country struggled at home against +the new <i>régime</i>, the more enterprising were led by the old German love +of travelling into foreign parts. The noble youths willingly followed +the drum, and even before 1618 it was a frequent complaint that the +Junkers of the nobility had everywhere promotion in the army, whilst it +was difficult for a man of worth and capacity, from the people, to rise +from the ranks. Even before 1618 the heirs of rich families of +pretension, travelled to France, there to learn the language and the +art of war, and to cultivate their minds. Not only in Paris, but in +other great cities of France, they congregated in such numbers, as do +now the idle Russians and English; they only too often endeavoured to +resemble the French in immorality and duels, and were even then +notorious as awkward imitators of foreign customs. Even before 1618 +most of the western German courts were so devoted to French manners, +that French was considered the elegant language for conversation and +writing. Thus it was in the court of Frederick the Palatine, the winter +king of Bohemia.</p> + +<p class="normal">The cleverest of the nobility, however, sought for fine manners, +pleasures, and office in the courts of the numerous German princes. +After the abdication of Charles V. a jovial life prevailed not only at +the Imperial court, but also in those of the greater princes of the +Empire, above all in Electoral Saxony, Bavaria, Würtemberg, and the +Palatinate. Besides great hunting parties and drinking bouts, there +were also great court festivals; masquerades, knightly exercises, and +prize-shooting had become the fashion, especially at coronations, +marriages, christenings, and visits of ceremony. The old tournaments +were sham fights, fine scenic representations, in which the costume and +the dramatic show were of more importance than the passage of arms +itself. As early as 1570 they were arranged according to the Spanish +custom, when the new fashion of running at the ring was introduced. +Great stages, with mythological and allegorical figures, were drawn in +procession on these occasions. The contending parties appeared in +wonderful attire; they strove together for prizes, as challengers and +knight-errants--<i>manuten adoren</i> and <i>avantureros</i>--or married men +against bachelors, man against man and troop against troop, not +only on horse but on foot But the weapons were blunt, the spears so +prepared that they must break at the weakest shock, and the number +of thrusts and passes which one could make against another was +accurately prescribed. The whole was announced to the spectators by a +cartel--written invitation or challenge: it was printed and posted up, +and explained to the public. Some of these specimens of the composition +of educated people of the court have been preserved to us; for example, +a cartel of 1570, when the Emperor Maximilian II. had assembled a large +circle of nobles around him, in which a necromancer, Zirfeo, announced +that he knew of three worthy heroes enchanted in a mountain,--King +Arthur and his companions, Sigestab the Strong, and Ameylot the +Happy,--whom he would disenchant, and arouse to a struggle against +adventurers. At the festival itself a great wooden structure was +presented to view, which represented a rock with an infernal opening, +ravens flew out of it, devils danced busily round its summit, and +scattered fire about them; at last the magician himself appeared, made +his incantations, the hill opened, the knights sprang up into daylight +in ancient armour, and awaited the foreign combatants, who in equally +strange costume encountered them. Even before 1600, gala days, +including pastoral <i>fêtes</i>, were announced with a flourish by similar +cartels, sometimes in verse, as, after the great war, were the common +village weddings and fairs. These were especially welcome to the +authorities and nobles, because in them etiquette was suspended, and +many opportunities given for free pleasantry and confidential +familiarity.</p> + +<p class="normal">In some courts, as at that of the Anhaltiners, the Landgrave of Hesse, +and the Duke Philip of Pomerania, the nobles had opportunities of +turning their attention to education, and the acquisition of knowledge; +at these courts they began already to take pleasure in the possession +of objects of art. The Emperor Rudolph collected the pictures of Albert +Dürer, and the princes and some of the wealthy nobles around them +collected rare coins, weapons, drinking-cups, and the works of the +goldsmiths of Nüremberg and the cabinet makers of Augsburg. The +patricians of the great Imperial cities, superior in education to the +court nobility, as political agents and managers of the Imperial +princes, were the purveyors of these novelties of art to the German +courts and their cavaliers. It was not an unheard-of thing to find a +courtier who avoided long drinking bouts, and knew how to value a +conversation upon the course of the world; nay, could even compose a +Latin distich, and leave to his heirs a collection of books; and it was +even considered honourable among the better sort to concern themselves +about their households, and to increase, as far as possible, the +revenues of their property.</p> + +<p class="normal">On the whole, the importance of the nobility at court had increased +even before the war, as well as the oppression which they exercised +over their dependent country-people; yet, in an equal degree--nay, +indeed, beyond them--the free strength of the nation irresistibly +developed itself. The new culture of the Reformation period, introduced +by burgher theologians and professors, brought into contempt the +coarseness of the country Junkers. The business affairs of the princes +and their territories, the places in the <i>Kammergericht</i>, the <i>Spruch +Collegien</i>, or (consultative legal boards) of the Universities; indeed +almost the whole administration of justice and government ceased to be +in the hands of the nobles; the greatest opulence and comfort were +introduced into the cities by trade and commerce. Thus, up to the year +1618, the nation was in a fair way to overcome the egotistical +Junkerdom of the Middle Ages, and of putting down pretensions which had +become incompatible with the new life.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was one of the ruinous consequences of the great war, that all this +was changed. It broke the strength of the burgher class, and the +weakness of the nobility was fostered, under the protection which was +secured to it in most of the provinces by the new military discipline +of the princes and, above all, of the Imperial court, to the prejudice +of the masses. As the income of the landed proprietor was diminished, +he drew his chief advantage from the labour of the working peasant. The +families of the country nobility being decimated, the Imperial court +was very ready to procure a new nobility for money. In the course of +the war the captain or colonel had willingly bought with his booty a +letter of nobility and some devastated property. After the peace, these +nobles by patent became a hateful extension of the order. A childish +offensive tuft-hunting, a worship of rank, servility and a greed for +titles and outward distinctions, were now general in the cities. The +commercial cities on the North Sea were those that suffered least, and +those countries most which were immediately dependent on the Imperial +court. It was customary then in Vienna to accost as noblemen all those +who appeared to have a right to social pretensions.</p> + +<p class="normal">Among the mass of privileged persons who now considered themselves as a +peculiar ruling class, in contradistinction to the people, there was +undoubtedly the greatest difference in culture and capacity; but no +injustice is done to many honourable, and some distinguished men, when +the fact is brought forward, that the period from 1650 to 1750, in +which the nobility ruled, and were of most importance, was the worst in +the whole of the long history of Germany.</p> + +<p class="normal">Undoubtedly, in the time of weakness since 1648, a most comfortable +life was led by the wealthy scion of an old family, who possessed large +property, and was protected by old alliances with influential persons +and rulers. His sons gained profitable court appointments, or high +military places; and his daughters, who were well dowered, increased +the circle of his influential "friends." The landed proprietor himself +had served in the army, had travelled to France or Holland, and brought +with him from thence a number of curiosities; arms and painted articles +from the Eastern nations, a hollow ostrich-egg, polished shells, +artistically carved cherry-stones, and painted pottery, or marble limbs +that had been dug up in Italy. He had, perhaps, somewhere favoured a +learned man with his acquaintance, and received from time to time a +ponderous legal treatise, or a volume of poems, with a respectful +letter. He might have visited in his travels the courts of Anhalt or +Weimar, and been created, by letters patent, a poet or author; he was +member of the <i>Frucht-bringende Gesellschaft</i><a name="div2_41" href="#div2Ref_41"><sup>[41]</sup></a> (the Fruit-Producing +Society), had a beautiful medal attached to a silk ribbon, on which his +herb, sage or, mint--or, if he had been sarcastic at court--a radish, +was represented; he bore the surname of "Scarifier," and comforted +himself with the motto--"Sharp and Nutritious;"<a name="div2_42" href="#div2Ref_42"><sup>[42]</sup></a> and he sometimes +wrote letters on the improvement of the German mother tongue, +unfortunately with many French phrases. For his own information he, +with other cavaliers of education, took in, at considerable cost, a +written newspaper, which a well-instructed man in the capital secretly +sent to good customers; for it was revolting to him to read the common, +superficial scribbling of the printed newspapers. He spoke some French, +perhaps also Italian; and if he had been at a University, which did not +frequently happen, he might be able to recite a Latin lucubration. In +this case he was probably commissary of the ruler of the country, a +dignitary of his province; then he had business journeys, and +occasionally negotiations, and he managed, to the best of his power, +what was intrusted to him, with the help of his secretaries. He was +courteous, even to those who were beneath him, and was on good terms +with the citizens. He looked down upon the people with confident +self-complacency; he was, in fact, high bred, and knew right well that +his nobility did not rest on many titles, nor on the knightly ensigns +on his escutcheon; and he smiled at the Lions, Bears, Turks'-heads, and +Wild men, which were painted on the coats of arms, and bestowed by the +heralds' office at Vienna. He regarded with contempt the French +nobility, among whom, through Paris merchants and Italian adventurers, +too much foreign blood had been intermingled; on the Hungarians, who +complacently allowed their nobility to be conferred for a bow and a +chancery fee by the Palatine; on the Danes, whose noblemen had a +monopoly of the cattle trade; and on the Italians, who made unceasing +<i>mésalliances</i>. The fine-gentleman airs, also, of the greater part of +his German equals annoyed him: for even at the meeting of his States he +had frequent contentions for precedence, especially with the prince's +councillors, who were not of the nobility, but wished to assert the +privileges of their rank. If there were citizens and noble councillors +in the same board, to these in the sittings, a higher position and +seniority in office, gave the priority; but at banquets and all +representations, according to Imperial decision, the nobleman, as he +well knew, had the precedence. It was his usual complaint, that the +nobles themselves assumed their titles, armorial bearings, and +dignities, or sought them in foreign countries; also that, whoever had +received the diploma of count or baron from the Imperial chancery, +expected to be called <i>Reichsgräfliche</i> or <i>Reichsfreiherrliche +Gnaden</i>, literally Countly or Baronial Grace, and speaks of himself in +the royal plural.<a name="div2_43" href="#div2Ref_43"><sup>[43]</sup></a> The worthy gentleman still retained some of the +traditions of knighthood; a valiant officer was treated by him with +respect, and he valued arms and horses much. The best adornment of the +walls of his well-built house, besides the great family pictures, were +beautiful weapons, pistols, <i>couteaux-de-chasse</i>, and every kind of +hunting implement. By the side of the flower-garden, kitchen-garden, +and orchard, lay a riding-ground, where were to be found apparatus for +riding at the ring, or for breaking light wooden lances at the +<i>faquin</i>, or <i>quintin</i>, a wooden figure. His horses had still Italian +or French names,--Furioso, Bellarina, &c., for as yet the English blood +had not been introduced; they had been bred from Neapolitan and +Hungarian horses. Turkish nags, as now the pony, were much sought +after; thoroughbred horses bore a comparatively higher price than now, +for the long war had shamefully lowered the breed of horses throughout +Europe. His dog-kennel was well furnished, for, besides bulldogs, he +required hounds, pointers, and terriers; to these influential +companions of his life he also gave high sounding names--Favour, +Rumour, &c. It is true, the chase of the higher game was the right of +his sovereign; but the hateful custom of <i>baiting</i> the game had been +long ago introduced into the country from France. Thus he rode eagerly +with his hounds after hares and foxes, or, by invitation, he +accompanied<a name="div2_44" href="#div2Ref_44"><sup>[44]</sup></a> some great lord deer-hunting, and received visits from +some friendly court official, who had the command of some falcons, +which were flown at crows. In October he was not ashamed of going after +larks, and inspecting the sprynges. He began the day decorously, and +ended it with pleasure; he regularly took an aperient, was bled, and +went to church; he held every week his magisterial or justice days. +After the morning greetings with his family, on leisure days he had his +horses exercised; in the harvest week he rode to the fields, and looked +after the reapers and the inspector. A great portion of his time was +passed in visits which he received or made in the neighbourhood. At his +repast, which took place soon after twelve, game played the principal +part; if he had guests, seven or eight dishes were served generally at +the same time. If conversation took a high flight, politics were +cautiously touched upon, matters of faith very unwillingly; many fine +sentences and maxims were still in vogue with people of the world; it +was considered refined to quote writers of antiquity or elegant French +authors without pedantry; the peculiarities of foreign nations, and +also the curiosities of natural history, as known from reading and +observation, were gladly discussed. It was considered good taste to +inquire the opinions of individuals by turns. Such conversation, even +among cavaliers of the highest quality, would appear to us more formal +and pedantic than what we should meet with now in the society of poor +schoolmasters; but even from this conversation, of which some +accidental specimens remain to us, we may discover, in spite of a +narrow point of view and numerous prejudices, the striving of the time +for enlightenment and understanding of the world. Usually, indeed, the +conversation runs on family stories, compliments, doubtful anecdotes, +and coarse jokes. There was much deep drinking, and only the most +refined withdrew from drinking bouts.</p> + +<p class="normal">Sometimes a social meeting with ladies was arranged in another place, +at an hotel or inn; then each lady provided some dishes, the gentlemen +wine and music. If there was a bath in the neighbourhood, a journey to +it was seldom neglected. Shooting matches were arranged, with appointed +prizes, "the first was, then, an ox or a ram;" the gentlemen shot +either together or with the populace. The dress, also, of the landed +proprietor was splendid; his rank might be recognised from afar, for +the old ordinances respecting dress were still maintained, and a value +was placed upon their wardrobe, both by men and women, which we can now +scarcely comprehend. Before the war no insignificant portion of the +property was vested in velvet and gold embroidery, in rings and jewels; +the greater portion of this was lost, but pleasure in such possessions +remained, and the jewels of the daughter long continued an essential +part of her dowry.</p> + +<p class="normal">Numerous were the members of the household, amongst whom there were +frequently some original characters. Perhaps, besides the tutor, there +might be an old soldier of the great war, addicted to drinking, who +knew how to relate many stories about Torstenson, or Jean de Worth; he +taught the nobleman's son to fence, and "to play with the Banner."<a name="div2_45" href="#div2Ref_45"><sup>[45]</sup></a> +There seldom failed to be a poor relation of the family, who ruled over +the kennel by the title of "Master of the Chase;" the preserver of +mysterious hunting customs, he knew how to charm the gun, and had +greater acquaintance with the infernal night-hunter than the pastor of +the place thought right; he was considered as a trusty piece of old +household furniture, and would assuredly have sacrificed his life +without hesitation for his cousin; but he did not scruple to procure +more wood for the peasant, with whom he drank at the inn, than was +right; and if the old Junker had his <i>couteau-de-chasse</i> ornamented +with silver, the origin of which was doubtful, the landed proprietor +was obliged to wink at it.<a name="div2_46" href="#div2Ref_46"><sup>[46]</sup></a></p> + +<p class="normal">Thus passed the life of a wealthy landowner between 1650 and 1700. It +was perhaps not quite so worthy as it might have been, but it may have +transmitted to the next generation family feeling and kindliness of +heart. Yet it must be observed that it was only a very small minority +of the German nobility who were in so favoured a position in the +seventeenth century.</p> + +<p class="normal">Those who wished to make their fortunes in foreign lands far from their +families, were threatened with other dangers, from which only the most +energetic could escape. The wars in Hungary and Poland, the shameful +struggle against France, and a long residence in Paris, were not +calculated to preserve good morals. The vices of the East, and of the +corrupt court of France were brought by them into Germany. The old love +of quarrelling was not improved by the new cavalier cartel, the +profligate intercourse with peasant women and noble ladies of easy +virtue, became worse by the nightly orgies of fashionable cavaliers, at +which they represented festive processions with mythological +characters, and draped themselves as Dryads, and their ladies as +Venuses and nymphs.<a name="div2_47" href="#div2Ref_47"><sup>[47]</sup></a> The old Landsknecht game of dice was not worse +than the new game of hazard, which became prevalent at the baths and +courts, and which foreign adventurers now added to those of the +country.</p> + +<p class="normal">But there are two more classes of nobles of that period who appear to +us still more strange and grotesque, both numerous, and both in strong +contrast to one another. They were designated as city nobles and +country nobles, and expressed their mutual antipathy by the use of the +ignominious terms <i>Pfeffersäcke</i> and <i>Krippenreiter</i>.<a name="div2_48" href="#div2Ref_48"><sup>[48]</sup></a></p> + +<p class="normal">Vain and restless citizens strove to exalt themselves by acquiring the +Emperor's patent of nobility. These patents had of old been a favourite +source of income to needy German emperors. Wenzel and Sigismund had +unsparingly ennobled traders and persons of equivocal character: in +short, every one who was ready to pay a certain amount of florins. On +the other hand, in 1416, at the Council of Constance, the princes and +nobles of the Rhine, Saxony, Suabia, and Bavaria, had set up their +backs, made a revision of their own circle, and cashiered the +intruders. But the Emperor's patents did not cease on that account. +Charles V. himself, who sometimes looked down on the German lords with +galling irony, and willingly gave to his chancellor and secretaries the +chance of perquisites, had the sad repute "of audaciously raising, for +a few ducats, every salt-boiler to the order of nobility." Still more +business-like were these proceedings under Ferdinand II. and his +successor. For after the Thirty Years' War, not only the living, but +the bones in the graves of their ancestors were ennobled, nay, the dead +ancestors were even declared worthy of being admitted into noble +foundations and to tournaments. At last, after 1648, this traffic of +the Imperial court was carried on to such an extent that the princes +and states at the breaking up of the Imperial Diet of 1654, and a +hundred years later at the election of Charles VII., protested against +the detriment which accrued to their own rights of sovereignty and +revenues from such a privilege. The newly ennobled in the cities were +therefore not to be exempt from the burdens of citizens, and the +possessor of a property by villein tenure was not to be invested with +the privileges attached to a noble estate. In vain did the Imperial +court threaten those with punishment who would not concede the +purchased privileges to its patents of nobility. Those also who were +declared fit for tournaments and noble benefices, were not on that +account received into any knightly order, or noble endowment, nor in +any old noble provincial unions. The noble benefices generally did not +take patents of nobility, as proofs of noble extraction; it was only +the members of old noble families possessing no such patents who were +admissible into these endowments. It was only exceptionally that these +corporations gave way to a high recommendation. Even the court offices, +those of chamberlain, groom of the bed-chamber, equerry, hunting and +other noble pages, were privileges of the old nobility. The patents of +nobility never forgot to celebrate the virtues and the services +rendered both to the prince and commonwealth by the newly ennobled and +his ancestors; but, as a zealous defender of the old nobility +complains, it was too well-known that, in general, it was only for the +"<i>Macherlohn</i>" (pay, for the making) that nobility was given.</p> + +<p class="normal">In the larger cities, which were not the residence of princes, the +position of the nobility was very different. In Hamburg, Lübeck, and +Bremen, the nobles had no political weight; on the other hand, at +Nüremberg, Frankfort-on-the-Maine, Augsburg, and Ulm, the old race of +nobility lived in proud isolation from the rest of the citizens. Worst +of all were the Nürembergers, who considered it even degrading to carry +on commerce. Of two noble societies of Frankfort-on-the-Maine, one, the +house of Alten-Limpurg, required of every member who presented himself +for admission, eight ancestors, and that he should keep out of trade; +the other society, of the house of Frauenstein, consisted mostly of +newly-ennobled merchants "of distinction." In Augsburg, the old +patricians were more indulgent to merchants: he who had married the +child of a patrician family, could be received into the noble society. +The remaining commercial cities of note, Prague and Breslau, were most +amply supplied with newly ennobled merchants. There was bitter +complaint that, under the Emperor Leopold, even a chimney-sweeper, +whose trade was then in particularly low esteem, could for a little +money procure nobility, and that frequently tradesmen, with patents of +nobility in their pockets, might be found packing up herrings for their +customers in old paper.</p> + +<p class="normal">After the Thirty Years' War, officers also sought for patents of +nobility, and they were often granted to them for their services, as +also to the higher officials and members of the city administration in +the larger cities.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was through families who had taken part in the literary and poetical +culture of the time, that patents of nobility in this and the following +century entered into our literary class. Many poets of the Silesian +school, nay, Leibnitz, Wolf, and Haller, were placed among the +privileged of their time by patents of nobility, which they themselves +or their fathers had acquired.</p> + +<p class="normal">Wholesale traders were never esteemed in Germany, nor held in that +consideration by the privileged classes of the people, which the great +interest they frequently represented deserved. They had of old been +mistrusted and disliked; this originated, perhaps, in the time when the +astute Romans exchanged, among the simple children of Tuisko, the +foreign silver coin, for the early products of the country. The feudal +system of the Middle Ages required this disregard of wealth, and not +less so Christianity, which commanded men to despise the riches of this +world, and granted to the wealthy so little prospect of the Kingdom of +Heaven. Since the time of the Hohenstaufen, after the nobles were +constituted as a privileged order, the antagonism between the rich +money-makers of the city and the needy warriors of the country, was +more and more strongly developed. In the Hanse Towns of the north +undoubtedly the warlike merchant obtained dominion and respect by his +armed vessels, even in distant countries. But the rich and highly +cultivated gentlemen of Nüremberg and Augsburg, were scarcely less +distasteful to the people than to the princes and nobles who dwelt in +predatory habits on the frontiers of their domain; it was not the +Fuggers alone who were accused by the Reformers of usury and un-German +feeling. After the Thirty Years' War, this enmity bore new fruit, and +one can easily believe that the great merchants gave no little occasion +to keep alive such antipathy. No human occupation requires such free +competition and such unfettered intercourse as trade. But the whole +tendency of the olden time was to fence in from the outer world, and to +protect individuals by privileges; such a tendency of the time could +not fail to make the merchant hard and reckless; his endeavours to +obtain a monopoly, and to evade senseless laws with respect to the +interest of money, gave the people, frequently with justice, the +feeling that the gains of the merchant were produced by the pressure +they exercised on the consumer. This feeling became particularly +vigorous after the Thirty Years' War. Whilst in Holland and in England +the modern middle classes were pre-eminently strengthened by widely +extended commerce, German commerce--except in the larger sea-port +towns--was prevented from attaining a sound development by the +subdivision of territory, the arbitrary dues, the varying standard of +money, and, not least, by the poverty of the people; on the other hand, +there was constant temptation to every kind of usurious traffic. The +diversity of German coinage, and the unscrupulousness of the rulers, +favoured an endless <i>kipperei</i>: to buy up good coin at an advantage, to +clip gold of full weight, and to bring light money into circulation, +became the most profitable occupation. As now, multifarious +stockjobbing, so then, illegal traffic in coined metal, was to a great +extent the plague of commercial towns. It was not to be exterminated. +If sometimes the scandal became too great, then indeed the governments +tried a blundering interference: but their courts were hoodwinked. +Thus, in Frankfort-on-the-Maine, the clipping of ducats was carried on +to such an extent, that a special commission was sent from Vienna to +the free Imperial city; Jews had been the <i>colporteurs</i> of Christian +commercial houses, among which many great firms, whose names are still +in existence, were the great culprits. The only result was that the +Imperial commissaries pocketed the larger portion of the illicit gains.</p> + +<p class="normal">Such wealth, acquired rapidly, and contrary to law, had, as now, all +the characteristics of an unstable acquisition: it seldom lasted to the +third generation. It turned the culprits into spendthrifts and +pleasure-seekers; their arrogance and deficiency of culture, and their +ostentation, became especially offensive to their own fellow-citizens. +It was more particularly such individuals who bought patents of +nobility; and it was assuredly no accident that, of the numerous noble +families of this kind, many in proportion have become extinct.</p> + +<p class="normal">One of the newly ennobled of such a circle kept his real name in the +firm, but among his fellow-citizens he adhered jealously to the +privileges of his new order. He liked to have his coat of arms carved +in stone and richly gilt on the outside of his large house, but the +stone did not guarantee long duration to its possessor. It was +striking, for example, to observe in Breslau, how quickly the houses on +the great crescent, which then belonged almost exclusively to the new +patent nobles, changed their possessors. In the interior of the house +ostentatious luxury was displayed, which in this period of misery was +doubly grating to the people. The rooms were decorated with costly +carpets, with Venetian mirrors of immense size, with silk hangings and +tapestry, which on festive occasions were fixed on the walls or on a +special framework, and afterwards removed. The women sewed diamond +buckles on their shoes, and it was a subject of complaint that they +would wear no lace that was not brought from Venice or Paris, and did +not cost at least twenty thalers the ell; nay, it was reported of them +that their night utensils were of silver. Great was the number of their +lackeys; their carriages were richly gilt, the coachmen drove from a +high box four horses, which were then harnessed abreast; but when the +splendid equipage rattled through the streets, the people called out +deridingly, "That the pot always tasted of the first soup." The rich +man could well keep fine horses, as he at the same time traded in them; +and the workmen in the business, the porter, carpenter, and apprentice, +were put into the costume of lackeys, but the page who went behind the +lady was generally a child from the poor school. In such houses there +was also the most luxurious living. The invited guest was received with +a formality that was then characteristic of the highly educated; the +host met him on the staircase, and to one of the highest distinction +went even to the house door; verbose were the compliments on receiving +precedence or the higher place at table, and yet the greatest value was +attached to not humbling themselves too much. As soon as they were +seated at table, the buffet was opened, in which was a mass of costly +plate. The dishes were large and the viands in keeping, but out of all +proportion to the number of guests; the most expensive things were +procured, with a refinement that still astonishes us; great pies, +filled with various game, black game, pike liver, and Italian salad. +The pheasants and partridges were caponed and fed, a brace cost as much +as a ducat; it was thought horrible that these spendthrifts gave a +gulden for a fresh herring, and from eight to ten thalers for a hundred +oysters. To these were added the costly wines of the seventeenth +century, Tokay, Canary, Marzenin, Frontignac, Muscat, and finally wine +of Lebanon; at dessert there was no longer marchpane, but candied +citron, the fashionable delicacy. The ladies sat adorned and silent. It +was complained that their principal anxiety in the choice of a husband +was, that their intended should be of rank, that they might follow near +to the corpse at funerals, and have a high place at weddings. On such +occasions they went little short of boxing each other's ears for +precedence. So far was the eagerness for rank carried, that he +considered himself materially better whose new patent of nobility dated +ten years earlier than that of another; and these city nobles +considered fresh creations in nowise their equals. Whoever had been +lately ennobled was only called "Wohledel" (just ennobled), but he who +had for some time been in possession of his patent, was called, +"Hoch-and-edelgeborne Gestrengigkeit" (high and noble-born worship). +Every effort was made to obtain a title in addition to their city +dignity.</p> + +<p class="normal">The military dignities also of the city were often occupied by the +greenhorns of such families; a poor wight who had never been on a +battle-field, with a staff thickly set with silver, with armed jäger +behind him, might be seen passing daily from city gate to city gate, in +order to parade before the people, and to receive the salute of the +guard.</p> + +<p class="normal">Only one thing was required of him, he must know how to handle his +sword, for duels were part of the existence of the nobleman. It was +desirable for him to have been at least once called out by cartel. He +then rode with his second to the nearest village; behind a hedge he +pulled off his riding-boots, put on light fencing shoes, fastened his +long curly hair under his cap,<a name="div2_49" href="#div2Ref_49"><sup>[49]</sup></a> took off his upper garments, and had +to choose one of the rapiers which were presented to him. They fought +in rounds, by cut and thrust, and a well-settled duel never failed to +be followed by a reconciliatory drinking bout. They liked to boast of +such heroic deeds.</p> + +<p class="normal">Such were the "<i>Pfeffersäcke</i>," who were called also by the country +nobles, "<i>Heringsnasen</i>" (flatnoses). This country nobility was of +quite another stamp.</p> + +<p class="normal">They were more numerous two centuries ago than at present. Besides the +family seat, they possessed village-houses, and small farms. Sometimes +a family had increased so much, that in the neighbourhood of an old +estate, many villages were occupied by relatives; and still more +frequently did branches of different families dwell indiscriminately in +a village, in every grade of authority. Even in our century there have +been middle-sized villages, enclosing ten, twelve, and more gentlemen's +seats. In such districts, each little despot exercised dominion over a +few miserable villagers, and had a seigneurial right to a portion of +the village district; but the poorest had no real property, and +sometimes only rented their dwellings. Thus it was in almost all the +provinces of Germany, more especially east of the Elbe, in the +colonised Sclavonian countries; also in Franconia, Thuringia, and +Swabia. Many of the <i>Junkers</i> only differed from the other country +people in their pretensions, and their contempt for field labour. Even +before the war, most of them had been impoverished, and when peace came +at last, they were in still worse plight. War and pestilence had made +havoc among them, and the survivors had not become better. The more +powerful had tried their luck as soldiers and partisans, differing +little sometimes from highway robbers. During the war they had laid +out their booty in the purchase of some small estate, on which they +dwelt, restless and discontented. These fortunate individuals received +frequent visits from old comrades, and then ventured to make raids from +their property on their own account, which seldom ended without +bloodshed. After the war they ceased plundering; but the lawlessness, +the craving for excitement, the restless roving, and the inclination +for wild revelry and quarrels remained in the next generation. They +united themselves into a large company, which, in spite of endless +brawls, continued to hold together, like entangled water-plants on a +marsh. This family connection became a ceaseless plague to the better +disposed, and a misfortune for the whole class; and more than any other +evil retarded, during the following century, the culture, civilisation, +and prosperity of the landed nobility.</p> + +<p class="normal">The sons of these poor landowners learnt to ride, dance, and fence, and +perhaps the first rudiments of Latin from a poor candidate; then, if +the father had connections, they served as pages at some small court, +or to a distinguished nobleman. There they learnt, to a certain extent, +good manners; and, more certainly, the weaknesses and vices of the +higher orders. If they remained some years in noble service they were, +according to old usage, declared capable of bearing arms, and released +as Junkers with a gracious box on the ear. Then they returned to the +parental estate, or the parents sold what they could spare to procure +them an outfit befitting a gentleman, and sent them as aspirants for +subaltern places in the Imperial army. Few of them prospered in the +inglorious wars of that period; most returned home, after some +campaigns, corrupted and poor both in honour and booty, to share with +their sisters the paternal inheritance. Soon they differed little from +the relations who had remained at home.</p> + +<p class="normal">These landowners dwelt in buildings of clay and wood, roofed with straw +or shingles,--a sufficient number of casual descriptions and drawings +have been preserved to us; across the roof lay the great fire-ladders; +the front and back doors of the hall were provided with crossbars for +closing them at night. On the ground-floor was the large sitting-room; +near it the spacious kitchen, which was a warm abode for the servants; +next the sitting-room there was a walled vault, with iron gratings to +the window, and if possible with iron doors, as a protection against +thieves and fire,--whatever valuables a landowner possessed were kept +there, and if a sum of money was deposited there, a special watchman +was placed before the house. Above this vault, in the upper floor, was +the bedroom of the master of the house; there was the marriage-bed, and +there also was a concealed safe, either in the wall or floor, wherein +some plate and the jewellery of the women were kept. The children, the +tutor, and the housekeeper slept in small closets, which could not be +warmed, divided by trellis-work. Sometimes a wooden gallery was +attached to the upper floor, the "little pleasure walk;" there the +linen was dried, the farmyard inspected, and the work of the women +done. The house was under the special care of some old trooper, or poor +cousin, who slept within as watcher. Wild dogs roamed about the +farmyard and round the house during the night; these were specially +intended to guard against beggars and vagrants. But all these measures +of precaution could not entirely hinder the inroads of armed bands. +Even a good-sized estate was an unsatisfactory possession. Most of the +landowners were deeply in debt; ruinous lawsuits, which had begun +during the war, were pending over hearth and hill. The farm was carried +on wretchedly under the superintendence of a poor relation or +untrustworthy bailiff; the farm-buildings were bad and falling into +ruins, and there was no money, and frequently no good wood wherewith to +renew them. For the woods had suffered much from the war; where there +was an opportunity of sale, the foreign commanders had caused large +forests to be felled and sold. In the neighbourhood of fortified places +the stems were employed for fortifications, which then required large +quantities of wood; and after the peace much was felled for the +necessary erection of villages and suburbs. The farm also bore little +produce. Not only teams, but hands, were wanting for the tillage; and +the average price of corn, after the war, was so low that the product +hardly paid for the carriage, and in consequence they kept few horses. +New capital was difficult to acquire; money was dear, and mortgages on +the properties of nobles were not considered an advantageous +investment. They, undoubtedly, gave a certain amount of security; but +the interest was too often irregularly payed, and the capital could not +easily be recovered. The acquisition of mortgaged goods, also, by the +creditor, was possible only in certain cases, and by tedious +proceedings; it was sometimes even dangerous, for the friends and +neighbours of the debtor would threaten the new possessor with their +hatred. In the eastern frontier countries the dissatisfied creditors +endeavoured to indemnify themselves by selling their bonds to Polish +nobles. These procured the money by making reprisals on travellers from +the district of the debtor, and taking the sum from the first comers. +This had, indeed, happened before the great war; and repeated +prohibitions show how much commerce suffered from those deeds of +violence.<a name="div2_50" href="#div2Ref_50"><sup>[50]</sup></a> By such evils even a sensible landed proprietor was soon +easily thrown into a desperate position. A bad harvest, or a mortality +among the cattle, would probably ruin him. But the chief evil was that +a great number had not sense enough to occupy themselves perseveringly +with their farming, and to limit their expenses within the certain +income of the property. Thus few were prosperous. Most of them passed +their lives amidst embarrassments, lawsuits, and endless debts; even +those who had entered on the possession of their property with better +hopes, became at last, like the greater number of those of their own +class, members of the great association which the people nicknamed +"Krippenreiter."</p> + +<p class="normal">These impoverished gentlemen rode in bands from farm to farm; they +invaded the neighbourhood like troublesome parasites whenever a feast +was celebrated, whenever they scented the provisions in the kitchen and +cellar. Woe to the new acquaintance whom they picked up at the houses +of others; they immediately volunteered to accompany him home for a day +or week. Where they had once quartered themselves it was very difficult +to get rid of them. Not select in their intercourse, they drank and +brawled with the peasants at the tavern; when drunk, they would do a +citizen, with a full purse, the honour of receiving him into their +brotherhood. Then kneeling amid broken glasses and flasks, the +brotherhood was sealed, eternal fidelity sworn, and generally, he, was +denounced as the worst scoundrel, who did not preserve unbroken +friendship. Such brotherhood did not, however, prevent a great fight +the very next hour. But, common as they made themselves on these +occasions, they never forgot that they were "wild noblemen of ancient +family." Citizens, and those who had patents of nobility from the +Emperor might, indeed, become brothers. This kind of familiarity was +after the way of the world, but he could not obtain the acknowledgment +of family association conveyed by the terms "uncle" and "cousin;" and +even if allied to them by marriage, he was not admitted to their +relationship unless he were of noble race. Their children went about in +tatters; their wives sometimes collected provisions from relations, and +they themselves trotted over the stubble on shaggy horses, in old +greatcoats, with a bit of carved wood instead of a second pistol in the +old holster. Their usual place of rest was at the village tavern, or, +if they came to a town, in the worst inn. Their language was coarse, +full of stable expressions and oaths. They had adopted many of the +usages of the rogues, both in language and habits; they smelt of +"<i>finckeljochen</i>" (a bad kind of spirit) more than was agreeable to +others. They were, indeed, ragamuffins; and, with all their pugnacity, +without real courage. They were considered the pest of the country, and +those who had anything to lose compared them to bluebottle-flies; more +than once sharp decrees<a name="div2_51" href="#div2Ref_51"><sup>[51]</sup></a> were issued against them by the different +rulers, and even from the Imperial court, but they were, +notwithstanding, haughty and thoroughly aristocratic-minded fellows. +Their genealogy, their escutcheons, and their family connection were to +them the highest things upon earth. Unbounded was the hate and contempt +with which they regarded the rich citizens; they were always ready to +begin a quarrel with the newly ennobled, if they did not give them +their full titles, or presumed to bear a coat of arms similar to their +own.</p> + +<p class="normal">The following account will make us better acquainted with these +fellows, and their mode of intercourse. It carries us to the right bank +of the Oder in Silesia, a corner of Germany where "<i>Krippenreiterei</i>" +was particularly bad. There, according to an old popular jest, the +devil burst the sack when he endeavoured to carry off in the air a +number of "<i>Krippenreiters</i>," and thus emptied out the whole rubbish on +this district.</p> + +<p class="normal">The following description is taken from the narrative entitled "The +Nobleman," written a few years before his death, by Paul Winckler, a +Silesian, political agent and councillor at Breslau of the great +Elector; he died 1686. The narrative was first published after his +death in two editions, and finally at Nüremberg, 1697-8. There is no +great skill or invention in it, but it is the more useful here on that +account. Winckler was a well-educated man of the world, and an eminent +jurist, and his numerous travels and alliances, and accurate knowledge +of the condition of the German landed proprietors, made him +particularly capable of forming a sound judgment. He possessed also +qualities which are not rarely found in a Silesian; he knew how to +accommodate himself easily to the world, was a cheerful companion, +impartial in judgment, and a lively narrator. His being a member of the +"<i>Fruchtbringende</i>," or literary society, probably contributed to keep +alive his interest in German literature, and encouraged him to modest +attempts at authorship. But he was too sensible a man not to regard +with contempt the purist pedantry with which the associates of his +society endeavoured to raise the German poetry. "They sit behind the +kitchen of Parnassus, and satisfy themselves with the odour of the +roast." He was about fifty when he wrote his narrative, confined to his +room by the gout. His object was to point out by a portraiture, what a +right sort of nobleman ought to be; for it had been his fate, +throughout his whole life, to live in business relations and personal +intercourse with the nobles of different provinces. His wife was a +descendant of the poet Von Logau, and he himself was nephew of Andreas +Gryphius. His own experience undoubtedly gave him a peculiarly sharp +eye for the absurdities of the privileged classes, but he was the true +son of his time, and preserved at heart a deep respect for genuine +nobility. His narrative, therefore, is not by any means a satire, +though it has indeed been called so, and the delineations here imparted +give a peculiar impression of being accurate portraits. That which has +been a hindrance to modern narrators who have a moral tendency, has +indeed been the case with him. He has clearly depicted what the nobles +ought not to be; but his good characters fail in sharp outline and +colouring, nay, they become tedious, because he brings forward their +education and principles in lengthy conversations. His narratives may +be compared with the tale Simplicissimus, but in creative power, fancy, +and fulness of detail the Silesian is incomparably inferior. +Grimmelshausen, however, though possessing greater poetic talent, has +an inclination for the strange and fantastic, which reminds one of the +style of the romance writers, and leaves an impression that what is +there represented is not a thoroughly true picture of the time. From +this defect the Silesian is entirely free; he narrates, in a lively and +frank style, what he has himself seen, not much, nothing particular, +but plainly and precisely.</p> + +<p class="normal">The events of the narrative are very simple. The Dutch then held in +German society about the same position in the German courts that was +accorded to Englishmen not long ago, the importance of their nation +being almost equal to a letter of nobility. A rich young Dutchman comes +to Breslau, becomes witness of a duel between one of the new nobles and +a country Junker, hears from his landlord a description of country +life, visits the house of an extravagant "<i>Pfeffersack</i>," is invited by +a young Herr von K., an acquaintance of former times, to a country +seat, gains thereby much knowledge of the "<i>Krippenreiters</i>" from +personal observation, hears an account of an adventure of a Silesian +with an English officer, and passes the rest of the time of his country +visit, in grave but very prosy conversation (in which the author +introduces much of his own views and learning), upon the education of +the soldier, upon the nobles by birth and those risen from trade, upon +the state of politics, and upon the culture of the ancients in +comparison with that of the present day, &c. On his return to Breslau, +the Dutchman learns that the rich merchant who had before invited him +to dinner, had become bankrupt and secretly absconded; his life is then +related, and the hero leaves Breslau. Thus the whole long narrative +contains only five descriptions which would be interesting: two of them +will be given. Some coarse expressions are softened; they are a little +shortened, and the language, only where it appears indispensable, +modernised. First the landlord relates how he studied as the son of a +tailor, then married a wealthy "Kretschmerin" (or landlady), and after +her death, from an unfortunate striving to become great, bought a +patent of nobility in order to settle in the country. He then continues +thus:--</p> + +<p class="normal">"A not very trusty friend advised me to settle in a part of the country +where certainly the noble estate was at a low price, but of which the +income also was small; another friend, it is true, advised me against +this, and pointed out to me what vexations and crosses I should be +exposed to from the '<i>Krippenreiters</i>;' but this did not disturb me, as +I knew I was a match for them with the sword, so I dismissed the useful +warning from my mind. In short, I bought an estate for 6000 thalers, +but soon discovered that I had exposed myself to the lightning, in +avoiding the thunder, and that my good friend with his prophecy had +shot very near the mark. For when I had scarcely half settled myself, a +certain <i>Junker</i>, Vogelbach, with a couple of his associates, were the +first to victimise me, as they call it. He lived about half a mile off; +not that he had any property of his own, for he only rented a peasant's +farm worth about 100 Imperial thalers, and spent his life, like others +of the same sort, in '<i>Krippenreiterei</i>.' How he maintained his wife +and child I know not, but only that I frequently saw his wife with a +cart and two ragged children on the estate of opulent nobles, +collecting corn, bread, cheese, butter, and the like. They generally +came once a month to beg all such articles of me. This Vogelbach was, +as has been mentioned, the first who, with two of his associates, came +to have a 'housewarming.' The first and second time they behaved +themselves with some degree of discretion, wherefore I put before them +what was best in the house. But this, in their opinion, was abundantly +balanced by the honour of the noble brotherhood into which they had +admitted me, and at last they could no longer refrain from their shabby +tricks. 'It would become you, brother <i>Kretschmer</i>,' he began one day +that he had filled himself with beer and brandy up to the eyes. But I +made him remember these words by an unexpected box on the ear in such a +sort that the good fellow was tumbled over into the middle of the room +with his stool. My groom, a robust man who had been a soldier, and whom +I had taken chiefly as a guardian spirit for the like cases of need, +when he saw this, seized the other Junker W. by the collar, so that he +could not stir. 'What,' said he, 'you villain, is it not enough for you +to come here so constantly, to fill your hungry body and to fatten your +meagre carcass? Do you choose to give my master this <i>Deo gratias</i>? The +devil take me if one of you stir; I will so trim his Junker jacket, +that there shall be a blue fringe on his bare back for six weeks.' 'We +have nothing to do with these quarrels,' answered the two; 'if brother +Vogelbach has begun one, he will know how to carry it out like a true +cavalier.' The latter had meanwhile picked himself up, and was about to +seize his sword. 'Keep your miserable blood-drawer in its scabbard,' I +said, 'or I will assuredly stick the broken leg of this stool into you +if you are not satisfied yet.' Thereupon he held his tongue, and went +away with a black eye, accompanied by his noble companions. They +mounted their horses and rode out of the gate. But as soon as they +considered themselves safe, then they began to rail; they nicknamed me +a hundred times a trade-fallen ostler. One of them tried to fire his +pistol, but could not succeed; doubtless because there was neither cock +nor trigger to the lock. At last they perceived that I was coming after +them with half-a-dozen peasants; so they, hastened off, and sent me, +about a fortnight afterwards, all three at the same time, a challenge, +in the belief that I should never have the courage to meet them sword +in hand in the open field; but they found themselves much mistaken.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Being fearful, however, that the whole swarm of surrounding +<i>Krippenreiters</i> would fall upon me, and unite in giving me a good +drubbing, I took with me two troopers who were then in the country, and +in the first pass gave V. such a good cut over the shoulder, that his +sword fell from his hand, which he could no longer use. W. therefore +lost at once all courage, so that on my second fight he was fain to +make peace. No one conducted himself better than Michael von S., whom I +had before considered the most faint-hearted. He fought well enough, +till at last this threefold duel ended thus: the two companions were +reconciled to me, but Vogelbach stipulated to have two more passes on +horseback as soon as his arm should be healed, which, nevertheless, he +has not carried out up to the present day.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Thus I obtained rest from the brawls of '<i>Krippenreiters</i>,' though +there was no diminution of their visits; nevertheless, I soon +experienced a much greater and more costly annoyance. My vendor had not +only cheated me a good deal in the sale itself, but had concealed from +me also an important redeemable interest; besides which, he had not +given up all that was set down in the inventory. So I was obliged to +bring a complaint against him before the government, and to employ an +advocate. It was long beginning I was little disposed to do so; it was +my wish to obtain the daughter of some good citizen with a few thousand +thalers, and thereby to improve my housekeeping. But the false friend +who over-persuaded me to the purchase, advised me to marry no one that +was not of the old nobility, and also in the neighbourhood. 'In the +first place,' said he, 'it is very uncertain whether the gentleman will +meet with a rich party in Breslau, although he has got ennobled. But +further, such city ladies as these have so little knowledge of country +housekeeping that they do not even know a cow or an ox, nor what cheese +or curds are. But the gentleman's household requires a mistress who has +been brought up to it from her youth; such a marriage also is the only +means of forming his children in time into country nobles.' With this +view he proposed a lady of the neighbourhood, and offered himself to be +the wooer. 'She is pretty, a good housekeeper, has some fortune, and is +of old family; it will be impossible for the gentleman to find all that +together in the city.' When I asked him what was the extent of her +means, he boasted that it was 2000 thalers. I certainly doubted this, +even then, as it was so large a marriage dower for the country, that +any baron would have snapped at it; yet I let myself be persuaded at +last, as the lady was not ill-educated, and my new nobility had driven +all sound sense out of my brain. I soon found that the above pretended +2000 thalers sank to 400; even these were pending in a doubtful +lawsuit, which would scarcely leave as much as would amount to the +costs incurred, or as would pay for nuptials suitable to my position. +Nevertheless, in the beginning I loved her on account of her good +looks, and everything was knocked out of my head. As she had brought +with her, however, no jewels, clothes, or other female ornaments, I +inquired once of my lady mother-in-law where the chains, rings, and two +taffeta dresses were, in which I had found my love dressed when I wooed +her. But she answered me with a jeering smile, that if I had got her +only in her shift I ought to be content, and feel thankful that such a +noble family had demeaned itself so far as to give me their child, and +they would still have trouble enough to wipe off this disgrace among +their friends, who would decidedly not have consented to this marriage. +But as concerned the dresses and ornaments, I must know that they had +other daughters to think of and provide for. It was, besides, the +custom in the country to procure a dress and ornaments which might do +for two or three daughters; when one of them was smartly attired, it +was the duty of the others to attend to the housekeeping, or if guests +arrived, to feign illness, and content themselves with bed, till it was +their turn. Therefore I must be satisfied, and if I would not let my +wife appear so as to be a disgrace to me, I should, out of my own +means, provide her with dress and ornaments befitting a noble lady. +Thus all my ready money went, especially as the wedding had cost me +much, for almost the whole province, with their wives, children, +servants, and horses, fastened themselves upon me for a fortnight, and +I could not rid myself of them so long as anything was to be found in +the kitchen and cellar. Also what I procured for my wife was never rich +and costly enough to please her and her mother; they always found some +deficiency, and wished to have everything more perfect.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Nevertheless, I controlled myself, and would have minded no expense, +if I had only gained the smallest thanks for it; but what most pained +me, was to feel that neither my wife nor any of her friends held me in +the slightest consideration. Moreover my dear mother-in-law was a +thoroughly malicious, proud, false woman, and as, according to the root +of the tree, so are the leaves, her daughter followed in her footsteps. +And as on this account I could no longer be fond of her, my groom often +met with more friendly looks than I did. I had no reason to complain of +her relatives not visiting me, for they did so oftener than I liked, +and they did their best to consume all that they found. They thought +that the devil would take them if they called me brother-in-law or +uncle; the brotherhood must be considered all allegorical, and my +mother-in-law took care, that the word 'son' should not escape her +lips, especially if strangers were present. Never were they so +comfortably together as when I was absent at Breslau or elsewhere; then +they had the best opportunity to make themselves jolly at my expense, +and they did so with some wine of which I kept three or four bottles in +my cellaret for myself and my wife, and I found it quite empty when I +returned home. Yet even that might have passed, if they had only not +taken from me the corn from the ground, nay, even the cows and calves +without my knowledge, and conveyed them away secretly for their noble +relatives. But he who receives four thalers, and has to spend six, has +no reason to care for a purse. So that I could easily calculate that in +a short time I should become as good a <i>Krippenreiter</i> as my +neighbours.</p> + +<p class="normal">"But it pleased God to deliver me from this danger by the death of my +beloved, who died in childbirth. Even under these circumstances I had +to undergo a severe storm from my vexatious noble mother-in-law. She +filled heaven and earth with her lamentations over the decease of her +daughter, and wished to persuade all the world that the good woman had +died of grief, that she had not married suitably to her position, and +that it had been her (the mother-in-law's) fault I bore with her folly +for a time, in hopes that the game would some day come to an end; but +at last she broke out still further, and desired to have the ornaments +and dresses I had bought for her daughter, and whatever else she +had in her keeping, for another daughter. I threw at her feet some +rags she had brought with her, and caused the corpse to be placed +in a respectable coffin in the family vault, without inviting the +mother-in-law or any other relations. I then determined to sell the +property at the first good opportunity and betake myself again to the +city.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Sitting one evening thoughtfully at the window, looking at the servant +doing his work, I accidentally observed that some one was at the gate +defending himself with naked sword against the assault of the dog. I +called out to the servant to hold back the dog, whereupon I was +accosted by a well-dressed man with many compliments. 'My lord uncle,' +he said, 'will not take it amiss if, according to knightly fashion, I +do myself the honour of calling on you for a night's lodging in order +to have the honour of making your acquaintance.' 'Not in the least,' I +replied, 'if the noble gentleman will please to be satisfied.' I +invited him in, and as the cavalier was so free with his cousinship, I +could easily perceive that he was not of the neighbourhood. He soon let +me know that he was a free knight of the Empire, from Alsace, and had +been so ruined by the French, that he preferred turning his back upon +his burnt property to submitting to their sway; now he was going to the +Imperial court to seek military service. I could perceive the emptiness +of this braggadocio from his knowing none of the noble families with +whom I had made acquaintance in a former residence in Alsace. Therefore +I dealt cautiously with the fellow, and the good lord and brother of +the Imperial nobility was obliged to be satisfied with a straw mattress +and pillow for his head. When I rose the next morning, I found neither +Junker nor bedclothes, and missed, besides, my sword and pistols, which +I had left in the sitting-room. I forthwith ordered my servants to +mount and pursue him with clubs, and if they found the rascal, to knock +him down and then let him escape, but bring back my things; for I was +convinced that the man was a pickpocket, and that I should gain no +advantage by his capture, but an expensive penal process, and have at +last to pay for his hanging. The servants found him with his booty in +the nearest wood, and executed my orders thoroughly. They brought my +things back, but these cost me dear in the end; for, scarcely four days +after, my place was burnt over my head in the night, without doubt by +this rascal, so that I could hardly save the dwelling-house, but was +obliged to look on at the destruction of the barns and stables, which +with corn and cattle were burnt to the ground.</p> + +<p class="normal">"This misfortune disgusted me so with country life, that I only built a +couple of stalls for the remaining cattle, and shortly afterwards sold +for 4000 thalers the property for which I had given 6000. After that I +betook myself to the city."</p> + +<p class="normal">Such is the narrative of the country householder to the young Dutchman. +A few days after, the stranger had an opportunity himself of observing +the life of an impoverished Silesian country noble. A young Herr von +K., an educated and travelled cavalier, invited him to the property of +his parents, and asked him to take a ride with him from thence to a +neighbouring property where a christening was to be celebrated. The +Herr von K. begged our hero to consent to allow himself to be +introduced as a major in the Dutch service, "For I know," he said, +"that otherwise these noble peasants will have no scruple in giving you +the last place, and will show you no consideration, in spite of your +superior education, and although, without impoverishing yourself, you +might easily buy the whole of their property put together." What the +Dutchman then observed he relates as follows:--</p> + +<p class="normal">"The entertainment was of such a nature that there was no danger of the +table breaking down under the weight of the dishes: a good dish of +small fish with onion sauce, calf's head and trimmings, the whole +interior of a pig in as many various dishes as there were parts, a +couple of geese, and two hares; besides this, such rough watery beer, +that one was soon obliged to have recourse to not much better brandy. +In spite of this the society, which consisted of some twenty persons, +was right merry, and the ladies more lively than the affected +mercantile ladies of the city nobility. When the table was removed, a +portion of the cavaliers danced about merrily to a couple of fiddles, +and the room was filled with the fumes of tobacco. Then Frau von K. +began, 'I have taken a fancy for this foreign cavalier, and have hopes +that my son, who is also an officer, will be as much loved and esteemed +in other places.' Frau Ilse von der B. answered, 'I, dear and honoured +sister, am quite of another opinion. I could never exercise such +tyranny on those belonging to me as to thrust them among these fierce +soldiers, for I hear that they sometimes fare badly enough--have no +warm beds for many nights, and besides, have no one to make them a mug +of warm beer or bring them a glass of brandy. If I should hear that my +son had been devoured by a long-necked Tartar, such as I have lately +seen painted at Kretschem, I should be choked with grief. Therefore, I +have thought it better to maintain my Junker Hans Christoph as well as +I can on our little property at home. I must acknowledge that he has +already cost me more than enough; for when I fitted him out as became a +noble, my two best cows went, and I have not been able to replace the +loss. But what does that matter; I see with pleasure that he knows how +to behave himself like a nobleman. Only see, dear honoured sister, does +he not dance nimbly, and hasn't he got a capital knack of whirling +round with the ladies; he does not refuse to drink a glass of beer or +brandy with any one; tobacco is his only pleasure in life; in all +societies he makes himself so agreeable, that he sometimes does not +come home for three weeks, possibly with a black eye. From that I can +quite believe that he lays about him, and defends himself valiantly +like a cavalier. Such also shall my Junker Martin Andres become.' The +Junker who was standing by her, laid his head on the lap of his dear +mother. 'The wild lad knows already that he is a Junker, therefore he +does not desire to learn, but prefers riding in the fields with the +young horsemen; he has already got into his head that he must wear a +sword. This is a new anxiety to me, for I well know that in the end it +will cost me a horse, and without special help from God, I shall have +to part with a couple more cows. I must, however, buy him an alphabet, +for his father always wished him to become a thorough scholar, as he +himself was. Yes, if it cost nothing, and it were not necessary to buy +so many expensive books for the learned lad, it would delight me. My +eyes run with tears when I think how beautifully his honoured father +said grace after meals, and did it as well as the pastor; also how he +once recited before the prince, for a whole half hour, something, I +know not what, in pure Latin. One thing pleases me much in my Martin +Andres, that he has such a subtle, reflecting head. He himself +suggested to me to help him sometimes to gain money, by allowing him to +keep the redemption money for the stray cattle impounded on my fields. +He is so intent upon this that he lurks the whole day in the corn to +catch a couple of pigs or the like, whereby he has already gained as +much as half a thaler. But, nevertheless, if I only knew for certain +that my Junker Hans Christoph would prosper in this war business, like +your noble sons, honoured sister, I would not let another year pass +without endeavouring to persuade him to go. If he would but become for +certain an officer or a baron, and obtain a rich wife. She, however, to +suit me, must be of true, real, noble blood, for otherwise, I swear she +should never be permitted to appear before me, even though she were up +to her ears in gold. And who knows, dear honoured sister? I have all my +life long heard that in other countries the nobility are not so good as +with us, and that in Holland, from whence this officer comes, the women +are driven to the market naked as God has created them, just like the +cows. For my deceased honoured mother's sister, the dear Frau Grete von +T. lived to see her son devil-ridden, and he brought home just such a +wild woman. This so grieved her that she did not live much longer, and +she could not be persuaded to see this wild woman more than once. But +to return to my son. Junker Hans Christoph, if it should so happen that +he were not sent among the Tartars, nor obliged to be a sentinel, I +would try to persuade my old maid, who altogether reared and waited +upon him, to accompany him for a year, and look after him, to wash his +shirts and keep his head clean, and I would provide for her by sowing a +half peck of flax seed on her account.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"The Frau von K. would, probably have given a good answer to this +nonsense, if she had not been led off to dance by Herr von K. Thus she +left the old lady alone, with whom the Junker Vogelbach, who was +present, and had a tobacco-pipe of a finger's length in his mouth, held +this discourse:--'How are you--how fares it with you, my honoured and +dear cousin? I observe that you rejoice to see Junker Hans Christoph +enjoy himself. My word for it, he is an honest lad; I could have wished +that he had been with me some days ago, when I had a tussle with a +'Peppersack' of Breslau; he would have seen with wonder how I +belaboured the fellow; he had to beg for life, and afterwards to give a +stately banquet in the best style to me and my seconds, at which we so +enjoyed ourselves, that the good wine flowed like a river.' To this the +old lady Von der B. replied: 'It is truly to your honour that, for the +sake of a drinking bout, you make yourself so common with the citizens; +and, above all, you, Junker Martin Heinrich, who are always hankering +after wine, if only you can catch a glass, you drink in brotherhood +with all sorts of people, be they citizens or nobles. Yes, you, indeed, +as I have heard, call these Peppersacks uncle or cousin. If I could be +sure of this, I swear that all my life long I will never call you +cousin. Tell me, what is that scar you have on your forehead? Without +doubt you have got it in another quarrel with them. That would do well +enough if you would only not mix with the citizens.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'Do you take me for a fool,' said Junker Vogelbach, 'that I should +call these fellows uncle or cousin, though the Emperor should have +given them ever so grand a patent? Brother is well enough, so long as +they give good wine; but we say, henceforth we will let the knaves +alone.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"Meanwhile the guests made themselves merry with tobacco, drinking, and +varied converse, during which the Dutchman remarked, that, of the two +tolerably well educated daughters of the host, one only was to be seen +at a time at the dance, and each was dressed from head to foot the same +as the other; from which he concluded that these good maidens were +obliged to content themselves with one and the same dress, and that +whilst one danced in the room, the other, who had retired, had to wait +patiently without till her turn came again. 'Are not those dear +children?' said their mother, who had seated herself with the other +ladies, to Frau von der B.; 'they do all in so noble and suitable a +style, it does my heart good to see how everything becomes them. If the +Peppersacks in the city were to hang ever so much finery about them, +the citizen would still peep out.' 'You say rightly,' said the other; +'my heart leaps within me when I see these city people swagger about in +such fine dresses and ornaments, in their gilded carriages. Think I to +myself, be as ostentatious as you will, were you every day, even to +drink pearls instead of your best wine, you are still citizens, will +remain citizens, and can never become equal to us.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"Amidst such woman's prattle, laughing, shouting, dancing, and jumping, +the night wore away, and as Von K. could well anticipate, that this +entertainment would be concluded with the usual brawls and quarrels, he +gave our Dutchman a wink, and retired with him to the house of a +peasant of his acquaintance, where they passed the night on straw. The +groom of the Herr von K. awoke them the following morning, saying, if +they desired to witness a three-fold fight, in which Vogelbach would be +the most distinguished combatant, they must rise quickly and betake +themselves to a spot near the village, on the Polish frontier. Neither +of them having any desire to do so, Von K., who felt ashamed that +his countrymen were such ragamuffins, made a sign to his groom to +be silent; they then mounted, and rode away conversing together +pleasantly."</p> + +<p class="normal">Here we conclude the narrative of Paul Winckler. About the year 1700, +the habits of the country nobles became more civilised, their life more +comfortable, and the bands of <i>Krippenreiters</i> became rarer. Still, +however, individuals were sometimes tempted to defy the weak laws of +the country, and repeatedly did the governments exert themselves +against the cunning and violence by which unlawful possession was taken +of the property of the deceased. Still did the greater part of the +country nobles suffer from the burden of mortgages; frequent were the +complaints about the rashness with which they were given and sold; and, +as it is usually the custom to cheat in drawing up such mortgage-deeds, +they far exceeded the value of the estate. Under these circumstances, +there were everywhere legal auctions, where they were not prevented by +feudal tenure or family regulations; only too frequently were the wax +lights again seen burning, which, according to old custom, were burnt +on the morning of an auction, and the duration of their flame marked +the time during which the bidding of those who were desirous to +purchase would be accepted.<a name="div2_52" href="#div2Ref_52"><sup>[52]</sup></a></p> + +<p class="normal">In most of the districts of Germany the acquisition of a nobleman's +estate depended on the <i>Ritterrecht</i>, or laws and usages prevalent +among the nobility in that district. Undoubtedly this custom was not in +accordance with common law, but almost everywhere the noble proprietors +of the district formed a powerful corporation, which excluded those who +were not noble from the fall enjoyment of seigneurial rights of +<i>Standschaft</i>, and from their assemblies. Even where those who were not +noble were capable of holding a fief, they were so only under +limitations. Sometimes the citizens of certain privileged cities had +the right of acquiring the properties of noblemen, but this expired as +soon as they ceased to belong to the favoured city. An exception, also, +was sometimes made in favour of the city councillors forming part of +the government of the country, and members of the universities. But the +general rule was that those not noble, could only occupy a property as +a mortgage, not with seigneurial rights as a possession. Even those who +had been ennobled were not free to acquire a nobleman's estate as a +possession; it required the consent of the rulers of the country or of +the noble States. In the Imperial hereditary provinces this right could +only be obtained by those noblemen who were raised to some rank of the +higher nobility; and even then this right had to be purchased in each +individual case, and from the sovereign ruler, and secured by a +diploma. The Emperor endeavoured to obtain money even from the old +families by obliging them to renew this right by the purchase of a +general diploma for all their members.</p> + +<p class="normal">But the Imperial Court imposed other limitations, dividing, up to the +most modern times, the last escutcheon of its nobility into <i>Edle</i>, +nobles, <i>Herren</i>, gentlemen, and <i>Ritter</i>, knights. Whoever was +transferred from the order of citizens to that of nobles or knights, +could not be buried with mourning horses and escutcheons if he +continued his vocation as a citizen. And so far did Imperial +administration reach, that even in 1716 a noble lady was forbidden to +marry a Lutheran ecclesiastic, because that would be unbecoming a +noble.<a name="div2_53" href="#div2Ref_53"><sup>[53]</sup></a></p> + +<p class="normal">But the approach of a new time may be clearly perceived, soon after +1700, in the life of the noble, as well as that of the peasant. It +consisted in a better tone of feeling, both as head of a household and +as a landed proprietor. A new literature started up suddenly, large and +copious compilations, in which were introduced systematically the +duties and secrets of agriculture, husbandry, and housekeeping; also of +domestic and gentlemanlike education and training; they are respectable +folios, handsomely bound and adorned with copper-plates, and it was +considered meritorious to educate yourself from them. In 1682, von +Hochberg had already dedicated his "Country Life of the Noble" to the +landed proprietors of Upper Austria Soon after, the Count Palatine, +Franz Philipp, under the name of Florinus, wrote a similar work, "To +the Prudent Householder versed in the Law." Already, in Holstein, and +soon after in Mecklenburg, the system of double rotation was introduced +on the properties of the nobility. At the same time there was in most +of the wealthy old families an increasing interest in art and science; +it was thought becoming to have some historical and legal knowledge, to +be acquainted with family traditions, and well versed in the aids to +history, numismatics, and heraldry. The wives of the country nobles +were benefitted by the deeper earnestness of the new pietism, and also, +after 1700, from the sensible, sober character of the new culture. They +were so often told that it was praiseworthy for a lady of rank to +concern herself about her household affairs, and to bring up her +children as Christian gentlemen in the fear of God, that one may well +believe that these views entered into their daily life. About 1750, a +travelled nobleman describes with pleasure what the daily work of the +housewife ought to be. Indeed, a nobleman, in the middle of the last +century, who lived peaceably on his property, and was tolerably +wealthy, had a right to consider himself as one of the most fortunate +representatives of his time. He lived uprightly, concerned himself +about the great world no more than was necessary, lived in familiar +family intercourse with the whole nobility of the neighbourhood, was +only occasionally tipsy, reared his foals, sold his wool, and disputed +with his pastor; by moderate strictness he got on tolerably well with +his villeins, and had but rarely a suspicion how detrimental even to +himself was the servitude of his labourers. If an old family was in +danger of becoming impoverished, they were advised by the +aforementioned zealous and well-meaning coadjutor of the noble, to +marry with a rich heiress of the respectable citizen class, in case of +necessity the family of the lady might be ennobled, and provided with +ancestors on both father's and mother's side; the business, it is true, +caused a small blot on their escutcheons, but it would be folly to +regard that much.</p> + +<p class="normal">But the old families were saved from sinking again into the people by +numerous lucrative privileges. Very large was the number of benefices +and prebends, and of sinecures in the cathedral church, in the orders +of Malta and St. John, and in the monasteries of the nobles and other +ecclesiastical endowments; and there was hardly an old family that had +not some connection with them. Very general was the feeling among the +nobility, that the Roman Catholic nobles were better off, because they +could more easily provide for their sons and daughters; whilst the +Protestant princes had seized most of the foundations. With pride, +therefore, did the so-called knights of the Empire in Franconia, +Swabia, and on the Rhine, look down upon the landed nobility; the +Imperial capitulation not only assured them privileges, dignity, and +greatness, but they were also closely united with the ecclesiastical +princes and the foundations in their territories, and their families +lived, with almost heritable right, to numerous ecclesiastical +benefices. But, unfortunately, this support had not the effect of +ensuring lasting prosperity to their families; nay, it was a chief +cause of many becoming impoverished and corrupted in their isolation.</p> + +<p class="normal">But still more fatal to the lower nobility was a privilege to which, +even in the present day, they cling fast as a valuable advantage, and +the lowering effect of which is not confined to them,--their right of +admittance at court. The principle that any of the old nobility must +have free access at court, and that it was not befitting a prince to +have social intercourse in any other circle, acquired great importance +after the year 1700. At this period the German courts gradually +developed the tendencies which they have maintained up to the present +day. The Imperial Court, and that of Louis XIV., were the pattern; but, +at the same time, old home usages were continued at particular courts. +Ever greater became the number of court appointments; needy princes +even sold them for money.<a name="div2_54" href="#div2Ref_54"><sup>[54]</sup></a> The lord steward was over the whole +court. There was a marshal, called "<i>Hofmarschall</i>" who had charge of +the royal household; on occasions of ceremony he marched in front, with +his gold staff and keys, and at the festive table he stepped behind the +chair of his gracious sovereign as soon as the confectionery was +served. The lord high-chamberlain really superintended the wardrobe of +his royal master; sometimes with the advice of the royal lady, his +wife, and distributed the cast-off clothes, not only to the valet, but +to poor cavaliers.<a name="div2_55" href="#div2Ref_55"><sup>[55]</sup></a> His office also was important, for the costumes +at most of the courts were numerous and various; it was only at the +Prussian Court, and those connected with it, that the simple military +coat of home-made cloth was the usual dress. Elsewhere, not only the +gala dresses, but also the special costumes and fancy dresses for the +high festivals, were subjects for great consideration, and it was no +trifle for the chamberlain to ascertain accurately how the wardrobe at +the different entertainments should be fittingly arranged; as when, for +example, at the Turkish garden near Dresden the whole court appeared as +Mussulmen, or when an extraordinary coronation dress was to be +invented, as for the Elector Friedrich August of Saxony at the +coronation at Cracow.<a name="div2_56" href="#div2Ref_56"><sup>[56]</sup></a> Even the stable became noble; it was under +the master of the horse, as the hunt was under the grandmaster of the +chase. As ceremonial had become the peculiar science of court, it was +represented at most of the great courts by a grandmaster of the +ceremonies. None watched more jealously than the princes themselves the +marks of honour which they were to give and receive at visits; if on a +visit sufficient respect was not shown to them, they rode away in +anger, and threatened reprisals. Endless, therefore, were the +complaints and grievances laid before the Emperor and Aulic Council; +and yet this jealous watch over externals was not the result of +self-respect, for in dealing with the powerful they were but too +deficient in this. Regulations concerning precedence were always being +renewed; almost every new ruler had pleasure in thus showing his +supremacy, but, in spite of all ordinances, the disputes about rank, +offices, and titles were endless--worse than the men, were the ladies. +In 1750, at one of the royal courts, all the ladies of the nobility +left their places in church because the daughter of one of the newly +ennobled officials--a "<i>wirklichen Geheimerath</i>"--sought for a place in +their choir.</p> + +<p class="normal">This wide sphere of trifling interests gave great importance to the +nobility, calculating from the Imperial Court at Vienna down to the +household of the baron of the Empire, who always maintained one or more +poor <i>Junkers</i> in his circle; together with the collateral and lateral +branches of the greater families, it might be estimated that there were +somewhere about 5 or 600 court households in Germany, besides 1500 +households of "Knights of the Empire;" so that, undoubtedly, there were +more than 5000 court offices and employments. The enormous number of +these court places was not advantageous to the manly character of the +noble. To be able to endure with smiles the humours and roughness of an +unbridled sovereign, to be complaisant as the pliant servant of the +despot's licentious desires, and of the mistresses' establishment, was +not the worst effect. He was in imminent danger of becoming so base +that the coarseness of the poor <i>Krippenreiter</i> appeared comparatively +virtuous. It was a period when the noble mother gave her daughter with +pleasure into the arms of the profligate prince; and when the courtier +gave up his wife to him for money. And it was not only done by poor +nobles, but also by the offshoots of royal houses. The nobles in some +German provinces took the opportunity of practising similar +complaisance, even in our century, towards Napoleon's princes and +marshals. But the worst was that the great mass of the court nobility +drew also the families of landed proprietors, who were related to them, +to their residences. Sensible men were never weary of complaining that +the country nobles no longer dwelt on their properties to the great +damage of their coffers and morals; but thronged to the neighbourhood +of the princes to ruin themselves, their wives and daughters in the +pestilential atmosphere of the court. But these were fruitless warnings +in the greater part of Germany till the middle of the eighteenth +century.</p> + +<p class="normal">Those who had more manly ambition filled civil or military offices. +There was a peculiar aspect, also, about these nobles that bore office. +If the son of an old family studied law, he easily gained by his family +connection the situation of councillor; and rose from thence, if clever +and well informed, to the highest offices, even to be <i>de facto</i> a +ruler of states, or political agent and ambassador at foreign courts. +Besides divers rogues who were drawn forth in these bad times, there +were also some men of education, worth, and capacity, among the German +nobility of this class, who already in the time of Leibnitz formed the +real aristocracy of the order. It became gradually customary for nobles +to occupy the highest official positions and the posts of ambassadors, +after they had become an established court institution; also the +appointments of officers in the army. Whilst the Imperial armies, to +which the young nobles from the greater part of Germany were attracted, +retained, even after the reforms of Prince Eugene, somewhat of the +aspect of the old Landsknecht army under the Hohenzollerns; the new +organization of the Prussian army formed the ground-work of an +excellent education for the officers. The Elector Frederic William had +perceived that the wild country nobles of his devastated realm could be +best turned to account in the army which he created amid the roar of +cannon in the Thirty Years' War. He restrained their love of brawls by +military discipline; regulated their rude sense of honour by <i>esprit de +corps</i> and military laws; and gave them the feeling of being in a +privileged position, by raising none but nobles to the rank of +officers. Thus was effected one of the most remarkable changes in the +civilization of the eighteenth century, especially when King Frederic +William I. and Frederic II. had so emphatically declared that every +prince of the Hohenzollern house must be both soldier and officer, wear +the same coat, be under the same subordination and the same law of +honour as the most insignificant <i>Junker</i> from the country.</p> + +<p class="normal">Thus it happened that the descendants of many families that had lived +as drones in the Commonwealth became closely bound up with the fondest +recollections of the people. But this political privilege of the +nobility became, it is true, even in the State of the Hohenzollerns, a +source of new danger to the families of the nobility, and, which was +still more important, to the State itself. We shall have occasion to +speak of this later.</p> + +<p class="normal">Thus the nobility, about 1750, were at their highest point--everywhere +the ruling class. Thousands of their sons did homage, in both the great +and small courts; scarcely a less number established themselves in the +stalls of ecclesiastical endowments, occupied prebends and carried +Imperial "<i>panisbriefs</i>"<a name="div2_57" href="#div2Ref_57"><sup>[57]</sup></a> in their pockets. The softest seats in the +senate, the foremost places in the State carriages of diplomats, were +taken by them; almost the whole of the State domains were in their +hands. But it was just at this period that a great change took place in +the minds of the German people; a new culture arose, and new views of +the value of the things of this world spread themselves, quietly, +gradually, imperceptibly, no one knew how or from whence. The German +sentences received a new cadence; German verses became less majestic, +and soon even simple. This new seeking after simplicity spread still +further. Certain bold enthusiasts ventured to despise powder, and +perukes; this was contrary to all etiquette, but new ideas and new +feelings came into circulation. Beautiful tender hearts, and the +dignity of man were spoken of. Soon, also, distinguished personages +among the nobility caught the infection, even Sovereigns; the Duchess +of Weimar went with a certain Wieland in a carrier's cart; two +<i>Reichsgrafen</i> von Stolborg were not disinclined to bend the knee to +one Klopstock, and embraced by moonlight the citizen students.</p> + +<p class="normal">Among the <i>bel-esprits</i> of the citizens who now gained an influence, +none was more adapted to reconcile the nobles to the new times than +Gellert. He was not genial: he knew well what was due to every one, and +he gave every one his proper place; he had a refined, modest +disposition, but was rather a pessimist; he was very respectable, and +had a mild and benevolent demeanour towards both ladies and gentlemen. +Great was the influence that he exercised over the country nobles of +Upper Saxony, Thuringia, and Lower Germany. The culture of the new time +soon got a footing in these families. The ladies especially opened +their hearts to the new feeling for literature, and many of them became +proud of being patronesses of the beautiful art of poetry, whilst the +gentlemen still looked distrustfully on the new state of things. As in +Germany, poetry had the wonderful effect of bringing the nobility into +unprecedented union with the citizen class, so at the same time in +Austria, music had for a time a similar effect.</p> + +<p class="normal">But there were greater results than the mere poetical emotions with +which Kalb, Stein, and the loveable Lengfelds received the German +poets. Science now began to speak more earnestly and more powerfully. +What she commended or condemned became, as if by magic, among hundreds +of thousands, the law of life or the object of aversion. Not many years +after 1750, in a wide circle of highly cultivated minds, which included +the most vigorous of the burgher class, together with the noblest +spirits among the nobility, the privileges which gave the nobles a +position among the people, were considered as obsolete; and the State +ordinances which preserved them were regarded with coldness and +contempt.</p> + +<p class="normal">Again there came a stern period; the noble generals of the Prussian +army could not maintain the State edifice of the old Hohenzollerns; +they were the first to give up the State of Frederick the Great, and +pusillanimously to surrender the Prussian fortresses to a foreign +enemy. One of the necessary conditions for the preservation and +restoration of Prussia and Germany was, that the nobility must renounce +their valued privileges in civil offices, and officers' appointment.</p> + +<p class="normal">Since the rising of the people in 1813, the life and prosperity of the +State has mainly rested on the power and progress of culture in the +German citizen. The citizens are no longer, as in the middle ages, a +class confronting the other classes; they form the nation. Whoever +would place himself in opposition to it by egotistical pretensions, +begins a hopeless struggle. All the privileges by which the nobility up +to the present day have sought to maintain a separate position among +the people, have become a misfortune and fatality to themselves. Many +of the best among them have long comprehended this; they are in every +domain of intellectual and material interests, in art, science, and +State, the representatives of the new life of the nation. Even the +country noble, who within the boundary of his village district holds +faithfully and lovingly to the recollections of the olden time, has in +some degree made friends with the new time, and in some sort yielded +unwillingly to its demands. But among the weaker of them there remains +even now somewhat of the hearty disposition of the old mounted rovers. +The modern <i>Junker</i> is an unfavourable caricature of the nobility; if +one observes closely, he is only a pretentious continuation of the old +Krippenreiter. Under uniforms and decorations are concealed the same +hatred of the culture of the times, the same prejudices, the same +arrogance, the same grotesque respect for decaying privileges, and the +same rough egotism with regard to the commonwealth. Not a few of +these court and country nobles still consider the State like the full +store-room of a neighbour, as their ancestors did two centuries ago; +against these rise the hatred and contempt of the people.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER III.</h2> +<br> +<h3>THE CITIZEN AND HIS SHOOTING FESTIVALS.</h3> +<h4>(1300-1800.)</h4> +<br> + +<p class="normal">It is on the simple truth, that every man is only valuable to his +nation and State in proportion to his work, that the power and pride of +citizenship rests; that is to say, in so far as he contributes to the +welfare of others. But eighteen hundred years were necessary to +establish this principle, and to make it perceptible to Germans, and +still does the struggle continue to realize it, to introduce into the +cities free competition instead of the corporate privileges of guilds, +and into the State the right of personal character against the rights +of birth. And yet it is only since this truth has penetrated into +society, morals and legislature, that a sure, and as far as man can +judge, indestructible foundation has been formed for the vitality of +the nation. So slow has been the progress here of modern development.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was from the capacity and the pride of the working citizen that the +conviction arose in the German mind of the value of work. It first made +the serf a free labourer of the commonalty; then it created a wealthy +citizen class which spread itself firmly between the other classes; +then it helped to add science to the mechanical labour and art of the +citizen, and thus made him the representative of intellect, the +guardian of civilisation, and the centre of the national strength. By +this he ceased to be one of a class, and formed the essential element +of the nation.</p> + +<p class="normal">Nothing is more instructive than to observe the way in which the power +of the German citizen became effective. However great was the industry, +and however much developed the technical skill of handicraft under the +Roman supremacy, the collective industrial activity lay under the ban +of disregard. In the cities indeed at the beginning of the great +migration, the remains of a sumptuous life still continued amidst +marble columns and the vaulted halls of costly baths; and the guilds of +the old handicrafts, with their chapels and exchanges were not only the +casual forerunners of the later guilds of the middle ages, but perhaps +their real progenitors, from whom the Germans acquired numerous +handicraft implements and technical dexterities; nay, even many noble +customs. But a great portion of the handicraft of antiquity was not the +work of freemen: at least where anything of the nature of manufactures +paid well, slave labour increased. Nevertheless, many freed men entered +the old guilds; having been furnished by their masters with a small +capital, they bought themselves into a Roman corporation: but it must +be observed, that not only was such handicraft held to a certain degree +in contempt by the full citizens up to the latest time, but the +artizans, according to Roman tradition, were allowed little share in +the government of the city; they had, together with undeniable local +patriotism, a deficiency of the political culture, the self-respect, +and the capacity of self-defence of free-born citizens.</p> + +<p class="normal">Even among the ancient Germans, who came with the great migration, +manual labour was not considered the most honourable occupation of the +warrior; the poor alone used to cultivate the fields or to forge +weapons at the smithy; long did the feeling remain, that there was less +honour in earning money than in taking the property of others, in the +shape of imposts or booty. Under such a condition of insecurity and +violence did the cities arise. They were surrounded by strong walls, +and shut out from the country, as once were the cities of old Latium; +they were the refuge of oppressed country people, not only from the +incursions of enemies, but also from the numerous small tyrants of the +open country. For centuries they were governed by privileged free-born +citizens, merchants, and speculators, similar to the Roman Empire; but +under the patricians, the guilds were strengthened in the course of +long and often bloody struggles within the walls; they acquired a share +in the government, with essentially equal rights and equal duties. As a +free man capable of bearing arms, the German citizen found that he +could obtain riches, consideration, and affluence by means of his +handicraft and his art. At the end of the middle ages, it became clear +that the intellectual life of Germany had taken root in the cities.</p> + +<p class="normal">Undoubtedly handicraft was under different conditions to what it is +now. Whilst the common produce of individual mechanical labour was +accurately defined in respect to material, form, and price, and the +creative energy of individuals was entirely restrained by the +traditions of their city and guild, a creative tendency appeared in all +that required more delicate handling. The painter still rubbed his +colours himself, and melted the varnish, but he also carved in wood, +and engraved copper-plates. Albert Dürer still sold in the market +stalls picture sheets with woodcuts, for which perhaps he himself made +the letter-press, Whilst the arrangements of houses and churches +frequently remained fixed, even in respect to size, in all fundamental +points, the countless and often too florid details of the arabesques in +the stonework showed the inward satisfaction with which the builder, +when permitted the free exercise of his own fancy, followed the impulse +to give expression to his own mind. The goldsmith was also designer and +modeller; he took pleasure in making every article of value a work of +art, into which he threw his whole soul. But it was just this union of +restrictive tradition and free invention which was so beneficial to the +handicraft of the cities, developing everywhere greater wealth, higher +morality and culture. Throughout the whole country the cities became +like the knots of a net of free societies, to which the gentry of the +rural districts, far behindhand in civilisation, were in constant +hostility. Long did an active hatred continue betwixt the money-getting +citizen and the predatory landed proprietor; and on both sides there +was bitter animosity. It is true that the noble order of Landowners +were held in greater consideration; they were sustained by the pride of +noble blood and of military skill, and by a multitude of prerogatives +and privileges; but in fact the money-making citizen had already +acquired the best rights, for so completely did he engross the whole +culture and wealth of his time, that without him the country would have +relapsed into barbarism.</p> + +<p class="normal">Thus he became the aid of the Reformation, and the victim of the Thirty +Years' War. But even after the devastation of that period, he, the weak +and impoverished artizan of the city, felt himself a privileged man, +whose prosperity depended on the superior rights he possessed. He +endeavoured carefully to guard against strangers the privileges of his +guild, of his patrician chamber, and of his community; he was only +helpless in his relations with his sovereign. He was still an order in +the new state, from which other orders were excluded. His work had lost +much of its excellence, and this weakness has lasted up to the present +day. Not only were trade and commerce impeded, but the technical skill +of most of the artizans became less. Wood carvings and painted glass +had almost perished, the arts of stone and wood carving were at the +lowest ebb, and the houses were built small, tasteless, and bare. +Printing and paper, which the small printing presses had deteriorated +already before the war, continue poor even in our century. Equally so +were the arts of the metal workers, goldsmiths, and armourers. The +works of the cabinet-maker alone maintained their excellence through +the rococco time, though even the <i>chef d'œuvres</i> of the celebrated +Meister von Neuwied could not compare with the artistic chests of the +Augsburgers about 1600; the art of weaving also, especially damask, +came into fashion soon after 1650, but not in the cities preeminently. +The new trades which attained to great importance, like that of +peruke-maker, were of doubtful value to the national industry.</p> + +<p class="normal">Equally great was the change which took place after the Thirty Years' +War in the social life of the citizens, in their intercourse with each +other and with strangers. In a former volume it was shown to what an +extent individuals withdrew into their families. It is worth the +trouble of examining more nearly what they lost by this. First, that +feeling of self-dependence which the most diffident man acquires by +frequent intercourse with strangers, the capability of co-operating +with others in a larger sphere, of representing a conviction, acting in +a manly way, and not submitting to any affront or unjust treatment, but +at the same time yielding up pride and pretensions to the common weal; +added to this the skill to organise themselves in new positions and +more extended society, and to accommodate themselves to these altered +circumstances. Such a tone of mind, the groundwork of all man's +political capacity, was to be found in abundance at an earlier period. +The power of the Empire and of the princes having become very weak, the +aptitude of individuals to act in masses was strongly developed, but +after the war the laws of the newly-formed states pressed with such an +iron hand, that all the art and practice of self-government was lost.</p> + +<p class="normal">This change shall be here shown, in a single phase of citizen life--the +great prize shooting festivals. They are more especially adapted to +give a picture in detail of the stately and splendid public life of the +German citizen in olden times, and to show that we are only now +beginning--though certainly with higher aims--again to attain to what +our ancestors had already found.</p> + +<p class="normal">It has been a German custom, older than Christianity, to celebrate the +awakening life of nature in May. This has always been a martial feast, +in which the fundamental idea of the old heathen faith, the victory of +the awakening divinities of nature over the demons of winter, was +dramatically represented. In the rising cities it was the warlike youth +of the freeborn citizens who lead the May sports, and in the +Hohenstaufen time these sports assumed the form of fashionable knightly +festivals. Thus in the year 1279, at Magdeburg, on the borders of the +Rhine, where Saxon blood had formed one of the strongest fortresses of +German life against the Sclavonian, the Whitsuntide feast was +celebrated quite in knightly style. The young mounted yeomen arranged a +great tournament in their Elbe island "the Marsh," under their Maigraf, +Bruno von Stövenbecke; the arrangements were all written down, and the +merchants of Goslar, Hildesheim, Braunschweig, Halberstadt, and +Quedlinburg invited. They came splendidly-equipped, and courteously +broke a lance with two young comrades of Magdeburg in front of the +city, and then rode festively through the gates to the island on which +many tents were pitched. The prize settled by the Magdeburgers for this +May tilt was, like the figure on their coat-of-arms, a maiden.<a name="div2_58" href="#div2Ref_58"><sup>[58]</sup></a> An +old merchant from Goslar won the beautiful Sophie; he took her with +him and married her, giving her so good a dowry as to enable her to +live ever afterwards honourably.</p> + +<p class="normal">A century later, in May 1387, the Magdeburgers celebrated a great +festival on the "Marsh," and again they contended for a maiden; but the +combat was no longer in the style of a tournament, such as their bishop +held at the same time on the other side of the city, but it was in a +great archery court. To this archery meeting they again invited the +friendly cities of Brunswick, Halberstadt, Quedlinburg, Aschersleben, +Blackenberg, Kalbe, Salza, and Halle. A citizen of Aschersleben won the +maiden.</p> + +<p class="normal">During this century there was a great change in the life and +constitution of the German cities; the patrician youth with their +knightly customs were no longer the representatives of the power of the +burgher class, the commonalty of the city already began to feel +themselves masters, and their weapon, the cross-bow, gained the prizes. +Soon after 1300, the societies of Archers arose in the German cities, +with their regulations, archery houses, and yearly shooting festivals; +as a brotherhood they erected an altar or built a chapel, and obtained +from the Pope's Legate absolution for all who attended the mass, which +they established on the day of their patron saint, the holy St. +Sebastian. These guilds were favoured by the city magistrates, who +helped to arrange the great prize shootings of their city. But however +much the citizen bow superseded the knightly lance at the feasts of +arms of the cities, some of the terms of knightly language continued +long in use. The prizes were still in the sixteenth century called +"<i>ventures</i>;" still longer did the term "<i>tilting</i>" denote the +contention between individual marksmen who had shot into an equal +number of circles, and a "course" signified a certain number of shots.</p> + +<p class="normal">After the time of that archery court of the Magdeburgers, mutual +shooting festivals are mentioned by the chronicles of other cities. +They were quite common, at least in southern Germany, about 1400; for +example, Munich sent its archers almost every second year to contend in +the neighbouring cities, and the "customs" of the public shootings were +already at that period firmly established. Thenceforward they spread +over the whole of Germany, increasing in magnitude and splendour. They, +as well as the German burgher-class, were at their highest acme about +1500; in the century of the Reformation they became more extensive and +costly, and more diversified in customs and characteristics, but +shortly before the Thirty Years' War they showed many symptoms of +decline. The increasing power of the princes, and the commencement of +modern court splendour, were mixed up with the old customs--the +festivals became very costly, and a refined love of pleasure began to +appear.</p> + +<p class="normal">Prize-meetings were not only established in the cities, they were held +sometimes by the princes and wealthy nobles, as early as the fifteenth +century, and still more frequently when in the century of the +Reformation armour and lances declined in importance. The great landed +proprietors of the neighbourhood, or the princes of the country, were +received as honoured guests at these meetings of the cities. Still the +archers were for the most part citizens, and the occasional princes and +nobles were placed under their banners. At an early period even free +peasants were allowed to enter the lists, but this became rare in +Germany after the Peasant War, though they continued to do so in +Switzerland, where a powerful peasantry have never ceased to exist. The +equal right of all, without distinction of ranks, both as to prizes and +penalties, is a citizen characteristic, and by far the greatest number +of associations, as well as the most important, came from the cities.</p> + +<p class="normal">During so long a period many of their usages altered, and others were +developed in different provinces, but yet the unity of their +proceedings from the Oder to the Rhine, from the Alps to the Vistula, +is very striking. They represent during this whole period a brilliant +phase of German life, the noble hospitality exercised by martial city +communities towards other friendly cities. The self-respect of the +citizen found in them its most powerful expression. Many characteristic +qualities of our forefathers are more especially perceptible in them; +pride in their own city, a lively and sensitive feeling of honor even +with respect to friends, satisfaction in appearing in processions, +whether on serious occasions or in sport, and in representing with +dignity, and above all, pleasure in showing, on public occasions, among +many thousands, their manliness, worth, and charity in word and deed.</p> + +<p class="normal">If a prize shooting was determined upon in a city, messengers bore the +proclamation of the council, and frequently also of the archery +association, to their good neighbours far in the country. The number of +cities invited was sometimes very great. In 1601, 156 cities were +invited to one shooting festival, held at Halle, and archers came from +fifty, though the weather was bad and the prizes not high. At Strasburg +seventy places were represented in 1576, in 1573 there were 187 +cross-bow men sent from thirty-nine places to Zwickau, amongst them +were three Swabian peasants from Göppingen, all of whom, to the great +vexation of the proud citizens, won prizes. At the cross-bow shooting +at Ratisbon, in 1586, thirty-five towns were represented by 210 +cross-bow men. At the costly prize-shooting in 1614, at Dresden, +twenty-one of the invited cities sent representatives, but eleven did +not. But the hospitality was not limited to those alone who were +invited: at an earlier period special prizes were, assigned to those +who came from greater distances; thus the Augsburgers, in 1508, +rejoiced that a German marksman came even from Paris, and another time +a marksman, who came from Striegau, in Silesia, obtained a golden ring, +the prize for strangers. Sometimes it was expressly denoted in the +invitation that every qualified man was welcome, or the places invited +were requested to spread the notice among the nobles and archers of +their neighbourhood. When the feasts became very costly, the uninvited +guests were, though allowed to shoot, not entitled to a share in the +chief prizes which had been assigned by the giver of the feast. That +such limitations were, however, not usual is shown by the grief of the +two Amstädters, who, at the cross-bow shooting at Coburg in 1614,<a name="div2_59" href="#div2Ref_59"><sup>[59]</sup></a> +were excluded by the Duke Johann Casimir from his principal prizes; +they wished to return home, and were with difficulty persuaded to +remain.</p> + +<p class="normal">In the programme all the conditions of the prize-shooting were +accurately enumerated; with fire-arms the weight of the ball, and with +the cross-bow the length of the bolt was accurately defined; for the +latter the size was generally established by a parchment ring, the +distance from the stand to the target was given in feet, and the length +of the usual foot was expressed by black lines in the programme. +Sometimes they measured by paces, in that case two of the stranger +competitors, a neighbour from the nearest city, and one from the most +distant, stepped the distance and settled it together.</p> + +<p class="normal">The number of shots also allowed to each was affixed on the butt and +target. At the smaller meetings in ancient times, they were about +twelve, fifteen, or sixteen; later, at the great meetings, they rose to +thirty, forty, or even more shots. With fire-arms the shooter sometimes +fired three shots in succession from his place, but with the cross-bow +only one, and they shot in divisions, quarters, and standards, +sometimes arrayed under banners according to the towns. At the grand +cross-bow shooting at Ratisbon, in 1586, a pattern meeting of moderate +size, the Protestant and Catholic places were carefully divided. Then +each of the three, four or five standards had to shoot in a definite +time; when all the standards had shot once, it was called one shot, or +one course, the best shot of each standard of each course was called +the bull's eye.</p> + +<p class="normal">The most ancient weapon was the cross-bow, with steel bow and bolt, +which was stretched by a pulley; it began to supplant the hand bow and +arrow shortly before 1400, but the latter was still used in the army +for some time, for example, in the Burgundian War, nay, it was +sometimes used in the sixteenth century, at the shooting games.<a name="div2_60" href="#div2Ref_60"><sup>[60]</sup></a> The +cross-bow, after 1400, became shorter and more handy, and at the end of +the prize-shooting festivals, a smaller one was used with a trigger for +amusement. The cross-bow was drawn in braces, or secured in a network, +so that no accident might arise if it sprung; the bolt with an iron +point and a feather shaft was provided for the popinjay, with filed +iron teeth, which, in hitting, split the joints of the wood; the +pointed or, later, the blunt bolt served for target practice; the +archer shot without a rest. The cross-bow, up to the Thirty Years' War, +was considered by the prize-shooters as the most distinguished weapon, +and continued so, even long after it had been supplanted by fire-arms +in war and in the chase; it was more especially retained by the +aristocratic party, the princes and patricians. If a prize-shooting +with crossbow and fire-arms was announced, the competition between the +cross-bow and the arbalat was at the beginning, the fire-arms at the +conclusion with inferior prizes; much of the fun of the festival was +attached to the cross-bow shooting. But at the beginning of the +sixteenth century, at all the prize shootings, the use of fire-arms had +increased at least twofold.</p> + +<p class="normal">About the year 1400, fire-arms began to be heard at the prize-shooting +festivals. At Ausgburg, in 1429, hand-guns and muskets were used, and +guns with small lead balls. In 1446 the first prize shooting with +arquebuses and muskets was held; afterwards the hand-gun in its various +forms always prevailed. The practical Swiss were among the first to +give the preference to fire-arms. As early as 1472, at the great prize +shooting at Zurich, only guns were announced; after that, at important +festivals, both weapons had prizes assigned to them, but at smaller +ones frequently only fire-arms. The gun of the prize-shooter, up to +1600, was the smooth hand-gun for one ounce balls, with a straight or +crooked stock,--all grooves were forbidden.<a name="div2_61" href="#div2Ref_61"><sup>[61]</sup></a> The shooter fired +without a rest; the gun when fired was not to rest upon the shoulder; +it was not to be supported by any strap in the sleeve or round the +neck; it was only to be loaded with one ball; the gun was only to have +a small round sight at the end. After 1600 rifled weapons, for the +first time, received prizes at special meetings. At Basle, in 1605, a +prize shooting for arquebuses was announced, the distance 570 feet, the +target two and a half feet round the nail; and for muskets with crooked +or straight grooves and balls of one ounce--distance, 805 feet; target, +three and a half feet. It must be mentioned, by the way, that sometimes +at great shooting festivals heavy guns were also used, such as +arquebuses, falconets and serpents, as in Strasburg 1590, at Breslau in +1609, and frequently at Leipsic, where these exercises were preferred; +however splendidly these festivals, after the pattern of the old prize +shootings, were appointed, they had more especially a practical aim, +and were not generally attended by strangers.</p> + +<p class="normal">Different as the weapons so was the mark. The bird on the pole was very +ancient. But when guests began to appear in numbers the bird was +inconvenient. The duration of the shooting could not be reckoned upon; +a violent wind easily diverted the course of the bolts. At last the +pole fell altogether, or the bird broke off, before it was shot into +splinters; the falling splinters also gave occasion to much quarrelling +and discontent. The consequence was, that in the greater part of +Germany, the more convenient shooting butt very soon supplanted the +bird at all large cross-bow meetings; this was the case in Switzerland +and Suabia. On the other hand, the Thuringians, Meisseners and +Silesians, long adhered to the bird. In Breslau the popinjay shooting +was practised in great perfection; there, after 1491, a heavy bird of +silver, richly gilded, with gold chains and golden shield, and the city +arms on the breast, was carried before the king of the shooters. But at +the prize shooting of the Silesians many birds were set up of different +colours and with prizes of different value. Thus in Breslau, in 1518, +they set up three birds--red, green, and black; each person who knocked +off one of the forty joints of the birds gained a silver spoon; but, +besides this, there was also cross-bow shooting at a mark, a small +square target. In the year 1560 there were again three at Breslau; and +at the grand shooting at Löwenberg, in 1615, there were five birds. The +fallen splinters which had not brought special prizes were weighed, and +only those of half an ounce were of value.</p> + +<p class="normal">But the butt targets, also for cross-bows and fire-arms, were various. +For the cross-bow a small circular plate, sometimes plated, and the +outer circle painted with a garland, was fixed on the dark shooting +butt, and after each course exchanged for a new one; for the fire-arms +there was almost always a hanging target, and in 1518 at Breslau a +shield--that is to say, a painted wooden table. The distance from the +shooting stand to the mark for the cross-bows was 340, and later 300 +feet; for the fire-arms from 650 to 750 feet. These are wide distances +for weapons so imperfect in comparison with our times. On special +occasions, when any young princes attended the festival, nearer marks +were prepared for them--a half distance,--and other prizes. At such +shooting feasts the whole of the adjoining Court took part.</p> + +<p class="normal">The preparations in the city began some months before the feast. The +lodgings were prepared for the guests; the safety of the city was +provided for; the goldsmiths worked in silver the prize cups and vases, +and struck also medals and show specimens; the tailors stitched +incessantly at new festival dresses for halberdiers, pages of honour, +and motley personages; the shield painters drew arms, garlands, and +ciphers, on more than a hundred standards. On the shooting ground the +lists were marked; wooden boards brightly coloured, and adorned +with representations of fir-trees, garlands, and colonnades; the +interior of the shooting-house was newly painted, and later carpeted; +shooting-stands and pavilions erected for the shooters, and clerks +booths; outside the lists there were kitchens, bowling-grounds and +booths; also a spring for the water-drinkers, which, in case of need, +was newly dug. Especial care was taken, at these cross-bow meetings, of +the small target where the bull's-eye was. As these cross-bow meetings +were in all respects arranged in the most finished style, and were a +pattern for other similar shooting-meetings, we will describe many of +their usages. The target place was a large wooden building, that +represented the front of a house with doors and many stories, or looked +like a triumphal arch, or a temple with cupola towers, or sometimes +like the high wooden altar of the sixteenth century, all beautifully +painted with the colours of the city or country, ornamented with coats +of arms and figures. At Strasburg, in 1576, there stood great +sculptures, a griffin and a lion keeping watch on each side; beneath, +in the middle of the building, was the butt, either covered with some +dark colour or canvas. It could be turned round by mechanism, in order +that after each course the bolts might be drawn out without danger, and +the butt provided with a new circular plate, for the next shooting +meeting of the society. Sometimes the whole heavy building which rose +above it was movable, and turned to face the rows of seats for the +different divisions of shooters. Beside the butt itself, there were in +the building sometimes small projecting guard-houses, or little +turrets, for the markers, from which they could watch the target +without being hit. At the top of the building there was a complicated +clock, with the ciphers from one to four on the dial-plate, and over it +a bell. On the highest point stood generally a movable carved figure, +often Fortune on a ball (for example, in 1576, at Strasburg; 1586, at +Ratisbon; in 1614, at Dresden), which after a bad shot turned her back +on the shooter; or as at Coburg, in 1614, a mannikin on a tower, who +after a good shot waved a banner, or for a bad shot mockingly bit his +thumb.</p> + +<p class="normal">When these preparations of the honest citizens approached their +completion, it became necessary for the council to search out some of +those minor officials of the festivities whose occupation is not what +can be called very noble, but was quite indispensable, the +<i>Pritschmeister</i>.<a name="div2_62" href="#div2Ref_62"><sup>[62]</sup></a> For a great festival, four, five, or more of +these fellows were desirable; but they were not to be found in every +city. If they were not at the place, they were sent for to Nüremberg +and Augsburg, or wherever else in the country they happened to be +wandering. It was a very ancient vocation that they followed At the +same time that the fantastic city tournaments of the young patrician +were transformed into the useful shooting exercises of the martial +citizen, this tomfoolery had changed into a peaceful civic occupation, +which retains something of the duties of the old herald, and not less +of the old festive jesting of the roving fool. They were criers, +improvisatori, police-officers, and buffoons of the prize shooters; +they understood accurately the <i>convenance</i>, manners, and every +ceremonial of the shooting-ground; gave good counsel to hesitating +regulators of the festival; delivered the poetical festival speeches; +punished light transgressions against the rules of the shooting-ground +with the fool's baton; and even helped at the festive banquet, when +necessary, by a rough joke, or even by serving. They had come from far, +and knew how to deal with proud princes and strict councillors. When it +was not festival time, they carried on a modest trade that did not +require much perseverance. But sieve-making or the wool trade did not +please them in the long run: at least they describe themselves, in the +numerous verses they have left behind them, as poor devils,<a name="div2_63" href="#div2Ref_63"><sup>[63]</sup></a> who +eagerly looked out for the rumour of some great festival at Court, and +went many days' journey, speculating whether perhaps they might have an +opportunity to exercise their office at some prize shooting. If they +did not succeed in that, there still remained to them the pleasure, +during the festival, of waiting upon old patrons among the shooters, +and, by dint of toadying, of obtaining wherewith to fill their hungry +stomachs; finally, they had the old consolation of poets, to describe +in verses the occupation they had no longer the pleasure of joining in, +and collecting remuneration for these verses. It is true that their +descriptions of friendly and distinguished prize shootings are almost +always in very bad rhyme; but they are very valuable to us, because +they introduce us to the smallest details of those festivals. The +office, too, of <i>pritschmeister</i> is worthy of observation.</p> + +<p class="normal">It is only in accordance with German nature to make the fool the +police-officer of the festival. The blow of his baton strikes the +lord as well as the peasant boy, and his irony lashes the arrogant +prince's son, and brings the colour into the cheeks of the most +impudent. The sensitive pride of the <i>Junker</i>,--every offence to +which, from a yeoman of the guard, would have been resented as a deadly +affront,--unresistingly suffered the <i>pritschmeister</i>, in the exercise +of his office, to seize and drag him to the place of punishment. But +even the jests of the <i>pritschmeister</i> are deserving of observation, +for they are lasting; an endless variety of tricks and pleasantries, +a definite hereditary art of being merry, typical forms of foolery +many hundred years old; and they were earned on with a certain +earnestness,--nay, even pedantry. Undoubtedly these stale tricks had +their irresistible effect only when men were disposed to be in a merry +humour, but their antiquity makes them to us like woodcuts, in the +angular lines of which there lies a certain charm. When, for example, +at the end of the shooting, the unfortunate shooter, who had won the +last prize, received this prize,--a sow with six young ones,--from the +<i>pritschmeister</i>, who wished him happiness, and calculated at length +the increase of the porcine family in his house from year to year, and +that he would after three years become master of 2401 head, the hearers +of the joke were not the less amused because they had heard the same +reckoning made ever since their childhood on similar occasions; for it +acts like a melody, that exercises its greatest magic on the hearer +when it has become familiar to him.</p> + +<p class="normal">The <i>pritschmeister</i> knew well that it was his duty to be a fool. It is +true, there were some proud fellows among them who were ashamed of +their cap; but they were derided by their own companions. Thus in 1573, +the <i>pritschmeister</i> of Zwickau was serious and haughty; but he +suffered for it under the contemptuous shrugging of the shoulders of +his colleague, Benedict Edelbeck, who had wandered from Bohemia to the +prize shooting, and knew better what became a <i>pritschmeister</i>. They +bore also certain tokens of the fool,--the cap, and a striking +variegated dress, in the colours of the city, which they kept as a +festival present. At particularly distinguished shooting feasts they +were very grandly attired; for example, at Coburg in 1614, there were +five of them who wore the colours of the royal house,--yellow silk +waistcoat, black hosen, yellow English stockings, long black and yellow +knee ribands, beautiful Cordova shoes with silk ribands, a Spanish +velvet hat with yellow feathers, a kasseke with loose sleeves, red, +yellow, and black embroidery before and behind, with coats of arms; +besides all this, the large club, and round the knee a string of bells, +which rattled loud.</p> + +<p class="normal">Their batons, often preposterously large, of leather or of split +clacking wood, and sometimes gilded, had much to do on the +shooting-ground. With them they cleared the lists of the thronging +people, and punished those who transgressed the rules. Anyone who ran +between the shooter and his mark after the clock was set, anyone who +disturbed the shooters at their stand, who misbehaved from drunkenness +or insolence, or who injured the weapons of strangers from wantonness +or spite, fell under their jurisdiction without respect of rank; and +this jurisdiction was exercised in a remarkable way. Far on one side of +the shooting-ground was erected a conspicuous scaffold, on which were +two coloured benches. This building was called, according to an old +bitter jest, "the gallows;" and later, the "<i>pritschmeister's</i> pulpit;" +to it the culprit was led with many grotesque ceremonies, there laid +upon the bench, and belaboured with the baton in a way which was neatly +expressed in the old technical language by this sentence, "His head was +cut off at the tail." At the same time the <i>pritschmeister</i> delivered a +discourse, which did not make his position more agreeable. One may +conceive how attractive this practice of the law was to all who did not +partake of it. The custom was carried on through the whole of Germany, +most moderately by the serious Swiss, and decorously and impartially in +the cities. At a later period, when great princes arranged shooting +festivals, traces of royal humour are to be found, which enjoined the +performance of this scene on minor personages for insignificant +misdemeanours. Thus, after the prize shooting in 1614, Elector Johann +Georg diverted himself by having not only some scullions, but even one +of his bears cudgelled; the bear had to be chained to the bench. The +<i>pritschmeister</i> obeyed his Electoral Grace, but in his inward heart he +felt that such things were not in his office.</p> + +<p class="normal">As assistants to the <i>pritschmeister</i>, some of the most idle boys of +the city were chosen, and they also were put in fool's attire. Among +this insolent brood the most zealous guardians of the law were to be +found; they easily learnt some of the tricks of their master, and they +carried goose wings, wooden clappers, and short pipes. They fell +like a pack of hounds on any peasant child that ran across the +shooting-ground, and greeted such as had shot ill with grimaces and +monkey gestures. At Coburg they went in procession in a great band, +dressed in black linen with white seams and patches, following a tall +dark man, who wore a similar dress, and trousers after the old +Landsknecht fashion. He was the head shoemaker, Martin Pauker, a +gloomy, haggard fellow, who never spoke a word, but during the whole +shooting was incessantly assuming grotesque disguises. In the +procession he trailed along an enormous linen banner, the doubtful +badge of honour for those who had shot worst of all; but on the return +home he bore the great kettle drum, which he allowed to be beat upon +his back; on the shooting-ground he appeared as a wild man, enveloped +in straw and brushwood; then as a monk or nun; but soon he came in a +splendid dress, riding on an ass, and at last waddled about in +bearskin; he was always disguising himself, always drunk and dismal, +but he had his own quiet enjoyment in the whole affair.<a name="div2_64" href="#div2Ref_64"><sup>[64]</sup></a></p> + +<p class="normal">If <i>pritschmeisters</i> were engaged by the givers of the feast, and the +city was in repute for doing its duty, possessed good friends, and had +announced grand prizes, there was sure to be a great concourse. The +invited cities had the festival announced to their citizens by affixing +public notices, or by proclamations. It was with them an affair of +honour to be represented by good marksmen, and these frequently +received money for their journey out of the city coffers, in return for +which, when they went home, they handed over the silk banners they had +won to the council or shooting society. These deputies were generally +men of distinction; but besides these there were other citizens who +went to the meeting at their own cost. Thus at Coburg in 1614, besides +the four shooters who were sent by the city of Schweinfurt, one Hans +Schüssler, a small, insignificant man, had come on his own account. His +fellow-citizens looked askance at him and excluded him from their +society, but he hit the bull's-eye at the first shot: then he jumped +for joy, and exclaimed, "I was not good enough for my country people to +bring me with them; now, God willing, I will do better still." He made +the most bull's-eye shots, and won a beautiful goblet.</p> + +<p class="normal">A day or two before the festivities, the strangers who came to shoot +arrived from all parts. The council had to provide them with cheap +quarters, and it was enjoined on the citizens that they were to abstain +from annoying them. Many of the strangers met with a hospitable +reception from some of the cities. If royal persons were invited, their +arrival was announced by a courier; they were received by the council, +lodged, and provided with the usual gift of honour,--wine, beer, and +fish. Sometimes a preliminary shooting trial took place with the guests +who had arrived before the first day of the festival; on such an +occasion at Ratisbon in 1586, a beautiful large goat, covered with red +Lund cloth, together with a beautiful banner, was presented by the +council to the best shot. In Suabia and Bavaria a goat thus attired was +often given at these smaller shooting trials.</p> + +<p class="normal">On the morning of the festival the <i>pritschmeister</i>, with the city +band, went through the streets, calling the strangers to the meeting at +the shooting-ground. The givers of the festival marched in solemn +procession, the <i>pritschmeister</i> in front; behind, the markers, equally +in new dresses and the colours of the city, their marking rods in their +hands; then the trumpeters and fifers; next the dignitaries and +marksmen of the city, followed by a train of young boys of the city, +all dressed alike in festal attire, sons of families of distinction, +who bore the small target banners; after them perhaps, led by a +<i>pritschmeister</i> or some other jovial personage, the boys with the +contumelious banners, the derisive distinction of the bad shots. Then +came other boys, who bore coloured chests, in which were the bolts and +the principal prizes of the shooting. The large and small goblets were +either brought out during the procession, or placed in a special +pavilion on the shooting-ground, under the care of the city police.</p> + +<p class="normal">On the shooting-ground the drum was again beat, and the marksmen called +together by the <i>pritschmeister</i>. The deputy of the city then delivered +a solemn address of greeting, in which he called to mind the old +friendship of the invited cities, and expressed his best wishes for the +festival. The <i>pritschmeisters</i> went again with music round the +shooting-ground, and one of them proclaimed aloud once more the +programme of the invitation, and admonished the marksmen to collect +together by cities, and choose their "<i>siebeners</i>" or "<i>neuners</i>." +These were magistrates of the shooting-ground, the higher judges of +shooting law; they were chosen out of the most distinguished men of the +town, some by the givers of the feast, others by the shooters according +to their districts. If the larger cities, Nüremberg, Augsburg, or +Magdeburg, were among the guests at the beating of the drum, it was +decided by them which should be chosen as representatives of the +strangers. The free Imperial cities were more particularly designated +for this, equally so any royal personages present, who often even +undertook the wearisome task of "<i>neuner</i>." These were treated with +particular distinction at the entertainment. Among them were the +secretaries, frequently three, who noted down in special tents the +announcements of the shooting. Every marksman had to show beforehand +his bolts and bullets, cross-bow and gun; each bolt was examined, +whether its iron point could pass through the opening of the parchment +ring, for the thicker bolts made a larger opening in the target, and +the measurement being taken from the edge of the hole to the centre +point, the difference of thickness in one bolt would be prejudicial to +the others. If the bolt was proof-worthy, the name of the possessor was +written on the shaft, and only bolts so inscribed could be used. Every +shooter had, besides, to make his money deposit before he was allowed +to shoot. These preparations occupied many hours, often the greater +part of the first day. The time was frequently filled up by a +collation, given by the city council to the strangers who shot: in the +earlier and more moderate period it consisted of wine, good beer, and +simple food, fruit, cakes, butter and cheese. When the marksmen were +inscribed and had made their deposits, they were divided into +"quarters" or banners,--three, five, and more banners; frequently each +"quarter" had its special stand.</p> + +<p class="normal">Now at last began the great shooting in "courses," or "shots with the +cross-bow," so that the "quarter" shot one after the other, each +shooter one shot.</p> + +<p class="normal">Opposite to the place of the target, in a special wooden building, were +the stands of the shooters. But their method of shooting appears +striking to us. Before the beginning of the course, a <i>pritschmeister</i> +went over the shooting-ground with fifes and drums, and called the +marksmen by divisions to their stands. They pressed forward to it in +haste, and sat in rows, according to regulation, by lot, each in the +stand to which his name was affixed. As long as the division was +shooting, no one left his stand, and none of the neighbours must +disturb them by word or movement. Thus they sat, cross-bow in hand; +then the <i>pritschmeister</i> called out, "Marker, set the clock going." At +the signal the hand was set in motion, each "quarter" being signified +by the striking of the clock. During this time each marksman was to +shoot; he shot sitting, at least such was the custom in the interior of +Germany after the middle of the sixteenth century, but they were not +allowed to support either themselves or their crossbows. When the hand +had finished its circuit round the clock, the bell sounded, a steel +mirror was lowered by a hempen cord, and covered the dial-plate, and a +grating either rose from the earth, or descended from the wooden +building in front of the butt, in order to guard it from the eager +shooters. Then began the labours of the <i>neuner</i>, secretaries and +markers. If the butt was movable, it was turned round. Behind it stood +a table for the secretaries, the inscribed bolts were drawn out, the +bull's-eye shot and those in the circles were transcribed, the farthest +shot also was noted down. But the marker filled up the holes made by +the bolts, blackened the injured places in the butt, and put on a new +plate. In this way the collective divisions of marksmen having fired +one shot, the bolts were borne in solemn procession with the +<i>pritschmeister</i>, fifes and drums, to the shooting-house: there the +less successful bolts were placed in the box of their owner, but those +which had been distinguished shots were laid in an ornamental wooden +<i>Attrape</i>; in Zwickau, in 1573, it was a large white swan, the city +arms. The bolt of the bull's-eye had a place of honour, and the most +distant had also a distinguished place. After this first course the +distribution of prizes began.</p> + +<p class="normal">They endeavoured to give marks of distinction in every direction, and +to provide as many marksmen as possible with prizes; but our ancestors +did not object to humiliate by bitter jests those who had performed +ill. Prizes were awarded to those who hit the bull's-eye, also to those +who had shot oftenest near it, and if his remaining shots were not near +enough for him to gain a chief prize, he had a special present. But the +great prizes were for the marksmen who, at the end of the shooting, +scored the greatest number of shots in the circles. All who could not +obtain a prize within the prescribed number of shots, had the right, +before the end of the meeting, to contend among themselves for smaller +prizes. All the prizes of the festival, were settled by the givers of +the feast, and they were reckoned in the programme collectively with +their worth in silver. Every shooter at the beginning of the festival +before his name was inscribed, had to make a deposit of money; this +deposit was not insignificant, and became higher in proportion to the +pretensions of the festival. Whilst at a former period two gulden had +been deposited, it rose to six and eight Imperial gulden in the last +fifty years of the prize shootings; indeed they deposited as much as +twelve Imperial thalers at the cross-bow shooting given by the elector +Johann Georg at Dresden in 1614, which, according to the value of +silver and corn, would answer to about thirty thalers of our money. But +undoubtedly all prize shootings were not so aristocratic. A portion +often of the deposits at these festivals was voluntary. The obligatory +deposits were turned into secondary prizes, and these were distributed +in small sums among as many of the shooters as possible. With the +voluntary deposits, small articles of plate were frequently bought for +an after-shooting. Sometimes also the giver of the feast spent +something for this; in that case these deposits of the shooters were +employed as small money prizes for the after-shooting.</p> + +<p class="normal">With all the prizes at the great shooting feasts large and small +banners were presented, with the colours of the town or country, and +the arms or garlands, painted on them, and often also the value of the +prize. To bear away such a banner was a great honour. The strangers +took them proudly to their homes, and delivered them to the council of +their city, or to their shooting brotherhood, who had paid the costs of +their journey. Very modest at first were the prizes of the victors: +they were long designated as "ventures:" a romantic charm still +attached to the foreign word, which originated in the jargon of the old +tournaments. A fine ram was the first prize at Munich about 1400, and +at Kelheim in 1404. Soon afterwards an ox, a horse, or a bull, and the +animals often covered with a valuable cloth: thus, in 1433, at +Nüremberg, a horse covered with a red cloth was the best. The secondary +prizes were small goblets, silver vases, girdles, cross-bows, swords, +or a prize which has always been a special object of preference with +the inferior shooters, and everywhere, up to modern times, has clung to +shooting societies--material for a beautiful pair of small-clothes. He +who came from the greatest distance to the shooting, received, at +Augsburg, in 1425, a golden ring. But at the same place, in 1440, the +first prize was already a sum of money, forty gulden; and the horses +and cattle were the last. They rose rapidly in value at Augsburg in +1470; 101 gulden was the best, and about 1500 this sum became usual: in +1504, at Zurich, 110 gulden was the chief prize, 90 the second, and so +in succession down to one gulden, all doubled for cross-bows and guns, +and, which is not rare at the Swiss shooting meetings, all in money. +The prizes continued to rise in value; at Leipzig, in 1550, for the +cross-bow 300 gulden; at the great shooting meeting at Strasburg, in +1576, the first prize for rifle and gun was 210 Imperial gulden; at +Basle, in 1603, for muskets (with rifled barrels), a goblet worth 300 +gulden. This sum, according to the value of silver and corn, answers to +666 thalers of our money.</p> + +<p class="normal">The chief prizes then, were money or plate, goblets and vases of all +forms and sizes, of that elegance and taste which distinguished the +work of the goldsmith in the sixteenth century. The deposits also were +frequently paid in special coins and medals, which were coined for the +festival, large and small, and also gilt,--often <i>klippen</i>.<a name="div2_65" href="#div2Ref_65"><sup>[65]</sup></a> +Sometimes a bull's-eye shot was rewarded by a <i>klippe</i>, which was hung +to the victorious banner. At the costly cross-bow meeting at Dresden, +for each bull's-eye shot was given on the banner a gilt medal, weighing +five Imperial thalers--almost exactly a quarter of a pound of our +customs weight. Smaller towns also coined medals and <i>klippen</i>; they +continue as choice rarities in our collections of coins, and show the +greatest diversity of emblems and devices, of size, form, and value. +Small silver pieces were coined for children and the poor, and +distributed in remembrance of the festivals.</p> + +<p class="normal">But besides these good prizes, there were also tantalising prizes. The +last shot who could make any pretence to a prize was honoured with a +doubtful distinction,--he received, according to old custom, as has +been already mentioned, amidst many derisive congratulations from the +<i>pritschmeisters</i> the smallest money prize, and an animal of the pig +tribe, great or small, sow or sucking-pig, according to the humour of +the giver of the feast; besides that, a good prize banner, but with +satirical figures on it. At the Coburg shooting, in the year 1614, it +is reported that this banner was particularly and beautifully +embroidered, but one may assume that its emblems did not occasion any +great pleasure to the possessor. The banners and presents to the worst +shots were a caricature of the prizes for the bull's-eye; and he who +had made the worst shot of all was obliged, at least at the last period +of the prize-shootings, to carry at the end of the festival, surrounded +by the fools, a gigantic coarse banner of sackcloth. When the bolts of +the bull's-eye shots and of the most distant shots were placed after +the first course in their <i>attrape</i>, the <i>pritschmeister</i> went up to +his pulpit; he then called forth with a loud voice the best shooter of +the first course, and greeted him with a short extempore speech in +doggerel rhyme, wherein he extolled his deserts and his prizes; he then +announced to him that, as a memento of the shooting, he will receive a +beautiful silk banner, to which was appended a silver <i>klippe</i>; besides +this, a tin plate with a fried trout on it, a roll of bread, and a +glass of wine, together with an orange. Skilful musicians, trumpeters +or pipers, went before, and conducted him to his seat. Thus did the +fortunate marksman march amidst music; the officials of the city +delivered to him the banner and the coins, with the jovial plate of +honour. Afterwards the <i>pritschmeister</i> distributed to the other circle +shots, and finally he called to the unfortunate who had made the widest +shot; he did not advance willingly; the <i>pritschmeister</i> bowed himself +before him and said, "Look to it, you fine shot, that you learn your +art better. I have here some lads who will teach you how to hit. You +need pay them no money. Franz Floh, take the brush and sprinkle him +with holy water; it is very possible that he is bewitched. Come, Hans +Hahn, and ring your wooden bells about his ears! Yet I observe that you +are a good Christian; you wish to leave something to others; therefore, +dear tantalisers, take him under your protection; the man has deserved +well of others; pipe a beautiful dance before him, and bite your thumbs +at him, but be decorous, and do it behind his back. Bring him his gift +of honour. First, a banner of the kind of satin in which peasants bring +their oats to the city. The <i>klippe</i> which hangs on it is unfortunately +only of tin; besides, there is a plate of wood, and on it a fine whey +cheese; instead of the orange an apple, and in an earthen bowl a drink +of light beer." Thus did the <i>pritschmeister</i> deride him, and at last +presented him with a fool's cap and cock's feathers. Meanwhile the +<i>pritschmeister's</i> boys yelled, rattled, and piped around the marksman, +cut summersaults, and followed him with their grimaces up to his stand, +whilst a bagpipe-player preceded him, and forced from his bags their +most dissonant tones. It was afterwards seriously maintained by the +marksmen that in this buffoonery those with the highest pretensions did +not come off better than the rest. But to the person concerned it was +very painful. He seldom succeeded in concealing beforehand the widest +bolt, which always excited general displeasure. To princes who were +present some consideration was shown: at least, the words of the +<i>pritschmeister</i> to them, which are printed, sound very mild. If the +sovereign himself had made the widest shot, one of his suite took it +upon himself, as at Zwickau in 1573.</p> + +<p class="normal">Thus was the festival carried on, round after round, each succeeded by +the rewards. These interludes took not a little time; thus it happened +that not more than seven or eight courses of shots took place in a day, +still less at the great meetings.</p> + +<p class="normal">At the end of the festival, in most of the districts in Germany, the +shooting was interrupted by a pleasing custom which shall here be +described as it took place, in the second half of the sixteenth +century, in the cities of Suabia, Franconia, Thuringia, and Meissen. +Many of the most distinguished maidens of the city went in procession, +festively clad, accompanied by councillors, city pipers, and yeomen of +the guard, to the shooting-ground. One of them carried, in an +ornamental box, a costly garland--sometimes of silver and gold, with +pearls and precious stones--another bore a beautiful banner. Their +procession stopped on the ground; then the shooters of a friendly city +were summoned, a herald of the city delivered an address, the maidens +handed over to them, as a gift of honour from their city, the garland +and banner, and invited them to a dance of honour. The invited thanked +them in choice language in the name of their city; one of them placed +the garland on his head, and they led the maidens in a stately dance +over the shooting-ground. Such a garland imposed upon the city which +received it the agreeable duty of giving the next prize-shooting. It +was carefully kept, and mentioned in the programme of the garlanded +city as the principal ground of the prize-shooting, in order that the +garland might not wither. Afterwards, when the princes participated +eagerly in the shooting, they also received garlands; if the prince was +the giver of the feast, he bestowed the garland on one of the +princesses. This old custom bound together the cities of a district in +one great festive brotherhood. The dances on the open shooting-ground +ceased about the year 1600.</p> + +<p class="normal">But these great citizen festivals offered other opportunities of +display of strength and art. When they were in their full vigour in the +fifteenth century, there were public games arranged for the marksmen, +and prizes appointed for the conquerors. In these games ancient +traditions were maintained. They were prize contentions similar to that +in the Niebelung, of Siegfried against Brunhild, hurling the stone, +leaping, and running. They were in the programme in the prize-shooting +of 1456; the Zuricher, Hans Waldmann, carried off the prize for +leaping, who, later as Burgomaster, lost his proud head on the block. +At the cross-bow shooting at Augsburg in 1470, a golden ring was +prepared for him who could hurl furthest a stone of forty-five pounds +weight, at an easy run, with three throws, according to the laws of the +game; a knight, Wilhelm Zaunried, won the prize. Thus also at Zurich, +in 1472, there were three prizes for hurling stones of fifteen, thirty, +and fifty pounds. Christoph, Duke of Bavaria, won the golden ring at +Augsburg in 1470, for leaping. The task was three springs on one leg +with a run, afterwards a jump with both feet, then again three springs +on the other leg, and a second jump. In Zurich, in 1472, leaps of three +different kinds were prescribed: from the spot with both feet, in the +run with both feet, and in a run three springs on one foot. All this +was done with great earnestness, and was actually notified to the +guests in the programme of the council. In prize races in 1470, at +Augsburg, the course measured 350 paces; Duke Christoph, of Bavaria, +won the gold ring also for running. At Zurich, in 1472, the length of +the course was 600 paces. At Breslau, in 1518, the prizes for running +were articles of the favourite pewter. Besides the men, sometimes +horses ran: as at the rifle-shooting at Augsburg, in 1446, fourteen +horses appeared in the lists; the prize was a piece of scarlet cloth; +the conqueror was a horse of Duke Albrecht's, which he had sent from +Munich for the races.<a name="div2_66" href="#div2Ref_66"><sup>[66]</sup></a> At the races at the same place, in 1470, a +horse of Duke Wolfgang's, of Bavaria, won a prize of forty-five gulden. +Wrestling, and even dancing, obtained prizes, as in 1508 again, at +Augsburg. And at the same place a whimsical prize was won by the person +who could amuse the people with the greatest lies.</p> + +<p class="normal">To these national popular amusements were added others not less old, +but from the traditions of foreign life. The descendants of the Roman +gladiators, whose rough struggles had once caused great scandal to +strict Christians, led a despised life as roving fighters<a name="div2_67" href="#div2Ref_67"><sup>[67]</sup></a> through +the whole of the Middle Ages. In the fifteenth century they had taken +refuge behind the city gates and in the guardrooms of the royal court, +in various mercenary service, as fencing-masters, soldiers, police, +valets, and messengers. Out of the secret brotherhoods which were +formed by these strolling fighters had arisen associations which were +openly tolerated; they were arranged in two societies, as <i>Marxbrüder</i> +(the fraternity of St. Mark), and <i>Federfechter</i> (champions of the +feather), which cherished a violent antipathy to each other. The +<i>Federfechter</i> displayed a winged griffin on their armorial shield; +they boasted of having received privileges from a Duke of Mecklenburg, +and found later a mild patron in the Elector of Saxony. At the lists, +when they raised their swords, they called out, "Soar aloft, feather; +mark what we do; write with ink which looks like blood."<a name="div2_68" href="#div2Ref_68"><sup>[68]</sup></a> The +Marxbrüders, on the other hand, had for their armorial bearings a lion, +and cheered themselves by the defiant rhyme, "Thou noble lion, elevate +thy curly hair; thou perceivest the griffin; him shalt thou hew down +and tear his feathers." They were privileged by King Maximilian in +1487. These masters of the long sword were under a captain, and their +meetings were held at the harvest fair of Frankfort-on-the-Maine. +Thither resorted any one who wished to receive the freedom of their +company; he had to fence with four masters, then in public meeting to +accept a challenge from any one who chose to fight with him. If he +stood the trial, he was struck with the sword of ceremony crosswise +over the loins; he then took the oath of fellowship, and laid two +golden guldens on the sword; then he received the secret sign of +recognition of the brotherhood, and the right to instruct others in his +art, and to hold fencing schools, that is to say, to arrange public +fights. For a long time these public fights were a pleasure to +princes and citizens; after the battle of Mühlberg, they enlivened +the imprisoned Elector of Saxony during the great Imperial Diet +at Augsburg. It was considered by the people an especial privilege +for Frankfort, that it was the only town in which one could become +a prize-fighter.<a name="div2_69" href="#div2Ref_69"><sup>[69]</sup></a> The fighters made their way into the +prize-shootings--already at Augsburg in 1508--especially when princes +took a part in the civic pleasures. The procession, and many of the +usages of the fighters, remind one strongly of the Roman gladiatorial +games, though the combats seldom came to so bloody an end. The princes +and cities hired whole bands of fighters, who attended at the +prize-shootings and other great festivals. Thus at Stuttgardt, in 1560, +the fighters strove in pairs on the shooting-ground; the royal ladies +also drove out to see this combat; the first victor received a +beautiful waistcoat of taffety; every other prize consisted of two +thalers. At a cross-bow meeting at Zwickau, 1573, the Margrave of +Anspach introduced a fighting band of forty men, against whom the +Elector August of Saxony arranged his <i>Federfechters</i>. They contended +for two days, in pairs, with the long sword, the wooden sword, the long +spear, and the short lance, bareheaded, according to old custom, and +some made many passes without conquering the other. There was much +bravado in these combats, but they gave rise to great jealousy, violent +blows, and bad wounds.</p> + +<p class="normal">The society of fencers outlived the prize-shootings and the great war. +They lost the old expressions for their art, but substituted French +words, and maintained their position in the larger cities in spite of +the foreign fencing-masters. In Nüremberg their public combats were +forbidden shortly before 1700; but parties long ran high among the +people for the two factions: there was no boy in the city who did not +contend for the Marxbrüder or Federfechter, who frequently gave their +performances in private houses. The last great fencing match took +place, in 1741, at Breslau, in the churchyard of Magdalena. On the day +when the young King of Prussia, with careless mien and dishevelled +hair, and his small parade sword, came to receive the homage of the +conquered Silesia on the throne of the Emperor Matthias, when the dawn +of a new time broke over Germany, the old fencers, like shadowy figures +of a distant time, performed once more their antics over the graves of +a past generation, and then passed away.</p> + +<p class="normal">Other popular amusements intruded themselves into the prize-shootings; +the pleasures became more noisy, more abundant, and excited; and +whoever takes a view of the shooting-ground at the end of the sixteenth +century will see, from the proceedings of spectators, that times had +altered. Formerly the marksmen, among them princes and nobles, had +taken part in the public gymnastics; the Wittelsbacher had hopped on +one leg among the citizens of the imperial town, and had hurled the +heavy stone. At the end of the sixteenth century the nobles looked on, +so also did the already genteel citizen-marksmen; but the peasant lads +came in their Sunday attire, with their lasses, and performed their +country dance for the amusement of others. There was great pleasure in +seeing the peasant maidens compete in running for a camisol or a +stomacher; high springs, fluttering dresses, and sometimes a tumble in +their haste, excited especial satisfaction, and their village demeanour +contributed to increase the enjoyment of others. It was more +particularly the princes who took pleasure in all this; there seldom +failed to be grotesque processions and dances of the country people, +when a prince made the programme of the festival. The pert waggery of +the <i>pritschmeister</i> to the country people excited a laughter on the +shooting-ground which would be offensive to us. The dancers, in +couples, garlanded with the red berries of the mountain ash, or with +carrots, advanced on the ground; men threw themselves on unsaddled +horses, and galloped past a goose which was hung above them, and the +joke was, that they slid off their nags, and the like.</p> + +<p class="normal">The amusement of the children, also, was provided for. There was a +jesting fool, who, armed with a shield and short leather club, +challenged any one to assail him with a lance. If the challenge was +accepted, the fool knew so well how to parry the lance, throw his +opponent on his back, and belabour him with his club, that the laugh +was always on his side. Beside him stood (as at Ratisbon, in 1586) a +wild man, who threw balls into his open mouth, nine balls for a +kreuzer. A little mannikin was set on a pony: they threw at him with a +ball, and whoever hit oftenest won something. Spirited boys climbed up +a smooth pole to fetch a cock out of the basket which was hung at the +top.</p> + +<p class="normal">The shooting-ground was fenced in by barriers or ropes, but alongside +it stood the tents and booths, where goldsmiths laid out their goblets, +vases, spoons, and chains. The pewter-booths were great favourites, +before which they gambled for household utensils, throwing dice in the +<i>brente</i>, which was painted red and white, similar to our backgammon +board; anxious faces thronged round the gambling-booths; vagrants and +vagabonds staked more on the game than their last stolen penny; but +they were not unobserved, for the city police in their festal attire +paced gravely along these booths to see that no offence was committed +to disturb the peace of the shooting-ground. Special attention was paid +by the giver of the feast to the bowling-ground, which was then not so +frequently found in town or country, as now. There were often two, +indeed three, prepared for the festival; here, also, there were prizes +affixed. Thus, at Breslau, 1518, an ox and pewter utensils were bowled +for, on two grounds. In Silesia, Saxony, and Thuringia, they were +favourite additions to the festival.</p> + +<p class="normal">But of all that made the festival agreeable to the people, and attained +to the greatest development, was an entertainment of a most doubtful +character,--the fortune's urn, the modest ancestor of the state and +other lotteries. As early as 1467 it made its appearance at the +cross-bow meeting at Munich. In 1470, at the great prize-shooting at +Augsburg, it was a well-known part of the programme; the prizes were +goblets, materials for dress, velvet girdles, and weapons; there were +twenty-two prizes, and more than 76,000 tickets, at eight pfennigs +each; a cook won the best prize, which was an agreeable evidence to +the people that it had been carried on honourably. By means of the +rifle-shooting at Zurich, in 1472, the urn was introduced into +Switzerland; the tickets there cost one shilling each. The drawing was +much the same as now. There was scaffolding erected in the public +place, before the council-house, and thereon a booth, in which the +prizes were placed; beside it, the secretaries and the urns. There were +two urns, into one of which the names of those were thrown who had +drawn a ticket, in the other were the prizes and blanks; a boy of +sixteen, who was placed between the urns, drew from both at the same +time. First, the name was called out, then the prize or blank. The +first ticket and the last in the urn with the names, won something; at +Zurich, a ram; those who took many tickets got them cheaper. In 1504, +at Zurich, the prizes were already in money; but in Germany the +pleasant custom still continued at the prize-shootings for another +century, of playing for artistic objects of value; the love of gambling +was great, the women especially thronged round the urn; and, if one may +judge from the lists of prizes that have been preserved, the inferior +clergy of the old church amused themselves with fortune's um. Seldom, +in the sixteenth century, did the urn fail to appear at the greater +prize-shootings; it was an important concern, and the chroniclers +recorded assiduously the prizes and fortunate winners. Thus, only to +mention one year, there were, in Central Germany alone, in 1540, two +urns of fortune; for there were prize-shootings at Frankenhausen and +Hof; at the latter the drawing lasted five days; in both cities the +last prize from the urn was the jocose prize--a sow, which had been +introduced from the shooting-ground into the urn of fortune. In 1575, +at Strasburg, the urn of fortune was very considerable; there were 275 +prizes--the first, value 115 gulden; the sale of the tickets was so +rapid that they were obliged to increase the number and the prizes in +equal proportion. Count Palatine Casimir, an enterprising prince, had +bought 1100 tickets, but did not gain much. The Zuricher guests also, +with their pot of porridge, took some thousand tickets--in the name of +the fortunate ship and of their native city--which, together, cost 101 +gulden; for this they won silver to about half the amount. The drawing +lasted fourteen days, and the throng of people about the urn was so +troublesome that at last they were obliged to use force to secure the +urn.</p> + +<p class="normal">From these beginnings arose the lottery in Italy and Holland, in the +sixteenth century; first, they played for wares, but soon for money, +and it was used as a source of income by individuals, and then by +communities. The first money lottery at Hamburg was established in +1615.</p> + +<p class="normal">Such was the course of the great feasts of arms of our ancestors. For +weeks did the multitude buzz about the shooting-ground and booths, and +in the streets of the hospitable city. When the society of marksmen had +finished the prescribed number of shots, all those to whom an equal +number of circle shots had been scored had to shoot for their prize at +a special target, and he who made the worst shot had the smallest +prize. In the same way all shot for the knightly prize who had carried +away no prize from the great shooting. The chief and the knightly +prizes were solemnly delivered with the banner; the money prizes were +in coloured silk purses, which hung to the banner; prizes and banners +were arranged beforehand in long rows for show, for in the olden days +they knew well how to make a grand display of such distinctions. Then +followed generally an after shooting for the voluntary deposits of the +shooters, more simple and unrestrained, and sometimes at other +distances. Last, on the shooting-ground, came the great farewell +oration of thanks from the giver of the feast, expressing once more to +the guests the pleasure it had given to the city. Finally, there was +the great march from the shooting-ground to the city. This was an +important ceremony. All the splendour of the festival was again +displayed in the long procession. Trumpets and pipes were blown, the +big drum and the kettle-drums thundered, the <i>pritschmeisters</i> +clattered with their bats; the dignitaries of the festival, +councillors, and <i>neuners</i>, marched in front with their long silk +scarfs; behind them the fortunate winners of the great prizes, each +with his prize borne before him, and accompanied by two men of +distinction. The other shooters followed under the banner of their +"quarter," and proudly did each carry his prize banner; but the mocking +banners also were sometimes to be seen in the procession, and humbly +were they carried by their bearers; behind them came the young +tomfools. Our ancestors were right when they moved with a feeling of +elation in such processions. The dress was already rich in colour; men +of even moderate income endeavoured to wear rich materials, silk and +velvet, on such occasions. All were accustomed to show themselves +before others, and knew well how to maintain a stately pace. With a +feather on the cap or hat, the weapon by the side, and one arm +supported on the hip under the mantle, they strode along in march time, +placing their feet wide apart, as is the custom now, thus moving the +body in an easy way, now towards the right, now the left.</p> + +<p class="normal">Thus they went to the last evening entertainment; those who were +departing had often the escort of their friends, for protection and +honour, far into the country.</p> + +<p class="normal">There is something very attractive to our feelings in this hospitality +given to the shooters. Not only were they frequently provided with +drink on the shooting-ground during the shooting-hours, and refreshed +by a collation, but they were at least once, and generally oftener, +entertained in the city, sometimes daily, by the councillors; besides +this, there were evening dances, in which the daughters of the most +distinguished families partook. These hospitalities to the guests, in +the fifteenth century, though very hearty, were also very simple; but +at a later period they became sometimes profuse, and when such a +festival lasted a fortnight, or, as at Strasburg, as much as five +weeks, they must have been very expensive to the givers of the feast; +more than once did critical chroniclers complain of the immoderate +demands on their city coffers. Loud reproaches were made even at +Strasburg, and it was reported of the Löwenbergers, after their +bird-shooting in 1615, that the city had exerted itself far beyond its +powers; for all had been very costly and splendid. In the fifteenth +century, they knew better how to calculate. The great cross-bow +shooting at Augsburg, in 1470, cost the city more than 2200 gulden, a +high sum according to the then value of corn; and yet the influx of +strangers was so great that the Augsburgers afterwards said they had +suffered no loss. But, indeed, the entertainment of the 466 stranger +guests was very simple.</p> + +<p class="normal">The number of marksmen at the earlier cross-bow shootings was not +large. At Augsburg, in 1425, there were only 130; in 1434, 300; and in +1470, 466. After fire-arms had been introduced, at the great country +meetings, the number of marksmen was double. Thus, in 1485, at St. +Gallen, there were collected 208 cross-bows and 445 guns; and in 1508, +at Augsburg, there were 544 cross-bows and 919 guns. According to the +old arrangements of the shooting, this large number of men protracted +the festival to a great length; consequently, in the sixteenth century, +we find efforts sometimes made to limit the number of invitations, but +to increase the deposits of the shooters; and it appears that a +festival, with from 200 to 300 shooting-guests, was considered most +agreeable; in that case it lasted a week; the individual became of more +importance, and the body of men was easier to guide. Even with a +moderate number of marksmen, the concourse of strangers was +incomparably greater than it would be now. Each marksman was +accompanied by a lad, who waited upon him with cross-bow or gun; if +princes or nobles were invited, they arrived with a large retinue of +junkers, servants, halberdiers, and horses; a large rabble of beggars +and rogues also flocked together, and the watchmen of the city had to +guard against theft, robbery, and fire.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was not always easy for the givers of the feast to keep order +between the inhabitants and the strangers, for, together with a natural +heartiness and wish to adapt themselves to their guests, there was in +many haughty minds a very sensitive pride of home and self-confidence, +which inclined them, more than would be the case now, to turn into +ridicule the unusual dress, manners, and language of strangers. Betwixt +certain districts there always floated, like small thunder-clouds, +certain old satirical sayings and ironical stories. Swiss and Suabians, +Thuringians and Franconians, Hessians and Rhinelanders, reported +laughable things of each other. But a word spoken when drinking, or a +mocking reminder, might disturb the peace of the festival, or excite +parties to sudden anger; and words of conciliation and redoubled +friendliness were not always successful. Thus the "<i>Seehasen</i>"<a name="div2_70" href="#div2Ref_70"><sup>[70]</sup></a> and +the "<i>Kühmelker</i>" had a severe quarrel at the cross-bow shooting at +Constance in 1458. A man from Constance, who was playing at dice with +one from Lucerne, called the Bernese coin plappart, which he had won, a +cow-plappart; the Lucerner fired up, blows and uproar followed. The +Lucerne marksmen remained to the end of the festival; but they +complained loudly that the laws of hospitality were broken, and their +honour wounded. After their return home the people of Lucerne and +Unterwalden raised the war-banner and fell on the territory of +Constance, the inhabitants of which had to pay 5000 gulden as an +expiation. Yet, in general, it was provided that such disturbances +should be reconciled on the spot, or satisfaction given to the guests. +Strictly were the shooting regulations administered by the chosen +judges, and zealously did hosts and guests endeavour to enhance the +feeling of duty in those belonging to them. Among the numerous +specimens of city hospitality of that time the most pleasing is the +kindly connection which existed for more than 100 years betwixt Zurich +and Strasburg, frequently interrupted by many passionate ebullitions, +but always renewed. In 1456, six years after the Swiss had established +the first great shooting-feast at Sursee, in the country of Lucerne, +some young Swiss, in the early dawn of morning, conveyed a large pot of +hot millet porridge, in a vessel, from Zurich to Strasburg; they +arrived in the evening; threw the famed Zurich rolls among the people, +and delivered the still warm millet porridge to the council of the +friendly city, as a token of how quickly their Swiss friends would come +to their aid if they ever needed it in earnest; they danced the same +night with the Strasburg maidens. After that, the excitement and +sufferings of the Reformation knit new spiritual ties betwixt Zurich +and the great imperial city. Bucer and the Swiss reformers, the +literati and artists of both cities, had been in close alliance; though +differences of confession had for a short time produced alienation. The +Strasburgers had often experienced the hospitality of the Swiss. Now +when, 150 years after the first journey of the porridge-pot, the city +of Strasbourg had again announced a brilliant prize-shooting for +crossbow and gun, and a strong detachment from Zurich had celebrated +with them the first fortnight of the cross-bow shooting, then a number +of young Zurichers, under the lead of some gentlemen of the council, +determined to repeat the old voyage. Again, like their ancestors, they +placed the great metal pot, weighing 120 pounds, filled with hot +porridge, in the ship, and voyaged in the early dawn of morning, all +dressed alike in rose and black, from the Limmat into the Aar, from the +Aar into the Rhine, with trumpeters and drummers. The places by which +the ship flew, in the sunny mid-day, greeted the jolly fellows with +acclamations; in the evening they reached Strasburg, having been long +before announced from the towers. The citizens thronged to meet them; +delegates from the council greeted them; they carried the pot on shore +and delivered it to the councillors; they scattered amongst the +children of Strasbourg 300 strings of Zurich rolls, and again were the +manly words spoken: "Quickly as we have come to-day in sport, we will +come to help in earnest." And at the abundant supper the old homely +dish, still warm, was enjoyed with pleasure. The Strasburger Fischart +has described with hearty satisfaction the journey of the porridge-pot, +and we find in his verses the warmth which then animated both hosts and +guests. The course of the voyage of the porridge-pot, and even the sums +which the Swiss deposited in the urn of fortune--"In the name of the +fortunate ship and of the parent town"--were paid by the city of +Zurich. In return they received the small silver utensils which were +won in the urn by the Zurichers. The collective costs of the journey +which Zurich then paid for its marksmen amounted to 1500 gulden.</p> + +<p class="normal">It is of great interest to consider these brotherly festivals of the +city communities, according to districts. In the middle of the +sixteenth century, a journey from Nuremburg to Augsburg was neither so +easy nor free from danger, as now from Leipsig to Zurich. The birds of +prey of the country gladly flew from their castellated eyries into the +woods which surrounded, in wide circles, the hospitable city; more than +once was the fortunate marksman waylaid and robbed, by noble horsemen, +of the beautiful purse with the guldens he had won, and his banner +broken. Even to greater companies the road was insecure, and the +travelling toilsome; the inns at small places were frequently very bad, +without meat or drink. It is easily understood that at the largest +prize-shooting, to which every unexceptional man was welcome, persons +from a distance only took a part when accident had brought them into +the neighbourhood. Therefore it is matter of surprise that the district +to which cities sent their invitations was so large. The Wittenburghers +were welcome guests at Ratisbon and the men of Stuttgart at Meissen. +Sometimes accident or the friendship of distinguished citizens, knit +these bonds of hospitality betwixt far-distant cities; then the +invitations went forty, fifty, or one hundred miles. But, on the whole, +we may divide these hospitable cities into groups. The Swiss, Suabians, +and Bavarians were in close union. Augsburg, more than Nuremberg, was +long the centre and pattern of these groups. To it belonged the Rhine +as far as Strasbourg. The greatest and most splendid prize-shootings +were for two centuries celebrated in this part of Germany. In Bavaria, +about 1400, all the more powerful places were in firm intercommunion. +There, the city whose marksmen, at one shooting, had won the first +prize, was bound at the next shooting festival to produce the same +first prize. Thus Kehlheim, which had won the ram at Munich, invited +the Munichers, in 1404, to contend for it again.<a name="div2_71" href="#div2Ref_71"><sup>[71]</sup></a> But smaller +festivals also comprehended a wide circle. At Ratisbon, for example, +the Bavarians and Suabians shot with the larger cities of Thuringia and +Meissen; also with Lindau, Salzburg, and some places in Bohemia. The +Tyrolese and Salzburghers collected more especially at small shooting +meetings of their districts; so also the Franconians north of the +Maine. A lasting union of middle-sized and smaller places existed +there. This Franconian union comprehended in the sixteenth century, +together with Würzburg and Schweinfurt, forty-one cities and forty-two +villages with free peasants, particularly from the bishopric of +Würzburg and the royal county of Henneberg.</p> + +<p class="normal">The chief prize was a neck chain--"The Jewel of the Country"--which the +victor wore round his neck for a year, and which imposed upon the +victorious place the duty of giving the next shooting meeting. If the +community of the union who had to give the feast was small and poor, +the meeting was badly attended. Thus at Neustadt, on Saale, in 1568, +only delegates from eighteen cities and three villages appeared. The +small participation of the village communities, at this period, is a +proof that their strength was diminished in comparison with the former +period. Another group comprehended the possessions of the House of +Saxony; the Thuringians and many Franconians and Meisseners who sent +the garland to one another. These also zealously maintained the +cross-bow at their prize-shootings; the popinjay was seldom erected, +except at smaller meetings, where it was long upheld. At these +festivals the Franconians, up to and beyond Nuremberg, were regular +guests; some of the Suabians and more of the German Bohemians. But, on +the frontiers of this group, at Halle, another association began, the +centre of which was Magdeburg; here the popinjay was more frequent. +Thus at the great prize-shooting at Halle, in 1601, the expression +"shooting court" appears, and many special usages. This circle embraced +the Harz cities up to Brunswick, and the Altmark, and reaches further +to the east and north, for the people of Halle sent their invitations +as far as Berlin, Brandenburg, and even Griefswald. Again, the cities +of the great province of Silesia were in close union, with Breslau for +their centre point; there the popinjay shooting attained to its highest +development, and the festivals were very frequent. Competition was not +unfrequent between two cities; thus, in 1504, between Liegnitz and +Neisse, when the Breslauers said, in answer to the invitation of +Neisse, that they had already accepted the invitation of Liegnitz, +and therefore could not go. The chief places of meeting of the cities +of middle Rhine were Cologne and Aix-la-Chapelle; but the great +prize-shootings of this country, which flourished at the end of the +fifteenth century, were embittered by religious discord. It is +remarkable that in the countries of Lower Saxony, on the North Sea and +Baltic, where the old Hanse towns had founded such noble city unions, +the prize-shootings were less frequent and distinguished. The most +zealous supporters of them were the Swiss, Suabians, Thuringians, +Meisseners, and Silesians. With the Swiss these great festivals +attained the character of exercises of arms; they were practical and +serious; the waggish humour and the tricks of the <i>pritschmeister</i> +flourished in Middle Germany.<a name="div2_72" href="#div2Ref_72"><sup>[72]</sup></a> It is not accidental that in the +whole of the Protestant portion of the German empire, the power and +comfort of the citizen have been most nobly developed.</p> + +<p class="normal">If these particulars give only a very imperfect picture of the +splendour, the opulence, and the independence which were developed in +these festivals by the German cities in ancient times, yet they will +succeed in making the reader feel, that though we have gained much in +comparison with those times, we have also lost something. Only very +lately it would have appeared hazardous to the greatest city +communities to arrange festivals which, according to our rate of +money, would cost perhaps more than fifty thousand thalers; not to do +honour to the visit of some sovereign, but for the pleasure of German +fellow-citizens, and which would last three or even five weeks, and +commit many hundreds, or even thousands of guests during this period to +the friendly hospitality, partly of individuals and partly of the city +community. It is true that time has become more valuable to us, life is +enjoyed more rapidly, and we compress into days what would have +employed our ancestors for weeks. It is true that modern men seek +recreation in summer in ways which were almost unknown three centuries +ago. They isolate themselves from the bustle and hard daily labour of +the world among mountain woods and alpine valleys; whilst our +ancestors, on the contrary, sought pleasure and refreshment in large +societies of men, and left the narrow boundaries of their walls,--the +guild room and the council hall,--for those great re-unions in which +they could gain honour and prizes by their own exertions. But it must +not be forgotten that it was just in those last two centuries in which +the great civic festivals became impossible, that many general +interests were developed in German citizen life, which, however +unsatisfactory they may be, form an immeasurable step in advance of the +olden time. There is also a fundamental difference in culture which +distinguishes us from our ancestors; but this difference does not rest +on the necessary progress of a later race. We feel that the old +brotherhood of cities and districts had something noble in it, in which +our life is very deficient. The joyful self-assertion of man in social +intercourse with others, the facility with which common usages unite +together hundreds and indeed thousands, and, above all, the imposing +vigour with which cities asserted their position, all this has been too +long wanting to us. If it was seldom granted to our forefathers to +feel, on the great occasions of life, the unity of German interests in +Church and State, and through a common action and great triumph to +ennoble the life of every individual, yet they knew at least how to +open, by their fellowship, a domain in which expression was given to +the German nature, to human relations and to community of spirit.</p> + +<p class="normal">It is only within a few years that it has become a necessity to Germans +to expand their life in this direction. It was no mere accident that +made German men of science, in their wandering meetings, the first to +give significant expression to some of the noblest interests of the +nation by national association. They were followed by the singers and +others, then the gymnasts, finally the shooters. We are now, after more +than two centuries of preparation, again treading in the same path in +which our ancestors so grandly trod, but with a freer and nobler +feeling. It has been a long-denied pleasure for us thus to be able to +vaunt ourselves. But we should at the same time be mindful, and it is +the object of these pages to remind us, that the citizen-class of +Germany has striven, for more than two centuries since the Thirty +Years' War, to become again as powerful and manly in this respect as +their ancestors were.</p> + +<p class="normal">But even of that time of weakness, the century that followed the great +war, a picture shall be given. But it must be short. The hospitable +prize-shootings of the cities had ceased; here and there a ruler gave a +family festival, or, as a special act of grace, a large country +shooting meeting, at which prizes were awarded, and their subjects +allowed to participate. In the cities the old shooting associations +still existed, though in many cases robbed of their prize cups, chains, +and jewels; even the cautious Leipzigers had not preserved the silver +statue of their holy Sebastian. Many old customs were maintained in +their desolate shooting houses; the cross-bow, at the popinjay and +target, had dragged on a miserable existence; it lasts in a few cities +as a curiosity up to the present day; the rifled weapon became +naturalised; in larger communities the new Imperial nobility favoured +shooting guilds and their old "<i>Königsschiessen</i>,"<a name="div2_73" href="#div2Ref_73"><sup>[73]</sup></a> and these +festivals acquired a stiff pretentious character of pedantic state +action. This great change in the city festival,--the only meagre +feast of arms which remained to the German citizen in the eighteenth +century,--is apparent in a description of the Breslau shooting in the +year 1738. It is found where one would hardly look for it, in the +laborious work of the physician Johann Christian Kundmann, entitled +"Beruhmte Schlesier in Müntzen," 1738, i., p. 128, and is given as +follows, literally, with few omissions:--</p> + +<p class="normal">"At this time the following solemnities were observed at the +'<i>Königsschiessen</i>.' On Whitsunday the king of the preceding year went +with the elders, the Zwinger brotherhood, also with some invited +friends, in some twenty carriages, out to the Zwinger.<a name="div2_74" href="#div2Ref_74"><sup>[74]</sup></a> By the side +of the carriage went the secretaries as servants, two outriders, +the markers, and the king's own servant; they were received with +kettle-drums and trumpets. After that, the perquisites of the king were +read aloud to the shooters in the room, and those who wished to shoot +for the kingdom were to sign their names with their own hand. Then +appeared two gentlemen, commissaries of the worshipful and illustrious +council, who are usually the two youngest councillors of the nobility; +they wore Spanish mantles, trimmed with lace or fringe, and placed +themselves opposite to the king in the room,--who stayed there in his +kingly attire, bearing the great golden bird. The councillors state +that they, as commissioners, have to be present at this shooting. After +this the king goes to the shooting ground, accompanied by the +commissioners, the elders, and shooters.</p> + +<p class="normal">"As, according to old usages, a popinjay was to be the mark, a large +carved bird with outspread wings was set up, instead of a target, and +at this there were six courses, that is, each shooter fired six times. +A small silver bird, or a large <i>klippe</i>, was attached to the king as a +badge of honour, instead of the large gilt bird, which was too heavy +and incommodious to carry. He kept the badge till one of the others +had made the winning shot with a bullet. The king shoots always +first, amidst the sounding of kettle-drums and trumpets. After +these shots the new king is presented to the commissaries, by the +zwinger-orator,--usually an advocate, with a well composed speech,--and +the usual presents are presented to the king. The first gentleman of +the council answers with a similar speech. After that they go to the +zwinger repast, and when they rise from table the king is accompanied +with kettle-drums and trumpets home. Or the king and the brotherhood +march with music and wine round the city, and do honour thereby to +their patrons and good friends. The Wednesday after, the king gives his +usual silver shooting, at which there are six prizes of silver, that +consist of cups and spoons. After the completion of this, the king +gives his first entertainment.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The Saturday following, early in the morning, about eight o'clock, the +king is conducted, with his retinue, in his costly attire, before the +illustrious and worshipful council in the council room, where the +zwinger-orator again delivers an oration, and begs for the king all the +immunities; the president answers with a similar speech, confirms him +in his kingdom, conveys to him the regal dues, and concludes with +congratulations. Then the day for the king's benefit is solicited, +generally some Monday a few weeks later. This is a pleasure shooting of +twelve courses. He who makes the best shot, and he who with gun and +dice (the equally bad shots cast lots by dice), fails most, must both +place themselves in front of the shooting-house. To the first a large +orange will be delivered on a pewter plate, together with a glass of +wine and a garland of roses, and some verses will be recited in his +praise, when the kettle-drums and trumpets will sound. But he who has +failed gets a whey cheese in a wreath of nettles on a wooden plate, +together with a glass of beer, upon which the bagpipes and a small +fiddle are played; the verses are generally very pungent, and the +zwinger poets are frequently wont to recite truths in jest to their +dear friends. Besides this, for each shot on the outer circle of the +target in all the courses, a citron is given, and in like manner to +every one who hits, a citron, an orange, or a curd cheese, which are +painted on the target, together with other pictures characteristic of +the time. Then they go to another meal, when the zwinger-orator and the +first deputy of the council deliver speeches, and distribute the +banners and prizes to the best shots and the victors in the twelve +courses, with the sounding of kettle-drums and trumpets. Then the king +gives a costly repast, which often lasts nearly till daybreak. Over the +king hangs the great king's bird: he himself sits in a large arm chair. +From thence the king is accompanied to the patrons and then home, and +this solemnity generally finishes with some merriment. Finally, the +king gives, the following day, a sausage shooting, and appoints a prize +of silver and gold; this is again concluded by an entertainment, +followed by dice playing for pewter."</p> + +<p class="normal">Here ends the account of Kundmann. Of how little importance was such a +"<i>Königsschiessen</i>" of the seventeenth century may be gathered from the +description. The popular festival of the olden time had become a +pretentious solemnity. To do everything in a genteel way was the great +desire; only the wealthy could become kings; to drive in carriages, to +be accompanied by servants, to give costly meals and expensive prizes, +were the main objects; the shooting was a minor point: and it was very +significant that the king was no longer expected to speak publicly +before his fellow-citizens; he represented in dumb show; the advocate +spoke for the citizen at the festival also. Lastly, it may be perceived +that the remnants of some of the old jovial customs had still been +retained; they stand out in contrast to the prudery and susceptibility +of the time; the improvisation of the <i>pritschmeister</i> had ceased, and +even the ironical verses on bad shots had to be prepared; gradually the +reminiscences of a more vigorous time were laid aside as obsolete and +absurd.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was not, however, the wretchedness of the people alone,--the bitter +fruit of the war,--that destroyed the great brotherly feasts of the +citizen, nor yet the ruling tendency to haughty exclusiveness against +all who held a modest position in life, but equally injurious was the +peculiar stamp impressed upon even the best and most highly cultivated, +after that period of humiliation.</p> + +<p class="normal">It is time now to observe the great change in the German popular mind, +which turned the martial citizen, who knew how to use powder and shot +and to direct a gun, into the shy, timid gentleman, who hastened his +steps when he heard near him the thump of the butt end of a musket, and +feared lest his son should grow too tall, and come into the horrible +position of having to shoulder a weapon in rank and file.</p> + +<p class="normal">This change was effected by the new polity of the princes.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER IV.</h2> +<br> +<h3>STATE POLICY AND THE INDIVIDUAL.</h3> +<h4>(1600-1700.)</h4> +<br> + +<p class="normal">The last stage of the process of dissolution which the holy Roman +empire passed through occupies the hundred and fifty years from +Oxenstern to Napoleon. The mortal disease began in 1520, when Charles +V., the Burgundian Hapsburger, was crowned Emperor of Germany; the +death struggle itself did not begin till the election of Ferdinand II., +the Jesuit protector, in 1620. The peal of bells that celebrated the +Westphalian peace was a death-knell; what followed was the last slow +destruction of an expiring organism. But it was also the beginning of a +new organic formation. The rise of the Prussian state coincides +precisely with the end of the Thirty Years' War.</p> + +<p class="normal">Whether joy or sorrow ought to predominate in the consideration of such +a period depends not only on the political point of view, but on the +culture and character of those who form a judgment on it. To those who +love to depict with poetic warmth the glories of a German empire, such +as perhaps might have been, the advent and character of a time so poor +in great men and in national pride can only be repugnant; whoever is in +the unfortunate position of considering the interests of the +Hapsburgers or those of the Order of Jesus as essentially German, will +form an imaginary picture of the past, which will be as far removed +from the reality, as the relique worship of the ancient church is from +the free man's worship of God. But whoever investigates temperately and +sensibly the connection of events, should be careful, in writing the +history of this period, not to forget, in the hatefulness of +appearances, to do justice to what was legitimate in the reality, and +equally so, not for the sake of what, is good, to throw a veil over +that which is odious. It is not purely accidental that it is only easy +to one who is both a Protestant and a Prussian, to regard with +conscious pride and a cheerful heart the historical development of the +last two centuries.</p> + +<p class="normal">Immediately after the peace of Münster and Osnabruck, two views of +German politics confronted one another, the one which, in spite of the +diminution of the Hapsburg influence and the decision of the +Westphalian peace, still maintained the old traditions of Imperial +supremacy, and the other that of the great territorial princes who +sought to secure full freedom of action and independence for +themselves, and who had, in fact, become sovereigns. The history of +these opposing principles comprehends, in the main, the history of the +political development of our fatherland up to the present day. Still do +the two parties remain, but the aims and the means of agitation of both +are changed, for above them has arisen a new formation, a third party. +After 1648 it was the Imperial party who strongly proclaimed the unity +of Germany; the political supremacy was claimed for the House of +Hapsburg, and that was desired which is almost precisely what is at +present termed the diplomatic and military lead Then weak public +opinion, in which there was still a lively recollection of the old +connection with the Empire, was for the most part, even among the +Protestants, on its side, and the Imperial politicians endeavoured to +enlist supporters through the press. If a few literary men, who stood +up for German nationality in opposition to foreign influences, murmured +at the weakness of the fatherland, the conclusion always presented +itself to them, that the Emperor was pre-eminently entitled to revive +the old supremacy of the Empire. At that time the strength of this +party lay in the fact, that the only German state power of any +magnitude was that of the House of Hapsburg, but their weakness +consisted in this, that the policy of the Emperor was not in the main +German, and that the bigotry and intrigues of the Vienna court did not +inspire either the princes with fear, or the estates with confidence. +On the other hand, the opposition party of princely politicians, +looking to their own advantage, with very little consideration for the +Empire, sought the isolation of individual states, the weakening of the +connection of the Empire, the policy of the free hand and temporary +alliances of the courts among themselves, instead of submitting to the +power of the Diet; and their mutual union at the Diet, and in all +diplomatic negotiations, tended to counteract the influence and policy +of the Emperor. In the midst of this struggle betwixt two adverse +principles, a new state arose in Germany, the princes of which, allying +themselves sometimes with one party, sometimes with the other, +endeavoured to make use of both, and collected round them a nation, +which at the end of the eighteenth century appeared capable of a more +vigorous development of German strength than the inheritance of the +Hapsburgers. And so completely has the situation of Germany changed, +that now the Imperial party acts with most of the German princes +against the party of the new State. The old opponents have united in a +struggle against the new party, both in the difficult position of +having to uphold what is unsatisfactory, both under the fatal necessity +of working against a long-cherished desire of the nation.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was a desperate political situation which placed the centre of +gravity of German power in the hands of individual German princes, and +gave them the almost unlimited disposal of the property and lives of +their subjects. The political weakness of Germany, the despotic sway +and corruption of the rulers, the servility of the subjects, the +immorality of the courts, and the dishonesty of officials, was the sad +result, and has often been sufficiently pourtrayed. But with this time +begins also the modern State life of Germany. The progress of a nation +is not always understood and valued by contemporaries, the necessary +changes are not always effected by great men; sometimes the good genius +of a nation requires the bad, the insignificant, and the shortsighted, +as instruments in a powerful reconstruction. Not in the French +revolution alone has a new life proceeded from evil deeds: in Germany +also, iron necessity, despotism, and contempt for old rights, have +produced much that we now consider as the necessary groundwork of +well-regulated State life.</p> + +<p class="normal">The school of diplomats and statesmen who had been trained during the +war in Germany, defended the interests of the German sovereigns up to +the time of the French revolution. The endless peace negotiations +brought together in Germany the most distinguished politicians of +Europe. Pupils of Richelieu, able Netherlanders, countrymen of +Macchiavelli, and the proud followers of Gustavus Adolphus. The +struggle of antagonisms gave to a large number of talented Germans +superabundant opportunities of forming themselves; for around the +representatives of the great powers were more than a hundred political +agents, writing and haranguing. From the passionate struggle which was +brought to a conclusion at Münster and Osnabruck amid the constraint of +ceremonials and with an appearance of cold tranquillity, from the +chaotic confusion of numberless contending interests, and from the +mountains of acts, controversial writings, replications, and projects +of treaty, a generation of politicians was, after the peace, spread +over the country, hard men, with stubborn will and indomitable +perseverance, with gigantic power of work and acute judgment, learned +jurists and versatile men of the world, with great knowledge of human +nature, but at the same time sceptical despisers of all ideal feelings, +unscrupulous in the choice of means, dextrous in making use of the weak +point of an opponent, experienced in demanding and giving honour, and +well inclined not to forget their own advantage. They became the +leaders of politics at the courts and in the Imperial cities, quiet +leaders or dextrous tools of their lords--in fact, the real rulers of +Germany. They were the creators of the diplomacy and bureaucracy of +Germany. Their method of negotiating may appear to us very prolix and +pettifogging, but it is just in our time, when a superficial +dilettanteism is to be complained of in diplomacy and State government, +that the legal culture and sagacious dexterity of the old school should +be looked back upon with respect. It was not the fault of these men +that they were obliged to spend their lives in a hundred little +quarrels, and that only few of them found themselves in the happy +position of promoting a great and wise policy. But it will always be to +their honour, that under unfavourable circumstances they more than once +preserved the esteem and respect of the external enemies of Germany, +for German diplomacy, where they no longer felt it for the power of +German armies.</p> + +<p class="normal">They regulated also the internal concerns of the devastated provinces +of the new "State." According to their model was formed the official +class, also the colleges of judges and administrators; often, it is +true, more awkward and pedantic, but just as tenacious of rank, and not +unfrequently as corruptible, as the chancellors and privy councillors +on whom they depended. The new politicians carried on also important +negotiations with the provincial Diets, and had no easy task to render +them pliant or harmless. Ever since the end of the fifteenth century +there existed, in almost all the larger territories of Germany, State +representatives of the country, who voted the taxes, attaching +conditions to such votes, and also giving their opinion on the +application of the taxes; in the sixteenth century they had attained to +increased importance, as they superintended a provincial bank, which +assisted the Government in raising money. At the end of the great war, +these provincial banks became the last and most important help, for +they had strained their credit to the uttermost to provide a war +contribution to rid the country of foreign armies. Thus after the peace +they were most influential corporations, and the existence of the great +portion of creditless sovereigns depended, in fact, upon them. +Unfortunately the provincial States were ill fitted to be the true +representatives of the country; they consisted for the most part of +prelates, lords, and knights, all of them representatives of the +nobility, who were, as regarded their own persons and property, exempt +from taxes: under them were the deputies of the desolated and deeply +involved cities. Thus they were not only inclined to lay the burden of +these money grants upon the mass of the people, but it also became +possible for the Government, through the preponderance of the +aristocratic element, to exercise every kind of personal influence. +Whilst the ruler drew the nobles of his province to his court, in order +to divert himself in fitting society, his chief officials knew how to +take advantage of their craving for rank and titles, and through +offices, dignities, and gifts, and lastly by threats of royal +displeasure, to break the resistance of individuals. Thus in the +eighteenth century the States in most of the principalities sank into +insignificance, in some they were entirely abolished. Still some +continued to exist, and did not everywhere lose their influence and +importance.</p> + +<p class="normal">The sums, however, which they were able to grant did not by any means +suffice for the new state--to maintain a costly court, numerous +officials and soldiers. Regular imposts had to be devised which would +be independent of their grants. The indirect taxes quickly increased to +a threatening extent. The necessaries of life--bread, meat, salt, wine, +beer--and many other things, were taxed to the consumers, at the end of +the seventeenth century. The custom and excise officials were stationed +at the city gates, and custom-houses were placed at the frontiers, for +the merchandise which passed in and out. Commercial intercourse was +made use of through stamped paper, even the pleasures of the subject +were made available for the state; for example (in 1708 in the Imperial +hereditary lands), not only public but private dances were taxed, and +also, in 1714, tobacco. At last the poor comedians were likewise +obliged to pay a gulden for each representation, and even the quack and +eye doctors paid at each yearly market a few kreuzers, and heavy claims +were made on the Jews. It was long before either people or officials +could accustom themselves to the pressure of the new imposts; the +tariff and the mode of levying it were always being altered, and +frequently the governments saw with dissatisfaction their expectations +disappointed. On the impoverished people the pressure of the new taxes +fell very severely; loud and incessant were the complaints in the +popular literature.</p> + +<p class="normal">Meanwhile the subject worked with the plough and the hammer; he sat at +the writing-desk, and saw around and over him everywhere the wheels of +the great state machine; he heard its clicking and creaking, and was +hindered, tormented, and endangered by its every movement. He lived +under it as a stranger, timid and suspicious. In about six hundred +great and small courts, he saw daily the splendid households of his +rulers, and the gold-embroidered dresses of the court people; the lace +of the lacqueys and the tufts of the footmen were to him objects of the +highest importance, his usual topic of discourse. When the ruling lord +kept a grand table, the citizens had sometimes the privilege of seeing +the court dine. When the court, forming a sledge party, or a so-called +<i>wirthschaft</i>,<a name="div2_75" href="#div2Ref_75"><sup>[75]</sup></a> drove through the streets in disguise, the subjects +might look on. In winter they might even themselves take a share in a +great masquerade, but a barrier was erected which separated the people +from the sports of the court. Once the prince had contended with the +citizens, shooting at the same target, and was only treated in the +jokes of the <i>pritschmeister</i> with somewhat greater consideration. Now +the court were entirely separated from the people; and if a courtier +condescended to notice a citizen, it was generally no advantage to the +purse or family peace of the privileged one. Thus the poor citizen +acquired an abject feeling. To obtain an office or title which would +give him somewhat of this courtly power, became the object of his +ambition, and the same even with the artisan. In the five or six +hundred court establishments the desire for titles spread from the +nobles and officials down to the lowest class of the people. Shortly +before 1700 began the monstrous custom of giving court titles to the +artisans, and with these an order of precedence. The court shoemaker +tried by petitioning and bribery to obtain the right of nailing the +coat of arms of his sovereign over his door; and the court tailor and +court gardener quarrelled bitterly which should go before the other, +for the tailor, according to the letter of the rule of precedence, +went as a matter of course before the gardener, but the latter had +obtained the right of bearing a sword.<a name="div2_76" href="#div2Ref_76"><sup>[76]</sup></a> Wealth was the only thing +besides rank that gave a privileged position. Whoever calls ours a +money-seeking time, should remember how great was the influence of +money in former times, and how eagerly it was sought by the poor. The +rich man could, it was thought, effect everything. He could be made a +nobleman, provided with a title, or by his presents put his rulers +under an obligation to him. These presents, were in general received +willingly. Greedily did the chancellor, the judge, or the councillor +accept them, and even the most sensitive rarely withstood a delicately +offered gift. The protection, however, obtained by the citizen in the +new state was still very deficient; it was difficult for him to obtain +justice against people of distinction and influence. Lawsuits in most +of the German territories were endless. A difficult case of +inheritance, or a bankruptcy business, would go on to the second and +third generation. Government, with the best will, could not always +punish even violent injury to property from burglary or robbery. It is +instructive to investigate the proceedings against the bold robber +bands; even when they succeeded in catching the delinquent, the stolen +goods could seldom be restored to the owners. The neighbouring +governments sometimes delivered up, on requisition and petition, the +criminal who had found an asylum in their country, but such deliveries +were generally preceded by special influence, and frequently by +presents of money; but the confiscated possessions of the criminal were +in many cases retained, and disappeared in the hands of the officials. +When in 1733, at Coburg, a gold and silver manufactory was robbed, and +strong suspicion fell on a wealthy Jewish trader, the proceedings were +often stopped and interfered with, in consequence of the relations the +Jew had with the court; and even after he was known to be in intimate +connection with a band of robbers and murderers, the proceedings +against his assistants could not be pursued further, because the +magistrates of the place in Hesse where the robbers dwelt, helped their +flight; and the further ramifications of the band, which spread to +Bavaria and Silesia, could not be traced on account of the +unwillingness of the tribunals. And yet this trial was carried on with +great energy, and the person who had been robbed had made distant +journeys and offered large sums. Everywhere the multiplicity of rulers, +and the dismemberment of territories, were productive of weakness. The +Margravate of Brandenburg and a portion of Lower Saxony formed almost +the only great connected unity, except the Imperial possessions. In the +rest of Germany lay interspersed many thousands of large and small +domains, free cities, and parcels of land appertaining to the nobility. +But even a modest pride in their own province could not be cultivated +in individuals. For each of the countless frontiers occasioned far more +isolation than in the olden time. Even in the larger cities, excepting +in the cities on the Northern Ocean, municipal spirit had disappeared. +Besides his own interests, the German had little to occupy him but the +tittle-tattle of the day concerning family events and any remarkable +news. It may be seen from many examples how trifling, pedantic, and +malicious was the talk of the city for three generations, and how +morbidly sensitive, on the other hand, men had become. Anonymous +lampoons in prose and verse, an old invention, became ever more +numerous, coarse, and malicious; they stirred up not only families, but +the whole community of citizens; they became dangerous for the +propagators, if they ever ventured to, attack any influential person or +royal interests. Yet they increased everywhere; no government was in a +position to prevent them; for an artful publisher easily found +opportunity to print and distribute them on the other side of the +frontier.</p> + +<p class="normal">Under such circumstances some qualities were developed in the German +character which have not yet quite disappeared. A craving for rank and +title, servility to those who, whether as officials, or as persons of +rank, lived in a higher position, fear of publicity, and above all a +striking inclination to form a morose, mean, and scornful judgment of +the character and life of others.</p> + +<p class="normal">This gloomy, hopeless, discontented, and ironical disposition showed +itself everywhere, after the Thirty Years' War, by individuals giving +vent to their thoughts about the state within whose jurisdiction they +lived. It is true that the Germans continued after the great war to +take an interest in politics: newspapers of all kinds increased +gradually, and bore the news to every house; confidential reports from +the seats of government and great commercial cities were circulated; +the half-yearly reports of fairs comprised an abstract of the +occurrences of many months; and numberless flying sheets, representing +party interests, appeared upon every weighty event, both internal and +external. The execution of the king, in England, was generally +condemned by German readers as a frightful crime, and the sympathies of +the whole nation were long with the Stuarts; but shortly before William +of Orange put to sea against James II. it was read and believed that +James had ventured to substitute a false child as heir to the throne. +No one, however, excited public opinion so strongly against himself as +Louis XIV. If ever a man was hated by the whole of Germany, he was. It +is remarkable, that whilst the manners of his court and the fashions of +his capital were everywhere imitated by the upper classes, and even the +people could not escape from their influence, his politics were from +the first rightly estimated by them. Countless were the flying sheets +which were scattered about from all sides against him. He was the +disturber of the peace, the great enemy, and in the lampoons also the +proud fool. After the Palatinate was laid in ashes, the people called +their dogs Melac and Teras; after the taking of Strasburg, a deeper cry +of woe passed through the land. Finally, when in the great War of +Succession the German armies long kept the upper hand, a feeling of +self-respect was excited, which appeared in the small literature of the +day. Had there been a German prince who could have awakened an +energetic patriotism in the weak people, this hatred would have helped +him. But a powerful outburst of patriotic feeling was hindered by the +political condition of the country; in Cologne and Bavaria, French +printing-presses were at work, and German pens wrote against their own +countrymen.</p> + +<p class="normal">One cannot, therefore, say that the Germans were deficient altogether +in political feeling in the century from 1640 to 1740, for it burst +forth everywhere; even in works of imagination, in novels, and also in +the drama, political conversation found a place, as did aesthetic talk +in Goethe's time. But it was unfortunate that this feeling vented +itself on the political quarrels of other countries, and that the +transactions in Germany itself, excited less interest than the daily +occurrences of the Parisian court, or the abdication of the Queen of +Sweden. The indifferent public still continued to occupy itself as +earnestly about comets, witches, appearances of the devil, a quarrel +amongst ecclesiastics, disputes between councillors and citizens of +some Imperial city, or the conversion of some small prince by the +Jesuits, as about the battle of Fehrbellin. The preparations of the +Turks and the war in Hungary were, perhaps, spoken of with a shake of +the head; but to pay money for it, or render assistance, was seldom +thought of; even after the siege of Vienna by the Turks, in 1683, Count +Stahremberg was scarcely as interesting to the great German public as +the spy Kolschitzky, who had brought the account from the city to the +Imperial main army; his figure was engraved in copper in Turkish dress, +and sold in the market. It is true he shared this glory with every +distinguished thief and murderer who had ever been executed anywhere, +to the great diversion of the public. Sometimes, indeed, the attention +of the Germans was fixed with deeper interest on one man, the Elector +of Brandenburg. In Southern Germany, also, he was spoken of +respectfully; he was a powerful-minded prince, but, unfortunately, his +means were small. This was the general opinion; but, as upon his +character, so, likewise, upon other vital questions, did the German +people give their opinion with as much tranquillity as if it were a +question of the Muscovite Czar, or of the distant Japan, concerning +which Jesuit accounts had been narrated centuries before. And this was +not the result of the trammels of the press, though it certainly was +much fettered; for, in spite of all the recklessness with which the +ruling powers sought to revenge themselves on its unruly spirit, the +multiplicity of states, and the mutual hatred of neighbouring +governments, made it difficult to crush an unbridled press. It was +other causes which made the people so indifferent to their own +interests.</p> + +<p class="normal">Neither was it deficiency in judgment. If the numberless political +discourses of that time are clumsy and diffuse in composition, without +any sufficient knowledge of facts and persons, yet they deserve credit +for much sound sense and frequently a surprising comprehension of the +condition of Germany. The Germans, even before 1700, were not deficient +in political discernment; nay, before the Thirty Years' War, much +progress was apparent. But it was their peculiar characteristic that, +with this comprehension of their dangerous situation, of the +helplessness of the Empire, and of its miserable, dislocated state, the +people calmly and quietly recognised it with a shake of the head; even +their literary teachers were rarely roused to manly indignation, still +less to determined will, nor even to form fruitless projects. Thus, the +nation in the seventeenth century might be compared to a hopeless +invalid, who, free from the excitement of fever, soberly, calmly, and +sensibly contemplates his own condition. We know, indeed, that it is +our own century which has cured this morbid state of the German people; +but we also perceive the cause of the singular, cold, and gloomy +objectiveness which became so peculiar to our nation, and of which +traces are yet to be discovered in many individuals. It is the disease +of a rightly-gifted, genial nature, whose volition has been crushed by +the horrors of war and the struggles of fate, and whose warm heart has +been benumbed. A clear, circumspect, just spirit remains to the German; +noble political enthusiasm is lost to him. He no longer finds pleasure +and honour in being the citizen of a great State; he has no nation that +he loves, no State that he honours; he is an individual among +individuals; he has well-wishers and detractors, good friends and bad +enemies, scarcely any fellow-citizens as yet, scarcely yet any +countrymen.</p> + +<p class="normal">As characteristic of such a frame of mind, a flying-sheet will here be +given, which, in the allegorical style of the seventeenth century, +makes bitter observations on the new State policy. Even during the +great war, Bogislaw Philipp Chemnitz, one of the most zealous and +talented adherents of the Swedish party, made a prodigious sensation by +a book, in which he complains of the Imperial house as the principal +cause of the misery of Germany, and finds the only salvation of the +country in the independence and complete power of the German princes. +From the title of the book,<a name="div2_77" href="#div2Ref_77"><sup>[77]</sup></a> "<i>Staatsraison</i>," this expression +became the usual term for denoting the new system of government which, +after the peace, began to prevail in the German territories. Since +that, this <i>Staatsraison</i> was through half a century condemned in +numerous moral treatises from the popular press; it was represented as +double and triple headed, and in books, pictures, and satirical verses, +always accused of being arbitrary, hard, and hypocritical. To this +effect are the contents of the following work, which is here given with +some abbreviations and alterations which are indispensable for its +easier comprehension<a name="div2_78" href="#div2Ref_78"><sup>[78]</sup></a>:--</p> + +<p class="normal">"As the <i>ratio status</i> is now not only honoured in the world, but held +to be an irrevocable law, so are truth and honesty, on the other hand, +no longer valued. When a situation in the service of the state is +vacant, there is, indeed, no want of candidates; but out of nine the +prince finds scarcely three that will suit him. Therefore, they must be +examined. And if, in the examination, any one, in answer to the +question, what should be the first and most distinguished virtue of a +prince's councillor, should say: 'The men of the olden time teach that +a prince should be none other than a servant for the general welfare; +therefore, it is his duty to rule according to law and justice, for God +and nature have implanted in the heart of every one a true balance for +weighing the gold; do to others as you would they should do unto you;' +then the prince would give him a courteous dismissal.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Such a candidate had not long ago got through an examination at a +certain court, by shrewd and cautious answers; he was nominated +councillor, and as the prince was kindly disposed towards him, +he gave him in marriage the daughter of his vice-chancellor. After +the new councillor had taken the oath of fidelity and secresy, the +vice-chancellor got the keys of the state apartments, and took his +son-in-law in to initiate him into state secrets.</p> + +<p class="normal">"In the first room hung many state mantles of all colours, on the +outside beautifully trimmed, but badly lined inside, a portion of them +having wolf or fox skins in addition to the bad lining. The son-in-law +expressed surprise at this, but the chancellor answered: 'These are +state mantles, which must be used when one has to propose anything +suspicious to subjects, in order to persuade them that black is white; +then must one disguise the matter in the mantle of state necessity, in +order to induce the subjects to submit to contributions, rates, and +other taxes. Therefore, the first mantle, embroidered in gold, is +called the welfare of the subject; the second, with fringe, the +advancement of the commonwealth; the third, which is red, the +maintenance of divine service: it is used when one desires to drive any +one, whom one cannot otherwise catch, from house and home, or give him +a bloody back, under pretence of false teaching. The fourth is called +zeal for the faith; the fifth, the freedom of fatherland; the sixth, +the maintenance of privileges.' Last of all, there hung one very old +and much worn, like an old banner or horse cover, concerning which the +son-in-law laughed, wondering much; but the father-in-law said--'The +daily and too great misuse of this has worn the hair off, but it is +called good intentions, and is oftener sought after at the courts of +the great than daily bread. For, if one lays insupportable burdens on +subjects, and reduces them to skin and bone with soccage service, and +if one cuts the bread from their mouths, it is said to be done with the +best intentions; if one begins an unnecessary war, and plunges the +country and its inhabitants in a sea of blood under fire and sword, it +is done with the best intentions. Who could know that it would turn out +so ill? If one sends innocent people to prison or to the rack, or +drives them into utter misery, and their innocence comes to light, +still it must have been with good intentions. If one passes an unjust +judgment from hatred, envy, favour, bribery, or friendship, it is only +done with a good intention. It comes at last to such a point, that one +shall make use of the help of the devil with the best intentions. If +one or other of these mantles are too short to disguise the roguery, +one may cloak it with two, three, or more.' This room appeared very +strange to the new councillor; he, nevertheless, followed his noble +father-in-law into another; there they found all sorts of masks, so +ingeniously formed both in colour and features that they might be the +natural faces of men. 'When the mantles,' said the chancellor, 'do not +suffice to the attainment of the above-mentioned object, one must make +a change; for if one appears too often in one or the other mantle +successively before the States, or subjects, or before neighbouring +potentates, they at last learn to understand it, and say: "It is the +old story; we know what he wants, he wishes to obtain money; but how +can we always get it? One might at least be informed to what these +repeated taxes are applied." The masks serve to meet this discontent +One is called the oath; another, calumny; a third, deceit; these delude +people, be they good or bad, and effect more than all the arguments of +logic. But, above all, the oath is the masterpiece of court logic; for +an honourable man always thinks that another is like-minded with +himself; he holds more to an oath and good faith than to all temporal +goods; but if a man is a knave, he must still give credence to an oath, +otherwise he puts himself under suspicion that he neither values oaths +nor duty. If both the others fail, calumny must be resorted to, to +relieve subjects from the burden of some thousand gulden according to +their means.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"In the third chamber were hanging, in all directions, razors and brass +basins; the shelves were covered with cupping-glasses and sponges. +There were many vessels containing strong alkalies, tourniquets, and +pincers, and shears lay on the tables and window-seats. The young +councillor crossed himself; what could they have to do at court with +this surgical apparatus, as even many artisans hesitate to admit +bath-keepers, shepherds, millers, and trumpeters into their guilds? 'It +is not so ill imagined,' said the old man; 'this is the least deceptive +handiwork of the state policy, and is more profitable than pen and ink. +It is so necessary, that no prince, without this handiwork, can long +maintain with dignity his state and his reputation; and its use is so +general, that even the country nobles practise it in a masterly way on +their peasants; hence the maxim comes, that "If a nobleman draws too +much blood from the peasants' veins, he himself is ruined." Of +what use to the prince are his land and people, if he cannot shear +their wool for the rents that are due, and draw contributions with +cupping-glasses, and cleanse disobedient leaders by the alkali of sharp +punishment? Nay, the potentates shave, pinch, and cup one another, +also, whenever they can. Thus did the generals in the last war draw, +now from the Imperial cities, now from the benefices, much of their +best blood; and the Holy Roman Empire has been as severely pinched by +foreign crowns as if it had been done by born bath-servants, only they +have made the lie too hot. Many have held the basin to the foreigners, +and things have gone so far, that insignificant cavaliers have ventured +to shear other princes. But what the princes do not do in person is +performed by their councillors, treasurers, and other officials, who +allow themselves to be used as the sponge, and where they have attached +themselves to an office, a city, or a village, and have sucked up so +much moisture that they well-nigh burst asunder, then comes the prince, +and gives them such a squeeze of the hand, that they are obliged to +disgorge all that they have absorbed, and become as empty as cast-off +serpent skins.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"Silently did the young councillor listen, and entered the fourth +chamber. There lay many cases of state spectacles of different kinds. +'Some, when they are put on, make a thing ten times larger than it is, +so that a midge appears like an elephant--a thread like a rope--and a +farthing like a rose-noble; they serve to blind the eyes of subjects. +If the prince presents them with a couple of timber-trees, remits +somewhat of their contribution, or gives them the liberty to appear +before him in velvet and silk, they prize this as highly as if he had +given them many thousand ducats. These spectacles so injure the eyes of +the unfortunate courtiers, that the least favour, such as the prince +laying his hand upon their shoulder, or even looking upon them, is +valued more highly than if they had received from him a rent of 500 +gulden. Nay, the prince has, through his most august understanding, +discovered a special profitable use of these spectacles. If he finds +the States unwilling to give him contributions, he gets up a cry that +the enemy is at hand; that we need thus much and more of provisions, +money, and men to meet the barbarous enemy, otherwise all would fall +into his jaws. By these exaggerations the people are rendered willing, +and give as much as they possibly can. But so soon as the fish is +caught, then it is found that God has roused up great princes, who, for +the sake of peace, have mediated, and the contributions are used for +other purposes. Another kind of spectacles have, on the contrary, the +property of making a mountain appear not greater than a hazel-nut or +bean; they are fixed on the cities and frontier lands, right in the +face of which the princes have built castles and fortresses; in order +to persuade them that these are only pleasure and garden houses, +custom-houses and hunting-boxes. The third kind of spectacles, through +which the white appears black, and the black snow white, will always be +used when one wishes anything bad to have a glittering appearance; they +serve also for those who are induced to marry--under the supposition +that they are virtuous ladies--the females who wait upon the royal +household, make their beds, and curl their hair.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"After this the chancellor reached down a box of brown powder, and +desired his son-in-law to guess what it was. 'It is eye-powder or +dust,' said the old man, 'which rulers sprinkle in the eyes of their +subjects. It is one of the principal tricks to keep the populace quiet; +for when there arise among them turbulent spirits, who open the eyes of +subjects by certain political doctrines, and lead them to inquire into +the secrets of government, to read the hearts of princes, bring +together their grievances, and attach themselves to lynx-eyed +agitators, then insurrection and war are at the door.' After this a +vessel of court-peas was produced. The old man stated that this was one +of the most noxious expedients employed at court, not indeed used by +the rulers, but by their false courtiers. 'How so?' said the son. 'I +regret that I must explain it to you,' answered the father, 'for I +fear, if I teach it you too well, you may sometime try the art upon +myself; where gain is to be made one puts even a father's nose out of +joint. The peas are strewed in the council-room and chancery, on the +stairs, here and there, in the hope of tripping up those whom you +cannot otherwise get rid of, especially if they are conscientious, and +think they can make their way by good intentions.</p> + +<p class="normal">"'As most of the potentates know little themselves of these political +tricks, unless Machiavellian councillors make them acquainted with +them, who can blame the councillors if they make use of their secret to +enrich and elevate themselves? Then follows the state policy of private +persons, for where God builds a church the devil will have a chapel +also; thus I have, by the side of my sovereign's principality, made +myself a small one, and as I am now becoming old I will reveal to you, +my son-in-law, these tricks, that you may be able to follow in my +steps. But to the point I have never soiled myself with peasants and +their dung-carts, but preferred great assemblages. Imperial, electoral, +and princes' diets; for the larger the pond, the better it is to fish +in. Yet have I so far acted with moderation that I have never +intermeddled too far nor tied myself to one party alone; but have +always remained a free man. Like the sleek fox, I adapted myself to +every one's humour and business, and turned to the best account my +jests. I led the various parties by the nose, so that they always had +recourse to me, followed and trusted me; and, moreover, allowed +themselves to be fooled. Thus I did from the beginning. When my prince +discovered these qualities in me, he made me his councillor and then +chancellor. Now the nobles must bring with them whole cartloads of +wine, whole waggons full of corn, and the like gifts, if they would +obtain a favourable decision in chancery, or wish to procure a bill of +feoffment or decree of court. All the citizens and peasants, too, must +make presents, or their causes lie in a heap undecided. But especially +the following trick brought me good luck: When a rich man, having +committed an evil deed, has been ill spoken of by the prince, &c., then +I gave him to understand how great was the anger of the prince against +him, and that it might cost him his life if he did not employ me in the +business. If he agreed, I concealed his guilt; or, at least, helped him +out of it. But if he did not, I would institute a suit against him, and +he was exposed to danger and death. If he endeavoured to succeed, +through the means of attorneys, in spite of me, I would make use of all +my cunning to prevail against and ruin him. When the fox's skin did not +answer, I assumed that of the lion; what I could not acquire by wiles +and cunning, I usurped <i>de facto</i>, and discovered how I could obtain by +violence. If any one complained of the old chancellor, and wished to +bring a suit against him at court, I offered to submit myself to a +judicial action, for the councillors, as colleagues, were on my side. I +displaced in village and field the boundary stone, made other ditches +and frontier lines, squeezed out of my neighbours some hundred +<i>morgens</i> of arable land, meadows, and woods. In like manner I laid +hands on the property of rich widows, orphans, and wards; bought rents +and perpetual leases, and lent out money which, in three years, was +doubled. It would be tedious to relate the gains I made by assignments, +bills of exchange, wine, corn, and salt traffic.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"All this the son-in-law listened to with great attention, and said, +'Noble father, you have well administered for your family, and brought +it into prosperity; but the question is whether your descendants will +prosper so as to inherit it in the third or fourth generation; for +"ill-gotten gains seldom prosper."'</p> + +<p class="normal">"'That signifies as little to me as a midge on the wall. Let any one +say what he will, I, on the other hand, have what I will. He who would +gain something must venture something, and not mind what people say. I +have revealed and confided to you more than to my own wife and +children. Now come home with me to supper.'"</p> + +<p class="normal">Such is the purport of the sad irony of the flying sheet, which is +peculiarly appropriate here, as it evidently gives expression to the +common sentiments of the time. At the conclusion of it one particular +intrigue of a small German court is more alluded to than related.</p> + +<p class="normal">Even after 1700, this cold, bitter way of speaking of the political +condition of Germany continued generally; for the "<i>aufklärungs</i>" +literature, which sprang up at this period, altered the style more than +the spirit. Indeed, from the end of the War of Succession till 1740, +during the longest period of peace which Germany had experienced for a +century, a diminution of political interest is discernible in the +small literature. It is always the extraordinary destinies of +individuals which more specially interest the public--the prophecies of +a Pietist, the trial of a woman for child murder, the execution of an +alchymist, and such like. When on Christmas night, 1715, two poor +peasants were suffocated by coal vapours in a vineyard-hut at Jena, +whilst they, together with a student and a torn copy of Faust's book of +necromancy, were endeavouring to raise a great treasure, this +misfortune gave rise to full a dozen flying sheets--clerical, medical, +and philosophical--which fiercely contended as to whether the claw of +the devil or the coals had been the cause of death. All the battles +that had been fought, from that of Hochstädt to Malplaquet, had not +made a greater sensation. Even in the "Dialogues from the Kingdom of +the Dead,"--a clumsy imitation of Lucian, in which opinions were given +of the public characters of the day,--it is evident that it is more +particularly the anecdotes and the private scandal which attracted the +people. Once more an interest was powerfully excited by the expulsion +of the Protestant Salzburger; but in the year 1740 a great political +character impressed itself on the soul of Germany, and announced by the +thunder of his cannon the beginning of a new time.</p> + +<p class="normal">But it was not the "State system" alone which loosened the connection +of the burgher class, and turned the German into an isolated +individual: the powers which usually confirm and strengthen the united +life of individuals, faith and science, worked to the same effect.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER V.</h2> +<br> +<h3>"DIE STILLEN IM LANDE," OR PIETISTS.</h3> +<h4>(1600-1700.)</h4> +<br> + +<p class="normal">The contrast between the epic time of the Middle Ages, and the new +period which has already been often called the lyrical, is very +perceptible in every sphere of human life, and not least in the realm +of faith.</p> + +<p class="normal">The Roman Catholic Church of the Middle Ages had consecrated the life +of every individual by a multitude of pious usages, and shut it up in +an aristocratic spiritual state, in which the spirit of the individual +was fast bound in rigid captivity, with little spontaneous action. The +Reformation destroyed in the greater part of Germany these fetters of +the popular mind; it set freedom of decision and mental activity in +opposition to the outward constraint and splendid mechanism of the old +Church. But Protestantism gave a system of doctrine, as well as freedom +and depth, to the German mind. In the great soul of Luther, both these +tendencies of the new faith were in equilibrium; the more passionately +he struggled for his explanation of holy writ and the dogmas of his +school, the stronger and more original was the mental process through +which, after his own way, he sought his God in free prayer. It is, +nevertheless, clear that the great progress which accrued to the human +race from his teaching, could not fail to result in forming two +opposite tendencies in Protestantism. The two poles of every religion, +knowledge and the emotions of the soul, the intellectual boundaries of +religious knowledge and the fervid resignation of self to the Divine, +must prevail in the soul with varying power, according to the wants of +the individual and the cultivation of the period; now one, now the +other will preponderate, and the time might arrive when both tendencies +would come into strife and opposition. At first Protestantism waged war +against the old Church, and against the parties that arose within +itself,--a necessary consequence of greater freedom and independence of +judgment.</p> + +<p class="normal">It is difficult to judge how far this liberal tendency of Protestantism +would have led the nation, if adversity had not come upon them. The +great war, however, gave rise to a peculiar apathy even in the best. +Each party engaged bore a token of their faith upon their banners, each +brought endless misfortune upon the people, and in all, it was apparent +how little baptism and the Lord's Supper availed to make the professors +of any confession good men. When the flames of war were dying away, men +were much inclined to attribute a great portion of their own misery and +that of the country to the strife of the contending persuasions. It +naturally followed that the colder children of the world attached +little value to any religion, and turned from it with a shrug of the +shoulder when the old ecclesiastical disputes, which even during the +war had never been entirely silenced, began to rage with loud bluster +in the pulpit and the market-place. In many districts the mass of the +people had been compelled, by dragonades and the most, extreme methods +of coercion, to change their persuasion three and four times, and the +formulas of belief were not more valued by them, from their having +learnt them by rote. Thus waste and empty had become the inward life of +the Church, which, together with the coarseness and vices introduced +among men by the long war, gave to the ten years after it an aspect so +peculiarly hopeless. There was little to love, very little to honour +upon earth.</p> + +<p class="normal">Yet it was just at this period, when each individual felt himself in +constant fear of death, that a kind Providence often interposed to save +them from destruction. Sudden and fearful were the dangers, and equally +sudden and wonderful the rescue. That the strength of man was as +nothing in this terrible game of overwhelming events, was deeply +imprinted on the soul of every one. When the mother with her children +hid herself trembling in the high corn whilst a troop of horsemen were +passing by, and in that moment of danger murmured a prayer with +blanched lips, she naturally ascribed her preservation to the special +protection of a merciful God. If the harassed citizen, in his +hiding-place in the woods, folded his hands and prayed fervently that +the Croats who were plundering the town might not find his concealed +treasure, and afterwards, upon raking up the cinders of his burnt +house, found his silver pieces untouched, he could not help believing +that a special Providence had blinded the greedy eyes of the enemy. +When terrible strokes of fate overtake individuals in rapid succession, +a belief in omens, forebodings, and supernatural warnings is inevitably +fostered. Whilst the superstition of the multitude fixes itself on the +northern lights and falling stars, on ghosts and the cry of the +screech-owl, more polished minds seek to discover the will of the Lord +from dreams and heavenly revelations. The long war had, it is true, +hardened the hearts of men against the miseries of others; it had also +deprived them of all equability of mind; and the vacant gaze into a +desolated world, and cold indifference, were in most only interrupted +by fits of sudden weakness, which perhaps were produced by +insignificant causes, and a reckless sinner was suddenly plunged into +sorrow and contrition. Life was undoubtedly poor in love and elevation, +but the necessity of loving and honouring which lies so deep in the +German nature, after the peace, sought painfully for something high and +steadfast, in order to give an aim and an interest to his poor wavering +life. Thus the mind clung to the holy conceptions of faith, which it +again with quiet reverence endeavoured to realise heartily, +affectionately, and confidingly.</p> + +<p class="normal">From such longings in the hearts of the people, a new life was +developed in the Christian Church. It was not only among the followers +of Luther, but equally in the Calvinistic persuasion, and almost as +much in the Roman Catholic Church; it was also not only in Germany and +the countries which then partook of German cultivation, Denmark, +Sweden, Eastern Sclavonia, and Hungary, but almost at the same time in +England, and even earlier in France and Holland, where religious schism +and political faction have rent asunder the souls of men in bitter +controversy for centuries. Nay, even among the Jesuits we may find the +working of this same craving after a new ideal in a cheerless life. In +the history of the Christian Church, this Pietism--as the new tendency +has been called by its opponents since 1674--has been a transitory +impulse, which blossomed and withered in little more than a century. +The effect it has exercised on the culture, morals, and spirit of the +German people may still be perceived. In some respects it has been an +acquisition to the nation, and a short account of it shall now be +given.</p> + +<p class="normal">As this Pietism was no new doctrine proclaimed by some great reformer, +but only a tendency of the spirit which burst forth among many +thousands at the same time, the greater number of its professors +remained firm at first in the dogmas of their church. In fact, in the +beginning it only expressed wide-spread convictions, to which the best +natures had already, before the Thirty Years' War, given utterance; +that the points of union of religions parties, and not the deviations +of doctrinal opinions, were the main objects of faith; that personal +communion with God was independent of dogmas; that it availed little to +hear sermons and take the sacrament, to confess that one was a great +sinner and relied on the merits of Christ only and not on our own +works, nor to refrain from great sins and to say a few lifeless prayers +at appointed hours. And yet this was the usual Christianity of both +ecclesiastics and laity: a dead faith, a mere outward form of +godliness, the letter without the spirit. Little did the baptism of +children signify without conversion on arriving at maturity, little +also did communionship with the church avail, by which the laity only +received passively the gifts of salvation: each individual ought to +establish the priesthood of the Lamb in his own heart. Such was the +feeling of thousands. Of the many in Germany that followed this +tendency of the heart, none exercised for many years so great an +influence as Jacob Spener, between 1635 and 1705. Born in Alsace, where +for more than a century the doctrines of Luther and of the Swiss +reformers flourished conjointly and contended together, where the +learning of the Netherlands and even the pious books of England were +harboured, his pious heart early imbibed a steadfast faith through the +earnest teaching of schools, and under the protection accorded to him +by ladies of distinction in difficult times. Even as a boy he had been +severe upon himself and when he had once ventured to a dance he felt +obliged to leave it from qualms of conscience. He had been a tutor at a +prince's court, and also studied at Basle. At Geneva he saw with +astonishment how Jean de Labadie, by his sermons on repentance, had +emptied the wine-houses, caused gamblers to give back their gains, and +stamped upon the hearts of the children of Calvin the doctrines of +inward sanctification and of following after Christ with entire +self-renunciation. From thence Spener went to Frankfort-on-the-Maine as +pastor, and by his labours there produced a rich harvest of blessing, +which assumed ever-increasing proportions, and soon procured him +followers throughout Germany. Happily married, in prosperous +circumstances, peace-loving and prudent, with calm equanimity and +tender feelings, a loving, modest nature, he was specially adapted to +become the counsellor and confidant of oppressed hearts. Over women +especially this refined, kind-hearted, dignified man had great +influence. He established meetings of pious Christians in a private +dwelling; they were the far-famed <i>Collegia pietatis</i>, in which the +books of the holy Scriptures were explained and commented upon by the +men, whilst the women listened silently in a space set apart for them. +When later he had to deliver these discourses in the church, they lost, +for the zealous, the attractive power which in the calm exclusiveness +of the select society they had exercised; parties arose, and a portion +of his scholars separated from the church. He himself, after twenty +years of active exertion, was called from Frankfort to Dresden, and +from thence soon after to Berlin.</p> + +<p class="normal">Spener himself was disinclined to sectarianism, the mysticism of Arndt, +and still more of Jacob Böhme, was repulsive to him, and he disapproved +when some of his friends abandoned the church; he struggled incessantly +against the enemies who wished to drive him out of it, and during the +last half of his life maintained a quiet struggle against his own +followers, who publicly showed their disrespect to the dogmas of the +church. He was decidedly no enthusiast; that the Christian religion was +one of love, that in one's own life one was to imitate that of Christ, +and value little the transitory pleasures of the world, that, after his +example, one was to show love to one's fellow-creatures: this was +always the noble keystone of his teaching. And yet there was something +in his nature, without his wishing it, which was favourable to the +isolation and seclusion in which, in the following century, the +religious life of the Pietists wore away. The stress which he laid upon +private devotion, and the solitary striving of the soul after God, and, +above all, the critical distrust with which he regarded worldly life, +could not fail to bring his followers soon into opposition with it. The +insignificance and shallowness of many pretenders to sanctity who clung +yearningly to him, made it inevitable that a similar mode of feeling +and of judging life would shortly become mere mannerism, which would +show itself in language, demeanour, and dress.</p> + +<p class="normal">God was still the loving Father who was to be stormed by the power of +prayer, and might be moved to listen. But this generation had learnt +resignation, and a gentle whisper to God took the place of the urgent +prayer in which Luther had "brought the matter home to his Lord God." +The inscrutable ways of Providence had been imprinted by fearful +lessons on the soul, and the progress of science gave such presage of +the grandeur of the world's system, that the weakness and +insignificance of man had to be more loudly proclaimed. The sinner +had become more in awe of his God, the <i>naïve</i> ingenuousness of +the Reformation was lost. The craving for marvels had therefore +increased--increased in this generation--and zealously did they +endeavour in indirect ways to fathom the will of the Lord. Dreams were +interpreted, prognostics discerned; every beautiful feeling of the +soul, every sudden discovery made by the combinations of the mind, were +considered as direct inspirations from God. It was an old popular +belief, that accidental words which were impressed on the mind from +outward sources were to be considered as significant, and this belief +had now become a system. As the Jutlander Steno--the Roman Catholic +Bishop of Hanover, and acquaintance of Leibnitz--suddenly became a +fanatic, because a lady had spoken out of the window some indifferent +words, which he in passing by conceived to be a command from Heaven, so +did accidental words sway the minds of the Pietists. It was a favourite +custom in cases of doubt to open suddenly upon some verse in the +Bible or hymn book, and from the tenor of the words to decide these +doubts--the sentence on which the right-hand thumb was set was the +significant one--a custom which to this day remains among the people, +and the opponents of which, as early as 1700, called deridingly +"thumbing." If any one had a call from the external world, the system +was to refuse the first time, but, if repeated, then it was the call of +the Lord. It may easily be conceived that the believing soul might, +even in the first refusal, unconsciously follow a quiet inclination of +the heart which had secretly said yes or no.</p> + +<p class="normal">That in a period of unbridled passions, the reaction against the common +lawlessness should overstep moderation is natural. After the war, a +crazy luxury in dress had begun; the women loved to make a shameless +display of their charms, the dances were frivolous, the drinking +carousals coarse, and the plays and novels often only a collection of +impurities. Thus it was natural that those who were indignant at all +this should choose to wear high dresses, simple in style and dark in +colour, and that the women should withdraw from dances and other +amusements; the drinking wine was in bad repute, the play not visited, +and dances esteemed a dangerous frivolity. But zeal went still further. +Mere cheerful society also appeared doubtful to them--men should always +show that they valued little the transitory pleasures of the world; +even the most harmless, offered by nature to men's outward senses, its +smiling blossoms and the singing of birds, were only to be admired with +caution, and it was considered inadmissible, at least on Sunday, to +pluck flowers or to put them in the hair or bosom. That praiseworthy +works of art should not find favour with the holders of such opinions +was natural. Painting and profane music were as little esteemed as the +works of the poets by whom the anxieties of earthly love are portrayed. +The world was not to be put on an equality with the Redeemer. Those who +follow not the ways of "piety," live in conformity with the world.</p> + +<p class="normal">He who thus withdraws himself from the greater portion of his +fellow-men, may daily say to himself that he lives with his God in +humility and resignation, but he will seldom preserve himself from +spiritual pride. It was natural that the "Stillen im lande," as they +early called themselves, should consider their life the best and most +excellent, but it was equally natural that a secret conceit and +self-sufficiency of character should be fostered by it. They had so +often withstood the temptations of the world, so often made great and +small sacrifices; and as they had the illumination of God's grace, they +were his elect. Their faith taught them to practise Christian duties in +a spirit of benevolence to man, to do good to others, like the +Samaritan to the traveller, in the wilderness of life. But it was also +natural that their sympathy and benevolence to others should be chiefly +engrossed by those who had the same religious tendencies. Thus their +mutual union became, from many circumstances, peculiarly firm and +remarkable. It was not, in the first instance, particularly learned +ecclesiastics who were Pietists; on the contrary, the greater portion +of the clergy in 1700 stood firm to the orthodox point of view in +opposition to them. But they lived more by the Gospel than the law; +they sought carefully to avoid the appearance of exercising, as +preachers, dominion over the consciences of the community. This +captivated the laity--the strong minds and warm hearts of all classes, +scholars, officials, not a few belonging to the higher nobility, and, +above all, women.</p> + +<p class="normal">For the first time since the ancient days of Germany--with the +exception of a short period of chivalrous devotion to the female +sex--were German women elevated above the mere circle of family and +household duties; for the first time did they take an active share as +members of a great society in the highest interests of humankind. +Gladly was it acknowledged by the theologians of the Pietists, that +there were more women than men in their congregations, and how +assiduously and zealously they performed all the devotional exercises, +like the women who remained by the cross when the Apostles had fled. +Their inward life, their struggle with the world, their striving after +the love of Christ and light from above, were watched with hearty +sympathy by all in their intimacy, and they found trusty advisers and +loving friends among refined and honourable men. The new conception of +faith which laid less stress on book-learning than on a pure heart, +acted on them like a charm. The calm, the seclusion, and the +aristocratic tendency of the system, attracted them powerfully; even +their greater softness, the energy of their impulsive feelings, and +their excitable, nervous nature, made them more especially subjects for +emotions, enthusiasm, and the wonderful workings of the Godhead. +Already had the gifted Anna Maria von Schurmann, at Utrecht--the most +learned of all maidens and long the admiration of travellers--been +separated from the church through Jean de Labadie; and the pious and +amiable lady had, in 1670, in her holy zeal, withdrawn all her works, +though they contained nothing unchristian. Like her, many other women +endeavoured to be the representatives of their priesthood to the +people; many of these pious theologians could boast of strong-minded +women, who prayed with and comforted them, ever strengthening them amid +the difficulties of faith, and partaking of their light. Thus it came +to pass that women of all classes became the most zealous partisans of +the Pietists. There was scarcely a noble or rich family which did not +count among its ladies one that was pious, nor who, though they might +at first be angered, were not gradually influenced by their intrinsic +worth and moral exhortations. To such noble ladies there was a great +charm in being able to protect persons of talent in their community. +They became zealous patronesses, unwearied proselytisers, and +trustworthy confidants, and helpers in the distresses of others. But +whilst they laboured for the interests of their faith, their own life +was subject to many influences. They came into contact with men of +different classes, they were accustomed to correspond with those who +were absent, and they learnt to give vent to the secrets of the heart, +and to the tender feelings of their souls. Although this was often done +in the canting expressions of the community, yet it produced in many a +deepening of the inner life. There was, indeed, something new added to +the spirit of the people.</p> + +<p class="normal">The habit of reflecting on their own condition, of judging themselves +under strong inward emotions, was quite new to the German mind. It is +very touching to observe the child-like pleasure with which these pious +people watched the processes of their mental activity, and the emotions +of their hearts. Much was strange and surprising to them which we, from +greater practice in the observation of our own inward life and that of +others, only find common. Every train of conceptions which rapidly +formed themselves into an image, a thought, or an idea, every sudden +flash of feeling, the mainspring of which they could not discover, +appeared to them wonderful. The language of the Bible, which, after +long groping, they began to understand, was unfolded to them. Their +visions, which, owing to their assiduous application to the Scriptures, +assumed frequently the form of Bible figures, were carefully, after +their awakening, brought into rational coherence, and, unconscious of +the additions of their imagination, were polished into a small poem. +Their lyrical tendencies gave a new form to their diaries, which +hitherto had been only a register of casual occurrences; the +confidential pages became now clumsy attempts to express in grand +words, impassioned feelings, and were filled with observations on their +own hearts. When a Pietist, shortly after 1700, writes: "There were so +many deep thoughts in my heart, that I could not give expression to +them," or, "I had a strong feeling about these thoughts," this sounds +to us like the utterance of a later time, in the style of Bettine +Arnim, who undoubtedly was, in many respects, an echo of the excited +women who once prayed, under the guidance of Spener, on the banks of +the Maine. This same facility of self-contemplation found its way into +poetry, and later into novels.</p> + +<p class="normal">Together with Pietism there began also in Germany a new style of social +intercourse. Seldom was a quiet life the lot of the heads of the pious +communities; they were transplanted, driven away, and moved about +hither and thither. The disciples, therefore, who sought for +instruction, comfort, and enlightenment, were often obliged to travel +into distant countries. Everywhere they found souls in unison, patrons +and acquaintances, and often a good reception and protection from +strangers. Those who did not travel themselves, loved to write to +kindred spirits concerning their dispositions, temptations, and +enlightenment. Such letters were carried about, copied, and sent far +and wide. Thus arose a quiet communion of pious souls throughout +Germany, a new human tie, which first broke through the prejudices of +classes, made women important members of a spiritual society, and +established a social intercourse, the highest interest of which was the +inward life of the individual. And this social tendency of the pious, +determined the form and method of intercourse of the finer minds for a +hundred years later than the time of Spener; indeed, the social +relations between our great poets and German princesses and ladies of +rank, was only rendered possible because the "<i>Stillen im lande</i>" had +lived at courts in a similar way. The whole system was the same: the +visits of travellers, the letters, and the quiet community of refined +souls. The sentimentality of the Werther period was only the +stepdaughter of the emotional mania of the old Pietism.</p> + +<p class="normal">The beneficial influence, also, exercised by the Pietists on the +manners and morals of the people should not be under-rated, although +much of this influence was undoubtedly lost by their proneness to +separate from the multitude. But, wherever the labours of Spener, as +shepherd of souls, had found imitators, especially where Pietism had +been recognised by the church of the State, the practical Christianity +of the new teaching was perceptible. Like Spener, his followers felt +the importance of religious instruction for the young, and gladly +availed themselves of the opportunities when the youthful souls of the +parish and the parents opened themselves to them, to counsel them on +the more important occurrences of the day, and give a practical turn to +their teaching. It was they who, with warm hearts, first, after the +devastating war, provided schools for the people; and to them must be +attributed the first regular supervision of the poor in the large +cities. It is known that the German orphan-houses were established +through them; the example of Franke, in Halle, was followed in many +other cities--these great institutions were looked upon as a wonder by +contemporaries. Throughout all ages these foundations of our pious +ancestors ought to be regarded with special interest by our nation; for +they are the first undertakings for the public welfare which have been +formed <i>by the voluntary contributions of individuals from the whole of +Germany</i>. For the first time did the people become conscious how great +may be the results of many with small means working together. It is not +surprising that this experience seemed then to the people like a +fabulous tale, when one considers that in the ten years before and +after 1700, the "<i>Stillen</i>" must have collected in the countries where +the German tongue is spoken, far more than a million of thalers for +orphan-houses and other similar benevolent institutions; this was, +undoubtedly, not from private sources alone, but in that poor and +depopulated country such sums are significant.</p> + +<p class="normal">Thus did Pietism prepare men for rapid progress in many directions, and +its best offering to its votaries, a more elevated sense of duty, and a +greater depth of feeling, passed from the "<i>Stillen im lande</i>" into the +souls of many thousands of the children of the world; it contributed +scarcely less than science to the beginning of that period of +enlightenment, by mitigating the wild and rough practices which +everywhere prevailed in the second half of the seventeenth century, and +by giving to the family life of Germans, at least in the cities, +greater simplicity, order and morality. The families from whom our +greatest scholars and poets have sprung, the parental houses of Goethe +and Schiller, show the influence which the Pietism of the last +generation exercised on their forefathers.</p> + +<p class="normal">That many of the Pietists might lose themselves in extravagancies and +dangerous by-ways, is easily comprehensible.</p> + +<p class="normal">It was natural that with those who, after inward struggles and long +strivings, had obtained strength for a godly life, the delivery of man +from sin should become the main point; and as they were yearning, above +all, for the direct working of God on their own life, it followed that +they ascribed this awakening to the special grace of God; that they +sought earnestly in prayer for the moment when this special +illumination and sanctification should take place by a manifestation of +the divinity; and that when, after severe tension of the soul, they +reached a state of exaltation, they considered this as the beginning of +a new life to which the grace of God was assured. Luther, also, had +striven for this illumination; he also had experienced the transports +of exaltation, inward peace, repose, certainty, and a feeling of +superiority to the world; but it had been with him, as with the +strong-minded among his contemporaries, an ever-enduring struggle, a +frequently-repeated victory, a powerful mental process which appeared +sometimes, indeed, wonderful to himself, but in which with his sound, +strong nature, there was nothing morbid, and of which the special form, +the struggles with the devil, were the natural consequences of the +<i>naïve</i>, simple-hearted popular faith, which had changed the old +household spirits and hobgoblins of our heathen ancestors into +Christian angels and the devil. The Pietists, on the other hand, lived +in a time when the life both of nature and man was more rationally +viewed as to cause and effect, when a multitude of scientific +conceptions were popular, when a practical worldly mind prevailed which +made itself few illusions; and when the hearts of men were seldom +elevated by enthusiasm and great ideas. Already we begin to trace the +beginnings of rationalism. In such a time this regeneration, this +moment of awakening, was not a frame of mind easily produced--not a +condition in which, with a sound mental constitution, one could place +oneself without a certain degree of violence. It was necessary to wait +for it--to prepare oneself strenuously, and constrain body and soul to +it, by a self-contemplation, in which there was something unsound; one +must watch anxiously one's own soul, to discover when the moment of +awakening was nigh. And this moment of awakening itself was to be +entirely different from every other frame of mind. In order to arrive +at the conviction of its presence, that was not sufficient for them, +which, after severe struggles, had given a happiness to the great +reformers that rested on their countenances like a reflection of the +Godhead; the peace and serenity which come after the victorious end of +a struggle betwixt duty and inclination. This outpouring of grace with +the Pietists was frequently accompanied by ecstasies, visions, and +similar pathological phenomena, which at no period have been wanting, +but which were then sought after as the highest moments of human life +and recounted with admiration. It will shortly be shown that this was +the rock on which Pietism struck.</p> + +<p class="normal">With such tendencies, even the reading of the Scriptures was fraught +with special danger. When they explained the holy Scriptures, being +under the conviction that God favoured them with a direct influence, +they were in the unfortunate position of considering every accidental +incident that presented itself to them in any part, as an unerring +manifestation. Now, the yearning of a weak age for a better condition, +and the inclination of the pious for special illumination, rendered the +prophetic books of the Old and New Testament particularly attractive. +Thus it came to pass that the Pietists drew from them a multitude of +revelations and prophecies. It is of no importance at what results they +arrived; but this engrossing attention to the dark passages of the +prophets, and especially the Revelation of St John, did not contribute +to render their judgment clearer, nor their scientific culture more +solid: for in their time the key to the better understanding these +records had not been found. Moreover, the knowledge of languages even +among scholars was generally unsatisfactory, although, after the +example of Schurmann, there was already here and there a pious maiden +who began to learn Hebrew. It was not long before all worldly knowledge +appeared, to most of them, useless and detrimental.</p> + +<p class="normal">Thus, Pietism was threatened with great dangers immediately after its +rise; but the life of the early Pietists, who from Frankfort spread +themselves all over Germany, was more simple and harmless than the +later proceedings at Halle, under the separatists of the eighteenth +century.</p> + +<p class="normal">Two autobiographies of pious individuals of Spener's school have been +preserved to us, which throw light on other phases of German life. It +is a husband and wife who have bequeathed them to us,--kind-hearted +people, with warm feelings, some learning and no particular powers of +mind,--the theologian, Johann Wilhelm Petersen, and his wife, Johanna +Eleanor, born von Merlau. After they were united in marriage, they led +together a spiritual life, in perfect unanimity, and, like a pair of +birds, flitted through the temptations and troubles of this earthly +valley. Heavenly consolation and manifestation came to them alike. The +world considered them as enthusiasts, but they were held in honour to +the close of their life by the best among the Pietists, undoubtedly +because of the goodness of their hearts, which were not choked up with +spiritual pride. The husband was industrious and faithful to his +duties, a man with poetical feeling and some philosophical culture; but +he needed another to lean on, and was evidently much influenced by his +more decided wife, whose worldly position, as being noble, gave her +consideration even among the pious. It was soon after his marriage that +a restless excitement, and sometimes an immoderate zeal, became visible +in him. His wife, who was some years older than himself, had attained +to a rigid piety, whilst struggling against the worldly life of the +small prince's court, where she had lived. One may conclude from her +biography, that she was not free from ambition and love of power, with +a slight touch of asperity. Her long, quiet struggle had made her +over-zealous, and she and the pious <i>Frau</i> Bauer von Eyseneck, with +whom she lived later at Frankfort, both belonged to the enthusiastic +members of the community, who were inclined to conventicles, and caused +great sorrow on that account to their pastor, Spener. It may therefore +be assumed that it was chiefly the influence of the wife that drove her +husband on in the course which at last removed him from his office, and +gave him the repute of being an enthusiast and millennarian. But the +hatred of the orthodox party has done injustice to both; they were +honest even when predicting marvels. We will first give the youthful +years of the wife, then some characteristic traits from the life of the +husband, related in their own words. Johanna Eleonora Petersen, by +birth von Merlau, was born at Merlau the 25th of April, 1644. She +narrates as follows<a name="div2_79" href="#div2Ref_79"><sup>[79]</sup></a>:--</p> + +<p class="normal">"The fear of the Lord has guarded me, and His goodness and truth have +led me.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I have felt the quieting of his good Spirit from childhood, but have +resisted it from ignorance. My high position in the world has been a +great hindrance to his working; because I loved the world equally with +Him, till I came to a right understanding, and till the saving Word +wrought powerfully in me to conviction. For when I was about four years +old it came to pass that my dear parents, who had lived at Frankfort on +account of the troubles of war, returned into the country, as peace was +established. They brought many things into the country, and my now +deceased mother lived with me and both my sisters on a property at +Hettersheim, called Philippseck, where she believed herself to be out of +harm's way. Then came the servants and told her that a troop of +horsemen were coming, whereupon every one quickly put away what +belonged to them and left; my now deceased mother, with three little +children, alone, of whom the eldest was seven and I four years old, +and the third at the breast. Then did my deceased mother take the +youngest in her arms, and both of us by the hand, and went without a +maid-servant to Frankfort, which was distant a long half-league. But it +was summer, the corn was standing in the fields, and one could hear the +noise of the soldiers, who were marching about a pistol's shot from us. +Then did my deceased mother become much alarmed, and bade us pray. But +when we came to the outermost gate of the city, where we were in +security, my deceased mother sat herself down with us, and exhorted us +to thank the Most High God who had protected us. Then said my eldest +sister, who was three years older than I, 'Why should we pray now? now +they cannot come to us.' Then was I grieved to the heart at this +speech, that she would not thank God, or thought that it was no longer +necessary. I rebuked her for this, having fervent love for the Lord, +whom I thanked with my whole heart--Item, as I was persuaded that the +midwife had brought the children from heaven, I had a great desire to +talk to her; I charged her to greet heartily the Lord Jesus, and +desired to learn from her whether the dear Saviour loved me. These were +the first childish emotions that I can distinctly remember.</p> + +<p class="normal">"When I was nine years old we became motherless orphans, and matters +went ill with us; for our father dwelt at a farm five miles from our +property, and brought the widow of a school-master into the house to +take care of us. She had her own children to help on, and spent upon +them what should have been ours, leaving us in want, so that we often +gladly took what others would not have. It happened too through her +artifices that she left us alone in the house in the evening. Then came +certain people, dressed in white shirts, and their faces rubbed with +honey and sprinkled with flour; they went about the house with lights, +broke open chests and coffers, and took from out of them what they +wished. This gave us such a fright that we huddled together behind the +stove, and perspired with fear. This went on till the whole house was +emptied. As our father was very severe with us, we had not the heart to +complain, but were only glad when he left us; so we bore with this +annoyance till von Praunheim, who is now married to my sister, visited +us,--he was then very young. To him we complained of our distress, and +he undertook to remain concealed in the house till evening, to see +whether the spirits would come again. When they did come, and one went +straight to the cupboard to break it open, then he sprang out, and +found that they were people from the country town--sons of a +wheelwright, who were intimate with the widow who had charge of us. +But, as he was alone, they rushed away and would not allow that it was +them; but the spirits did not return, and we recovered much that they +had left on the floor of the kitchen.</p> + +<p class="normal">"This widow was discharged by my deceased father, and it was proposed +to him to take a captain's wife, who was in repute for her housekeeping +and cleverness in other ways; then my deceased father thought he had +provided well for us. But she was an unchristian woman, and did not +forget her soldier tricks. For once, when she saw some strange turkeys +on the road, she had them driven to the house; seized the best, and +drove the others away. To cook this stolen roast she wished to have +some dry wood, and in order to obtain this sent me to a square tower, +five stories high. There had been a pigeon-house under the roof, where +loose dry boards were lying, some of which I was to fetch. When I had +thrown down some, and was trying to tear away one that was still firm, +I was thrown back and fell down two stories on to a flight of steps, +and had I turned myself round I should have fallen two stories more. I +lay there about half an hour in a swoon, and when I came to myself did +not, at once, know how I came there; I stood up and felt that I was +very faint. I went down the staircase, and laid myself on a bed that +stood in a room in this same tower, on which my deceased father used to +sleep when he was at home. There I slept some hours, and when I got up +was quite fresh and sound. But during the whole of this time there were +no inquiries made after me; and when I said that I had fallen I was +only scolded for not having been more prudent. I sat apart, for I would +not eat of the stolen roast; it appeared to me truly disgraceful, and +yet I had not courage to say so.</p> + +<p class="normal">"When I was in my eleventh year my deceased sister, who was three years +older than me, was sent to the pastor to be instructed for her +confirmation. Then a strong desire came over me to go with her, but my +deceased father would not allow me, as I was only ten years old. I +persisted, however, till my father gave his consent, if his reverence +the pastor should consider me fit for it. This latter had me brought to +him, questioning me not only as to the words, but also concerning the +sense of what I read. But God gave me such grace in answering that his +reverence the pastor was well content, and admitted me.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Some time afterwards my sister went to Stuttgart, and I had to take +upon me the housekeeping, and to render an account of everything, which +was very difficult for me; because my deceased father, whenever he came +home, treated me with great severity, and called me to account for all +that was broken, or in any way not to his mind, and I was often +severely punished when I was innocent.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Owing to this, such servile fear took possession of me, that I +shuddered whenever I heard a voice that resembled that of my father. +Concerning this I breathed forth many sighs to my God; but, when he was +away again, I became in good spirits, and sang and danced in gladness +of heart. I had at the same time a thorough aversion to everything that +was unseemly or childish, and would not have anything to do with the +games of marriages and christenings, and the like, of other girls, for +I was ashamed of them.</p> + +<p class="normal">"When twelve years old I was taken to court to the Countess von +Solms-Rödelheim. She was about to be confined, and was sometimes not +right in her mind; when I went, however, she was tolerably well. But +soon after, she was confined and had two children, a young gentleman +and a lady, and became worse from day to day, so that she often took me +for her dog, which was a little lion-dog, called me by his name, and +beat me like him. It happened frequently that we drove in the water, +for in the winter time the meadows between Frankfort and Rödelheim were +quite overflowed with water, so that it entered the carriages; then the +carriages were driven empty, but we went in a boat and got in again +when we came to the end of the water. When we thus drove she often +pushed me into the water; I was to swim as her little dog, but the Most +High preserved me. Once I discovered that she had taken a knife with a +sheath out of her cupboard, and put it in her pocket. I mentioned it to +the maidservant, who was rather elderly, but she would not listen to +me; and thought the countess had no knife, and it was childishness in +me. There was a door from the bedroom of the countess into our room, +and another into that of the count. Now when night came I would not lie +down for thinking of the knife; but the maid was angry with me, and +threatened to tell the count how childishly I behaved; but I would only +lie down on the bed with my clothes on. In the night, hearing a great +disturbance, I woke up every one and rose from bed. Then the count was +heard running out of the room; and forth came the countess, with a +night-light and the bare knife in her hand. When she saw us all awake, +she became terrified and let the knife fall; then I sprang towards her +as if I wished to reach her the knife, but I ran with it out of the +door and down the stairs in the dark. When I was on the stairs I heard +the count call out, 'Where is my wife?'--to whom I answered that I had +got the knife; but I was so frightened that I would not trust myself to +turn back again, but went into a hall, which is called the giant hall +and is very gloomy, and there I remained. But the maid, who was a serf +of the countess's mother, from Bohemia, went off and did not return. So +I was left some weeks alone with the countess, and had to dress and +undress her, which was very hard upon me.</p> + +<p class="normal">"But my deceased father happened to hear from others that I was in such +danger, and took me away. After this I went at about fifteen years old +to the Duchess of Holstein, born Landgravine of Hesse, who had married +Duke Philipp Ludwig, of the Suderburg family. The duke had by a first +marriage a daughter, who had just married the Count von Zinzendorf, +president of the Imperial chamber. I was taken as maid of honour to +this royal bride; her woman of the bedchamber was a von Steinling, who +was thirty years of age. Immediately after my arrival, the journey to +Lintz, where the marriage was to take place, was begun. We went by the +Danube, and very jovial it was; the drums and trumpets sounded +beautiful on the water, and everywhere throughout the journey we were +splendidly received; the preparations having been made by those who had +been sent to fetch the bride. It was very joyful to me after my former +terror, and I had no anxieties except the thought that my soul might +suffer, because I was going to a popish place. Whenever we came to a +resting-place, I looked out for a chamber where there was no one else, +fell on my knees and prayed that God would prevent everything that +might be injurious to my salvation. The chamber-maid of the bride +remarked how I retired apart, and slipt after me once to see what I did +alone, for she still looked upon me as very childish, because I was +small. When, however, she found me praying on my knees, she went +quietly back without my knowing that she had seen me. But once, when +the royal bride inquired whether I ever prayed, the woman of the +bedchamber answered that they need have no anxiety about me. Now when +we came to Lintz, the marriage took place at the Imperial castle, and +everything went off grandly. The following day the royal bride went to +the chapel of the castle, and there a blessing was pronounced upon her, +and a goblet full of wine was given; this was called the Johannis +blessing, and of this she and the count were to partake. Now, after the +marriage was celebrated, when every one was to settle down in their +proper places, there arose a dispute among the authorities concerning +me. The Count von Zinzendorf said that he would only admit the lady of +the bedchamber (as the noble maidens were then called) to his table; +that the others must have their meals with the '<i>hoffmeisterin</i>.' This +the duke would not consent to, as he said that she was only from the +burgher class, whereas I was of an old family, and not inferior to the +others, and he could not permit that such a distinction should be made +between us, especially as I was his wife's goddaughter.</p> + +<p class="normal">"As this, however, was of no avail, it was determined that I should +return with the duchess, and when the reason was explained to me, it +appeared to me quite wonderful, for it was my wish to have my meals +along with the '<i>hoffmeisterin</i>,' rather than at the prince's table. +But I did not know that God had so ordained it in his mercy, and that +my poor prayers had been so graciously listened to; for after the +course of some years the princess and all the persons who had +accompanied her, fell away to the Popish religion. But at the time I +was much troubled to be obliged to return; I thought they might imagine +I had not comported myself right, and I also feared to be brought again +under the severe discipline of my father.</p> + +<p class="normal">"But the Duke of Holstein had obtained Wiesenburg from Saxony, which +was about ten miles from Leipzig and one from Zwickau, and dwelt there, +so it pleased the duchess to keep me with her. I practised myself in +all kinds of accomplishments, so that I was much liked; in dancing, +too, I excelled others, so that these vanities were dear and pleasing +to me; I had also a real liking for splendid dress and the like +trifles, because it became me well, and I was much commended by every +one. Never did any one tell me that it was not right, but, on the +contrary, praised me for these vanities, and considered me godly +because I liked to read and pray, and went to church and was often able +to give a good account of all the main points of the sermon; I even +knew what had been preached upon the same text the preceding year. I +was looked upon as a godly maiden both by spiritual and worldly +persons, yet I pursued my course with worldly thoughts, and was not +really a true follower of Christ.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Then it was ordained by God's mercy that the son of a +lieutenant-colonel, of the family of Brettwitz, fell in love with me; +and when, through the medium of his father, he asked me in marriage of +my royal master and mistress, and of my deceased father, they all +replied yes; but that he must first serve a year as a cornet, and then +have his father's company, who was lieutenant-colonel under the Elector +of Saxony. Now when he went forth to the war, I heard from others that +he did not lead a godly, but a worldly life; then I was secretly +troubled and threw myself on my face before God, and prayed that either +his spirit or our engagement might be changed. But I did not know that +the Most High had brought this to pass, that I might be preserved from +other noble marriages, for I was then still very young, and had many +opportunities of marrying, all of which I escaped through this +betrothal, though on his side he had thought of many others, and +engaged himself here and there in that foreign country. This lasted +several years, during which I experienced much secret sorrow, which +threw a damp over the pleasures of the world. In the course of these +years, Brettwitz was always changing his mind, fixing his thoughts upon +others, and when nothing came of it, he turned again to me, and wrote +about constancy, all which I committed to the Most High, and sought to +unite myself closer to God. Hence much refreshment from the Holy +Scriptures was imparted to me, sometimes in sleep through holy dreams, +in which I powerfully spoke out the words of Scripture, and thereupon +awoke, so that my companion, who had a godly heart, was often sore +troubled that she could not experience the like. I always comforted her +by saying that she should regard me as a child that required to be +enticed by her father, but that she was so confirmed in faith she would +have no need of such enticement. And this came from my heart, for I saw +well that my joyous spirit drew me to the world, but my God drew me +again to Him by his love.</p> + +<p class="normal">"At last he who had been so changeable came home and visited our Court. +But my spiritual condition did not please him, because he thought so +much Bible reading would not befit a soldier's wife: he would have been +glad if I would have renounced him, as his father knew of a rich +marriage for him in Dresden, if he could with decency free himself from +me; but he did not like to be called faithless, so he would fain have +thrown the blame upon me. I remained quiet, however, and did not mind +him, but trusted to my Heavenly Father, who would order all aright. Now +there was one, named von Fresen, who would fain have warned me, +thinking I did not observe that the said Brettwitz was not acting +uprightly; so he wrote me a letter, for he had no opportunity of +speaking to me, as I was always with my duchess in her room. This +letter fell into the hands of the said Brettwitz, who thought to find +therein great evidence upon which to accuse me, either of having an +affection for another, or of courting others. His father, who was then +present, also thought that it would be a good opportunity, and that +they might with a good grace enter upon the rich marriage; so he went +to the duke and showed him the letter as proof that others were wooing +me, and therefore his son neither could nor would entertain any further +hopes of me, but would seek happiness elsewhere. It vexed the duke much +to hear such things of me, who had hitherto, to their great +astonishment, repelled all advances. It grieved me much that my royal +master and mistress should thus think of me. But when I went to my room +weeping, the words came into my mind, 'What I do thou knowest not now, +but thou shalt know hereafter;' from these I derived consolation. When +on the following day the letter was read correctly, it appeared that in +it the writer complained that he had never been able to gain an +opportunity of speaking with me, and declaring his honourable love, and +that I kept myself in reserve for a person who was false, rejecting the +love of others. Thus it became known that I was innocent, and the +Brettwitzes could not get out of it in that way. The duke and duchess +then asked me what my wishes were, as it must now be decided. Then I +begged that Brettwitz might not be driven to marry me. Thereupon the +said von Brettwitz sent two cavaliers to me in order to learn how I was +minded towards him, and whether he was still to wait some time for his +happiness. But I gave him liberty, as far as I was concerned, to seek +his happiness where he liked; for I felt no longer bound to retain my +affection for one so faithless, who, if possible, would have made me +out guilty of want of fidelity. Thereupon he paid me the false +compliment of saying that he regretted the misunderstanding: and it was +then settled that he was to make no further pretensions to me. The rich +marriage, however, did not take place, and later he became paralytic.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Thus I was relieved from this burden, and I had become so strong in +spirit that I did not entertain any further thoughts of marriage. I +always felt that amongst the nobility there were many evil habits which +were quite contrary to Christianity--first, because they had more +opportunities of drinking; and secondly, that for every thoughtless +word they must endanger body and soul, if they would not be disgraced. +I reflected deeply on this, that they should dare to imagine themselves +Christians, and yet live quite contrary to the doctrines of Christ; and +that it never occurred to them once to abstain from such proceedings. +This took away from me all disposition to marry; for although I knew +some fine natures that had a horror of all these vices, yet I thought +that one's descendants would be exposed to the same dangers. Still I +felt I ought not to take a husband from another class, as my deceased +father thought much of his ancient family.</p> + +<p class="normal">"But God continued to impart more grace to me; and I became acquainted +in Frankfort with a truly godly man. For when my noble master and +mistress were travelling to the baths at Emser, a stranger was on board +the vessel in which we went. By God's special providence he seated +himself next me, and we fell into a spiritual discourse which lasted +some hours, so that the four miles from Frankfort to Mayence, where he +disembarked, appeared to me only a quarter of an hour. We talked +without ceasing, and it seemed just as if he read my heart. Then I gave +vent to all, concerning which I had hitherto lived in doubt. Indeed I +found in this friend what I had despaired of ever finding in any man in +the world. Long had I looked around me to discover whether there might +be any true doers of the Word, and it had been a stumbling-block to me +that I could find none. But when I perceived in this man such great +penetration, that he could see into the very recesses of my heart, also +such humility, gentleness, holy love, and earnestness to teach the +way of truth, then I was truly comforted and much strengthened.<a name="div2_80" href="#div2Ref_80"><sup>[80]</sup></a> +Then was my heart filled with godly convictions, and I felt an +ever-increasing distaste to the world: and I said to myself, 'Shall I +defraud my spiritual nature for the sake of contemptible transitory +pleasures? No; I will by God's help prevail, let it cost what it may.' +I wrote thereupon to the friend who had imparted to me so many godly +gifts, that I loved him as a father, and that I purposed to loosen +myself from all worldly ties. He was, moreover, fearful that I should +not have strength enough to bear all that I should meet with. But the +parable of the five foolish virgins and other similar salutary passages +of Holy Writ were ever in my heart, and they impelled me to give up the +pleasures of the world; yet I felt a fear of my master and mistress +which I could not conquer. Then I frequently danced with tears in my +eyes, and knew not how to help myself. 'Ah,' thought I frequently, 'if +I were but the daughter of a herdsman, I should not be blamed for +living in the simplicity of Christ's teaching. No one would mind me.' +But when I became conscious that no position could excuse me, I +determined that nothing should be a hindrance to me either in life or +death. I therefore went to my duchess, and begged for my dismissal. +This was refused; but, as she wished to know what had moved me to this, +I told her openly, that the life I was obliged to lead at court was +against my conscience. Then did my dear duchess try to divert my mind +from this, looked upon it as a fit of melancholy, and said, 'You always +live like a virtuous maiden, and read and pray assiduously; you see +also that others who are good Christians do the like things; they are +not forbidden if the heart is not set upon them.' But I pointed out to +her the example of Christ and his word; I did not judge other men, but +could not be content to follow their example. As now my dear duchess +saw that she could not change my mind, she promised to excuse me +everything that I felt to be contrary to my conscience, only she would +have me remain with her and perform my duties in all other respects as +before. But I represented that she would be deprived of much service by +this, especially when strangers came, when it might easily happen that +the other maiden should fall sick, then she would be without +attendance, because I would not be present at appointed gaieties, and +that would give occasion for ridicule. She would not, however, be +deterred from her object, but promised me faithfully that I should be +relieved from all attendance at mere amusements. Then she mentioned it +to the duke, who contended with me sharply, and said it was the +suggestion of the devil, that I, who was a young lady, beloved by high +and low, should expose myself to so much contempt, that I should be +considered a fool; besides, what would my relatives say? Now, when all +this persuasion was of no avail, they sent several clergymen to me, who +tried to persuade me that I did not rightly understand the words of +Scripture. But I put it to their consciences which of these two ways +was safest: to follow after the footsteps of Christ in all simplicity, +or, while enjoying worldly pleasures, merely to talk of it and treat it +with respect, yet doing otherwise. Then they said that the first would +certainly be the best; but who could so live?--we were all sinful men. +Then I replied, 'It is commanded me to choose the better way, and as to +the power of doing it, I left that to my God,' Then they left me in +peace.</p> + +<p class="normal">"They now tried to move me in another way, by ridicule. For at the +royal table they often looked at one another, and then at me, laughing +amongst themselves; they often said also that it was not becoming a +woman of the bedchamber to read the Bible so much, she would become too +clever. But I let them jeer. When this had gone on almost a year, +during which I was treated with contempt by even the most insignificant +at the court, excepting some pious souls, whilst I thought little of +suffering for Christ's sake, there was a sudden change. The great and +glorious God brought such fear into all hearts, the highest as well as +the lowest, that they did not venture to say or do anything wrong in my +presence; although they did not fear the court preachers, yet before me +they were quiet, and the otherwise wild young people controlled +themselves when they saw me coming. Then did tears come into my eyes, +whilst I thought within myself, 'Oh, wonderful God, with what power +have I been enabled to bring it to pass, that both great and small fear +to do wrong in my presence!' This thought did not puff up my heart, but +led me to humility; I poured out my soul before God, as I had +experienced his power, and saw that He could turn the hearts of princes +like the waters of a rivulet. In this condition of things I continued +yet three years at court, and I can truly say that I experienced much +kindness, not alone from my dear master and mistress, but from every +one: but by God's grace I did not accept many favours from the great, +nor employ them upon temporal things.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Having then for three years lived at court in all simplicity, and +rejected all transitory pleasures, whereby the body, and not the +spirit, is recreated, it came to pass that my deceased father required +me to keep his house, as my stepmother had died in childbed, and the +child was still alive, and so I was called from court. It was, however, +very difficult for me to obtain my dismissal, as my dear duchess loved +me as if I were her child, and lamented my departure with many tears: +she even sent after me to beg I might return, and did not desist till I +promised that if I ever returned to court I should consider myself +bound to them before all others. But when I came home I found that the +child had meanwhile died, and my father had determined to become high +steward of the Princess von Philippseck. Thus I was free to settle +myself with a noble and godly widow, Baurin von Eyseneck--her maiden +name was Hinsbergen--whose manner of life was known to every one in +Frankfort, and whose end was blessed. With her I was six years, and we +loved one another as though of one heart and soul.</p> + +<p class="normal">"About this period, being in danger of shipwreck, the Lord so mightily +strengthened me, that I was joyful while others trembled and desponded. +It happened that I was on the passage-boat from Frankfort to Hanau +going to visit my sister; there were divers people on board, among them +some soldiers, who were carrying on very coarse and improper jokes with +poor women. I was sorrowful that these people were so entirely +unmindful of their souls, and, leaning against the side of the vessel, +endeavoured to sleep that I might not hear such talk. In my sleep I +dreamt of the sentence in Psalm xiv., 'The Lord looked down from heaven +upon the children of men.' Upon this I awoke, and in waking it appeared +to me as if a great storm of wind turned the ship round; then was I +terrified and thought within myself, 'Art thou really awake? What is +thy state of mind?' Not a quarter of an hour afterwards there came a +mighty whirlwind which took hold of the ship. We were in very great +danger, so that all cried out with anguish, and called upon the name of +Jesus for help--He whom they had so often before named carelessly in +their frivolous jesting. Then did God open my mouth, to make them feel +how good it is to walk in the fear of the Lord, and that He is a refuge +in the time of trouble. When now the Most High mercifully laid the +unexpected storm, one of the women was so impudent as to say jestingly, +that our ship would have been overwhelmed by the waves, 'but, as there +is a saint on board, we have been saved;' so saying she laughed loud, +whereupon I became much excited, and said, 'You impudent woman, think +you that the hand of the Lord could not reach us?' And scarcely had I +closed my mouth, when the former wind rose again, a leak appeared in +the boat, and all gave up hope of life; but I felt an unusual joy, and +thought, 'Shall I now see my Jesus? What will now remain in the water? +Nothing but the mortal--that which has so often hindered me. That which +has been life in me will never die,' &c., &c. The ship was already +filling with water; all the caulking and pumping was of no avail; the +storm also held on, so that it was impossible to turn to the land, +either on the right or left hand, and we thought that the ship would +sink; but all at once the wind was lulled, and the ship reached the +shore. Then did all spring out of the ship, and the wild soldiers who +had been moved by my words, looked after me with great care, so that I +came well to land, and thanked God that I had been able to speak to +their hearts.</p> + +<p class="normal">"When I had been about a year with the widow Baurin, my dear master and +mistress heard that my father no longer needed me, so my dear mistress +wrote, herself, to me to return and resume my service; she would send +the carriage for me and give me double salary, and I was to be called +mistress of the robes; but I excused myself by saying that I must take +charge of my father's property, and therefore be often present there. +But when I had passed six years with dear Frau Baurin, it was ordained +by the Most High God that my dear husband, who had seen me some years +before at Frankfort, began to think of marrying me; he gave at Lübeck a +commission to a certain person to speak to me concerning it, who did +it, but after some time had passed, for want of an opportunity. But +when I first heard it, I could not think of marrying, and after +offering up my prayers to God, I sat down and wrote to this effect, and +suggested to him another very excellent person. But my dear husband +would not be deterred, and wrote to my dear friend, also to sundry +distinguished ecclesiastics, and to my deceased father. This letter I +at first retained, till my conscience constrained me to deliver it to +my father, as it had no other aim than to serve to the glory of God. +Then I wrote and sent him the letter, and at the same time remained as +calm as if it were nothing concerning myself. All the contents of +the letter to my father were unknown to me, and I did not think +that my deceased father would give his consent. But when his answer +came--wherein he wrote that he had many reasons for not wishing me so +far from him in his old age, and had never yet made up his mind to +allow his child to marry below her station, yet he could not withstand +the will of God,--it went to my heart, and I thought it must be of God, +because my father's heart had been touched beyond all expectation. He +left the matter to my disposal, which I did not, however, agree to, but +submitted it entirely to his will. My brother-in-law, von Dorfield, +high steward at the court of Hanau, was much against it, but my +deceased father answered him in a most Christian spirit,<a name="div2_81" href="#div2Ref_81"><sup>[81]</sup></a> that it +was not good for us, of the evangelical faith, to esteem the clergy so +little, as the Papists held their priests so high; further, that his +daughter was not suited to a worldly man; that she would not marry +inconsiderately out of her class, as was known to every one. But God +had called me to this vocation. They were therefore obliged to be +quiet, and my father gave his consent.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Thereupon my dear husband came to Frankfort, and we were married on +the 7th September, 1680, by D. Spener, in the presence of her Highness +the Princess von Philippseck, my father, and some noble persons of +distinction; there were about thirty, and everything went off in such a +quiet and Christian manner, that every one was pleased. But the demon +of calumny could not refrain from his malice; it vexed his tools that +the marriage was not accompanied by eating and drinking and wild +doings, after the manner of the world. Then they invented this lie, +that the Holy Spirit had appeared in the chamber in which we were +married, in a form of fire, and that we had interpreted the Revelation +of St. John. Such lies were also reported to the Rev. Dr. Heiler, who +had been himself at our wedding. But when he contradicted them, and +stated that he had been present, that nothing had passed but what was +truly Christian, they were ashamed of their lies."</p> + +<p class="normal">Thus far the wife. The narration of the husband forms a supplement to +hers. But first we will give his account of his youth, and of his +experiences as shepherd of souls. Dr. Johann Wilhelm Petersen begins +thus:--</p> + +<p class="normal">"I was born in the renowned city of Osnabrück, on the 1st of June, +1649, after the conclusion of the peace of Westphalia, where my father, +George Petersen, had been sent from Lubeck on business concerning the +peace. When I grew older, my parents sent me to the Latin school at +Lubeck. They never had to force me to study, for I paid attention to +all my lessons, and concealed candles, in order that I might thus study +whilst others slept. I then also copied divers small books, as I could +not obtain printed copies. But I more especially applied myself to +prayer, as I had seen my mother do, after I had heard from her that one +could obtain everything from God through prayer, on which account I +always, before I began my studies, called upon God to bless them. And +once, when I was in want of money to buy a certain book, I went to St. +Mary's Church, placed myself on the long stools before the altar, and +prayed to God to grant me wherewith to buy the desired book. Now when I +had knelt down and finished my prayer, behold there lay a heap of money +on the bench before which I had knelt; this strengthened me much. But +when, in consequence, I wished to make a custom of it, and again sought +to obtain money by prayer, through the wise guidance of God I found +nothing, for He only hears us when in childlike simplicity we appear +before Him without any after-thought. But yet once, when about to be +punished, I turned to God in prayer, and punishment was averted.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Now when I came to the third class, I had been very diligent; +therefore the Herr Conrector put the others to shame by my example, and +said that I had surpassed them all and gained the crown, and, as he +expressed himself, would throw sand into their eyes. This vexed the +scholars much, and excited their envy; they painted a crown in my book, +and strewed it thick with sand, with this inscription: 'This is +Petersen's crown, and the sand he would cast in our eyes.' At last I +was afraid to repeat my lesson too readily, though I had learnt it +thoroughly, lest I should be beaten by the other scholars. When I was +removed into the first class, I found there excellent preceptors. At +this period I put many verses in print, especially on the death of my +dearly beloved mother. I also delivered two orations on the restoration +of peace at Lubeck; and the Choice of Hercules. In 1669 I went to the +University of Giessen.</p> + +<p class="normal">"When I had become master of arts at Giessen, I was much loved by the +professors, and also was, as far as lay in my power, on terms of +friendship with every one. Then was Dr. Spener, of Frankfort, strongly +recommended to me; therefore I resolved to go to Frankfort to visit +him, in order to see whether the reality came up to the praise. I found +him far superior to what I had heard; his was quite a different life +and character to what I had seen in general I had indeed, after my +fashion, feared God and loved the Holy Scriptures; but by the light of +my merely worldly learning these were very obscure to me, so that when +I presided at a disputation I feared many passages of Scripture which +were brought against me by others. Now I became aware how important it +was to understand rightly the spiritual meaning of the Holy Scriptures, +and that the learning was not worth much which could be obtained by +mere human industry.</p> + +<p class="normal">"There came at that time to Frankfort, for the purpose of enjoying the +friendship and intercourse with the Rev. Dr. Spener, a noble lady, who +had formerly been maid of honour at a court; and as I desired much to +have, if only for once, some talk with her, I begged the reverend +doctor to give me her address in a note. This he did, and I went to +her, and presented her with my last disputation, under the impression +that it would not be disagreeable to her, as she had learnt Hebrew and +had much acquaintance with the Holy Scriptures. But she told me that I +had therein glorified 'the god Petersen,' and that, for a true +knowledge of God in Christ, far more was required than such worldly +learning, which produced generally a boastful spirit, and whereby one +could hardly attain to the godly simplicity of heavenly things. This +speech sank deep into my heart, and I was at once convinced of the +truth of it. After that I began to write a little book, wherein I noted +down what I heard from pious people concerning the way to true +godliness; and I began to practise what I had thus learnt, for without +this effectual working all else would be fruitless.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Now when I had been strengthened in this course, I went back to +Giessen, where the change in me was soon perceived; and they began to +ridicule me on account of my 'piety.' But I cared little for it."</p> + +<p class="normal">(Petersen afterwards returned to his home, at Lubeck, and became there +professor of poetry, but met with great enmity from the Jesuits. In +1677 he became preacher at Hanover; and was called from thence, in +1678, to Cutin, as the court preacher to the Duke of Holstein.)</p> + +<p class="normal">"But I had not been long court preacher at Cutin, when it happened that +500 thalers were stolen out of the room of one of the gentlemen of the +bedchamber. In order to recover his money he went to a hereditary +blacksmith,<a name="div2_82" href="#div2Ref_82"><sup>[82]</sup></a> at the village of Zernikaw, that he might 'knock out +the thief's eye;' and in order that the smith might do it better he let +him know, through an <i>einspänner</i>,<a name="div2_83" href="#div2Ref_83"><sup>[83]</sup></a> that the bishop desired it, +which was not the case. When the smith is to perform a work of this +kind he must prepare a nail three successive Sundays, and on the last +Sunday strike this nail into a head made for the purpose; whereupon the +thief, as they say, will lose his eye. He must, also, at midnight rise +up naked, and go backwards to a hut which he has newly built in an open +field, and go up to a large new bellows; take it and blow out the fire +with it; upon this two large hell-hounds will appear. This performance +having taken place in the night of the first Sunday, the villagers of +Zernikaw came to me to complain, as the whole village had no rest for +this terrible howling, which they had heard in the smithy, and said I +ought to make it known to the duke, that he might stop this wicked +work. I told them that these were important things which they had +related to me; and asked, seriously, whether the affair was really such +as they represented it. They answered that the whole village could bear +witness of it, and that the <i>einspänner</i> had empowered the smith to do +it. Thereupon I went to the bishop<a name="div2_84" href="#div2Ref_84"><sup>[84]</sup></a> (with whom, as it so happened, +the gentleman of the bedchamber then was), and I told him I wished to +say something to him privately. When I had related all to him he was +horrified, sought for further information concerning the matter, and +learnt that the <i>einspänner</i> had enjoined the smith to do this in the +bishop's name; then he inquired of me what was to be done. I replied +that, as his name had been misused for these public wicked proceedings, +it was necessary that the hut, which had been built in honour of the +devil, should be destroyed in the name of God; this was approved of. +Thereupon I proceeded to do it; the boys from the school, noble pages, +and many noblemen accompanied me to destroy the work of the devil. The +smith had already run away, but his wife came and begged that she might +be allowed to keep the new bellows and the iron utensils. But I said +she ought to be ashamed of herself to desire to keep among her things +what the devil had handled; whereupon she desisted from her petition. +But the noble pages set fire to and burnt the hut and bellows, and cast +the iron work into deep water. Now there came some merchants, +travelling from Hamburgh, who looked on and listened to my discourse. +It was just during the period of Christmas, so I took the passage, +'Behold a house of God among men,' and explained it shortly, but said +in direct application: 'Behold a house of the devil among the +Zernikawers. This is the place where formerly the idol of the +Holsteiners, Zernebog, was worshipped, who wishes again to install +himself; but has been driven away by the injunction of the bishop.' At +the catechising, also, at which the duke, with his court, were in the +habit of attending, I made an impressive speech, saying that the thief +must be among the court; also that there were conjectures afloat as to +who it was, and that if the thief would bring me this money, I called +God to witness, I would not betray him. So the thief, at night, would +have laid down the stolen money in the churchyard near my house, but +could not because the gentleman of the bedchamber had placed his people +there to catch the thief. Thus he himself prevented the restoration. +The bishop was very angry with the gentleman of the bedchamber, who was +obliged to leave the court. But he uttered menaces against me, because +I had disgraced him in my sermon, having said that his name, which the +smith must have mentioned in his proceedings, would be known by the +devils in hell, and that he should take care not to get there himself. +But I did not care for his threats, but trusted myself to my God and my +office.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The courtiers, however, leagued themselves against me; they sided +almost all with the court mareschal, a Mecklenburger. But the mareschal +sought out all kinds of occasions against the duchess and her maid of +honour, Naundorf, and made the duke imagine that the duchess followed +the advice of Naundorf in everything, and thereby the duke was +irritated against the duchess. But, as I was not in their league, the +court mareschal asked me in the public saloon, to which party I +belonged, the great or the little. By the great party, they meant +themselves. I answered that I was on the side of God and justice. The +mareschal replied, that they would soon shorten my cloak for me. Now as +I perceived that the ill will of the duke to the duchess continued +increasing, I went to him, and spoke persuasively to him, that he +should not be so alienated from his wife, as those who desired it +sought only their own interests. Thereupon the duke went with me to the +duchess, and they became reconciled in my presence; and I, as it were, +united them again. The bishop told me to keep this secret; but from +this time he noted the intrigues of the court mareschal and dismissed +him.</p> + +<p class="normal">"There was also another evil business, for a nobleman of the +illustrious court of Plön quarrelled with a nobleman of our court, and +they challenged one another. As soon as I discovered this I went to +this sheep of my flock, and pointed out to him what an unchristian +thing duelling was, as Christ had commanded us to love our enemies. He +told me he would take care the quarrel was adjusted, so I was in some +measure reassured. But at dawn of day on the morrow, I heard a troop of +horses passing by my house, and it occurred to me that the devil was +going to have his pastime with this sheep of my flock. I rose, awoke my +servant, and as, from my great haste, I could not get a carriage, I +went after them on foot. When I had gone a mile I heard some shots at a +distance, the signal of the arrival of both parties at their respective +places. But I thought that they had already exchanged shots, so I fell +down on my knees and prayed God that neither of them might murder the +other. Then I ran on, guided by the footprints of the horses, which I +could easily see, as many of the Holstein junkers had accompanied my +sheep; and as I found them both ready to commence the duel, I went up +to my sheep and advised him to abstain from this evil deed. But his +opponent thought that he had settled with me to do this, which I denied +most solemnly; I also spoke persuasively to the others from the Plönish +court. But neither of them would be reconciled. Then said I, 'Now, if +you will not, may God make such an example of you both, together with +the others that have come here for this duel, as may show his wrath in +the eyes of the whole world.' Yet in my heart I wished that they might +be preserved from it. Then God so ordained, that the seconds persuaded +them and they became reconciled; and I got a carriage which conveyed me +back to the house. Who could be more joyful than I, who had deprived +the devil of a roast? Nevertheless, the Holstein noblesse were disposed +in their hearts to speak evil concerning it, and observed to my lord +that in future he would get no honourable cavalier to sit at his table. +He, also, in the beginning, was inclined to speak ill of me; and for +this reason, because I had followed them on foot. Then one of the +equerries came to me and said that my lord had been so offended by my +bad conduct that he had taken to his bed. I answered, by the time he +rises from his bed he will find that I have done nothing but what was +required of me by my duty as a faithful shepherd. Thereupon my lord +sent for me, and I showed him that his table could not be adorned by +those who opposed themselves to Christ. If I was so watchful and +faithful towards a servant, how much more would I be so towards my lord +himself. Then was my lord, who truly feared God, quite softened. Soon +after, the Duke von Plön visited our court; and my heart feared his +reproaches on account of what I had done; but he commended me, and, on +the other hand, blamed his court preacher, who had been so near the +duellists and had known the affair, yet had not stirred a foot in it. +This pleased my lord much, and he thereupon caused a severe edict to be +published against duelling.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Up to this period I remained unmarried, and should have continued so +if my dear father had not exhorted me to marry. A patrician lady had +already been suggested to me at Lubeck, who met me in her smartest +attire, and whom my father would have been glad for me to marry; but +she was too fine for me, and I said that she would hardly suit a +clergyman. If I was to marry, no one would suit me better than +<i>Fräulein</i> von Merlan, who would not be a hindrance to me in my office; +but I was shy about paying my addresses to her, lest she should think I +had on this account sought her acquaintance at Frankfort. But some one +who was going to Frankfort undertook to tell her my wishes; my love, +however, would not give an answer to him who wooed her for me; but she +wrote to me, that, though she had no engagement, still she was not at +liberty to answer yes; and she proposed to me another young <i>docterin</i> +in Frankfort, who was more highly gifted, and would suit me well; but I +answered, either she or none, and wrote immediately to Herr Doctor +Spener, that he might persuade her to consent. I wrote also to her +noble father, who knew me, as I had once been at the Philippseck court, +where he was high steward, and preached before his duke. He answered +me, that though he had never had an idea of giving his daughter to one +who was not of noble family, yet, he did not know how it happened, he +was so troubled in mind when he wished to refuse his consent, that he +thought it must be the will of God that he should entrust his daughter +to the Superintendent Petersen; therefore, he sent herewith his +fatherly yes. This letter was sent me by my love, Johanna, and Doctor +Spener congratulated me. Who could be more joyful than I when I found +that my prayer had been heard? for I had knelt in prayer to my God, +that he might interpose to prevent the marriage if it were not his +will, but if it were, that he would so trouble the father's mind that +he could not withstand it. When, therefore, I read in the father's +letter that he had been thus troubled, I perceived that this was what +God had intended from all eternity. Then did I travel joyfully by +Hamburg to Frankfort, where the bans were published, and I was +afterwards married by Herr Doctor Spener.</p> + +<p class="normal">"In 1685, the holy Revelation which God made through his angel in +certain visions to the Apostle and Evangelist John was disclosed in a +wonderful way to me and my love. Formerly I had always feared to read +such a book, because it was generally considered that it was a sealed +book, which no one could understand. But on a certain day I was +powerfully moved, and led by my God to read this book, and on the same +day and at the same hour, without my knowing it, my love felt the same +impulse, and began to read the book, equally not knowing that I had +felt a like impulse. Now, when I had gone to my study to note down +something that I had discovered, from the accordance of the prophet +Daniel with the thirteenth chapter of the Book of Revelation--what the +beast and the little horn were--behold, my love came there and told me +how she had seriously undertaken to read the holy book, and what she +had found therein, and this harmonised with mine, which I showed her, +as I had written it down, and the ink was not dry. Then were we +mutually amazed, and agreed we would confer together at the end of a +month, and observe what we had further found; but we could not withhold +it, when we discovered anything singular and of undoubted truth; and it +so happened that what she and I found was always precisely the same. We +rejoiced much thereat, and thanked God in all simplicity that He had so +invigorated us both by his enlightening spirit, as to be able to know +the future fate of the church, and to bear witness thereof. For a long +time we kept it to ourselves, till we made acquaintance with the +Fraulein Rosamunda Juliana von der Asseburg, who, in her testimony, had +borne witness to the same, yet not from searching the Holy Scriptures, +but by extraordinary grace vouchsafed her from above. Herewith I must +also note what happened to my love when she was eighteen, which I here +set down in her own words:--'I dreamt that the numerals 1685 were +written in golden ciphers on the heaven; on my right I saw a man who +pointed to the numbers and said to me, "See at that time will great +things happen, and somewhat shall be revealed unto you." Now, it was in +this year, 1685, that the great persecution took place in France, and +in the same year was the blessed millennial kingdom of the Apocalypse +revealed to me and my dear husband, at the same hour; and, without one +knowing of the other, did both our treatises so coincide, that we were +ourselves amazed at it We were therefore, by divine guidance, convinced +of the truth of what we had discovered in Holy Scripture concerning +the kingdom of our King. And later we imparted to others in all +simplicity our discovery, not caring when learned and unlearned alike +gainsaid it.'"</p> + +<p class="normal">Here we end the narrative of Petersen. They passed the first years of +their marriage in peace. He had once accidentally placed his thumb on +the passage--"Sarah shall bear a son;" the year following he was made +happy by Johanna Eleonora bringing a son into the world, who was, +indeed, small at his birth, but who shortly afterwards raised his head +in a wonderful way out of his little bed and gave other delightful +signs that he would become something remarkable and pleasing in the +sight of the Lord. He did actually become, later, a Royal Russian +Councillor, and was able to protect his dear parents when the +millennial kingdom made their life full of cares; for, alas! it was not +granted to them to keep the great light which had been kindled at the +same time in both, under a bushel. It would have been better for their +earthly comfort had they done so.</p> + +<p class="normal">What the worthy couple learned from the Revelation, combined with +numerous passages from the Bible--in reading which they were assisted +by earnest prayer, followed by divine inspiration--was remarkable. The +Millennium was not already come, but was approaching. It was to begin, +at no very distant time, by the return of Christ on earth; when this +should take place, a portion of the dead would rise; in great periods +of thousands of years, the whole human race, living and dead, were to +attain salvation; the Calvinists and Lutherans were to be united, and +all Jews and heathen converted; then all even the worst sinners would +be redeemed from hell; and, last of all, the devil himself brought out +of his miserable condition, and, through repentance and penance, +changed again into an angel; but this last would only be at the end of +50,000 years: from that time there would be endless bliss, love and +joy. They were inclined to think that the beginning of this glorious +time would be from 1739 to 1740.</p> + +<p class="normal">In the year 1688, Petersen accepted the appointment of Superintendent +at Luneburg. They considered it as a special providence that he had +been called there, because once, in passing through on a journey, he +had preached a beautiful sermon which had given much satisfaction; but +in Luneburg he found many orthodox opponents who vexed and irritated +him, and some mocked him on account of the opinions which he held +concerning the millennial kingdom. They were, besides, injured by the +intimacy with the Fraulein Rosamunda von der Asseburg, whose violent +excitement and nervous exaltation had created a great sensation. The +tender and innocent character of the maiden captivated both the +Petersens; they supported the divine nature of her revelations, and +defended her in the press, especially as the dear maiden revealed +exactly the same concerning the already-mentioned return of the Lamb of +God which had been disclosed to them. The private devotions which they +held with the sick maiden gave great offence to the worldly-minded, and +they were maliciously calumniated. When Petersen once was in great +danger of drowning on the Elbe, he thought himself like the prophet +Jonas, who was cast by the Lord into the body of a whale because he +would not proclaim the secret of the Lord's word; and in this hour of +danger he vowed that henceforth he would no longer conceal from the +world his great secret. And he honestly kept his word. The millennial +kingdom, and the return of the Lamb, were brought forward incessantly +in his sermons. His hearers were amazed, his opponents denounced him, +and he was removed from his office in 1692. They both bore this +misfortune with love and trust in God.</p> + +<p class="normal">From that time they passed their life in travelling about and writing +books, in visits to those who were like-minded, and in constant +disputes with the orthodox. They became to the multitude like persons +of evil repute, to whom calumny and ill-natured gossip seemed to cling; +they were obliged usually to keep their names secret on their journeys; +but never were they wanting in warm patrons and friends. In the castles +of princes, in the houses of the nobles, among the city authorities, +and in the rooms of artisans, they found admirers. More than all others +was Kniphausen, the President of the Supreme Court of Justice, their +protector. The year Petersen was dismissed, he obtained for them a +pension from the court of Berlin, and granted them a house at +Magdeburg; other patrons also sent them money, and gave them +recommendations, so that they were in a position to buy a small +property at Magdeburg. They were, nevertheless, annoyed by the peasants +and the clergymen of the place, and by denunciations in Berlin; but the +Queen herself maintained intercourse with the proclaimer of a +revelation so full of hope, and rejoiced that he promised salvation +finally to the wicked. Thus he remained safe, though, indeed, the +harmless proclaimer of a coming kingdom of glory was in danger of being +deceived by wolves in sheep's clothing for among the pious people +travelling about there were many deceivers. Once there came a troop of +mendicant students, who maintained that they were Pietists, and +demanded donations; then an adventurer desired instruction, having +heard that every one who allowed himself to be converted would receive +ten thalers. At last there came a false officer, who, in the absence of +the husband, under the pretence of being a follower of the Lamb, +insinuated himself into the confidence of the Frau Doctorin, who, +probably from an indelible recollection of her noble birth, was +disposed to bear special goodwill to the distinguished believer; but +the husband returned home, just in time to prevent the foreign deceiver +persuading his guileless wife to give him a letter of recommendation. +On a journey to Nuremberg, they were received into the Pegnitzer Blumen +order--he as Petrophilus, she as Phœbe. Such success comforted them +amid the flood of flying sheets that surged up against them. The +true-hearted Petersen complained that every one rose up in controversy +against him, to prove themselves orthodox, and be made doctors of +theology; and when even the pious stumbled at his doctrine of the seven +trumpets, or if they reproached him, that he had once, when the +opportunity offered, reappeared in the character of the old professor +of poetry, and had celebrated the coronation of Frederick I. of Prussia +and other worldly events in Latin verses which flowed from him like +water, he bore it with resignation. The last years of their life they +dwelt in the pious district of Zerbst at Thymern, where they had +obtained a property, as their former property at Nieder-Dodeleben had +been too unquiet for them, and the peasants had become too hostile. In +1718, Petersen succeeded, by victorious disputations, in restoring to +the Evangelical communion the Duke Moritz Wilhelm von Sachsen-Zeitz. +They died at a great age--she in 1724, he in 1727.</p> + +<p class="normal">After Spener had been removed to Berlin, the University of Halle became +the intellectual centre of Pietism; it was there that the impassioned +Franke, with his companions Breithaupt and Anton, led the theological +party. Henceforth the youth were systematically trained in the faith of +the Pietists; immense was the concourse of students; only Luther had +collected a greater number at Wittemberg. At Halle the dangers of the +new tendency were evident: the colleges became mere schools for the +propagation of their views; industrious, patient labour in the paths of +human science appeared almost superfluous; not only the controversial +points of the orthodox, but all the dogmas of the Church were treated +by many with indifference and contempt. The mind was overstrained by +intense prayer and spiritual exercises. Instead of unruly lads who +sharpened their backswords on a stone, and drank immense glasses of +beer, "<i>fioricos or hausticos</i>," in one draught, pale fellows crept +through the streets of the city in a state of inward abstraction, with +vehement movements of the hands, and loud outcries. All the believers +rejoiced over this wonderful manifestation of divine grace; but their +opponents complained of the increasing melancholy, and of distractions +of the spirit, and of nefarious proceedings of the worst kind. Vain +were the warnings of the moderate Spener.</p> + +<p class="normal">From Halle, Pietism spread to the other Universities. Wittemberg and +Rostock withstood it long, and were for many years the last bulwarks of +orthodoxy. Even at the courts this faith gained influence: it forced +its way among the governments, and after 1700 filled the country +churches of most of the German territories. And its dominion was not +confined to Germany: an active intercourse with the pious of Denmark +and Sweden, and the Sclavonian East, contributed to maintain the inward +communion of these countries with the spiritual life of Germany, which +lasted till the end of the century. Even the orthodox opponents were, +without knowing it, transformed by this Pietism; the old scholastic +disputes were silenced, and they endeavoured to defend their own point +of view with greater dignity and learning.</p> + +<p class="normal">Meanwhile the defects in the faith of the Pietists became greater, the +deterioration more striking. Since the process of spiritual +regeneration had become the secret act of a man's life, after which the +whole soul morbidly strained, all the bliss of salvation depended on +his admittance into the community of the pious. He who by a special act +of God's grace was brought into the condition of regeneration, lived in +a state of grace; his soul was guarded from all sin by the Lord; he +breathed a purer and more heavenly atmosphere, secure of the mercy of +the Lamb, already redeemed from sin here. But it was difficult for the +more cultivated minds to go through this spiritual process: it did not +prosper with all conscientious men, as it did with the jurist Johann +Jacob Moser. Touching are the accounts delivered to us of the strivings +of individuals, of the anguish and self-torture which fruitlessly +ground down body and soul. Among the weaker we find every kind of +self-delusion and hypocrisy. Very soon it became doubtful whether the +regenerate was an enthusiast or a deceiver: occasionally he was both at +the same time.</p> + +<p class="normal">After Pietism had won the favour of persons of distinction and the +governing powers, it became a remunerative concern, a fashionable +thing, an assistance to very worldly objects. Generally those who +received the holiest revelations were tender, weak natures, whom one +could not suppose capable of the strenuous work which is necessary for +worldly service; they lived at the cost of their patrons. The artisans +were received into the society of the upper classes in order to assure +their spiritual progress, and whoever desired protection, hastened as +penitents to attend the meetings for edification, of some great lord, +which they preferred holding in special chambers prepared for the +purpose, rather than in the chapels of their castles. Sighs, groans, +wringing the hands, and talk about illumination, became now here and +now there a lucrative speculation. In the regenerate clergy, who held +the souls of weak nobles and gentry in their hands, might be found all +the faults peculiar to ambitious favourites, pride and mean +selfishness. Soon also the morality of many came into ill repute, and +when, after the decease of a devout lord, a society of ambitious +Pietists were expelled, a feeling of malicious pleasure was generally +excited.</p> + +<p class="normal">Thus an opposition to Pietism arose on all sides, equally among the +orthodox, the worldly, and the learned, and finally in the sound common +sense of the people. How the judgment of the thoughtful against it was +expressed in the first half of the eighteenth century shall here be +shown by a short example.</p> + +<p class="normal">The worthy Semler, of whom more details will be given later, relates +among his youthful reminiscences the sorrowful fate of his brother +Ernst Johann, who returned in a distracted state to his parental home, +from the regenerate circle of Magister Brumhardt and of Professor +Buddeus at the University of Jena. The passage gives such a good +insight into the period of decaying Pietism, that it shall be given +here with a few abbreviations.</p> + +<p class="normal">"My brother was so habitually upright that he even mistrusted his own +feelings. Easy though it was to many of the brotherhood to declare the +day and the hour of their being sealed to redemption, which warranted +their living in a state of pure, spiritual, heavenly joyfulness, and +raised them to the rank of God's children, yet little could my brother +forgive himself this spiritual falsehood; he could not coincide in what +was so lightly and so repeatedly spoken of by others. He therefore fell +into immoderate grief over the greatness of his sins, which were alone +his hindrance; he not only prayed, but he moaned half the night before +the Lord, but there was no change in his feelings. He seldom eat meat, +no white or wheaten bread; he considered himself quite unworthy even of +existence. Every night, when I had gone to sleep, he stole secretly out +of bed, crept into the small adjoining library, knelt or lay down on +the floor, and gradually lost, in his passionate emotions, all caution +as to speaking softly and gently. His moaning and lamenting awoke me. I +sought him out, and small confidence as I had in myself to produce any +great effect--being as yet little advanced in conversion,--yet I +repeated to him at intervals such beautiful lines and verses, both +Greek and Hebrew, that he often embraced me and sighed, Haying, 'Ah, if +this would but begin in me.' I answered sometimes hastily, that this +was perversion instead of conversion, and how impossible it was for +that way to be right and true, wherein one acted contrary to the +intentions of God, and made one's-self into an utterly useless, +helpless creature. 'Yes,' he said, 'that is what I am, and cannot +sufficiently acknowledge it.' I talked with my mother, who wept over +her son, who might now have been our mainstay, if he had not been +spoilt by these false ideas. My father disapproved of all this still +more strongly, and expatiated at such length from dogmatic and +polemical divinity, that I could well see in what account he held +these new spiritual institutions. Meanwhile he was obliged to be +on his guard, for the whole Court were in favour of this party; +many were undoubtedly very well-meaning Christians, but there were +also undeniably many idlers and adventurers, who entered these +institutions, and found their good, comfortable life very easy. All +the evidence of their life in the flesh--which evidence was not +rare nor imperceptible--was of no avail; who could succeed here? +Occasionally there was a convert who lived in shame with his +maidservant; it was not investigated, it was a calumny, and in case of +necessity they placed him elsewhere, if his peasants were too Lutheran. +By degrees my brother insinuated that my father also had not yet +entered the narrow way, and that he could not be helped to it. They +roamed about the woods day and night, so that moonlight devotion, which +many now again recommend, is nothing new. They sang the new hymns +together; the Duke often indeed gave the conveyances for these +meetings, together with refreshments; nay, he often himself was the +coachman, when he wished publicly to do honour to some old shoemakers' +wives who had much faith, for the Saviour's sake. I am so far from +wishing to exaggerate the state of things, that indeed I have not said +all. The period for the annual pilgrimage came, for this custom had +been retained from the old times and institutions of the monks. In many +places the grace of the Saviour was supposed to dwell abundantly, +almost visibly, and thither did the brothers and sisters make their +pilgrimages, in reality contrary to the principle laid down by Christ, +that neither Jerusalem nor Samaria was the special abiding-place of His +spirit. Many of them brought their provisions with them. My brother +assuredly did not travel to Ebersdorf without money, but brought +nothing back, for he had bought this or that little book to give to the +brothers as a memento. This enthusiasm had its real views, that aspired +to great ends, although directly afterwards they were moderated, +because the Philadelphian reckoning did not coincide with them. During +these my brother's pious journeys, my mother died, for the remembrance +of whom I daily bless my God. My brother found her in her coffin when +he returned; he felt all the grief of a son, threw himself upon her, +and lay there long, crying aloud, 'Ah, if I, useless creature, had but +died in my mother's stead!' Now we obtained an entrance to his heart; +this journey on foot had much weakened his hypochondria; the +exhortations of the brotherhood called forth some ideas which he could +not himself realize; he was to a certain extent calmed, or began to +believe himself so. We represented to him that he must make his gifts +serviceable to his fellow-men, however small they might be. He first +took a situation as preceptor in a small orphan-house, and afterwards +with Herr von Dieskau, who dwelt in a castle of that name, in the most +beautiful country that one could select for oneself One portion of this +old castle stands upon the city wall; under the wall there is a small +footpath with a hedge planted as a protection against slipping, but +just under this fragment of rock flows the Saale, sometimes very full +and broad, but always deep enough to allow the passage of rafts and +boats; from the castle the eye falls upon a half circle of wood and +hills. Here my brother might perhaps have found rest and refreshment, +but he did not live much longer."</p> + +<p class="normal">Here we close Sender's narrative. He himself became infected later by +the prevailing spiritual tendency, and he strove, whilst still a youth, +after regeneration, but the powerful tone of his mind enabled him to +recover. The state of the times also helped to bring this about.</p> + +<p class="normal">The year 1740 was fatal to Pietism. The new King of Prussia was as +averse to the Pietists, as his father had been favourable to them. +Almost at the same time they ceased to prevail in the Saxon courts. The +time of enlightenment now began; the nation pursued another path; the +"<i>Stillen im lande</i>" only existed as an isolated community. The +association of brothers, of Count Zinzendorf, for a longer period +developed a praiseworthy missionary activity in foreign countries, but +they ceased to influence the stream of German life, which now began to +flow on with a deeper and more powerful current.</p> + +<p class="normal">Pietism had drawn together large numbers of individuals; it had raised +them from the narrowness of mere family life, it had increased in the +soul the longing after a deeper spiritual aim, it had introduced new +forms of intercourse; here and there the strong distinctions of classes +had been broken through, and it had called forth greater earnestness +and more outward propriety in the whole nation, but it had not +strengthened national union. He who gave himself up to it with zeal, +was in great danger of withdrawing himself, with those who were +like-minded, from the great stream of life, and of looking down from +his solitude, like the shipwrecked man from his island, on the great +waste of waters around him.</p> + +<p class="normal">The new scientific development also produced, at first, only individual +men of learning; then a free culture; after that a nation, which dared +to struggle and to die, and finally to live, for its independence.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CHAPTER VI.</h2> +<br> +<h3>THE DAWNING OF LIGHT.</h3> +<h4>(1750.)</h4> +<br> + +<p class="normal">From the German cities, on the boundaries betwixt guild labour and free +invention, did the art of printing come into the world--the greatest +acquisition of the human race, after that of the alphabet. The mind of +man could now be conveyed, bound up in wood and leather, upon a +thousand roads at the same time, all over the earth; the powers of man +in church and state, in science and handicraft, were unfolded, not only +more powerfully, more variously, and more richly, but in a totally +different manner from the quiet plodding of the past. A change was +produced in nations in one century which formerly would have taken a +thousand years. Every individual was bound together in one great +intellectual unity with his contemporaries, and every nation with other +civilized nations. For the first time a regular connection in the +intellectual development of the human race was secured. The mind of the +individual will continue to live upon earth perhaps many thousand years +after he has ceased to breathe; but the soul of each individual nation +gains a capacity of renovating itself which will, we hope, remove its +decease, according to the old laws of nature, to an incalculable +distance.</p> + +<p class="normal">The black art had not been invented many years when a spring-tide arose +in the soul. From the study of the Latin writers, the humanitarians +proclaimed, with transport, how much there had been of the beautiful +and the grand in the ancient world. Eagerly did they maintain the +treasure of noble feelings, which had fallen on their souls from the +distant past, against the coarse or corrupt life that they beheld +around them. With the holy book in their hands, pious ecclesiastics +contended for the words of Scripture, against the despotism of Rome and +the false traditions of the Church. By thousands of books written by +themselves, they raised the consciences of the people, for the greatest +spiritual struggle that had ever taken place since the Star of +Bethlehem had appeared to the human race; and again through thousands +of books, after the first victory, they consecrated anew for their +people all earthly relations, the duties and rights of men, of the +family, and of the governing powers, as the first educators and +teachers of the great multitude.</p> + +<p class="normal">But it was not the pleasure derived from the ancient poets and statues, +nor the mighty struggle which was carried on concerning the teaching of +the Church, nor the theologians and the philologists of the sixteenth +century, that were the greatest blessings bestowed by the new art; it +is not they alone that have given richness to thought, and security to +judgment, and made love and hatred greater. This was brought about in +yet another way--through the medium of types and woodcuts; slowly, +imperceptibly, to contemporaries, but to us wonderfully.</p> + +<p class="normal">Men learnt gradually a different mode of seeing, observing, and +judging. Sharp as was the mental activity of individuals in the middle +ages, the impressions which were conveyed to their minds from the outer +world were too easily distorted by the activity of their imagination, +which united dreams, forebodings, and immature combinations with the +object. Now the distinct black upon white was always at work, to give a +durable, unvarying report of multitude of new conceptions upon the +mutual relations of the State, and the position held in it by the +individual man. How various have been the lawgivers who have dominated +over the lives of individuals--the Jewish priests, the community of +apostles, the Jurist schools of ancient Rome, the Longobard kings and +the ambitious popes; and, again, together with laws which had +originated in past ages and nations, there were the reminiscences from +German antiquity--legal decisions, ordinances, codes of law, +regulations and privileges. According to their decisions a man +preserved or lost his house and farm, wife and child, and his property, +either inherited or acquired. And just after the great war, the +despotic will of the ruler, and the tyrannical power of a heartless +system, had exalted itself above all law. Amid such a chaos of laws, +and the suppression of rights by the power of the State, the minds of +men sought a firm support. And as the Pietists demanded of the Church a +worthier conception of human rights and duties, the Jurists also began, +after the great war, to place the natural law of men in opposition to +the injustice of despotic States, and to vindicate the reasonable law +of States against intriguing politicians. Together with mathematical +discipline and natural philosophy, the science of law became the +laboratory in which minds were reared to ideal requirements. From them +sprang a new philosophy.</p> + +<p class="normal">After the Thirty Years' War there began, in the great civilized +nations, a systematic exposition of those convictions which Science, +from its then standing-point, was able to give concerning God, the +creation and the government of the world. The French Descartes, the +English Locke, the Dutch Spinoza, and the German Leibnitz, Thomasius +and Wolf, were the great exponents of this philosophy.</p> + +<p class="normal">They all, with the exception of the free-thinker Spinoza, sought to +keep their system, concerning the divine rule in nature and in the soul +of man, in unison with the doctrines of Christian theology.</p> + +<p class="normal">After Descartes had put forth his propositions, nothing appeared fair +or true to the inquiring spirit of man but what could be proved by +unanswerable demonstration,--all belief in authority passed away; +science assumed a new dominion. The divines, also, once her severe +rulers,--even Luther had placed the words of Holy Scripture above the +human reason,--now found that natural theology was the ally of +revelation. Young theologians eagerly sought in this philosophy new +supports to their faith. The necessity and wisdom of a Creator were +demonstrated from the movements of the stars, the volcanic fires, or +the convolutions of a snail's shell. On the other hand, there was no +lack of men who denied the creating power of a personal God and the +immortality of the soul. But against such isolated deists and atheists, +most of the philosophers, and the Christian piety of the great mass of +the people, rose in arms.</p> + +<p class="normal">The great German philosophers who, at the beginning of the eighteenth +century, were the leaders of this movement, carried a holy fervour into +the various circles of German life. Leibnitz, the great creative +intellect of his time, a wonderful mixture of elastic pliancy and firm +tranquillity, of sovereign certainty and tolerant geniality, worked, by +his countless monographs and endless letters, especially on the leaders +of the nation and on foreigners, on princes, statesmen, and scholars, +opening a path on all sides, and hastening forward to disclose the +widest prospects. Besides him, Thomasius, spiritual, emotional, +combative, and greedy of approbation, excited even the indifferent and +insignificant, by his noisy activity, to take a part in the struggle. +As the first German journalist, he contended through the press, both +jestingly and in earnest--now in alliance with the Pietists against +intolerant orthodoxy, now as opponent of fanatical revivals, for +toleration and pure morality against every kind of superstition and +fanaticism. Lastly, the younger Christian Wolf, the great professor; he +was a methodical, clear, and sober teacher, who, during long years of +useful activity, drew up a system and founded a school.</p> + +<p class="normal">A period such as this, in which the great discoveries of individuals +inspired their numerous disciples with enthusiasm, is a happy period +for millions who perhaps have no immediate share in the new +acquisition. Somewhat of apostolical consecration seems to rest upon +the first efforts of a school. What has been progressively formed in +the soul of a teacher, painfully amidst inward struggles, works on +young souls as something great, firm, and elevating. With enthusiasm +and Pietism is united the impulse to work out by self-exertion the new +acquisition. Rapid is the spread of theorems among the people; they +work not only on the individual sciences, but on all the tendencies of +the practical mind, on lawgiving, statesmanship, household regulations, +and family training; in the studio and workshop of the artist, and +handicraftsman.</p> + +<p class="normal">This new scientific light was first kindled in 1700. Academies, learned +periodicals, and prizes were established. The leaders adjusted the +German language to the exigencies of science, and thus placed it +victoriously on an equality with Latin; and this glorious deed was the +first step towards bringing the mass of the nation into a new relation +with the learned.</p> + +<p class="normal">Thus a new life forced its way, about 1720, with irresistible power +into the houses, writing-rooms, and workshops of the citizens. Every +sphere of human activity was searchingly investigated. Agriculture, +commerce, and the technicalities of trade were made accessible by +hand-books of instruction, which are still in the present day the +groundwork of our technological literature. Books were written on raw +materials, and the method of working them; on minerals, colours, and +machines; in many places popular periodicals appeared, which +endeavoured to make the new discoveries of science available to the +artizan and manufacturer. Even into the hut of the poor peasant did +some rays of bright light penetrate; for him, also, arose a small +philanthropic literature. The moral working of every earthly vocation +was also exhibited; much that was elevating was said concerning the +worth and importance of operatives and of officials; the inward +connection of the material and spiritual interests of the nation were +proclaimed; incessantly was the necessity pointed out of abandoning the +beaten track of old customs, of taking interest in the progress of +foreign countries, and of learning their character and requirements. +Men wrote upon dress and manners in a new style, with humour, irony, +and reproof, but always with the wish of remoulding and improving. The +spiritual failings of the various classes and professions, the weakness +of women, and the roughness and dishonesty of men were incessantly +criticised and chastised, undoubtedly in an uncouth style, and +sometimes with pedantry and narrow-mindedness, but in an earnest and +upright spirit.</p> + +<p class="normal">The whole private life of Germany was thrown into a state of restless +excitement; new ideas struggled everywhere with old prejudices; +everywhere the citizen beheld around and within him a change which it +was difficult to withstand. The period was still poor in great +phenomena, but everywhere in smaller events an impulsive power was +perceptible. Only a few years later, the new enlightenment was to bear +blossoms of gladness to the whole world. Still is philosophy and +popular culture of the people dependent on mathematics and natural +science; but since Johann Matthias Gesner, the knowledge of antiquity, +the second pole of all scientific culture, has begun to bear upon the +historical development of the popular mind. A few years after 1750, +Winkelmann travelled to Italy.</p> + +<p class="normal">And how did the citizens live, from whose homes the greater part of our +thinkers and discoverers, our scholars and poets have gone forth, who +were to carry out the new culture further and bolder, more freely and +more beautifully?</p> + +<p class="normal">Let us examine a moderate-sized city about 1750. The old brick walls +are still standing, with towers, not only over the gates, but here and +there upon the walls. A temporary wooden roof is placed on many, the +strongest have prisons in them, others that were decayed, having been +riddled with shot, are pulled down. The city walls also are repaired; +projecting angles and bastions still lie in ruins; blooming elder and +garden flowers are planted behind, and trail over the stones; the city +moat lies for the most part dry, the cows of some of the citizens +pasture within it, or the clothmakers have their frames set up with +rows of small iron hooks, and quietly spread their cloths over them. +The usual colour since the Pietists, is pepper and salt, as it was then +called; the old favourite blue of the Germans is also seen, though no +longer made from German woad, but from foreign indigo. The narrow +openings in the doors have still wooden planks, often two behind one +another, and they are closed at night by the city watchmen, who stand +at their post, but have often to be awakened by knocking and ringing, +when anyone desires admission. On the inner side of the city wall, +fragments of wooden galleries are still to be seen, on which once the +archers and arquebuziers stood; but the passage along the wall is no +longer free through its whole length, there are already many poor +cottages and shops built on it.</p> + +<p class="normal">In the interior of the city, the houses are unadorned, and not so +numerous as in former centuries; there are still some waste spaces +between, but most have been bought by people of rank and turned into +gardens. Perhaps there is already a coffee garden, laid out after the +pattern of the famed one of Leipzig; it contains some rows of trees and +benches, and in the coffee-room, near the bar, are arranged the clay +pipes of the habitués; but the maple head and the costly meerschaum +are just coming into fashion. In the neighbourhood of the chief +market-place, the houses are more stately, the old arcades are not +preserved; these covered passages, which existed once throughout +the greater part of Germany, led through the basement story to the +market-places, protecting the foot passengers from rain, and acted as a +communication from the house to the street. The old pillars and vaults +are attached to the massive edifice of the council-house by coarse +rough-cast cement and intermediate walls; in the dim poorly lighted +rooms of the interior hang cobwebs, gray piles of records raise their +heads amidst layers of dust; in the council-room, in a raised space, +the railing of which separates the councillors from the citizens, are +stiff-cushioned chairs, covered with green cloth, and fastened with +brass nails; everything is unadorned, even the whitewash neglected, and +everything poor and tasteless, for in the new State money is deficient, +and no pleasure is felt in adorning public edifices, which are +considered by the citizens as a necessary evil. Most of the houses in +the market-place have pointed gables; they look out on the street, and +betwixt the houses broad rushing gutters pour their water on the bad +pavement, which is made of rough stones. Among the houses stands an +occasional church or abandoned monastic buildings, with buttresses and +pointed arches. The people look with indifference on these remains of +the past, bound up with which there is scarcely any fond remembrance, +for they have lost all appreciation of ancient art; owing to this, the +edifices of the ancient times are everywhere ruined, as the castle of +Marienburg was by Frederic of Prussia. The magistrates have carefully +turned the empty space into a parsonage-house or schoolroom, knocked +out the windows, and made a plaster ceiling; and the boys look from +their Latin grammar with admiration on the stone rosettes and delicate +work of the chisel,--remains of a time when such inutilities were still +erected; and in the crumbling cloisters where once trod monks with +earnest step, they now spin their humming tops; for the "<i>Circitor +susurrans</i>," or "Monk," is still the favourite game of this period, +which gentlemen of rank also, in a smaller form, sometimes carry in +their pockets.</p> + +<p class="normal">There is already much order in the city: the streets are swept, the +dung-heaps, which fifty years before, even in towns of some calibre, +lay in front of the doors--the ancient cleanliness having disappeared +in the war--are again removed by an ordinance, which the councillors of +the sovereign have sent to the superior officials, and these to the +senate. The stock of cattle in the streets is also much diminished; the +pigs and cattle, which not long before 1700 enjoyed themselves amidst +the children at play, in the dirt of the street, are strictly kept in +farmyards and out-houses, for the government does not like that the +cities should keep cattle within the walls, for it has introduced the +<i>octroi</i>, and a disbanded non-commissioned officer paces backwards and +forwards near the gate, with his cane in his hand in order to examine +the cans and baskets of the country people. Thus the rearing of cattle +is carried on in the needy suburbs and farms: it is only in the small +country towns that citizens employ agriculture as a means of support. +There is a police also now, that exercises a strict vigilance over +beggars and vagabonds, and the passport is indispensable for ordinary +travellers. Constables are visible in the streets, and watch +the public-houses. At night a fire watchman is posted near the +council-house, and the warders of the towers by means of flags and +large speaking trumpets, give danger signals. The engine-house is also +kept in good order; clumsy fire-barrels stand beside the council-house +under open sheds, and above them hang the iron-cased fire-ladders. The +night watch are tolerably watchful and discreet; after the great war +they here and there sang offensive verses, when they called out the +hours, but now the pious parson has insisted upon both words and melody +being spiritual.</p> + +<p class="normal">The artisan continues to work in the old way, each one adheres steadily +to his guild; the painters also are incorporated, and execute as a +masterpiece a crucifixion with the usual number of prescribed figures. +In the Roman Catholic districts they live by very moderate performances +of the pictures of the saints; in the Protestant, they paint shields +and targets, and the coats of arms of the sovereigns, which are to be +seen in numbers on public buildings and over the doors of artisans. +Most of the artisans adhere strictly to their old customs, and +especially to their guild rights. Any one who enters the guild not +according to artisan law, is treated as a bungler, and persecuted with +a hatred, the intention of which is to exclude him from their society. +Serious business is still transacted in front of the open shops; +apprentices are taken, fellows receive the freedom, quarrels are +accommodated, and the formula "By your kind permission," which +introduces every speech, sounds unceasingly at all the meetings of the +masters and the fellows; but the old colloquies and sayings of the +middle ages are only half understood, rough jests have been introduced, +and the better class already begin not to attach much value to the +guild; indeed there are those who consider the old constitution of the +guild as a burden, because it stubbornly resists their endeavours to +enlarge their manufacturing activity; such was the case with the +clothmakers and iron-workers. And the jovial annual feasts which were +once the joy and pride of almost every artisan have nearly ceased. The +processions in masks, and the old peculiar dances, are incompatible +with the culture of a time in which the individual fears nothing so +much as to lose his dignity, in which it is preached from the pulpit, +that noisy, worldly amusements are sinful, and the learned men of the +city find no adequate reason for such disturbance in the streets.</p> + +<p class="normal">The gentry of the city are separated from the citizens by dress and +titles. As much as the nobles look down upon them, so do they upon the +citizens, and these again upon the peasants. A merchant has already a +place among the gentry, especially if he occupies some city office or +has wealth. In the families also of merchants of distinction, as the +first wholesale houses are denominated, and in those of traders of +consideration, as the possessors of large retail shops are called, a +pleasing change may be observed in the mode of life. The coarse luxury +of a former generation is restrained, better training at home and +greater rectitude in business are everywhere perceptible. It is already +a subject of boast that the members of old solid commercial houses are +not those who sue for patents of nobility; nay, such vain new nobles +are despised by the high commercial class.<a name="div2_85" href="#div2Ref_85"><sup>[85]</sup></a> And the unprejudiced +cavalier is brought to confess, that in fact there is no difference +between the wife of the landed proprietor, who goes with dignity into +the cow-house to overlook the skimming of the cream, and the wife of a +merchant of distinction at Frankfort, who during the fair sits in the +warehouse; "she is well and handsomely dressed, she gives orders to her +people like a princess, she knows how to behave to people of rank, +commoners, and those of the lower classes, each according to their +class and position; she reads and understands many languages, she +judges sensibly, and knows how to live, and bring up her children +well." Other circumstances, besides the intellectual energy of the +time, contributed to elevate the German merchant. The influx of the +expelled Huguenots had not in some respects been favourable to our +German character, yet the influence that they exercised on German +commerce must be highly estimated. About 1750 their families dwelt in +almost all the larger commercial cities; they formed there a small +aristocratic community, lived in social seclusion, and maintained +carefully their relations with their connections in France, who, up to +the present day, form an aristocracy of French wholesale traders, +serious and strict, and rather of the old-fashioned aristocratic +school. It was among the German Huguenots that the puritanical +character of the Genevan and Flemish Separatists found many adherents, +their staid demeanour had exercised an influence on other great houses +both in Frankfort and along the Rhine. But German commerce had now +acquired new vigour, and healthy labour raised the tone of its +character. The impoverished country again took an honourable share in +the commerce of the world. Already did the Germans export their iron +and steel wares from Mark, Solingen and Suhl, cloth from all the +provinces, fine cloth also of Portuguese and Spanish wool from +Aix-la-Chapelle, damask from Westphalia, linen and lawn from Silesia; +to England, Spain, Portugal, and the colonies, whose products in return +had a great market in Germany; while the whole of the east of Europe, +up to the frontiers of Turkey and the steppes of Asia, were supplied by +German merchants. The poverty of the people, that is to say, the low +rate of wages, made the outlay of many manufactures light and +remunerative. In Hamburg and the cities of the Rhine, from Frankfort to +Aix-la-Chapelle, the wholesale trade throve, and equally so in the +frontier lands towards Poland, though in a ruder form, as it was one of +barter. Goods and travellers were still conveyed down the Danube in +rough wooden boats, which were built for a single voyage, and taken to +pieces at the end of it, and sold as planks. And at Breslau the bearded +traders from Warsaw and Novogorod sold the carts and horses of the +steppes, on which they had brought their wares in long caravans to +barter them for the costly products of western civilisation.</p> + +<p class="normal">Already do the Silesian merchants begin to complain that the caravans +come less often, and foreigners are dissatisfied on account of the new +Prussian red-tapism and customhouse regulations of a strict government. +At the same time travelling traders, with their sample cases of +knife-blades, and needles, began to find their way from Lennep and +Bartscheid to the Seine and the Thames, and the younger sons of great +manufacturers met together with Hamburghers in London, Lisbon, Cadiz, +and Oporto, and there, as bold and expert speculators, founded numerous +firms. As early as 1750, cosmopolitanism had developed itself in the +families of great merchants, who looked down with contempt on the +limited connections of home. And something of the enterprising and +confident character of these men has been communicated to their +business friends in the interior. A manly, firm, and independent spirit +is to be found about this time pervading all classes.</p> + +<p class="normal">But most of the gentry in every city belonged to the literary +classes--theologians, jurists, and medical men. They represented +probably every shade of the culture of the time, and the strongest +contrasts of opinion were to be found in every great city. Now, the +clergy were either orthodox or Pietist. The first, generally pleasant +in social intercourse; not unfrequently <i>bon vivants</i>, able to stand a +good bottle of wine, and tolerant of the worldly jokes of their +acquaintances. They had lost a good deal of their old pugnacity and +inquisitorial character; they condescended sometimes to quote a passage +from Horace, occupied themselves with the history of their parish +church and school, and already began to regard with secret goodwill the +dangerous Wolf, because he was so striking a contrast to their +opponents, the Pietists. Where Pietist clergy resided they were +probably in better relations with other confessions, and were +especially reverenced by the women, Jews, and poor of the city. Their +faith, also, had become milder; they were, for the most part, worthy +men--pure in morals, faithful shepherds of souls, with a tender, +lovable character. Their preaching was very pathetic and flowery; they +liked to warn people against cold subtleties, and recommended what they +called a juicy, racy style, but which their opponents found fault with +as affected tautology. Their endeavours to isolate their parishioners +from the bustle of the world was even now regarded with distrust by a +great majority of the citizens; and in the taverns it was usual to say, +mockingly, that the pious sat groaning over leather aprons, shoemakers' +lasts, and tailors' geese, and were on the watch for regeneration.</p> + +<p class="normal">The teachers of the city schools were still learned theologians, and, +for the most part, poor candidates; the Rector, perhaps, had been +appointed from the great school of the Halle Orphan Asylum. They were +an interesting class, accustomed to self-denial, frequently afflicted +with weakly bodies, the result of the hard, necessitous life through +which they have had to work upwards. There were original characters +among them; many were queer and perverse, and the majority had no +comprehensive knowledge. But in very many of them was hid, perhaps, +under strange forms, somewhat of the freedom, greatness, and candour of +the ancient world; they had been, since the Reformation, the natural +opponents of all pious zelots, even those that came from the great +orphan asylum, from the training of the two Frankes and of Joachim +Lange were generally more moderate than was satisfactory to the Pietist +pastors. The leaves of their Cornelius Nepos were from constant use +frightfully black; their lot was to rise slowly from the sixth or fifth +form to the dignity of conrectors, with a small increase in their +scanty salary. The greatest pleasure of their life was to find +sometimes a scholar of capacity, in whom they could plant, besides the +refinements of Latin syntax and prosody, some of their favourite +ideas--a heathenish view of the greatness of man, influences on which +the scholar, perhaps, in his manhood, looked back with a smile. But in +this thankless and little esteemed occupation they laboured incessantly +to form in the Germans a feeling for the beauty of antiquity, and a +capacity for comprehending other races of men. And the unceasing +influence exercised by thousands of them on the living generation was +increased when Gesner naturalised the Greek language in the schools, +and established an entirely new foundation for the instruction of +scholars, which was spread by the teachers with enthusiasm; the spirit +of antiquity, a thorough comprehension of the writers, not the merely +grammatical construction, became the main object.</p> + +<p class="normal">The school of every important town was a Latin one. If it attained to +so high a point as to prepare the upper classes for the University, the +boys who were to become artisans left when they got to the fourth form. +This arrangement contributed to insure a certain amount of education to +the citizen, which is now sometimes wanting. It was certainly in itself +no great gain for the guild master to have some knowledge of Mavor, and +of Cupid and Venus's doves, which were brought forward in all the poems +of the learned, and embellished even the almanacks and gingerbread; +but, together with these conceptions from antiquity, his mind imbibed +also the seed of the new ideas of the time. It is owing to this kind of +school culture that enlightenment of mind has so rapidly spread among +intelligent citizens.</p> + +<p class="normal">Strict was the school discipline; the usual words of encouragement +which the poor scholars then wrote in one another's albums +were--"Patience! joyfully onward!" But strictness was necessary, for in +the under classes grown-up youths sat beside the children, and the bad +tricks of two generations were in constant conflict. Through a great +part of Germany there existed a custom which has been retained up to +the present day, that the boys who were on the foundation must, under +the lead of a teacher, sing as choristers. If they did not walk in +funeral processions behind the cross, in their blue mantles, it was a +grievous neglect, which much disturbed the discipline of the school, +and as early as 1750 was complained of as an irregularity.</p> + +<p class="normal">The followers of Wolf were to be found everywhere among the gentry, as +the scholars of the new "enlightenment," the watchmen of toleration, +and the friends of scientific progress. In the course of this year they +were in anxious discussion on some old controversial points, for the +Leipziger, Crusius, had just published his "Introduction to the +Rational Contemplation of Natural Occurrences;" and, with this work, +and a cosmos of the year 1749, in their hands, they were once more +taking into consideration whether they were to assume that space was a +plenum or a vacuum, and whether the final cause of movement was to be +sought in the active force of elastic bodies. Indignantly did these men +of progress regard the theological faculty at Rostock, who had, just at +this period, compelled a young Herr Kosegarten to make a recantation, +because he had dared to maintain that the human nature of the Redeemer +on earth had only been to a certain degree supported by his Divine +nature; that he had learnt like others, and had not in all things a +perfect foreknowledge. On the other hand, they accorded a benignant +smile to the physico-theological contemplations of those who proved the +possibility of the resurrection, in spite of the continual change of +matter--or, to use the language of the time, in spite of the change of +particles of the body--or took pains to show wisdom and foresight in +the white fur of the hare in Livonia.</p> + +<p class="normal">They could also prize German poetry and eloquence. Herr Professor +Gottsched and his wife were then at Leipzig. Like others, they had +their weaknesses; but there was a noble nature in them, decorum of +character, dignity, and knowledge. They also belonged to this school, +and they wished, through the medium of German poetry, to introduce +greater refinement and better taste into the country. They met with +much enmity, but their periodical, the "Neuen Büchersaal," could +scarcely be dispensed with by those that followed the course of the +<i>belles lettres</i>. Beside this elder generation, a younger one was +already springing up in the cities, who no longer considered the fine +arts merely as agreeable ornaments, but looked to their influence for +noble feelings and a freer morality, at which the literary party +disapprovingly shook their heads. And thus these disciples--it was only +a small number--conducted themselves for two years with an excitement +which led them into great exaggerations; they carried books in their +pockets, they gave them to the women of their acquaintance, they +declaimed loudly, and pressed one another's hands. It was the first +dawn of a new life which was hailed with so much joy. In the monthly +journal, the "Bremer Beiträge," appeared the first cantos of the +"Messiah," by Herr Klopstock; the perplexity which, in the beginning, +was excited by its ancient metre, was now followed, in a small circle, +by unreserved admiration. In the preceding year another poem, "The +Spring," by an unknown writer, had been published; no one knew +who had written it, but it was supposed to be the same agreeable poet +who, under the armorial bearings of Breitkopf, had contributed, +together with Kästner, Gellert, and Mylius, to the monthly journal +"Belustigungen des Verstandes und Witzes" ("Diversions of Wit and +Intellect"). And just at this time, also, the beginning of another +heroic poem, "Noah," by another unknown writer, had been published by +Weidmann; it was supposed to be by a Swiss, because the name Sipha +appeared in it, which had formerly been used by Bodmer. All these poems +were in Roman metre, and this new style caused an excitement of mind +such as had never before been known. There appeared to be a regular +rebellion among the <i>bels-esprits</i>; and there was shortly to be a still +greater uproar.</p> + +<p class="normal">The cities were still deficient in such theatrical representations as +could satisfy a thoughtful mind. But any one who then travelling in +northern Germany had met the Schönemannsche troop, would still remember +a young man of disadvantageous figure, with a short neck, of the name +of Eckhof, who afterwards became the most refined and finished actor of +Germany. And just within these weeks a new book had come from the +Leipzig fair, "Beiträge zur Historie und Aufnahme des Theaters" +("Contributions to the History and Rise of the Theatre"), which had +been written by two young literati of Leipzig; of whom one was called +Lessing. In the same batch of books was "Pamela," by Richardson, who, +the year before had written "Clarissa."</p> + +<p class="normal">But what was then read in the houses of the citizens was of quite +another quality. As yet there were no circulating libraries; only the +small second-hand booksellers sometimes lent books to trustworthy +acquaintance. But there sprang up a voluminous literature of novels, +which were eagerly bought by unassuming readers. They were narratives, +slight and carelessly put together, in which strange events were +related.</p> + +<p class="normal">These adventures were represented in the seventeenth century in various +ways: either in dull imitations of the old chivalrous and pastoral +novels, with a phantastic background, and without the advantage of +detailed description; or a coarse copy of real life, without beauty, +often common and vulgar. There was then a concurrence of a decaying +style and of the beginning of a new one. After 1700, the realistic +tendency became the ruling one. From the Amadis novels, arose loose +court and tourist adventures. "Simplicissimus" was followed by a great +number of war romances, Robinsonades, and stories of adventurers; the +greater part of them are very carelessly composed, and German gossip or +newspaper information of extraordinary occurrences abroad, partly +diaries, are worked in. "Fassmann's Dialogues from the Kingdom of +the Dead," are collected in a similar way from flying-sheets and +story-books, which that disorderly character, who then resided in +Franconia, had gathered together from the pastor of the place. Those +who wrote thus were thoroughly despised by literary men, but they +exercised a very great influence--one difficult to estimate--on the +mind of the people. They were two separate spheres that revolved +together. And this contrast between the reading of the people and that +of the educated class, exists but too much, even in the present day.</p> + +<p class="normal">Among the gentry of the town, however, there were in 1750 still other +literati. No town of any importance failed to possess a patriotic man, +who examined old chronicles, church documents, and records from the +council archives, and could give valuable contributions towards a +history of the place and district. As yet little was known of the +monuments of antiquity; but they, as well as old inscriptions and the +false idols of our primeval ancestors, were copied as curiosities.</p> + +<p class="normal">Still greater was the interest excited by physical science. It +continues the most popular branch of knowledge in the smaller cities. +Not inconsiderable is the number of respectable periodicals which give +information concerning the new discoveries of science. We also revert +to them with respect; the representations and style are sometimes +admirable; as, for example, in "Kästner's Hamburg Magazine;" and they +are unweariedly occupied in presenting the scientific discoveries of +commerce, trade, and agriculture to every circle of practical +interests. Their rational influence, however, did not entirely displace +all that was untenable. The old inclination for alchemy was not +conquered. Still did men, sensible and upright men, continue this kind +of work; earnestly was the great secret sought for, and ever did +something interpose to hinder final success. This work was carried on +secretly, but well did the city know that the councillor or the +secretary still used his chemical apparatus to make gold. But a +pleasure in chemical processes, distillations in retorts, and cold +solvents was prevalent among many; powerful tinctures were distributed +to acquaintances, and housewifes loved to distil various artificial +waters; in advertisement sheets, medicaments were recommended, pills +for the gout, powders for the scrofula, &c., charlatanry was +comparatively greater than now, and lies, equally barefaced. A zeal for +scientific collections became general; boys also began to pin +butterflies and beetles, and to examine dendrites and minerals in their +father's microscope; and the more wealthy rejoiced over "Rösel's Insect +Recreations," and the first number of "Frischen's Representations of +Birds."</p> + +<p class="normal">The well educated, even in the humblest places, prided themselves on +collecting a library. Twice a year, at Easter and Michaelmas, the lover +of books made his regular purchases; then the bookseller brought from +the Leipzig Fair the "novelties" which he had either bought with money +or exchanged for other works published by himself. These new books he +laid in his shop for inspection, as a trader now does his drapery. This +was an important time for literary amateurs; the shops were the focus +of literary intercourse; the chief customers seated themselves there, +gave their opinions, chose and rejected books, and received the +lists of new works of the great firms,--as, for example, that of +Breitkopf,--and obtained information of other novelties from the +literary world, such as, that in Göttingen a new scientific society had +been founded; that Herr Klopstock had received a pension of 400 thalers +from the King of Denmark, without any duties attached to it; and that +Herr von Voltaire had been appointed chamberlain at Berlin. About this +period many other desirable purchases made their way through the +country in the bales of books.</p> + +<p class="normal">There were many opportunities also of acquiring old as well as new +books. An interest had already been excited in the old editions of the +classics. Besides those of Aldus, those of Elzivir were sought after +with especial curiosity. But the second-hand book trade was as yet +inconsiderable, except in Halle and Leipzig; it was not easy, unless by +accident or at some auction, for individuals to acquire books which, in +the last century, had been collected by the patricians of the Imperial +cities whose families had gradually died out, or perhaps from monastic +libraries, the books of which had been sold in an underhand way by +unscrupulous monks. An ecclesiastic in the neighbourhood of Gräfenthal +in Franconia sold, for twenty-five gulden, which were to be paid by +instalments, many ells of folios and quartos beautifully bound; the +ells of the larger-sized books were somewhat dearer than those of the +smaller ones; many works were of course incomplete, because, the +measurement being precise, the ell was shorter than the number of +volumes. There was no choice allowed. It was generally the backs that +were measured. This barbarism, however, was an exception.</p> + +<p class="normal">Those authors who wrote books, if in high repute, obtained from the +booksellers an amount of compensation far from insignificant. Their +position, in this respect, had much improved since the beginning of the +century. As the predilection for theological and legal treatises still +continued, they were sometimes more highly paid than they would be now. +He, nevertheless, who did not stand, as university teacher, on the +vantage-ground of science, gained but a small income. When the Right +Rev. Herr Lesser, in 1737, made an agreement with his publisher for the +publication of "the Chronicle of Nordhausen," he was "satisfied" to +take as payment for each sheet of that conscientious work, the sum of +sixteen <i>gute groschen</i>, which he was to receive in the shape of books, +but at the same time to promise that, in case the contents of his work +should involve the publisher in any troubles with the authorities, he +would indemnify him.</p> + +<p class="normal">In the latter part of the morning the apothecary's shop became a +pleasant rendezvous for the city gentry. There, politics and city news +were discussed along with small glasses of <i>eau de vie</i>; and from the +ceiling and upper cornice, the old frippery attire of exploded quacks +and worm doctors, also skeletons of sharks, stuffed apes, and other +horrors, looked down goggle-eyed upon the eager disputes of the +society. Besides the city gossip, politics had already become a +favourite subject of discourse, which was carried on no longer with the +calm of mere wise maxims, but with heartfelt interest. Whether King or +Empress, whether Saxony or Prussia, were principally discussed, it +could be discovered to which party each individual present belonged. A +few years later, these kind of disputes became so vehement that they +destroyed family life and the peace of households. Meanwhile the +imaginations of the lesser citizens, the servants and children, were +filled with other ideas, for the old superstition wove its web round +their life. There was scarcely an old house that had not its haunted +room; ghosts showed themselves on the graves and within the church +doors; even the engine-house was haunted before a fire broke out; still +was the mysterious wail of lament heard, a variation of the belief in +the wild army which had entered into the souls of the people through +the great war; still were old cats considered as witches; and +apparitions, presentiments, and significant dreams were discussed with +anxious faith. Ever yet was the search after concealed treasures an +affair of importance; no city was without a credible story of a +treasure trove which had taken place in the neighbourhood, or had been +frustrated by untimely words. But the prudent father of a family +already tries earnestly to enlighten his children and servants on such +points. The enlightened man does not deny unqualifiedly the possibility +of a mysterious connexion with the other world, but he regards every +single case with distrust; he admits that behind the ruined altar of +the old church and in the ruins of the neighbouring castle something +curious may be concealed, and that it might well repay a person to dig +for it; but he holds in sovereign contempt the flames and the black +dog, and he recounts with special pleasure numerous instances where +this faith of the "olden time" had been misused by deceivers. Seldom do +the months pass without bringing a periodical containing well-written +treatises, in which the mountain sprite is entirely put out of the +question, fiery meteors are explained, and thunderbolts are considered +as petrifactions. In no city are excited people wanting who are +tormented by apparitions; the clergy still continue to pray for these +poor people; but not only physicians and literary laymen, but also +clever citizens, maintain that such kinds of devils are expelled by +medicine and fasting, and not by prayer, as they are only produced by +the morbid fancies of hypochondria.</p> + +<p class="normal">Among the daily events is the interesting arrival and departure of the +mail-coach. About this time all the promenaders like to move into the +vicinity of the post-office. The usual land-post is a very slow, clumsy +means of conveyance; its snail pace was notorious even fifty years +later. Of made roads there are as yet none in Germany; soon after the +Seven Years' War the first <i>chaussees</i> were formed,--still very bad. +Whoever wishes to travel comfortably takes the extra post; for greater +economy, care is taken that all the places shall be occupied, and in +the local papers which have existed for some little time in most of the +larger cities, a travelling companion is sometimes advertised for. For +long journeys, private carriages are bought, which are sold again at +the end of the journey. The badness of the roads gives the postmaster +the right to put four horses to a light carriage, and it is a privilege +to the traveller if the Government will give him a licence to take only +two horses extra post. He who is not sufficiently wealthy for this, +looks out for a return carriage, and these opportunities are announced +several days beforehand. If there is much intercourse between two +places, besides the ordinary post and the more speedy mail, a licensed +stagecoach goes on specified days. These more especially facilitate the +personal intercourse of the lower orders. In 1750 there was one from +Dresden to Berlin every fortnight; to Altenburg, Chemnitz, Freiberg, +and Zwickau, once a week; to Bautzen and Görlitz, the number of +passengers was not sufficiently certain for the coachman to be able to +go on a specified day; the green and the red passage-boats went between +Dresden and Meissen, each once a week. Even with the best drivers, +travelling was very slow. Five German miles a day, at the rate of a +mile in two hours, seems to have been the usual rate of travelling. A +distance of twenty miles could not be accomplished by a carriage under +three days, and generally four were necessary. When, in the July of the +year which is here described, Klopstock travelled with Gleim, in a +light carriage drawn by four horses, from Halberstadt to Magdeburg, six +miles in six hours, the rapidity appeared to him so extraordinary that +he compared it with the races at the Olympic games. But when the +country roads were very bad, which was always the case in the rainy +season of the spring and autumn, a journey was avoided unless it was +inevitable, as it was considered as a risk not to be encountered +without grievous adventures. In the year 1764, it was still thought +remarkable by the Hanoverians, that their ambassador had succeeded in +reaching Frankfort-a-M., for the coronation of the Emperor, in spite of +the bad roads, without any other damage than a broken axle. Thus we +find that a journey at this period is an undertaking to be well +considered, which can hardly be carried through without long +preparation; the arrival of travelling strangers in a city is the event +of the day, and the curious multitude collect round the carriage during +its detention. It is only in the larger commercial towns that the +hotels are fashionably arranged; Leipzig is in great repute in this +respect. People were glad to be accommodated at the house of an +acquaintance, ever taking into consideration the expenditure; for he +who travels must make accurate calculations. A person of any +pretensions avoids a journey on foot, on account of the bad roads, +dirty inns, and rough encounters. Well-dressed pedestrians in search of +the picturesque are, as yet, unheard of.</p> + +<p class="normal">The traveller was not only accompanied by the lively sympathy of his +friends, he was also employed in their business, as then among +acquaintances there was more mutual accommodation than now. He was +amply supplied with clothes, letters of recommendation, cold meat, and +prudent precepts; but he was also burdened with commissions, purchases +of every kind, and delicate business; also with the collecting of +debts, the engaging of tutors, nay, even with reconnoitring and +mediating in affairs of the heart. If he travelled to some great fair, +he must take care of certain special coffers and chests to satisfy the +wishes of his acquaintances. This kind of reciprocal service was +absolutely needful, for the conveyance of money and packages by the +post was still very dear and not always very sure. Betwixt neighbouring +cities therefore a regular messenger service was established, as for +example in Thuringia, where it continues to the present day. These +messengers--frequently women--carried letters and errands on fixed +days, alike through snow and under a scorching sun; they had charge of +all kinds of purchases, and, as trustworthy persons, enjoyed the +confidence of the magistrates, who entrusted them with official letters +and public papers, and when they arrived at their destination had an +appointed place, where letters and return parcels for their native home +were delivered to them. If the intercourse between two places was very +active, a goods conveyance, with compartments with drawers in it, of +which sometimes two associated families had the key, was sent backwards +and forwards.</p> + +<p class="normal">Scanty and spare was the housekeeping of the citizens; few of them were +sufficiently wealthy to be able to invest their household arrangements +and their life with any polish; and the rich were always in danger of +falling into unseemly luxury, such as corrupted the courts and the +families of the nobility. Those who had a comfortable competency lived +very simply, only showing their wealth by their hospitality and the +adornment of their house and table on festive occasions. Therefore +feasts were ungenial state affairs, for which the whole household was +deranged. Nothing distinguishes the man of the world more than the easy +style of his society. Strict were the regulations in the citizen's +household: everything was precisely defined, even on the smallest +points, as to what one was to render to or receive from another. The +interchange of good wishes and compliments, that is to say, the +courtesies of conversation, and even the <i>trinkgeld</i>, all had their +accurately prescribed form and amount. Through these innumerable little +regulations, social intercourse acquired a stiff formality which +strongly contrasts with the freedom from constraint of the present day. +It was still customary to be bled and take medicine on appointed days, +to pay your bills and make visits at stated intervals. Equally fixed +were the enjoyments of the year: the cake which was suitable to every +day, the roast goose, and, if possible, the sledge-drives. Fixed was +the arrangement of the house: the massive furniture which had been +bought by the bridal couple on their first settling down, the stuffed +chair which had perhaps been bought at an auction by the husband as a +student, the folding-table for writing, and the cupboards, had been the +companions of many generations. But underneath this network of old +customs freer views began to germinate: already did the troublesome +question arise--wherefore? even with respect to the most trifling +usages. Everywhere might individuals be found who set themselves with +philosophic independence against these customs, which appeared to them +not to be founded on reason; in many more did there work a deep impulse +to freedom, self-dependence, and a new purport of life, which they held +apart from the multitude and from society, which had the effect of +giving them an appearance of originality. The interiors of the houses +were still undecorated; the ground-floor, with its polished boards, had +no other ornament than the bright colour of the wood, which was +preserved by incessant washing, which made the dwelling at least once a +week damp and uncomfortable. The stairs and entrance-hall were still +frequently strewn with white sand. But they liked to have their rooms +nicely fitted up; the furniture, among which the commode was a new +invention, was carefully worked and beautifully inlaid. Painting was +still uncommon on the walls; but the distempered plaster walls were in +little esteem: papers were preferred. The wealthy liked to have the +stamped leather, which gave the room a particularly comfortable aspect; +leather was also much liked as covers for furniture. Copper and tin +utensils were still the pride of the housewife. They were used on +"state" occasions: this new and significant word had penetrated into +the kitchen. At Nuremberg, for example, there were in wealthy families +state kitchens, which used to be opened to small societies for morning +collations, at which cold meats were served. In such kitchens pewter +and copper glittered all around like bright mirrors; even the wood for +burning, which lay there piled up in great heaps, was covered with +bright tin, all only for show and amusement, as now the kitchen of a +little girl. But porcelain had already begun to be placed alongside the +pewter; in refined Saxony, more especially, the wealthy housewife +seldom failed to have a table set out with china cups, jugs, and little +ornamental figures. And the fashionable pet of the ladies, the pug, +might by a wayward movement produce a crash which endangered the peace +of the house. Just at that time this curious animal stood at the height +of his repute; it had come into the world no one knew from whence, and +it passed away from it again equally unperceived. But the heart of the +housewife was attached to her weaving as well as her pewter and +porcelain. The linen damask was very beautifully prepared, with +artistic patterns which we still admire; to possess such damask +table-covers was a most particular pleasure, and great value was also +set upon fine body-linen; the ruffled shirt which Gellert received as a +present from Lucius was not forgotten in the description of his +audience.</p> + +<p class="normal">The dress worn in public was still regarded by serious men as a matter +of station; the Pietists had accustomed the citizen to wear dark or +sober colours; but fine textures, buttons, unpretending embroidery and +linen, demonstrated not less than perukes and swords the high-bred +man. This was the dress to be worn in public, and must especially be +put on when going out; and as it was inconvenient and--at least the +perukes--difficult to put on and to powder without the help of others, +a contrast wan produced by this between home and society which +proscribed social intercourse at certain hours in the day, and made it +formal and elaborate. At home a dressing-gown was worn, in which +literary men received visits, and the "best" dress was carefully +spared. Many things which appear to us as common necessaries were still +quite unknown, and the absence of many comforts was not felt. In the +year 1745 an Austrian non-commissioned officer begged of an imprisoned +officer, from whom he had taken a watch, to wind it up for him; he had +never had one in his hands. The worthy Semler had become a professor +before he obtained by the aid of a bookseller his first silver watch; +and he complained, about 1780, that then every master of arts, nay, +every student thought he must have a watch; now, in every family of +similar station, the third-form boy has a silver, and the student a +gold watch.</p> + +<p class="normal">Besides the landed nobility, only the highest state officials and the +richest merchants kept their own carriage and horses, and this more +rarely than fifty years before. But literary men were then often +advised by physicians not to fear the dangers of riding; schools were +established, and riding-horses let out for hire. It did not indeed +happen to every one as to the invalid Gellert, to have as a present for +the second time, after the death of his renowned Dapple, a horse from +the Elector's stables, with velvet saddle and housings embroidered in +gold, which the dear professor, much moved after his manner, accepted, +though with the greatest distrust as to the good temper of the horse, +and was never weary of speaking of it to his acquaintance, whilst his +groom showed the prodigy for money to the Leipzigers. As the dress of +that day made people very sensitive to damp, sedan-chairs came into +fashion; they were as frequently used as now the droschky; the bearers +were known by a kind of livery, had their appointed stations, and were +to be found wherever the nobility and the public appeared in numbers: +at great dances, on Sunday at the church doors, and at the theatres.</p> + +<p class="normal">Strict was the discipline of the house. In the morning, even in those +families that were not Pietists, short prayers were read with the +children and servants, a verse was sung, a prayer or exhortation +followed, and then a hymn. They rose and retired to bed early. The +intercourse at home was formal: extreme respect, with ceremonious +forms, was required of both children and servants; and husbands and +wives among the gentry still continued generally to speak to each other +in the third person plural.</p> + +<p class="normal">All who appertained to the family, whether friends or distant +acquaintance, in their simple and often needy life, were invested with +great importance. Still were advancement, interest, and favours sought +for and expected, through the friends of the family. To protect and +become a partisan was a duty; therefore it was considered great good +fortune to have noble and influential acquaintances; and in order to +secure this it was necessary to be mindful of congratulations on +birthdays and verses at family festivals. Under such protection people +sought their fortunes in the world. Devotion to the great was immense: +it was still correct to kiss the hand of a patron. When Count Schwerin, +on the 11th of August, 1741, received the oath of allegiance for his +sovereign in the royal <i>salon</i> at Breslau, the Protestant church +inspector, Burg, on shaking hands with him, wished to kiss his hand. +The Breslauers were not astonished at this obsequiousness, but only +that a field-marshal should have embraced and kissed a citizen +theologian.</p> + +<p class="normal">Sponsorship was, among the citizens, the foundation of a still nearer +relation: the godfather was bound to provide for the advancement of his +godchild; and this parental relation lasted to the end of his life. If +he was wealthy, the parents gladly allowed him a decisive voice as to +the future of their child, but it was also expected that he should show +his goodwill by his last testament.</p> + +<p class="normal">This life of citizens in humble circumstances developed certain +peculiarities of character and education. First a softness of nature +which, about 1750, was called tender and sentimental. The foundation of +this remarkable softness was implanted in the soul by the great war and +its political results, and Pietism had strikingly developed it. Almost +every one had the habit of exciting and stirring up themselves and +others. In the last century, family prayer had been heartless and +formal; now, the edifying contemplations and moral reflections of the +father of a family gave occasion for dramatic scenes within it. +Extemporary prayers especially, accustomed the members of a family to +express openly what was really in their hearts. Vows and promises, +solemn exhortations and pathetic reconciliations betwixt husbands and +wives, parents and children, sentimental scenes, were as much sought +after and enjoyed as they are now avoided. Even in schools the easy +excitability of that generation frequently came to light. When a worthy +teacher was in trouble, he caused the scholars to sing verses which +harmonised with his frame of mind, and it was agreeable to him to feel +that the boys understood him and showed their sympathy in their +devotions. In the same way the preacher in the pulpit loved to make his +congregation the confidants of his own struggles and convictions; his +sorrows and joys, repentance and inward peace, were listened to with +respect and consecrated by prayer.</p> + +<p class="normal">The generation of 1750 had more especially a craving for excitement and +exaltation of feeling. A feeling, an action, or a man was easily +reckoned great; grand epithets were heaped upon friends; and, again, +your own sorrows and the misfortunes of others were enjoyed with a +certain gloomy satisfaction. Tears flowed readily both over your own +sufferings and those of others; and also from joy, gratitude, devotion, +or admiration; but it was not through foreign literature, not by +Gellert, nor by the literary worshippers of Klopstock, that this +sentimentality was implanted: it lay deep in the national character. +When, in 1749, the young Doctor Semler took leave of the University of +Halle, he was very sorrowful, for he had secretly adored the daughter +of his dear teacher, Professor Baumgarten, notwithstanding he had at +his home, Saalfeld, another love of his youthful days; this sorrow +affected him so powerfully, that with difficulty he took his Doctors +degree. He, however, succeeded, and after having done so, he delivered, +before his model Baumgarten--who was in the chair as president--an +extempore Latin gratulatory oration, so impassioned, that not only he +himself, but also most of his hearers, wept. Again, at home he sat down +and wept over his fate, and his truehearted comrade wept with him +almost the whole afternoon. That he should shed tears at his departure +was natural, but he still wept when in the course of his long journey +he arrived at Merseburg; and when, on reaching home, he gave the +laudatory letter of Baumgarten to his father, the latter wept also for +joy.</p> + +<p class="normal">In this case the emotion was justifiable, and tears flowed from +the heart; but it could not fail to happen that the habit of +self-consciousness, and of watching each inward emotion, degenerated +into acting a part, and admiration of noble affections, into +affectation.</p> + +<p class="normal">This soon showed itself in the German language. The higher emotions +still found no adequate expression. The language of books still +dominated, and all the nobler feelings of men had to adapt themselves +to its forms and periods. Just at that time however this language had +gained a certain degree of aptitude in expressing clearly and simply +the calm, methodic work of the reflecting mind; but when passionate +feelings sought expression in words, they were still restrained within +the threadbare forms of the ancient rhetoric, and nestled in the dry +leaves of old phrases. The Pietists had to invent a phraseology of +their own for their peculiar feelings, and these expressions soon +degenerated into mannerism. It was the same case with those new turns +of expression by which highly-gifted individuals sought to enrich the +language of the heart. If a poet spoke of feeling the soft tremor of a +friendly kiss, hundreds imitated him, delighted with the high-flown +expression. Thus, also, tears of sorrow and of gratitude, and the +sweets of friendship, became stereotyped phrases, which at last had +little meaning in them.</p> + +<p class="normal">And this poverty of language became general. Almost everywhere, when we +expect the simple expression of an inward feeling, we find a display of +reflections which is as repulsive in letters and speeches, as in poems. +This speciality of the old time becomes insupportable to us, and we +readily accuse it of hypocrisy, callousness, and hollowness. But our +ancestors have a sufficient excuse. They could not do otherwise. Still +did there remain in their souls somewhat of the epic constraint of the +middle ages, the yearning for an outpouring of greater passion, for +enthusiasm, and for the melody of feeling: it becomes almost morbid; +everywhere there is an aspiration after a higher self-development; +everywhere a seeking and a longing; but still do their feelings lack +power, and their increased knowledge the corresponding free culture of +the character; and so do the poets, who have always been the leaders of +the people. Even in the amiable character that figures in the dawn of a +higher life, in Ewald von Kleist, the lyrical strivings are very +remarkable. Already are his descriptions rich in beautiful details, and +an abundance of poetical conceptions group themselves spontaneously +around the leading idea of his poem, which almost always rests on an +honourable and deep-seated feeling; but, amid all his poetical imagery, +he could not give utterance to an elevated poetical frame of mind, and +still less cause the full harmony of a beautiful feeling to echo in the +listener's heart. For his tones were not yet powerful enough, nor were +those of his older contemporaries who, so painfully sought after all +that was beautiful and noble in the soul, and so often boasted to have +found it.</p> + +<p class="normal">But the self-contemplation of the educated did not extend to the inward +life alone: they were equally watchful of their outward appearance, and +of the impression which they made on others. In this respect they +appear to us ridiculously refined. The tight dress and powder, the fact +of being unusually smart, put men in a state of agitation and formal +cheerfulness which easily became affectation. The stereotyped forms of +social intercourse, and the rhetorical compliments, were so artificial, +that society became like a play, and the Germans of 1750 actors who +made themselves laughable if they did not act cleverly. When any one +approached a patron, he had to take care that his pace was not too +quick, nor too bold, nor too shy--that his voice was properly subdued, +and that he held his hat in his left arm, so that it formed a proper +angle; he had to prepare himself beforehand, that his address of +salutation might not be too long and too commonplace, and just +respectful enough to awaken goodwill; he had to pay much attention to +the intonation of his voice, so that what had been well considered +before might have the effect of being natural. If any one wished to +kiss the hand of a lady or gentleman of distinction, he took pains even +in this act to express a feeling suitable to the occasion; whether, as +a sign of confidential respect, he pressed it against his eyes and +brow, as well as to his mouth, how long he kept the hand, and how +slowly he released it, all this was very important, and, if possible, +well considered beforehand; any mistake committed, occasioned +afterwards probably great trouble to the guilty party. He who had to +exhibit himself before a larger assembly, took into serious +consideration the position and demeanour by which he could produce an +effect. However troubled was the young Semler when he stood before the +professor's chair for his doctor's degree, yet he did not forget "to +take a peculiar but not offensive attitude," in which he answered his +opponents so rapidly, that he scarce waited for the end of their +speech; nor did he forget to tell, how indifferent the "tender emotions +of his heart" had made him to every possible objection of his +antagonist. The women had also to study well, not only the motions of +their fans, but their smiles and the casting-down of their eyes; it was +required that they should do it unaffectedly, with grace and tact.</p> + +<p class="normal">Undoubtedly this pressure of convenance was frequently, with the +Germans, broken through by characteristic rectitude and firmness. But +the stedfast enduring power of will, which we honour as man's highest +quality, was then very rare in Germany. It was to be gained by +experience and necessity, by the labour and practice of arduous duty; +then it broke forth with surprising energy. But this quality was +deficient in some manly characteristics. The pressure of a despotic +state had continued for a century; it had made the citizen shy, dull, +and fainthearted. This frame of mind had been promoted by Pietism. A +continual contemplation of their own unworthiness diminished in more +finely organized minds the capacity of enjoying themselves heartily, or +of giving frank expression to their own nature. The severe training and +immoderate exertions of memory of literary men, and their many night +watches in close rooms amid the fumes of tobacco, only too often +implanted disease. We may gather from many examples how frequently +consumption and hypochondria destroyed the life of young scholars. And +we find generally among the citizen families of that time, sentimental, +irritable, sensitive natures, helpless and feckless in respect of all +that was unusual to them. But that was not the worst. Not only the +will, but the certainty of their convictions and the feeling of duty +were easily extinguished by external influences. Of that quiet +self-respect which we look for in a good and highly educated man, +little is as yet to be seen. Money and outward honour still exercise +too great a power even over the most upright Gellert, who was a pattern +to his contemporaries of tender feeling and unselfishness, when a +professor at Leipzig, was joyfully surprised that a foreign nobleman +from Silesia, whom he did not personally know, but with whom he had +once exchanged a few letters, offered his mother a yearly pension of +twelve ducats. In his answer the assurance of tears of gratitude did +not fail. He never felt a scruple in accepting sums of money from +persons unknown to him. And one may venture to maintain that in 1750, +throughout the whole of Germany, there was scarcely a man, even among +the best, who would have refused an anonymous present.</p> + +<p class="normal">When Frederick William the First called upon the professors of his +University at Frankfort, to engage in a public disputation with his +reader, Morgenstein, who stood on the lecturer's platform in a +grotesque attire, with a fox's brush by his side, no one dared to +gainsay the tyrannical whim, except Johann Jacob Moser, who considered +himself in the relation of a stranger to the Brandenburgers, and +preserved the proud consciousness of being in high consideration in the +Imperial Court. And even he was so excited by the occurrence, that +he fell dangerously ill. Where there exists such a deficiency of +self-respect in men engaged in the struggle of life, their vanity grows +exuberantly. It so clouded the minds of most men of that period, that +but few leave an agreeable impression behind them; and it was no wonder +that only the strongest were free from it. Men were sentimental and +sensitive; it was a matter of decorum to pay compliments; respect for +truth was less than now, and the necessity for politeness greater. He +who exercised an influence on others by his intellectual labours, or by +his own powers had won consideration in his sphere, was accustomed to +receive much praise and honour, and missed it if withdrawn. He who had +no rank or title, had acquired no office in the State, and did not +enjoy the privileges of a superior position, was recklessly crushed and +oppressed. Not merit, but the approbation of influential persons was of +value; not learning alone availed with publishers and readers: a +position at the University, and a great circle of auditors who bought +and spread the works of the teacher, were necessary. Insecure was every +earthly position; everywhere strong and arbitrary power prevailed. Even +the greatest reputations trusted far more to the support of personal +admirers, than to the sound dignity of merit. Thus every individual +expression of praise and blame obtained an importance which we can now +hardly comprehend. Every one was therefore careful to oblige others, in +order to be approved of by strangers. German life was still deficient +in an enlightened daily press, and many individuals were entirely +without the discipline and restraint which is produced by a powerful +public opinion.</p> + +<p class="normal">Nothing is so difficult as to form a correct judgment of the morality +in families of a far-distant period. For it is not sufficient to +estimate the sum of striking errors, which in itself is very difficult; +it is equally necessary to understand the individual injustice in +particular cases which is often impossible. Among the citizens, the +intercourse of both sexes was almost entirely confined to the family +circles: larger societies were rare. In the houses of intimates, the +habits of the young people were lively and unrestrained; the friends of +the sisters and the comrades of the brothers became part of the family. +The custom still continued of making confidences in jest which would +now be considered objectionable. Embracing and kissing were not +restricted to games of forfeits. Such a custom, however harmlessly and +innocently carried on by the young people, was calculated to give rise +to feelings of levity which we should view with regret, and it +frequently gave birth to a certain bold freedom in the intercourse +between the young men and maidens. Tender liaisons were quickly formed +in families between the unmarried members; no one thought them wrong, +and they were as speedily dissolved. These transient liaisons, full of +sentiment, seldom increased to a deeper passion, nay, in general, the +poetry of youth was extinguished by them. They seldom led, either, to +betrothal or marriage; for marriage at that period, about 1750, was +still as much an affair of business as of the heart. And the endless +blessing of love and faithfulness, which just then began to dawn upon +them, rested generally on other grounds than on the glow of a pure +passion, or a deep-seated communion of feeling preceding the betrothal.</p> + +<p class="normal">The behaviour of the parties interested in the conclusion of a marriage +strikes us as remarkable. If the man had the prospect of an employment +which would enable him to keep a family, his acquaintances, men and +women, exerted themselves to devise, propose, and negotiate a marriage +for him. Match-making was then a duty which no one could easily escape. +Grave scholars, distinguished officials, rulers and princesses of the +country, assiduously transacted the like disinterested business. A +marriageable man in a respectable position had to endure much from the +admonitions, the mischievous hints, and numerous projects of his +acquaintances. When Gellert first exchanged a few letters with +Demoiselle Caroline Lucius,--whom he had never seen,--he asked her, in +the first long letter with which he had favoured her, whether she would +marry an acquaintance of his, the Precentor at St. Thomas's school. +When Herr von Ebner, chancellor of the University of Altorf, spoke for +the first time to the young Professor Semler, he made him the kind +offer of providing a rich wife for him. The young Professor Pütter, who +was at Vienna in his travels, had the offer of a wealthy merchant's +daughter as a good <i>partie</i>, from a count, who was his neighbour at +table, but entirely a stranger to him. This proposal, however, was +declined. But, equally cool as the offers, were the decisions of the +parties interested. Men and women decided upon marrying each other +often after a passing view, or after they had exchanged a few words, +never having had any affectionate intercourse. On both sides a good +recommendation was the main point. The following is an example of a +similar betrothal, which appeared to the parties interested as +especially vehement and impassioned. The assessor of the Supreme Court +of Judicature, von Summermann, became acquainted at the Schwalbach +baths, in 1754, with a Fräulein von Bachellé, an amiable lady of the +court of a disagreeable Langravine; he saw her frequently at country +parties, to which both were invited by a married acquaintance. Some +weeks later he revealed his wish to marry the Fräulein, to an +acquaintance at Wetzlar, after he had cautiously collected information +concerning the character of the young lady. The confidant,--it was +Pütter--visited the innocent court lady: "After some short common-place +conversation, I said that I had to make a proposal to her, to which I +must beg for an answer. She replied shortly, 'What kind of proposal?' I +equally shortly and frankly asked, 'Whether she could make up her mind +to marry the Herr von Summermann?' 'Ah, you joke!' was her answer. I +said, 'No, I do not, I am quite in earnest; here I have already a ring +and yet another present (a silk purse with a hundred carlines), by +which I can verify my proposal.' 'Now, if you are in earnest, and bring +the proposal from Herr von Summermann, I do not hesitate a moment.' +Thus she took the ring, but refused to accept the hundred carlines, and +empowered me to convey her assent." The further course also of this +very exciting business was extraordinary and dramatic. The happy lover +had settled that his wooer should obtain for him more certain +information. Now, it is true that a written line in this scribbling age +might have been possible, but it appears that written information was +considered too prolix, and it was undoubtedly then difficult to give it +in one line without titles and congratulations; so it was determined +that, as in "Tristan and Isolde," the result of an undertaking was +telegraphed by a black or a white seal, so here by the transmission of +a certain volume of a valuable legal work of the state chancery, it was +to be signified that the proposal was accepted; another volume of the +same work would have intimated the contrary. And the difference of the +new conscientious period from the old one of Queen Isolde consisted +only in this, that no false signal would be given.</p> + +<p class="normal">But though in this union the heart to a certain degree asserted its +rights, it was less often the case with men of education and capacity. +Professor Achenwall, a distinguished law teacher at Göttingen, made an +offer to a daughter of Johann Jacob Moser without ever having seen her, +and she in like manner accepted; after her death he married a +Demoiselle Jäger, of Gotha, to whom he proposed after he had seen her +accidentally on a journey, passing some days in the house of an +acquaintance. Thus it was generally the position and the household +which was the object of women, as it still is in many circles of the +people. The quiet dreams of the candidates for matrimony were +frequently exactly as portrayed by the sober-minded Pütter: "The meals +at the <i>restaurant</i> did not answer to their wishes; to eat alone was +not to their mind; fellow-boarders were not to be reckoned upon; the +household cares concerning the wash, beer, and sugar were disagreeable +occupations; and in the evening, when tired after work, to pay visits +to others when one did not know whether it was opportune, or to await +the visits of others who were themselves in the same dilemma,--all +these were circumstances of consideration, experience, and observation, +which seemed to prove that one could not be happy continually in one's +present position." Undoubtedly also the importance of this step was not +all underrated: quiet deliberation lasted long, and a secret wavering +between eligible parties was frequent. Therefore in general the matter +was left to a benevolent Providence; and an accidental meeting, or the +pressing recommendation of a certain person, was still always +considered as a sign from above.</p> + +<p class="normal">Those who so thought, were then the spiritual leaders of the +people, the scholars and followers of Leibnitz, Thomasius, and +Wolf,--estimable, good, and perhaps very learned men; and also the +maidens and wives of the best families. It was certainly an ancient +German custom to subordinate the individual; in this most important +concern of life, to the judgment and interests of the family; +undoubtedly marriage was considered more especially the great business +of life which was to be arranged with strict adherence to duty, and not +according to the delusive ideas of the fancy. But these sober, sensible +views were beginning in 1750 to give way to the higher requirements of +the individual Already were men inclined to indulge themselves with a +richer mental life and greater independence. When Caroline Lucius +modestly but firmly declined the offered hand of the Precentor of +Thomas's Church, Gellert felt a little ashamed that he had judged his +correspondent by the ordinary criterion, and in his letters afterwards +a sincere respect may be observed.</p> + +<p class="normal">But, however frequently the wooing was deficient in the magic of the +most beautiful of earthly passions, the marriages, as far as we can +judge, were not on that account the less happy. That one must suit +oneself in life is a very popular rule of wisdom. The man who proposed +to share a respectable position and a certain income with the object of +his choice, offered her much, according to the views of that time; she +was to show her gratitude by unceasing faithful service, and to lighten +his arduous, laborious life--nay, already had a more exalted feeling +taken root in the souls of women, which we may well call the poetry of +home. The amount of knowledge acquired by a German woman was on the +whole small. If people of rank could not spell, this may be explained +by the fluctuations in education between French and German,--by a +mongrel culture which spoilt the style even of men, not only of +Frederic II. and other rulers, but also of the highest officials, like +the Imperial ambassador who wrote to Gellert, and begged him to send +back his letter with corrections, that he might thereby learn the +secret of good writing. But even the German trained daughter of a +well-educated citizen family was generally deficient both in style and +correctness of writing. Many women, indeed, learnt French, and in +Protestant Germany Italian was more frequently studied than at present; +even the students of Halle, under the guidance of their teacher, caused +Italian treatises to be printed. In other respects education appears to +have done little for women; even instruction in music, beyond the +practice of light airs on the harpsichord, was rare.</p> + +<p class="normal">But so much the more was the practice of house duties inculcated. To +look after the welfare and comfort of those around them, of parents and +brothers, and afterwards of husbands and children, was the task of the +grown-up daughters. That this should be the object of their life was +unceasingly impressed upon them; it was understood according to every +one's own views. And this care was no longer limited, as in the +sixteenth century, to giving orders in the kitchen, the preparation of +electuaries, and the arrangements of the linen: women were, during the +last century, brought imperceptibly into a worthier position with +respect to their husbands--they had become their friends and +confidants. Although with perhaps scanty knowledge, many of them could +boast of firm minds, clear judgment, and depth of feeling; concerning +some of these, information has accidentally remained to us. We find it, +also, in the wives of simple artisans. If the men, under the influence +of the State and of Pietism, became more timid and less independent, +the women of the same period were manifestly more elevated. We will +draw a comparison with the past. Let us remember Kate Bora, who begged +of the laborious Luther to suffer her to be near him. She sits there +for hours silent, holds his pen for him, and gazes with her large eyes +on the mysterious head, of her husband; and, anxiously gathering, +together in her own mind all her poor knowledge, suddenly breaks out +with the question, which, transposing it into the position of 1750, +would run thus: "Is the Elector of Brandenburg brother to the King of +Prussia?" and when Luther laughingly replies, "He is the same man," his +feeling, notwithstanding all his affection, is--"poor simplicity."<a name="div2_86" href="#div2Ref_86"><sup>[86]</sup></a></p> + +<p class="normal">On the other hand, in 1723, Elizabeth Gesner, sits opposite her husband +in the sitting-room of the Conrectorat at Weimar; he is working at his +"<i>Chrestomathie des Cicero</i>," and writes with one hand while he rocks +the cradle with the other. Meanwhile Elizabeth industriously mends the +clothes of her children, and playfully disputes with the little ones, +who object to the patches, till at last the mother proposes to them to +cut out the new pieces as sun, moon, and stars, and to sew them on in +this beautiful form. The bright light which then shone from the heart +of the housewife through the poorly furnished room, and the cheerful +smile that played on the countenance of the husband, may be discovered +from his account. When she died, after a long and happy union, the +grey-headed scholar said: "One of us must remain alone, and I had +rather be the forlorn one myself than that she should be so." He +followed her a few months later. Again, soon after 1750, we find Frau +Professorin Semlerin at Halle, sitting with her industrious husband, +some feminine work in her hand; both rejoice that they are together, +that he uses his study only as a receptacle for his books, and that she +considers all society as a separation from her husband. He has so +accustomed himself to work in her presence, that neither the play and +laughter, nor even the loud noise, of his children disturb him; he has +an unbounded respect for the discretion and judgment of his wife. She +rules with unlimited sway in her household; if the excitable man is +disquieted by any adverse occurrence, she knows how to smooth it down +quickly, in her gentle way. She is his true friend and his best +counsellor, even in his relations with the University; his firm +support, always full of love and patience, yet she has learnt little, +and her letters abound in errors of writing. There will be farther +notice of her.</p> + +<p class="normal">Similar women, simple, deep-feeling, pious, clear-headed, firm and +decided, sometimes also with extraordinary vigour and cheerfulness, +were at this period so frequent that we may truly reckon them as +characteristic of the time. They are the ancestresses and mothers, to +whose worth the literary men, poets, and artists who have sprung up in +the following generations may attribute a portion of their success. It +was not able men, but good housewives,--not the poetry of passion, but +the home life of the family,--to which we owe our training during the +first half of the last century.</p> + +<p class="normal">And if we, the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of those who lived +when Goethe and Schiller grew up, smile at the constraint of the +feelings which appears in the wooings and betrothals of 1750; at the +want of genuine tenderness, in spite of the general yearning for tender +and pathetic feelings; and at the incapacity to give full expression in +language and demeanour to the most exquisite of passions, we must +remember, that just then the nation stood at the portals of a new time +which was to change this poverty into wealth. The reign of Pietism had +introduced a mild sentimentality into the nation; the philosophy of +mathematics had spread over language and life a calm brightness, and +the following fifty years of intense political activity and powerful +productiveness in every realm of science were to bring the nation a +richer development of the mental life. After this took place, the +German was so far fortified by the good spirit of his home, that, even +after the most horrible devastation and destruction, his soul was +strengthened, through the interests of private life, for greater tasks +and more manly labours. After Spener, Wolf, and Goethe came the +volunteers of 1813.</p> + +<p class="normal">But here we will verify what has been said of the condition, character, +and wooing of Germans about the year 1750 by the record of a +contemporary. He who speaks has already been mentioned several times in +the preceding pages; he is one of whom science will ever preserve a +kindly remembrance. Johann Salomo Semler, Professor of Theology at +Halle, who lived from 1725 to 1791, was one of the first who broke +loose from the orthodox faith of the Protestant Church; and, following +their own investigations, ventured, with the help of the scientific +culture of the period, to form a judgment on the origin and changes of +the church dogmas. His youth was passed in struggle with Pietism, but +at the same time, under its dominion, his warm heart clung, as long as +it continued to beat, like Luther and the Pietists, to the child-like +relation to his God and Father; but, as a scholar, this same man who, +in respect to the daily occurrences of life, was so often yielding, +uncertain, and dependent on those around him, became bold, decided, and +sometimes radical. With him began the criticism of holy traditions; he +was the first who ventured to handle systematically the historical +development and changes of Christianity, and exhibited theology as an +historical process, and as a momentum in the gradual development of the +human mind, not logically, and with very deficient understanding of +ancient times, but yet according to the laws of science. He veiled from +himself the opposition between his faith and his researches in science, +by making a rigid distinction, like the Pietists, betwixt religion and +theology--betwixt the eternal cravings of human nature, which were +satisfied by the old revered forms of revealed faith, and the eternal +impulse of the mind to understand every earthly phenomenon. He has been +called the Father of Rationalism; in truth he was only an enlightened +Pietist, one of those who seem called to prepare, by the union of +opposite conceptions, a new life. He was born in Saalfeld, the son of +an ecclesiastic, a scholar at Halle of the learned Baumgarten; then for +a year the <i>rédacteur</i> of the newspaper at Coburg, and for a year +professor of history and poetry at the Nuremberg University of Altorf. +He was called back by Baumgarten to Halle, where he, for nearly forty +years, combated the old Pietists victoriously, and died one of the most +worthy heads of the great University. The following is the account +which he himself gives of his love and wooing; it cannot be given here +without some small alteration in the language, for Semler has--what is +characteristic of him--little in his style of the broad, sure method of +his philosophical contemporaries, but much of the indistinct mode of +speech of the Pietists. He does not use figurative language nor +primitive phrases, but he loves, like them, a certain mysterious +circumlocution and remote allusions, that sometimes make the meaning +almost incomprehensible and require slow reading. Yet it is necessary +to remember one thing, that the following narrative may not disappoint +expectation: he who here narrates was in fact a man of worth and +refined feeling, who rightly enjoyed the full esteem and veneration of +those who lived with him.</p> + +<p class="normal">Semler has gone through the separation from the family of Baumgarten, +has returned as Master of Arts from Halle to his father's house at +Saalfeld, and has there renewed his acquaintance with a young lady +friend. He relates thus:--</p> + +<p class="normal">"My residence in Saalfeld did not last long, but was not quite +satisfactory to me. I saw, it is true, that worthy friend very often, +and we enjoyed ourselves together as much as with our virtuous gravity +we could; but there was nothing in it of the rapture or of the great +joy which our new contemporaries<a name="div2_87" href="#div2Ref_87"><sup>[87]</sup></a> describe as superhuman in so many +novels, or, still more, paint poetically and represent quite +sentimentally. It was truly as if we anticipated that this rare harmony +of two souls and characters was something too elevated for such a union +to fail to our lot. This improbability seemed to me to arise from her +situation; to her, from mine, from very different grounds. My prospects +were remote, as I could not attain the great happiness of becoming +'<i>Conrector</i>,' to which position even, she was prepared to lower +herself. I saw also that I must shortly incur some debts which I could +not mention to so estimable a person. Thus I found myself unavoidably +dependent, as it were, on any chance prospect. But her parents were +rather old, and her brothers and sisters entirely unprovided for: how +could she think of pledging herself to me on an uncertainty, and, by +making it known, render herself inaccessible to more fortunate +admirers? Meanwhile, with tender sadness, we promised each other +everything we could, and were convinced of our mutual integrity, but +also determined not to place each other in a difficult position.</p> + +<p class="normal">"My father had written to an old friend at Coburg, <i>Kammerrath</i>, +Fick, and begged of him to make some friendly efforts for getting +me a situation. This he did honourably and with the best +intentions."--(Semler travelled to Coburg, obtained there the title of +professor, but without salary; became editor of the "Coburg State and +Literary Gazette," and lodged with the widow of Doctor Döbnerin, a +cheerful, lively woman, who was glad to converse with him, and put many +theological and historical questions to him. It was a quiet, +respectable household: one daughter, the Demoiselle Döbnerin, was still +at home, about whom the professor, who had much work and little income, +concerned himself little. Thus he lived for a year; then he learnt from +an acquaintance that a professor was wanted at the University of +Altorf, which he could easily obtain, but he must present himself +there. This information excited him much; he was powerfully attracted +towards the University; he had seen no possibility of it; now a +prospect was open to him, but he had no money for the journey--nay, he +was in debt to his landlady for rent and board; he long pined away in +silence.)</p> + +<p class="normal">"The doctor's widow, my landlady, remarked that for some days I had not +conversed with the cheerfulness that had before pleased her so well, +because it gave her the opportunity of introducing her usual complaints +and old tales; I was no longer of use to her in this, and, still worse, +was always withdrawing from them. So she asked me what was the reason? +I was so surprised, that I confessed I had a proposal to be professor +at Altorf; it required a quick decision, and I must take it into +serious consideration. This information, that I might soon leave, +appeared to excite both mother and daughter, and I now began to be +sharper in my observations than I had been formerly. Hitherto I had +thought nothing about the daughter, who took care of everything in the +house, and seldom remained after we had finished our meals, and only +treated her according to the laws of civility; and I did not consider +it a part of this civility, either to kiss her hand, or to indulge in +small talk. The mother, with all her gay vivacity, had kept her +daughter very strictly, as she was not quite pleased with the free mode +of life which already began to prevail among her sex at Coburg. She +maintained the old principles, in which she had herself been brought up +in Saalfeld; she had few visitors at her house, as indeed she had not +much time for it, so orderly was the manner in which the household was +managed. It is true it was called avarice and parsimony, but for a city +such housekeeping is very necessary; and those who so willingly spend +their money, that they must borrow, should at least not judge ill of +the indispensable benefactors from whom they borrow. I knew the daily +tranquil enjoyment that pervaded this home, and I found therein +assuredly far more happiness than in many others where there were +splendour and bustle.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Now I called to mind that some persons in Coburg had already warned me +against this acquaintance, which I nevertheless found so uniformly +blameless. I watched more narrowly, and it appeared to me as if I was +regarded favourably; only when I came to draw my conclusions, whether I +should endeavour to help myself by means of this quiet and virtuous +daughter, my heart fell within me. What reason had I to entertain any +hopes, as I had for nearly a whole year been guilty of marked +inattention? She had already refused a professor, and I knew other +proofs of her acting with independent and not over hasty deliberation, +where many others, from an inclination to vanity, would have decided +hastily. It was the less probable that she would accept me, as I had no +outward advantages to offer. I nevertheless showed greater attention, +both to mother and daughter, than I had done hitherto, but still +undecided in my mind.</p> + +<p class="normal">"At this time I wrote to my sister at Saalfeld; the contents of this +letter were sad enough; it was to this effect, that on account of some +small debts, merely caused by the difficulty of raising money, I should +be obliged to renounce altogether the dear friend of that place, who +nevertheless, I honoured profoundly. I was not in a position to follow +the bent of my affections.</p> + +<p class="normal">"If I was to attempt to borrow money in Saalfeld, my father would +certainly prevent it, as I had clearly remarked, that he had always +endeavoured to dissuade me from my plans, and admonished me not to run +counter to Providence by over haste. I passed many sorrowful hours +before I received an answer from Saalfeld, and still more when I did +receive it, and found that this separation was finally settled. Very +serious reflections upon many similar cases tranquillised me by +degrees, although my high esteem for that worthy young person was +unalterable.</p> + +<p class="normal">"But so much the more I felt my very insignificant position; and, thus +truly humiliated, I reproached myself continually. I asked myself +whether I was to call upon this dutiful and virtuous daughter to give +so much money for me, of which she certainly had as little thought as +her mother; for it was undoubtedly not with this view that she had +shown me so many courtesies. She had long considered me as having a +decided inclination for some one; she often reminded me in a friendly +way about Halle, and how I had often praised openly and with such great +feeling the incomparable Dr. Baumgarten; and just because I had shown +so much diffidence and lively feeling with regard to Halle, she had +thought favourably of me, and had assumed that I had a settled +engagement there. How was I now all at once to convince her that it was +otherwise, without giving an open field for divers detrimental thoughts +and observations on myself? I alone know how entirely depressed was my +spirit at this time; how I spent my days and nights restless and +dejected, till at last I learnt to bow myself to the universal law of +God's government.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I more than once perplexed myself again with strong doubts whether I +was important enough for Divine Providence to occupy Himself with me, +and whether all my anxieties were not the consequences of my faults and +my inconsiderate conduct; in short, I could no longer continue in this +depressing condition, as I had no time to lose in complaints. I must +announce myself at Nuremberg so many days before Petri Pauli. Now I +wrote two letters, one to the mother, and inclosed in it another to the +daughter, wherein I revealed my views, but at the same time distinctly +showed my present position, and appealed to their own knowledge and +judgment of my principles, and confided myself to them. It was +impossible for me by word of mouth to express so carefully and clearly +all the necessary details.</p> + +<p class="normal">"This letter I took with me when I went to supper, and placed it in the +mother's prayer-book, which always lay by her place, so that the letter +must, without fail, come into her hands this same evening. I did not +otherwise allow anything to be perceived, but went away somewhat +earlier than I had hitherto done, that there might be more time left +for the discovery, and for their deliberation.</p> + +<p class="normal">"In the letter I begged of the mother, if she found what I proposed was +decidedly objectionable, that she would not lay the letters before her +daughter, but would send them both back to me, and then would kindly +ascribe my too great confidence to her indulgence. In proportion as my +life had been hitherto solitary, the deeper was the impression made in +my soul by my anxious and uncertain wishes; my spirit now began to +raise itself more earnestly to God in a deep and entire submission, +that I might more and more be weaned from the trivial occurrences of +life and their results, by looking to eternity. I found an increase of +tranquillity, and a contented submission to all the dispensations of +Providence, which I had long so vainly endeavoured to create in myself.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Three days passed, during which we met as inmates of the same house, +as though nothing had passed between us which required an answer, and I +was persuaded that it was a kind way of sparing my feelings, that my +proposal was to be buried in silence, as they wished to relieve me from +an unpleasant explanation. As usual, I was always too desponding. The +following Sunday--it was the 10th of June, 1751--as I was leaving the +table after dinner, the <i>Frau Doctorin</i> asked me to drink a cup of +coffee with her that afternoon. Still she kept her countenance so +completely, that I could not promise myself much advantage from this +invitation. The next two hours I spent promenading in the open air, in +a very composed state of mind, recalling many vanished ideas and +wishes, and in much sorrow at the prospect of my shortly impending +journey, which must now take me far from Saalfeld and Halle.<a name="div2_88" href="#div2Ref_88"><sup>[88]</sup></a> Thus I +did not return very soon, and went straight to her room. I immediately +discovered such an expression of natural, earnest, and approving +friendship in the countenance of the mother, who came forward to meet +me, that I could no longer doubt the success of my proposal, and my +feelings also became equally visible when I began to speak. The +feelings of all three were similar and showed themselves perceptibly in +our eyes, a kind of joyful solemnity ensued, and we all three returned +thanks to God. The mother laid before me the two letters, and asked, +'Do you confess that you have written these?' 'Oh, yes,' I said, and +kissed her hand. She kissed me warmly, and assured me of her most +hearty approbation.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The daughter very soon after lost her heretofore shyness, and raised +her eyes pleasantly, because she knew it did not displease her mother, +and she had now a right to make herself pleasant. We had neither of us +had any romantic training, otherwise she would not have waited for this +till I had spoken and had obtained the mothers consent. Thus this +affair, which was so difficult and so important for me, took a smooth +course, without the intervention of any other person, or the employment +of those arts or intrigues with which brides are entrapped by many.</p> + +<p class="normal">"It is not necessary for me to tell the holy and humble thankfulness of +my soul to God, nor how much I endeavoured to preserve my inward peace +and tranquillity, in spite of the gossip that followed upon this my +resolution.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I immediately investigated the character of my bride; she had an +agreeable aspect, although the smallpox, which she had passed through +after she was grown up, had materially injured her complexion. Her +education had been carried on partly under the eyes of a grandmother +and an excellent aunt, partly by the mother, who kept a tutor for her +and her brother. After the death of the father, the mother and daughter +had lived in great retirement. But she had only the more cultivated all +those qualifications which are most advantageous to her sex; her +judgment was so good, that her mother generally preferred it to her own +in household arrangements. The style of her letters was good, the +handwriting pretty and even, and there were very few faults of +orthography. In this she excelled all her many relations. Accounts she +understood far better than her mother, and had, when scarcely fifteen +years of age, during a long absence of her mother, so accurately +reckoned up the details of an income of 1800 gulden, that there was +nothing missing. She had for some years kept her own accounts in +respect of a property which she had inherited from an uncle at +Coburg, amounting to a thousand gulden or more. She had learned to +dance, and held herself well, but was not particularly fond of it; her +head-dresses she made herself, and many of her clothes, and always in +good taste. This pleasure in the work of her own hands was considered +by others of her own age, who had no such pleasure in it, as the result +of great parsimony, which it certainly was not, as I shall presently +show.</p> + +<p class="normal">"We now associated more freely, and during the few remaining days of my +stay, often walked together, especially in the great garden on the +Lossau. There we sat, sometimes under the trees overlooking the city. +She was so frank with me, that she said to me of her own accord, 'Now +you must exert yourself, and take some control over me, to wean me from +the faults which long solitude has engendered in me. I may, by my +devotion perhaps, and by my pure good heart, recommend myself to you; +but, as we must mix with many people and become a portion of the +so-called great world, you must help me, that I may not then appear to +disadvantage, till I can myself judge rightly with respect to +externals. For you are superior to me in understanding and in the +refinements of language and social intercourse.' This honesty brought +tears into my eyes. She wept with me, asking whether I now repented, +and whether I had not long known these defects of hers?</p> + +<p class="normal">"In answer to this, I said, 'I have more cause to be uneasy than you, +lest you should repent of having given your hand and heart to a +Professor, whom you will soon find deficient in all external means, +although very laborious. And now I will lay before you all my +anxieties, entirely without reserve. You know it is true that my father +can give me nothing; but you do not know that I cannot at present pay +you for board and lodging, and that I must incur many small debts, that +we may leave Coburg in suitable style.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"She looked at me tenderly, and said: 'If you have really no other +cause for uneasiness, I am truly very happy to say that I can help to +place you in a better position. Think, therefore, only of making me +more worthy of you, that I may not injure you in society. I am mistress +of my own fortune, in the management of which I have hitherto sometimes +asked advice of Dr. Berger, as my guardian. He esteems you too highly, +for him to put the least obstacle in the way of my serving you when I +wish to do so.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"Thus this worthy person has always evinced an unselfish, honourable +manner of thinking, and relieved me from all shame and uneasiness about +my position.</p> + +<p class="normal">"Now I began to think about my journey, that I might not arrive too +late at Nuremberg.</p> + +<p class="normal">"At Nuremberg there were still very many features of great antiquity, +which made much impression on me. Birkmann, preacher at the church of +St. Giles, had kindly offered that I should take up my quarters with +him. I was received by him very lovingly, and he gave me a room +up-stairs, in which were his books; a neighbourhood which was very +useful to me, as I was able in the evening to search out some accounts +of Nuremberg, that everything might not be so entirely strange to me. +As soon as I possibly could I presented myself before the gentlemen of +the council, in the great hall of the Council-house, at the hour when +they entered the hall from their separate rooms. The great impression +made on me by this grand building, and the unusual circumstances in +which I was placed, had a good effect upon me, so that I with modesty +and emotion spoke out freely, which, together with my pressing +recommendations, obtained me the gracious approbation of these +venerable persons. Herr von Ebner, whose own learning and noble manner +of thinking filled every one with respect, desired me afterwards to be +told that he expected me in the afternoon at his house. I sought to +recover the composure of my mind, that I might be distracted as little +as possible by so many unexpected events, and turn this visit the more +to my advantage. As this gentleman was almost blind I was deprived of +much assistance, for by an unaffected modest attitude, which I always +liked, I had elsewhere frequently procured myself a hearing, even from +those who hitherto had been prepossessed against me. After I had stood +some minutes, and had expressed my feelings of gratitude in the best +sentences I could utter, avoiding equally bombast and common-place, he +said: 'Herr Professor, your voice and speech please me so much that I +regret not being able to see you distinctly. Seat yourself near me; I +must speak to you on various things. The great man whom we have lost, +Professor Schwarz, has especially and confidentially recommended you to +me; but there is truly no want of competitors for the place which he +has vacated.' Now he came to my '<i>miscellaneas lectiones</i>' parts of +which had been read to him, and asked so many particulars that the +conversation resembled an examination. At last he said to me, with +evident pleasure, 'You are just the man; if I say it you will be +chosen. I heartily wish you happiness for yourself and Altorf.' Then he +caused Trident wine to be brought, and the servant was not to allow the +glass to stand empty. Now he was so gracious, that when I rose he said, +'If I can provide you with a rich wife, tell me so straightforwardly.' +I kissed his hand reverently, pressed it with my forehead, and said at +once, with great feeling, 'I thank you.' 'I shall be all the better +pleased,' he said, 'if you have no disquiet in your outward life.' He +desired me, when I returned again from Altorf, to ask for him; +meanwhile he took me into his garden, and wished to talk on other +matters with me, which afterwards took place. I must say that such +noble affability, and active regard, as were shown by the gentlemen of +Nuremberg to their men of learning, I have seldom met with elsewhere.</p> + +<p class="normal">"The preacher Birkmann travelled with me to Altorf. On the way I +thought it right to give the excellent man to understand that Herr von +Ebner had wished to make a good marriage for me; but I had found it +necessary already at Coburg to discharge this duty, and free myself +from the anxiety, so that all other well-meant arrangements were +useless. Meanwhile I revolved many new thoughts in my mind.</p> + +<p class="normal">"I arrived safely at Coburg, and brought the vocation with me. On the +26th August, 1751, the amiable Döbnerin was married to me in the +sacristy."--</p> + +<p class="normal">Thus far we give the account of the husband, who, in the further course +of his autobiography, takes every opportunity of expressing his love +and admiration for the wife of his choice, and composed a special +eulogy on her after death. Unfortunately no letter has been preserved +from the Frau Professorin, whose style was so much praised by the +Professor. But a love-letter will be given of the year 1750, from one +of her circle of Coburg acquaintance,<a name="div2_89" href="#div2Ref_89"><sup>[89]</sup></a> which one may presume gives +pretty accurately the style of the Demoiselle Döbnerin; the same +customary forms and artificial tenderness under which the warm feelings +of a human heart are only occasionally perceptible. This letter, from a +betrothed to her intended in Coburg, runs thus:--</p> + +<p class="normal">"Chosen one of my heart! As I do not doubt that the holy Christmas +season will have brought with it to my loved child all its best and +most desired blessings, so do I hope that the good God will mercifully +hear my fervent prayers, and pour upon him in rich measure so much +health, bliss, and all pleasures, that I may continually have cause to +praise Him. I also send my congratulations on the approaching new year, +and will express my sincere heartfelt wishes in these few words: 'Most +Highest, hear my prayer! for the sake of my dearest child take the half +of my life and add it to his years, so will my temporal welfare which +germinates through his goodness soon develope the ripe fruit of bliss, +in spite of the foaming of envy and malevolence.'</p> + +<p class="normal">"My love has given me very great pleasure by his agreeable letter, as I +have seen that he, whose frequent occupations might easily cause me to +be forgotten, has not been hindered from thinking most kindly of me, +therefore I return my beloved my most bounden thanks. He was pleased in +his dear letter to mention that the ring is ready, but it is not stated +what I am to pay for it, I therefore expect in the next a few lines +concerning this, and also touching the honourable brother-in-law.</p> + +<p class="normal">"If my beloved desires that I should know or look after aught else, may +it please him to speak out freely: his orders shall at all times be +commands to me. To the most highly-esteemed Frau Mamma and the Frau +Schwester I send my dutiful congratulations on this new year, and +request of them further their gracious favour. My papa and mamma send +equally their compliments, and wish my beloved to enjoy in undisturbed +contentment all blessings and prosperity. We expect with great desire a +kind answer, and my papa is the more desirous to receive one, as he +himself dictated mamma's letter. I am anxious to learn what resolution +his honour has come to touching this matter. I beg leave, my heart, to +send with this a bad specimen of my workmanship for a waistcoat, humbly +requesting his honour not to regard the smallness of its value, but +rather the goodwill with which it is given, for I assure him there are +not as many stitches in it, as there are good wishes accompanying it. +In conclusion, I remain, with constant esteem,</p> + +<p style="text-indent:40%">"My beloved one's</p> + +<p style="text-indent:45%">"Most affectionate</p> + +<p class="right">"C. C. K.</p> + +<p class="normal">"A. Monsieur, Monsieur ... at Coburg." +<br> +<br> +<p class="normal">So cautious, formal, and florid were the love-letters of a true-hearted +frank maiden, like the dear wife of Professor Semler.</p> + +<p class="normal">But he himself, Johann Salomo Semler,--the father of modern theology, +long the highly-honoured head of the University, who, in his scientific +views, was a bolder, rasher man than his older contemporaries,--how +should we judge him, if measured by the standard of our time? Because +he has no money for his journey, and some debts in Coburg, he +determines to marry; he informs his love in Saalfeld of his situation, +and woos the daughter of his wealthy landlady, to whom hitherto he had +appeared indifferent. The like of this in our time, speaking mildly, +would be called--pitiful. And yet when the aged Professor gave his +narrative to the public, he plainly assumed that his conduct would not +appear dishonourable in the eyes of his contemporaries. There is no +reason to doubt that the friends of his youth thought exactly the same, +perhaps somewhat less conscientiously. When he was young, what rights +had the heart of a poor scholar against a cold, tyrrannical world? +Little as yet. What was the aim and object of his life? To learn and +labour from early mom till dead of night, in order to instil his +painfully gained knowledge into other souls, to spread by writings and +teaching, all that was important and new that he searched out, +descried, or conceived. Therein lay his highest duty and honour, the +object and pride of his earthly days; to this must his private life be +adapted and accommodated. Thus it was not only the few, that felt a +burning ambition, it was a general feeling, as with Semler, in many +hundreds who starved, bowed themselves before the powerful and changed +their faith, in order to be able to live for science. There is nothing +noble in this, but it is nevertheless a seeking after something nobler; +it is the old German yearning for something to be devoted to, which is +immeasurably more estimable than devotion to self. Let manly power be +united with such a tone of mind, together with the feeling of being a +ruler upon earth, and something will arise which all following ages +will call great and good.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> +<br> +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_01" href="#div2_01">Footnote 1</a>: In this battle (A.D. 9) Armin defeated the Romans, and +freed Germany.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_02" href="#div2_02">Footnote 2</a>: J. Arends, in "East Friesland and Jever" (vol. ii. p. +190), has collected traces of ancient culture on the excavated ground. +The coast of the North Sea, from Borkum to Schleswig, stretched, in the +time of the Romans, probably farther to the north; the encroachment of +the sea had already begun at the time that Pliny wrote, and since that +it has taken more than it has given. The Dollart and the Zuyderzee +(1164) were formed by several great inundations after the Crusades, and +the Jahde in the fifteenth century.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_03" href="#div2_03">Footnote 3</a>: The smoked meats of Germany were named as an article of +traffic under Diocletian.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_04" href="#div2_04">Footnote 4</a>: Thus, for example, in the monastery of Alpirspach, in the +Black Forest, from which Ambrosius Blaurer escaped in 1622, a certain +holy Pelagius and John the Baptist had both their vassals, who rejoiced +in peculiar privileges.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_05" href="#div2_05">Footnote 5</a>: Dialogue of "New Karsthans." This is the fictitious name +assumed by Ulrich von Hutten, the author of a political squib at that +period.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_06" href="#div2_06">Footnote 6</a>: Seifried Helbling, viii., in Moriz Haupt, periodical for +German Antiquity, Vol. iv., p. 164. The Austrian knight laments the +intrusion of the peasant into his order as an abuse. He wrote, +according to Karajan, the eighth of his little books about 1298.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_07" href="#div2_07">Footnote 7</a>: The quaint way in which the old language is here mixed +with foreign dialects cannot be rendered.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_08" href="#div2_08">Footnote 8</a>: Our word <i>pferd</i> (horse), then the Roman elegant word for +the German horse.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_09" href="#div2_09">Footnote 9</a>: Duke Ernst of Swabia, a celebrated poem of the middle +ages.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_10" href="#div2_10">Footnote 10</a>: These names could hardly have been invented by +Helmbrecht, to characterise the robbers; it is probable, from what +follows, that the like wild nicknames were humorously given by the +nobles themselves, and used as party names.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_11" href="#div2_11">Footnote 11</a>: The old German wedding custom. In the thirteenth century +the Church had seldom any concern in the nuptials of country people and +courtlings. It was only in the fourteenth century it began to be +considered unrefined not to have the blessing of a priest. When our +junkers declaim against civil marriages they forget that it was the +fashion of their forefathers.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_12" href="#div2_12">Footnote 12</a>: An ancient popular superstition. It was similar with the +wooers in the "Odyssey" before their end.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_13" href="#div2_13">Footnote 13</a>: This song is to be found in Kornmann's "Frau Veneris +Berg," 1614 p. 306. Similar songs in Uhland.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_14" href="#div2_14">Footnote 14</a>: The great poet for the people, a native of Nuremberg.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_15" href="#div2_15">Footnote 15</a>: Means Hoejack, which was adopted by Ulrich von Hutten as +a characteristic title of a political squib in defence of the +peasantry.--<i>Trans</i>.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_16" href="#div2_16">Footnote 16</a>: Quaint title of a series of pamphlets denouncing abuses +in Church and State, published about 1521.--<i>Trans</i>.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_17" href="#div2_17">Footnote 17</a>: A colloquy between a fox and wolf, in the "Staigerwaldt," +1524, p. 6. Under the similitude of a wolf and fox two fugitive junkers +of the Sickingen party discourse together. The plundering of the nobles +having been strongly spoken of, the wolf says: "By this voracity, we +have made enemies of many citizens and peasants, who have lately bound +themselves to take away all our lives, if they can catch us." Fox: "Who +are these citizens and peasants?" Wolf: "Those who live in Upper +Swabia, Augsburg, Ulm, Kempten, Bibrach, Memmingen, and by the Neckar, +and the Nurembergers and Bavarians on the frontier."</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_18" href="#div2_18">Footnote 18</a>: Full details of the sufferings of the country people +during the war will be found in the second volume of "The Pictures of +German life."</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_19" href="#div2_19">Footnote 19</a>: "Imperial Privileges and Sanctions for Silesia," vols. +i., p. 166; iii., 759.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_20" href="#div2_20">Footnote 20</a>: Ib., vol. i., pp. 150-59.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_21" href="#div2_21">Footnote 21</a>: "Imperial Privileges and Sanctions for Silesia," vol. i., +p. 125.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_22" href="#div2_22">Footnote 22</a>: Ib., vol. i., p. 138.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_23" href="#div2_23">Footnote 23</a>: Seven hundred and fifty of these have been reckoned by C. +H. von Lang, in his "Historical Development of German Taxation," 1793.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_24" href="#div2_24">Footnote 24</a>: F. von Liebenroth: "Fragments from my Diary," 1701, p. +159. The writer was a Saxon officer, a sensible and loyal man.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_25" href="#div2_25">Footnote 25</a>: District regulations for the Principalities of Oppeln and +Ratibor of the year 1561.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_26" href="#div2_26">Footnote 26</a>: The provincial ordinances for the Principalities of +Oppeln and Ratibor, year 1561.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_27" href="#div2_27">Footnote 27</a>: Von Hohberg: "Country Life of the Nobles," 1687. See the +Introduction.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_28" href="#div2_28">Footnote 28</a>: Imperial Privil. and Sanct., vol. iv., p. 1213.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_29" href="#div2_29">Footnote 29</a>: One may nearly estimate the proportion of the peasants to +the collective population of Germany, about 1750, at from 65 to 70 per +cent.; of these four-fifths were villeins, thus more than half the +people.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_30" href="#div2_30">Footnote 30</a>: "The Exposure of the Vices, Morals, and Evils of the +thick-skinned, coarse-grained, and wicked Peasantry," by <i>Veroandro</i>, +of <i>Truth Castle</i>, 1684. The author appears to have been the same +clergyman who added verses to the later editions of the Simplicissimus, +and pointed the moral.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_31" href="#div2_31">Footnote 31</a>: "The Happy and Unhappy Peasantry," p. 178. Frankfort, s. +a. About 1700.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_32" href="#div2_32">Footnote 32</a>: "Lasterprob," p. 82.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_33" href="#div2_33">Footnote 33</a>: "The Happy and Unhappy Peasant Class." p. 155.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_34" href="#div2_34">Footnote 34</a>: "Kurtze Beschreibung, der Acker-Leuthe und Ehrenlob," p. +33. Hof. 1701.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_35" href="#div2_35">Footnote 35</a>: "Imperial Privil. and Sanct.," vols. ii., p. 584; v., +1511.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_36" href="#div2_36">Footnote 36</a>: F. von Liebenroth, p. 146.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_37" href="#div2_37">Footnote 37</a>: Supreme Court of the Empire.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_38" href="#div2_38">Footnote 38</a>: J. V. Bohlen; "Georg von Behr; A picture of Pomeranian +Life," p. 24, 1859.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_39" href="#div2_39">Footnote 39</a>: Imp. Priv. and Sanct., 1577, 1602, 1617, vols. i., 93, +100; iii., 1108.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_40" href="#div2_40">Footnote 40</a>: Even in the years 1602 and 1617; Ib., vol. iii, 1107.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_41" href="#div2_41">Footnote 41</a>: A well-known literary society.--<i>Tr</i>.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_42" href="#div2_42">Footnote 42</a>: Dietrich von Kracht, the Brandenburg colonel, was called +in this society "the Biter;" his herb was the horseradish.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_43" href="#div2_43">Footnote 43</a>: This complaint may be found in "Imp. Sanct.," 9th Feb., +1684.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_44" href="#div2_44">Footnote 44</a>: For most of these details from the manuscript diary of an +Austrian, Baron von Teuffel, in 1672 and the following years, the +Editor has to thank the kindness of Graf Wolf Baudissin.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_45" href="#div2_45">Footnote 45</a>: Compare this with the Silesian Robinson, Oct. 8, 1723, +vol. i., p. 16. The first part of this Robinsonade is a vivid sketch +from the diary of a Silesian noble, which appears to be lost.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_46" href="#div2_46">Footnote 46</a>: P. Winckler, "The Nobleman," p. 510.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_47" href="#div2_47">Footnote 47</a>: We are averse to quoting the erotic books which corrupted +German readers; we shall only mention a short and scarce tale, wherein +some such orgies are described after the Dutch original: "The +Perverted, but at the same time Converted, Soldier Adrian Wurmfeld von +Orsoy," by Crispinus Bonifacius von Düsseldorp, p. 4. 1675. 4to.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_48" href="#div2_48">Footnote 48</a>: <i>Pfeffersäcke</i>, Pepper-sack, and <i>Krippenreiter</i>, a +poor country Squire, who rides about living on the bounty of the +gentry.--<i>Tr</i>.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_49" href="#div2_49">Footnote 49</a>: The Student's cap used in sham fights.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_50" href="#div2_50">Footnote 50</a>: In 1603 this was already denounced from Vienna; the abuse +became very bad during the war.--Kais. Privil. und Sanct., vol. i., p. +117.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_51" href="#div2_51">Footnote 51</a>: Kais. Privil. und Sanct., vol. iv., p. 1125.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_52" href="#div2_52">Footnote 52</a>: Kais. Privil. und Sanct., vol. i, p. 377, year 1712.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_53" href="#div2_53">Footnote 53</a>: Kais. Privil. und Sanct., vol. iii., pp. 989 and 1021.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_54" href="#div2_54">Footnote 54</a>: J. B. von Bohr, "Ceremoniel Wissenschaft," p. 229.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_55" href="#div2_55">Footnote 55</a>: J. B. von Bohr, <i>ibid.</i>, p. 33.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_56" href="#div2_56">Footnote 56</a>: For when the splendid prince had arrived at the object of +his wishes by countless bribery to the Polish grandees, and after he +had proved his new Catholicism to his party--less through the enforced +testimony of the Pope than by the expenditure of some thalers and a +half measure of brandy to each noble elector--then, at his eventful +coronation on the 5th of September, 1697, the inventive powers of the +chamberlain were strained to the uttermost, for the costume was to be +antique, at the same time Polish and also fashionable and suitable to a +cavalier. Therefore the king wore on his well-powdered head a Polish +cap with a heron's plume; on his body a strong golden breastplate, over +his short French breeches a short Roman tunic, on his feet sandals, +over all a blue ermine cloak; the whole dress covered with splendid +precious stones. He became faint at the coronation, and it was doubtful +whether it was owing to the uncomfortable costume or to shame. The +Poles ate on this day three roast oxen, while at the Emperor's +coronation at Frankfort only one was customary.--Compare Förster, "Höfe +und Cabinette Europas," vol. iii., p. 51.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_57" href="#div2_57">Footnote 57</a>: Letters of recommendation entitling the holder to +sustenance in some ecclesiastical foundation.--<i>Tr</i>.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_58" href="#div2_58">Footnote 58</a>: She certainly was not a girl of loose character, as +Hüllmann in the "Städtewesen," vol. ii., assumes; on the contrary, she +passed in the sports as the symbol of a city which was supposed to be +under the protection of the Holy Virgin, and, till the time of Tilly, +boasted of never having been taken. It is possible that the maiden may +have been a serf, but this is not certain.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_59" href="#div2_59">Footnote 59</a>: Wolffgang Ferber, Prietzschenmeister--jest +maker--"Gründliche Beschreibung eines fürnehmen fürstlichen +Armbrustschiessens zu Coburg," 1614.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_60" href="#div2_60">Footnote 60</a>: On a Franconian gem of the sixteenth century an archer +and a crossbow are portrayed.--Bechstein Museum, II., figure 4.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_61" href="#div2_61">Footnote 61</a>: For example, in the circular of the Meiningens, 1579, +"crooked or straight rifled barrels are forbidden." Quarrels must have +arisen sometimes concerning this at the public shooting meetings, for +in 1563 Elector August of Saxony decided that rifled barrels should +only be allowed, if all the shooters agreed to it.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_62" href="#div2_62">Footnote 62</a>: Pritschmeister, a species of Merry Andrew--master of the +ceremonies and provost marshal.--<i>Tr</i>.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_63" href="#div2_63">Footnote 63</a>: The favourite preamble of their poem. They wander poor +and full of cares into the free expanse of nature; then comes joyful +news of a shooting meeting. It was undoubtedly traditional, and it was +a fitting and refined beginning, which one learned from the other.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_64" href="#div2_64">Footnote 64</a>: Wolfgang Ferber. "Gründliche beschreibung eines Armbrust +Schiessens zu Coburg." 1614.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_65" href="#div2_65">Footnote 65</a>: A square coin.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_66" href="#div2_66">Footnote 66</a>: Welser-Gasser, "Chronika von Augspurg," p. 182.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_67" href="#div2_67">Footnote 67</a>: Compare vol. ii of "Pictures of German Life," chap. +"Rogues and Adventurers."</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_68" href="#div2_68">Footnote 68</a>: Benedict Edlbeck, pritschmeister: "Ordentliche +beschreibung des grossen Schiessen in Zwickau," 1574, p. 82.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_69" href="#div2_69">Footnote 69</a>: Even the valiant Quad von Kinkelbach counts this as one +of the wonders of Frankfort: "Teutscher Nation Herlichbuit," 1609, p. +171. Compare it with Christoff Rösener: "Ehren Tittel der Ritterlichen +Freyen Kunst der Fechter," 1589, p. 4. The <i>Federfechter</i> gave their +freedom to their scholars at princes' courts; also, for example, +at Dresden, 1614, at the great Schaufechter which followed the +prize-shooting, where a Fechter was stabbed by a rapier.--Wolffgang +Ferber's "Relation eines fürnehmen Stahlschiessens zu Dresden," 1614.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_70" href="#div2_70">Footnote 70</a>: Derisive terms applied to certain localities.--<i>Tr</i>.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_71" href="#div2_71">Footnote 71</a>: Invitation circular of the Kehlheimers in "Bairische +Annalen."</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_72" href="#div2_72">Footnote 72</a>: The Swiss also were subject to the <i>pritschmeister</i>. In +the woodcut on the title-page of the curious poem "Aussreden der +Schützen von Hans Heinrich Grob, Zürich, 1602," there is delineated a +rifle shooting, in which the <i>pritschmeister</i>, in complete fool's +dress, is castigating two Shooters in the way above described.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_73" href="#div2_73">Footnote 73</a>: Called Königsschiessen, as a king was elected for the +occasion.--<i>Tr</i>.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_74" href="#div2_74">Footnote 74</a>: An open space round the town.--<i>Tr</i>.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_75" href="#div2_75">Footnote 75</a>: A court entertainment, representing life in an +inn.--<i>Tr</i>.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_76" href="#div2_76">Footnote 76</a>: Von Rohr, "Ceremoniel-Wissenschaft," p. 261.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_77" href="#div2_77">Footnote 77</a>: "<i>De ratione status in Imperio nostro Romano-Germanico</i>, +1640." The expression is not invented by Chemnitz, it had been +introduced before him in diplomatic jargon by the Italians--their +<i>ragione di Dominio</i>, or <i>di Stato</i> (in Latin, <i>ratio status</i>; in +French, <i>raison d'estat</i>; in German, <i>Staatsklugheit</i>) denotes the +method of dealing in the finesses of politics, a system of unwritten +maxims of government in which only practical statesmen were versed.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_78" href="#div2_78">Footnote 78</a>: The title runs thus: "<i>Idolum Principium</i>, that is, the +rulers' idol, which they worship in these days and call <i>Ratio Status</i>, +described in a not fabulous fable, after the manner of history."</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_79" href="#div2_79">Footnote 79</a>: "Lebens Beschreibung Johannis Petersen," 1717; 2nd edit. +1719, 8. "Leben Frauen Johanna Eleonora Petersen," 1718; 2nd edit. +1719, 8.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_80" href="#div2_80">Footnote 80</a>: The stranger was Spener.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_81" href="#div2_81">Footnote 81</a>: The father now held a situation at a pious court; the +princess, whose attendant he was, was an active promoter of the match.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_82" href="#div2_82">Footnote 82</a>: A special virtue was ascribed by the superstitious not +only to inherited metal but to inherited knowledge, particularly of +smiths, shepherds, and executioners.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_83" href="#div2_83">Footnote 83</a>: Mounted mercenaries who had no groom boy. The einspänner +performed in peace the service of gensdarmes.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_84" href="#div2_84">Footnote 84</a>: The Duke of Holstein is Bishop of Lubeck. The court +preacher called him, according to the case, his duke or bishop. This +double position of the weak prince, and his conduct, denote the +helpless condition of the Protestant Church.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_85" href="#div2_85">Footnote 85</a>: J. M. von Loen, "Der Adel," 1732, pp. 133-4.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_86" href="#div2_86">Footnote 86</a>: He related the story later with glee; his wife, from +living with him, had become quite different. But Kate's question, +whether the German Commander-in-Chief was brother of the Prussian Duke, +appeared so extraordinary to Luther, because just then, 1526, all +details concerning Albrecht of Prussia were discussed in the circle of +the Wittenbergers; and she, the most closely united to Luther, knew +nothing of him. Katherine had then already lived in the families of +friends at Wittenberg two years, so that it was not entirely the fault +of the convent that she sat so quiet and helpless in the house of her +husband.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_87" href="#div2_87">Footnote 87</a>: Dr. Johann Salomo Semler's "Lebensbeschriebung," drawn up +by himself, 2nd part, appeared in 1781. The here-mentioned lady friend +is not named; she appears to have been noble, or of the higher official +class.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_88" href="#div2_88">Footnote 88</a>: He sought for composure by thinking of both the +demoiselles, in Halle and Saalfeld.</p> + +<p class="hang1"><a name="div2Ref_89" href="#div2_89">Footnote 89</a>: The letter is given, because its purport is almost +identical with one written by the beautiful Ursula Freherin to her +bridegroom in 1598, in vol. i. of "Pictures of German Life," p. 233. +For the letter here published the Editor has to thank Baron Ernst von +Stockmar.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h3>END OF VOL. I.</h3> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h4>LONDON:<br> +BRADBURY AND EVANS, PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS.</h4> +<br> +<br> +<br> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Pictures of German Life in the XVIIIth +and XIXth Centuries, Vol. I., by Gustav Freytag + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PICTURES OF GERMAN LIFE V. 1 *** + +***** This file should be named 33818-h.htm or 33818-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/3/8/1/33818/ + +Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by the Web Archive + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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