"
They led him to the scaffold place,
Up the ladder he must go:—
## p.
They led him to the scaffold place,
Up the ladder he must go:—
## p.
Warner - World's Best Literature - v04 - Bes to Bro
"Is reason sufficient
for mankind? What is the ground of morals?
What is prop-
erly the meaning of 'revelation'? Why is everything so badly
arranged in the State? Why must there be rich and poor? "
etc. , etc.
"Dear Petrea! " said Louise, "what use can there be in asking
those questions? "
It was an evening for questions; they did not end even when
the company had broken up.
"Don't you think, Elise," said the Lagman to his wife when
they were alone, "that our little Petrea begins to be disagreeable
with her continual questioning and disputing? She leaves no one
in peace, and is stirred up herself the whole time. She will
make herself ridiculous if she keeps on in this way. "
"Yes, if she does keep on so. But I have a feeling that she
will change.
I have observed her very particularly for some
time, and do you know, I think there is really something very
uncommon in that girl. "
"Yes, yes, there is certainly something uncommon in her.
Her liveliness and the many games and schemes which she
invents -"
"Yes, don't you think they indicate a decided talent for the
fine arts? And then her extraordinary thirst for learning: every
morning, between three and four o'clock, she gets up in order
to read or write, or to work at her compositions. That is not
at all a common thing. And may not her uneasiness, her eager-
ness to question and dispute, arise from a sort of intellectual
hunger? Ah, from such hunger, which many women must suffer
throughout their lives, from want of literary food,-from such
an emptiness of the soul arise disquiet, discontent, nay, innumer-
able faults. "
"I believe you are right, Elise," said the Lagman, "and no
condition in life is sadder, particularly in more advanced years.
IV-147
## p. 2338 (#536) ###########################################
2338
FREDRIKA BREMER
―――
But this shall not be the lot of our Petrea - that I will promise.
What do you think now would benefit her most? "
"My opinion is that a serious and continued plan of study
would assist in regulating her mind. She is too much left to
herself with her confused tendencies, with her zeal and her in-
quiry. I am too ignorant myself to lead and instruct her, you
. have too little time, and she has no one here who can properly
direct her young and unregulated mind. Sometimes I almost
pity her, for her sisters don't understand at all what is going
on within her, and I confess it is often painful to myself; I wish
I were more able to assist her. Petrea needs some ground on
which to take her stand. Her thoughts require more firmness;
from the want of this comes her uneasiness. She is like a
flower without roots, which is moved about by wind and waves. "
"She shall take root, she shall find ground as sure as it is to
be found in the world," said the Lagman, with a serious and
beaming eye, at the same time striking his hand on the book
containing the law of West Gotha, so that it fell to the ground.
"We will consider more of this, Elise," continued he: "Petrea is
still too young for us to judge with certainty of her talents and
tendencies. But if they turn out to be what they appear, then
she shall never feel any hunger as long as I live and can procure
bread for my family. You know my friend, the excellent Bishop
B—: perhaps we can at first confide our Petrea to his guidance.
After a few years we shall see; she is still only a child. Don't
you think that we ought to speak to Jacobi, in order to get him
to read and converse with her?
converse with her? Apropos, how is it with Jacobi?
I imagine that he begins to be too attentive to Louise. "
"Well, well! you are not so far wrong; and even our cousin
Thure of Oestanvik,-have you perceived anything there ? »
"Yes, I did perceive something yesterday evening; what the
deuce was his meaning with those stupid questions he put to her?
'Does cousin like this? ' or 'Is cousin fond of that? ' I don't
like that at all myself. Louise is not yet full-grown, and already
people come and ask her, 'Does cousin like? Well, it may
signify very little after all, which would perhaps please me best.
What a pity, however, that our cousin is not a little more manly;
for he has certainly got a most beautiful estate, and so near us. "
"Yes, a pity; because, as he is at present, I am almost sure
Louise would find it impossible to give him her hand. "
"You do not believe that her inclination is toward Jacobi ? ”
## p. 2339 (#537) ###########################################
FREDRIKA BREMER
2339
"To tell the truth, I fancy that this is the case. "
"Nay, that would be very unpleasant and very unwise: I am
very fond of Jacobi, but he has nothing and is nothing. "
"But, my dear, he may get something and become something;
I confess, dear Ernst, that I believe he would suit Louise better
for a husband than any one else we know, and I would with
pleasure call him my son. "
"Would you, Elise? then I must also prepare myself to do
the same.
You have had most trouble and most labor with the
children, it is therefore right that you should decide in their
affairs. "
"Ernst, you are so kind! "
"Say just, Elise; not more than just. Besides, it is my opinion.
that our thoughts and inclinations will not differ much.
I con-
fess that Louise appears to me to be a great treasure, and I know
of nobody I could give her to with all my heart; but if Jacobi
obtains her affections, I feel that I could not oppose their union,
although it would be painful to me on account of his uncertain
prospects. He is really dear to me, and we are under great
obligations to him on account of Henrik; his excellent heart, his
honesty, and his good qualities, will make him as good a citizen
as a husband and father, and I consider him to be one of the
most agreeable men to associate with daily. But, God bless me!
I speak as if I wished the union, but that is far from my desire:
I would much rather keep my daughters at home, so long as
they find themselves happy with me; but when girls grow up,
there is never any peace to depend on. I wish all lovers and
questioners a long way off. Here we could live altogether as in
a kingdom of heaven, now that we have got everything in such
order. Some small improvements may still be wanted, but this
will be all right if we are only left in peace. I have been think-
ing that we could so easily make a wardrobe here: do you see on
this side of the wall-don't you think if we were to open-
What are you asleep already, my dear? "
Louise was often teased about Cousin Thure; Cousin Thure
was often teased about Cousin Louise. He liked very much to be
teased about his Cousin Louise, and it gave him great pleasure to
be told that Oestanvik wanted a mistress, that he himself wanted
a good wife, and that Louise Frank was decidedly one of the wis-
est and most amiable girls in the whole neighborhood, and of the
## p. 2340 (#538) ###########################################
FREDRIKA BREMER
2340
most respectable family. The Landed Proprietor was half ready
to receive congratulations on his betrothal. What the supposed
bride thought about the matter, however, is difficult to divine.
Louise was certainly always polite to her "Cousin Thure,"
but more indifference than attachment seemed to be expressed in
this politeness; and she declined, with a decision astonishing to
many a person, his constantly repeated invitations to make a tour.
to Oestanvik in his new landau drawn by "my chestnut horses,"
four-in-hand. It was said by many that the agreeable and
friendly Jacobi was much nearer to Louise's heart than the rich
Landed Proprietor. But even towards Jacobi her behavior was
so uniform, so quiet, and so unconstrained that nobody knew
what to think. Very few knew so well as we do that Louise
considered it in accordance with the dignity of a woman to show
perfect indifference to the attentions or doux propos of men, until
they had openly and fully explained themselves. She despised
coquetry to that degree that she feared everything which had the
least appearance of it. Her young friends used to joke with her
upon her strong notions in this respect, and often told her that
she would remain unmarried.
"That may be! " answered Louise calmly.
One day she was told that a gentleman had said, "I will not
stand up for any girl who is not a little coquettish! "
"Then he may remain sitting! " answered Louise, with a great
deal of dignity.
Louise's views with regard to the dignity of woman, her seri-
ous and decided principles, and her manner of expressing them,
amused her young friends, at the same time that they inspired
them with great regard for her, and caused many little conten-
tions and discussions in which Louise fearlessly, though not with-
out some excess, defended what was right. These contentions,
which began in merriment, sometimes ended quite differently.
A young and somewhat coquettish married lady felt herself
one day wounded by the severity with which Louise judged the
coquetry of her sex, particularly of married ladies, and in revenge
she made use of some words which awakened Louise's astonish-
ment and anger at the same time. An explanation followed be-
tween the two, the consequence of which was a complete rupture
between Louise and the young lady, together with an altered dis-
position of mind in the former, which she in vain attempted to
conceal. She had been unusually joyous and lively during the
## p. 2341 (#539) ###########################################
FREDRIKA BREMER
2341
first days of her stay at Axelholm; but she now became silent
and thoughtful, often absent; and some people thought that she
seemed less friendly than formerly towards the Candidate, but
somewhat more attentive to the Landed Proprietor, although she
constantly declined his invitation "to take a tour to Oestanvik. "
The evening after this explanation took place, Elise was
engaged with Jacobi in a lively conversation in the balcony.
"And if," said Jacobi, "if I endeavor to win her affections,
oh, tell me! would her parents, would her mother see it without
displeasure? Ah, speak openly with me; the happiness of my
life depends upon it! "
"You have my approval and my good wishes," answered Elise;
"I tell you now what I have often told my husband, that I should
very much like to call you my son! "
"Oh! " exclaimed Jacobi, deeply affected, falling on his knees
and pressing Elise's hand to his lips: "oh, that every act in my
life might prove my gratitude, my love -! "
At this moment Louise, who had been looking for her mother,
approached the balcony; she saw Jacobi's action and heard his
words. She withdrew quickly, as if she had been stung by a
serpent.
From this time a great change was more and more percept-
ible in her. Silent, shy, and very pale, she moved about like a
dreaming person in the merry circle at Axelholm, and willingly
agreed to her mother's proposal to shorten her stay at this place.
Jacobi, who was as much astonished as sorry at Louise's
sudden unfriendliness towards him, began to think the place was
somehow bewitched, and wished more than once to leave it.
A FAMILY PICTURE
From The Home'
HE family is assembled in the library; tea is just finished.
at the pressing request of Gabrielle and Petrea, lays
out the cards in order to tell the sisters their fortune. The
seems to have made up
Candidate seats himself beside her, and
his mind to be a little more cheerful.
looks more like a cathedral than ever.
enters, bows, blows his nose, and kisses the hand of his "gracious
aunt. ”
But then "the object »
The Landed Proprietor
## p. 2342 (#540) ###########################################
FREDRIKA BREMER
2342
Landed Proprietor - Very cold this evening; I think we shall
have frost.
Elise-It is a miserable spring; we have just read a melan-
choly account of the famine in the northern provinces; these
years of dearth are truly unfortunate.
Landed Proprietor-Oh yes, the famine up there. No, let us
talk of something else; that is too gloomy. I have had my peas
covered with straw. Cousin Louise, are you fond of playing
Patience? I am very fond of it myself; it is so composing. At
Oestanvik I have got very small cards for Patience; I am quite
sure you would like them, Cousin Louise.
The Landed Proprietor seats himself on the other side of
Louise. The Candidate is seized with a fit of curious shrugs.
Louise This is not Patience, but a little conjuring by means
of which I can tell future things. Shall I tell your fortune,
Cousin Thure?
――――
Landed Proprietor-Oh yes! do tell my fortune; but don't
tell me anything disagreeable. If I hear anything disagreeable
in the evening, I always dream of it at night. Tell me now
from the cards that I shall have a pretty little wife; - a wife
beautiful and amiable as Cousin Louise.
The Candidate (with an expression in his eyes as if he would
send the Landed Proprietor head-over-heels to Oestanvik)—I don't
know whether Miss Louise likes flattery.
Landed Proprietor (who takes no notice of his rival) — Cousin
Louise, are you fond of blue?
Louise Blue?
It is a pretty color; but I almost like green
-
better.
Landed Proprietor-Well, that's very droll; it suits exceed-
ingly well. At Oestanvik my drawing-room furniture is blue;
beautiful light-blue satin. But in my bedroom I have green
Cousin Louise, I believe really-
moreen.
The Candidate coughs as though he were going to be suffo-
cated, and rushes out of the room. Louise looks after him and
sighs, and afterwards sees in the cards so many misfortunes for
Cousin Thure that he is quite frightened. "The peas frosted! "-
"conflagration in the drawing-room"- and at last "a basket"
["the mitten "]. The Landed Proprietor declares still laughingly
that he will not receive "a basket. " The sisters smile and make
their remarks.
—
## p. 2343 (#541) ###########################################
2343
CLEMENS BRENTANO
(1778-1842)
HE intellectual upheaval in Germany at the beginning of this
century brought a host of remarkable characters upon the
literary stage, and none more gifted, more whimsical, more
winning than Clemens Brentano, the erratic son of a brilliant family.
Born September 8th, 1778, at Ehrenbreitstein, Brentano spent his
youth among the stimulating influences which accompanied the
renaissance of German culture. His grandmother, Sophie de la Roche,
had been the close friend of Wieland, and his mother the youthful
companion of Goethe. Clemens, after a vain attempt to follow in
the mercantile footsteps of his father, went to Jena, where he met
the Schlegels; and here his brilliant but unsteady literary career
began.
In 1803 he married the talented Sophie Mareau, but three years
later his happiness was terminated by her death. His next matri-
monial venture was, however, a failure: an elopement in 1808 with
the daughter of a Frankfort banker was quickly followed by a
divorce, and he thereafter led the uncontrolled life of an errant poet.
Among his early writings, published under the pseudonym of
'Marie,' were several satires and dramas and a novel entitled 'Godwi,'
which he himself called "a romance gone mad. " The meeting
with Achim von Arnim, who subsequently married his sister Bettina,
decided his fate: he embarked in literature once and for all in close
association with Von Arnim. Together they compiled a collection of
several hundred folk-songs of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eight-
eenth centuries, under the name of 'Des Knaben Wunderhorn' (The
Boy's Wonderhorn), 1806-1808. That so musical a people as the Ger-
mans should be masters of lyric poetry is but natural,-every long-
ing, every impression, every impulse gushes into song; and in 'Des
Knaben Wunderhorn' we hear the tuneful voices of a naïve race,
singing what they have seen or dreamed or felt during three hundred
years. The work is dedicated to Goethe, who wrote an almost
enthusiastic review of it for the Literary Gazette of Jena. ་་ Every
lover or master of musical art," he says, "should have this volume
upon his piano. "
The Wunderhorn' was greeted by the German public with ex-
traordinary cordiality. It was in fact an epoch-making work, the
pioneer in the new field of German folk poetry. It carried out in a
## p. 2344 (#542) ###########################################
2344
CLEMENS BRENTANO
purely national spirit the efforts which Herder had made in behalf of
the folk-songs of all peoples. It revealed the spirit of the time. 1806
was the year of the battle of Jena, and Germany in her hour of deep-
est humiliation gave ear to the encouraging voices from out her own
past. "The editors of the Wunderhorn,'" said their friend Görres,
"have deserved of their countrymen a civic crown, for having saved
from destruction what yet remained to be saved;" and on this civic
crown the poets' laurels are still green.
Brentano's contagious laughter may even now be heard re-echoing
through the pages of his book on The Philistine' (1811). His dra-
matic power is evinced in the broadly conceived play 'Die Gründung
Prags' (The Founding of Prague: 1815); but it is upon two stories,
told in the simple style of the folk-tale, that his widest popularity is
founded. 'Die Geschichte vom braven Casperl und der schönen
Annerl' (The Story of Good Casper and Pretty Annie) and his fable
of Gockel, Hinkel, und Gackeleia,' both of the year 1838, are still
an indispensable part of the reading of every German boy and girl.
Like his brilliant sister, Brentano is a fascinating figure in litera-
ture. He was amiable and winning, full of quips and cranks, and
with an inexhaustible fund of stories. Astonishing tales of advent-
ure, related with great circumstantiality of detail, and of which he
himself was the hero, played an important part in his conversation.
Tieck once said he had never known a better improvisatore than
Brentano, nor one who could "lie more gracefully. ”
When Brentano was forty years of age a total change came over
his life. The witty and fascinating man of the world was trans-
formed into a pious and gloomy ascetic. The visions of the stig-
matized nun of Dülmen, Katharina Emmerich, attracted him, and
he remained under her influence until her death in 1824. These vis-
ions he subsequently published as the Life of the Virgin Mary. '
The eccentricities of his later years bordered upon insanity. He
died in the Catholic faith in the year 1842.
## p. 2345 (#543) ###########################################
CLEMENS BRENTANO
THE NURSE'S WATCH
From The Boy's Wonderhorn ›
THE
HE moon it shines,
My darling whines;
The clock strikes twelve:- God cheer
The sick both far and near.
God knoweth all;
-
Mousy nibbles in the wall;
The clock strikes one:- - like day,
Dreams o'er thy pillow play.
The matin-bell
Wakes the nun in convent cell;
The clock strikes two:--they go
To choir in a row.
The wind it blows,
The cock he crows;
The clock strikes three: -the wagoner
In his straw bed begins to stir.
The steed he paws the floor,
Creaks the stable door;
The clock strikes four:-'tis plain
The coachman sifts his grain.
The swallow's laugh the still air shakes,
The sun awakes;
The clock strikes five:- the traveler must be gone,
He puts his stockings on.
The hen is clacking,
The ducks are quacking;
The clock strikes six:-awake, arise,
Thou lazy hag; come, ope thy eyes.
Quick to the baker's run;
The rolls are done;
The clock strikes seven:-
'Tis time the milk were in the oven.
Put in some butter, do,
And some fine sugar, too;
The clock strikes eight:-
Now bring my baby's porridge straight.
2345
Englished by Charles T. Brooks.
## p. 2346 (#544) ###########################################
2346
CLEMENS BRENTANO
THE CASTLE IN AUSTRIA
From The Boy's Wonderhorn >
HERE lies a castle in Austria,
Right goodly to behold,
Walled up with marble stones so fair,
With silver and with red gold.
TH
Therein lies captive a young boy,
For life and death he lies bound,
Full forty fathoms under the earth,
Midst vipers and snakes around.
His father came from Rosenberg,
Before the tower he went:-
"My son, my dearest son, how hard
Is thy imprisonment! "
-
"O father, dearest father mine,
So hardly I am bound,
Full forty fathoms under the earth,
'Midst vipers and snakes around! »
His father went before the lord:-
"Let loose thy captive to me!
I have at home three casks of gold,
And these for the boy I'll gi'e. "
"Three casks of gold, they help you not:
That boy, and he must die!
He wears round his neck a golden chain;
Therein doth his ruin lie. "
"And if he thus wear a golden chain,
He hath not stolen it; nay!
A maiden good gave it to him
For true love, did she say. "
They led the boy forth from the tower,
And the sacrament took he:-
"Help thou, rich Christ, from heaven high,
It's come to an end with me!
"
They led him to the scaffold place,
Up the ladder he must go:—
## p. 2347 (#545) ###########################################
CLEMENS BRENTANO
2347
"O headsman, dearest headsman, do
But a short respite allow! "
"A short respite I must not grant;
Thou wouldst escape and fly:
Reach me a silken handkerchief
Around his eyes to tie. "
"Oh, do not, do not bind mine eyes!
I must look on the world so fine;
I see it to-day, then never more,
With these weeping eyes of mine. "
His father near the scaffold stood,
And his heart, it almost rends:-
"O son, O thou my dearest son,
Thy death I will avenge! "
-
"O father, dearest father mine!
My death thou shalt not avenge:
'Twould bring to my soul but heavy pains;
Let me die in innocence.
"It is not for this life of mine,
Nor for my body proud;
'Tis but for my dear mother's sake:
At home she weeps aloud. "
Not yet three days had passed away,
When an angel from heaven came down :
"Take ye the boy from the scaffold away;
Else the city shall sink under ground! "
And not six months had passed away,
Ere his death was avenged amain;
And upwards of three hundred men
For the boy's life were slain.
Who is it that hath made this lay,
Hath sung it, and so on?
That, in Vienna in Austria,
Three maidens fair have done.
## p. 2348 (#546) ###########################################
2348
ELISABETH BRENTANO (BETTINA VON ARNIM)
(1785-1859)
O PICTURE of German life at the beginning of this century
would be complete which did not include the distinguished
women who left their mark upon the time. Among these
Bettina von Arnim stands easily foremost. There was something
triumphant in her nature, which in her youth manifested itself in her
splendid enthusiasm for the two great geniuses who dominated her
life, Goethe and Beethoven,-- and which, in the lean years when
Germany was overclouded, maintained itself by an inexhaustible
optimism. Her merry willfulness and wit
covered a warm heart and a vigorous mind;
and both of her great idols understood her
and took her seriously.
Elisabeth Brentano was the daughter of
Goethe's friend, Maximiliane de la Roche.
She was born at Frankfort-on-the-Main in
1785, and was brought up after the death
of her mother under the somewhat peculiar
influence of the highly-strung Caroline von
Günderode. Through her filial intimacy
with Goethe's mother, she came to know
the poet; and out of their friendship grew
the correspondence which formed the basis
of Bettina's famous book, 'Goethe's Brief-
wechsel mit einem Kinde' (Goethe's Correspondence with a Child).
She attached herself with unbounded enthusiasm to Goethe, and he
responded with affectionate tact. To him Bettina was the embodi-
ment of the loving grace and willfulness of 'Mignon. '
ELISABETH BRENTANO
In 1811 these relations were interrupted, owing to Bettina's atti-
tude toward Goethe's wife. In the same year she married Achim
von Arnim, one of the most refined poets and noblest characters of
that brilliant circle. The marriage was an ideal one; each cherished
and delighted in the genius of the other, but in 1831 the death of
Von Arnim brought this happiness to an end. Goethe died in the
following year, and Germany went into mourning. Then in 1835
Bettina appeared before the world for the first time as an authoress,
in Goethe's Correspondence with a Child. ' The dithyrambic exalt-
ation, the unrestrained but beautiful enthusiasm of the book came
## p. 2349 (#547) ###########################################
ELISABETH BRENTANO
2349
like an electric shock. Into an atmosphere of spiritual stagnation,
these letters brought a fresh access of vitality and hope. Bettina's
old friendly relations with Goethe had been resumed later in life,
and in a letter written to her niece she gives a charming account of
the visit to the poet in 1824, which proved to be her last. This
letter first saw the light in 1896, and an extract from it has been
included below.
The inspiration which went out from Bettina's magnetic nature
was profound. She had her part in every great movement of her
time, from the liberation of Greece to the fight with cholera in Berlin.
During the latter, her devotion to the cause of the suffering poor in
Berlin opened her eyes to the miseries of the common people; and
she wrote a work full of indignant fervor, 'Dies Buch gehört dem
König' (This Book belongs to the King), in consequence of which her
welcome at the court of Frederick William IV. grew cool. A subse-
quent book, written in a similar vein, was suppressed. But Bettina's
love of the people, as of every cause in which she was interested,
was genuine and not to be quenched; she acted upon the maxim
once expressed by Emerson, "Every brave heart must treat society
as a child, and never allow it to dictate. " Emerson greatly admired
Bettina, and Louisa M. Alcott relates that she first made acquain-
tance with the famous 'Correspondence' when in her girlhood she
was left to browse in Emerson's library. Bettina's influence was
most keenly felt by the young, and she had the youth of Germany
at her feet. She died in 1859.
There is in Weimar a picture in which are represented the
literary men of the period, grouped as in Raphael's School of
Athens, with Goethe and Schiller occupying the centre. Upon the
broad steps which lead to the elevation where they are standing, is
the girlish figure of Bettina bending forward and holding a laurel
wreath in her hand. This is the position which she occupies in the
history of German literature.
DEDICATION: TO GOETHE
From 'Goethe's Correspondence with a Child'
THOU
HOU, who knowest love, and the refinement of sentiment, oh
how beautiful is everything in thee! How the streams of
life rush through thy sensitive heart, and plunge with force.
into the cold waves of thy time, then boil and bubble up till
mountain and vale flush with the glow of life, and the forests
stand with glistening boughs upon the shore of thy being, and
## p. 2350 (#548) ###########################################
ELISABETH BRENTANO
2350
all upon which rests thy glance is filled with happiness and life!
O God, how happy were I with thee! And were I winging my
flight far over all times, and far over thee, I would fold my
pinions and yield myself wholly to the domination of thine eyes.
Men will never understand thee, and those nearest to thee
will most thoroughly disown and betray thee; I look into the
future, and I hear them cry, "Stone him! " Now, when thine
own inspiration, like a lion, stands beside thee and guards thee,
vulgarity ventures not to approach thee. Thy mother said
recently, "The men to-day are all like Gerning, who always says,
'We, the superfluous learned';" and she speaks truly, for he is
superfluous. Rather be dead than superfluous! But I am not so,
for I am thine, because I recognize thee in all things. I know
that when the clouds lift themselves up before the sun-god, they
will soon be depressed by his fiery hand; I know that he endures
no shadow except that which his own fame seeks; the rest of
consciousness will overshadow thee. I know, when he descends
in the evening, that he will again appear in the morning with
golden front. Thou art eternal, therefore it is good for me to
be with thee.
When, in the evening, I am alone in my dark room, and the
neighbors' lights are thrown upon my wall, they sometimes light
up thy bust; or when all is silent in the city, here and there a
dog barks or a cock crows: I know not why, but it seems some-
thing beyond human to me; I know what I shall do to still my
pain.
I would fain speak with thee otherwise than with words; I
would fain press myself to thy heart. I feel that my soul is
aflame. How fearfully still is the air before the storm! So stand
now my thoughts, cold and silent, and my heart surges like the
Dear, dear Goethe! A reminiscence of thee breaks the
spell; the signs of fire and warfare sink slowly down in my sky,
and thou art like the in-streaming moonlight. Thou art great
and glorious, and better than all that I have ever known and
experienced up to this time. Thy whole life is so good!
sea.
## p. 2351 (#549) ###########################################
ELISABETH BRENTANO
TO GOETHE
2351
CASSEL, August 13th, 1807.
Hо can interpret and measure what is passing within me?
WHO I am happy now in remembrance of the past, which I
To my
scarcely was when that past was the present.
sensitive heart the surprise of being with thee, the coming and
going and returning in a few blessed days-this was all like
clouds flitting across my heaven; through my too near presence I
feared it might be darkened by my shadow, as it is ever darker
when it nears the earth; now, in the distance, it is mild and
lofty and ever clear.
I would fain press thy dear hand with both of mine to my
bosom, and say to thee, "How peace and content have come to
me since I have known thee! "
I know that the evening has not come when life's twilight
gathers in my heart: oh, would it were so! Would that I had
lived out my days, that my wishes and joys were fulfilled, and
that they could all be heaped upon thee, that thou mightst be
therewith decked and crowned as with evergreen bays.
When I was alone with thee on that evening I could not
comprehend thee: thou didst smile at me because I was moved,
and laughed at me because I wept; but why? And yet it was
thy laughter, the tone of thy laughter, which moved me to tears;
and I am content, and see, under the cloak of this riddle, roses
burst forth which spring alike from sadness and joy. Yes, thou
art right, prophet: I shall yet with light heart struggle up
through jest and mirth; I shall weary myself with struggling as
I did in my childhood (ah, it seems as if it were but yester-
day! ) when with the exuberance of joy I wandered through the
blossoming fields, pulling up the flowers by the roots and throw-
ing them into the water. But I wish to seek rest in a warm,
firm earnestness, and there at hand standest
hand standest thou, smiling.
prophet!
I say to thee yet once more: Whoever in this wide world
understands what is passing within me, who am so restful in
thee, so silent, so unwavering in my feeling? I could, like the
mountains, bear nights and days in the past without disturbing
thee in thy reflections. And yet when at times the wind bears
## p. 2352 (#550) ###########################################
ELISABETH BRENTANO
2352
the fragrance and the germs together from the blossoming world
up to the mountain heights, they will be intoxicated with delight
as I was yesterday. Then I loved the world, then I was as glad
as a gushing, murmuring spring in which the sun for the first
time shines.
Farewell, sublime one who blindest and intimidatest me!
From this steep rock upon which my love has in life-danger
ventured, I cannot clamber down. I cannot think of descending,
for I should break my neck in the attempt.
BETTINA'S LAST MEETING WITH GOETHE
From a Letter to her Niece in 1824, first published in 1896
N THE evening I was alone again with Goethe. Had any one
observed us, he would have had something to tell to poster-
ity. Goethe's peculiarities were exhibited to the full: first he
would growl at me, then to make it all up again he would caress
me, with the most flattering words. His bottle of wine he kept
in the adjoining room, because I had reproached him for his
drinking the night before: on some pretext or other he disap-
peared from the scene half a dozen times in order to drink a
glass. I pretended to notice nothing; but at parting I told him
that twelve glasses of wine wouldn't hurt him, and that he had
had only six. "How do you know that so positively? " he said.
"I heard the gurgle of the bottle in the next room, and I heard
you drinking, and then you have betrayed yourself to me, as
Solomon in the Song of Songs betrayed himself to his beloved,
by your breath. "
"You are an arrant rogue," he said; "now
take yourself off," and he brought the candle to light me out.
But I sprang in front of him and knelt upon the threshold of
the room.
"Now I shall see if I can shut you in, and whether
you are a good spirit or an evil one, like the rat in Faust; I
kiss this threshold and bless it, for over it daily passes the most
glorious human spirit and my best friend. " "Over you and your
love I shall never pass," he answered, "it is too dear to me; and
around your spirit I creep so" (and he carefully paced around
the spot where I was kneeling), "for you are too artful, and it
is better to keep on good terms with you. " And so he dismissed
me with tears in his eyes. I remained standing in the dark
before his door, to gulp down my emotion. I was thinking that
## p. 2353 (#551) ###########################################
ELISABETH BRENTANO
2353
this door, which I had closed with my own hand, had separated
me from him in all probability forever. Whoever comes near
him must confess that his genius has partly passed into good-
ness; the fiery sun of his spirit is transformed at its setting into
a soft purple light.
IN GOETHE'S GARDEN
FROM this hillock all my world survey!
Yon vale, bedecked by nature's fairy fingers,
Where the still by-road picturesquely lingers,
The cottage white whose quaint charms grace the way-
These are the scenes that o'er my heart hold sway.
I from this hillock all my world survey!
Though I ascend to heights fair lands dividing,
Where stately ships I see the ocean riding,
While cities gird the view in proud array,
Naught prompts my heart's impulses to obey.
I from this hillock all my world survey!
And could I stand while Paradise descrying,
Still for these verdant meads should I be sighing,
Where thy dear roof-peaks skirt the verdant way:
Beyond these bounds my heart longs not to stray.
IV-148
―――――
## p. 2354 (#552) ###########################################
2354
JOHN BRIGHT
(1811-1889)
OHN BRIGHT was the modern representative of the ancient
Tribunes of the people or Demagogues (in the original and
perfectly honorable sense); and a full comparison of his
work and position with those of the Cleons or the Gracchi would
almost be an outline of the respective peoples, polities, and problems.
He was a higher type of man and politician than Cleon, -largely
because the English aristocracy is not an unpatriotic and unprincipled
clique like the Athenian, ready to use any weapon from murder down
or to make their country a province of a
foreign empire rather than give up their
class monopoly of power; but like his pro-
totype he was a democrat by nature as well
as profession, the welfare of the common
people at once his passion and his political
livelihood, full of faith that popular in-
stincts are both morally right and intellect-
ually sound, and all his own instincts and
most of his labors antagonistic to those of
the aristocracy. It is a phase of the same
fact to say that he also represented the
active force of religious feeling in politics,
as opposed to pure secular statesmanship.
The son of a Quaker manufacturer of Rochdale, England, and
born near that place November 16th, 1811, he began his public career
when a mere boy as a stirring and effective temperance orator, his
ready eloquence and intense earnestness prevailing over an ungrace-
ful manner and a bad delivery; he wrought all his life for popular
education and for the widest extension of the franchise; and being a
Quaker and a member of the Peace Society, he opposed all war on
principle, fighting the Crimean War bitterly, and leaving the Glad-
stone Cabinet in 1882 on account of the bombardment of Alexandria.
He was retired from the service of the public for some time on
account of his opposition to the Crimean War; but Mr. Gladstone,
who differed from him on this point, calls it the action of his life
most worthy of honor. He was perhaps the most warlike opponent
of war ever high in public life; the pugnacious and aggressive agita-
tor, pouring out floods of fiery oratory to the effect that nobody ought
to fight anybody, was a curious paradox.
JOHN BRIGHT
## p. 2355 (#553) ###########################################
JOHN BRIGHT
2355
He was by far the most influential English friend of the North in
the Civil War, and the magic of his eloquence and his name was a
force of perhaps decisive potency in keeping the working classes on
the same side; so that mass meetings of unemployed laborers with
half-starving families resolved that they would rather starve alto-
gether than help to perpetuate slavery in America. He shares with
Richard Cobden the credit of having obtained free trade for Eng-
land: Bright's thrilling oratory was second only to Cobden's organ-
izing power in winning the victory, and both had the immense
weight of manufacturers opposing their own class. That he opposed
the game laws and favored electoral reform is a matter of course.
Mr. Bright entered on an active political career in 1839, when he
joined the Anti-Corn-Law League. He first became a member of
Parliament in 1843, and illustrates a most valuable feature of English
political practice. When a change of feeling in one place prevented.
his re-election, he selected another which was glad to honor itself by
having a great man represent it, so that the country was not robbed
of a statesman by a village faction; and there being no spoils sys-
tem, he did not have to waste his time in office-jobbing to keep his
seat. He sat first for Durham, then for Manchester, and finally for
Birmingham, remaining in public life over forty years; and never
had to make a "deal" or get any one an office in all that period.
He was in Mr. Gladstone's Cabinet from 1868 to 1870, and again
from 1873 to 1882. On the Home Rule question the two old friends.
and long co-workers divided; Mr. Bright, with more than half the
oldest and sincerest friends of liberty and haters of oppression in
England, holding the step to be political suicide for the British
Empire.
As an orator, Mr. Bright stood in a sense alone. He was direct
and logical; he carefully collected and massed his facts, and used
strong, homely Saxon English, and short crisp words; he was a
master of telling epigram whose force lay in its truth as much as in
its humor. Several volumes of his speeches have been published:
'On Public Affairs'; 'On Parliamentary Reform'; 'On Questions of
Public Policy'; 'On the American Question,' etc. His life has been
written by Gilchrist, Smith, Robertson, and others. He died March
27th, 1889.
## p. 2356 (#554) ###########################################
2356
JOHN BRIGHT
FROM THE SPEECH ON THE CORN LAWS (1843)
IT
T MUST not be supposed, because I wish to represent the inter-
est of the many, that I am hostile to the interest of the few.
But is it not perfectly certain that if the foundation of the
most magnificent building be destroyed and undermined, the
whole fabric itself is in danger? Is it not certain, also, that
the vast body of the people who form the foundation of the
social fabric, if they are suffering, if they are trampled upon, if
they are degraded, if they are discontented, if "their hands are
against every man, and every man's hands are against them," if
they do not flourish as well, reasonably speaking, as the classes
who are above them because they are richer and more power-
ful, --then are those classes as much in danger as the working
classes themselves?
There never was a revolution in any country which destroyed
the great body of the people. There have been convulsions of
a most dire character which have overturned old-established mon-
archies and have hurled thrones and sceptres to the dust. There
have been revolutions which have brought down most powerful
aristocracies, and swept them from the face of the earth forever,
but never was there a revolution yet which destroyed the people.
And whatever may come as a consequence of the state of things
in this country, of this we may rest assured: that the common
people, that the great bulk of our countrymen will remain and
survive the shock, though it may be that the Crown and the
aristocracy and the Church may be leveled with the dust, and
rise no more. In seeking to represent the working classes, and
in standing up for their rights and liberties, I hold that I am
also defending the rights and liberties of the middle and richer
classes of society. Doing justice to one class cannot inflict
injustice on any other class, and "justice and impartiality to all"
is what we all have a right to from government. And we have
a right to clamor; and so long as I have breath, so long will I
clamor against the oppression which I see to exist, and in favor
of the rights of the great body of the people.
What is the condition in which we are? I have already
spoken of Ireland. You know that hundreds of thousands meet
there, week after week, in various parts of the country, to pro-
claim to all the world the tyranny under which they suffer.
·
## p. 2357 (#555) ###########################################
JOHN BRIGHT
2357
You know that in South Wales, at this moment, there is an
insurrection of the most extraordinary character going on, and
that the Government is sending, day after day, soldiers and
artillery amongst the innocent inhabitants of that mountainous
country for the purpose of putting down the insurrection thereby
raised and carried on. You know that in the Staffordshire iron-
works almost all the workmen are now out and in want of
wages, from want of employment and from attempting to resist
the inevitable reduction of wages which must follow restriction
upon trade.
You know that in August last, Lancashire and
Yorkshire rose in peaceful insurrection to proclaim to the world,
and in face of Heaven, the wrongs of an insulted and oppressed
people. I know that my own neighborhood is unsettled and
uncomfortable. I know that in your own city your families are
suffering. Yes, I have been to your cottages and seen their
condition. Thanks to my canvass of Durham, I have been able
to see the condition of many honest and independent—or ought-
to-be-independent and industrious artisans. I have seen even
freemen of your city sitting, looking disconsolate and sad. Their
hands were ready to labor; their skill was ready to produce all
that their trade demanded. They were as honest and industrious
as any man in this assembly, but no man hired them. They
were in a state of involuntary idleness, and were driving fast to
the point of pauperism. I have seen their wives, too, with three
or four children about them- -one in the cradle, one at the
breast. I have seen their countenances, and I have seen the
signs of their sufferings. I have seen the emblems and symbols
of affliction such as I did not expect to see in this city. Ay!
and I have seen those little children who at not a distant day
will be the men and women of this city of Durham; I have
seen their poor little wan faces and anxious looks, as if the fur-
rows of old age were coming upon them before they had escaped
from the age of childhood. I have seen all this in this city, and
I have seen far more in the neighborhood from which I have
come. You have seen, in all probability, people from my neigh-
borhood walking your streets and begging for that bread which
the Corn Laws would not allow them to earn.
-
"Bread-taxed weaver, all can see
What the tax hath done for thee,
And thy children, vilely led,
## p. 2358 (#556) ###########################################
2358
JOHN BRIGHT
Singing hymns for shameful bread,
Till the stones of every street
Know their little naked feet. "
This is what the Corn Law does for the weavers of my neigh-
borhood, and for the weavers and artisans of yours.
FROM THE SPEECH ON INCENDIARISM IN IRELAND (1844)
HE great and all-present evil of the rural districts is this-
you have too many people for the work to be done, and you,
the landed proprietors, are alone responsible for this state
of things; and to speak honestly, I believe many of you know
it. I have been charged with saying out-of-doors that this House
is a club of land-owners legislating for land-owners. If I had
not said it, the public must long ago have found out that fact.
My honorable friend the member for Stockport on one occasion
proposed that before you passed a law to raise the price of bread,
you should consider how far you had the power to raise the rates
of wages. What did you say to that? You said that the laborers
did not understand political economy, or they would not apply to
Parliament to raise wages; that Parliament could not raise wages.
And yet the very next thing you did was to pass a law to raise
the price of produce of your own land, at the expense of the very
class whose wages you confessed your inability to increase.
What is the condition of the county of Suffolk? Is it not
notorious that the rents are as high as they were fifty years ago,
and probably much higher? But the return for the farmer's cap-
ital is much lower, and the condition of the laborer is very much
worse.
The farmers are subject to the law of competition, and
rents are thereby raised from time to time so as to keep their
profits down to the lowest point, and the laborers by the compe-
tition amongst them are reduced to the point below which life
cannot be maintained. Your tenants and laborers are being de-
voured by this excessive competition, whilst you, their magnani-
mous landlords, shelter yourselves from all competition by the
Corn Law yourselves have passed, and make the competition of
all other classes serve still more to swell your rentals. It was
for this object the Corn Law was passed, and yet in the face of
your countrymen you dare to call it a law for the protection of
native industry.
## p. 2359 (#557) ###########################################
JOHN BRIGHT
2359
Again, a rural police is kept up by the gentry; the far-
mers say for the sole use of watching game and frightening poach.
ers, for which formerly they had to pay watchers. Is this true,
or is it not? I say, then, you care everything for the rights-
and for something beyond the rights of your own property,
but you are oblivious to its duties. How many lives have been
sacrificed during the past year to the childish infatuation of pre-
serving game? The noble lord, the member for North Lan-
cashire, could tell of a gamekeeper killed in an affray on his
father's estate in that county. For the offense one man was
hanged, and four men are now on their way to penal colo-
nies. Six families are thus deprived of husband and father, that
this wretched system of game-preserving may be continued in a
country densely peopled as this is.
for mankind? What is the ground of morals?
What is prop-
erly the meaning of 'revelation'? Why is everything so badly
arranged in the State? Why must there be rich and poor? "
etc. , etc.
"Dear Petrea! " said Louise, "what use can there be in asking
those questions? "
It was an evening for questions; they did not end even when
the company had broken up.
"Don't you think, Elise," said the Lagman to his wife when
they were alone, "that our little Petrea begins to be disagreeable
with her continual questioning and disputing? She leaves no one
in peace, and is stirred up herself the whole time. She will
make herself ridiculous if she keeps on in this way. "
"Yes, if she does keep on so. But I have a feeling that she
will change.
I have observed her very particularly for some
time, and do you know, I think there is really something very
uncommon in that girl. "
"Yes, yes, there is certainly something uncommon in her.
Her liveliness and the many games and schemes which she
invents -"
"Yes, don't you think they indicate a decided talent for the
fine arts? And then her extraordinary thirst for learning: every
morning, between three and four o'clock, she gets up in order
to read or write, or to work at her compositions. That is not
at all a common thing. And may not her uneasiness, her eager-
ness to question and dispute, arise from a sort of intellectual
hunger? Ah, from such hunger, which many women must suffer
throughout their lives, from want of literary food,-from such
an emptiness of the soul arise disquiet, discontent, nay, innumer-
able faults. "
"I believe you are right, Elise," said the Lagman, "and no
condition in life is sadder, particularly in more advanced years.
IV-147
## p. 2338 (#536) ###########################################
2338
FREDRIKA BREMER
―――
But this shall not be the lot of our Petrea - that I will promise.
What do you think now would benefit her most? "
"My opinion is that a serious and continued plan of study
would assist in regulating her mind. She is too much left to
herself with her confused tendencies, with her zeal and her in-
quiry. I am too ignorant myself to lead and instruct her, you
. have too little time, and she has no one here who can properly
direct her young and unregulated mind. Sometimes I almost
pity her, for her sisters don't understand at all what is going
on within her, and I confess it is often painful to myself; I wish
I were more able to assist her. Petrea needs some ground on
which to take her stand. Her thoughts require more firmness;
from the want of this comes her uneasiness. She is like a
flower without roots, which is moved about by wind and waves. "
"She shall take root, she shall find ground as sure as it is to
be found in the world," said the Lagman, with a serious and
beaming eye, at the same time striking his hand on the book
containing the law of West Gotha, so that it fell to the ground.
"We will consider more of this, Elise," continued he: "Petrea is
still too young for us to judge with certainty of her talents and
tendencies. But if they turn out to be what they appear, then
she shall never feel any hunger as long as I live and can procure
bread for my family. You know my friend, the excellent Bishop
B—: perhaps we can at first confide our Petrea to his guidance.
After a few years we shall see; she is still only a child. Don't
you think that we ought to speak to Jacobi, in order to get him
to read and converse with her?
converse with her? Apropos, how is it with Jacobi?
I imagine that he begins to be too attentive to Louise. "
"Well, well! you are not so far wrong; and even our cousin
Thure of Oestanvik,-have you perceived anything there ? »
"Yes, I did perceive something yesterday evening; what the
deuce was his meaning with those stupid questions he put to her?
'Does cousin like this? ' or 'Is cousin fond of that? ' I don't
like that at all myself. Louise is not yet full-grown, and already
people come and ask her, 'Does cousin like? Well, it may
signify very little after all, which would perhaps please me best.
What a pity, however, that our cousin is not a little more manly;
for he has certainly got a most beautiful estate, and so near us. "
"Yes, a pity; because, as he is at present, I am almost sure
Louise would find it impossible to give him her hand. "
"You do not believe that her inclination is toward Jacobi ? ”
## p. 2339 (#537) ###########################################
FREDRIKA BREMER
2339
"To tell the truth, I fancy that this is the case. "
"Nay, that would be very unpleasant and very unwise: I am
very fond of Jacobi, but he has nothing and is nothing. "
"But, my dear, he may get something and become something;
I confess, dear Ernst, that I believe he would suit Louise better
for a husband than any one else we know, and I would with
pleasure call him my son. "
"Would you, Elise? then I must also prepare myself to do
the same.
You have had most trouble and most labor with the
children, it is therefore right that you should decide in their
affairs. "
"Ernst, you are so kind! "
"Say just, Elise; not more than just. Besides, it is my opinion.
that our thoughts and inclinations will not differ much.
I con-
fess that Louise appears to me to be a great treasure, and I know
of nobody I could give her to with all my heart; but if Jacobi
obtains her affections, I feel that I could not oppose their union,
although it would be painful to me on account of his uncertain
prospects. He is really dear to me, and we are under great
obligations to him on account of Henrik; his excellent heart, his
honesty, and his good qualities, will make him as good a citizen
as a husband and father, and I consider him to be one of the
most agreeable men to associate with daily. But, God bless me!
I speak as if I wished the union, but that is far from my desire:
I would much rather keep my daughters at home, so long as
they find themselves happy with me; but when girls grow up,
there is never any peace to depend on. I wish all lovers and
questioners a long way off. Here we could live altogether as in
a kingdom of heaven, now that we have got everything in such
order. Some small improvements may still be wanted, but this
will be all right if we are only left in peace. I have been think-
ing that we could so easily make a wardrobe here: do you see on
this side of the wall-don't you think if we were to open-
What are you asleep already, my dear? "
Louise was often teased about Cousin Thure; Cousin Thure
was often teased about Cousin Louise. He liked very much to be
teased about his Cousin Louise, and it gave him great pleasure to
be told that Oestanvik wanted a mistress, that he himself wanted
a good wife, and that Louise Frank was decidedly one of the wis-
est and most amiable girls in the whole neighborhood, and of the
## p. 2340 (#538) ###########################################
FREDRIKA BREMER
2340
most respectable family. The Landed Proprietor was half ready
to receive congratulations on his betrothal. What the supposed
bride thought about the matter, however, is difficult to divine.
Louise was certainly always polite to her "Cousin Thure,"
but more indifference than attachment seemed to be expressed in
this politeness; and she declined, with a decision astonishing to
many a person, his constantly repeated invitations to make a tour.
to Oestanvik in his new landau drawn by "my chestnut horses,"
four-in-hand. It was said by many that the agreeable and
friendly Jacobi was much nearer to Louise's heart than the rich
Landed Proprietor. But even towards Jacobi her behavior was
so uniform, so quiet, and so unconstrained that nobody knew
what to think. Very few knew so well as we do that Louise
considered it in accordance with the dignity of a woman to show
perfect indifference to the attentions or doux propos of men, until
they had openly and fully explained themselves. She despised
coquetry to that degree that she feared everything which had the
least appearance of it. Her young friends used to joke with her
upon her strong notions in this respect, and often told her that
she would remain unmarried.
"That may be! " answered Louise calmly.
One day she was told that a gentleman had said, "I will not
stand up for any girl who is not a little coquettish! "
"Then he may remain sitting! " answered Louise, with a great
deal of dignity.
Louise's views with regard to the dignity of woman, her seri-
ous and decided principles, and her manner of expressing them,
amused her young friends, at the same time that they inspired
them with great regard for her, and caused many little conten-
tions and discussions in which Louise fearlessly, though not with-
out some excess, defended what was right. These contentions,
which began in merriment, sometimes ended quite differently.
A young and somewhat coquettish married lady felt herself
one day wounded by the severity with which Louise judged the
coquetry of her sex, particularly of married ladies, and in revenge
she made use of some words which awakened Louise's astonish-
ment and anger at the same time. An explanation followed be-
tween the two, the consequence of which was a complete rupture
between Louise and the young lady, together with an altered dis-
position of mind in the former, which she in vain attempted to
conceal. She had been unusually joyous and lively during the
## p. 2341 (#539) ###########################################
FREDRIKA BREMER
2341
first days of her stay at Axelholm; but she now became silent
and thoughtful, often absent; and some people thought that she
seemed less friendly than formerly towards the Candidate, but
somewhat more attentive to the Landed Proprietor, although she
constantly declined his invitation "to take a tour to Oestanvik. "
The evening after this explanation took place, Elise was
engaged with Jacobi in a lively conversation in the balcony.
"And if," said Jacobi, "if I endeavor to win her affections,
oh, tell me! would her parents, would her mother see it without
displeasure? Ah, speak openly with me; the happiness of my
life depends upon it! "
"You have my approval and my good wishes," answered Elise;
"I tell you now what I have often told my husband, that I should
very much like to call you my son! "
"Oh! " exclaimed Jacobi, deeply affected, falling on his knees
and pressing Elise's hand to his lips: "oh, that every act in my
life might prove my gratitude, my love -! "
At this moment Louise, who had been looking for her mother,
approached the balcony; she saw Jacobi's action and heard his
words. She withdrew quickly, as if she had been stung by a
serpent.
From this time a great change was more and more percept-
ible in her. Silent, shy, and very pale, she moved about like a
dreaming person in the merry circle at Axelholm, and willingly
agreed to her mother's proposal to shorten her stay at this place.
Jacobi, who was as much astonished as sorry at Louise's
sudden unfriendliness towards him, began to think the place was
somehow bewitched, and wished more than once to leave it.
A FAMILY PICTURE
From The Home'
HE family is assembled in the library; tea is just finished.
at the pressing request of Gabrielle and Petrea, lays
out the cards in order to tell the sisters their fortune. The
seems to have made up
Candidate seats himself beside her, and
his mind to be a little more cheerful.
looks more like a cathedral than ever.
enters, bows, blows his nose, and kisses the hand of his "gracious
aunt. ”
But then "the object »
The Landed Proprietor
## p. 2342 (#540) ###########################################
FREDRIKA BREMER
2342
Landed Proprietor - Very cold this evening; I think we shall
have frost.
Elise-It is a miserable spring; we have just read a melan-
choly account of the famine in the northern provinces; these
years of dearth are truly unfortunate.
Landed Proprietor-Oh yes, the famine up there. No, let us
talk of something else; that is too gloomy. I have had my peas
covered with straw. Cousin Louise, are you fond of playing
Patience? I am very fond of it myself; it is so composing. At
Oestanvik I have got very small cards for Patience; I am quite
sure you would like them, Cousin Louise.
The Landed Proprietor seats himself on the other side of
Louise. The Candidate is seized with a fit of curious shrugs.
Louise This is not Patience, but a little conjuring by means
of which I can tell future things. Shall I tell your fortune,
Cousin Thure?
――――
Landed Proprietor-Oh yes! do tell my fortune; but don't
tell me anything disagreeable. If I hear anything disagreeable
in the evening, I always dream of it at night. Tell me now
from the cards that I shall have a pretty little wife; - a wife
beautiful and amiable as Cousin Louise.
The Candidate (with an expression in his eyes as if he would
send the Landed Proprietor head-over-heels to Oestanvik)—I don't
know whether Miss Louise likes flattery.
Landed Proprietor (who takes no notice of his rival) — Cousin
Louise, are you fond of blue?
Louise Blue?
It is a pretty color; but I almost like green
-
better.
Landed Proprietor-Well, that's very droll; it suits exceed-
ingly well. At Oestanvik my drawing-room furniture is blue;
beautiful light-blue satin. But in my bedroom I have green
Cousin Louise, I believe really-
moreen.
The Candidate coughs as though he were going to be suffo-
cated, and rushes out of the room. Louise looks after him and
sighs, and afterwards sees in the cards so many misfortunes for
Cousin Thure that he is quite frightened. "The peas frosted! "-
"conflagration in the drawing-room"- and at last "a basket"
["the mitten "]. The Landed Proprietor declares still laughingly
that he will not receive "a basket. " The sisters smile and make
their remarks.
—
## p. 2343 (#541) ###########################################
2343
CLEMENS BRENTANO
(1778-1842)
HE intellectual upheaval in Germany at the beginning of this
century brought a host of remarkable characters upon the
literary stage, and none more gifted, more whimsical, more
winning than Clemens Brentano, the erratic son of a brilliant family.
Born September 8th, 1778, at Ehrenbreitstein, Brentano spent his
youth among the stimulating influences which accompanied the
renaissance of German culture. His grandmother, Sophie de la Roche,
had been the close friend of Wieland, and his mother the youthful
companion of Goethe. Clemens, after a vain attempt to follow in
the mercantile footsteps of his father, went to Jena, where he met
the Schlegels; and here his brilliant but unsteady literary career
began.
In 1803 he married the talented Sophie Mareau, but three years
later his happiness was terminated by her death. His next matri-
monial venture was, however, a failure: an elopement in 1808 with
the daughter of a Frankfort banker was quickly followed by a
divorce, and he thereafter led the uncontrolled life of an errant poet.
Among his early writings, published under the pseudonym of
'Marie,' were several satires and dramas and a novel entitled 'Godwi,'
which he himself called "a romance gone mad. " The meeting
with Achim von Arnim, who subsequently married his sister Bettina,
decided his fate: he embarked in literature once and for all in close
association with Von Arnim. Together they compiled a collection of
several hundred folk-songs of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eight-
eenth centuries, under the name of 'Des Knaben Wunderhorn' (The
Boy's Wonderhorn), 1806-1808. That so musical a people as the Ger-
mans should be masters of lyric poetry is but natural,-every long-
ing, every impression, every impulse gushes into song; and in 'Des
Knaben Wunderhorn' we hear the tuneful voices of a naïve race,
singing what they have seen or dreamed or felt during three hundred
years. The work is dedicated to Goethe, who wrote an almost
enthusiastic review of it for the Literary Gazette of Jena. ་་ Every
lover or master of musical art," he says, "should have this volume
upon his piano. "
The Wunderhorn' was greeted by the German public with ex-
traordinary cordiality. It was in fact an epoch-making work, the
pioneer in the new field of German folk poetry. It carried out in a
## p. 2344 (#542) ###########################################
2344
CLEMENS BRENTANO
purely national spirit the efforts which Herder had made in behalf of
the folk-songs of all peoples. It revealed the spirit of the time. 1806
was the year of the battle of Jena, and Germany in her hour of deep-
est humiliation gave ear to the encouraging voices from out her own
past. "The editors of the Wunderhorn,'" said their friend Görres,
"have deserved of their countrymen a civic crown, for having saved
from destruction what yet remained to be saved;" and on this civic
crown the poets' laurels are still green.
Brentano's contagious laughter may even now be heard re-echoing
through the pages of his book on The Philistine' (1811). His dra-
matic power is evinced in the broadly conceived play 'Die Gründung
Prags' (The Founding of Prague: 1815); but it is upon two stories,
told in the simple style of the folk-tale, that his widest popularity is
founded. 'Die Geschichte vom braven Casperl und der schönen
Annerl' (The Story of Good Casper and Pretty Annie) and his fable
of Gockel, Hinkel, und Gackeleia,' both of the year 1838, are still
an indispensable part of the reading of every German boy and girl.
Like his brilliant sister, Brentano is a fascinating figure in litera-
ture. He was amiable and winning, full of quips and cranks, and
with an inexhaustible fund of stories. Astonishing tales of advent-
ure, related with great circumstantiality of detail, and of which he
himself was the hero, played an important part in his conversation.
Tieck once said he had never known a better improvisatore than
Brentano, nor one who could "lie more gracefully. ”
When Brentano was forty years of age a total change came over
his life. The witty and fascinating man of the world was trans-
formed into a pious and gloomy ascetic. The visions of the stig-
matized nun of Dülmen, Katharina Emmerich, attracted him, and
he remained under her influence until her death in 1824. These vis-
ions he subsequently published as the Life of the Virgin Mary. '
The eccentricities of his later years bordered upon insanity. He
died in the Catholic faith in the year 1842.
## p. 2345 (#543) ###########################################
CLEMENS BRENTANO
THE NURSE'S WATCH
From The Boy's Wonderhorn ›
THE
HE moon it shines,
My darling whines;
The clock strikes twelve:- God cheer
The sick both far and near.
God knoweth all;
-
Mousy nibbles in the wall;
The clock strikes one:- - like day,
Dreams o'er thy pillow play.
The matin-bell
Wakes the nun in convent cell;
The clock strikes two:--they go
To choir in a row.
The wind it blows,
The cock he crows;
The clock strikes three: -the wagoner
In his straw bed begins to stir.
The steed he paws the floor,
Creaks the stable door;
The clock strikes four:-'tis plain
The coachman sifts his grain.
The swallow's laugh the still air shakes,
The sun awakes;
The clock strikes five:- the traveler must be gone,
He puts his stockings on.
The hen is clacking,
The ducks are quacking;
The clock strikes six:-awake, arise,
Thou lazy hag; come, ope thy eyes.
Quick to the baker's run;
The rolls are done;
The clock strikes seven:-
'Tis time the milk were in the oven.
Put in some butter, do,
And some fine sugar, too;
The clock strikes eight:-
Now bring my baby's porridge straight.
2345
Englished by Charles T. Brooks.
## p. 2346 (#544) ###########################################
2346
CLEMENS BRENTANO
THE CASTLE IN AUSTRIA
From The Boy's Wonderhorn >
HERE lies a castle in Austria,
Right goodly to behold,
Walled up with marble stones so fair,
With silver and with red gold.
TH
Therein lies captive a young boy,
For life and death he lies bound,
Full forty fathoms under the earth,
Midst vipers and snakes around.
His father came from Rosenberg,
Before the tower he went:-
"My son, my dearest son, how hard
Is thy imprisonment! "
-
"O father, dearest father mine,
So hardly I am bound,
Full forty fathoms under the earth,
'Midst vipers and snakes around! »
His father went before the lord:-
"Let loose thy captive to me!
I have at home three casks of gold,
And these for the boy I'll gi'e. "
"Three casks of gold, they help you not:
That boy, and he must die!
He wears round his neck a golden chain;
Therein doth his ruin lie. "
"And if he thus wear a golden chain,
He hath not stolen it; nay!
A maiden good gave it to him
For true love, did she say. "
They led the boy forth from the tower,
And the sacrament took he:-
"Help thou, rich Christ, from heaven high,
It's come to an end with me!
"
They led him to the scaffold place,
Up the ladder he must go:—
## p. 2347 (#545) ###########################################
CLEMENS BRENTANO
2347
"O headsman, dearest headsman, do
But a short respite allow! "
"A short respite I must not grant;
Thou wouldst escape and fly:
Reach me a silken handkerchief
Around his eyes to tie. "
"Oh, do not, do not bind mine eyes!
I must look on the world so fine;
I see it to-day, then never more,
With these weeping eyes of mine. "
His father near the scaffold stood,
And his heart, it almost rends:-
"O son, O thou my dearest son,
Thy death I will avenge! "
-
"O father, dearest father mine!
My death thou shalt not avenge:
'Twould bring to my soul but heavy pains;
Let me die in innocence.
"It is not for this life of mine,
Nor for my body proud;
'Tis but for my dear mother's sake:
At home she weeps aloud. "
Not yet three days had passed away,
When an angel from heaven came down :
"Take ye the boy from the scaffold away;
Else the city shall sink under ground! "
And not six months had passed away,
Ere his death was avenged amain;
And upwards of three hundred men
For the boy's life were slain.
Who is it that hath made this lay,
Hath sung it, and so on?
That, in Vienna in Austria,
Three maidens fair have done.
## p. 2348 (#546) ###########################################
2348
ELISABETH BRENTANO (BETTINA VON ARNIM)
(1785-1859)
O PICTURE of German life at the beginning of this century
would be complete which did not include the distinguished
women who left their mark upon the time. Among these
Bettina von Arnim stands easily foremost. There was something
triumphant in her nature, which in her youth manifested itself in her
splendid enthusiasm for the two great geniuses who dominated her
life, Goethe and Beethoven,-- and which, in the lean years when
Germany was overclouded, maintained itself by an inexhaustible
optimism. Her merry willfulness and wit
covered a warm heart and a vigorous mind;
and both of her great idols understood her
and took her seriously.
Elisabeth Brentano was the daughter of
Goethe's friend, Maximiliane de la Roche.
She was born at Frankfort-on-the-Main in
1785, and was brought up after the death
of her mother under the somewhat peculiar
influence of the highly-strung Caroline von
Günderode. Through her filial intimacy
with Goethe's mother, she came to know
the poet; and out of their friendship grew
the correspondence which formed the basis
of Bettina's famous book, 'Goethe's Brief-
wechsel mit einem Kinde' (Goethe's Correspondence with a Child).
She attached herself with unbounded enthusiasm to Goethe, and he
responded with affectionate tact. To him Bettina was the embodi-
ment of the loving grace and willfulness of 'Mignon. '
ELISABETH BRENTANO
In 1811 these relations were interrupted, owing to Bettina's atti-
tude toward Goethe's wife. In the same year she married Achim
von Arnim, one of the most refined poets and noblest characters of
that brilliant circle. The marriage was an ideal one; each cherished
and delighted in the genius of the other, but in 1831 the death of
Von Arnim brought this happiness to an end. Goethe died in the
following year, and Germany went into mourning. Then in 1835
Bettina appeared before the world for the first time as an authoress,
in Goethe's Correspondence with a Child. ' The dithyrambic exalt-
ation, the unrestrained but beautiful enthusiasm of the book came
## p. 2349 (#547) ###########################################
ELISABETH BRENTANO
2349
like an electric shock. Into an atmosphere of spiritual stagnation,
these letters brought a fresh access of vitality and hope. Bettina's
old friendly relations with Goethe had been resumed later in life,
and in a letter written to her niece she gives a charming account of
the visit to the poet in 1824, which proved to be her last. This
letter first saw the light in 1896, and an extract from it has been
included below.
The inspiration which went out from Bettina's magnetic nature
was profound. She had her part in every great movement of her
time, from the liberation of Greece to the fight with cholera in Berlin.
During the latter, her devotion to the cause of the suffering poor in
Berlin opened her eyes to the miseries of the common people; and
she wrote a work full of indignant fervor, 'Dies Buch gehört dem
König' (This Book belongs to the King), in consequence of which her
welcome at the court of Frederick William IV. grew cool. A subse-
quent book, written in a similar vein, was suppressed. But Bettina's
love of the people, as of every cause in which she was interested,
was genuine and not to be quenched; she acted upon the maxim
once expressed by Emerson, "Every brave heart must treat society
as a child, and never allow it to dictate. " Emerson greatly admired
Bettina, and Louisa M. Alcott relates that she first made acquain-
tance with the famous 'Correspondence' when in her girlhood she
was left to browse in Emerson's library. Bettina's influence was
most keenly felt by the young, and she had the youth of Germany
at her feet. She died in 1859.
There is in Weimar a picture in which are represented the
literary men of the period, grouped as in Raphael's School of
Athens, with Goethe and Schiller occupying the centre. Upon the
broad steps which lead to the elevation where they are standing, is
the girlish figure of Bettina bending forward and holding a laurel
wreath in her hand. This is the position which she occupies in the
history of German literature.
DEDICATION: TO GOETHE
From 'Goethe's Correspondence with a Child'
THOU
HOU, who knowest love, and the refinement of sentiment, oh
how beautiful is everything in thee! How the streams of
life rush through thy sensitive heart, and plunge with force.
into the cold waves of thy time, then boil and bubble up till
mountain and vale flush with the glow of life, and the forests
stand with glistening boughs upon the shore of thy being, and
## p. 2350 (#548) ###########################################
ELISABETH BRENTANO
2350
all upon which rests thy glance is filled with happiness and life!
O God, how happy were I with thee! And were I winging my
flight far over all times, and far over thee, I would fold my
pinions and yield myself wholly to the domination of thine eyes.
Men will never understand thee, and those nearest to thee
will most thoroughly disown and betray thee; I look into the
future, and I hear them cry, "Stone him! " Now, when thine
own inspiration, like a lion, stands beside thee and guards thee,
vulgarity ventures not to approach thee. Thy mother said
recently, "The men to-day are all like Gerning, who always says,
'We, the superfluous learned';" and she speaks truly, for he is
superfluous. Rather be dead than superfluous! But I am not so,
for I am thine, because I recognize thee in all things. I know
that when the clouds lift themselves up before the sun-god, they
will soon be depressed by his fiery hand; I know that he endures
no shadow except that which his own fame seeks; the rest of
consciousness will overshadow thee. I know, when he descends
in the evening, that he will again appear in the morning with
golden front. Thou art eternal, therefore it is good for me to
be with thee.
When, in the evening, I am alone in my dark room, and the
neighbors' lights are thrown upon my wall, they sometimes light
up thy bust; or when all is silent in the city, here and there a
dog barks or a cock crows: I know not why, but it seems some-
thing beyond human to me; I know what I shall do to still my
pain.
I would fain speak with thee otherwise than with words; I
would fain press myself to thy heart. I feel that my soul is
aflame. How fearfully still is the air before the storm! So stand
now my thoughts, cold and silent, and my heart surges like the
Dear, dear Goethe! A reminiscence of thee breaks the
spell; the signs of fire and warfare sink slowly down in my sky,
and thou art like the in-streaming moonlight. Thou art great
and glorious, and better than all that I have ever known and
experienced up to this time. Thy whole life is so good!
sea.
## p. 2351 (#549) ###########################################
ELISABETH BRENTANO
TO GOETHE
2351
CASSEL, August 13th, 1807.
Hо can interpret and measure what is passing within me?
WHO I am happy now in remembrance of the past, which I
To my
scarcely was when that past was the present.
sensitive heart the surprise of being with thee, the coming and
going and returning in a few blessed days-this was all like
clouds flitting across my heaven; through my too near presence I
feared it might be darkened by my shadow, as it is ever darker
when it nears the earth; now, in the distance, it is mild and
lofty and ever clear.
I would fain press thy dear hand with both of mine to my
bosom, and say to thee, "How peace and content have come to
me since I have known thee! "
I know that the evening has not come when life's twilight
gathers in my heart: oh, would it were so! Would that I had
lived out my days, that my wishes and joys were fulfilled, and
that they could all be heaped upon thee, that thou mightst be
therewith decked and crowned as with evergreen bays.
When I was alone with thee on that evening I could not
comprehend thee: thou didst smile at me because I was moved,
and laughed at me because I wept; but why? And yet it was
thy laughter, the tone of thy laughter, which moved me to tears;
and I am content, and see, under the cloak of this riddle, roses
burst forth which spring alike from sadness and joy. Yes, thou
art right, prophet: I shall yet with light heart struggle up
through jest and mirth; I shall weary myself with struggling as
I did in my childhood (ah, it seems as if it were but yester-
day! ) when with the exuberance of joy I wandered through the
blossoming fields, pulling up the flowers by the roots and throw-
ing them into the water. But I wish to seek rest in a warm,
firm earnestness, and there at hand standest
hand standest thou, smiling.
prophet!
I say to thee yet once more: Whoever in this wide world
understands what is passing within me, who am so restful in
thee, so silent, so unwavering in my feeling? I could, like the
mountains, bear nights and days in the past without disturbing
thee in thy reflections. And yet when at times the wind bears
## p. 2352 (#550) ###########################################
ELISABETH BRENTANO
2352
the fragrance and the germs together from the blossoming world
up to the mountain heights, they will be intoxicated with delight
as I was yesterday. Then I loved the world, then I was as glad
as a gushing, murmuring spring in which the sun for the first
time shines.
Farewell, sublime one who blindest and intimidatest me!
From this steep rock upon which my love has in life-danger
ventured, I cannot clamber down. I cannot think of descending,
for I should break my neck in the attempt.
BETTINA'S LAST MEETING WITH GOETHE
From a Letter to her Niece in 1824, first published in 1896
N THE evening I was alone again with Goethe. Had any one
observed us, he would have had something to tell to poster-
ity. Goethe's peculiarities were exhibited to the full: first he
would growl at me, then to make it all up again he would caress
me, with the most flattering words. His bottle of wine he kept
in the adjoining room, because I had reproached him for his
drinking the night before: on some pretext or other he disap-
peared from the scene half a dozen times in order to drink a
glass. I pretended to notice nothing; but at parting I told him
that twelve glasses of wine wouldn't hurt him, and that he had
had only six. "How do you know that so positively? " he said.
"I heard the gurgle of the bottle in the next room, and I heard
you drinking, and then you have betrayed yourself to me, as
Solomon in the Song of Songs betrayed himself to his beloved,
by your breath. "
"You are an arrant rogue," he said; "now
take yourself off," and he brought the candle to light me out.
But I sprang in front of him and knelt upon the threshold of
the room.
"Now I shall see if I can shut you in, and whether
you are a good spirit or an evil one, like the rat in Faust; I
kiss this threshold and bless it, for over it daily passes the most
glorious human spirit and my best friend. " "Over you and your
love I shall never pass," he answered, "it is too dear to me; and
around your spirit I creep so" (and he carefully paced around
the spot where I was kneeling), "for you are too artful, and it
is better to keep on good terms with you. " And so he dismissed
me with tears in his eyes. I remained standing in the dark
before his door, to gulp down my emotion. I was thinking that
## p. 2353 (#551) ###########################################
ELISABETH BRENTANO
2353
this door, which I had closed with my own hand, had separated
me from him in all probability forever. Whoever comes near
him must confess that his genius has partly passed into good-
ness; the fiery sun of his spirit is transformed at its setting into
a soft purple light.
IN GOETHE'S GARDEN
FROM this hillock all my world survey!
Yon vale, bedecked by nature's fairy fingers,
Where the still by-road picturesquely lingers,
The cottage white whose quaint charms grace the way-
These are the scenes that o'er my heart hold sway.
I from this hillock all my world survey!
Though I ascend to heights fair lands dividing,
Where stately ships I see the ocean riding,
While cities gird the view in proud array,
Naught prompts my heart's impulses to obey.
I from this hillock all my world survey!
And could I stand while Paradise descrying,
Still for these verdant meads should I be sighing,
Where thy dear roof-peaks skirt the verdant way:
Beyond these bounds my heart longs not to stray.
IV-148
―――――
## p. 2354 (#552) ###########################################
2354
JOHN BRIGHT
(1811-1889)
OHN BRIGHT was the modern representative of the ancient
Tribunes of the people or Demagogues (in the original and
perfectly honorable sense); and a full comparison of his
work and position with those of the Cleons or the Gracchi would
almost be an outline of the respective peoples, polities, and problems.
He was a higher type of man and politician than Cleon, -largely
because the English aristocracy is not an unpatriotic and unprincipled
clique like the Athenian, ready to use any weapon from murder down
or to make their country a province of a
foreign empire rather than give up their
class monopoly of power; but like his pro-
totype he was a democrat by nature as well
as profession, the welfare of the common
people at once his passion and his political
livelihood, full of faith that popular in-
stincts are both morally right and intellect-
ually sound, and all his own instincts and
most of his labors antagonistic to those of
the aristocracy. It is a phase of the same
fact to say that he also represented the
active force of religious feeling in politics,
as opposed to pure secular statesmanship.
The son of a Quaker manufacturer of Rochdale, England, and
born near that place November 16th, 1811, he began his public career
when a mere boy as a stirring and effective temperance orator, his
ready eloquence and intense earnestness prevailing over an ungrace-
ful manner and a bad delivery; he wrought all his life for popular
education and for the widest extension of the franchise; and being a
Quaker and a member of the Peace Society, he opposed all war on
principle, fighting the Crimean War bitterly, and leaving the Glad-
stone Cabinet in 1882 on account of the bombardment of Alexandria.
He was retired from the service of the public for some time on
account of his opposition to the Crimean War; but Mr. Gladstone,
who differed from him on this point, calls it the action of his life
most worthy of honor. He was perhaps the most warlike opponent
of war ever high in public life; the pugnacious and aggressive agita-
tor, pouring out floods of fiery oratory to the effect that nobody ought
to fight anybody, was a curious paradox.
JOHN BRIGHT
## p. 2355 (#553) ###########################################
JOHN BRIGHT
2355
He was by far the most influential English friend of the North in
the Civil War, and the magic of his eloquence and his name was a
force of perhaps decisive potency in keeping the working classes on
the same side; so that mass meetings of unemployed laborers with
half-starving families resolved that they would rather starve alto-
gether than help to perpetuate slavery in America. He shares with
Richard Cobden the credit of having obtained free trade for Eng-
land: Bright's thrilling oratory was second only to Cobden's organ-
izing power in winning the victory, and both had the immense
weight of manufacturers opposing their own class. That he opposed
the game laws and favored electoral reform is a matter of course.
Mr. Bright entered on an active political career in 1839, when he
joined the Anti-Corn-Law League. He first became a member of
Parliament in 1843, and illustrates a most valuable feature of English
political practice. When a change of feeling in one place prevented.
his re-election, he selected another which was glad to honor itself by
having a great man represent it, so that the country was not robbed
of a statesman by a village faction; and there being no spoils sys-
tem, he did not have to waste his time in office-jobbing to keep his
seat. He sat first for Durham, then for Manchester, and finally for
Birmingham, remaining in public life over forty years; and never
had to make a "deal" or get any one an office in all that period.
He was in Mr. Gladstone's Cabinet from 1868 to 1870, and again
from 1873 to 1882. On the Home Rule question the two old friends.
and long co-workers divided; Mr. Bright, with more than half the
oldest and sincerest friends of liberty and haters of oppression in
England, holding the step to be political suicide for the British
Empire.
As an orator, Mr. Bright stood in a sense alone. He was direct
and logical; he carefully collected and massed his facts, and used
strong, homely Saxon English, and short crisp words; he was a
master of telling epigram whose force lay in its truth as much as in
its humor. Several volumes of his speeches have been published:
'On Public Affairs'; 'On Parliamentary Reform'; 'On Questions of
Public Policy'; 'On the American Question,' etc. His life has been
written by Gilchrist, Smith, Robertson, and others. He died March
27th, 1889.
## p. 2356 (#554) ###########################################
2356
JOHN BRIGHT
FROM THE SPEECH ON THE CORN LAWS (1843)
IT
T MUST not be supposed, because I wish to represent the inter-
est of the many, that I am hostile to the interest of the few.
But is it not perfectly certain that if the foundation of the
most magnificent building be destroyed and undermined, the
whole fabric itself is in danger? Is it not certain, also, that
the vast body of the people who form the foundation of the
social fabric, if they are suffering, if they are trampled upon, if
they are degraded, if they are discontented, if "their hands are
against every man, and every man's hands are against them," if
they do not flourish as well, reasonably speaking, as the classes
who are above them because they are richer and more power-
ful, --then are those classes as much in danger as the working
classes themselves?
There never was a revolution in any country which destroyed
the great body of the people. There have been convulsions of
a most dire character which have overturned old-established mon-
archies and have hurled thrones and sceptres to the dust. There
have been revolutions which have brought down most powerful
aristocracies, and swept them from the face of the earth forever,
but never was there a revolution yet which destroyed the people.
And whatever may come as a consequence of the state of things
in this country, of this we may rest assured: that the common
people, that the great bulk of our countrymen will remain and
survive the shock, though it may be that the Crown and the
aristocracy and the Church may be leveled with the dust, and
rise no more. In seeking to represent the working classes, and
in standing up for their rights and liberties, I hold that I am
also defending the rights and liberties of the middle and richer
classes of society. Doing justice to one class cannot inflict
injustice on any other class, and "justice and impartiality to all"
is what we all have a right to from government. And we have
a right to clamor; and so long as I have breath, so long will I
clamor against the oppression which I see to exist, and in favor
of the rights of the great body of the people.
What is the condition in which we are? I have already
spoken of Ireland. You know that hundreds of thousands meet
there, week after week, in various parts of the country, to pro-
claim to all the world the tyranny under which they suffer.
·
## p. 2357 (#555) ###########################################
JOHN BRIGHT
2357
You know that in South Wales, at this moment, there is an
insurrection of the most extraordinary character going on, and
that the Government is sending, day after day, soldiers and
artillery amongst the innocent inhabitants of that mountainous
country for the purpose of putting down the insurrection thereby
raised and carried on. You know that in the Staffordshire iron-
works almost all the workmen are now out and in want of
wages, from want of employment and from attempting to resist
the inevitable reduction of wages which must follow restriction
upon trade.
You know that in August last, Lancashire and
Yorkshire rose in peaceful insurrection to proclaim to the world,
and in face of Heaven, the wrongs of an insulted and oppressed
people. I know that my own neighborhood is unsettled and
uncomfortable. I know that in your own city your families are
suffering. Yes, I have been to your cottages and seen their
condition. Thanks to my canvass of Durham, I have been able
to see the condition of many honest and independent—or ought-
to-be-independent and industrious artisans. I have seen even
freemen of your city sitting, looking disconsolate and sad. Their
hands were ready to labor; their skill was ready to produce all
that their trade demanded. They were as honest and industrious
as any man in this assembly, but no man hired them. They
were in a state of involuntary idleness, and were driving fast to
the point of pauperism. I have seen their wives, too, with three
or four children about them- -one in the cradle, one at the
breast. I have seen their countenances, and I have seen the
signs of their sufferings. I have seen the emblems and symbols
of affliction such as I did not expect to see in this city. Ay!
and I have seen those little children who at not a distant day
will be the men and women of this city of Durham; I have
seen their poor little wan faces and anxious looks, as if the fur-
rows of old age were coming upon them before they had escaped
from the age of childhood. I have seen all this in this city, and
I have seen far more in the neighborhood from which I have
come. You have seen, in all probability, people from my neigh-
borhood walking your streets and begging for that bread which
the Corn Laws would not allow them to earn.
-
"Bread-taxed weaver, all can see
What the tax hath done for thee,
And thy children, vilely led,
## p. 2358 (#556) ###########################################
2358
JOHN BRIGHT
Singing hymns for shameful bread,
Till the stones of every street
Know their little naked feet. "
This is what the Corn Law does for the weavers of my neigh-
borhood, and for the weavers and artisans of yours.
FROM THE SPEECH ON INCENDIARISM IN IRELAND (1844)
HE great and all-present evil of the rural districts is this-
you have too many people for the work to be done, and you,
the landed proprietors, are alone responsible for this state
of things; and to speak honestly, I believe many of you know
it. I have been charged with saying out-of-doors that this House
is a club of land-owners legislating for land-owners. If I had
not said it, the public must long ago have found out that fact.
My honorable friend the member for Stockport on one occasion
proposed that before you passed a law to raise the price of bread,
you should consider how far you had the power to raise the rates
of wages. What did you say to that? You said that the laborers
did not understand political economy, or they would not apply to
Parliament to raise wages; that Parliament could not raise wages.
And yet the very next thing you did was to pass a law to raise
the price of produce of your own land, at the expense of the very
class whose wages you confessed your inability to increase.
What is the condition of the county of Suffolk? Is it not
notorious that the rents are as high as they were fifty years ago,
and probably much higher? But the return for the farmer's cap-
ital is much lower, and the condition of the laborer is very much
worse.
The farmers are subject to the law of competition, and
rents are thereby raised from time to time so as to keep their
profits down to the lowest point, and the laborers by the compe-
tition amongst them are reduced to the point below which life
cannot be maintained. Your tenants and laborers are being de-
voured by this excessive competition, whilst you, their magnani-
mous landlords, shelter yourselves from all competition by the
Corn Law yourselves have passed, and make the competition of
all other classes serve still more to swell your rentals. It was
for this object the Corn Law was passed, and yet in the face of
your countrymen you dare to call it a law for the protection of
native industry.
## p. 2359 (#557) ###########################################
JOHN BRIGHT
2359
Again, a rural police is kept up by the gentry; the far-
mers say for the sole use of watching game and frightening poach.
ers, for which formerly they had to pay watchers. Is this true,
or is it not? I say, then, you care everything for the rights-
and for something beyond the rights of your own property,
but you are oblivious to its duties. How many lives have been
sacrificed during the past year to the childish infatuation of pre-
serving game? The noble lord, the member for North Lan-
cashire, could tell of a gamekeeper killed in an affray on his
father's estate in that county. For the offense one man was
hanged, and four men are now on their way to penal colo-
nies. Six families are thus deprived of husband and father, that
this wretched system of game-preserving may be continued in a
country densely peopled as this is.
