She is like unto a
whirlpool
in deep water, the
whirling vortex of which is not known.
whirling vortex of which is not known.
Warner - World's Best Literature - v09 - Dra to Eme
[A leader with wide instructions should pursue a far-
sighted policy. ]
17. [A leader should listen to complaints. ]
1 The time appointed to it for its own activity, or as we should say, its
(day. ”
2 Room is made for him.
1
2
## p. 5335 (#507) ###########################################
EGYPTIAN LITERATURE
5335
18. [Beware of women. )
“If thou wishest to prolong friendship in a house into which
thou enterest as master, as brother, or as friend, [in fact in] any
place that thou enterest, beware of approaching the women: no
place in which that is done prospereth. The face is not watch-
ful in attaining it. A thousand men are injured in order to be
profited for a little moment, like a dream, by tasting which
death is reached. ”
19. [Keep from injustice or covetousness. )
“If thou desirest thy procedure to be good, take thyself from
all evil: beware of any covetous aim. That is as the painful
disease of colic. He who entereth on it is not successful. It
embroileth fathers and mothers with the mother's brothers, it
separateth wife and husband. It is a thing that taketh to itself
all evils, a bundle of all wickedness. A man liveth long whose
rule is justice, who goeth according to its [the rule's] movements.
He maketh a property thereby, while a covetous man hath no
house. ”
20. (Be satisfied with a fair share. ]
“Let not thine heart be extortionate about shares, in grasping
at what is not thy portion. Let not thy heart be extortionate
towards thy neighbors: greater is the prayer to a kindly person
than force. Poor is he that carrieth off his neighbors [by vio-
lence] without the persuasion of words. A little for which there
hath been extortion maketh remorse when the bloodi is cool. ”
21. [Pay attention to thy wife when thou hast attained a
competence. ]
“If thou art successful and hast furnished thine house, and lov-
est the wife of thy bosom, fill her belly, clothe her back. The
medicine for her body is oil. Make glad her heart during the
time that thou hast. She is a field profitable to its owner. ”
22. [Entertain visitors with thy means. )
23. [Do not repeat scandal[? ]. ]
24. [Talk not of unfamiliar things in the council. ]
25. [Advice to an able speaker. ]
"If thou art strong, inspiring awe by knowledge or by pleas-
ing, speak in first command; that is to say, not according to
1 Lit. , belly.
## p. 5336 (#508) ###########################################
5336
EGYPTIAN LITERATURE
[another's] lead. The weak man [? ] entereth into error. Raise
not thine heart, lest it be cast down. Be not silent. Beware of
interruption and of answering words with heat [? ].
The
flames of a fiery heart sweep away the mild man, when a fighter
treadeth on his path. He who doth accounts all day long hath
not a pleasant moment; he who enjoyeth himself all day long
doth not provide his house. The archer will hit his mark even
as he that worketh the rudder, at one time letting it alone, at
another pulling; he that obeyeth his heart [conscience? ] shall
command. ”
26. [Do not add to others' burdens. ]
27. [Teach a noble what will profit him. ]
28. [Deliver an official message straightforwardly. ]
29. [Call not to remembrance favors that you have bestowed,
when the recipient has ceased to thank you. ]
30. [Advice to one that has risen in the world. ]
"If thou gainest great after small things and makest wealth
after poverty, so that thou art an example thereof in thy city,
thou art known in thy nome and thou art become prominent: do
not wrap up [? ] thy heart in thy riches that have come to thee
by the gift of God,
another like unto thee to whom the
like hath fallen. ”
31. [Obedience to chief. ]
« Bend thy back to thy chief, thy superior of the king's
house, on whose property thine house dependeth, and thy pay-
ments' in their proper place. It is ill to be at variance with the
chief. One liveth [only] while he is gracious. ”
32. [Against lewdness. ]
33. [Judge a friend's character at first hand. ]
“If thou seekest the character of a friend, mind thou, do not
ask; go to him, occupy thyself with him alone so as not to in-
terfere with his business. Argue with him after a season, test [? ]
his heart with an instance of speech. ”
34. [Be cheerful to friends. ]
"Let thy face be shining the time that thou hast: verily that
which cometh out of the store doth not enter again; but bread is
Salary in kind.
1
1
## p. 5337 (#509) ###########################################
EGYPTIAN LITERATURE
5337
> 1
for apportionment, and he that is niggardly is an accuser, empty
of his belly. It befalleth that a quarrelsome man is a spoiler of
things; do it not unto him who cometh unto thee. The remem-
brance of a man is of his kindliness in the years after the staff
[of power ? ]. ”
35. [Importance of credit. ]
Know? thy tradesman when thy affairs are unsuccessful; thy
good reputation with thy friend is a channel well filled; it is
more important than a man's wealth. The property of one
belongeth to another. A profitable thing is the good reputation of
a man's son to him. The nature is better than the memory. ”[? ]
36. [Punish for an example, instruct for the principle. ]
37. [Treat kindly a seduced woman. )
“If thou makest a woman ashamed, wanton of heart, whom
her fellow townspeople know to be under two laws, be kind to
her a season; send her not away, let her have food to eat. The
wantonness of her heart appreciateth guidance. "
38. [Advantage of obedience to rule. ]
“If thou hearkenest to these things that I tell thee, and all
thy behavior is according to what precedeth,“ verily they have a
true course. They are precious, their memory goeth in the
mouth of men by reason of the excellence of their phrasing;
and each saying is carried on; it is not destroyed out of this
land ever; it maketh a rule to advantage by which the nobles
may speak. It is a teaching for a man that he may speak to
the future. He that heareth them becometh an expert. A good
hearer speaketh to the future of what he hath heard.
If good
fortune befalleth by reason of him who is at the head of affairs,
it is to him good forever, and all his satisfactoriness remaineth
to eternity. It is he who knoweth that blesseth his soul“ in
1 The second text gives “Let thy face [be shining] when thou makest a
feast. Verily that which cometh out of the store doth not enter [? ], but
bread is apportioned; he that is niggardly of face is remorseful; [? ] his belly
is empty. He that remembereth a man is kind unto him in the years after
the staff [of power ? ]. ” The last expression may mean (after the loss of
authority. ”
Variant (beseech. ” The meaning of the' section is not certain.
3 To be in an ambiguous position. (? )
* Or «then all thy ways shall have the lead. ”
5 Ba, in Egyptian: the person who has learned good conduct (the ignorant
cannot) pours benediction upon the soul of him who set the example of it,
when he finds himself profited on earth by the practice thereof.
## p. 5338 (#510) ###########################################
5338
EGYPTIAN LITERATURE
establishing his excellence upon earth: he who knoweth hath
satisfaction of his knowledge. A noble' taketh his right course
in what his heart and his tongue provide; his lips are correct
when he speaketh, his eyes in seeing, his ears just in hearing; a
profitable thing for his son is doing right, free from wrong.
"It is a profitable thing for the son of one who hath hearkened
[to instruction] to hearken [to his father], entering and listening
to a hearkener. A hearkener becometh a person hearkened to,
good in hearkening and good in speech; a hearkener possesseth
what is profitable: profitable to the hearkener is hearkening.
Hearkening is better than anything: it befalleth indeed that love
is good, but twice good is it when a son receiveth what his
father saith: old age cometh to him therewith. He who loveth
God hearkeneth, he who hateth God doth not hearken: it is the
heart that maketh its possessor hearken or not hearken, and the
Life, Prosperity, and Health ? of a is his heart. The
hearkener heareth what is said. He that loveth to hear doeth
according to what is said. Twice good is it for a son to hearken
to his father. How happy is he to whom these things are told!
A son, he shineth as possessing the quality of hearkening. The
hearkener to whom they are told, he is excellent in body. He
that is pious-and-well-pleasing to his father, his memory is in
the mouth of the living who are upon earth, whoever they
shall be. "
man
39. [The docile son. )
“If the son of a man receive what his father saith, no plan of
his shall fail. [He whom] thou teachest as thy son, or the
listener that is successful in the heart of the nobles, he guideth
his mouth according to what he hath been told. He that
beholdeth is as he that obeyeth, i. e. , a son*; his ways are distin-
guished. He faileth that entereth without hearing. He that
knoweth, on the next day is established; he who is ignorant is
crushed. ”
40. [The ignorant and unteachable man is a miserable fail-
ure. ]
1 The word presupposes education, as often.
2 A frequent collocation of words; as for instance, following the mention
of a royal person.
3 Amakh. See note to Section 41.
4 The words (a son » seem inserted.
5 Or is fit only for hard manual labor. ”
5
## p. 5339 (#511) ###########################################
EGYPTIAN LITERATURE
5339
41. [The handing down of good precepts. ]
« The son of a hearkener is as an Attendant of Horus': there
is good for him when he hath hearkened; he groweth old, he
reacheth Amakh? ; he telleth the like to his children, renewing
the teaching of his father. Every man teacheth as he hath per-
formed; he telleth the like to his sons, that they may tell again
to their children. ' Do what is admirable; cause not thyself to be
mocked;[? ] establish truth that thy children may live. If virtue
entereth, vice departeth: then men who shall see such-like shall
say, “Behold, that man spoke to one who hearkened! ' and
they shall do the like; or Behold, that man was observant. )
All shall say, “They pacify the multitude; riches are not com-
plete without them. ' Add not a word, nor take one away; put
not one in the place of another. Guard thyself against opening
the lacunæ [? ] that are in thee. Guard thyself against being told,
One who knoweth is listening; mark thou. Thou desirest to
be established in the mouth of those who hears when thou
speakest. But thou hast entered on the business of an expert;
thou speakest of matters that belong to us, and thy way is not
in its proper place. »
42. [Speak with consideration. ]
“Let thy heart be overflowing, let thy mouth be restrained:
consider how thou shalt behave among the nobles. Be exact in
practice with thy master: act so that he may say, "The son of
that man shall speak to those that shall hearken. Praise worthy
also is he who formed him. '
«Apply thine heart while thou art speaking, that thou mayest
speak things of distinction; then the nobles who shall hear will
say, “How good is that which proceedeth out of his mouth! »»
43. [Obedience to the master. ]
“Do according to that thy master telleth thee. How excellent
[to a man] is the teaching of his father, out of whom he hath
11. e. , one of the loyal adherents of Horus the son of Osiris in his war
against the evil Set.
2 The blessed state of well-earned repose and rewards, both in this world
and in the next, after faithful service.
3 This is the reading furnished by the fragments in the British Museum for
an unintelligible passage in the Prisse.
* « Them” is difficult to assign to any antecedent definitely; perhaps (with-
out their advice how to behave and employ the wealth » is meant.
5 Or those who are listened to,» «instructors. »
## p. 5340 (#512) ###########################################
5340
EGYPTIAN LITERATURE
come, out of his very body, and who spake unto him while he
was yet altogether in his loins! Greater is what hath been done
unto him than what hath been said unto him. Behold, a good
son that God giveth doeth beyond what he is told for his mas-
ter; he doeth right, doing heartily [? ] in his goings even as thou
hast come unto me, that thy body may be sound, that the King
may be well pleased with all that is done, that thou mayest
spend years of life. It is no small thing that I have done on
earth; I have spent 110 years' of life while the King gave me
praises as among the ancestors, by my doing uprightly to the
King until the state of Amakh. ? )
This is its arrival
like that which was found in the writing.
Translation of F. Li, Griffith.
2 )
[The following extracts are reproduced from the German of Professor
Erman's translation. ]
+
FROM THE MAXIMS OF ANY)
“K
EEP thyself from the strange woman who is not known in
her city. Look not upon her when she cometh, and know
her not.
She is like unto a whirlpool in deep water, the
whirling vortex of which is not known. The woman whose hus-
band is afar writeth unto thee daily. When none is there to see
her, she standeth up and spreadeth her snare; sin unto death is
it to hearken thereto. ” Hence he who is wise will renounce her
company and take to himself a wife in his youth. A man's own
house is the best thing, and also she will give unto thee a
son who shall be as the image of thyself. ”
1
[Thy debt to thy mother. ]
Thou shalt never forget thy mother and what she hath done
for thee, “that she bore thee, and nurtured thee in all ways. ”
Wert thou to forget her then might she blame thee, lifting up
her arms unto God, and he would hearken unto her complaint.
For she carried thee long beneath her heart as a heavy burden,
and after thy months were accomplished she bore thee. Three
long years she carried thee upon her shoulder and gave thee her
1 This was the ideal length of life in Egypt. The figure must not be taken
too literally.
2 See note to Section 41, previous page.
1
1
## p. 5341 (#513) ###########################################
EGYPTIAN LITERATURE
5341
breast to thy mouth. ” She nurtured thee, nor knew offense
from thine uncleanness. And when thou didst enter the school
and wast instructed in the writings, daily she stood by the mas-
ter with bread and beer from her house. ”
[Be not drunken with beer. ]
Drink not beer to excess! That which cometh forth from thy
mouth thou canst no longer speak. Thou fallest down, thou
breakest thy limbs, and none stretcheth out a hand to thee. Thy
companions drink on; they arise and say, "Away with this one
who hath drunken. ” When one cometh to seek thee, to seek
counsel of thee, he findeth thee lying in the dust like a little
child.
[Of inward piety. ]
“Clamor is abhorrent to the sanctuary of God; let thy prayers
for thyself come forth out of a loving heart, whose words remain
secret, that he may grant thee thy needs, may hear thy prayer,
and accept thine offering. ”
[Of diligence and discretion. ]
Be diligent; “let thine eye be open that thou mayest not go
forth as a beggar, for the man who is idle cometh not to honor. ”
Be not officious and indiscreet, and “enter not [uninvited] into
the house of another; if thou enter at his bidding thou art hon-
ored. Look not around thee, look not around thee in the house
of another. What thine eye seeth, keep silence concerning it,
and tell it not without to another, that it be not in thee a crime
to be punished by death when it is heard. ” Speak not over-
much, "for men are deaf to him who maketh many words; but
if thou art silent thou art pleasing, therefore speak not. ” Above
all be cautious in speech, for “the ruin of a man is on his
tongue. The body of a man is a storehouse, which is full of all
manner of answers. Wherefore choose thou the good and speak
good, while the evil remaineth shut up within thy body. ”
[Of manners. ]
Behave with propriety at table and “be not greedy to fill thy
body. ” And “eat not bread while another standeth by and thou
placest not thy hand on the bread for him. The one is rich and
the other is poor, and bread remaineth with him who is open-
handed. He who was prosperous last year, even in this may be
## p. 5342 (#514) ###########################################
5342
EGYPTIAN LITERATURE
a vagrant. [? ]” Never forget to show respect, “and sit not down
while another is standing who is older than thou, or who is
higher than thou in his office. ”
Revised from the German of Adolf Erman.
INSTRUCTION OF DAUF
Wson
HEN Dauf the sage of Sebennytus went up to the Royal
Court
Writing-School,” he admonished him to set his heart
upon writing, to love it as his mother, for there is naught that
surpasseth it. ” He thereupon composes a poem in praise of the
profession, to the disparagement of all other callings:--
“Behold, there is no profession that is not under rule;
Only the man of learning himself ruleth. ”
And then,
“Never have I seen the engraver an ambassador,
Or the goldsmith with an embassy:
But I have seen the smith at his work
At the mouth of his furnace;
His fingers were as crocodile [hide],
He stank more than fish-roe.
“A craftsman who plieth the chisel
Is wearied more than he who tilleth the soil;
Wood is his field, and bronze his implement;
At night -- is he released ?
He worketh more than his arms are able;
At night he lighteth a light. ”
Etc. , etc.
no
[The praise of learning was a favorite subject with peda-
gogue and parent. According to other sages] “the unlearned
whose name man knoweth, is like unto a heavy-laden ass,
driven by the scribe,” while he who hath set learning in his
heart” is exempt from labor “and becometh a wise noble. ”
The rank of a scribe is princely; his writing outfit and his
papyrus roll bring comfort and wealth. ” « The scribe alone
guideth the labor of all men; but if labor in writing is hateful
to him, then the goddess of good fortune is not with him. ”
## p. 5343 (#515) ###########################################
EGYPTIAN LITERATURE
5343
“O scribe, be not lazy, be not lazy, else thou shalt be soundly
chastised; give not thy heart to vain desires, or thou wilt come
to ruin. Book in hand, read with thy mouth, and take the advice
of those who know more than thyself. Prepare for thyself the
office of a noble, that thou mayest attain thereto when thou art
become old. Happy is the scribe clever in all his offices. Be
strong and diligent in daily work. Pass no day idly, or thou
wilt be flogged, for the ears of a boy are on his back, and he
heareth when he is flogged. Let thine heart hear what I say; it
will bring thee to fortune. Be strong in asking advice; do not
overlook it in writing; be not disgusted at it. Therefore let
thine heart hear my words; thou shalt find fortune thereby. ”
Revised from the German of Adolf Erman.
11
are
CONTRASTED LOTS OF SCRIBE AND FELLÂH
[The following is a sample of the warnings to young men to stick to the
business of the scribe and not be led away by the charms of out-door life,
always so dear to the Egyptian. — Date XIXth Dynasty, or earlier. ]
T is told to me that thou hast cast aside learning, and givest
thyself to dancing; thou turnest thy face to the work in the
fields, and castest the divine words behind thee.
Behold, thou rememberest not the condition of the fellâh,
when the harvest is taken over. The worms carry off half the
corn, and the hippopotamus devours the rest; mice abound in the
fields, and locusts arrive; the cattle devour, the sparrows steal.
How miserable is the lot of the fellâh ! What remains on the
threshing-floor, robbers finish it up. The bronze
worn out, the horses [oxen? ] die with threshing and plow.
ing. Then the scribe moors at the bank who is to take over the
harvest;' the attendants? bear staves, the negroes carry palm-
sticks. They say, "Give corn! ” But there is none. They beat
[the fellâh] prostrate; they bind him and cast him into the canal,
throwing him headlong. His wife is bound before him, his child-
ren are swung off; his neighbors let them go, and flee to look
after their corn.
But the scribe is the leader of labor for all; he reckons to
himself the produce in winter, and there is none that appoints
him his tale of produce. Behold, now thou knowest!
Translation of F. Li. Griffith.
1 That is, for the government.
? Lit. , doorkeepers - i. e. , of the official cabin.
## p. 5344 (#516) ###########################################
5344
EGYPTIAN LITERATURE
REPROACHES TO A DISSIPATED STUDENT
XIXTH DYNASTY
T".
HEY tell me that thou forsakest books,
And givest thyself up to pleasure.
Thou goest from street to street;
Every evening the smell of beer,
The smell of beer, frightens people away from thee.
It bringeth thy soul to ruin.
Thou art like a broken helm,
That obeyeth on neither side.
Thou art as a shrine without its god,
As a house without bread.
!
1
Thou art met climbing the walls,
And breaking through the paling:
People flee froin thee,
Thou strikest them until they are wounded.
Oh that thou didst know that wine is an abomination,
And that thou wouldst forswear the Shedeh drink!
That thou wouldst not put cool drinks within thy heart,
That thou wouldst forget the Tenreku.
But now thou art taught to sing to the flute,
To recite [? ] to the pipe,
To intone to the lyre,
To sing to the harp,
[and generally to lead a life of dissipation. ]
Revised from the German of Adolf Erman.
I
1
!
## p. 5345 (#517) ###########################################
5345
JOSEPH VON EICHENDORFF
(1788-1857)
T
he poetry of the Romantic School is the poetry of longing.
It is filled with a spirit of passionate yearning that gives to
it its pathos, and makes each poem seem the expression of
an undefined but ardent wish. The poet's soul is reaching out for
that which no longer is, but which has been and may be again.
Novalis has symbolized this yearning in the quest for the mysterious
«blue flower. ” Men longed for the glories of the past, and among
the knights and minstrels of mediæval court and castle they sought
for that blue flower whose odor is love. In the bleak unfriendliness
of the foggy Northern clime, the sunny expansive beauty of the
South, where the magnificence of ancient ages still shimmered through
a mellow haze, drew all sensitive hearts to Italy. Goethe felt the
strong attraction, and fled without leave-taking across the Alps, to
recover his genius under Italian skies. He gave to this deep and
universal longing for Italy its classic incarnation in the pathetic
figure of Mignon. In the very year in which Goethe returned from
Rome, Joseph von Eichendorff was born. He was the last and most
ardent of the Romanticists, and all the restless longing of those times
found in him its typical interpreter.
Eichendorff was born on the family estate at Lubowitz in Silesia,
on March 10th, 1788. He was brought up in the Roman Catholic
faith, to which thereafter so many of his brother poets were
verted. He studied law in Halle, Heidelberg, and Paris. At Heidel-
berg he took his degree, and at Heidelberg he came definitely under
the Romantic influence through his association with Arnim, Brentano,
and Görres. In Vienna, where he spent three years, he stood in close
relations with Schlegel. His qualities of mind were essentially South
German, for he was an Austrian by birth. He was on the point of
entering the Austrian service when the famous appeal of February
3d, 1813, from the King of Prussia, roused every German patriot.
Eichendorff enlisted as a volunteer in the Prussian army. Through-
out that thrilling campaign of the wars for freedom he fought in the
cause of the wider Fatherland. He became an officer in the “Lützow
Corps,” which Körner has made famous in his verse. Scarcely had
he obtained his dismissal after the first peace of Paris, when the
news of Napoleon's return from Elba summoned him to arms again.
In 1816, however, he began his career, after a brilliant showing
before the examiners, as an officer in the civil service of Prussia.
con-
IX-335
## p. 5346 (#518) ###########################################
5346
JOSEPH VON EICHENDORFF
men
Henceforth his life was outwardly uneventful. He married soon after
his appointment. Intellectually he maintained relations with the
finest spirits of his land and time. Having served the State in
various capacities for more than a quarter of a century, he was dis-
missed at his own request in 1844, and retired to private life. He
died at Neisse on November 26th, 1857. Heine had died early in the
preceding year. With Eichendorff the last great poet of the Roman-
tic School passed away.
It would be fruitless to catalogue the works of Eichendorff that are
no longer read. His first independent effort was published at the end
of the Napoleonic campaign, under the title of Ahnung und Gegen-
wart' (Presage and Presence). Stories, comedies, tragedies, and excel-
lent translations from the Spanish followed, until now his works fill
ten volumes; but of these, only his poems and his tale (Out of the
Life of a Good-for-Nothing' retain their full vitality to-day.
His poems possess enduring beauty. They are full of that pro-
found longing for purer days and fairer realms, and of that dreamy
lyric charm, that makes men young again. There is a breath in
them of a vanished time; they sing of a golden age in which all
were idle and all women pure. The music of his verse has
attracted many composers, from Mendelssohn, his friend, to Robert
Franz in our own day. Eichendorff looked down upon the rhetori-
cal ideality of Schiller and the symbolic naturalism of Goethe. He
sang of the soul and its homesickness; of its longing for a lost inher-
itance.
The delightful Life of a Good-for-Nothing' appeared in 1824, and
it remains to-day one of the most popular tales in German litera-
ture. It is the apotheosis of idleness and vagabondism. In this
little book,” says Brandes, «all the old charms of romance are shut
up, as in a cage, to make music for us. There is the odor of the
woods and the song of birds, the longing for travel and the joys of
wandering. ” The book describes the vagabond life of a child of
genius, idle with a hundred aptitudes, pure with a hundred tempta-
tions, and amid a hundred dangers careless and irresponsible. This
Good-for-Nothing illustrates in his roving life the romantic quest of
the blue Aower. ” He lives for pure pleasures and the joys of un-
remunerative art; his is the infinite longing which never can be
stilled, but only rendered endurable by poetry, by music, and by
moonlight on forest, field, and stream. The book is an exquisite
idyl; it is full of strange adventures and all the romantic machinery
of singular disguises, lofty and secluded castles, and mysterious beau-
ties who throw flowers from shaded balconies; and yet it is essentially
idyllic, and the beautiful lyrics which are scattered through its pages
create an atmosphere of eternal summer in which we are made to
## p. 5347 (#519) ###########################################
JOSEPH VON EICHENDORFF
5347
forget the work-a-day world where men earn their daily bread and
feel the salutary pressure of duty.
Eichendorff himself was a faithful public servant, and in the
Life of a Good-for-Nothing' we have the confession only of what
the author perhaps thought he would have liked to be, rather than
of what he was. He was reverent and pious, and one of the most
evenly balanced minds in all that circle of madcap poets. He has
told us of those early days of the Romantic School and of the deep
thrills which agitated the entire German people when Schelling,
Novalis, the Schlegels, and Tieck began their life work in literature.
And this work was done in the days when the sword of Napoleon
hung suspended over Germany; in days when even the poet who
was to sing the praises of the dolce far niente of Good-for-Nothingness
was ready to give three years of his life for the defense of his native
land. So far had literature and life lost sight of each other, and the
men of vigorous action and solid achievement still sang sweetly of
the blue flower and of the pleasures of idleness, leaving behind them
a body of literature which, however unreal, will not lose its power to
soothe and charm.
FROM OUT OF THE LIFE OF A GOOD-FOR-NOTHING)
VE wheel of my father's mill rushed and roared again right
Tinerily
, the melting snow trickled steadily down from the
roof, the sparrows twittered and bustled about.
I sat on
the door-sill and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes; I felt so
comfortable in the warm sunshine. Just then my father came out
of the house. He had worked since daybreak in the mill, and
had his tasseled cap awry upon his head. To me he said:—“You
Good-for-Nothing! There you are sunning yourself again and
stretching and straining your bones tired, and leave me to do all
the work alone. I cannot feed you here any longer. Spring is
at the door; go out into the world and earn your own bread. ”
«Now,” said I, “if I am a Good-for-Nothing, well and good; I
will go out into the world and seek my fortune. ” And really
I was very well pleased, for it had shortly before occurred to
me too to travel, when I heard the yellow-hammer, who always
sung his note in autumn and winter so plaintively at our window,
now calling again in the beautiful spring so proudly and merrily
from the trees. I went accordingly into the house and got my
violin, which I played quite cleverly, down from the wall; my
father gave me besides a few groschens to take along, and so I
## p. 5348 (#520) ###########################################
5348
JOSEPH VON EICHENDORFF
sauntered out through the long village. It gave me in truth a
secret pleasure when I saw all my old acquaintances and com-
rades, right and left, just as yesterday, and day before yesterday,
and always, going out to work, to dig and to plow; while I thus
wandered out into the free world. I called out to the poor peo-
ple on all sides proudly and contentedly, Adieu! but nobody paid
very much attention to it. In my soul it seemed to me like an
eternal Sunday. And when I at last came out into the open
fields, I took up my dear violin and played and sang as I walked
along the highway.
When I presently looked about, a fine traveling carriage came
up quite near to me, that may have been for some time driving
along behind me without my having noticed it, since my heart
was so full of music; for it went along quite slowly, and two
ladies put their heads out of the carriage and listened to me.
The one was particularly beautiful and younger than the other,
but really both of them pleased me. When I now ceased sing-
ing, the elder one had the driver stop and spoke to me kindly:
“Ah, you happy fellow, you know how to sing very pretty songs.
To which I, not at all backward, answered, “If it please your
Excellency, I may have some that are prettier still. ” Thereupon
she asked me again, "Where then are you wandering so early
in the morning ? ” Then I was ashamed that I did not know,
myself, and said boldly, “To Vienna. ” Thereupon both spoke
together in a foreign language that I did not understand. The
younger one shook her head several times, but the other laughed
continuously and finally called out to me, "Spring up behind us:
we are also going to Vienna. ” Who was happier than I! I made
a bow, and at a jump was on behind the carriage, the coachman
cracked his whip, and we flew along over the glistening road, so
that the wind whistled about my hat.
Behind me disappeared village, gardens, and church towers;
before appeared new villages, castles, and mountains.
Below me
grain fields, copse, and meadows flew in many colors past; above
were countless larks in the blue air. I was ashamed to
cry aloud, but inwardly I exulted, and stamped and danced
about on the footboard of the carriage, so that I had nearly
lost my violin which I held under my arm. As the sun, how-
ever, rose continually higher, and heavy white noonday clouds
came up round about the horizon, and everything in the air and
on the broad plains became so empty and close and still over
me
## p. 5349 (#521) ###########################################
JOSEPH VON EICHENDORFF
5349
the gently waving grain fields, then for the first time came into
my mind my village, and my father, and our mill, and how it
was so comfortable and cool there by the shady pond, and that
now everything lay so far, far behind me. I felt so strangely,
and as if I must turn back again. I put my violin in between
my coat and waistcoat, sat down full of thought upon the foot-
board, and fell asleep.
When I opened my eyes the carriage stood still under tall
linden-trees, behind which a broad stairway led up between col-
umns into a splendid castle. On one side, through the trees, I
saw the towers of Vienna. The ladies, it appeared, had long
since got out, and the horses were unharnessed. I was much
frightened when I found myself all at once alone. As I sprang
quickly up into the castle, I heard somebody above laughing out
of the window.
In this castle it fared strangely with me. In the first place,
as I was looking about in the wide cool hall, some one tapped
me with a stick upon the shoulder.
sighted policy. ]
17. [A leader should listen to complaints. ]
1 The time appointed to it for its own activity, or as we should say, its
(day. ”
2 Room is made for him.
1
2
## p. 5335 (#507) ###########################################
EGYPTIAN LITERATURE
5335
18. [Beware of women. )
“If thou wishest to prolong friendship in a house into which
thou enterest as master, as brother, or as friend, [in fact in] any
place that thou enterest, beware of approaching the women: no
place in which that is done prospereth. The face is not watch-
ful in attaining it. A thousand men are injured in order to be
profited for a little moment, like a dream, by tasting which
death is reached. ”
19. [Keep from injustice or covetousness. )
“If thou desirest thy procedure to be good, take thyself from
all evil: beware of any covetous aim. That is as the painful
disease of colic. He who entereth on it is not successful. It
embroileth fathers and mothers with the mother's brothers, it
separateth wife and husband. It is a thing that taketh to itself
all evils, a bundle of all wickedness. A man liveth long whose
rule is justice, who goeth according to its [the rule's] movements.
He maketh a property thereby, while a covetous man hath no
house. ”
20. (Be satisfied with a fair share. ]
“Let not thine heart be extortionate about shares, in grasping
at what is not thy portion. Let not thy heart be extortionate
towards thy neighbors: greater is the prayer to a kindly person
than force. Poor is he that carrieth off his neighbors [by vio-
lence] without the persuasion of words. A little for which there
hath been extortion maketh remorse when the bloodi is cool. ”
21. [Pay attention to thy wife when thou hast attained a
competence. ]
“If thou art successful and hast furnished thine house, and lov-
est the wife of thy bosom, fill her belly, clothe her back. The
medicine for her body is oil. Make glad her heart during the
time that thou hast. She is a field profitable to its owner. ”
22. [Entertain visitors with thy means. )
23. [Do not repeat scandal[? ]. ]
24. [Talk not of unfamiliar things in the council. ]
25. [Advice to an able speaker. ]
"If thou art strong, inspiring awe by knowledge or by pleas-
ing, speak in first command; that is to say, not according to
1 Lit. , belly.
## p. 5336 (#508) ###########################################
5336
EGYPTIAN LITERATURE
[another's] lead. The weak man [? ] entereth into error. Raise
not thine heart, lest it be cast down. Be not silent. Beware of
interruption and of answering words with heat [? ].
The
flames of a fiery heart sweep away the mild man, when a fighter
treadeth on his path. He who doth accounts all day long hath
not a pleasant moment; he who enjoyeth himself all day long
doth not provide his house. The archer will hit his mark even
as he that worketh the rudder, at one time letting it alone, at
another pulling; he that obeyeth his heart [conscience? ] shall
command. ”
26. [Do not add to others' burdens. ]
27. [Teach a noble what will profit him. ]
28. [Deliver an official message straightforwardly. ]
29. [Call not to remembrance favors that you have bestowed,
when the recipient has ceased to thank you. ]
30. [Advice to one that has risen in the world. ]
"If thou gainest great after small things and makest wealth
after poverty, so that thou art an example thereof in thy city,
thou art known in thy nome and thou art become prominent: do
not wrap up [? ] thy heart in thy riches that have come to thee
by the gift of God,
another like unto thee to whom the
like hath fallen. ”
31. [Obedience to chief. ]
« Bend thy back to thy chief, thy superior of the king's
house, on whose property thine house dependeth, and thy pay-
ments' in their proper place. It is ill to be at variance with the
chief. One liveth [only] while he is gracious. ”
32. [Against lewdness. ]
33. [Judge a friend's character at first hand. ]
“If thou seekest the character of a friend, mind thou, do not
ask; go to him, occupy thyself with him alone so as not to in-
terfere with his business. Argue with him after a season, test [? ]
his heart with an instance of speech. ”
34. [Be cheerful to friends. ]
"Let thy face be shining the time that thou hast: verily that
which cometh out of the store doth not enter again; but bread is
Salary in kind.
1
1
## p. 5337 (#509) ###########################################
EGYPTIAN LITERATURE
5337
> 1
for apportionment, and he that is niggardly is an accuser, empty
of his belly. It befalleth that a quarrelsome man is a spoiler of
things; do it not unto him who cometh unto thee. The remem-
brance of a man is of his kindliness in the years after the staff
[of power ? ]. ”
35. [Importance of credit. ]
Know? thy tradesman when thy affairs are unsuccessful; thy
good reputation with thy friend is a channel well filled; it is
more important than a man's wealth. The property of one
belongeth to another. A profitable thing is the good reputation of
a man's son to him. The nature is better than the memory. ”[? ]
36. [Punish for an example, instruct for the principle. ]
37. [Treat kindly a seduced woman. )
“If thou makest a woman ashamed, wanton of heart, whom
her fellow townspeople know to be under two laws, be kind to
her a season; send her not away, let her have food to eat. The
wantonness of her heart appreciateth guidance. "
38. [Advantage of obedience to rule. ]
“If thou hearkenest to these things that I tell thee, and all
thy behavior is according to what precedeth,“ verily they have a
true course. They are precious, their memory goeth in the
mouth of men by reason of the excellence of their phrasing;
and each saying is carried on; it is not destroyed out of this
land ever; it maketh a rule to advantage by which the nobles
may speak. It is a teaching for a man that he may speak to
the future. He that heareth them becometh an expert. A good
hearer speaketh to the future of what he hath heard.
If good
fortune befalleth by reason of him who is at the head of affairs,
it is to him good forever, and all his satisfactoriness remaineth
to eternity. It is he who knoweth that blesseth his soul“ in
1 The second text gives “Let thy face [be shining] when thou makest a
feast. Verily that which cometh out of the store doth not enter [? ], but
bread is apportioned; he that is niggardly of face is remorseful; [? ] his belly
is empty. He that remembereth a man is kind unto him in the years after
the staff [of power ? ]. ” The last expression may mean (after the loss of
authority. ”
Variant (beseech. ” The meaning of the' section is not certain.
3 To be in an ambiguous position. (? )
* Or «then all thy ways shall have the lead. ”
5 Ba, in Egyptian: the person who has learned good conduct (the ignorant
cannot) pours benediction upon the soul of him who set the example of it,
when he finds himself profited on earth by the practice thereof.
## p. 5338 (#510) ###########################################
5338
EGYPTIAN LITERATURE
establishing his excellence upon earth: he who knoweth hath
satisfaction of his knowledge. A noble' taketh his right course
in what his heart and his tongue provide; his lips are correct
when he speaketh, his eyes in seeing, his ears just in hearing; a
profitable thing for his son is doing right, free from wrong.
"It is a profitable thing for the son of one who hath hearkened
[to instruction] to hearken [to his father], entering and listening
to a hearkener. A hearkener becometh a person hearkened to,
good in hearkening and good in speech; a hearkener possesseth
what is profitable: profitable to the hearkener is hearkening.
Hearkening is better than anything: it befalleth indeed that love
is good, but twice good is it when a son receiveth what his
father saith: old age cometh to him therewith. He who loveth
God hearkeneth, he who hateth God doth not hearken: it is the
heart that maketh its possessor hearken or not hearken, and the
Life, Prosperity, and Health ? of a is his heart. The
hearkener heareth what is said. He that loveth to hear doeth
according to what is said. Twice good is it for a son to hearken
to his father. How happy is he to whom these things are told!
A son, he shineth as possessing the quality of hearkening. The
hearkener to whom they are told, he is excellent in body. He
that is pious-and-well-pleasing to his father, his memory is in
the mouth of the living who are upon earth, whoever they
shall be. "
man
39. [The docile son. )
“If the son of a man receive what his father saith, no plan of
his shall fail. [He whom] thou teachest as thy son, or the
listener that is successful in the heart of the nobles, he guideth
his mouth according to what he hath been told. He that
beholdeth is as he that obeyeth, i. e. , a son*; his ways are distin-
guished. He faileth that entereth without hearing. He that
knoweth, on the next day is established; he who is ignorant is
crushed. ”
40. [The ignorant and unteachable man is a miserable fail-
ure. ]
1 The word presupposes education, as often.
2 A frequent collocation of words; as for instance, following the mention
of a royal person.
3 Amakh. See note to Section 41.
4 The words (a son » seem inserted.
5 Or is fit only for hard manual labor. ”
5
## p. 5339 (#511) ###########################################
EGYPTIAN LITERATURE
5339
41. [The handing down of good precepts. ]
« The son of a hearkener is as an Attendant of Horus': there
is good for him when he hath hearkened; he groweth old, he
reacheth Amakh? ; he telleth the like to his children, renewing
the teaching of his father. Every man teacheth as he hath per-
formed; he telleth the like to his sons, that they may tell again
to their children. ' Do what is admirable; cause not thyself to be
mocked;[? ] establish truth that thy children may live. If virtue
entereth, vice departeth: then men who shall see such-like shall
say, “Behold, that man spoke to one who hearkened! ' and
they shall do the like; or Behold, that man was observant. )
All shall say, “They pacify the multitude; riches are not com-
plete without them. ' Add not a word, nor take one away; put
not one in the place of another. Guard thyself against opening
the lacunæ [? ] that are in thee. Guard thyself against being told,
One who knoweth is listening; mark thou. Thou desirest to
be established in the mouth of those who hears when thou
speakest. But thou hast entered on the business of an expert;
thou speakest of matters that belong to us, and thy way is not
in its proper place. »
42. [Speak with consideration. ]
“Let thy heart be overflowing, let thy mouth be restrained:
consider how thou shalt behave among the nobles. Be exact in
practice with thy master: act so that he may say, "The son of
that man shall speak to those that shall hearken. Praise worthy
also is he who formed him. '
«Apply thine heart while thou art speaking, that thou mayest
speak things of distinction; then the nobles who shall hear will
say, “How good is that which proceedeth out of his mouth! »»
43. [Obedience to the master. ]
“Do according to that thy master telleth thee. How excellent
[to a man] is the teaching of his father, out of whom he hath
11. e. , one of the loyal adherents of Horus the son of Osiris in his war
against the evil Set.
2 The blessed state of well-earned repose and rewards, both in this world
and in the next, after faithful service.
3 This is the reading furnished by the fragments in the British Museum for
an unintelligible passage in the Prisse.
* « Them” is difficult to assign to any antecedent definitely; perhaps (with-
out their advice how to behave and employ the wealth » is meant.
5 Or those who are listened to,» «instructors. »
## p. 5340 (#512) ###########################################
5340
EGYPTIAN LITERATURE
come, out of his very body, and who spake unto him while he
was yet altogether in his loins! Greater is what hath been done
unto him than what hath been said unto him. Behold, a good
son that God giveth doeth beyond what he is told for his mas-
ter; he doeth right, doing heartily [? ] in his goings even as thou
hast come unto me, that thy body may be sound, that the King
may be well pleased with all that is done, that thou mayest
spend years of life. It is no small thing that I have done on
earth; I have spent 110 years' of life while the King gave me
praises as among the ancestors, by my doing uprightly to the
King until the state of Amakh. ? )
This is its arrival
like that which was found in the writing.
Translation of F. Li, Griffith.
2 )
[The following extracts are reproduced from the German of Professor
Erman's translation. ]
+
FROM THE MAXIMS OF ANY)
“K
EEP thyself from the strange woman who is not known in
her city. Look not upon her when she cometh, and know
her not.
She is like unto a whirlpool in deep water, the
whirling vortex of which is not known. The woman whose hus-
band is afar writeth unto thee daily. When none is there to see
her, she standeth up and spreadeth her snare; sin unto death is
it to hearken thereto. ” Hence he who is wise will renounce her
company and take to himself a wife in his youth. A man's own
house is the best thing, and also she will give unto thee a
son who shall be as the image of thyself. ”
1
[Thy debt to thy mother. ]
Thou shalt never forget thy mother and what she hath done
for thee, “that she bore thee, and nurtured thee in all ways. ”
Wert thou to forget her then might she blame thee, lifting up
her arms unto God, and he would hearken unto her complaint.
For she carried thee long beneath her heart as a heavy burden,
and after thy months were accomplished she bore thee. Three
long years she carried thee upon her shoulder and gave thee her
1 This was the ideal length of life in Egypt. The figure must not be taken
too literally.
2 See note to Section 41, previous page.
1
1
## p. 5341 (#513) ###########################################
EGYPTIAN LITERATURE
5341
breast to thy mouth. ” She nurtured thee, nor knew offense
from thine uncleanness. And when thou didst enter the school
and wast instructed in the writings, daily she stood by the mas-
ter with bread and beer from her house. ”
[Be not drunken with beer. ]
Drink not beer to excess! That which cometh forth from thy
mouth thou canst no longer speak. Thou fallest down, thou
breakest thy limbs, and none stretcheth out a hand to thee. Thy
companions drink on; they arise and say, "Away with this one
who hath drunken. ” When one cometh to seek thee, to seek
counsel of thee, he findeth thee lying in the dust like a little
child.
[Of inward piety. ]
“Clamor is abhorrent to the sanctuary of God; let thy prayers
for thyself come forth out of a loving heart, whose words remain
secret, that he may grant thee thy needs, may hear thy prayer,
and accept thine offering. ”
[Of diligence and discretion. ]
Be diligent; “let thine eye be open that thou mayest not go
forth as a beggar, for the man who is idle cometh not to honor. ”
Be not officious and indiscreet, and “enter not [uninvited] into
the house of another; if thou enter at his bidding thou art hon-
ored. Look not around thee, look not around thee in the house
of another. What thine eye seeth, keep silence concerning it,
and tell it not without to another, that it be not in thee a crime
to be punished by death when it is heard. ” Speak not over-
much, "for men are deaf to him who maketh many words; but
if thou art silent thou art pleasing, therefore speak not. ” Above
all be cautious in speech, for “the ruin of a man is on his
tongue. The body of a man is a storehouse, which is full of all
manner of answers. Wherefore choose thou the good and speak
good, while the evil remaineth shut up within thy body. ”
[Of manners. ]
Behave with propriety at table and “be not greedy to fill thy
body. ” And “eat not bread while another standeth by and thou
placest not thy hand on the bread for him. The one is rich and
the other is poor, and bread remaineth with him who is open-
handed. He who was prosperous last year, even in this may be
## p. 5342 (#514) ###########################################
5342
EGYPTIAN LITERATURE
a vagrant. [? ]” Never forget to show respect, “and sit not down
while another is standing who is older than thou, or who is
higher than thou in his office. ”
Revised from the German of Adolf Erman.
INSTRUCTION OF DAUF
Wson
HEN Dauf the sage of Sebennytus went up to the Royal
Court
Writing-School,” he admonished him to set his heart
upon writing, to love it as his mother, for there is naught that
surpasseth it. ” He thereupon composes a poem in praise of the
profession, to the disparagement of all other callings:--
“Behold, there is no profession that is not under rule;
Only the man of learning himself ruleth. ”
And then,
“Never have I seen the engraver an ambassador,
Or the goldsmith with an embassy:
But I have seen the smith at his work
At the mouth of his furnace;
His fingers were as crocodile [hide],
He stank more than fish-roe.
“A craftsman who plieth the chisel
Is wearied more than he who tilleth the soil;
Wood is his field, and bronze his implement;
At night -- is he released ?
He worketh more than his arms are able;
At night he lighteth a light. ”
Etc. , etc.
no
[The praise of learning was a favorite subject with peda-
gogue and parent. According to other sages] “the unlearned
whose name man knoweth, is like unto a heavy-laden ass,
driven by the scribe,” while he who hath set learning in his
heart” is exempt from labor “and becometh a wise noble. ”
The rank of a scribe is princely; his writing outfit and his
papyrus roll bring comfort and wealth. ” « The scribe alone
guideth the labor of all men; but if labor in writing is hateful
to him, then the goddess of good fortune is not with him. ”
## p. 5343 (#515) ###########################################
EGYPTIAN LITERATURE
5343
“O scribe, be not lazy, be not lazy, else thou shalt be soundly
chastised; give not thy heart to vain desires, or thou wilt come
to ruin. Book in hand, read with thy mouth, and take the advice
of those who know more than thyself. Prepare for thyself the
office of a noble, that thou mayest attain thereto when thou art
become old. Happy is the scribe clever in all his offices. Be
strong and diligent in daily work. Pass no day idly, or thou
wilt be flogged, for the ears of a boy are on his back, and he
heareth when he is flogged. Let thine heart hear what I say; it
will bring thee to fortune. Be strong in asking advice; do not
overlook it in writing; be not disgusted at it. Therefore let
thine heart hear my words; thou shalt find fortune thereby. ”
Revised from the German of Adolf Erman.
11
are
CONTRASTED LOTS OF SCRIBE AND FELLÂH
[The following is a sample of the warnings to young men to stick to the
business of the scribe and not be led away by the charms of out-door life,
always so dear to the Egyptian. — Date XIXth Dynasty, or earlier. ]
T is told to me that thou hast cast aside learning, and givest
thyself to dancing; thou turnest thy face to the work in the
fields, and castest the divine words behind thee.
Behold, thou rememberest not the condition of the fellâh,
when the harvest is taken over. The worms carry off half the
corn, and the hippopotamus devours the rest; mice abound in the
fields, and locusts arrive; the cattle devour, the sparrows steal.
How miserable is the lot of the fellâh ! What remains on the
threshing-floor, robbers finish it up. The bronze
worn out, the horses [oxen? ] die with threshing and plow.
ing. Then the scribe moors at the bank who is to take over the
harvest;' the attendants? bear staves, the negroes carry palm-
sticks. They say, "Give corn! ” But there is none. They beat
[the fellâh] prostrate; they bind him and cast him into the canal,
throwing him headlong. His wife is bound before him, his child-
ren are swung off; his neighbors let them go, and flee to look
after their corn.
But the scribe is the leader of labor for all; he reckons to
himself the produce in winter, and there is none that appoints
him his tale of produce. Behold, now thou knowest!
Translation of F. Li. Griffith.
1 That is, for the government.
? Lit. , doorkeepers - i. e. , of the official cabin.
## p. 5344 (#516) ###########################################
5344
EGYPTIAN LITERATURE
REPROACHES TO A DISSIPATED STUDENT
XIXTH DYNASTY
T".
HEY tell me that thou forsakest books,
And givest thyself up to pleasure.
Thou goest from street to street;
Every evening the smell of beer,
The smell of beer, frightens people away from thee.
It bringeth thy soul to ruin.
Thou art like a broken helm,
That obeyeth on neither side.
Thou art as a shrine without its god,
As a house without bread.
!
1
Thou art met climbing the walls,
And breaking through the paling:
People flee froin thee,
Thou strikest them until they are wounded.
Oh that thou didst know that wine is an abomination,
And that thou wouldst forswear the Shedeh drink!
That thou wouldst not put cool drinks within thy heart,
That thou wouldst forget the Tenreku.
But now thou art taught to sing to the flute,
To recite [? ] to the pipe,
To intone to the lyre,
To sing to the harp,
[and generally to lead a life of dissipation. ]
Revised from the German of Adolf Erman.
I
1
!
## p. 5345 (#517) ###########################################
5345
JOSEPH VON EICHENDORFF
(1788-1857)
T
he poetry of the Romantic School is the poetry of longing.
It is filled with a spirit of passionate yearning that gives to
it its pathos, and makes each poem seem the expression of
an undefined but ardent wish. The poet's soul is reaching out for
that which no longer is, but which has been and may be again.
Novalis has symbolized this yearning in the quest for the mysterious
«blue flower. ” Men longed for the glories of the past, and among
the knights and minstrels of mediæval court and castle they sought
for that blue flower whose odor is love. In the bleak unfriendliness
of the foggy Northern clime, the sunny expansive beauty of the
South, where the magnificence of ancient ages still shimmered through
a mellow haze, drew all sensitive hearts to Italy. Goethe felt the
strong attraction, and fled without leave-taking across the Alps, to
recover his genius under Italian skies. He gave to this deep and
universal longing for Italy its classic incarnation in the pathetic
figure of Mignon. In the very year in which Goethe returned from
Rome, Joseph von Eichendorff was born. He was the last and most
ardent of the Romanticists, and all the restless longing of those times
found in him its typical interpreter.
Eichendorff was born on the family estate at Lubowitz in Silesia,
on March 10th, 1788. He was brought up in the Roman Catholic
faith, to which thereafter so many of his brother poets were
verted. He studied law in Halle, Heidelberg, and Paris. At Heidel-
berg he took his degree, and at Heidelberg he came definitely under
the Romantic influence through his association with Arnim, Brentano,
and Görres. In Vienna, where he spent three years, he stood in close
relations with Schlegel. His qualities of mind were essentially South
German, for he was an Austrian by birth. He was on the point of
entering the Austrian service when the famous appeal of February
3d, 1813, from the King of Prussia, roused every German patriot.
Eichendorff enlisted as a volunteer in the Prussian army. Through-
out that thrilling campaign of the wars for freedom he fought in the
cause of the wider Fatherland. He became an officer in the “Lützow
Corps,” which Körner has made famous in his verse. Scarcely had
he obtained his dismissal after the first peace of Paris, when the
news of Napoleon's return from Elba summoned him to arms again.
In 1816, however, he began his career, after a brilliant showing
before the examiners, as an officer in the civil service of Prussia.
con-
IX-335
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JOSEPH VON EICHENDORFF
men
Henceforth his life was outwardly uneventful. He married soon after
his appointment. Intellectually he maintained relations with the
finest spirits of his land and time. Having served the State in
various capacities for more than a quarter of a century, he was dis-
missed at his own request in 1844, and retired to private life. He
died at Neisse on November 26th, 1857. Heine had died early in the
preceding year. With Eichendorff the last great poet of the Roman-
tic School passed away.
It would be fruitless to catalogue the works of Eichendorff that are
no longer read. His first independent effort was published at the end
of the Napoleonic campaign, under the title of Ahnung und Gegen-
wart' (Presage and Presence). Stories, comedies, tragedies, and excel-
lent translations from the Spanish followed, until now his works fill
ten volumes; but of these, only his poems and his tale (Out of the
Life of a Good-for-Nothing' retain their full vitality to-day.
His poems possess enduring beauty. They are full of that pro-
found longing for purer days and fairer realms, and of that dreamy
lyric charm, that makes men young again. There is a breath in
them of a vanished time; they sing of a golden age in which all
were idle and all women pure. The music of his verse has
attracted many composers, from Mendelssohn, his friend, to Robert
Franz in our own day. Eichendorff looked down upon the rhetori-
cal ideality of Schiller and the symbolic naturalism of Goethe. He
sang of the soul and its homesickness; of its longing for a lost inher-
itance.
The delightful Life of a Good-for-Nothing' appeared in 1824, and
it remains to-day one of the most popular tales in German litera-
ture. It is the apotheosis of idleness and vagabondism. In this
little book,” says Brandes, «all the old charms of romance are shut
up, as in a cage, to make music for us. There is the odor of the
woods and the song of birds, the longing for travel and the joys of
wandering. ” The book describes the vagabond life of a child of
genius, idle with a hundred aptitudes, pure with a hundred tempta-
tions, and amid a hundred dangers careless and irresponsible. This
Good-for-Nothing illustrates in his roving life the romantic quest of
the blue Aower. ” He lives for pure pleasures and the joys of un-
remunerative art; his is the infinite longing which never can be
stilled, but only rendered endurable by poetry, by music, and by
moonlight on forest, field, and stream. The book is an exquisite
idyl; it is full of strange adventures and all the romantic machinery
of singular disguises, lofty and secluded castles, and mysterious beau-
ties who throw flowers from shaded balconies; and yet it is essentially
idyllic, and the beautiful lyrics which are scattered through its pages
create an atmosphere of eternal summer in which we are made to
## p. 5347 (#519) ###########################################
JOSEPH VON EICHENDORFF
5347
forget the work-a-day world where men earn their daily bread and
feel the salutary pressure of duty.
Eichendorff himself was a faithful public servant, and in the
Life of a Good-for-Nothing' we have the confession only of what
the author perhaps thought he would have liked to be, rather than
of what he was. He was reverent and pious, and one of the most
evenly balanced minds in all that circle of madcap poets. He has
told us of those early days of the Romantic School and of the deep
thrills which agitated the entire German people when Schelling,
Novalis, the Schlegels, and Tieck began their life work in literature.
And this work was done in the days when the sword of Napoleon
hung suspended over Germany; in days when even the poet who
was to sing the praises of the dolce far niente of Good-for-Nothingness
was ready to give three years of his life for the defense of his native
land. So far had literature and life lost sight of each other, and the
men of vigorous action and solid achievement still sang sweetly of
the blue flower and of the pleasures of idleness, leaving behind them
a body of literature which, however unreal, will not lose its power to
soothe and charm.
FROM OUT OF THE LIFE OF A GOOD-FOR-NOTHING)
VE wheel of my father's mill rushed and roared again right
Tinerily
, the melting snow trickled steadily down from the
roof, the sparrows twittered and bustled about.
I sat on
the door-sill and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes; I felt so
comfortable in the warm sunshine. Just then my father came out
of the house. He had worked since daybreak in the mill, and
had his tasseled cap awry upon his head. To me he said:—“You
Good-for-Nothing! There you are sunning yourself again and
stretching and straining your bones tired, and leave me to do all
the work alone. I cannot feed you here any longer. Spring is
at the door; go out into the world and earn your own bread. ”
«Now,” said I, “if I am a Good-for-Nothing, well and good; I
will go out into the world and seek my fortune. ” And really
I was very well pleased, for it had shortly before occurred to
me too to travel, when I heard the yellow-hammer, who always
sung his note in autumn and winter so plaintively at our window,
now calling again in the beautiful spring so proudly and merrily
from the trees. I went accordingly into the house and got my
violin, which I played quite cleverly, down from the wall; my
father gave me besides a few groschens to take along, and so I
## p. 5348 (#520) ###########################################
5348
JOSEPH VON EICHENDORFF
sauntered out through the long village. It gave me in truth a
secret pleasure when I saw all my old acquaintances and com-
rades, right and left, just as yesterday, and day before yesterday,
and always, going out to work, to dig and to plow; while I thus
wandered out into the free world. I called out to the poor peo-
ple on all sides proudly and contentedly, Adieu! but nobody paid
very much attention to it. In my soul it seemed to me like an
eternal Sunday. And when I at last came out into the open
fields, I took up my dear violin and played and sang as I walked
along the highway.
When I presently looked about, a fine traveling carriage came
up quite near to me, that may have been for some time driving
along behind me without my having noticed it, since my heart
was so full of music; for it went along quite slowly, and two
ladies put their heads out of the carriage and listened to me.
The one was particularly beautiful and younger than the other,
but really both of them pleased me. When I now ceased sing-
ing, the elder one had the driver stop and spoke to me kindly:
“Ah, you happy fellow, you know how to sing very pretty songs.
To which I, not at all backward, answered, “If it please your
Excellency, I may have some that are prettier still. ” Thereupon
she asked me again, "Where then are you wandering so early
in the morning ? ” Then I was ashamed that I did not know,
myself, and said boldly, “To Vienna. ” Thereupon both spoke
together in a foreign language that I did not understand. The
younger one shook her head several times, but the other laughed
continuously and finally called out to me, "Spring up behind us:
we are also going to Vienna. ” Who was happier than I! I made
a bow, and at a jump was on behind the carriage, the coachman
cracked his whip, and we flew along over the glistening road, so
that the wind whistled about my hat.
Behind me disappeared village, gardens, and church towers;
before appeared new villages, castles, and mountains.
Below me
grain fields, copse, and meadows flew in many colors past; above
were countless larks in the blue air. I was ashamed to
cry aloud, but inwardly I exulted, and stamped and danced
about on the footboard of the carriage, so that I had nearly
lost my violin which I held under my arm. As the sun, how-
ever, rose continually higher, and heavy white noonday clouds
came up round about the horizon, and everything in the air and
on the broad plains became so empty and close and still over
me
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JOSEPH VON EICHENDORFF
5349
the gently waving grain fields, then for the first time came into
my mind my village, and my father, and our mill, and how it
was so comfortable and cool there by the shady pond, and that
now everything lay so far, far behind me. I felt so strangely,
and as if I must turn back again. I put my violin in between
my coat and waistcoat, sat down full of thought upon the foot-
board, and fell asleep.
When I opened my eyes the carriage stood still under tall
linden-trees, behind which a broad stairway led up between col-
umns into a splendid castle. On one side, through the trees, I
saw the towers of Vienna. The ladies, it appeared, had long
since got out, and the horses were unharnessed. I was much
frightened when I found myself all at once alone. As I sprang
quickly up into the castle, I heard somebody above laughing out
of the window.
In this castle it fared strangely with me. In the first place,
as I was looking about in the wide cool hall, some one tapped
me with a stick upon the shoulder.
