IN MEMORIAM 
BERNARD MOSES 




UBRARV 
SGMOOL 



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CHRIST 



IN 



A GERMAN HOME, 



AS 



SEEN IN THE MARRIED LIFE 



OF 



FREDERICK AND CAROLINE PERTHES, 

1/ 







AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY, 

150 NASSAU-STREET, NEW YORK. 



Z 3/5- 

SCHOOlij 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by the Amertcai* 
Tbact Society, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



«€RNABD MOSES 






%.'* 






A> 



INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 



There is a circle of our most intelligent readers fa- 
miliar with the two octavo volumes published in Eng- 
land, containing an admirable translation of Professor 
Perthes' biography of his father and mother. Many of 
our leading presidents and professors of colleges and 
theological seminaries, our most learned divines and 
authors, have confessed that that work is one of the 
most interesting which our age has produced. Its size 
alone has precluded its pubhcation in this country ; for 
the work is of so high a character as to appeal to a 
very intellectual but rather limited class of readers. 
The rare value of the book has long prompted me to 
desire to see the best things in it made the common 
property of a large public ; and at my request a genial 
and gifted friend has gone over the whole work, and 
culled out those portions which especially illustrate the 
family life of Frederick and Caroline Perthes, and which 
dehneate that rarest and most beautiful spectacle in 
the world, a truly Christian, highly refined, and most 
amiable and gentle home. 



885968 



4 INTJadr^jaQTOEY NOTE. 

"Et vill fes renit35p:ibeve^ by some and ouglit to be 
known by all that the names' of both Frederick and 
Caroline Perthes, were perfectly familiar in Germany. 
He was not only the greatest publisher of his time and 
nation, but a leader in great political, theological, 
and educational enterprises, and an intimate friend 
of almost every other great man of his day. She was 
a daughter of the distinguished poet and essayist 
Claudius, and a woman of rare loveliness and con- 
spicuous accomplishments. Their home was the famil- 
iar assembling place of all that was good and great in 
Germany, during the earher years of the present cen- 
tury. The portrayal of their life must therefore be a 
kind of panorama of all that the student of German 
life and character desires to see in the Augustan age 
of German literature. And busied as Perthes was with 
all the great problems of his time, and wielding a lead- 
ing hand in all the religious, literary, patriotic, and 
commercial movements of Germany, even a brief sketch 
like the present must necessarily open up a field of 
great interest. 

The central figure of the book after all is Caroline, 
the gentle wife, not the resolute, stirring and wonder- 
fully able husband. And it was not at all a surprise 
to me when the author of the biography. Professor 
Perthes of Bonn, told me that by far the larger number 
of letters which came to him after the publication of 



INTKODUCTOEY NOTE. 5 

the work in Germany, spoke of the deep interest which 
had been awakened in the lovely character of his moth- 
er. For among all the women whose lives have be- 
come famihar to English and American readers, there 
is none who can be compared with her in the combina- 
tion of qualities which make up the true Christian 
woman. 

W. L. GAGE. 
Haetfoed, Or. 



CONTENTS. 



I. Caroline Claudius page 9 

n. Frederick Christopher Perthes ~ 13 

UL Betrothal and Marriage 23 

IV. The Business and the Family 35 

V. Christian Experience -- — 41 

VI. Napoleon 46 

VII. Patriotism 52 

YLU. The French in Hamburg 62 

IX. Exile '. 73 

X. Vicissitudes of "War 85 

XI. TheRetumHome 93 

Xn. Death of Claudius ^ 100 

XIII. Correspondence 119 

XTV. Eeligion and Rationalism 132 

XV. Marriage of the Eldest Daughter 137 



8 CONTENTS. 

XVI. Marriage of the Second Daughter «- - 157 

XVII. Matthias at the University - 169 

XVni. The Last Days of Caroline Perthes 184 

XIX. Gotha - 205 

XX. Perthes' Views of Life - 216 

XXI. Last Days of Perthes 221 




CHRIST 



IN 



A GERMAN HOME 



CAROLINE CLAUDIUS. 

jN the year 1796 there lived in Wands- 
beck, a pleasant little town in North- 
ern Germany, Matthias Claudius, a 
truly good man, and an excellent pop- 
^ -^J ular author. His writings were earnest, at 
the same time humorous, noble, and patriotic. His 
nature was impulsive but kindly. A strong faith in 
the truths of the Bible, and a childlike trust in a 
heavenly Father's love, banished all gloomy and 

disturbing thoughts from his heart and household. 

2 




10 CHKIST IN A GERMAN HOME. 

Few would liave recognized the man of genius in 
the ungainly figure, arrayed in a homely dressing- 
gown, or in the pale face from which the hair was 
tightly drawn back and fastened with a comb, but 
for the heavenly fire which flashed from his fine 
blue eyes. 

His daughter reflected the genial nature of her 
father, and the noble and womanly simplicity of her 
mother. The great works of Palestrina, Leonardo 
Leo, Bach, Handel, and Mozart, the language and 
literature of England, and intellectual pursuits of 
all kinds, found a place amid their daily domestic 
duties. 

Caroline Claudius, the eldest daughter, was born 
in 1774. Her biographer describes her thus : " Al- 
though there was nothing remarkable or dazzling 
in her general appearance, notwithstanding her 
fine, regular features, her slender figure, and her 
delicate complexion, yet the treasures of fancy and 
feeling, the strength and repose of character, and 
the clearness of intellect which shone in her deep 
hazel eyes, gave her a quiet but irresistible cLarm. 
Throughout her whole Hfe she inspired unbounded 
confidence in all who approached her. To her the 
glad brought their joys, secure of finding joyous 
sympathy, and to many of the afflicted, both in 



CAKOLINE CLAUDIUS. 11 

body and in mind, she ministered consolation, taught 
resignation, and inspired them with fresh courage. 
Accustomed to the simple life of her parental home, 
contact with the bustle of the outward world ap- 
peared fraught with dangers to her childlike, simple 
walk with God. Household duties, study and mu- 
sic, occupied her time. When more advanced in 
life, she retained a rich, clear voice, and a fine mu- 
sical taste. She was acquainted with the modern 
languages, and had gone far enough in Latin to en- 
able her subsequently to assist her sons. 

" While Caroline remained at home, she received 
but few impressions from without. She clung with 
reverential afi'ectlon to the Princess Galhtzin, who 
was a frequent visitor at her father's house, and 
who reciprocated the attachment with so much 
warmth that to the end of her life she preserved a 
motherly friendship for her. By the Countess Julia 
Eeventlow, Caroline was equally beloved. She had 
been at Emkendorf on a visit of some months, and 
became so great a favorite with the family, that 
they would have taken her with them to Italy, had 
they been able to obtain her father's consent. The 
first great event in her life was the death of her sis- 
ter Christine, who was only a year or two younger 
than herself. A letter that she wrote at that time 



12 CHRIST IN A GERMAN HOME. 

to the Countess Eeventlow at Eoine, lias been pre- 
served. 

"'I am like a little child, who, when it is in 
tronble, stretches out its arms to those it loves, and 
finds pleasure in weeping on their bosom. How 
often have I thus wished to be with you, dear 
countess ! But though my arms cannot reach you, 
my letter may. We have had a sad time ! Our 
dear Christine was attacked with nervous fever, 
and died on the second of July. Gently she fell 
asleep, after having suffered much; and now that 
the pains of death are over, I would not wish her 
back. How dear has the death-bed become to me ! 
It is at such times that we feel deeply — and in a 
manner that we can never forget — how necessary it 
is to seek for something that may support us in 
death, and accompany us beyond.' 

"It was on the 27th of November, 1796, that 
Perthes first saw Caroline in her father's house. 
' Her bright eyes, and her open, clear look pleased 
me, and I loved her,' said Perthes. And who was 
Perthes ?" 




11. 




FREDERICK CHRISTOPHER PERTHES. 

Cp^^^p/EEDEEICK CHEISTOPHER PER- 

~ *"" '^ thes was born at Eudolfsbadt, in 1772, 
a year of famine known in Germany as 
the ^reat hunger-year." His father, 
a lawyer of considerable distinction, died at 
the age of thirty-seven, leaving his wife and chil- 
dren almost destitute. Frederick was adopted by 
his grandmother. But she died when he was only 
seven years old, leaving him to the care of his 
uncle, Frederick Heubel, who kept house with an 
unmarried sister, Caroline Heubel, a woman of great 
strength of character. 

Notwithstanding their slender means, Frederick 
was affectionately received into their home, faith- 
fully trained and carefully instructed. 

Possessing a very excitable temperament, he 
always ascribed to the influence of his aunt and 



14: CHRIST IN A GERMAN HOME. 

uncle the horror with which he regarded every 
kind of immorahty, and the respect he felt for the 
rights of others. 

At the age of fourteen it was thought best to ap- 
prentice him to a bookseller; so he was sent to 
Leipzig, with a friend, to seek a master. One de- 
cHned taking him because he could not conjugate 
the verb amo. A tall, gaunt man, in a flame-color- 
ed overcoat reaching to his heels, first frightened 
the poor boy into silence, then condemned him as 
" too shy for the book-trade." 

At last he was kindly received by Adam Bohme, 
but pronounced too delicate and small for work at 
that time, and was sent home for a year to grow. 

At the end of the year, indentures were signed 
by the uncle and master, and the boy again set out 
for Leipzig. Upon arriving there he was greeted 
with, " Why, boy, you are no bigger than you were 
a year ago; but we will make trial of it, and see 
how we get on together." The next morning he 
received the following instructions : " Frederick, 
you must let your hair grow in front to a brush, 
and behind to a cue, and get a pair of wooden 
buckles ; lay aside your sailor's round hat — a cocked 
one is ordered." This once-universal custom had 
latterly disappeared, but Bohme tolerated no new 



FREDERICK C. PERTHES. 15 

fashion among his apprentices. "You are not to 
leave the house either morning or evening, without 
my permission. On Sundays you must accompany 
me to church." 

His fare was by no means luxurious. Every 
morning at six he received a cup of tea, and every 
Sunday, as a provision for the coming week, seven 
lumps of sugar, and seven halfpence to purchase 
bread. 

" Wliat I find hardest," wrote Frederick to his 
uncle, " is, that I have only a halfpenny roll in the 
morning. I find this to be scanty allowance. In 
the afternoon, from one till eight, we have not a 
morsel; that is what I call hunger. I think we 
ought to have something." Dinner and supper he 
took with the family, in abundance ; but, alas for 
him when fat roast-meat with gourd-sauce was set 
upon the table ! for it was a law that whatever was 
put upon the plate must be eaten. 

" That which troubles me most," writes the boy, 
"is my master's passionate temper. If we have 
made the shghtest blunder, he breaks out upon us ; 
this is very different from what I have been accus- 
tomed to, and I feel it very hard to bear; but I 
shall get used to it in time." 

When the fit of passion was over, Bohme would 



16 CHRIST IN A GERMAN HOME. 

good-naturedly endeavor to make peace with the 
boy by bringing him fruit, or sharing with him his 
afternoon coffee and the accompanying lumps of 
sugar. 

Frederick was kept busily at work running upon 
errands, or collating for hours upon the stone flags 
of the little shop which Bohme never thought of 
warming. At last the boy's feet became so badly 
frost-bitten that he was unable to walk, when a 
surgeon was sent for. He came, and declared that 
another day's neglect would have made amputa- 
tion necessary. 

For nine long weeks the boy was a prisoner in his 
little garret-room; but not neglected, for his mas- 
ter's second daughter, Fredericka, a lovely child of 
twelve years, took him under her charge, and tend- 
ed him with care and affection. All day long she 
sat, knitting-needles in hand, by the bedside of the 
invalid, talking with him, consohng, and minis- 
tering. 

Upon the floor, among the old books, lay a 
translation of Muratori's History of Italy ; and the 
poor girl, with never-failing kindness, read through 
several of the ponderous quartos in the dusky little 
garret. A strong friendship thus sprang up be- 
tween the children, which lasted for years. 



FREDERICK C. PERTHES. 17 

Added to other trials, were tlie deep longings 
for home, for the wild, free rambles through wood 
and mountain, and more than all, for the affection 
he had always there received. "Dearest uncle," 
he writes, "all is well with me, but for a sort of 
melancholy of quite a special kind ; for when I am 
alone I fall to thinking of my former happy life, 
now for ever passed, away. If I am good now 
and continue so, I have to thank you and my aunt 
for it." 

In three years Frederick succeeded so well in 
gaining the confidence of his master, that he was 
left in charge of the business during an absence of 
some weeks. And his biogi-apher records that his 
master was so much pleased upon his return, that 
in acknowledgment of his services he presented him 
with a pair of silken garters. 

Gradually his work became easier, but his heart 
was filled with intense longings to pursue studies 
which neither his time nor his means would permit 
him to undertake. " Dearest, best uncle," he wrote, 
at the age of nineteen, "it is certainly true that he 
who strives after improvement is thereby capable 
of exalted enjoyment ; and I have myself often had 
such bright hours when, by meditation on tJie per- 
fection of God and his works, and by consciousness 



18 CHKTST IN A GEKMAN HOME. 

of my own dignity as a human being, I enjoyed a 
foretaste of the destiny ultimately in store for me. 
At such seasons all, all was joy ; and I saw every- 
thing around me laboring onward to perfection. 
Then all men were my brothers, advancing with me 
to the same goal." 

" The most earnest wish of my heart," he writes, 
on another occasion, "is, for a friend to whom I 
might freely unbosom myself, who would strengthen 
me when I am weak, and encourage me when I be- 
gin to despair; but, alas! I find no such friend, 
and yet I feel an irresistible necessity to unburden 
my heart, and so overpowering is this longing, that 
1 could press every man to my breast and say. 
Thou, too, art God's image." 

Despite all hinderances, he was gaining in cul- 
ture and knowledge of life, in its varied relations, 
and, at the same time, attracting friends, w] o not 
only made him acquainted with many of the first 
wiiters of the age, but were also a source of much 
happiness. 

" Never, since I came here," he writes, " have I 
enjoyed such pleasant, heart-quickening hours as 
now, in the society of my beloved new friends ; the 
moment I enter I read welcome in their eyes. I 
am one of the happiest of men ; the friendship, and 



FBEDEBICK C. PERTHES. 19 

regard, and affection of good men accompany me 
at every step." 

Before his term of service came to an end, Hoff- 
man, the Hamburgh bookseller, anxious to engage 
Perthes as an assistant, requested his master to set 
him free. Bohme consented; a grand entertain- 
ment was given, in the course of which he told 
Perthes to rise, gave him a gentle slap on the face, 
presented him with a sword, and addressed him as 
Sie^ (you.) Thus his apprenticeship to the book- 
trade was at an end. 

On the 13th of May, 1793, Perthes took leave 
of Leipzig, where he had spent six years — " happy 
years of earnest striving," as he himself called 
them. 

His first impressions of Hamburg were most 
agreeable ; the scenery charmed him, and the frank 
hospitality of his master's family delighted him. 
Business called out all his activities, but he had 
frequent opportunities of leisure which afforded 
much enjoyment. " He must be dead to the beau- 
ties of nature," he writes, " who could be unhappy 
here. You can imagine nothing finer or grander 
than the neighboring country." 

* A mark of respect in Germauy, Cliildreu aud servants are 
addressed as du (thou.) 



20 CHKIST IN A GERMAN HOME. 

But as time passed on lie became coDScions of 
a deeper want. "My heart," lie tells his uncle, 
" yearns for the society of many, and of cultivated 
men. Such society is a necessity for me, and I 
must compass it, unless I am to sink entirely. .... 
How my heart beats, when I think of such eminent 
families as those of Blisch, Eeimarus and Sieveking, 
and when I meet with young men who are privi- 
leged to enjoy in their society the genuine pleasures 
of life, I must and will find an entree speedily." 

This w^as, however, no easy attainment, as the 
social distinctions in Hamburg between a retail and 
wholesale dealer, were very great. Hopeless as the 
wish seemed, it was at last realized : and at twenty- 
two we find him associated v/ith the most distin- 
guished families of Hamburg, some of whom were 
destined to exert a powerful influence upon his 
character. 

*' Perthes is a man to whom I feel marvellously 
attracted by his tender susceptibility, and his earn- 
est striving after all that is noble," writes one of 
his new friends. "I thank you for having made 
me acquainted with such a man." Another says, 
" I could not withdraw my eyes from him ; the 
charm of his external a^Dpearance I could not but 
regard as the true expression of his inner nature." 



FREDERICK C. PERTHES. 21 

He is described as small and slender, though 
firm and well formed. His curling hair and fine 
complexion, and a peculiarly delicate curve in the 
formation of the eye, gave to his appearance an 
almost girhsh charm. When he had determined 
on carrying out some settled purpose, the decision 
and resoluteness of his mind were manifest in the 
very aspect of his slender form; his strong, sono- 
rous voice, his bearing, and every gesture, indicated 
that he both could and would carry out his resolu- 
tion. " Little Perthes has the most manly spirit of 
us all," said his friends; and they had many stories 
to tell of the surprising power which his invincible 
will had exercised over the stubbornness and physi- 
cal superiority of strong, rough men. Perthes w^as 
conscious of this power, and it gave him courage to 
encounter difficulties from which many, possessed 
of more physical strength, w^ould have shrunk. 

For a long time he had regarded his beloved 
book-trade as one of the greatest importance, not 
as a means of gain, but of influence upon the intel- 
lectual life and growth of the people. Determined 
to meet the literary wants of the age, in 1796 he 
established himself in Hamburg as a bookseller. 
This was a bold undertaking for a young man of 
twenty-four years, and one requiring a greater cap- 



22 CHKIST IN A GERMAN HOME. 

ital than he had at first anticipated ; but the kind- 
ness of his friends reheved him from all perplexities. 

He was the first bookseller who had a complete 
assortment of the best works, old and new, in all 
the various branches of literature, classified and 
arranged. Added to these, were all the important 
periodicals of the day. 

Perthes' mother had been left almost portionless 
at the death of his father. To his great joy he was 
now enabled to give a home to her and to his sister. 
"My own domestic arrangements," he tells his 
aunt, " are on a small scale, but tolerably neat. I 
think you would approve of them ; at least my love 
of order is becoming a terror to all the household." 




BETROTHAL AND MARRIAGE. 




^MONG the frequenters of the httle shop 
was Frederick Jacobi, a man of about 
L^ fifty years of age. Perthes was attract- 
ed by his noble bearing and intellectual 
superiority, while he was in turn won by 
the young man's candor and animation. A strong 
friendship sprang up between them, and Perthes 
became a familiar guest in Jacobi's house at Wald- 
beck. "I love and honor the glorious man as I 
love and honor none besides," he writes to his 
uncle, " I met him with a full heart ; he recognized 
it, and thought it worth his while to occupy himself 
with my inner being." 

The families of Jacobi and Claudius were inti- 
mately acquainted, and it was thus that Per- 
thes first met Caroline, then in her twenty-third 
year. 



24 CHRIST IN A GERMAN HOME. 

Soon after lie was invited, with Jacobi, to spend 
Christmas eve at the hoiise of a friend. Among 
the guests Perthes found Claudius and his whole 
family. Before the entertainment commenced acci- 
dent threw him alone with Caroline, in a side-room. 
He had not a word to say, but experienced a calm 
and a happiness vv^hich he had never felt before. 
The Christmas games began, but he had eyes for 
nothing but the expression of quiet pleasure which 
beamed in Caroline's face. In his opinion the best 
that the evening offered was hers by right, and 
yet her younger sister's gift seemed better than 
hers. On the topmc^t branch of the Christmas- 
tree hung an apple, finer and more richly gilt than 
any; he dexterously reached it, and, blushing deep- 
ly, presented it, to the no small surprise of the 
company, to the conscious Carohne. From that 
evening things went on between them as they go 
on between those who are destined to share the 
joys and sorrows of life together as husband and 
wife. "Indeed," said Klopstock, the poet, as he 
was returning with Perthes from the silver-wedding 
of Claudius in March, " you young people are quite 
unconscious of the love that we have long seen in 
you both!" Perthes was, however, well aware of 
the affection which was daily gTov»dng stronger, but 



BETROTHAL AND MAREIAGE. 25 

felt the distance between Claudius and himself 
too great to venture an approach, save through the 
mediation of Jacobi and his sisters. 

" Thank God, my dear Perthes !" wrote Helena 
Jacobi, " you are tridy loved, and inasmuch as my 
courage is as great as yours is small, I see a pros- 
pect of great happiness for you. I could not hear 
anything yesterday from Caroline herself, for I did 
not find her one minute alone; but I ascertained 
from her mother enough to inspire me with great 
confidence, and Carohne looked so friendly that 
it was clear she had something pleasant in her 
thoughts." . <K 

A few days later, Perthes applied to Caroline in 
person. "How can I ever forget," he afterwards 
wrote, " that day of deep emotion in which I reveal- 
ed my love to you! Silent and motionless you 
stood before me; not a word had you to say to 
me, but as I was sorrowfully turning to leave you, 
you affectionately put your hand in mine." 

Caroline's love was frankly confessed and pledg- 
ed in the course of the evening, but to her father 
the decision seemed a hasty one. Perthes had but 
just entered his twenty-fifth year ; his business pros- 
pects were still uncertain. More than all, Claudius 
felt a father's unwillingness to part from a beloved 



26 CHRIST IN A GERMAN HOME. 

daughter. Wliile he did not oppose the union, he 
dechned giving his formal consent. 

But it was with httle uneasiness, on that ac- 
count, that Perthes set out for Leipzig a few days 
later. In vain he looked for letters from Caroline, 
but at the end of a fortnight one came from her 
father, which ran thus : 

"Dear Mr. Perthes: We are glad to hear that 
you arrived happily and safe, and that you are well 
and mindful of us. Caroline has received and read 
your letters from Brunswick and Leipzig, and 
thanks you kindly for them. She would answer 
them herself; but while the consent of her parents 
is not formally given, she is not at liberty to open 
her heart fully. It is better, therefore, that she 
should postpone her answer till your return." 

A letter from Helena Jacobi explained matters. 
" Your Caroline said to her father, when he told her 
not to reply as if his consent were already given : 
* If I may not write all that is in my heart, I can- 
not write at all; you must write and say why I 
remain silent.' I pressed your dear Caroline more 
closely to my heart than ever," adds Helena, " on 
hearing this." 

In a letter written by Perthes to friends in Ham- 
burg, to inform them of his hopes, he says: ''My 



BETROTHAL AND MARRIAGE. 27 

soul craves somethmg that shall not pass away ; my 
heart craves one who shall be all to me ; my spirit 
desires some abiding good, and longs for union with 
some other being — a union which shall endure even 
when the world is shivered to atoms. Nothing but 
love is greater and more enduring than the world. 
If I can in any way be preserved, it is only through 
Caroline ; in her I find peace and stability, devo- 
tion and truth." 

On the return of Perthes, at the end of May, 
Claudius' formal consent was given. It was to the 
Princess Gallitzin that Caroline first communicated 
her happiness. " To you, my dear mother Amelie, 
I must myself tell the news of my being a bride,^ 
and a happy bride. This would at one time have 
seemed to me impossible, even if you had assured 
me of it; but my beloved Perthes has reconciled 
me to the step. I know and feel its importance^ 
for time and for eternity; but I believe that I 
have taken it in accordance with the will of God, 
and now can only close my eyes and entreat God's 
blessing; and you, too, must pray for me, d«ar 
princess. I can say, in all truth, that my Perthes 
is a good man, who does not regard himself as com- 
plete, but who knows and feels that he is not per- 

* The title of bride is given in Germany at betrothal. 



28 CHRIST IN A GERMAN HOME. 

feet; and I think, tlierefore, that he and I may 
make common cause, and, by God's help, make 
progress." 

On the 15th of July, the betrothal, which in 
Holstein is a church ceremony, was celebrated. 
Shortly before the commencement of tbe service 
the bride was reminded by the pastor, that after it 
had taken place she was no longer free, and could 
be released from her vows only by the Consistory. 
"It is long since I took the step," she replied, 
" from which I could be released neither by you 
nor by the Consistory." 

In the quiet of Caroline's maiden life, the bride- 
like love grew stronger and deeper, and put even 
bar tranquil nature in commotion. " Caroline would 
fain act the philosophic bride," writes the daughter 
of the Princess Gallitzin, "but in vain; her love 
perpetually betrays itself, and I believe she dreams 
of nothing but the letter P ; and if for a moment 
she devotes herself to me, you well know who it is 
that quickly comes and displaces me." 

" Your brother Hans slanders you," wrote Per- 
thes to Caroline. "He says that you can never 
find anything you are looking for. Even if you 
have this failing, it matters not, since once, although 
not seeking, you yet found him who was seeking 



BETEOTHAL AND MARRIAGE. 29 

the good angel of his hfe, and suffered yourself to 
be found by him." 

The second of August was the day fixed for the 
wedding. On the previous day Perthes received 
the last letter from Caroline as his betrothed 
bride. "I have a great desire for a little black 
cross," she writes, " and do n't know how better to 
get it than through you, dear Perthes. And why 
not? I have been to the pastor this morning. 
The formula by which we are to be united, is 
neither cold nor warm, neither old nor new — a 
wretched neither one thing nor another. But it 
will do us no harm, dear Perthes ; we will ask God 
to bless us after the old fashion, and he will bless 
us after the old fashion. I am thine, and trust in 
God that I shall find it to be for my happiness." 

In the first years of their married life, the diver- 
sity of their minds and habits was to be brought 
into strong relief. 

"While Perthes was eminently fitted for an active 
sphere, by his natural temperament and the strug- 
gles through which he had passed, Caroline, who 
had lived a life wholly from within, shrank from all 
contact with the outer world, and believed the great 
duty of man to consist in withdrawing as much as 
possible from everything worldly. She could not, 



30 CHKIST IN A GERMAN HOME. 

therefore, fail to be disturbed wlien she left her 
quiet home, and experienced on all sides an infi- 
nite number of new impressions. ^'A thousand 
times," she writes to her husband, " has my soul 
spoken out and told me that I am no longer what 
I was. Formerly God always held me by the hand 
and led me in all my ways, and I never forgot him ; 
now I see him afar off with an outstretched arm, 
that I am unable to grasp. This must not be always 
so, for the heart could not endure such a prospect. 
But I have made up my mind that it will be so 
upon earth; and may God grant me the continu- 
ance of this inward longing, and suffer me rather 
to die of it, than to be content without it. There 
are moments when I take courage again, but they 
do not last, and it is no longer with me as it was 
once." In another letter she says: "When you 
are away, my beloved Perthes, I feel quite lonely 
and forsaken. When you are not at my side to 
support me, I am a picture of grief. Is it to con- 
tinue? Ought it to be so? It was otherwise 
once." 

Her affection for her husband, however, was 
strong, and in the depths of her soul she felt her 
new position to be one of happiness and blessing. 
On one occasion, a few weeks after her marriage, 



BETROTHAL AND MARRIAGE. 31 

when her father surprised her weeping in her room, 
he exclaimed, "Did I not tell you that the first flush 
of happiness would not last if you left your father 
and mother?" 

" And if I am to pass the rest of my life in weep- 
ing," she instantly replied, " I should rejoice that I 
am to spend it with my Perthes." 

But while Perthes did not attempt to force his 
own mode of life upon Caroline, he steadily pursued 
the path that seemed marked out as his. "I am 
more than ever persuaded," he says, " that my des- 
tiny is an active, masculine career — that I am a 
man born to turn my own wheel with energy." 

"Can you then indeed beheve," he wrote in 
1799, " that my restless labors, my activity and en- 
ergy, can be detrimental to you — to you, Caroline ? 
You should rather thank God that he has enabled 
me to take pleasure in things that might have been 
a weariness and a burden to me. How could I 
otherwise exist? Dear Caroline, I am not always 
so good as you think me ; but in this respect I am 
better. I have asked myself what I would do, if it 
depended on me to remove you to a situation in 
every respect congenial to your tastes ; whether to 
a convent, or into the hands of a man who not only 
loved you as I love you, but whose disposition and 



32 CHRIST IN A GERMAN HOME. 

habits entirely coincided with your own. No, dear- 
est Caroline, I could not do it. You must live with 
me, or not live at all ; and, dearest wife, I know you 
feel as I do." 

' But Perthes did not for a moment believe that 
her nature demanded a withdrawal from the world. 
On the contrary, he thought that a character like 
hers should show itself as an example. " BeHeve 
me," he wrote, "I understand you and your present 
feelings thoroughl5^ While you lived in your father's 
house you maintained, it is true, a constant walk 
with God. You had but one thought and but one 
path. But then your walk with God was the walk 
of a child, who knew sin and the world and life not 
at all, or only by name ; still there was a unity in 
your existence. Now, simply because you are in 
the world, this condition must be disturbed. I have 
torn you from that childlike life, and brought you 
into the bustle of the world ; you recognized in me 
an honest heart, full of love for you ; but you have 
also seen in me and in yourself the sin of mankind. 
For a while, but it was not long, your love for me 
concealed all this. Now you can no longer walk so 
confiding as formerly with the Unseen, and He no 
longer speaks to you as before. You are perplexed, 
and would gladly regain the purity and simplicity of 



BETROTHAL AND MARRIAGE. 33 

the child, and are unable to bring order and unity 
into your thoughts. My dear Caroline, the want 
which you feel is entirely the offspring of your own 
imagination. You have, pious child, ardent faith 
in your heart, and in your mind entire subjection to 
the higher decrees of conscience ; but where others 
would be contented and at peace, you are full of care 
and anxiety, because you would fain lead again the 
undisturbed and simple life of childhood, and can- 
not. Here on earth man has but a changing and 
unsettled existence ; he does not all live in any sin- 
gle minute, but only a part of himseK. The only 
things of value are love and truth ; but would you, 
therefore, disregard all besides ? Would you live 
apart from everything? But even if you were to 
withdrav/ to some retirement, where no sorrow, no 
disquiet could reach you, you would become cold if 
you loved only the Highest and no other object; 
and coldness is always a horrible thing. Now we 
are not to drift away from the world. God demands 
not sacrifice of the natural ties, but the submission 
of our will to his. The sorrow and annoyances 
which may be our lot in the world where he has 
placed us, we should bear with inward tranquillity, 
rather than seek to escape from them." 

" Caroline does not find life easy," said Perthes 

Obiist In Ger, ilome. 5 



84 CHRIST IN A GEEMAN HOME. 

to a friend. " In spite of her calm temper, and her 
rich and lively fancy, she finds it hard to have to do 
with the ever-changing and finite things of the world 
and time. And yet, when I see her holding fast by 
her inward life, in spite of the annoyances which the 
tumult and distractions of her daily existence too 
often cause her, and also fulfilling the outward 
duties of her position in a manner so self-denying, 
kind, and noble, she imparts strength to me, and 
becomes truly my guiding angeh" 

" Tavo creatures more different than Caroline and 
myself in culture and tendency, it would have been 
hard to find," said Perthes, later ; " and yet, in the 
first hour of our acquaintance, CaroHne recognized 
what there was of worth in me, and loved me ; and 
in spite of all that she subsequently discovered in 
my character that was opposed to her own modes 
of thought and life, her confidence has remained 
unshaken and unalterable. I, on my part, soon 
perceived her love, and at once apprehended the 
true and noble nature, the lofty spirit, the life-hero- 
ism, the humility of heart, and the pure piety which 
now constitute the happiness and blessing of my 
life." 




THE BUSINESS AND THE FAMILY. 




I^^HE commercial crisis whicli occurred in 
^ the year 1799, brought with it anxiety 
and perplexity to Perthes ; but again his 
friends stood ready to advance what- 
ever capital might be needed. 
With the hope of extending his business and 
establishing in Hamburg and elsewhere a medium 
of literary intercourse for all European nations, he 
associated with him John Henry Besser, who from 
this period may be regarded as his truest and most 
confidential friend. Shortly after, by marriage with 
Perthes' sister, he became a much-loved brother. 

Besser was one of those charming persons in 
whose society every one is happy. Prepossessing 
in appearance, quick in his sympathies, and ever 
ready to meet the want of oihers, he was the recip- 



36 CHRIST IN A GERMAN HOME. 

ient of mucli affection. Children lie attracted as 
tlie magnet attracts iron, and could scarcely defend 
himself from their demonstrations. In all circum- 
stances he acted with the purest integrity, and it 
seemed to him impossible that a man should speak 
contrary to his convictions. During the occupation 
of Hamburg by the French, he would wdth alarming 
naivet6 tell the plainest truths to the officers and 
functionaries; and yet, strange to say, he enjoyed 
their confidence. 

"It would be hard to find in any individual 
bookseller," said Perthes, at a later period, " so 
extensive a knowledge as Besser possesses of the 
most celebrated books in all languages ; and there 
is no one who knows so well as he does where to 
find them." 

So great was the confidence inspired by Perthes, 
that numerous families in the northwest of Germa- 
ny periodically employed him to select the works 
he thought best suited to their characters and 
tastes. It w^as impossible for him in his relations 
with men to be actuated by any mercenary consid- 
erations. " I can forgive anything but selfishness," 
he once wTote ; " even the narrowest circumstances 
admit of greatness with reference to mine and 
thine." 



THE BUSINESS AND THE FAMILY. 37 

His family circle afforded a resting-place from 
the anxious cares of business, and stimulated him 
to greater energy. " You have penetrated into the ' 
profoundest recesses of my being," he writes to his 
wife. "There is no moment of my existence in 
which you are not with me, in me, and before me ; 
and all I see, feel, and observe, I seem to see, feel, 
and observe only for your sake. 

"During my bachelor Hfe, when one affection 
used to give place to another, when I first knew 
you, my only aim was to conquer, to please. I 
sought only myself — was always /. But now in you 
I have lost myself; without you I am nothing, I 
have nothing — am to myself nothing." 

" Dear child, dear CaroHne," he says in another 
letter, "I am exactly like our Bishop Kasper; I 
would without interruption cry, 'Love, love ! nothing 
but love !' When I rise in the morning I ask, ' Why 
should I? My Caroline is not here.' When I am 
at work I am thinking only of my return to you ; 
and, alas! you are not here, and I have no home, no 
place of rest. If at evening I have done the day's 
work, and would assume a happy face — ah! for 
whom? — my heart is not here." 

On the 28th of May, 1798, his daughter Agnes 
was bom ; on the 16th of January, 1800, a son, Mat- 



38 CHRIST IN A GERMAN HOME. 

tliias; on the lOtli of January, 1802, a daughter, 
Louisa ; and on the 25th of February, 1804, another 
daughter, Matilda. 

Joys and troubles, which are found in every fam- 
ily, become, wherever there are children, a means of 
education to the parents. Caroline's maternal love 
caused morbid self-examinations to give place to 
healthy action. Increasing household cares, the 
influe^nce of her husband, and varied intercourse 
with men of the most opposite character, further 
tended to bring out her capabilities, and to make 
her move freely in the world, so that, amid a variety 
of external circumstances, she was enabled to pre- 
serve an inward calm and self-control. She retain- 
ed, indeed, to the end of her days, a desire after a 
life of unruffled tranquillity — a longing which would 
occasionally dispose her to melancholy. 

"It is still the old story," she writes to the 
countess Sophie Stolberg : " I desire much, and can 
do but very little;" and again to her husband, on 
the day after his departure on a journey: "Agnes 
sends you word, she hopes you will cross the water 
safely, and is anxious — my daughter ; Matthias only 
desires to know how his rocking-horse is, and is 
happy — thy son." Notwithstanding the continued 
longing for a life of outward repose, she had in the 



THE BUSINESS AND THE FAMILY. 39 

first ten years of marriage attained to a measure of 
fi-eedom, self-command, and tranquillity, which, 
when subsequently threatened with the loss of prop- 
erty, family, and all external happiness, she main- 
tained with true womanly heroism. 

She was now no longer disquieted, as she had 
been at first, by the influence of her husband's po- 
sition and mode of life. " I have just looked out 
into the night and thought of thee," she once wrote 
to the absent Perthes. " It is a glorious night, and 
the stars are glittering above me, and if in thy car- 
riage one appears brighter than the rest, think that 
it showers down upon thee love and kindness from 
me, and no sadness ; for I am not unhappy when 
you are absent. Yet I am certain this does not 
proceed from any diminution of affection. If I 
could only show how I feel towards you, it would 
give you joy ; after all I may say or write, it is still 
unexpressed, and far short of the living love which 
I carry in my heart. If you could but apprehend 
me without words, you would understand me better." 

"What you have now," wrote Caroline to a 
newly-married friend, " is only a foretaste, and it 
will every day increase. At least, the merciful God 
has so ordered it for me these six years, and my 
eyes overflow as I think of it." 



40 CHRIST IN A GEEMAN HOME. 

" My beloved Perthes," she writes a year later, 
on the anniversary of the day on which he had de- 
clared his attachment ; " this is the thirtieth of 
April, and it is just nine o'clock. Do you remem- 
ber this very moment, seven years ago to-day ? I 
thank God, from the bottom of my heart, for having 
made you think of me. I have just come from 
looking at the children, who are already in bed, and 
while I gazed on them I had you in my heart ; thus 
although you are so far away we are still united. I 
bless the happy moment, in which seven years ago 
you looked on me, and said ' I love you.' Yes, my 
ever-beloved Perthes, I thank God and I thank 
you, for our happiness. May God continue to be 
with us and with our children, and preserve us to a 
peaceful and blessed end." 

In a letter to Caroline, written after a night of 
travel, Perthes says, " To-night as the stars spark- 
led, and life with its joys and sorrows lay reposing 
in slumber below, while I alone watched and was 
conscious that the good God was also watching 
over all his children in the scattered cottages 
around, I was so overcome by my happiness, that 
I burst into tears ; and it was remarkable that just 
at this moment the starlight fell upon a crucifix 
placed on an eminence among some poplars." 





CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE. 

'OR a long time Perthes had enjoyed 
the friendship of Klopstock, the cele- 
brated poet. In 1803, he died, deeply 
lamented by the German people. As 
his body was borne from the church to the 
grave, a chorus of young girls sang, " To rise again, 
yes, to rise again !" 

The Princess Gallitzin, till her death, kept up 
her correspondence with Caroline; and notwith- 
standing her difference of creed — for she was a 
Catholic — stood godmother to Perthes' eldest son, 
Klopstock and Claudius being godfathers. Caro- 
line, on her part, preserved her affection and rever- 
ence for the princess. In 1806, on hearing of her 
fatal illness, she wrote, " No one ever made so deep 

and lasting an impression on me as she ; and from 

6 



42 CHRIST IN A GERMAN HOME. 

the first moment of our meeting, she has been, I 
may say, my guide to God." 

She was indeed an extraordinary womau. At 
the age of twenty-four she withdrew from a con- 
stant round of gayeties, to give up her time to the 
study of languages, mathematics, Greek Hterature 
and Platonic philosophy. During a severe illness, 
she was alarmed by the discovery that she was a 
slave to literary ambition. Upon her recovery she 
earnestly devoted herself to the study of the Scrip- 
tures in the Latin version, and to the religious in- 
struction of her children. The truths of Christian- 
ity penetrated her heart, and with her dazzling 
talents was linked the faith of a httle child. A small 
but highly gifted circle gathered around this re- 
markable woman, among whom were Goethe, Her- 
der, and Lavater. 

In 1806 she died. " The last few hours," writes 
Bishop Karper to Perthes, "were hours of severe 
suffering, yet rich in mercy. She met her end with 
perfect consciousness, committing herself entirely 
to God, and thus her beautiful, purified, sanctified 
soul departed in the most blessed and intimate 
union with Christ. A beautiful death, dear Perthes ; 
pray especially for her beloved daughter that God 
may give her grace." 



CHEISTIAN EXPERIENCE. 43 

"You believe as I do," lie says in another letter, 
"in the necessity of illumination and grace from 
above, and that is everything. I am sure you can- 
not rest on your present stand-point. The striving 
and hastening after truth, which characterizes you, 
and the need you must feel of some firm footing, 
cannot continue; for, dear Perthes, we are not 
searching for the truth; we have it. This only is 
our task and our duty, to show our faith by a real 
Christian walk, in all we do or leave undone." 

Bat it was only after long and deep struggles, 
that Perthes received the truth, in its simplicity, 
into his heart. For a long time he had tried to 
make philosophy take the place of religion ; to bring 
his will into subjection to laws fixed by the under- 
standing. Then he had hoped for guidance in the 
feelings of his own heart, purified and perfected by 
Art. He had striven to elevate the physical into 
harmony with the spiritual, but all in vain. He at 
last perceived that the love of God was not a spon- 
taneous growth of intellectual culture ; he was con- 
scious of a strong alienation from God, which it 
seemed impossible to overcome by any human 
means. 

"My internal anxiety," he writes to Caroline, 
" calls for some one who in my stead gives satisfac- 



44: CHEIST IN A GERMAN HOME. 

tion ; and undefined feelings come across me, wliicli 
seek after a God, lolio, as man, has felt the agony of 
man. I have leaned upon many a staff that has 
given way, and have seen many a star fall from 
heaven. What is true, is given to us in science, but 
not The Truth." 

A long struggle followed. Holy Scripture now 
appeared to his soul in all its majesty, and Claudi- 
us was by his side to aid and encourage. Their 
personal intercourse had been continually growing 
more intimate and confidential, and Claudius' tract, 
"A Father's Simple Instructions about the Chris- 
tian Eehgion," which appeared in 1803, made a 
deep impression upon his son-in-law; and he 
reached a certainty of conviction and a repose of 
mind which he had never before known. " You ask 
how it fares with me," he says. "I hnoio what 
truth is, I Imow what man is, and what he shall be ; 
I know how to estimate the world ; I hiow that the 
richer a man becomes, the poorer he is in the world. 
I thank God for this knowledge, and especially for 
the consciousness that I am a poor sinner, and in 
myself helpless and comfortless. Those men are a 
problem to me who seek satisfaction in themselves, 
and, if unsuccessful, try to find it in one fruit after 
another, in the hope of being satisfied at last, and 



CHRISTIAN EXPEEIENCE. 45 

are never awakened to the alarming consciousness 
that the sap is not there. So long as a man does 
not feel that he is a poor sinner, and deficient in all 
that God requires of him, he will never be recon- 
ciled to Him Christianity is a free-gift investi- 
ture, and in Christianity all is given by the grace 
of God and received by love." 

It was through anxiety and labor and after 
many wanderings, that Perthes had won his way 
to the saving truths of Christianity; but he had 
won them as part and parcel of his life. And when, 
after many years, he lay upon his death-bed, they 
filled his whole soul, and had power to take its 
sting from death. 





NAPOLEON. 




HE enthiisiasm with which Perthes, as 
a very young man, had regarded the 
progress of Napoleon, was changed 
into the bitterest hostihty when war 
was declared against the German Empire. 
On the 20th of October, 1805, the Austrian army 
was surrendered to the French. The battle of Aus- 
terlitz was fought on the 2d of December, and on 
the 2Gth of the same month the luckless peace of 
Presburg was concluded. 

In July, 1806, was formed the Confederation of 
the Ehine, which destroyed the very form of the 
German Empire. The disastrous battle of Jena 
followed, and on the 19th of November the French 
.took possession of Hamburg. 

Immediately after, all intercourse with England 



NAPOLEON. 47 

was forbidden on pain of death ; all English prop- 
erty declared forfeited; and all goods purchased 
from English dealers, although paid for, were de- 
manded from the owners, and trade was allowed to 
be carried on only under the restraint of a system 
of certificates. Owing to the general insolvency 
which followed the issue of the French regulations, 
Perthes' personal losses involved all that ten years 
of toil and anxiety had realized. In Mecklenburg 
alone, he reckoned his losses at twenty thousand 
marks; but his courage and hopefulness did not 
desert him. 

Many received these changes with apathy ; oth- 
ers gave up all as lost. But not so Perthes, who 
beheved that much might be done to preserve the 
German nationality, and was unceasing in his efforts 
to arouse a spirit of patriotism. " What are we yet 
to pass through ?" he writes. " What sufferings, 
what indignities, what degradation are still in store 
for Germany, and for the world? And yet what 
opportunities Providence offers to men who have 
energy ! . . . . I am not dispirited, and will not be ; 
free German hearts will not be wanting, and God 
will take care of the rest." 

"Events have outgrown all political calculation,'* 
says Muller in reply. " All customary expedients 



48 CHRIST IN A GERMAN HOME. 

fail, and there is no appearance of help from any 
quarter. God must remove one man or raise up a 
greater, or bring about something yet quite unfore- 
seen. I no longer feel either indignation or fear; 
the scene has become too solemn. The Ancient of 
Days is sitting in judgment ; the books are opened, 
and the nations and their rulers are weighed in the 
balance. "What v>^ill be the end ? A new order of 
things is in preparation, very different from what is 
imagined by those who are the blind instruments of 
its establishment. That which now is, is not abi- 
ding ; that which was, will hardly be restored ; and 
the difference will not consist in the mere substitu- 
tion of Corsican rule for that of some weakling of 
Italy, Germany, or Sclavonia." 

But as the political horizon darkened the dearer 
became Perthes' home. Plis four children were 
strong and healthy, and on the 23d of January, 
1806, another son, John, was added to the number, 
and on the 15th of September, 1807, a daughter, 
Dorothea. Sorrow for the first time found its way 
into the family circle in the death of this infant, 
three months later. " Dear mother," wrote Caroline 
immediately after, " God has taken my angel gently 
and calmly to himself. I thank our Heavenly 
Father that he has heard my prayer, and taken my 



NAPOLEON. 49 

darling child without pain. She looks so peaceful 
that we must be so too." 

Perthes had, as we have seen, sustained heavy 
losses in 1806; but the excitement of the times, 
which left so many houses in anxious suspense, 
afforded to his bold and active spirit opportunities 
of extending his business. He could say with truth, 
" No one in Hamburg has anything to do, but my 
business is more active than ever." His library was 
now regarded as the finest in North Germany ; and 
Niebuhr had sportively called him " the king of the 
booksellers from the Ems to the Baltic." 

*' I am, indeed, singularly happy," he writes in 
1807, " for one who has so restless a career allotted 
him. Much love, many friends, many children, 
much labor, much business, much to please, much 
to displease me, much anxiety, and little gold; 
moreover, a dozen Spaniards in the house, and for 
the last nine days three gens d'armes to boot, who 
drive me almost to distraction." 

To shut himself up within the happy and attrac- 
tive circle of his family and his business, was not, 
however, in Perthes' nature, which led him to take 
a lively interest in those events commanding the 
attention of the civilized world. Of Napoleon he 
writes: "Napoleon, the ruler of the world, is a 

Chi iBt in Oer, Bomr. 1 



50 CHRIST IN A GERMAN HOME. 

unity, and is secure and firm in liimseif, as no other 
is, because, . more than any other, he seeks only 
himself; and, like no other, he is a devil incarnate, 
because, like no other, he has made himself his 
god." 

To this demonlike man he believed the world 
given over by God — not so to continue, but that, 
through suffering, even of the most dreadful kind, 
the paralyzed energy of goodness might be resus- 
citated. " All that was," he says, "is ruined. What 
new edifice will rise on the ruins I know- not ; but 
the most fearful result of all would be the restoration 
of the old enfeebled times. By a practical path of 
suffering God is leading us to a new order of things ; 
the game cannot be played backward, therefore on- 
ward must be the word. Let that which cannot 
stand, fall. Nothing can escape the crisis, and it is 
some consolation to see that events are greater than 
the circumstances that called them forth. He who 
would now turn the wheel backward cares only for 
repose, comfort, and private happiness. We should 
rather consider ourselves to be the growth of the 
epoch; and who could expect to compress the be- 
ginning and end of such a revolution into one life- 
time?" 

Despairing of external help, Perthes centred 



NAPOLEON. 



51 



all his hopes for the German people m their unity. 
"Our first object must be," he writes, "to arouse 
the national German feeling, and to keep it alive." 
Once aroused to action he knew no retreat. "And 
I thank God," he says, " that I have a wife who 
shares my feelings, and who, if it come to the worst, 
will not shake my courage. He who has in him 
any element of intellect or power, of greatness or 
passion, cannot but turn his attention to what is 
now passing around him, in order, so far as he can, 
to influence the direction of events. He who has 
only an inward life in these times has no life at 
aU." 



^m^ 




QA 




VII. 




PATRIOTISM. 

|AMBUKG had been successively occu- 
pied by French, Italian, Dutch, Span- 
'^ Ip ish, or German legions under Napole- 
on's generals. Externally every form 
of independence was gone. More than three 
hundred vessels were lying unrigged in the harbor, 
and trade was incalculably diminished. The peo- 
ple were given up to the unprecedented extortions 
and shameless exactions of the French. 

In 1809 Austria was again defeated by Napo- 
leon, and the peace of Vienna signed. 

Perthes regarded it as the right and duty of 
every German to arouse and strengthen, by every 
possible means, the hatred and exasperation of the 
Germans against the oppressor. With this aim in 
view, he established, in 1810, a new scientific and 



PATRIOTISM. 53 

literary journal, called the "National Museum." 
He hoped that through this medium an unsuspect- 
ed alliance might be formed of the intellectual lead- 
ers of Germany. When the right time came, the 
scientific alliance was to be transformed into a 
political one. Jean Paul, Fouqu^,"^ Claudius, and 
other eminent men, cooperated with him and con- 
tributed to its pages. The labor involved in editing 
this paper, added to other cares and duties, almost 
exceeded the limits of human strength. 

Joys and sorrows in the family, too, added to his 
anxieties. On the 2d of March, 1809, his son Clem- 
ent was born, and on the 4th of April, 1810, his 
daughter Eleonora ; while his second son, Johannes, 
a lively and promising boy, had been removed by 
death on the 18th of December, 1809. " His heart 
was overflowing with love and merriment," wrote 
Caroline, " so that he was our joy and delight. We 
yearn after him, and cannot yet beHeve that we 
must continue our pilgrimage without him ; we have 
but a melancholy pleasure in the blessings that God 
has left us." 

In July, 1810, Perthes and Caroline, with their 
four elder children, visited the loved Schwartzburg 
home. "Would that I could describe to you the 

* Author of Undine. 



64 CHRIST IN A GERMAN HOME. 

grandeur, tlie beauty, the loveliness of this count r}-," 
wrote Caroline to her mother; "but words can con- 
vey no idea of it. I thank God that we are capa- 
ble of feeling more than we can express; speech is 
but a poor thing when we are in earnest. The hills 
and valleys of Thuringia impress one just in the 
right way. I love them, and shall remember them 
with affection while I live. It is too much, I some- 
times think, and one has no power to repress the 
excitement which this scenery stirs in the heart. In 
our flat coimtry we cannot attain to such a height 
of joy in the Lord of this glorious nature, or to such 
intense gratitude towards him, as is possible in the 
midst of scenes like these ; and I consider it as a 
gift that the good God has permitted me to see all 
this while yet on earth. The valley of Schwartz- 
burg surpasses all the rest. There is an inconceiv- 
able wealth of mingled grandeur and beauty about 
it, which rivets the spectator to the spot, and com- 
pels him to stretch out his arms in adoration of the 
Creator and Sustainer of all this wondrous work. 
On the one side are vast masses of rock, piled one 
upon another ; on the other, hills of surpassing love- 
liness, adorned with meadows, houses, men and cat- 
tle ; in the midst of all the Schwarza rims clear and 
sparkling, rushing and roaring bravely, far below in 



PATRIOTISM. 55 

the hollow. Our reception was very agreeable. We 
had left the carriage, and were walking towards 
Schwartzburg ; suddenly, from behind the rock, the 
lieutenant-colonel made his appearance and caught 
Perthes in his arms. My beloved Perthes, thus dis- 
turbed in the tranquil current of his thoughts, forgot 
nature, like the rest of us, in the pleasure of the reun- 
ion. This lieutenant-colonel is a fine, vigorous, frank, 
and very dear old man, and I like him very much 
alread}'. When we had walked a few paces farther 
wo came to a broad, flat rock, on which a breakfast, 
brought in his own game-bag, was spread. He was 
quite overjoyed, and never weary of recounting the 
pleasure ho had experienced long ago in walking 
tours and fowling expeditions with Perthes. A lit- 
tle farther on we met the other uncle witli his troop 
of children. We packed the little folks into the 
carriage, and walked slowly after it. The very 
depths of my soul are stirred when I perceive the 
gi'eat and general happiness which the return of my 
Perthes has diffused. He is like a child with do- 
light, and I thank God he has let me live to see this 
time. They live tlie past over, and are all twenty 
years younger." 

After a stay of a few weeks, Perthes proceeded 
with his wife and children to Gotlia, the home of 



56 CHRIST IN A GERMAN HOME. 

Justus Perthes, his uncle. " Here, too," wrote 
Carohne, "we were received with inexpressible 
kindness, but our dear Thuringian hills are now 
-only seen in the distance. The children long for 
the freedom of the woods, and to speak the truth, 
so do I ; and it is with difficulty that I can conceal 
my feelings. We had quite forgotten the French in 
our beloved woods ; but here we are daily reminded 
of them. For months, cannon of enormous calibre 
have been passing through the town from Dantzig 
and Magdeburg, on their way to Paris. Ah ! here 
we have the world and artificial Hfe, with all their 
annoyances, continually suggested to us; there is 
no place like hills and woods for forgetting our- 
selves, and all our wants and infirmities." 

Soon after their return to Hamburg the decision 
of the French Senate was announced. The Hanse- 
towns, with the whole northwest of Germany, were 
henceforward to be considered as forming a part of 
the French empire. Perthes, finding the impossi- 
bility of carrying out his original object, in the form 
which it had up to this time assumed, gave up the 
National Museum. 

The French yoke pressed heavily upon Prussia. 
In Hamburg it was no less galHng. Trade and 
shipping were annihilated. The once proud and 



PATEIOTISM. 57 

happy city now presented the appearance of com- 
plete decay. Harsh regulations were enforced with 
heartless brutality, and the inhabitants of Hamburg 
had not even the consolation of feehng themselves 
free from annoyance in their own houses ; and when 
towards the end of the summer of 1812, the Gazette 
announced victory after victory of the Grand Ar- 
mee in Russia, all hope of deliverance, or even of 
alleviation, seemed to be at an end, and no man 
dared to attach any credit to the faint rumors of 
misfortune and defeat which were subsequently 
whispered. 

In gloomy and desperate dejection the citizens 
were preparing to celebrate the Christmas festival, 
when, on the 24:th of December, to the surprise of 
all, the publication of the twenty-ninth bulletin con- 
firmed, beyond any possibility of doubt, the tidings 
of the total annihilation of the French host. A 
wonder had been wrought, and a star of hope had 
appeared, which rekindled life and spirit in every 
oppressed heart. Such a Christmas-eve was kept 
in Hamburg as had not been known for many a 
long year. 

The burning of Moscow awakened new hopes of 

freedom. On the 2 2d of February, 1813, Hamburg 

was thrown into great excitement on account of a 

8 



58 CHKIST IN A GEPwMAN HOME. 

false rumor of the approach of the Kussians. " Yes- 
terday morning," wrote Caroline to her father, 
"there were Cossacks at Perleberg, seventy-six 
miles from this. Ah ! that I had a thousand voices 
to sing Benedidus qui venit ! The city is all ahve, 
and assuredly some great step is about to be 
taken." 

Two days later the citizens rose simultaneously, 
in different parts of the city, attacked and demol- 
ished the guard-house, and proceeding tumultu- 
ously, tore down the French eagles wherever they 
found them, with shouts of triumph. The Mayor 
appeared, but was pelted back with stones, and the 
house of a particularly obnoxious French police- 
officer was torn down by the mob. No theft was 
committed ; the French only w^ere sought for. 

" There is no longer an eagle to be seen in the 
city," wTote Caroline to her father; "the tumult in 
the streets grows louder, God be praised." 

At nightfall the mob dispersed, leaving the 
French, though dispirited and full of apprehension, 
still in possession of the city. 

Soon after a large number of the citizens enrolled 
themselves into companies, to be ready for action 
when the right time should come. The five cap- 
tains asseml:)led at the house of Perthes, to master 



PATRIOTISM. 59 

tlie manual exercise which they were afterwards to 
teach the men. Some days of restless excitement 
followed. 

The French, however, aware of the growing 
spirit of discontent, and the approach of the Rus- 
sians, considered their position untenable, and much 
to the delight of the citizens, evacuated Hamburg 
on the 12th of March. 

A siege was soon after threatened, but was 
averted by the arrival of Danish and Russian 
troops at Bergedorf, a village within a few hours' 
march of Hamburg. On the evening of the 16th, 
a flying party of thirteen Cossacks rode for an 
hour through the streets of Hamburg. "As the 
detachment approached the cit}^" wrote Benecke 
to Perthes, "the guard turned out, and our cap- 
tain, with eight men, myself being one of them, 
advanced towards the Russians. At a signal from 
him, the Russian officer commanded a halt, and our 
captain delivered the keys of the city to him, with 
these words : ' Here are the keys of the free Hanse- 
town of Hamburg — long live Russia and Germany ; 
hurrah !' The shouts taken up by thousands after 
thousands, rendered the German reply of the Rus- 
sian officer, who received the keys with dignified 
bearing and cordial friendliness, inaudible. The 



60 ■ CHRIST IN A GERMAN HOME. 

rejoicing passed description. German ! Eussian I 
Cossack ! Alexander ! were the only intelligible 
cries, and tears stood in many eyes. Dear Perthes, 
it was a moment to be held in everlasting remem- 
brance." 

On the morning of the 19th the Eussians enter- 
ed the city. The streets were filled with crowds of 
happy citizens, anxious to behold with their own 
eyes those wild horsemen of another world, who 
had hitherto been known to them only in nursery- 
tales. "My dear papa," wrote Caroline, a few 
hours before their arrival, "how can I give you 
any idea of the universal joy of old and young,, 
rich and poor, bad and good ? To have seen, and 
heard, and felt it, is, indeed, a thing to be thankful 
for. I will not inquire into the causes of the joy, 
but its expression was unspeakably grand, and it 
appears to spring from a good and pure source. 
An advanced guard of thirteen Cossacks entered 
the city yesterday evening, with long flowing man- 
tles, and adorned with the spoils of the French — at 
any rate, adorned with parts of the French military 
dress. Every throat was strained to welcome them, 
and every heart thanked God in heaven, and the 
Eussians on earth. Never, dear papa, have I seen 
such a union of hearts; the feelings of thousanJij 



PATRIOTISM. 61 

all centred in one point. Aii! could we but so 
centre ourselves in the best point of all, what a glo- 
rious church we should form ! The Cossacks ad- 
vanced at a gallop, their lances lowered, and waving 
tlieir caps, and looking wonderfully honest and 
friendly. People who were yesterday quite de- 
sponding, are to-day full of hope and courage. If 
the depths of the soul were more frequently stirred, 
it could not but be attended with good results." 

About noon the Cossacks entered the city amid 
wildest shouts of welcome, and all the sorrows of 
the past and the dangers of the future seemed 
merged in the happiness of the present. And yet, 
scarcely a German mile off, lay the enemy, who 
might, in the course of a few hours, fill the city 
with blood and desolation. To him who wander- 
ed through the streets in the summer warmth of 
that spring evening, the city presented a strange 
spectacle. Everywhere profound stillness and the 
calm of security reigned; there was neither watch 
nor guard, not even a policeman to be seen. The 
moon shone brightly on the houses with theii* sleep- 
ing inhabitants, and completed the picture of peace 
and tranquillity. The joy-wearied city had com- 
mitted itself to the sole keeping of the Almighty. 




VIII 




THE FRENCH IN HAMBURG. 

yHE Kussian force which had entered 
Hamburg was too small to enable the 
citizens to feel secure from further at- 
tacks of the French. Great prepara- 
tions were therefore made to strengthen 
the city, amid which Perthes appeared as 
the leading spirit. 

A week after the evacuation of the French, Da- 
voust, at the head of six thousand men, advanced 
to recapture the city, and without resistance made 
himself master of Harburg on the opposite side of 
the Elbe. Xfter desperate fighting the enemy ob- 
tained possession of two of the islands near Ham- 
burg, and on the 19th of May the bombardment 
of the city began. 

" Dear Caroline," wrote Perthes to his wife, who 
had passed the night at Wandsbeck, "I implore 



THE FKENCH IN HAMBUEG. 63 

you, from the deptlis of my soul, to be calm, and 
place yourseK and me in the hands of God. Trust 
me, and believe that whatever I do, I shall be able 
to answer before Grod. The bombardment seems 
more terrible than it is, and even if it should be 
repeated, the damage will not be so great as one 
would unagine : there is often more danger hidden 
under common things." 

Perthes now worked with indefatigable energy to 
stimulate the courage and increase the steadfast- 
ness of his fellow-citizens. 

"From the 9th of May," wrote Caroline after- 
wards, "Perthes had not undressed for one-and- 
twenty nights, and during that period had never 
lain down in bed. I was in daily anxiety for his 
life. He was only occasionally, and that, half an 
hour at a time, in the house. The three younger 
children were at Waadsbeck, with my mother ; the 
four elder were with me, because they could not 
have been removed without force. I had no man on 
the premises — all were on guard. People were con- 
stantly coming in to eat and drink, for none of our 
acquaintances kept house in the city. I had sacks 
filled with straw in the large parlor; and there, night 
and day, lay burghers, who came in by turns to snatch 
a short repose. At the battle of Wilhelmsburg we 



64 CHKIST IN A GERMAN HOME. 

lost our Weber and many of our friends. Day and 
night I was on the balcony to see if Perthes oi any 
of our relations were carried by among the wound- 
ed. At the time when the cannonading was loud- 
est, and the greatest terror and anxiety prevailed 
lest the French should land, Perthes sent the re- 
quest that I would instantly send him a certain small 
box that lay on his writing-table. As I was running 
down the stairs with the box in my hand, I felt sure 
that it was filled with poison. I desired the mes- 
senger to wait, and went to my room to decide what 
I ought to do, for this great matter was thus com- 
mitted to me. It was a dreadful moment. My 
horror lest Perthes should fall alive into the hands 
of the French overcame me, and it appeared to me 
that God could not be angry with him for not will- 
ing this ; and then the injustice of my deciding a 
matter between him and his God seemed so great, 
that with trembling hands and knees I in God's 
name gave the box to the messenger. Many hours 
elapsed before I heard anything farther. It ivas 
poison, and poison prepared for the purpose I had 
feared ; but not for Perthes, who assured me before 
God that he should not have thought its use lawful, 
and was displeased with me for having so misun- 
derstood him." 



THE FRENCH 1^ HAMBURG. 65 

Early in May, the conviction of the desperate 
posture of affairs had forced itseK upon Perthes. 
"How should, how can this end?" he WTote. " The 
desire which we have to do our best is all we can 

rely upon What avails courage, when there is 

not one citizen among us who knows anything of 
military movements, or even the use of arms, and 
when no soldiers are sent to us with whom we 
might incorporate ourselves ? If we had but three 
battalions of burghers who could go through a mili- 
tary drill and were good marksmen ; if we had but 
a hundred young fellows who knew how to manage a 
cannon, we might be saved, but now our preserva- 
tion depends upon strangers." 

All hope of foreign aid, however, was soon cut 
off, and on the last of May it became known that 
Tettenborn, the Russian commander, intended to 
leave the city to its fate. 

On the evening of the 28th of May, Perthes sent 
away his wife and children to Wandsbeck. There 
in the Danish territory they were safe from the 
perils of war. In a letter of some weeks later date, 
Caroline thus writes concerniug those sad days: 
" You can form no conception of the anguish and 
dismay, the hopes and fears of our last three weeks 
in Hamburg. Mv heart is full, and I rejoice to be 



66 CHRIST IN A GERMAN HOME. 

able to tell you liow much more kindness, truth and 
fortitude we all evinced, than we supposed our- 
selves capable of. We may speak of it now, for ii 
has been proved by exposure to want and danger. 
How heartily do I thank God for this experience ! 
I never knew how strong w^e are when all concen- 
trate their energies on one point. Dear Emily, I 
never felt such a universal welling in one direction. 
We were all elevated above small troubles and dif- 
ficulties, and desired only the one thing needful, 
and desired that wdth all our heart, each one in his 
own way, and without any doubt of obtaining it. 
The 28th of May, the birthday of my Agnes was 
the last I spent in Hamburg ; then I bid farewell 
to my dear sitting-room with a sad, and 3"et a 
thankful heart. I had sent the beds and linen to 
Wandsbeck some days before, and the rest of the 
things I had either hidden or given away; the 
larger pieces of furniture we wxre indeed obliged to 
leave behind, because Perthes would not discour- 
age the burghers by making them aware of our 
preparations for escape." 

Caroline had left the city but a few hours when 
the firing recommenced. "The battle," wrote 
Perthes, to his wife, " which began at two o'clock, 
sfiil rages on Ochsenvrarden, and as far as w-e can 



THE FRENCH IN HAMBURG. 67 

observe, tlie smoke becomes more and more dis<"ant. 
"We hope the best, for it has already lasted five 
hours." And again a little later, "We have no 
certain tidings yet; the fight continues. Trust me 
still, and believe that God is in my heart and be- 
fore my eyes. How, in my circumstances, could I 
act otherwise than I do? How could I have ap- 
peared before you ? That I repress, as far as pos- 
sible, the outburst of sorrow and of feeling, is for 
your sake; for one hour of feeling does me more 
injury than ten nights of watching, and I desire to 
spare myself for you and the children." After an 
arduous struggle the French remained masters of 
Ochs(;n warden, the island immediately opposite the 
city, and there were but few obstacles in the way of 
their triumphant re-entrance. 

On the morning of the 30th of May, the Russian 
force retreated from Hamburg. A few hours later 
the Danes appeared, and saved the citizens from 
the vengeance of the French, acting as a friendly 
and mediating power, and formally putting them in 
possession of the city. 

On hearing the sad news Perthes had set out for 
Wandsbeck. There, at two o clock in the morning, 
he told his wife that all was lost, and appointed 
Mtitschen, the residence of his friend Moltke, as 



68 CHRIST IN A GERMAN HOME. 

lier next place of refuge. To escape prison and a 
rebel's death by the hangman's hand, Perthes him- 
self drove on through Rahlstadt under cover of the 
night. 

To his friend Benecke he wrote; •*! can only 
place my trust in God. Farewell, beloved friend, I 
shall hardly be able to see you again. I am going 
into the wide world with a delicate wife and seven 
children, without knowing where at the end of a 
week I may find bread for them ; but God will help 
us." 

It was impossible for Caroline to remain long at 
Wandsbeck. In a letter written somewhat later to 
her sister Jacobi, she says: "As soon as Perthes 
had taken leave of me in his flight, I began to pack, 
and then exhausted as I was, set out with my chil- 
dren and nurse, in a light open carriage. It was a 
very affecting parting; my mother could not con- 
trol her feehngs, and my father was deeply moved ; 
the children wept aloud ; I myself felt as if turned 
to stone, and could only say continually, ' Now, for 
heaven's sake !' My sister Augusta went with me, 
to comfort and assist me ; truly willing to share my 
labors and anxieties. In the morning we anived at 
Mlltschen, where, finding only two beds for ten per- 
sons, I was obliged to divide our cloaks and bun- 



THE PEENCH IN HAMBURG. 69 

dies of linen, so that tlie children might at least 
have something under their heajis." 

Yet on the evening of this day, Caroline con- 
trived to \mte a few lines to her parents, " I can 
only wish you good night," she said, " for I am so 
weary in mind and body, that I can neither think 
nor write. If I had but met Perthes here this 
evening, safe and sound, as I had hoped, I believe 
I should have forgotten all sorrow. I am still cold 
and hard as a stone, and shrink from the thought of 
the thawing. I felt all day as if everybody were 
dead, and I was left alone on the earth. These 
have been weeks of life and death struggle. God 
help every j^oor man who is in trouble of mind or 
body in these eventful times !" 

On the first day of June Perthes arrived. "And 
now," says Caroline, " we wished to pause and con- 
sider where we should go, and what we should do ; 
but my brother John came and told us that our 
friends advised us to lose no time, but to go farther 
away, as our house at Hamburg had been search- 
ed, and Mutschen was too near Lubeck. Perthes set 
out at once, and again I began to pack up and on 
the third I left for Lutzenberg." 

Perthes, accompanied by his eldest son Mat- 
thias, had reached Alteuhof, the estate of Count 



70 CHRIST IN A GERMAN HOME. 

Eeventlow. "I was so unaifectecUy welcomed by 
the Count and Countess," he wrote to Caroline, 
" that it gave me genuine pleasure. The Count will 
give up Aschan to us. It is, I am told, a dreary 
place ; but I think it will do very well." 

A few days later, the husband and wife met 
again at Eckernforde. "Here we wept freely to- 
gether," wrote Caroline, "which in all our trouble 
we had never been able to do before." Thence the 
whole family removed to Aschan, a summer villa on 
the Baltic, and made themselves as comfortable as 
they could. "And there," wrote Caroline, " I for a 
time forgot all our troubles for joy that I had got 
my Perthes, and I can truly say we were inexpres- 
sibly happy in each other. I thought neither of the 
past nor future, but thanked God incessantly, and 
rejoiced that out of all these perils he had brought 
my husband to me safe and sound." 

Perthes had lost everything. His shop in Ham- 
burg was sealed, and his dwelling-house, after 
being plundered of every movable, was assigned to 
a French generaL Keady money he had none. 

" Do not suppose I complain," he wrote to his 
uncle ; " he who has nothing to repent of has noth- 
ing to complain of. I have acted as in the presence 
of God; I have often risked my life, and why 



THE FEENCH IN HAMBUEG. 71 

should I be dispirited because I have lost my for- 
tune ? God's will be done ! I do not yet see how 
I am to provide bread for my family in a foreign 
land." 

Personal safety as well as business soon re- 
quired Perthes to bid adieu to his family. In a 
letter of Caroline's she says, " When we had spent 
a few weeks together at Aschan, Perthes said to 
me that matters were not yet settled, and that ho 
must be off, in order to provide for sustenance. 
Then it was the scales fell from my eyes. I knew, 
without asking, what he intended to do — what, in- 
deed, he was compelled to do; and once more I 
became exposed to all my former sorrows. Per- 
haps it would be weeks, perhaps months, perhaps 
we should be in the world above, before I saw him 
again. I feared for myself; for I believe that with 
liim I can bear all things, but without him I know 
not what will become of me. Ah ! and my soul is 
filled with sorrow, anxiety and care on his account. 
You know how earnestly I have desired more rest 
and leisure for him, and now that he has lost all 
he had earned in seventeen toilsome years, he must 
take up the yoke again, and he will feel it to be 
heavier than ever. Pray for me that I may not 
grow faint-hearted." 



72 



CHKIST IN A GERMAN HOME 



On Thursday, the 8th of July, under the shade 
of the gloomy pine-trees of Aschan, Perthes took 
leave of Caroline. "It was the painful parting of 
my life," he wrote. " I enter again into the world, 
into a new and unknown world, full of great possi- 
bihties, and also full of perils, but I have spirit and 
courage to meet them cheerfulty. Kesignation to 
the will of God, firm convictions and rich experi- 
ence, a heart full of love and youthful feeling, 
truth, and rectitude, such are the treasures which 
my forty years of life have given me. Lord, my 
God, I thank thee for them ; forgive a poor sinner, 
and lead me not into temptation." 




IX, 



EXILE. 




OON after came tidings from Hamburg 
that a general pardon had been pro- 
claimed. Ten men, however, were ex- 
cepted, among whom was Perthes. "I 
thank you from my heart, my beloved Per- 
thes," wrote Caroline, "that your name 
stands among the names of the ten enemies of the 
tyrant. This will bring us joy and honor as long as 
we live." 

The general pardon failed to protect the city 
from the atrocities of Davoust. Bad as these ap- 
peared in July, they had not reached their height. 
" It will do some good," said Perthes, " for if it had 
not been for this, the old-fashioned, spiritless peo- 
ple would have relapsed into their indolent, let-alone 
habits. Still it is terrible, and it cuts one to the 

very heart when one hears of such horrors." 

10 



74 CHRIST 11^ A GERMAN HOME. 

The autumn months were full of important 
events. Battles were fought remarkable in them- 
selves and in their results. "It is a momentous 

time," wrote Perthes " Through such dark 

seasons a man must pass ; they are a part of hu- 
man destiny; and even He who w^as without sin 
was pleased to endure the like. I could not tell 
you in a thousand pages, my Caroline, all the 
thoughts and feelings that pass through my head 
in the course of the day. My days are often sad 
enough. Plow hard it is to present truth in its 
purity ! It receives the coloring of each individual 
mind, and of each individual's weaknesses and fol- 
lies. How weak and corrupt are men, even the 
good. If man were not a poor sinner, he might 
regard himseK as a god." 

And in another letter : " May God enable me to 
do what is right, and keep me from self-exaltation. 
I will preserve my integrity. I will look upon my 
fatherland with a good conscience, and will return 
to our city with an open countenance and head 
erect." 

Perthes not only possessed the personal confi- 
dence of the most eminent generals, but the young 
men of the Legion were devoted to him heart and 
soul, and clung to liim with childhke affection and 



EXILE. 75 

confidence. They delighted in the sympathy of the 
slender, delicately-formed man, who never shrank 
from the endurance of any hardship with them; 
who took part in all their joys and perils, and who 
never spared earnest and friendly remonstrances in 
the hope of preserving them from the reckless 
license of a wild and irregular soldier life. 

But this active and stirring life was pervaded by 
a deep and heartfelt sorrow, arising from the posi- 
tion of his wife and children, whom he had been 
obliged to leave at Aschan. There, near the farm- 
house, and in the middle of the wood, close to the 
sea, stood the summer-house, which had been the 
refuge of Caroline and her family, consisting of a 
sitting-room and a few small bedrooms. The farmer 
was the only inhabitant within a circle of four miles. 

In a letter written some time afterwards to her 
sister, Caroline says : " We could get nothing from 
the farmer, kind as he was, but milk and butter; 
Oread, salt, soap, oil, and so forth, were not to be 
had within four miles, and my sister Augusta, with 
the two elder children, had to fetch them. For eigh- 
teen months we had neither meat nor white bread. 
What was called the kitchen was about forty paces 
from the house. Our cooking utensils consisted of 
four copper pots, a bowl, and a few plates. Fortu- 



76 CHRIST IN A GERMAN HOME. 

nately I had brought our spoons with me, and I pur- 
chased a few knives and forks ; everything else we 
did without. And yet we are rich in comparison 
with many others, for we have a hundred thousand 
times more than nothing." 

Carohne's delicate health greatly increased her 
anxieties. The eldest of her children was a daugh- 
ter of fifteen, and the youngest, a boy, did not run 
alone. The eldest son, Matthias, walked every morn- 
ing at seven o'clock to Altenhof, a distance of three 
miles, to receive instruction with the sons of Count 
Eeventlow. The education of the rest was in the 
meantime interrupted. One old and faithful ser- 
vant had remained with them, and their means 
would not allow them to engage a second. The 
damp garden-house, with its twelve windows down 
to the ground, unprovided with shutters, brought 
ailments of all sorts upon the children during the 
moist, rainy season ; and Caroline herself was often 
laid upon a sick-bed. There was a friendly old far- 
rier at Eckernforde, but no physician nearer than 
twelve or fifteen miles. 

The deserted wife, however, met Vydth sympathy 
and comfort. Her sister Augusta was ready for any 
emergency by night or day; "and the families of 
Count Eeventlow and Count Stolberg vie with each 



EXILE. 77 

other," writes Caroline, "in their attention and the 
readiness they manifest in lending us assistance in 
our need. No words can describe their kindness." 
The children, too, while adding to her cares, 
ministered no less to her strength and happiness. 
"They refreshed me in my distress," she writes, 
" each in his own way and out of the simple and 
genuine affection of their hearts, the little Bernard 
not excepted, who is often at a loss to find expres- 
sion for his love. I am indeed convinced from ex- 
perience that God can give us no greater joy or 
sorrow than through a loving and beloved child. 
Nothing else so revives and sustains the heart and 
shames us into energy. This I have experienced a 
thousand times ; and I scarcely think that I could 
have continued mistrtss of myself if God had not 
given me my angel Bernard, and in him a living 
image of childish love and confidence. When I 
was in deep affliction and anxiety on account of 
Perthes, and in sorrow for my eight children enter- 
ing upon life deprived of a father's counsel and 
affection, I was often on the brink of despair. And 
when at such times I folded my dear Bernard in 
my arms, and looked into his clear infant eyes, and 
saw that he was neither troubled nor afraid, but 
calm, sweet, and loving, I found faith again, and 



78 CHRIST IN A GERMAN HOME. 

prayed to God that I might become even as mj 
dear child." 

The kindness of friends and the love of children 
might indeed uphold her against the heavy pressure 
of external circumstances ; but when anxiety for her 
husband was aroused, she could not be comforted. 
The communications with Mecklenburg being inter- 
rupted, letters from Perthes were seldom received, 
while contradictory and exaggerated reports were in 
circulation as to his position and the dangers with 
which he was encompassed. Caroline's mind mean- 
while was full of the saddest forebodings. In a 
future that did not seem far off, she pictured her 
children fatherless and motherless, helpless and for- 
saken. Her grief is revealed in letters evidently 
written under the deepest melancholy. "I have 
need of hope," she writes to Perthes, "for the pres- 
ent is mournful, and my condition and circumstan- 
ces are more serious, and my sense of desolation 
greater than you, in the midst of so much activity 
and hopeful labor, can realize. If I am to spend 
my time here alone, if I am to remain here without 
tidings of you, while I know you to be exposed to 
constant danger, I cannot survive. I cannot suffi- 
ciently impress on you, my Perthes, the importance 
of making such arrangements as may prevent our 



EXILE. 79 

being separated during the coming winter. I sol- 
emnly assure you that it is an act of injustice to 
leave me here without the most urgent necessity. . . . 
I am surrounded by darkness and perplexity, and I 
see before me a sad and painful death-bed, to which 
I may at any moment be called; but I will not 
despair. May God protect and preserve you to us 
"We pray for you by night and day." 

And in a letter written somewhat later, she says, 
" If you love me, take care that in the event of my 
death my children, especially my little children, be 
intrusted to the care of those who will teach them 
to love God, without knowing they are learning it. 
This is the main point, and to little ones everything 
else is comparatively unimportant. Their hearts, in 
which so much lies dormant, are first to be opened. 
Ah, my Perthes, may God help us to awaken the 
love of himself in our children, whether we are to 
live together or apart in this world. My hand 
trembles, and I can write no more." 

At other times her anxiety for the life of her 
husband overcame aU other fears. "How can I 
persuade myself that you, my dear Perthes, will be 
preserved to me ?" she writes. " God takes away 
thousands of husbands as much beloved by their 
wives and children as you are by us. Perthes, my 



80 CHRIST IN A GEKMAN HOME. 

dear Perthes, to fulfil your slightest wish would be 
my only pleasure, were }'ou to be taken from me, 
and I were to have the misery of being left in the 
world without you. Tell me then more of your 
views regarding the children, and what I can do to 
please you." 

The quiet energy and self-command with which 
Caroline, even in her deepest affliction, presided 
over her household, and the expressions of courage 
and resignation which filled many of her letters 
written to women who, like herself, were victims of 
the times, had given her friends the conviction, that 
even if the worst should befall her, her peace of 
mind would remain unshaken. To her husband she 
indeed gave vent to her oppressed heart ; but amid 
her complaints she as often gave utterance to the 
language of patience. Thus she writes in one of 
her letters to him: "I have the firm conviction that 
my trust in God v/ill never fail ; but I cannot always 
rejoice in the will of God, and I cannot make up 
my mind to resign you without tears, and without 
the deepest anguish. You are too entirely my all 
in this world ; but believe me, I do not murmur ; I 
only weep and am yours for eternity." But it was 
only at long intervals that these letters came into 
the hands of Perthes, and his answers, sometimes 



EXILE. 81 

lost, sometimes carried from place to place for 
months together, afforded no help to Caroline in 
forming her plans, and little support in her solitude. 
To transport his wife and children to Mecklenburg 
into the confusion of war, was impossible, and to 
have visited them in Holstein would have imperilled 
life or liberty. 

He was, moreover, fully persuaded he was in 
the path of duty. "I follow the voice of God," he 
says in a letter, " and that voice is now clearer and 

more distinct than ever Never, my Caroline, 

permit yourself to think that my love for you and 
the children is one whit less warm or deep than 
that of those who are anxiously striving to preserve 
their lives for the sake of their families. Your task 
is indeed a hard one, but mine is not light. Have 
patience, be calm and self-possessed, my beloved 
Caroline ; trust to my sense and prudence, and 
leave the result to God. You wished to know what 
was to become of the children in case of my death. 
I trust to your wisdom, your energy, and your affec- 
tion, and I pray to God to give you what you want, 
and that is tranquillity." 

" Thank God," he says in another letter, "that 
you, my darlings and my only earthly treasures, are 
well. Dear Carohne, what a vast wilderness the 

Christ 111 Oer. Home. H 



82 CHEIST IN A GERMAN HOME. 

world becomes when man has no home. That which 
I wanted as a youth I want now, but in a different 
way. In my youth you stood before me, the object 
of my love, hke some fairy enchantment. I behold 
you again in my thoughts ; but it is in all the real- 
ity of your truth and worth, and I cannot reach 
you. These times are indeed wonderful and inter- 
esting ; but it is hard to be without a home, and 
the sad hours that I spend apart from you shifting 
foi* myself are too many. . . . The sight of little 
children always brings tears to my eyes. God will 
help me : I dare not leave what I have undertaken." 
Again he writes : "It seems as if God were bless- 
ing all my undertakings. Indeed, much has been 
achieved, and in more than one instance harmony 
and stabihty have been secured by my efforts ; but 
it is not only in its results, as they affect the one 
great national object, that our separation has beeu 
useful ; it has also enabled me to assist many indi- 
viduals. Large sums of money are placed at my 
disposal, and thus I am able to aid the distressed, 
not only with sympathy and advice, but also sub- 
stantial assistance. Yes, my dear Caroline, all the 
inducements that can move a man to sacrifice every 
earthly possession in order to work energetically 
and activelv, combine to stimulate me now — honor. 



EXILE. 83 

gratitude, affection, freedom, love of action. Com- 
fort yourseK as I do, by thinking on what has been 
done." 

In September, Caroline and her children left 
Aschan for Kiel, where Count Moltke had give up 
to them the apartments which he usually occupied 
when in the city. There CaroHne found medical 
help, friends, and relations, but still suffered many 
privations from the want of money. Her own ill- 
ness and that of her children added to her sorrows. 
Her anxieties for the fate of her children, in case 
she did not survive, was increased by her total 
ignorance of her husband's circumstances, and even 
his place of residence. 

From the 7th of August to the 2d of October 
she was without tidings of him, and knew not 
whether he was alive or dead. Towards the end of 
October she wrote : " I struggle ever more and more 
to keep thought and fancy, heart and yearning, 
under control; but 6h, my beloved, I suffer inex- 
pressibly!" and then, after details concerning the 
children, she adds, "I tell you everything, for you 
should know how things actually stand, that you 
may be able to do what is right in the circumstan- 
ces ; but I do not thus write to induce you to draw 
back. I take God to witness, who is more to me 



84: CHRIST IN A GERMAN HOME. 

than even you are, that I do not wish you to do 
anything but your duty." 

These last words were conveyed to Perthes with 
unusual rapidity, and within a few days he was ena- 
bled to assure his wife she had nothing to fear for 
his life, as he was employed on a peaceful mission. 





¥>- 



X. 

VICISSITUDES OF WAR. 

JERTHES had been disappointed in liis 
hope of finding letters from Carohne at 
Bremen, and was the more anxious, be- 
cause Holstein had become the seat of 
war. Finding no letters there, he hastened 
to Lubeck, carrying with him the guarantees of the 
independence of the cities. Here he heard of the 
birth of a son, Andreas, on the 10th of December. 

On Christmas night he travelled to Kiel, now no 
longer threatened by a hostile army, and arrived 
there the next day at five o'clock in the afternoon. 
" Unexpectedly and in the twilight he entered my 
room, after a separation of nearly six months," 
wrote Caroline. "Matthias saw him first. I had 
the happiness of restoring all the children to him 
safe and well, with the addition of a darling, healthy 




86 CHRIST IN A GERMAN HOME. 

infant. What this was none can know but one who 
has experienced it." 

In January Perthes again left his family, to aid 
in distributing money granted by the prince to the 
exiled Hamburgers. " You will have heard of the 
misery of this district," he writes, "but no w^ords 
oan give any idea of it. All the trouble that I have 
witnessed and shared for the last nine months is as 
nothing in comparison. On the last week in De- 
cember, Davoust, the French commander, after 
plundering the. bank, had set on fire all the sur- 
rounding villages, and driven twenty thousand peo- 
ple out of the city destitute and homeless; among 
whom were the old and weak, the children from the 
orphan-house, and the infirm poor from the alms- 
houses. Even the hospital, in which were eight 
hundred sick, was set on fire. The helpless in- 
mates were removed through the incredible exer- 
tions of the burghers, but many afterwards died 
from exposure. The intense excitement and cold 
cost six hundred of the sick their lives." 

For miles around the snow-covered country pre- 
sented the appearance of a vast waste of ruins. 
Every night the sky was illumined by the glow of 
freshly-kindled fires. In the streets of Altona and 
neighboring villages, haK-frozen figures wandered 



VICISSITUDES OF WAE. 87 

about crying for food and shelter, while long lines 
of the sick and aged, of women and children, might 
be seen, under the escort of a troop of Cossacks, on 
their way to seek in sister-cities the assistance they 
so much needed. 

Much was done to alleviate the suffering ; con- 
tributions poured in from far and near, and those 
appointed to administer relief did what they could. 

The letters of this period contain numerous 
references to Perthes, touching matters great and 
small, far and near. Although he held no office, 
he appears, at this time, the centre around which 
all business, bearing on the destiny of Hamburg, 
revolved. 

Amid many sorrows and anxieties he wrote to 
Caroline in January : " No word, no letter from you, 
my beloved Caroline — how is this ? I am very un- 
happy, and long to be with you and the children, 
but dare not leave, for an important decision may 
depend on my presence. Never since our depart- 
ure from Hamburg have I been so unhappy as I 
now feel, and yet I have no tidings from you. 
Surely some great calamity has overtaken you. Is 
my darling Bernard still ahve? He was not well 
when I left." 

This child, a boy of uncommon beauty and 



88 CHRIST IN A GERMAN HOME. 

vivacity, was indeed still alive when his father 
wrote these lines, but was even then struggling with 
death, and within two days the Lord took him to 
himself. "My dear Perthes," wrote Caroline, im- 
mediately after the death of the child, "what I 
feared has happened; our dear Bernard is very ill. 
I am full of care and anxiety and fear the worst. 
I wish above all things, both for your sake and my 
own, that you were here. . . . May God be our 
help ! Why should I conceal it longer from yoil ? 
Our angel is with God. He died this morning at 
half -past nine. He looks wonderfully beautiful, 
and I implore you to come as soon as possible, 
that you may see his dear remains before any 
change takes place." 

Owing to the irregularity of the posts, Perthes 
had neither received this letter nor a former one, 
acquainting him with the illness of the child ; and 
on the 21st of January he stepped cheerfully into 
Caroline's room with the question, "Are all well?" 
" I had to lead my poor Perthes to the corpse of 
our beloved child," wrote Caroline to her sister. 
" His grief was excessive, and my anxiety for him 
carried me through this painful day." 

Perthes had been only a few hours in Kiel when 
he was to repair to the Russian headquarters, to 



VICISSITUDES or WAR. 89 

consult in the name of the crown prince as to fur- 
ther measures for the relief of the outcast Hamburg- 
ers, and for obtaining the Yoluntary cession of the 
city. " Called at such a time, and under such cir- 
cumstances, you must go," said Caroline. But Per- 
thes was physically unable. " Caroline's heroic 
spirit was greater than my bodily strength," he 
wrote. He was unable to leave the house for sev- 
eral days. " But thank God, nothing has suffered 
by my absence," he wrote. "Be strong, my be- 
loved ! May God spare us further trials. We are 
quiet just now. I have no more to say to you at 
present; but we understand each other for eternity 
without words. May the Lord protect you and my 
dear children, and keep for us those who are now 
at rest," " My letter of the 7th of February, your 
fortieth birthday, my still young and ever-youthful 
wife, you will have received before this, and gladly 
would I have hastened to your arms and pressed 
you to my heart. Be comforted, my dear Caroline ! 
True love is immortal, and by some bonds of love I 
feel sure that our departed Httle ones are still uni- 
ted to us." 

In order to be as near as possible to the seat of 
suffering, Perthes had fixed his quarters at a mill 

which the Kussians soon after converted into a 

12 



90 CHRIST IN A GERMAN HOME. 

temporary hospital, and lie had to carry on his 
work amid the groans of the wounded and the 
dying. 

He was compelled to be almost perpetually in 
motion, passing over ground covered with snow, 
while suffering severely from a contusion on his 
foot, caused by a fall from a carriage. Upon arri- 
ving in Kiel, some time after, it was found that a. 
bone of his foot was broken. " I hope my future 
biographer will record," he playfully wrote, " that 
I have walked about for nearly a fortnight, and 
driven twenty miles in a requisition wagon, with a 
broken bone." 

For nine weeks he was now confined to his bed, 
and for the first part of the time was in great dan- 
ger from a severe attack of nervous fever; but a 
good constitution carried him through all. " Here," 
he wrote to Besser, " I have been obliged to cast 
anchor at last. Such a fate is hard to bear at the 
present moment. If a ball had done it, one might 
have been better pleased." His spirits, however, 
never flagged ; and liis wife could write, " Mj dear 
Perthes is always the same; and during the whole 
period of his confinement he has never been cross 
or impatient. I rejoice that he was with us when 
he fell ill, and that I had the happiness of nursing 



VICISSITUDES OF WAR. 91 

him. The children were all well, fortunately, and 
we made the best of it." 

Hope for the future now began to dawn. " "We 
are living in a time of miracles," wrote a friend. 
" What we with sad hearts desired for our children, 
but never dared to expect, we ourselves have lived 
to see. And what a glorious day this beautiful 
dawn promises ! A generation that has raised 
itself so high will never sink again." 

On the 19th of April Perthes left Kiel with his 
whole family, and on the next day arrived at 
Blankenese, a fishing village a few miles below 
Hamburg, where he proposed remaining till the 
French evacuated that place, an event which it was 
evident must come in the course of a few months. 

" These six weeks in Blankenese have been the 
sweetest part of my life," wrote Caroline to her 
sister. "Perthes with me, the children well, and 
the hope of the deliverance of our city gaining 
strength day by day. . Suddenly the white banners 
waved once more at Harburg and from St. Michael's 
tower. In all directions outcasts might be seen 
streaming into the city. We lived near the Elbe, 
and could see all those who were hastening l)ack 
from Bremen and Hanover. One day a carriage 
full of little children, whose parents had died in the 



92 CHEIST IN A GEBMAN HOME. 

hospital at Bremen, arrived at our door. Troops of 
starving people, with many children, and but little 
luggage, passed under our windows, and it was 
touching to witness the love for home and hearth 
that was manifested, though for the most part the 
poor creatures could look forward to nothing but 
trouble and wretchedness. As they came through 
the country, each silently broke a branch from the 
trees by the w^ayside, and bore it in his hand, and 
old and young, and even little children, amid tears 
of grief and shouts of joy, thanked God for their 
deliverance from the great and universal calamity, 
little thinking all the while that each brought his 
own burden with him, and that a heavy one. 

Early in May, through the mediation of a French 
general despatched from Paris, negotiations were 
entered into for the surrender of Hamburg to one 
of the Russian commanders; and on the last day 
of the month General Benningsen made his en- 
trance with the Russians and the Burgher Guard. 
On the morning of the same day, Perthes and his 
family left Blankenese, and in the midst of advan- 
cing troops returned through Altona to the home 
from which they had been driven a year before. 




XT, 



THE RETURN HOME. 




^NCE more were Perthes and his family 
in the home which at one time they 
had hardly expected to see again. 
Many an anxious thought was mingled 
with their feehngs of gratitude. " God be 
praised that he has brought us thus far, that 
he has stood by us and helped us through this year 
of heavy trial," wrote Caroline to her parents on 
the day of her return. " I will be glad and forget 
all, except my dear Bernard. "We have many trials 
before us, even under the most favorable circum- 
stances. God grant that my Perthes may be spared^ 
to me with strength and spirits for the heavy toil 
now before him." 

It was indeed no light task to take up the old 



94 CHRIST IN A GERMAN HOME. 

links after so long an interval. Even to render tlie 
house habitable was a difficult undertaking. The 
pleasant and beautiful apartments on the ground- 
floor had for months been used by the French sol- 
diers as guard-rooms. In the middle of the largest 
room was a huge stove. Trunks of trees had been 
dragged in through the windows to feed it. All the 
wood-work that could be pulled down had been 
burned, and the smoke had found an outlet through 
the windows. The upper part of the house had 
been occupied by General Loisen ; but even there 
the soldiers had conducted themselves so riotously, 
the whole house was little better than a heap of 
filth. All the furniture had been taken away ; 
some of it by kind friends, who had concealed it 
where they could, and the rest by the French pre- 
fect. There was not a single habitable room — dirt 
and rubbish a foot high covered the floors. Chairs 
and tables, beds and bedding, and the whole appa- 
ratus of the kitchen had to be replaced ; while the 
want of money and the heart-breaking spectacle of 
numbers of hungry and sorrow-stricken exiles flock- 
ing into the city, made the strictest economy a duty 
no less than a necessity. 

To place the business, which had been entirely 
broken up, on its former footing, was an undertaking 



THE EETUPwN HOME. 95 

of far greater difficulty. Davoust had sealed up 
Perthes' warehouse, and given notice that all debts 
due to the firm were to be paid to the French au- 
thorities. Many valuable maps and books were 
appropriated by the officers; the rest were to be 
sold by auction. Besser, ever on the alert, main- 
tained that the creditors should first be paid, and 
succeeded in gaining his point. But before the sale 
could take place a catalogue must first be prepared. 
This he proceeded to do as slowly as possible. 
More than once Davoust threatened to sell the 
books by weight if the catalogue were not forth- 
coming; but it did not appear, and the property 
remained unsold. 

The warehouse, however, being required by the 
French, the thirty thousand* volumes which it con- 
tained were removed in wagons to another place, 
and tumbled together without any regard to order. 
" You will believe, but you can form no idea of the 
labor of finding one's way through all this confu- 
sion," -svrote Perthes, soon after his return. " I was 
invited by the prefect to enter the city, in conse- 
quence of the marshal's resolution to release my 
premises from the embargo he had placed upon 
them, and infbrmed that seven hundred francs had 
to be paid for a catalogue which they had prepared. 



96 CHRIST IN A GERMAN HOME. 

You see that under the white flag they are still the 
same people. Thus for having hung me on the gal- 
lows in effigy, hunted me out of house and home, 
destroj^ed my trade, stolen the half of my books, 
and burned my furniture, the scoundrels ask seven 
hundred francs !" 

Perthes, however, decidedly declared that as it 
was not at his request that the authorities had given 
themselves the trouble of taking charge of his books 
and preparing the inventory, he should decline pay- 
ment. Towards the end of June he opened his 
shop, and within a few days could write: "God's 
blessing is upon us. All promises well." 

There was still much to be done for the thou- 
sands who had returned utterly destitute of food, 
clothing, and shelter, and tools with which to resume 
work. The public charities were turned to the best 
account, and admirably worked. Contributions 
came from London and other European cities. 
Even distant Malta sent a large sum. 

Perthes, as usual, was active in the distribution 
of these funds, and while thus engaged found many 
were suffering from other than mere bodily wants. 
"I have gathered much valuable experience among 
the lower classes," he writes. " Hundreds of fami- 
lies would fain seek help and comfort in God, but 



THE KETUEN HOME. 97 

know not the way that leads to him The Bible 

is known only to few families ; I have found it want- 
ing even in schools." It was at this time the Lon- 
don Bible Society began to direct its efforts towards 
Germany. The preliminary meetings were held in 
Perthes' house, and his important services in the 
cause were long gratefully remembered. A few 
days later, in October, 1814, the Hamburg- Altona 
Bible Society was founded. 

He was also one of a committee appointed for 
the education of the poor. "We got thirty thou- 
sand marks jat once," he says to Fouqud, " for the 
education of poor children, and hope to get a great 
deal more. We twelve have gone minutely through 
the town, and what numbers of fine children we 
have found ! The blessing of God is indeed upon 
our ]3eople. We have taken seven hundred of the 
destitute children of the city." The Hamburg 
schools for the poor, since so widely extended, owed 
much to this collection. 

Sooner than any could have ventured to expect, 
the hopes of Germany were realized by the victory 
of Waterloo. Caroline had been residing for a 
few weeks at Wandsbeck, and when the first uncer- 
tain rumors of a great and decisive battle reached 
her there, she wrote at once in the greatest excite- 

Chrlst in Ger. Home. 3.3 



98- CHRIST IN A GERMAN HOME. 

ment to Hamburg: "Is it true, dear Perthes? Oh, 
why are you not here, or I with you ? Write to me 
immediately, if it be true. I cannot beheve it, and 
stand Kstening for voices in the air." 

CaroHne had posted her children on the path 
leading from Hamburg, in order to have the first 
news of the approach of the expected messenger. 
At length a horseman was seen in the distance ad- 
vancing at full gallop, and waving a white flag. It 
was the friend whom Perthes had despatched with 
the Gazette of the victory, and these words : "Be- 
hold the wonderful works of God ! give thanks and 
praise to him." 

" That is indeed a victory," replied Caroline. 
" May God help us still further, and may it be with- 
out fighting and conquering, if this is not asking too 
much. You write that Hanbury is shot. Alas ! for 
the poor mother at Flottbeck. But she must bear 
up ; she sees what he has died for." 

Events now succeeded each other with wonder- 
ful rapidity. " The first great act of the European 
drama is ended," wrote Perthes on the twentieth of 
June. " Napoleon is dethroned. You will read the 
rest in the Supplement to the Gazette. The French, 
if they give up their idol, set the crown on their 
own degradation. I expect it, and on this account 



THE BETURN HOME. 



99 



shall illuminate, and not because of the fall of the 
monster, who has long ago appeared to me as fall- 
en." And again, a few days later, " In France all 
is confusion, and this kingdom of hell is going to 
pieces. What a judgment from God !" 

On June 26, 1815, he writes again to CaroHne : 
" Yesterday came the report of the taking of Napo- 
leon, but it is not yet confirmed. Believe me, the 
person of this monster is not now of the importance 
that you and half the world imagine. Look at the 
fate of the French! their downfall, their terrible 
prospects ! The dispersion of the Jews is nothing 
in comparison." 





XII, 




DEATH OF CLAUDIUS. 

I^^HE anxieties and privations of the 3-ear 
^^ of exile had told severely on Carohne's 
\ir health. Her freshness and vivacity of 
mind, however, never forsook her ; and 
on this account she felt only the more keenly 
the pressure of disease which had its origin in 
great excitability of the nervous system, and an in- 
cipient complaint of the heart. " I have not yet re- 
covered my strength and energy," she writes, " and 
I often find my household duties so heavy that I 
almost despair." 

But although occasionally depressed, she was 
neither indifferent nor ungrateful for her many 
blessings. " The old song is every morning new," she 
once wrote, " that, if possible, I love Perthes still 
better than the day before. How inadequate seems 



DEATH OF CLAUDIUS. 101 

all tlie gratitude I feel foj hia\i2igl}ep9 -penxdit^d to 
retain hini." ^ / * ^ > ' 

She was now called f.o a;{ieild;lie^faiifefi^^g Ue 
approached that solemn moment when time and 
eternity meet together. Claudius had suffered se- 
verely from the war. A^. the age of seventy-three 
he had been driven from house and home, and was 
often exposed to poverty. "We are pretty well off 
here," he wrote on one ( ccasion to Caroline; "we 
have a little room, with a sofa and a bed, which 
almost fill it. We cook groats and potatoes for 
ourselves, but fuel is extravagantly dear. Fritz is 
at Wandsbeck taking care of our house, and has 
sold the cow. He writes me that the cellar is hke 
the universe before creation, waste and void." 

A few weeks later he wrote : " We are now hv- 
ing in a larger, I might ^ay a large room, but it is 
very cold, and we have u jt the means of keeping it 
warm." 

But the trials of poverty, separation from home 
and children, were not t jose which affected Clau- 
dius most sensibly. His sincere and patriotic heart 
was broken by the confli^jting emotions and doubts 
for his fatherland. The violent excitement of the 
times was too much for the simple mind and loving 
heart of the noble old man. 



102 CHRIST IN A GERMAN HOME. 

Ci^u^ius had returiied to Wandsbeck in May, 
1814,*^ but never sCgain'^o enjoy his old home. Wea- 
ried v/Mi the -Inirdeij ;of years and infirmities, he 
struggled through summer and autumn, and in 
compliance with the earnest entreaties of his 
daughter, removed to Hamburg in December, that 
he might be within reach of medical advice. " Papa 
is weary and languid," wrote CaroHne, "but we 
have reason to be thankful he is free from pain. 
He is so calm and so kindly, I might even say sat- 
isfied and contented, that I am too happy to see 
this, to give utterance to the grief which I already 
feel." 

It soon became evident that recovery was not 
to be expected; but life was prolonged to seven 
w^eeks — to Claudius a season of thankfulness and 
of almost uninterrupted calm and love. The blue 
sky above, the rising of the sun, the sight of his 
Rebecca, of his children and grandchildren, were 
all perpetual sources of enjoyment. One night he 
called Caroline to his bedside and said, "I must 
take something from the night, for the day is too 
short to thank you, my dear child." 

Caroline writing a few days before his death 
says: "He is confident, peaceful, and, except at 
very short intervals, even joyful. Yesterday, after 



DEATH OF CLAUDIUS. 103 

an hour of distress, he said, 'Well, dear Perthes;, 
this is all just as it should be, though not pleasant.' 
He then spoke of the approaching struggle, and of 
Him who is mighty to save, and said he had placed 
his whole confidence in God. He is wonderfully 
kind towards us all, and likes our mother to sit by 
his bed. He is also anxious that you absent ones 
should have daily tidings of him, and never fails to 
send you his greetings." 

His mind continued active to the last, and he 
was able to trace the progress of his own dissolu- 
tion — of the great mystery of the separation of soul 
and body. " I have all my life reflected by antici- 
pation on these hours," he said to Perthes, " and 
now they are come; but I understand as little as 
ever about the manner of the end." 

During the last few days he prayed incessantly. 
He never relinquished the hope that God would 
vouchsafe to him a glimpse into the realms beyond, 
while still on this side of the grave ; but although 
sight was not granted, his faith was never shaken. 

The 21st of January was the day of his death. 
About two o'clock he became aware that his end 
was approaching, and prayed, "Lead me not into 
temptation and deliver me from evil." An hour 
later he said " Good-night !" several times, and in 



101 CHKIST IN A GEEMAN HOME. ' 

tlie moment of departure he opened his eyes, and 
looked lovingly upon his wife and children, as 
though they had a right i o the last out-goings of 
affection. 

"His mind was quite animpaired, and he re- 
tained all his originality and peculiarities to the 
very last hour," wrote Perthes. " He died without 
anxiety. I may say he died rich ; for even in tem- 
poral things the fulness of hope was, as usual, at 
his command. The end of this man was indeed 
great and noble." 

So passed away Matthi; s Claudius, the Wands- 
becker Messenger, as he v as familiarly called by 
the German people, a man so well-known and ten- 
derly loved that we would linger a little over his 
memory ere we bid him adiou. 

None could, indeed, fail to love this kindly old 
*Bian, who came in contact with his genial nature, so 
fresh and sympathetic, so c verflowing with naivete 
honest humor and wit which never descended to 
coarseness. A man who vras said to open the 
heart as with a charm by his humble cordiality 
which almost bribed those whose opinion differed 
from his own. 

But it was only when viewed in contrast with 
the gloom of Eationalism by which the nation was 



DEATH OF CLAUDIUS. 105 

shrouded, that his bright Christian character shone 
forth in full relief. Men were seeking to exalt hu- 
man understanding above divine revelation. It was 
believed by many that human perfection might be 
attained by seK-culture. The intellect, not the 
heart, must be disciplined; and so the Bible was 
ignored and cast aside as old-fashioned and out- 
grown. Even so late as when Dr. Tholuck was ap- 
pointed professor in the great University of Halle 
wherein hundreds of students were preparing to 
enter the ministry, he could find but one who ever 
read the Bible for devotional purposes. And his 
own house was attacked, his windows broken and 
he himseK rudely treated in the streets because he 
believed in the Scriptures as the word of God. 

Surrounded on every hand by skepticism and 
doubC, Claudius was ever on the side of truth as 
revealed in the word of God, winning others to the 
same by his simple faith and earnest manhood 
rather than by his theology. 

Dr. Hagenbach, in his work on German Eational- 
ism, writes thus of him: "Claudius, like Luther, 
understood the high art of treating divine things 
with an innocent pleasantry because he might be 
said to be on familiar terms with God. He was 
artless in the noblest sense of the word, and in this 

14: 



106 CHRIST IN A GERMAN HOME. 

simplicity he could say much, which if said by 
others would have given offence, and which when 
imitated might become insipid. Thus he did not 
oppose those scoffing at Christianity with a frown- 
ing brow, nor the assuming ' Illuminati' with a pe- 
dantic orthodoxy; he rather opposed the sickly 
philosophy with his sound, solid mother-wit, the 
stiff learning of the schools with his plain, common 
sense, and the insolent satire of wickedness with 
the cheerful irony of his childlike innocence." 

r. H. Jacobi says: "The Wandsbecker Mes- 
senger is a real messenger of God, his Christianity 
is as old as the world. His faith is not merely the 
simplest and highest philosophy to him, but some- 
thing still higher. He appears in life just as in his 
writings ; sublime only in secret, full of pleasantry 
in social intercourse ; but he does not fail to let se- 
rious words drop, striking, penetrating words, when 
mind and heart tell him, now is the time and the 
proper occasion." 

Hamann said he considered him a fool who de- 
nied the existence of God, but he deemed that man 
a still greater one who wanted to prove His exist- 
ence ; and Claudius likewise attacked this spirit for 
argument concerning the truths of Christianity. "It 
ir, incomprehensible," he says, " that men enter into 



DEATH OF CLAUDIUS. 107 

such extensive debates with free-thinkers and 
skeptics, and talk so much about their free-think- 
ing and passion for doubts. Christ says very brief- 
ly : 'If any man will do His will, he shall know of 
the doctrine whether it be of God, or whether I 
speak of myself.' Whosoever cannot or will not 
make this attempt, if he is a reasonable man, or de- 
sires to be considered such, should not say another 
word for or against Christianity." And again, 
" The spirit of religion does not dwell in the shell 
of dogmatics, has not its abode in the children of 
unbelief, and can as Httle be gained by wanton 
bounds of reason as by stiff orthodoxy and monk- 
hood. ... It is an honor to a people to be strict 
and zealous in their religion ; but it is certainly not 
more than reasonable to investigate before being 
thus zealous." 

" To improve religion by means of reason," thus 
he lets Asmus address his cousin Andres, " appears 
to me like attempting to set the sun by my old 
wooden clock. Still, philosophy appears to me a 
very good thing, and I think much that is charged 
against the orthodox is true." He compares pliilos- 
ophy to the broom which sweeps the dirt out of the 
temple. To this cousin Andres replies: "Philos- 
ophy is certainly good, and they are wrong who 



108 CHRIST IN A GEKMAN HOME. 

scoff at it ; but revelation does not bear to philos- 
ophy the relation of much to httle, but that of 
heaven and earth, above and below. Philosophy 
may, in a certain sense, be such a broom to sweep 
the cobwebs from the temple ; we might call it a 
brush to sweep the dust from the statues of the 
saints; but when one attempts to carve on the 
statues with it he requires more than he can per- 
form, and it is highly absurd and provoking to see 
this attempted." 

Never did human reason reach higher limits 
than in this age, in Germany. A more brilhant 
succession of philosophers and poets the world 
never saw. But Claudius lived long enough to 
realize how miserably they failed to reach the hu- 
man perfectibility after which they strove; that 
blank uncertainty, hopelessness, and doubt were all 
that they attained. God grant that our nation may 
not pass through a similar experience. 

At another time he says : " Who will not believe 
in Christ must see if he can dispense with him. 
You and I cannot. We want some one while we 
live who will lift up and elevate us, and will lay his 
hand under our head when we die. Christ is 
abundantly able and williag to do all this." 

" Christ is a holy, superhuman being, a star in 



DEATH OE CLAUDIUS. 109 

the uight to tlie poor pilgrim, one that satisfies all 
our secret wants and longings." " One might suffer 
himself to be stigmatized and broken on the wheel 
even for the mere idea, and whoever can langh and 
mock must be insane. Whoever has his heart in 
the right place lies in the dust, rejoices and wor- 
ships." 

We find in the heart of Claudius a simple out- 
going of love and reverence toward Christ which no 
human life had ever called out. Wliile he believes 
all true philoso23hers and men of God to have been 
connected with Christ since the foundation of the 
world, it was only as the rivers to the ocean. Even 
John, the Baptist, the m.ost nearly related to Him, 
only prepared the way. And so he always feels 
like kneeling when he reads of Christ in any of the 
Gospels. " No one," he writes, " can say with a 
shadow of truth that I am a philosopher ; but I never 
go through a forest without wondering who makes 
the trees grow, and then quietly from afar I have a 
kind of consciousness of an Unknown One, and I 
would then be willing to aiBfirm that I think of God. 
I tremble so reverently, so joyfully at the thought." 
" I was on a journey last night," he writes in his 
journal on the morning of Good Friday. " The 
moon shone somewhat coldly upon me; she was, 



110 CHRIST IN A GERMAN HOME. 

however, bright and beautiful, so that I rejoiced 
greatly to behold her, and could not see her 
enough. Eighteen hundred years ago, I thought to 
myseK, you certainly did not shine thus, for it 
would have been impossible for men to have injured 
a righteous, innocent man in the face of so friendl}^, 
so mild a moon." 

Claudius was one of the first of the people's 
writers in Germany. He was well-known through 
a paper edited by himself called the "Wands- 
becker Bote," (Wandsbeck Messenger,) from which 
he derived his name ; also in the Asmus or collected 
works of the " Wandsbecker Bote." 

Included in these works are many poems, which 
acquired not a httle celebrity. We give a transla- 
tion of one the most popular. It is entitled, 

THE EVENING SONG. 
The golden stars are shining, 
The silver moon is climbing 

The heavens bright and clear. 
The black still woods are sleeping, 
The pale white mists are wreathing 

The meadows cold and sere. 

Fast o'er the world that sleepeth, 
The mantling twilight creepeth, 

With gentle, fond caress. 
Past is the day's dark sorrow, 
To glad hopes of the morrow, 

Of light and strength afresh. 



DEATH OF CLAUDIUS. Ill 

The cold gray mists are thickening, 
Onward our steps are quickening, 

Through the dark night and cold. 
No kindly voice is guiding; 
Like sheep from shepherd hiding, 

So strayed we from the fold. 

A Shepherd's voice hath sought us, 
His kindly love hath brought us 

From the deep forest's shade. 
Father, ever guide us. 
And then whate'er betide us. 

We will not be afraid. 

And though the way be dreary, 
And oft our feet are weary, 

O Father, hold us fast ! 
Through storms and darkness climbing. 
Lead to the daylight's shining. 

Oh, lead us home at last. 

"May God forgive us," says one, "for feeling 
that such a man could have been better spared in 
heaven than upon earth." " Death is a hard step," 
wrote Caroline, " but to take the step as he did, is 
inconceivably great." 

The solemn experiences of these weeks, during 
the whole of which her husband had been at her 
side, took deep hold of Caroline's mind ; and with 
her lively fancy and a heart ever seeking sympathy, 
she felt it to be a heav}^ trial, that Perthes, laden 
with cares, business and interests of all kinds, 



112 CHRIST IN A GERMAN HOME. 

could devote so little time to her and tlie cliildron. 
" My liope becomes every day less that Perthes will 
be able to make any such arrangement of his time, 
as will leave a few quiet hours for me and the chil- 
dren. There is nothing that I can do but to love 
him, and bear him ever in my heart, till it shall 
please God to bring us together in some region 
where we shall no longer need house or housekeep- 
ing, and where there are neither books, nor bills to 
be paid. Perthes feels it a heavy trial, but he 
keeps up his spirits, and for this I thank Ood." 

After eighteen years of trial and vicissitude, her 
affection for her husband had retained all its youth- 
ful freshness. Life and love had not become merely 
habitual, they remained fresh and spontaneous as 
in the bride. She always gave vent to her feelings 
unrestrainedly, and felt deeply when Perthes, as a 
husband, addressed her otherwise than he had 
done as a bridegroom. Now that he was detained 
for some weeks in Leipzig, she writes him half in 
jest, half in earnest : 

" You have indeed renounced all sensibility for 
this year, because of your many occupations, but, I, 
for my part, when I write to you cannot do so with- 
out feeling ; for the thought of you excites all the 
emotions of which my heart is capable. Not a line 



DEATH OF CLAUDIUS. 113 

have I received. Tell me, is it not ratlier bard that 
you never wrote from Brunswick? At least I 
thought so, and felt very much that your compan- 
ion, G , should have written to his newly-married 

wife, and }ou not to me. It is the first time you 
have ever gone on a journey without writing to me 
from }Our first resting-place. I have been reading 
over your earlier letters to find satisfaction to my- 
self, in some measure at least, but it has been a 
mixed pleasure. Last year, at Blankenese, you 
promised me many hours of mutual companionship, 
I have not yet had them ; and you owe many such 
to me, yes, you do indeed." 

Perthes answered, " You write telling me that I 
have renounced all sensibility for this year. This is 
not true, m.y dearest heart, it is quite otherwise. I 
think that after so many years of mutual inter- 
change of thought and feeling, and when people 
understand each other thoroughly, there is an end 
of all those little tendernesses of expression which 
represent a relationship that is still piquant because 
new. Be content with me, dear child, we under- 
stand each other. I did not write from Brunswick, 
because we passed through quickly. Moreover, it 
is not fair to compare me with my companion, the 
bridegroom. Youth has its features, and so has 

C!)i!st in C.^r. Tli.ine. 15 



114 CHRIST IN A GERMAN HOME. 

middle age. It would be absurd, indeed, v/ere I 
to be looking by moonlight under the trees and 
among the clouds for young maidens, as I did 
twenty years ago, or were to imagine young ladies 
to be angels. Nor would it become you any better 
if you were dancing a gallopade, or clambering up 
trees in fits of love enthusiasm. "We should not 
find fault with our having grown older; only be 
satisfied, give God the praise, and exercise patience 
and forbearance with me." 

" I wish you were here on this your birthday," 
answered Caroline on the 21st day of April, " and 
had half an hour to spare to celebrate it with me 
and the children. The children do their best, but 
you are always best, and have ever the first place 
in my heart. Thank God, my Perthes, neither time 
nor circumstances can ever affect my love to you. It 
is, indeed, beyond the reach of change. May God be 
pleased only to spare my life, and restore my health 
and preserve you and the children, and maintain 
your love for me unimpaired. It is aU I ask ; but 
there is no end of wishing and praying, and happily, 
none too, of granting — if not in our own way, at 
least in God's. Tour last letter is, indeed, a strange 
one. I must again say that my affection knows 
neither youth nor age, and is etr^rnal. I can detect 



DEATH OF CLAUDIUS. 115 

no change, except that I hnoiv what formerly I only 
hoped and believed. I never took you for an angel, 
nor do I now take you for the reverse ; neither did 
I ever beguile you by assuming an angel's form or 
angelic manners. I never danced the gallopade or 
climbed trees, and am now exactly what I was then, 
only rather older ; and you must take me as I am, 
my Perthes — in one word, love me, and tell me so 
sometimes, and that is all I want." 

" Your answer," says Perthes, in his next letter, 
" was just what it should be, only do n't forget that 
my inward love for you is as eternal as yours is for 
me ; but I have so many things to think of. How 
much of us belongs to earth and to man? how 
much to heaven ? for we belong to both." 

In the middle of May Perthes returned to Ham- 
burg and soon became aware that his wife's health 
required serious attention. The physician had told 
Caroline that her nervous system was over-wrought, 
and that by stimulating her bodily powers to exer- 
tions beyond their strength, she was gradually pre- 
paring the way for disease. A change of scene was 
desirable, and Caroline, with her younger children, 
went to pass the summer of 1815 at Wandsbeck 
with her mother. 

During this period, almost daily letters were 



116 CHRIST IN A GERMAN HOME. 

exchanged between her and her husband. While 
those of Perthes were devoted to warnings and en- 
treaties to take care of her health, the few lines in 
which Caroline was wont to reply, were full of ex- 
pressions of love, and sorrow on account of their 
necessary separation. 

" I am seated in the garden," she writes, " and all 
my merry little birds are around me. I let the sun 
shine upon me, and make me well if he can. God 
grant it — if it only be so far as to enable me to dis- 
charge my duties to my family ; for I feel myself 
too unhappy as a mere cipher." And again, "I 
hope, my dear Perthes, that you will again have 
pleasure in me ; the waters seem really to do me 
good. Come to-morrow, only not too late. My 
very soul longs for you." " You shall be thanked 
for the delightful hours that I enjoyed with you 
yesterday," she wrote after a short visit to Ham- 
burg, " and for the sight of your dear, kind face, as 
I got out of the carriage." 

" I only live when you are here with me," she 
WTites a few days later; "send Matthias to me if it 
does not interfere with his lessons; if I cannot have 
the father, I must put up with the son." " The 
children enjoy their freedom, and are my joy and 
delight; alas for those who have none!" she says 



DEATH OF CLAUDIUS. 117 

after telling some childish adventures. " But you, 
dear old father ! you, too, are my joy and delight. 
Let me have a little letter; I cannot help longing 
for one, and will read it, when I get it, ten times 
over. Pray don't forget the poor people in the 
mud-huts at Hamm ; the house is easily found, in 
the lane, opposite to something particular, but I 
cannot remember exactly what." 

"With many fluctuations of health, Caroline had 
passed the time at Wandsbeck. August had now 
come, and brought vividly to mind the many years 
of happiness she had spent with her husband. 

"It is eighteen years to-day," she writes, "since 
I wrote you the last letter before our marriage, and 
sent you my first request about the little black 
cross. I have asked for many things in the eigh- 
teen years that have passed since then, dear Per- 
thes, and what shall I ask to-day? You can tell, 
for you know me well, and know that I have never 
said an untrue word to you. Only you cannot 
quite know my indescribable affection, for it is in- 
finite. Perthes, my heart is full of joy and sadness; 
would that you were here ! This day, eighteen 
years ago, I did not long for you more fervently or 
more ardently than now. Thank God over and 
over for everything! I am yours in time, and 



118 CHRIST IN A GERMAN HOME. 

thougli I know not how, in eternity too ! Be weU 
pleased if you come to-morrow. Affection is cer- 
tainly the greatest wonder in heaven, or on earth, 
and the only thing I can represent to myself as un- 
satiable throughout eternity." 

In the middle of August Caroline returned home ; 
and although not fully restored to health, she was 
yet able to superintend her household, and to min- 
ister comfort and joy, support and assistance to 
many others. 




^[H^^--l^ 




XIII. 




CORRESPONDENCE. 

l^HE book trade which Perthes had re- 
sumed at the close of the war contin- 
\]^ ued to prosper. Hoping to add to its 
importance, he left home in the sum- 
mer of 1816, with his son Matthias, then 
sixteen years of age, for a journey to Vienna, 
by way of Cologne, Frankfort, and Munich. 

Perthes' biography contains many interesting 
letters written at this time, a few of which we quote. 
At Diisseldorf, by the light of a fine sunset ho 
first saw the E-hine. " The glorious river made a 
grand impression," he says. "It is true, like the 
Elbe at Hamburg, it flows through a level country. 
I should not say flows, but streams impetuously, 
for there is a vast difference; yet the Ehine can 
never form so b^aiilifiil a mirror as the Elbe occa- 



120 CHRIST IN A GERMAN HOME. 

sionally does. We have now, my beloved Caroline, 
the Elbe, the Wesser, the Ems, and soon we shall 
have the Ehine, too, between us; but love and 
devotion recognize no boundaries. Be confident. 
Your glances into the past, and fearful and hopeful 
longings, are indeed guarantees for the great future 
beyond the grave ; yet do not forget that a vigor- 
ous grasp of the present is our duty so long as Ave 
are upon earth. It is the present moment that 
supplies the energy and decision which fit us for 
life. Retrospect brings sadness, and the dark future 
excites fears ; so that we should be crippled in our 
exertions were vre not to lay a vigorous grasp upon 
the present." 

In another letter he says : " It is difficult to give 
you any idea of Cologne, for all is so new to us. 
We have already seen much that is grand and beau- 
tiful, and also much that is comic. Do n't be alarm- 
ed at our having become somewhat Catholic. In 
the Cathedral there was a service against the rain, 
and at night there were torchlight processions, the 
priests praying aloud; and were we travellers to 
keep aloof? The streets, lanes, and alleys, very 
appropriately called Spargassen, are strangely intri- 
cate and perplexing. Houses of all periods, antiqui- 
ties of all ages, are here seen side by side; in a few 



COKRESPONDENCE. 121 

paces you walk through the history of the old Eo- 
man times. The Colognese dwell among the stones 
and ruins of fifteen hundred years. On the street- 
floor most of the houses have only a counting-room 
or shop, with a dark room at the back ; above are 
warehouses and large rooms without windows, the 
frequent dwelling-place of the bat and owl. But on 
passing through the ground-floor to the back of the 
house, you find well-built, spacious rooms, in which 
the family live as quietly as if it were in the coun- 
try', and which frequently open into large gardens, 
surrounded by venerable walls festooned with ivy 
and other climbing vines. We saw a number of 
small houses built against the old Roman city wall, 
and clustered together in mid-air like swallows' 
nests. How many generations with their joys and 
sorrows have passed away within them ! 

" But amid the ruins of the past we were pleas- 
antly reminded of the present by a glass case, pro- 
tected by wirework like a parrot's cage, and con- 
taining three merry and fine-looking children, which 
was let down upon us as we passed under a win- 
dow. These floating children's rooms are hung out 
of the window in the sunshine, or when there is 
anything to be seen. We went to the cathedral on 
the day of our arrival, though it was already half 

16 



122 CHRIST IN A GEEMAN HOME. 

dark. Our cicerone unceremoniously tapped on 
the shoulder a very old priest who was kneeling 
and praying diligently ; and the old man rose at 
once to do the honors of the cathedral, while the 
cicerone knelt in his place and carried on the pray- 
ers. To-day vre went again for the third time to 
the cathedral. What honor has been conferred 
upon man in making him the instrument by which 
the Spirit of God produces such wonderful works! 
It is impossible to write, about it. St. Peter's has 
now recovered the picture of the Crucifixion of 
Peter, painted by Bubens, and presented by him to 
this church in which he was baptized. It was 
taken to Paris by the French ; but I am afraid that 
the barbarity which did not scruple to tear even 
this precious legacy from the very altar will soon 
be forgotten by the inhabitants. This morning, 
after visiting the "Wallraff collection of Colognese 
antiquities, icliere I might have learned much, if I had 
known more, we went to the house of Schauberg, 
the bookseller. Several hours passed rapidly away 
in animated conversation ; Catholicism and Protes- 
tantism being among the subjects discussed. On 
mentioning the incident of the cicerone and the 
priest, I was told it was the office of this priest to 
show the rehcs, and that, whether praying or not, 



COKRESPONDENCE. 123 

he must needs be always ready to discharge the 
functions of his office ; that among CathoHcs it was 
the custom to treat God with famiharity as a father, 
and thus they could occasionally put him on one 
side with childlike confidence, while Protestants, 
who, on the contrary, always make an effort when 
they pray, must be on ceremony with him as they 
would with some stranger of rank ! This reminded 
me of the drunken Cathohc peasants who, before 
they begin to fight, with a similar confiding spirit, 
put the crucifix imder the table, that the Lord may 
not be a witness to the scandal !" 

In another letter he says: "I do not willingly 
speak of Catholics or of the Catholic church, except 
with those who have themselves received the faith 
of Christ in all humility. With such persons we 
can contemplate, from a firm and intelligible stand- 
point, the various forms in which the spirit of Chris- 
tianity has expressed itself." 

Perthes reached Coblentz on the 1st of August, 
and early on the following morning, the anniversary 
of his wedding, wrote to Caroline : " You are awake, 
I am sure, and looking towards me as I to you. We 
have known fulness of joy in our nineteen years of 
wedded life, and have also experienced much trou- 
ble and sorrovv\ God be praised for both. I again 



124 CHRIST IN A GERMAN HOME. 

hold out my hand to you, beloved one, for the years 
that are yet appointed to us; let us meet them 
bravely. Matthias is just awake, and he, too, greets 
his mother." 

At Frankfort, Perthes found letters informing 
him of the sudden and serious illness of Caroline. 
He had resolved on a hasty return, when in a letter 
from Caroline herself he was assured that all dan- 
ger was over. " How can I thank you for your let- 
ters," she wrote, " and for the lively enjoyment that 
they afford me ? If I were not altogether yours, I 
would now give myself to you anew. You cannot 
conceive how thankful I am. To-day I have an- 
other letter, while I am still enjoying those from 
Cologne and Coblentz. They are living pictures of 
your inner hfe, and of all that you are seeing and 
doing, and are inexpressibly dear to me. Often I 
can scarcely persuade myself it is only a narrative, 
it is so exactly as if I were present at all you de- 
scribe. Rubens' picture of Peter hangs before me 
day and night, and yet it is too terribly beautiful to 
have always before my eyes. I am also thankful to 
God for keeping you so well, after so many years of 
v>^earing labor." 

At Frankfort, Humboldt, who was an old per- 
sonal acquaintance, received Perthes with great 



COKRESPONDENCE. 1^ 

cordiality, and took up the book-trade question 
with zeal. After an afternoon passed in his family- 
circle, Perthes wrote : " There is a wonderful atmo- 
sphere about a really great man ; nowhere do we 
feel so much at home or so free and happy. 
Through all the light play of conversation, in which 
he takes an equal share with his wife, the real, 
actual greatness of Humboldt comes out, and I am 
confirmed in my old opinion, so often laughed at, 
that under an ice-cold exterior and a keen-edged 
sarcasm, this man conceals deep and warm feelings, 
and a lively interest in Germany." 

After passing through many places of interest, 
Perthes reached Munich on the 25th of August, and 
went straight to his old friend Jacobi. " He received 
us as if we had been his children," he says, "and 
with the feelings of a child I embraced the dear 
old man. In appearance he is httle altered, and 
his health is quite as good as can be expected at 
his age, especially for one so delicately organized 
and of so susceptible a temperament. If possible, 
he is even more affectionate and cordial than ever. 

" I have seen few things in Munich, because I 
felt that my time belonged to Jacobi; but the Pic- 
ture Gallery has great attractions. For some time 
I was perplexed, till from the mass of the great and 



126 CHRIST IN A GERMAN HOME. 

the beautiful I was able to fix on something defi- 
nite : the contrasts are too strong. With wonder- 
ful power has Rubens penetrated into the dark side 
of human nature, and with equal power has he ex- 
hibited it. His drunken Silenus is a horrible com- 
pound of devil and sow; the woman just falling into 
hell, still reeking with passion — the torments of the 
damned portrayed in her countenance — is not less 
horrible than the principal figure in the same pic- 
ture, a bloated glutton. . . . The evil that is in man 
is as truly represented by Rubens as man's heaven- 
ward aspirations and pure affections are by Guido, 
Reni, and Raphael. Man is in both; we feel and 
are conscious of the contradiction that we carry 
within us, but here we see it in pictures. It was 
strange to see again the pictures that were in the 
former DUsseldorf Gallery, and which I helped 
Tischbein to take, one by one, out of a chest in a 
barn at Glukstatt." 

" Matthias shall have my special thanks to-day," 
replies Caroline, "for his descriptions of nature, 
which really did me good, after you had frightened 
me with Rubens' dreadful picture. I hold it to be 
sinful and wrong to pervert such a divine gift as 
Rubens has received to such corrupt and monstrous 
uses. I rejoice over one who has passed through 



COEBESPONDENCE. 127 

life without having known, seen, imagined, or been 
susceptible of such abominations. How dare a 
man, by the medium of pictures, realize to better 
and purer souls, who dream not of them, things 
which are the disgrace and brand of humanity ? In 
a word, I hate such pictures, in spite of all the art 
with which they may be painted. It is a black art. 
Matthias should not paint such pictures if he could. 
I glory in God's work — Nature. She comes from 
him and leads to him, and happy is he who has it 
in his power to look upon these works as you have 
done. Dear Matthias, fill your soul with such pic- 
tures, and let them live there till you have learned 
to draw nigh to your Creator in another and higher 
way. Bring back to me all that you can apprehend 
and communicate ; I long for it." 

" I have again spent some hours with Jacobi," 
wrote Perthes immediately before his departure 
from Munich. "He took me into his room alone, 
and spoke of many things, and his voice was often 
tremulous. He was always beginning the conver- 
sation afresh, and I could see plainly that he dread- 
ed the parting moment. He felt as I did, that in 
this life we shall never meet again." 

And now that Perthes was entering the hitherto 
unknown world of the Alps, he forgot kingdoms. 



128 CHRIST IN A GERMAN HOME. 

literature, and tlie book trade, and surrendered him- 
self with joy to the overpowering impressions of 
that glorious region. 

But the human element in man never amid such 
scenery lost its attractive and abiding interest for 
him. "I have," he says, "seen many men, and 
men of all kinds, in my long journey, and my love 
for man is in nowise diminished. I have found far 
more intelligence, ability, and uprightness, and far 
less outward immorality, than I expected. If we 
only meet men with confidence, and are not repelled 
by differences of manner and peculiar modes of view- 
ing things, we everywhere feel how nearly related 
the individuals of our race are to one another. I 
have felt in some degree at home even in the rigidly 
Cathohc countries, and have seen much that is 
attractive there. How touching, for instance, was 
it to see in one of the churehes at Augsburg, the 
childlike thought of a whole row of little chapels, 
each devoted to special prayers, suited to different 
circumstances. . . . Aftn all the people of Cologne 
were not far wrong when they talked about the 
Sunday God cf the Protestants and the family 
God of the CathoHcs, to whom they can resort in 
work days and in all the petty circumstances of 
life." 



COREESPONDENCE. 129 

To this Caroline replied : " The little chapels for 
prayer interested me; but, nevertheless, you are 
very unjust to Protestantism, dear Perthes. I can 
tell you, as before God, that / have many little chap- 
els in my heart, to ivhich I resort in time of need, al- 
though not so fervently or so purely as I ought and 
as I could wish. At present the chapel of thank- 
offeiing takes up most of my time, and you must 
retract what you said of the Catholics being more 
familiar with God than we, and of our making a 
rush to him only on Sundays." 

At Vienna, Perthes was called upon by a young 
Cathohc priest, who on the death of Claudius, Car- 
oline's father, had written a letter full of respect 
and sympathy. "I, too, Hke most of my associ- 
ates/' he said, " was a victim to the religious free- 
thinking that prevailed in Austria imder Joseph the 
Second ; but my truant soul was led back to the 
way of truth and grace by the writings of Claudius. 
How wonderfully great he was !" On taking leave 
he asked for a picture. " It does a wrestling man 
good," he said, " to be surrounded continually by 
tried wrestlers ; e\il thoughts are put to flight when 
the eye falls on the portrait of one in whose Hving 
presence one would have blushed to own them." 

Toward the end of September Perthes bade 

ChrUt in Ger. K me. 17 



130 CHEIST IN A GEEMAN HOME. 

adieu to Vienna, cleliglited with the fruitful weeks, 
and the conj&dence he had enjoyed in that city. 

A few days later he found himself near Schwarz- 
burg, the home of his childhood. In attempting to 
cross a swollen stream, across which the trunks of 
two trees were thrown in place of the bridge that 
had been washed away, Matthias, who was fore- 
most, called out, "Hold me, I am falling!" Per- 
thes seized the falling boy, and was instantly pre- 
cipitated with him into the torrent. Once Perthes 
rose to the surface, and cried, "Don't lose your 
presence of mind," then immediately sank. Wife 
and children flashed across his mind, and then he 
lost all consciousness. Both were being swept along 
towards the wheels of a saw-mill, when within a few 
yards of this Perthes was vigorously grasped by the 
arm, and dragged to the shore. In the struggle for 
life he had kept con\Tilsive hold of his son, and 
now all unconsciously drew him to the bank. The 
stranger, who had expected to rescue one only 
from certain death, found he had saved two. 

In the warm drying-room of a paper-mill the 
father and son speedily recovered under the treat- 
ment of a surgeon, who happened fortunately to be 
on the spot. They then hastened to Schwarz- 
bui'g, where, well heated by a rapid walk, they 



CORKESPONDENCE. 131 

arrived towards evening. The hand of death had 
been upon them, but had left no tokens of having 
been so near. 

Amid the scenes of childhood — cherished and 
affectionately ministered to as if he had been a 
child, by the old colonel, the old master of the 
horse, and the old Aunt Caroline — Perthes rested 
for a day or two after the excitement of the two 
preceding months, then hastened back to Hamburg, 
which he reached early in October, and found Car- 
oline, whose health had often been a source of anx- 
iety to him during his absence, stronger than he 
had left her. 





XIV. 



RELIGION AND RATIONALISIVI, 



y^.J^^HE Rationalism which for a time had 
"^-^ exercised almost absolute dominion 
over Protestant Germany, now seemed 
f^\} to be giving way to other influences. 

7 ^ { A deeper spiritual life was awakened by the 
trials through which the nation had passed. Not 
finding in Rationalism the peace and satisfaction so 
eagerly craved in all parts of Germany, associations 
were formed of men seeking spiritual help, and find- 
ing it in the old faith of the church. 

Perthes had attentively observed the new move- 
ment, and though sensible of its perils, aberrations 
and caprices, yet heartily rejoiced in it so far as it 
was earnest and healthy. 

A friend in Berlin wrote him that certain young 
men in that city were attracting attention by their 
earnestness in the matter of salvation; but that 



KELIGION AND RATIONALISM. 133 

they were of a sombre mood, regarding eyerj^tliing 
secular, and even art itseK, as sinful. He replied : 
" If the zeal of the young men be sincere, you need 
not alarm yourself about their gloom. Sadness 
and cheerfulness are things of the temperament, 
and the same earnestness and faith are variously 
manifested, by some in seriousness, by others in 
cheerfulness, according to the bodily constitution ; 
and we may not, on account of the earth] 3^ husk, 
quarrel with the heavenly substance." 

Another theological friend writes: "A very pe- 
culiar view of Christianity is just now manifesting 
itself here and there among the Moravians. They 
spHt men into two parts — the natural, which, as 
such, according to Kant, has no knowledge of the 
infinite and divine, and the intuitive, which sees 
God and eternity everywhere." 

Perthes answered: "It is not the business of 
Christianity, by fine-spun theories to immortalize 
the contest which goes on within us all ; rather it 
is by means of saving faith^ to make of tivain one neiv 
man. He who has not felt the internal working of 
a great mystery, which is ever alienating us from 
God, will never attain to that humility without 
which the saving virtue of the atonement is inac- 
cessible. The flesh is not the root of evil; pride, 



134 CHRIST IN A GERMAN HOME. 

pride is the real devil. The flesh is but the means 
of punishment and cure, ever reminding the proud- 
est of his misery and helplessness. Little that is 
positive is revealed to us, but that little is all. 
What form shall be given to revealed truth is an 
open question, for it breaks into rays of the most 
various colors, according to the fancy and modes 
of thought peculiar to individuals and epochs. 
But when you say that the Christian revelation, if 
received as truth, at once shrouds history and phi- 
losophy in a haze, in which man is confounded, and 
dreams rather than thinks, I reply, that to every 
one who ignores the redemption through Christ, 
history becomes one tangled skein, and every philo- 
sophical system a sum in arithmetic, the correct- 
ness of which, for want of proof, can never be 
ascertained." 

To another he writes : " You say that with the 
mysteries of Christianity your religion ceases. To 
this I reply, that the God of Eationalism baffles 
conception far more than does the mj^stery of 
Christianity. By the idea of an eternal Being, ex- 
alted above time and space, the Bationahst seeks 
to satisfy himself and others — but what he means 
by these words, he neither says nor knows. Man 
cannot conceive of a personal God without invest- 



RELIGION AND RATIONALISM. 135 

ing him with a human form; every rehgion is an 
incarnation of Deity, and so far an obscure antici- 
pation of God's manifestation in the flesh." 

"You say that Christianity is forced upon man," 
wrote Perthes, to another friend, " and are dis- 
pleased that it should be so. . . . Christianity was 
not forced upon me, but I upon Christianity ; I was 
thrown by an inward necessity into the arms of the 
Saviour, and so, I believe, are many others. 

" Our existence is that of fallen spirits ; but we 
have retained a yearning after the purity of our 
divine origm, and this elevates everything. "We 
are all conscious of an effort to soar, to climb, or to 
creep upward; many get the length of struggling 
with evil, but none gain a victory; the most eleva- 
ted, as well as the most grovelling natures, need a 
Helper and a Mediator, in order to rise; and ho 
who is unconscious of this necessity, wearies him- 
self out in ineffectual endeavors. For him who, in 
the anguish of his heart, cries out, ' I am a miser- 
able sinner,' and stretches forth his arms to the 
Saviour — for him, I say, Christ died. How closely, 
then, is faith in the Eedeemer allied with the reali- 
zation of one's own sinfulness ! Many, who no more 
recognized Christ than did the disciples at Em- 
maus, may yet have prayed to him, and in their 



136 CHRIST IN A GERMAN HOME. 

perplexity made an idol tlieir mediator. Sucli men 
Christ will, in his own time, bring to that truth 
which is rest and light; and many will sit down 
on the right hand of God, who in this life never 
uttered the name of Christ." 

" The Divine light," says Count Stolberg in one 
of his letters, "has so thoroughly penetrated the 
modern mind, that our civilization could not be 
preserved if that light were extinguished. The 
heathen philosophy found an element of preserva- 
tion in that yearning after light in which it origina- 
ted ; but the false philosophy of our times originates 
in insensibility, audacity, and vanity, without any 
yearning after light or truth." 



XV 




MARRIAGE OF THE ELDEST DAUGHTER. 

XTHOUGH neither the political com- 
motions, nor the manifold religious and 
ecclesiastical controversies of the time 
ever became uninteresting to Caroline, 
or failed to draw forth her sympathies, they 
never again engrossed her soul as in 1813. 
Her heart was in her home, and there she ever 
found fresh cause of joy and gratitude. 

Her eldest daughter, Agnes, had been betrothed 
smce the summer of 1813, to William Perthes, who 
had formerly been associated with Perthes at Ham- 
burg, afterwards campaigned as a volunteer, and 
now managed the business which he had inherited 
from his father in Gotha, and which, under his aus- 
pices, had become very flourishing. 

"God has again showered down joy and glad- 
ness upon us," wrote Caroline about this time; 
" how can I thank him enough for manifestly pro- 
18 



138 CHRIST IN A GERMAN HOME. 

tectiiig us and our children ! It is certainly a great 
happiness to be able to commit so pure and inno- 
cent a child to the man whom we have so long 
esteemed, knowing that he will cleave to her with 
his whole heart, loving and cherishing her as long 
as he lives." 

On the 12th of May, 1818, the marriage took 
place, and on the 16th the young, couple departed 
for their new home. " My beloved Agnes, you have 
hardly been gone from me three hours," says her 
mother, " and I am already writing to you, because 
I cannot help it. When you left, I watched you 
till you had passed the bridge, and then gave you 
up in sure confidence that you are, and ever will 
remain, in God's hands. You, dear Agnes, know 
that I love you, and can imagine the rest. How 
well I remember the moment when you were first 
laid beside me, when I looked at yon for the first 
time, and gave you the first kiss. Since then I 
have rejoiced in you every day; I might say every 
hour, through twenty years. Should I not thank 
God, and if he has willed it, consent to part with 
you ? He will forgive me if I cannot do it without 
tears. And you, too, my dear Agnes, must and 
ought to weep; and your beloved William will un- 
derstand you, and forgive you if you weep too long. 



ELDEST DAUGHTER'S MAnRIAGE. 139 

Never conceal from him anything that relates to 
yourself, even if you think that it may displease 
him : you will soon find that even with the fondest 
love, there is room for mutual forbearance. I re- 
joice beforehand in your future, for we, too, shall be 
sharers in it. Reniemler that you are never to be 
weary of communicating your joys and sorrows, 
that so we may still live a common life." 

" Your father has just brought me your letter," 
she writes in answer to the first news from Gotha. 
" I have read it again and again, and rejoice and 
thank God, and also your dear William, for making 
you so happy. You know how confident I was of 
this beforehand, and it will be permanent where 
God has given his blessing. Conjugal happiness 
lives in the depths of the heart even amid the sor- 
rows and trials of life; indeed, it is by these only 
the more deeply rooted, as I know from my own 
experience, thank God. I rejoice with you, and on 
your own account, dear children, and school myself 
to bear your absence cheerfully. So does your 
father; it is a real pleasure to look at his face when 
he comes to the door with one of your letters." 

" We cannot think of anything but AYilliam's birth- 
day," she writes somewhat later. " We would have 
gladly lived in the same place with you, if God had 



UO CHRIST IN A GERMAN HOME. 

so ordered it. Ah ! wliat a pity that the world is 
so wide ! How delightful it would be if we, and 
all whom we love, could live together, and we could 
have kept this birthday with you. But I will not 
complain. I will rather rejoice and be glad even 
in your removal. May God preserve your happi- 
ness to you and us, and with it a watcliful and 
thankful heart. I cannot tell you often enough 
that you are always with me and at my side ; and 
none knows so well as myself how gladly I would 
hear you answer when in thought I speak with you. 
At the same time I do not grudge you to your dear 
William, and it is my constant desire that you may 
become dearer and dearer to each other. That 
you are in the right path I am fully persuaded. 
Yours is indeed a happy lot, my beloved Agnes, 
and if every day finds you walking more humbly 
before God, and more lovingly, you will have a 
heaven within you. Your dear father is well and 
cheerful. "Would that he could only secure a quiet 
hour for me occasionally ! This is my only want, 
and it troubles me more and oftener than it ought.'* 
In July, 1818, Caroline went with Perthes for a 
few days to Ltibeck, to visit her family, returning 
by Kheinfeld, the birthplace of her father. "We 
have actually been to Liibeck, and enjoyed it very 



ELDEST DAUGHTER'S MAERIAGE. 141 

much," she wrote to Agnes. "Your father was 
youug again, and very merry, and so was I. 
We stayed two days with my brother, and were 
truly happy. I am really well, and hardly know 
which is best, to awake or to go to sleep in health; 
but I think the latter. O Agnes, pray that I may 
remain so ! St. Mary's Church is large, and I be- 
lieve that many earnest prayers and cries ascend 
to heaven from it. The long row of tombs, with 
their great stone cofiSns, and the obscurity of the 
place, impressed me deeply. . . . On Tuesday we 
left for Kheinfeld, the quietness of which passes all 
description. It is situated on the shore of a large 
lake, richly wooded on one side. It was a still, 
peaceful evening ; we had escaped from the .world, 
were alone, and inconceivably happy. Would to 
God we had more such hours! When our busy 
life in Hamburg occurred to me, I felt rather dis- 
couraged, and yet I am convinced that my work 
there is, on the whole, better for me than this calm 
blessedness. God has led me by a very different 
way from that which I had laid out for myself, but 
it has been the right way — this I not only believe, 
but know. He has given me in labor and tumult 
what I would gladly have sought and found in quiet 
and solitude. We also went to the church of your 



U-2 CHRIST IN A GERMAN HOME. 

dear grandfather, and to his grave, and into the 
confessional, where there was an old arm-chair in 
which he had often sat, and a few books he had 
often read. The next morning we again went out 
for a walk, and rested ourselves in a beautiful spot. 
How I did rejoice in the happiness of your father ; 
he was so delighted with me and everything ! But 
to return to you and your letter : what you write of 

N 's children is true, and distresses me greatly, 

for I am convinced that heartfelt love, which lets 
itself be seen, and in a manner felt in everything, is 
the dew and the rain indispensable to the growth 
and bloom of children. I believe that the luore 
children are loved, and the more conscious they are 
of being loved, the better ; of course there is also a 
time for seriousness and discipline. But I know 
many people who think it right carefully to conceal 
their affection from their children. They should 
study 1 Cor., chap. 13, and they would see that there 
is nothing to fear in that direction. You know that 
with reference neither to children, nor to anything 
else, am I fond of words; but to give occasional 
expression to the feelings of the heart, I consider 
right; the mouth naturally overflows with what- 
ever fills the heart, and how can it overflow but in 
words T 



ELDEST DAUGHTER'S MARRIAGE. 143 

In another letter she says: "You ask after 

F ; she was here lately, and was so ingenuous 

and confiding, that, to my horror, she did not shrink 
from saying that she believed all unmarried women 
had missed their vocation, and had but a melan- 
choly prospect. I pray God to defend every girl 
from so miserable a notion. No; God has provi- 
ded love and happiness for all who will accept 
them, whatever their rank or sex. No one need 
want objects of affection, dear Agnes. You cannot 
for a moment doubt that I, like you, regard a good 
husband as a great and precious gift from God; 
but God can send his blessing directly into the 
heart, without attaching it to any intermediate ob- 
ject, and make us happy without husbands. For, 
dear Agnes, your mutual love can be a means of 
happiness and blessing only as it increases yoar 
love to God ; and can you not imagine, that to turn 
directly to God, and love him without the interven- 
tion of any human medium, must be far, far better? 
And even with a human medium I can imagine un- 
married to be quite as happy as married life, else 
poor maidens might despair, and we with them and 
for them. If we but propose to ourselves some 
serious object, pm^suing it with our whole heai:t, 
and laboring for it in dependence on God, his bless- 



144 CHEIST IN A GEEMAN HOME. 

ing and happiness can never fail ns. This is my 
honest opinion, and I beheve that every young 
woman acts wisely Avhen she turns her affections 
to God, instead of looking about her with yearning 
and anxiety for an earthly object. This is a mel- 
ancholy condition which withers and dries up the 
heart, and annihilates all happiness. I know noth- 
ing so sad as a poor girl in this condition, especially 
if she be pure and good. If, however, a woman 
finds such a dear Perthes as you and I have found, 
or rather as God has given us, let her close with 
him at once and be thankful." 

In regard to new friends Caroline wrote: "I 
thank you for your letter, but not at all that you 
have not yet looked out for a real friend of your 
own sex. I earnestly wish one for you, so that you 
may have something to fall back upon, when Will- 
iam cannot be with you. If you are sketching a 
model of perfection in your friend, I can quite un- 
derstand how it is that you have not found one ; 
but you must make allowances, and go forth with a 
generous confidence, not suffering yourself to be 
ruffled, as you too often do. It is often easier to 
tolerate weaknesses and failings, than manners and 
modes of speech to which we are unaccustomed. 
Only bear perpetually in mind that there is no dif- 



ELDEST DAUGHTEB'S MABRIAGE. M5 

ference at heart between the people of Gofcha and 
Hamburg. There, as here, there is much short- 
coming and much good, and many httle tilings you 
would rather do without, yet which you must take 
along with every acquisition. It is very natiu'al 
that the good quahties of your friends here should 
appear to you in the Hvehest colors; their weak- 
nesses and failings, on the other hand, in the faint- 
est; and yet, there were not many of them, with 
whom you could speak of the deepest and holiest 
things, and to whom you' could pour out your 
whole heart. Nevertheless you loved them, and 
took pleasure in their society. Only make the 
attempt in Gotha; let your heart speak in truth 
and confidence, and you will find that what comes 
from the heart, goes to the heart ; you will be met 
more than half-way, for the necessity and the 
pleasure of loving and being loved is common to 
us all, and the young ladies there have no William 
as you have." 

Perthes also wrote to warn his daughter against 
seclusion fi-om others: "Make the most of your 
own happiness, but remember that you are not 
alone in the world ; and do not shut up your house 
from your friends! It is perilous, and leads to 
family egotism, and brings its own punishment. I 

Christ ill Get-. ITom*. X9 



146 CHRIST IN A GERMAN HOME. 

am glad that you have young men living with you, 
dear William. Continue this custom even to old 
age ; it will preserve you alike from the gossip and 
tedium of company. Communicate freely with 
others, and show that domestic happiness does not 
estrange you from them. The earth is God's house, 
and we may not live only to ourselves. I know, 
dear Agnes, that you will not let any needy person 
whom you can help go empty away ; but neighbors 
and acquaintances wish to talk of their affairs, their 
joys and sorrows, and' those of their friends, and 
nothing is so offensive as cold reserve, as though 
we were beings of a superior nature, able to live, 
suffer, and rejoice alone." 

" That you do not find in the pulpit what you 
seek," wrote Caroline, "distresses me greatly, but 
does not surprise me, since the clergy for the niost 
part preach only morality, which is but meagre 
fare. But do not be cast down on this account, 
my dear x4gnes; take refuge in your inner church. 
God can serve up a better table than any preacher, 
and will assuredly feed you, if only you are hungry. 
The old hymns and chorals have ever been my best 
stimulants, and are so still, whenever the inner life 
grows languid ; in particular, those beautiful hymns 
of longing after God, in Freylinghausen's book, 



ELDEST DAUGHTER'S MARRIAGE. 147 

have often revived me, and will, I trust, support me 
even in death. But if the preaching be not satis- 
factory, do not on this account absenc yourself 
from church. There are seasons in which you are 
more likely to be aroused and quickened in the 
church than in the house, where I at least seldom 
have a quiet hour." 

"I am indeed sorry," she says, in a letter of 
later date, "that you are obliged to live without 
music : still, my advice is, not to form any intima- 
cies only for the sake of music. You might pay too 
dearly for it, and not perhaps find it easy to draw 
back. My piano is also dumb ; I cannot sing one 
of our songs to it. When I sound the first note, I 
feel that you are no longer by my side ; tears then 
come and choke the rest. Yes, dear Agnes, I feel 
that it is a hard duty to part with a gift in which 
God has so long allowed us to rejoice." 

In this, and in many other letters, we see the 
struggle in Caroline's heart between her joy at the 
happiness of her child, and the sorroAV of separa- 
tion. " I know that you are happy, and that is the 
chief thing; but, my dear Agnes, a mother's heart 
is not at all times to be quieted by reason, and has 
its own rights too. Only it must not be intractable. 
That it should not be so, is in quiet hours my daily 



148 CHRIST IN A GERMAN HOME. 

study. As long as you were with me, I was wholly 
yours — heart and soul, mind and body, hands and 
feet ; if you have no longer need of my hands and 
feet, you may yet find my affection useful, for in 
this consists the glory and excellency of love, that 
if we are only pure, it can never hurt us ; of its giv- 
ing and receiving there is no end here, and it 
endures throughout eternity." 

" That you still think of us with warm affection 
and attachment, and would gladly be with us, I 
find quite natural," she writes in another letter. 
" You could not love your "William so well if you 
could forget us. I am fully persuaded that I love 
you as truly and fondly as William does, and have 
done so for twenty years, and what will be better 
yet, my dear, long-loved Agnes — for ever. Preserve 
then your affection for us in all its fervor; it is 
quite consistent with that to your dear William. 
The soul is so constituted, that while we are here 
below, wishing and yearning are not only com23ati- 
ble with our happiness, but our best and proper 
happiness is only realized when this wishing and 
yearning are directed toward the best things." 

" To-morrow is our wedding-day," writes Caro- 
line, in a letter on the 1st of August. " It is the 
first one on which I have to look back on p;ifts 



ELDEST DAUGHTER'S MARRIAGE. 149 

resigned. Do you enjoy the onward road? It 
also has its cares and troubles ; but, as I find by 
experience, the retrospect is harder and more pain- 
ful. Youth has its dangers; but those of age are, 
I fear, greater and more trying, though, thank 
Heaven, I observe this rather in others than in 
myself, and in God's name I also am going forward. 
Dear Agnes, love me still, and keep as close to me 
as you can. My dear husband is quite well and 
cheerful, and as dear to me now as he was twenty 
years ago. I never believed it possible that affec- 
tion could continue so uninterruptedly for twenty- 
one years ; and how much longer it will continue is 
not for me to say." 

Again, on the following day : " The children had 
adorned our breakfast-table with flowers and wed- 
ding garlands. We sat in a bower of leafy green, 
and examined the little presents that your sisters 
had prepared for us. It appears very strange to 
^ me that you should be wandering about the world 
without me on this day, and that I should not know 
where you are." 

But it was not only the joyful anniversaries that 
were remembered by CaroHne. *' It is six years 
to-day since my angel Bernard was born," she 
writes in September, "and his earthly body is 



150 CHRIST IN A GERMAN HOME. 

already so dissolved tliat I can now only see Lis 
dear bright eyes, which, when I was in trouble, used 
to revive and strengthen me, and renew my confi- 
dence and joy in the Lord. You also recollect how 
lie rejoiced and comforted us all at Aschan, and 
how kindly and pleasantly and lovingly he looked 
on us all. Would that, though unseen by me, he still 
looked upon me, and raised my soul to God ! The 
angel-child must be able, and he is certainly will- 
ing, to do even more for us now. How gladly I 
would know more about the nature of the happi- 
ness of my beloved, departed children. God does 
indeed allow us to apprehend it in the depths of 
onr hearts, as something transcending thought; but 
whenever I would realize this presentment of the 
heart in my understanding, it dissolves and van- 
ishes altogether; and yet I cannot help thinking, 
though I know that it is in vain, and that on this, 
as on all other great questions, we can do nothing 
more in this world than keep alive in ourselves the 
yearning and longing after truth, not allowing it to 
be disturbed and destroyed by external influences 
of any kind." ' 

A new source of happiness was opened to Caro- 
line in the prospect of becoming a grandmother. 
" I have just received your letter, dear children, and 



ELDEST DAUGHTER'S MAERIAGE. 151 

am beyond measure delighted, affected, and thank- 
ful. You can have no idea of the happiness that, 
if it please God, is awaiting you. Neither can I 
explain it to you, although for twenty years my 
heart has been filled with it. Eejoice, and again I 
say rejoice, and pray to God for his blessing. If I 
could but tell you something of your coming joys ; 
but they are inconceivable and unspeakable, and 
come directly from God himself. May he impart 
them in richest measure." 

The succeeding letters express the tenderest 
maternal, sympathy with the hopes and fears of her 
daughter. Near the end of 1818 she wrote : " Ev- 
ery one has, doubtless, reason both for hope and 
fear in regard to the new year, but God helps us all 
through. Farewell, dear Agnes, and don't forget 
your grandfather's prescription for the eve of New- 
Year's day ; namely, to sit down on a stone and 
pray. You have much to remember and to hope 
for ; but you must spare us, too, a thought from the 
depths of your heart." 

" A happy, happy Christmas may God give you, 
dear children," wrote Caroline on despatching a 
small Christmas box. "If you have but a tenth 
part of the delight in unpacking which the children 
had in packing it, you will be content. The three 



152 CHRIST IN A GERMAN HOME. 

little ones have been especially busy, and tlie pleas- 
ure of giving and sending has often ended in tears 
because there was nothing more to give. Remem- 
ber that your gratihcation is to equal theirs, or we 
shall not be satisfied. The box will reach you at 
six o'clock, and then, assuredly, you will think of 
us, and I too shall think of you, dear Agnes. You 
seem still a part of myself; and though I weep, I 
cannot tell whether they are tears of joy or sorrow. 
The Christmas prayer which I put up for you last 
year is more than fulfilled. Let us then now again 
thank God, and place ourselves and those who are 
near and dear to us with confidence and faith in 
His arms, and rejoice. You must also help us to 
thank Him. Let us with united voices sing, ' Oh, 
for a thousand tongues,' etc. That sweet hymn 
always recurs to me when I know not what to say 
in reviewing the past one-and-twenty years." 

"Perthes is a true child at Christmas time," 
says Caroline, a few days later, in her account of 
Christmas eve. "My heart is stirred afresh by him 
every year at that season. It is three-and-twenty 
years since I first felt this, and my conviction, that 
one who could take such childlike dehght in the 
Christmas-tree must have a pure and simple heart, 
has not been falsified. This was the impression that 



ELDEST DAUGHTER'S MARRIAGE. 153 

mj heart received on that evening when I, properly 
speaking, first saw him ; that indeed was the day of 
my real betrothal. I can never thank God enough 
for his affection. "When yesterday evening at six 
o'clock we sat down to table, he was so wearied and 
depressed that it made us sad to see him; but 
when the tree was hghted he became as lively and 
frolicsome as the youngest child." 

At Easter, Caroline writes: "God give you a 
joyous festival; and why should he not, since he 
has made every day a festival by the deep and abi- 
ding love that he has put into your heart ? That 
he can give us nothing better, even in eternity, is 
certain ; only we cannot yet understand the great- 
ness of our blessedness, because we know so little 
at present of pure love to God, although we have 
some foretaste of it in the delight we feel in the 
outgoings of our feeble love to our fellow-creatures. 
The children are all gone out, and I meant to read 
a sermon of Taulerus ; but you and William, your 
happiness and your hopes have stirred my heart so 
deeply that I have been unable. Dear WUliam, I 
feel real joy and happiness in having so nursed, 
cherished, and brought up Agnes for you. May 
God grant you the same pleasure in your children 

that he has hitherto given us in ours. More I can- 
20 



154 CHRIST IN A GERMAN HOME. 

not wish you, for I know no more. I have, to my 
great delight, just opened the balcony door for the 
first time this year, and am quite transported with 
all that the sweet spring breathes, and with all that 
it reveals to eye and ear. The little birds know not 
how to leave off singing and rejoicing, and I would 
sing and rejoice with them." 

In April, Perthes and Caroline, with four chil- 
dren, visited Agnes in Gotha. " We arrived safe, 
and well and happy," wrote Caroline. " The jour- 
ney was bitterly cold ; but our inward joy kept us 
so warm that the external cold could not touch us. 
The postilions were all good and steady except one, 
who had a drop in his head ; but just as we were 
beginning to be uneasy we met another posting car- 
riage, and by changing horses got quit of him. 
Both the little ones behaved very well, and by their 
merriment and lively observation of all that they 
saw and heard, and their surprise at the sight of 
mountains, trees, and rocks, greatly increased our 
pleasure, although the charge of such young trav- 
ellers was not without inconvenience. I was obhged 
to hold one in each arm during the whole night, to 
keep them from cold, and soften the jolting of the 
carriage. "When we came near Gotha I could 
scarcel}^ restrain my feelings." 



ELDEST DAUGHTER'S MARRIAGE. 155 

After Caroline's return to Hamburg with lier 
Imsband and children, the weeks she had spent with 
her daughter were a source of grateful remem- 
brance. " Since I have seen 3^ou in your own 
house," she writes, "I have lost the feeling of en- 
tu'e separation, and really live with, you again ; and 
if your heart yearns after me you will often find me. 
The happy remembrance of the days I have spent 
with you so lately prevail even over the pain of sep- 
aration." 

A year of trouble and disquiet awaited Caroline 
on her return from Gotha. She had found her sec- 
ond son, Clement, seriously ill, and it was many 
months before her anxiety on his account was in 
any degree abated. To her eldest son, Matthias, 
who was passing the hoHdays at Gotha, she wrote 
at this time : " Gaze, not to satiety, but till you are 
hungry, on the beauties of nature ; salute the rocks 
at Schwarzburg, and go before soon to the Tripp- 
stein, when the sun shines aslant through the firs, 
and reflect that your father and I have also been 
there, have thanked God, and rejoiced. In all my 
present sorrow, the remembrance of that sweet spot 
can cheer and solace me. In such a place one can 
rise higher, at least more easily, than in one's own 
room. As for the hours of sore and burning trial, 



156 CHRIST IN A GERMAN HOME. 

wlio knows and who can reckon the benefit we de- 
rive from them? They are not appointed in vain." 
On the 14th of August, in the midst of her anx- 
iety for her sick son, the news of the birth of her 
first grandchild reached her, and Caroline wrote : 
" Oh that I had a thousand tongues and a thousand 
voices that might strive together in praising God 
for what he has done for you ! May God himself 
help you to thank him that he has heard my prayer. 
I have always the feeling that we can pray fervently 
much longer than we can praise; so that our thanks- 
givings are all too short compared with our suppli- 
cations. If I could escape from the anxiety and 
sorrow which surround me, I should be still nearer 
to you ; but my heart is divided between joy and 
sadness, and a divided heart brings labor and un- 
rest. You will be astonished to find in how many 
new and pleasurable aspects the child will appear 
to you, if God grant his blessing; and this he cer- 
tainly never denies to those who honestly seek it. 
Pray then that God may send his angel to guide 
your little one through the joys and sorrows of life, 
and to be very near him in time of trial and the 
hour of death." 




XVI. 




MARRIAGE OF THE SECOND DAUGHTER. 

/CAKCELY was Caroline's anxiety for 
^^'^ her invalid son removed, when she was 
again agitated by a proposal for the 
hand of her second daughter Louisa, 
who had remained in Gotha with her sister. 
The young suitor Agiicola, was scarcely 
known to her, and the decision was difficult. 

"How could we commit so great a charge," 
wrote Caroline, " to one whom we know not ? It is 
always a trial to give up a beloved child to any one, 
and we are now called to do it to a stranger, I know 
not where to find counsel or help; it seems to me 
the greatest trial of my life." 

The confidence manifested by the daughter in- 
duced the parents to leave the decision to her 
alone; and when Agricola became known to them 
through his letters, all anxiety vanished. 



158 CHRIST IN A GERMAN HOME. 

In the middle of November, 1819, Louisa re- 
turned home for the winter. "We are anticipating," 
wrote Carohne, " a right pleasant winter with our 
dear happy bride." 

The anticipation was realized. The invalid son 
meanwhile had made such progress, he was able 
to be removed to Wandsbeck for some months for 
change of air. Caroline's letters are filled with joy 
and thankfulness, though the present was some- 
times overcast by the prospect of parting, not only 
with her daughter, but also with her eldest son who 
was to enter the University at Easter. 

"It often distresses me greatly," she wrote, 
" that my young Louise is so early called upon to 
play an independent part, and to do without me; 
still I have firm confidence in her happiness. 
Young people who are so sincerely attached, and 
who express their affection so simply and naturally 
as these two, are doubtless sound at heart." 

" The welcome New Year," she wrote in the end 
of December, 1819, "lies heavily on my heart, 
since it is to separate me from two of my beloved 
children. I know that I ought not to be so, yet I 
am quite troubled and oppressed. Eejoice in your 
sweet infant; the joy will indeed be of a nobler 
kind when the fondling is over, but never vvish a 



SECOND DAUGHTEK'S MAEEIAGE. 159 

Jay away. Enjoy that blessed season of matern'ty 
during which you have your child in your arms, 
and it cannot do without you, but stretches out its 
little arms and lovingly embraces you." 

"To-day," she writes again soon afterwards, 
" Louisa's trousseau is packed up. God loveth a 
cheerful giver. He certainly loves Perthes, then ; 
for he gives almost too freely, and too cheerfully, 
what it has cost him so much to gather. Life is 
very serious to me now; the past and the future 
stir my soul, but my constant comfort is the lively 
and steadfast feeling that God guides and leads us 
only for our good ; only we should not invade his 
office and cater for ourselves ; but this I have never 
consciously done, at least never desired to do." 

At the beginning of April, 1820, both children 
left the parental roof, the son for the university, 
and a week later the young couple, who had been 
married on the 12th of April, for Gotha, accompa- 
nied by Perthes and his son Clement. 

"I could not write yesterdaj^,'^ says Caroline; 
" the tumult in my soul was so great that I could 
not command my feelings sufficient] j^ Dear Agnes, 
what a powerful thing is a mother's heart. Yes, I 
believe that the love of parents is stronger than the 
love of children; what wishes, hopes, fears and 



160 CHEIST IN A GEEMAN HOME. 

anxieties stir within me ! A steadfast feeling of the 
presence of God supported me at the parting, and 
lightened that sad hour; and while my heart is sor- 
sowful, I know and feel that all is right, and that 
we have much cause for thankfulness. "What good 
would the outward presence of my children do me 
if their hearts were not with me ? If here below we 
must part and give up, it is only that we may learn 
to submit our wills, and set forward on the road to 
our proper home." 

Perthes had passed some weeks in Leipzic, and 
on his return had quite unexpectedly brought his 
eldest daughter and little grandchild from Gotha, 
with him. "As soon as I heard the post-horn," 
wrote Caroline, "I flew to the door, and when it 
was opened Perthes put the Utile prattling, healthy 
child into my arms ; my Agnes was also there, and 
it was a joyful hour indeed. For a long time I could 
not compose myseK, and forgot that Perthes was 
there too, which afterwards vexed me very much." 

" You may imagine," she writes a few days later, 
" how happy I am with my child and grandchild. 
I have not yet settled down into quiet enjoyment, 
my delight is so tumultuous. God be praised for 
awarding me so much." After a stay of five weeks 
Agnes returned home with her husband. 



SECOND DAUGHTER'S MARRIAGE. 161 

Caroline had now three absent children, each of 
whom expected letters from her regularly, and they 
were seldom disappointed. " That you are so hap- 
py and contented with your Agricola," she writes 
to Louisa, " is only what I expected, and I hope 
better and greater things still for you, for these are 
only gilded weeks which, however, I do not grudge 
you. But it requires many a serious hour, and 
many an earnest wish with and for each other, before 
real happiness and confidence are established. 
Genuine affection is the way to this end; perfect 
openness towards each other at all times, and in all 
things, is also a great help. Strive to have com- 
mon objects of pursuit, and to support each other 
when either seems ready to faint, and let your first 
aim be to draw nearer to God, and to assist each 
other in becoming more like him. Do not be dis- 
turbed by occasional difference of opinion with re- 
gard to the highest things; only be true to each 
other and seek only the truth; you will thus, 
though by devious paths, be sure to meet again. I 
Imow that I have always been in earnest, and that I 
have often been in difficulties, but I also know that 
I have, at last, always reached the same goal with 
my beloved husband, the how and when do not con- 
cern others, and no one has any right to inquire." 

Chiiat iu Ger. Home.' 21l 



162 CHRIST IN A GEBMAN HOME. 

" You can well believe," wrote Caroline soon af- 
terwards, " that I enjoy nothing more truly than 
what you tell me of your happy affection. But the 
human heart is a strange thing. When you wrote 
lately that you could not understand how you 
could have hitherto been happy without your Agri- 
cola, I feel as if you had done me an injury. I am 
at every moment conscious of loving you with my 
whole soul, of hoping and wishing for you, and of 
doing you aU the good I can ; more than this I can- 
not do, neither can your beloved husband; why, 
then, should you not have been happy with me ? 
Can you tell me ? Agricola has loved you for one 
year, while I have loved you for eighteen, and with 
all my heart. Is not this, then, very wrong of you, 
and can you say that it is not wrong ? I know not 
what to reply except that it was just so with me 
when I was married, and that I thank God that you 
now cause me the same grief which I then caused 
my parents." 

Hours of homesickness were not wanting to the 
absent daughter. "You cannot wish yourself by 
my side," wrote her mother, " so much as I wish 
myself by yours. But remember one thing, would 
T not often be in the way when Agricola comes 
home? Can you deny this? I see you blushing; 



SECOND DAUGHTEK'S MAREIAGE. 163 

but do not blush, and do not vex yourself about it, 
my dear Louisa. I am contented, and can thank 
God that I am now only secondary with you, while 
I love you as well as if I had the first place in your 
heart. That you find it hard to bear the loneliness, 
and the distance from us, especially when Agricola 
is not with you, I can very well understand. I, my- 
self, when the children are gone out for half a holi- 
day, am as dull and stupid as an owl by daylight, 
but one must not yield to this, which happens more 
or less to all young wives. The best relief is work, 
engaged in with interest and diligence. Work, 
then, constantly and diligently, at something or 
other, for idleness is the devil's snare for small and 
great, says your grandfather, and he says true. I 
do not mean that there is anything wrong in your 
longing after us when Agricola is absent, my own 
dear child, only you must strive to retain your 
composure ; and yet, if you should be overcome by 
filial yearning, Agricola will not be angry with you. 
You are quite right to tell him everything that you 
think and feel at all times. Where truth and affec- 
tion abide, joy and happiness are not long absent." 
And again: "Is it not true that the life of a 
housekeeper is more stirring than that of a young 
girl at home ? It is' quite right you should take 



164 CHRIST IN A GERMAN HOME. 

pleasure in your little household affairs, and enjoy 
your clean, pretty house ; and I can see you after- 
noons, looking and listening for your husband when 
you expect him from the courts. How gladly would 
I sometimes be behind the door when he comes in ! 
Fancy me on Saturdays looking through your 
rooms, your presses and your shelves, and praising 
you when all is neat and in order." 

And in another letter : " I delight to find that 
you take pleasure in all the little matters of your 
housekeeping; great events do not come under our 
management, but if we are observant and watchful, 
we find our appointed work, and we have more 
need to pray for a heart to enjoy our blessings, 
than for a larger share of them." 

" Tou are quite right to visit your neighbors oc- 
casionally, my dear Louisa, but it is still better that 
you prefer staying at home. God grant jon may 
ever find the same pleasure in your pretty room ! 
You have not yet got into the proper way of wri- 
ting; you tell me only of things in general, and 
great events, but, my dear child, I want to know 
the most minute particulars. You always tell me 
how dearly you love Agricola, but I should hke to 
know why you love him. We understand a man's 
character best from his conduct in little circum- 



SECOND DAUGHTEK'S MAERIAGE. 165 

stances and daily life. Don't always seek for 
something of importance to write ; you are writing 
for my motherly heart, to which everything is im- 
portant that brings you more vividly before me. 
Write, then, without too much consideration about 
trifles and anything whatever ; great events consti- 
tute the life, but trifles the interest of a correspond- 
ence. You know Agnes fills her letters with cab- 
bages and turnips, and so gives unspeakable pleas- 
ure. Man, here below, consists of two parts, and 
thus petty things, not paltry, recollect, are part of 
our existence." 

Again : " I am sorry that you tore up your letter 
because it was not written in a happy mood ; next 
time send it me just as it is. I know as well as 
you do, that the heart is not always in the same 
frame; we should, indeed, endeavor to be at all 
times master of ourselves, but it takes a good many 
trials before we attain to this; and I remember 
how many uneasy moods and moments I myself 
had to pass through." 

When, in the coui'se of time, the daughter made 
that discovery which every young wife has to make 
for herself, that even in her new position the ear- 
nestness of life is not wanting, Caroline wrote, 
" Yes, dear child, God's gift of true love grows and 



166 CHRIST IN A GEBMAN HOME. 

improves under all circumstances, and althougli we 
would gladly escape the sweat of tlie brow, we 
soon see that it is necessary and a part of our 
earthly discipline. All men have felt that as life 
brings us greater happiness, it also becomes more 
earnest. Thank your Agricola with all your heart 
for sharing his cares with you, rather than conceal- 
ing them in order to spare you. If a wife cannot 
actually remove, she can often lighten care, and 
sweet and bitter should be shared by man and wife. 
I might indeed desire nothing but joy and happi- 
ness for you, but I do not at all despair about you. 
Men's characters differ gi'eatly, and with them 
God's means of promoting their welfare. Your 
father and I had many struggles, which were often 
very painful ; but when I look back, I see clearly 
that all served to unite us, and make us better ac- 
quainted with each other, and that is a result which 
can never be bought too dear. 

"You are quite right, dear Louisa, to be on 
your guard against all sources of irritation. It is 
great and noble to attain to a state of mind which 
does not allow affection to be saddened or inter- 
rupted by the trifles of daily life. A strong deter- 
mination against this must be rooted in the heart ; 
but I have learnt from good old Francis de Sales, 



SECOND DAUGHTER'S MARRIAGE. 167 

and from experience, that there are many things 
which, though they are not to be lightly regarded, 
must be lightly handled. "We must not oppose an 
irritable tendency by force, otherwise the ii-ritation 
may only change its form. To oppose one's own 
irritability with greater irritability is disturbing to 
others, and may embitter our own hearts, but I am 
not at all anxious about you ; you never had a fret- 
ful disposition, and a loving heart is proof against 
it ; but you cannot have recourse to any one who 
will understand you so well as I do, for I have felt 
it all myself." 

In November, 1820, her daughter was severely 
tried by the illness of her husband, who was in 
great danger for many weeks from nervous fever, 
and had a very slow recovery. " Your father and 
I think of you day and night," wrote Caroline when 
the crisis was over; "we feel but too deeply how 
painful it is to have a child whom we cannot soothe 
and make happy. These have been very sad days 
for us ; it was quite a new thought to me that I 
might have my own dear child in my house and in 
my arms, and yet all my affection could neither 
satisfy nor comfort her." 

Soon afterwards she wrote : " Let us first thank 
God for having preserved your Agricola, and given 



168 CHKIST IN A GEEJMAN HOME. 

you trust and confidence in time of need, and then 
pray for his future recovery. "We need neither be 
ashamed nor vexed that we are always ready to 
ask; God knows better than we do that we can do 
nothing without him." 

When the invahd was beginning to recover his 
strength, she wrote, " We no longer feel the burden, 
we only remember it, and now rejoice with you in 
the coming spring and the warm sunbeams. Al- 
though the springtime of youth is past for us, not 
so, thank God, the eternal spring which still grows 
fresher as we grow older. Let your heart beat in 
sympathy with the renewed springtime of nature, 
which makes us young, and fresh, and gladsome, 
like the little variegated tom-tits in the oak-tree 
beneath my window. Ever rejoice in the spring 
and in life, dear Agricola, and be thankful that you 
are preserved to my Louisa and tq us all." 




XVII. 




MATTHIAS AT THE UNIVERSITY. 

HILE tlie correspondence with the mar- 
^^ ried daughters devolved mainly on the 



mother, that with the eldest son, Mat- 
thias, who was studying theology at 
the University of Tubingen, was kept up 
alike by both parents. The doubts and dif- 
ficulties suggested to the son by his studies, were 
submitted to the father, who always sympathized 
with his misgivings and inexperience. " I have 
been reading over many of your letters a second 
time," he once wrote, "and am more and more 
convinced that it would not be well to answer your 
earnest communications in detail by a discussion of 

your views. In the case of a stirring, energetic 

22 



170 CHRIST IN A GERMAN HOME. 

youtli like yourself, montlis are more fruitful tlian 
years to an older man; the scales are moving up 
and down, and so it should be. One thing rectifies 
another in the course of the student's own hearty 
efforts, which God always blesses. This is better 
for you than listening to an old man's experience, 
which must always be somewhat strange, even 
though it be your own father's. I cannot and dare 
not enter into the subjects which you mention. It 
would ill become the man whose mind is matured 
by age, and whose intellectual training has been so 
different, to set bounds w^hicli might impede the 
young theologian in his career ; when your advan- 
cing age brings you nearer to my own, we shall 
readily understand one another. You say, 'The 
God of the many does not satisfy my yearnings. 
I want one to whom I can put up my petitions in 
the hope that he will be moved by my humble faith 
to grant me health and strength.' These are your 
own words ; keep to them, my dear son." 

Other letters from the father follow, filled with 
excellent counsel, in one of which he says: "My 
dear son, read frequently your mother's letters — be 
attracted within the atmosphere of her piety, keep 
your heart pure, that it may never be a stranger to 
prayer; then may you investigate freely, for prayer 



MATTHIAS AT THE UNIVERSITY. 171 

and earnest study will help you to overcome in the 
conflict with doubt." 

Caroline considered her son's determination to 
pursue the study of theology as a matter of primary 
importance. " Matthias," she wrote, " has handled 
a hot iron; but, if he grasp it rightly, he has 
achieved a great matter and God is with him." 
But when he left for the university, her sense of the 
earnestness of his vocation was for a time supplant- 
ed by her regret at separation from him. "How 
painful it was to me," she wrote immediately after- 
wards, " to part with Matthias, and send him into 
the world, without being able to commit him to the 
guidance of any human heart or eye. I had hard 
work with myself, but now I have laid down my 
arms and am at peace." 

At the same time she wrote to her son. " My 
thoughts of you are disturbed by a painful feeling 
of your solitude and distance. I know and am 
persuaded that in great and important matters you 
cleave to God, and can do without us. Still there 
are many seasons in which parental love and sym- 
pathy are a source of great happiness and comfort. 
This I myself feel." 

" Your letter has just come," she writes a few 
days later; "I am filled with joy and thankfulness 



172 CHRIST IN xi GEEMAN HOME. 

to God, who lias so wondrously heard and blessed 
our wishes and desires in placing you among the 
truly good. But you know not, dear Matthias, how 
wholly I have committed you to God, praying that 
he may guide, teach, and care for you in great and 
little things. I am persuaded that you are in his 
hands, and am happier and more reconciled than I 
could have thought possible, although there are 
moments when the yearning of the mother's heart 
prevails over these better feelings. We have also 
letters from Gotha with the best tidings. I do not 
know how to make enough of the happiness which 
God has given us on all sides, and must take refuge 
in the hymn-book." 

Again she wrote : " When I am sitting alone on 
the sofa in the parlor, before the children come 
down in the morning, and your father has just gone 
to business, I thank God and pray for you with all 
my heart, and look at your portrait which you gave 
me last Christmas. It brings you vividly before 
me, and often it seems as if you saw my thoughts 
and responded to them." 

" Your grandmother at Wandsbeck, ^ill rejoice 
to see that people love your grandfather, and you 
for his sake," wrote Caroline shortly afterwards. 
"Indeed, dear Matthias, how many advantages 



MATTHIAS AT THE UNIVERSITY. 173 

you enjoy that others have not ! God will expect 
more from you, and you must expect more from 
your own self, on this very account." 

In several other letters Caroline urges her son 
to realize the responsibilities involved in his choice 
of a calling. "It is quite clear to my own mind," 
she writes, " that there are many more inquirers for 
counsel and encouragement, than there were ten or 
fifteen years ago, and it is a great privilege to guide 
such ; but it is no easy task. We get over many 
difficulties in our own minds, because the solution 
does not require to be put into words, which must, 
however, be used when we help another." 

In another letter she writes : " I was well aware, 
while you were still with us, that the time would 
come when you would see many things, both within 
and without, in a different Hght from us ; but I did 
not say this, because I hoped and beheved that you 
were earnest and truth-loving, and because I trust- 
ed that God would give you right views and opin- 
ions at the right time. Moreover, I know that man 
can impart but little to his fellow-man ; each must 
seek and find for himself. I can say with truth, 
that I have been for many years in trouble and per- 
plexity, from which I am not even now free. I have 
found that it is better not to think of one's self so 



174 CHEIST IN A GEEMAN HOME. 

much, but rather to think more of God, and to long 
earnestly after him ; and if we have fallen to rise 
at once and go on, trusting in God; thus we are 
continually advancing by God's grace, towards a 
peaceful and blessed end. The Princess Gallitziu 
once said to me fi'om her inmost soul, and with a 
deep sense of her insufficiency, ' But I will still wilU 
This word often recurs to me, and cheers me when 
I am cast down. "We often become more free and 
happy when we look at ourselves as a whole, rather 
than in detail. If we keep all the good thoughts 
that have occurred to our minds continually pres- 
ent, we shall easily be led to think more highly of 
ourselves than we ought, and so shall in reality 
retrograde." 

*' I am not distressed," she wrote at another time, 
" that you find yourself unable to pray with as much 
faith and confidence as you desire, for we are at 
best but as reeds moved to and fro by the wind. If 
we only yearn for living faith, God will not fail to 
help us on, and all doubts and discouragements will 
eventually cease ; but it is almost too much to ex- 
pect that you should be as yet near to this happy 
consummation. Socrates thought that inward peace 
was not to be attained until a man had reached his 
fortieth year, and Confucius has placed the goal 



MATTHIAS AT THE UNIVERSITY. 175 

still farther forward ; but I do wrong in referring to 
Socrates and Confucius when we have Christ; con- 
sider it then as unsaid. I always take comfort 
from that man in the gospel to whom our Lord 
Christ said that he must believe before he could 
be helped ; and who replied, * Lord, I belieye, help 
thou mine unbelief.' This is all we can do, and 
when we can do nothing, God is ever ready to aid ; 
besides, there may be much unrest and unbelief in 
the head while the heart holds firmly by its an- 
chor — ' God is love, and he that dwelleth in love 
dwelleth in God.' I know of nothing more certain, 
imperfect as our love must needs be here below." 

Great as was the importance of this anchor of 
the heart to Caroline, she was far from wishing to 
make it an excuse for indolent security. "Dear 
Matthias," she once wrote, "accustom yourself to 
laborious study. It is not mere ignorance, but the 
want of power of application, which is found to 
have such evil and bitter consequences. Tell me, 
then, whether you are bravely diligent. I wish and 
hope it may be so ; and I should like to know how 
you arrange your studies. I do not believe it is 
possible for a young man, however earnest and well 
intentioned, always to see the why and wherefore of 
his studies. You would relieve me from a great 



176 CHRIST IN A GEEMAN HOME. 

anxiety if you would commit yours to the direction 
of some sensible, learned and older man, who might 
take your father's place, and direct your scientific 
career. Without pretending to understantl more, I 
know that experience is the best guide. Perhaps, 
dear Matthias, you will laugh at this counsel ; you 
are quite w^elcome; only consider it, and tell me 
what you think of it. I would so gladly know you 
are on the straightest road even to human learn- 
ing." 

"You may imagine," wrote Caroline, in trans- 
mitting some controversial pamphlets, " the ^^ros and 
contras that these have occasioned. It is very sad 
and grievous that the holiest and brightest truths of 
religion should be treated as mere topics of con- 
versation and amusement — and yet it has this good, 
that it leads men to ask themselves on which side 
they are. I believe with you that, in order to deal 
honestly with your future congregation and your 
own understanding, you must diligently investigate, 
that you may come to the steadfast knowledge and 
the clear consciousness, that in Christ Jesus are 
hidden all the treasures of wisdom ; but I also trust 
in God that if you wrestle and strive earnestly, he 
will give you a yearning and a steadfast faith, by 
which he will carry on (he work of grace in your 



MATTHIAS AT THE UNIYEESITY. 177 

heart, even when your understanding labors under 
perplexity." 

In answer to a letter in which her son told her 
of the many valuable friends whom he had found 
at the university, Caroline replied : " I was rejoiced 
to receive your last letter, and although I make al- 
lowance for youthful enthusiasm, and am well aware 
that your best moments are not lasting, yet I see 
that all your hopes and efforts are in the right di- 
rection, and we are thankful that you have joined 
such a circle. Tell me how you generally spend 
the Sabbath, and whether you have found a preach- 
er who proclaims the truth without many human 
additions, and with the inward confidence that he 
has the same interest as his hearers in what he 
says. I hope you are pursuing the study of logic 
right earnestly; many feel the want of it. Last 
Sunday I heard a sermon of much abihty, and con- 
taining much that was good in detail, but the whole 
was so confused that it was almost impossible to 
f oUow it ; thought and learning are, in general, ne- 
cessary before we can teach others. I thank God 
that you are committed to teachers who unite in 
themselves learning and respect for the faith." 

But it was not only in the studies and perplexi- 
ties of her son that Caroline was interested. " Your 

Oliiist In Oer. Home. ^O 



178 CHRIST IN A GEEMAN HOME. 

external life is somewhat monotonous, but you must 
vary it a little, and I think you should do so as far 
as is consistent with order and regularity." "You 
have given us great pleasure by the narrative of 
your journey," she wrote, when Matthias had 
sought recreation for a time in SwitzerLand ; " open 
your eyes wide, look at everything, so that the im- 
pressions whic]:i are to be the materials of thought 
when you are set fast in the yoke, may be perma- 
nent. If you keep your eyes and your heart stead- 
fastly fixed on the goal, the yoke will be softer and 
lighter; this your father finds, for God does not 
send him empty away. He also has his circle of 
influence where God blesses his efforts; of this I 
am certain." 

"Your letter from Zurich has just come, and 
tells us that you are v»'ell, and in dear Switzerland, 
where my heart has so long yearned to be. I have 
got the map out, and followed you from place to 
place, have calculated distances, and seen every- 
thing with you as far as possible. No one can 
sympathize with you more than I do, in the enjoy- 
ments of the works of God; only, they must lead 
you into the depth of your own heart and to 
prayer." 

" It is long since you have written about your- 



MATTHIAS AT THE UNIVERSITY. 179 

self," sajs the mother in one of her letters, " and 
of your daily life at home and abroad, so that I can 
see exactly what you are about. If such a letter is 
not already on the way, sit down at once and tell 
me, circumstantially, whether you are in good spir- 
its, what you are at work upon, and whether you 
are making progress ; also about your friends, your 
amusements, your chairs and tables, coats and 
shoes, in short, about all that appertains to the 
nourishment and necessities of this mortal life; I 
am longing for such tidings." 

Shortly after this she writes : " Make a point of 
keeping your room clean and ne?ct, and of opening 
the windows every day ; and then, dear Matthias, I 
entreat you, out of love to me, dress yourself on 
first rising, and do n't sit for hours half-dressed, and 
with shoes down at the heels. I dislike it very 
much ; dress yourself for the day, and you will feel 
fresh and cheerful, and ready for anything that may 
come." 

Bur while Caroline fully entered into the life of 
her son, she kept up his interest in home by com- 
municating all those trifling events which make up 
domestic life. Anniversaries were especially no- 
ticed. Thus on the 2d of August, 1820, the anni- 
versary of her wedding-day, Caroline wrote : " We 



180 CHEIST IN A GERMAN HOME. 

were sitting at the breakfast-table, almost buried in 
garlands, as you have seen us — ^joy and pleasure in 
all hearts and eyes— when your letter and congrat- 
ulatory verses were brought us. "We read, rejoiced, 
and thanked God. I was especially affected by 
your wedding-garland, for if you had not been my 
own very child, you would not have sent it. I have 
wept my fill, but rather from joy than sorrow. My 
whole heart thanks you for your affection, and I 
pray to God that he may strengthen and uphold 
your purpose, and enable you to act upon it. We 
have need to will, and will afresh every minute, for 
thus we generally bring something to good effect, 
often unconsciously indeed; but what is uncon- 
scious is often best. At least there is nothing that 
I fear so much as self-satisfaction ; for the feeling 
of need, and of insufficiency, and tlie reaching after 
God's mercy, are our best safeguards here below, 
because this is our real and natural condition. 
That God may help you, and all of us, my dear 
Matthias, is my constant prayer." 

" The 18th of October," she writes on another 
occasion, " the anniversary of the battle of Leipzic 
was right joyfully commemorated. Early in the 
morning all the bells were ringing, all the churches 
were full, and crowds waited without; at noon 



MATTHIAS AT THE UIsIVEKSITY. 181 

the whole town-guard turned out. The streets 
were so full of holiday-folks, walking, driving and 
riding, that I could not hear myself speak; in the 
evening there were fireworks in every direction. I 
sat at home and thought; the recollection of that 
great epoch is engraven in my heart ; I have lived 
those iron months again with all their joys and sor- 
rows and anxieties; you will believe that my eyes 
overflowed, and I thanked God as well as I could, 
though not so fervently as I wished, for all his 
goodness. If I could but once keep this day in the 
Aschan cellar, gratitude would rise spontaneously 
and overpower all other thoughts. That cellar I 
shall remember as long as I Hve ; how perplexed I 
often v/as when I left you all for a quarter of an 
hour, to be alone, and to give free course to my 
tears. I am really angry with all who on such a 
day can allow themselves to be dissatisfied with 
things as they are. On other days people may be 
angry and demand reforms, but on the 18th of Oc- 
tober we ought to rejoice and be glad in the deliv- 
erance which God wrought for us. And when I 
ihink of ourselves in particular, what overflowing 
pleasures do I see ; only my darling, blessed Ber- 
nard's place is empty. AYe miss him, and shall 
miss him till we go to him." 



182 CHKIST IN A GERMAN HOME. 

In another letter she says : " All my anniversa- 
ries, now that we are so dispersed, are spoilt, and 
no longer yield the same enjoyment, for it takes 
much thought to bring you all before me now. 
Still, so long as nothing comes between you and my 
longing after you, I shall rejoice." 

" The empty places at the Christmas-table," she 
writes, " did indeed mar my joy, but not my grati- 
tude to God for you, my dear absent children, and 
for the persuasion that you have set out on the 
good and right way. Though I cannot see you, my 
heart is glad in its affection, and especially on dear 
Christmas-eve. Still it was a quiet festival, and 
less happy than usual, on account of our anxiety 
for Agricola." 

The 16th of January was Matthias' birthday, 
and his mother wrote: "How I long to see you 
face to face, and to hold you in my arms, tall as 
you may be, for maternal love is not appalled by 
height, and the child is a child still though he may 
be a man. You, my dear old Matthias, I would so 
gladly have with us ; keep well, and enter on your 
one-and-twentieth year with joy and energy. May 
God be with you and preserve you, and grant all 
my wishes for you, and bless you for evermore, as 
I believe he will. I send you the birthday wish 



MATTHIAS AT THE UNIVERSITY. 183 

and prayer, with wliicli I this morning awoke, that 
you may make it your own. * O thou Eternal Light 
and Strong Eock, let the light of thy life-giving 
word shine upon him, and teach him to know thee 
aright, and to call thee Father with his whole heart. 
Teach him that Christ is our Lord and Master, and 
that there is none other besides, that he may seek 
thee only, and trust in thee with all his strength,* 
My beloved child, may God grant it." 




-ot 






.|^ 



XVIII. 



THE LAST DAYS OF CAROLINE PERTHES. 



r^HE physical sufferings to wliich Caroline 
^ had been subject ever since the trying 




scenes of 1813, had been greatly ag- 
gravated by the cares and anxieties of 
the last summer. The irritability of the 
nervous system, and the heart disease, had now 
reached an alarming height, but her serenity of 
mind was undisturbed; her Christian faith and 
hope waxed even brighter and stronger as the body 
approached its last resting-place. "I have lately 
had feelings, thoughts, and views, formerly quite un- 
known to me, with reference to our earthly Hfe and 
our appointed work therein, and in connection with 
these a greater serenity." This she wrote in the 
spring of 1820. 

And again, about the same time, " How differ- 



LAST DAYS OF CAKOLINE PERTHES. 185 

ently I regard my position, now that I am con- 
sciously going down hill, and find myseK so much 
nearer the end than the beginning of Hfe. If I am 
not self-deceived when I examine myseK as in the 
sight of God, I find an increase of peace and assu- 
}'ance, and there are seasons when I am even confi- 
dent. God grant that the peace and confidence 
may be abiding, and not a mere play of fancy! 
God will surely help me. The desire of my heart 
is for peace and submission to his will, but I cannot 
always master the desire to live here on earth. I 
have still much enjoyment and happiness in life, 
and I have my dear Perthes. It refreshes my spirit, 
dear Agnes, to hear, that like me, you ai'e seeking 
and finding God in many things that appear insig- 
nificant, but that do really gently stir and rejoice 
our hearts all the day long. I cannot say much 
about them, but I can thank God and long for 
more. Let us only be faithful and earnest in little 
things, and perhaps in heaven great things may be 
committed to us." 

An anxious, doubting state of mind, unknown to 
herself, she was not inclined to regard favorably in 

others. " N ," she writes, " has left us ; he has 

failed to discern much that is good here, and also 
much that is good in the circle of his own friends, 

24 



186 CHRIST IN A GERMAN HOME. 

I fancy, because, here as elsewhere, externals throw 
a veil over the inner man. He is certainly a pious 
man, but his misfortune is, that, for the most part, 
he has an eye only for what he dislikes in the hves 
of Christians." 

In another letter she says : " "We are anxiously 
looking for a man of truth and earnestness to pre- 
pare Matilda for confirmation, and, as yet, without 

success. PI 's sister has gone to Kiel for a year 

and a half that her daughter may enjoy the benefit 
of Harm's instructions. Gladly as I would avail 
myself of his teaching for Matilda, I could never 
have taken such a step, because it seems to me to 
involve a distrust of the Divine power and influ- 
ence ; and besides how could one look other chil- 
dren in the face, whose parents were unable to do 
so much for them ?" 

" Come to my arms," she wrote to a deeply de- 
jected friend, " and pour out your heart with all its 
hopes and fears, its anxieties and sadness. I un- 
derstand you, and have not forgotten my own 
griefs, but I beUeve that God will look upon us for 
good, if even one groan escapes from our breasts. 
Only we must be willing at every moment to take 
up our burden and to bear what God sends ; and 
that he often sends heaviness no one will deny. I 



LAST DAYS OF CAEOLINE PERTHES. 187 

cannot say that I have never murmured, but I have 
often asked God with tears why he has weighed 
me down ; and then I have been strengthened by 
the thought that it is all his doing, and cannot be 
without reason ; that he knows our anxiety and can- 
not be offended by it." 

To her eldest daughter she says: "That you 
are a happy woman I know, and I desire with all 
my heart that you may continue so; nor do I doubt 
it. Perplexed you may be, but not unhappy ; for 
one who strives from the heart to be resigned to 
the will of God, under all circumstances, can never 
be unhappy." 

On the day preceding the last anniversary of 
her betrothal, which she survived, she wrote, " Tc^- 
morrow will be my day of days, the first of Maj^ 
and gladly would I wander with my beloved hus- 
band amid the hills and woods, where I might see 
and hear none but himself, and might thank God 
that, after four-and-twenty years, I can keep the 
day with feeling of the most thorough joy and sat- 
isfaction. A few sighs may escape, for my breath 
is short; but joy shall be continually renewed. 
Yes, certainly, tlie woods, the green woods, would 
be my chosen home ; though, when I look through 
the fresh green leaves at the blue waters and the un- 



188 CHEIST IN A GERMAN HOME. 

clouded sky, all is so beautiful, that it is only with 
shame and self-reproach that I can really wish for 
more. Such a fulness of spring splendor and 
beauty, I think I have never before seen ; the love- 
liness of the trees and foliage, grass and flowers, is 
inexpressible. And this great change from death 
to life has come to pass in a few days, I might say 
in a few hours. When we stand in the sweet spring- 
tide, looking through the tall, bright green trees to 
the pure, blue sky, one can scarcely realize all the 
trouble and sorrow that may be within and around 
us. Yes, spring is the time of joy, and that joy car- 
ries my heart upward to that bright and happy land, 
where there shall be no more pain or sorrow." 

" I must tell you, my dear Matthias," she wrote, 
" that, notwithstanding my difficulty of breathing, I 
am not cast down; and, indeed, I have no reason 
for being so, for God overpowers us with blessings 
and joys, by making our children happy and pros- 
perous. We hear nothing but good from Gotha, 
and we hope that you also are in the good way, 
and that God is with you. Matilda is a sensible 
though merry child, and has made herself useful, 
beyond what one could expect from her age, in this 
season of severe sickness. She delights to go about 
with me and to take care of me as far as she is 



LAST DAYS OF CAROLINE PERTHES. 189 

able. Perthes is specially fond of liis little daugh- 
ter. Eleanora is a nice girl, and her heart grows full 
of kindliness and love ; and my Andrew is my de- 
light from morning till evening, when he does not 
happen to be passionate and naughty. My dearest 
Perthes grows daily in earnestness and grace, as 
regards his own soul ; towards myself he could not 
be better. Can I then do otherwise than thank 
God and rejoice ?" 

Li a letter to her eldest daughter she says again, 
" I must tell you more about your father — ^how he 
continues to gain peace, quietness and stabihty iu 
spite of the disturbance and confusion by which he 
is surrounded. I would that you knew this as sure- 
ly as I do — it is so comforting and encouraging to 
see God's blessing so manifestly resting upon him. 
It may be difficult for those who look only at sepa- 
rate features of his character to realize this ; but I, 
who am so thoroughly acquainted with him, know 
that year by year he draws nearer to God, and is 
working out his own salvation with earnestness. I 
call upon you to thank God with me for having given 
you such a father ; he is almost too dear and good. 
If I could only have him a little more, or rather talk 
with him a little more; for I certainly have him 
wholly — of that I am persuaded. Nothing in heav- 



190 CHRIST IN A GERMAN HOME. 

en or earth can surpass genuine affection. It will 
certainly make the happiness of heaven, only there 
it will be greater, and purer, and uninterrupted ; and, 
according to my present feehngs, I should desire 
even there to keep my Perthes and to love him." 

In the autumn she wTote, "What a constant and 
profound sense have I of God's mercy, in the bright 
hopes he has given me, and to so great an extent 
already realized, in and through you all ! You can- 
not imagine what bright and blessed hours your 
father and I enjoy when we sit down together, to 
think this over. It is a gift of God's grace, un- 
speakably precious, to see our children walking in 
the way to heaven, however great may be our fears 
and anxieties respecting them; for God, who has 
begun the good work, will perform it in us all, and 
wiU perfect that which concerneth us." 

In a letter written on the last day of December, 
Caroline says, "One could not have believed it pos- 
sible to have sailed along the world's sea of sorrov/ 
and suffering, throughout three hundred and sixty- 
five days, and to find our fragile bark so little in- 
jured. Again, I feel that I cannot be thankful 
enough; and yet how many wishes and petitions 
are ready for the opening year." 

"I rejoice with you," she once wTote to her 



LAST DAYS OF CAROLINE PERTHES. 191 

daughter, " that you have returned to your wonted 
quiet and peaceful hfe, and that I still long with all 
my heart for quietness and peace ; for this longing 
proves to me that my unrest has not injured me. 
Who can say that it has not done me good? I 
should certainly never choose to live in a whirl, but 
God makes all things work together for good." 

"Perthes," she once wrote, "works more than is 
good for him. Ah ! if I could but get him safe out 
of this tumult ! I can only live with him in thought, 
for the worry of incessant toil does not leave me a 
single quiet moment with him. But I must and will 
not complain, for he is in good spirits, and would 
rejoice if we could be more together." 

Ever since Agnes had been settled in Gotha, 
Caroline had cherished the hope that at no distant 
period, her husband would commit his large busi- 
ness to others and retire to Gotha, where he might 
live more to himself and his family. In many let- 
ters she joyfull}^ alludes to this cheering prospect. 
" If God will, we shall come nearer to you and en- 
joy a common happiness. Yes, in the depths of my 
heart I anticipate that you, dear children, will be 
the joy of my old age, as you were of my youth." 

Somewhat later she wrote, " I notice that Per- 
thes is constantly endeavoring to bring matters to a 



192 CHRIST IN A GERMAN HOME. 

point, in order tliat we may join you ; but when I 
would express the delight that this gives me, he 
grows restive, and says that I ought not to rejoice 
even in my heart, while all is still so uncertain." 

Perthes, in the meantime, was no less earnestly 
occupied with the hope of deliverance. Thus, in the 
spring of 1821, he writes to Agnes and her husband : 
"You are indeed privileged in being able to enjoy 
your youthful years so free from care. Mine has 
been a tumultuous life, and it is seldom that a quiet 
hour, unburdened with anxiety has fallen to my lot. 
I would thank God, with all humility, for his guid- 
ance hitherto, and commit my way to him for the 
future. My desire is for quiet and repose. I would 
not be unemployed ; but I long to be at liberty to 
follow my own inclination, and gradually to obliter- 
ate from my heart and mind the world's unrest, 
that I may be ready for that time when all reckon- 
ings here below must be for ever cancelled." 

But Caroline's hope to spend the latter years of 
her life in quiet union with her husband and her 
married daughters, was not to be fulfilled. The dis- 
ease that had attacked her heart and nerves, in- 
creased in a painful degree in the spring of 1821. 

"I am restless, and my nerves are weak and 
weary," she wrote in April, " and my breathing is 



LAST DAYS OF CABOLINE PERTHES. 193 

become very difficult. This is not a healthy condi- 
tion, and Dr. Schroeder does his best, but he has 
not yet found the right medicine." Some weeks 
later she writes, ** I am now drinking the Geihiauer 
waters, and am in the garden from six to eight 
o'clock ; and happy to receive any visitors there. I 
take all sorts of journeys in imagination and hold 
long conversations with you, my beloved children, 
when I am wandering about alone." 

Early in June she was brought to the gates of 
death by nervous fever, consequent on a severe at- 
tack of internal cramp, and she now became fully 
aware of her danger. " I am weary and done," she 
wrote, " and if you should see me, you would feel 
that my days are numbered. I give myself up to be 
nursed and cared for by Matilda as the representa- 
tive of you all. She ministers to me with childlike 
love, and great judgment and caution. I have often 
had you by me, dear Matthias, and have wished 
you good morning and good night. I thank God 
that I can think of you with joy. Once in my de- 
lirium, I thought you were become a Catholic; 
I took it sadly to heart, and now I rejoice the more 
that it is not so." 

Serious thoughts of death had been famihar to 
Carohne throughout her whole life. She had ever 

Christ in G,'!-. Komfl. 25 



194 CHRIST IN A GEEMAN HOME. 

regarded it with solemn awe, but not with terrc^r. 

In one of her letters she writes: "Old Mrs. N 

gently fell asleep yesterday. I rejoice to think that 
she was ready. She could no longer enjoy any- 
thing here below ; and her weakness and confusion 
of mind were, as far as we could judge, a hinderance 
to the enjoyment of the presence and consolations of 
God himself. Now her dormant love is rekindled 
never to be dimmed by the thousand trifles that 
clouded and clogged it here." 

Again : " I have passed some serious hours at 

S 's death-bed. He died with wonderful peace 

and resignation, retaining his consciousness to the 
last. I rejoiced to look upon the corpse as it lay in 
the still repose of death, no longer constrained to 
cough and tortured for want of air. It is remark- 
able, and I have often observed how high and clear 

death makes the forehead; even S 's was fine 

after death, though certainly it was not so in life." 

On receiving the news of the decease of Count 
E. Stolberg, in December, 1819, Caroline had writ- 
ten to her eldest daughter, " The dear, pure spirit 
will now see God face to face, of that I am persuad- 
ed ; but we have one dear friend less on earth. The 
last month of his life was spent in writing a little 
book on love ; this was a good preparation for the 



LAST DAYS OF CAROLINE PERTHES. 195 

enjoyment of the Eternal Love. May God enable 
us all to grow and stand fast in his love ; then we 
shall be prepared for all that may happen. I w^ould 
so ghidly have ministered to Stolberg in his illness 
and at his death; there is no greater comfort on 
earth than to see a man die in full consciousness, 
committing himself peacefully and joyfully to the 
mercy of God in faith. Dear Agnes, we have once 
seen this together in my dear father. Do you still 
remember the wonderful beauty of his eyes in those 
last hours, even to the last minute ?" 

But while Carohne did not shrink from the 
thought of death, she thoroughly enjoyed life. 
" When at our outset in life we have surmounted 
one hill, we are apt to think we have left all hills 
behind, and have nothing but smooth walking to 
the end of our days," she says to her daughter 
Louisa ; " at least I have often felt this ; and then I 
came to little hills and great mountains which I 
must needs cross : and so it will be till we have 
climbed the last, and laid down our burden. 
Still, notwithstanding the hills, life is pleasant and 
valuable to m.e, and were it God's will, I could 
gladly live among you yet awhile with my beloved 
Perthes, especially if he could find a place of rest 
where I might be more with him. In that case, I 



196 CIIKIST IN A GERMAN HOME. 

should indeed wisli tliat my breatliing were some- 
wliat more free, so that I might go about and en- 
joy Hfe with you.'* And soon after, " It ought to be 
so, but the thought of keeping time in our grasp 
often occurs. Assuredly God cannot have less good 
in store for us in heaven, but that which we have 
here we see with our eyes, and thus it has a strong- 
er hold on our hearts than the anticipation of even 
the better things awaiting us above. But even 
here below there, are moments of great and incon- 
ceivable assurance and blessedness, if we could only 
keep them. But my special sorrow is, that I am 
not at all times master of my own heart, and my 
greatest comfort is, that God knows me perfectly; 
and certainly, I desire far more than I can accom- 
phsh." 

In the middle of July, Caroline was taken to 
Wandsbeck, in order to be away from the bustle of 
home, and that she might take the air without go- 
ing up and down stairs. She now suffered much 
from difficulty of breathing and cramp in the chest. 
*' When I sit still," she says, " I am pretty well, and 
enjoy the beautiful weather, quite forgetting my 
pain, but the slightest movement reminds me of it 
at once." 

" It is now three months," she writes at another 



LAST DAYS OF CAROLINE PERTHES. 197 

time, " since I have been able to do anything in the 
house, kitchen, or cellar, and this distresses me 
greatly. I long indescribably to return to my du- 
ties, and to spare my dear Perthes any further anx- 
iety about my health. I cannot do any kind of 
work, not even knit, neither can I read ; but I feel 
no tediousness and am in very good spirits. I must 
not write any more, my dear child. It is not my 
heart, but my head that is weary." 

These were almost the last words that she was 
able to write to her distant children, but her affec- 
tion continued undiminished, and she rejoiced with 
them, as warmly as ever, on the occasion of the 
birth of her second grandson in July. " God help 
those poor creatures," she wrote, "who have no 
love in their hearts; how glad I am to be your 
mother, and how I rejoice in all your happiness !" 

In her last letter to her sou in Tubingen, on the 
2d of August, she says : " We passed our wedding- 
day very happily at Wandsbeck ; I went round the 
beautiful large meadow many times with my dear 
husband, sitting down occasionally, and cannot be 
thankful enough for this delightful walk. We were 
alone, and it was many years since I had such a 
walk with my dear Perthes. Our conversation was 
very comprehensive and hopeful; since it is not 



198 CHRIST IN \ GERMAN HOME. 

only the past but the present which is ours. We 
thought of you all." 

But Caroline's health was not improved by her 
stay at Wandsbeck. " How gladly would I tell you 
that I am strong and hearty," she wrote to Perthes 
on the 8th of August, " but I cannot ; I do not feel 
strong. Pleased I am, but not cheerful, though I 
might be so could I sit on my bench in the .open 
air. The pleasure of being out carries me beyond 
myself, but within doors I do not easily forget my- 
self, and my short breath ; perhaps to-morrow God 
will send the right thought. My general health is 
still good, and the one weakness may yet be found 
out. My feelings tell me that I may be perfectly 
restored, though my understanding speaks rather 
differently." 

A few dsLjs after this Caroline returned to Ham- 
burg, in order to be near her physician, but the 
hope of recovery diminished day by day. Although 
she was not at this time living in the immediate ex- 
pectation of death, she enjoyed a closer commun- 
ion with God. The old hymn, "Lord, I would 
venture on thy word,"* was her delight. When, 
through the severity of her sufferings, and the rest- 
lessness of fever, she could with difficulty keep be- 
*„^m, aitf bfiit 3Bort foU'g feiii geHjaQt." 



LAST DAYS OF CABOLINE PERTHES. 199 

fore her the contents of the hymn, she would take 
up her pen, and write a few verses in order to im- 
press these breathings of prayer on her mind. 

Perthes had long been aware of her danger. 
Thus in a letter written somewhat later, he says : 
" I have long suffered on her account, and for many 
months have been weighed down with grief. My 
lonely walks have been spent in endeavoring to 
realize the heavy trial that is upon me, and with 
God's help to prepare for it. Ever and anon hope 
revived, but only to be dashed again. No one, who 
knew as I did the weight of the fetters that 
a weary body imposed upon so active and intense 
a spirit as hers, could believe that she could long 
endure it. She has suffered much for a long time, 
and it is a, hard struggle for one so excitable and 
energetic, to feel herself constantly bound. It was 
only her genuine Christianity and the consideration 
of the sufferings of our Lord, that supported her 
and kept her patient, yea, cheerful, and preserved 
]ier sympathies to the last. I alone knew how weak 
she was, and how much she suffered; her friends 
and acquaintances saw only her kindness and men-, 
tal energy." 

On Friday, the 24tli of August, fi^equent and 
violent attacks of internal cramp placed her life in 



200 CHEIST IN A GERMAN HOME. 

immediate danger, and from this time she alter- 
nated between wild delirium and exhanstion, strug- 
gles for breath and profound sleep; but there were 
occasional hours of freedom from pain, and of per- 
fect consciousness, and then the peace of faith, the 
assurance of hope, and the joy of love, were victori- 
ous over suffering and death. 

" Your mother is very ill," writes Perthes, Au- 
gust 28th, to his sons-in-law. "We are in God's 
hand, and may hope, although we have more cause 
for fear. I find my comfort and support in submis- 
sion : ' Thy will be done, O Lord.* If God has or- 
dained the death of your pious mother, his will bo 
done. I could not count much on my own strength, 
the rending of such ties is terrible. It is terrible to 
be left without the only creature who entirely knows 
me — sad, desolate loneliness, long or short, is all that 
remains ; no more comfort of mutual cooperation ; no 
helper in all my joys and sorrows. I cannot and 
dare not hope ; it is only when I realize the worst 
that I find comfort and support." 

On the evening of the day on which this letter 
was written, on the 28th of August, 1821, a stroke 
of paralysis put an end to Caroline's life so sud- 
denly, that no pressure of the hand, no word or look 
of love, gave token of farewell to those around her. 



LAST DAYS OF CAROLINE PERTHES. 201 

"Here I am with my poor cliildren," wrote Per- 
thes on the following morning to his son-in-law, 
" and life looks empty and desolate. We seek for 
the overflowing affection that has been so richly 
granted to us ; and yet, since we could have it only 
by bringing back my Caroline and your mother, 
could we wish that her free and pious spirit should 
be again imprisoned in the body? My poor chil- 
dren ! You older ones have had the benefit of your 
mother's mind, but the younger ones must for ever 
miss her love and watchful spirit. God help them 
and me. It breaks my heart to see the little ones 
seeking up and down for then- mother everywhere, 
and to hear their sobs when they do not find her. 
Her face in its last sleep is inexpressibly beautiful, 
from the height of the forehead and the sweet lov- 
ing smile that plays about the mouth." 

In a letter written the same day to his son Mat- 
thias, Perthes says : " Her love can no longer bless us 
here below ; she is at rest with God, while we mourn 
her loss. Weep as much as you can, then compose 
and command yourself, and come to us." 

"My sorrow does not make me idle," he wrote 

a few days after to his daughter ; " it rather rouses 

my affections, and excites me to be helpful to all 

around me, as far as I can. I have abundant cause 

26 



202 CHKIST IN A GERMAN HOME. 

for thankfulness, that for four-and-twenty years God 
has permitted me to enjoy this treasure of affection, 
energy and intelligence, and I would render thanks 
to him for this. Now she knows how and wherein 
I have sinned, as she could not know here below, 
but now she also realizes the full measure of my 
affection. How^ many are the hinderances, limita- 
tions and circumstances, great and small, that op- 
pose our recognition of the love that is in other 
men's hearts ! That she now knows me thoroughly 
and helps me to cleave to God and to walk before 
him, I am fully persuaded, though I am aware K^ev- 
elation gives no express countenance to this be- 
hef." 

In a subsequent letter Perthes says : " All that I 
have done and" planned, that was not immediately 
connected with business, for four-and-twenty years, 
has been solely in reference to your mother. She 
never knew, at least in full, how dependent I was 
on her ; she only thought, through the depth of her 
love for me, what sacrifices I had made. But now 
all this is over. I am no longer bound; I can do 
what I will, and next to the yearning after her, I 
am most oppressed in my solitude by the conscious- 
ness of freedom. In my heart all is dark and deso- 
late; I long for communication with some loving 



LAST DAYS OF CAROLINE PERTHES. 203 

soul, as if communion with the Invisible were not 
enough, and to this disquiet is added the anxious 
fear, lest when time shall have cooled down my 
burning sorrow, my affection for your mother should 
also suffer some diminution." 

In a letter to Helena Jacobi, who had been a 
friend to Caroline from her girlhood, Perthes said : 
"You, indeed, early appreciated the worth of my 
Caroline; but, removed from her as you were in 
these last years, you could not see the development 
of her mind. Her piety and loveliness, and the 
simplicity of her character, were untouched by 
years, and her affection, while it retained all its 
strength and depth, expanded in every direction, 
and showered blessings and benefits on all within 
her reach. She had counsel, comfort and help for 
all who approached her, and won love and an es- 
teem bordering on reverence, from persons of the 
most opposite character and circumstances. Caro- 
line's imagination was of unparalleled vivacity, and 
originated the deepest sympathy with all that was 
passing in the world. She had much experience of 
human nature, but her judgment was always loving 
and compassionate, her faith free from the nari'ow- 
ness of the letter, and great as was her affection for 
me, she was perfectly independent in mind. For 



204 CHKIST IN A GERMAN HOME. 

f our-and-twenty years we liad lived together through 
cares and anxieties, sometimes through sorrow and 
trouble, but in all she was happy, for every moment 
was filled with love and lively sympathy; always 
resigned to the inevitable, she preserved her heroic 
spirit in great events. That poverty of spirit so ex- 
tolled by Tauler and Thomas a Kempis, was hers ; 
she had acquired it in struggling with a vigorous 
nature, to which passion, impetuosity, and ambition 
were not unknown. From her earliest youth she 
had Hved in continual intercourse with God, and 
she was sincere as I have known few besides. And 
now this great and rare blessing is lost to me in the 
grave. In vain I stretch out my arms; humanly 
speaking, I am alone, and yet I have a foretaste of 
a previously unknown blessedness, since our souls 
may now meet unfettered ; but this may not be put 
into words, since once uttered it becomes untrue." 




^v::^ 



XIX. 




COTHA. 

f.FTEB Caroline's death Perthes longed 
more ardently than ever for a quieter 
f2i^ life for himself and children. For a 
long time he had planned to transfer 
P 1 his Hamburg business to his friend Besser, 
and to establish a publishing house in Goiha, 
the home of his married daughters. 

To them he writes : " Next Easter we shall come 
to you, and if it please God, stay with you. The 
housekeeping can be carried on as usual ; Matilda 
is active and sensible, and has conducted it with 
discretion and judgment beyond her years, during 
her mother's illness. She still continues the care 
of the younger children, but apart from all other 
considerations, I should be doing injustice to Ma- 
tilda, if by remaining here I were to oppress her 



206 CHRIST IN A GERMAN HOME. 

youthful spirit of seventeen by leaving so much un- 
der her charge." 

Final arrangements were at last completed, and 
in March, 1822, Perthes and his four children left 
Hamburg for their new home. 

Gotha cannot fail to impress favorably all who 
visit it. It forms a crescent at the foot of the 
Schlossberg, and is surrounded by a rich country. 
The ducal palace, with its remarkably fine orange- 
ry, adds to its other attractions. 

Despite the ravages of war, Gotha retained 
many primitive German customs when Perthes first 
settled there. Every evening the streets of one- 
storied houses were filled with cattle returning from 
pasture, and by night the only sound heard was the 
loud horn of the watchman and his pious caution, 
"Put out the fire, and put out the light, tliat no 
evil chance to-night, and praise we God the Lord." 
The streets were lively only on market-days, when 
the robust forms of the Thuringian peasants 
with their gayly-dressed, healthy-looking wives and 
daughters, selling country and forest produce, filled 
the square in front of the old town-hall, on whose 
roof a greedy-looking wooden head opened its 
mouth wide, at the striking of the hour, as if un- 
certain whether to speak or bite. 



GOTHA. 207 

Needy schoolboys and students might often be 
heard singing before the houses of the rich, in hopes 
of adding to their scanty means, as Martin Luther 
had done in his school- days at Eisenach. 

Not less notable were the giant forms of the 
guard, with their wide, white cloaks down to their 
heels, their great swords at their side, their heavy 
boots and clattering spurs, though horses they had 
none. Peaceable, friendly tradesmen they were, 
who were accustomed for a moderate consideration 
to figure, a few days at a time, as warriors, in the 
six or eight uniforms which were passed from one 
to another. 

All intercourse with the neighboring villages 
was carried on by a walking-post, and when, in 
September, 1825, the first diligence entered Gotha, 
the whole town assembled to witness the phenome- 
non, and for months nothing was spoken of but the 
energy of the postmaster-general, who had actually 
brought seeming impossibilities to pass. 

But notwithstanding its quaintness, Gotha had 
long been a centre for much mental and intellectual 
activity. 

During the first few weeks after his arrival Per- 
thes was occupied in arranging his new mode of 
life. In April he wrote : " I have not yet begun 



208 CHRIST IN A GERMAN HOME. 

my regular habits; the many things to be done 
first, and the presence of my son Matthias, have 
filled my time. Our dwelling stands in a very sea 
of flowers, and commands an extensive view. We 
can see the Brocken in clear weather. My daugh- 
ter Matilda governs the new household judiciously 
and firmly. Clement I have sent to the gymna- 
sium ; the education of the two youngest is provi- 
ded for, and the most necessary visits made. We 
are a good deal with my married daughters and 
their husbands, and I already foresee that my new 
mode of Hfe will suit me." 

In May he writes : " My spirit is deeply troubled. 
This returning home without my Caroline, without 
finding the love, the fulness of soul from which I 
drew my life, is horrible. I can impart nothing, 
receive nothing; all is barren and dead. My arri- 
val yesterday was most painful — no welcome, no 
life in our communications ; the poor children can- 
not supply that want." 

In speaking of his removal to Gotha he says : 
" If one ever wishes to make a decided change in 
Hfe, it must be while he has strength not only to 
break off from the old, but to found the new ; other- 
wise there results a wretched half-and-half exist- 
ence, full of divided regrets and weak yearnings after 



GOTHA. 209 

the past, and a depressed disposition, which unfits 
for business and never can prosper. Ten years 
later I should not have been able to carry out my 
resolve ; now Grod help me onward." 

To his old partner, Besser, he wrote : " We must 
settle our affairs as soon as possible, for if one of 
us were to die before this were done, inevitable con- 
fusion and mischief would ensue, for then the law 
would settle what we arrange as brothers : therefore 
I urge you to make all possible speed. After all, 
when this is over, I shall not be estranged even 
from your affairs — from yourself I never could be — 
but I shall watch them with delight and sympathy, 
and in many things we shall be able to help each other 
as long as we hve." The only difficulty attending this 
dissolution of partnership arose from each think- 
ing himself too much benefited by the propositions 
of the other. However, matters were soon adjust- 
ed, and Perthes again wrote : " We have now, dear 
brother, worked together for a quarter of a century, 
in troublous times. Not once have we taken differ- 
ent views as to * meum and tuum ;' not for one mo- 
ment during all those years have we ever felt it 
possible to waver in our mutual confidence. Let 
us thank God that at the hour of parting that con- 
fidence is as firm and pure as it has been during 

ObrlRt in Gcr. Horaa. 27 



210 CHPvIST IN A GERMAN HOME. 

our long associated life. Sucli happiness in such 
degree is Touchsafed to few." 

Besser remained through life Perthes' most inti- 
mate friend. After Caroline's death Perthes had 
written to him thus : " You are now the only man 
who knows all about me that one mortal can know 
about another, and, besides, you are the bridge 
connecting me with my earlier days, which else 
were entirely buried." 

He had always been a remarkable character, 
and so continued to the end. One describes him 
as the most benevolent and lovable of men ; full of 
energy, enthusiasm, and feeling. The beauty of a 
landscape would move him to tears. Extravagantly 
fond of music, a tune would haunt him for weeks. 
At such times he would try to be alone to sing it, 
and his voice would be heard proceeding from all 
sorts of hiding-places. In enjoyment he would go 
to the verge of exhaustion, and good company made 
him only too happy. In great things he was sim- 
ple and unrequiring ; but he had a thousand small 
peculiarities ; for instance, when travelling he always 
wore a quantity of coats for the sake of the pockets. 
Caroline, laughingly, once counted twenty-one, all 
filled with scissors, penknives, pocketbooks, etc. 
Yet his cheerfulness, courage, and decision, unfail- 



GOTHA. . 211 

ing in any emergency, ever made Lim a most de- 
lightful companion. A thorough humorist, he was 
also a dear child of God, and a singularly pure, 
strong-minded man. 

But life in the new home was by no means an 
inactive one ; the publishing business, journeys, so- 
cial intercourse, and long rambles in the Thuringian 
forest, filled the days which were only too short. 
" My home-circle and those of my sons-in-law," 
writes Perthes, " fill up my idle hours. William 
Perthes is the same stable, firm, determined char- 
acter he ever was; combining a healthy intellect 
and a warm heart as few others do." 

Then occurred the betrothal of Matilda to Fred- 
derick Becker, of Gotha. Perthes had written a 
year before to Besser: "Of all the friends of my 
sons-in-law, Becker suits me best; he is a noble 
hearted, good man, thoroughly intelligent and well- 
informed; indulgent to others, and, perhaps, only 
too severe towards himself. One may learn from 
him the nature and influence of truly conscientious 
order." To another friend he says: "You have 
heard from me of my warm attachment to Becker, 
and will, therefore, readily believe that I am re- 
joiced to give my child to him." 

Although Perthes had heartily approved his 



212 CHRIST IN A GERMAN HOME-. 

daugliter's liappy betrothal, her departure from 
home cost him a severe struggle. On the day after 
the wedding, which took place on the 1st of June, 
1824, he had all his children assembled around 
him, but as one by one departed leaving him alone 
with the three youngest only, he was overwhelmed 
with sadness. "We find him writing: "They were 
indeed heavy hours when all forsook me. First 
Matthias left to begin a new and independent life ; 
then both my married daughters returned to their 
long-established homes; at last Matilda with her 
husband. The farewell of this dear daughter, who 
clung to me with boundless tenderness, pierced my 
heart, and I found myself alone — alone as for thirty 
years I had never been. Henceforth I have no 
family circle; the house that Caroline and I had 
founded is fast going to pieces, and the picture of 
myself as the last remaining one haunts me hke a 
spectre." 

"I am alone," he says in another letter; "no 
one understands me now as I was once understood. 
If I speak out of my heart, the answer I receive 
teaches me that my meaning is not apprehended." 
Again, he says, " It is wretched enough to lead an 
unmarried life, but still worse to have known per- 
fect sympathy of soul, and then to lose it. I pos- 



GOTHA. 213 

sess, in no common degree, my children's love, but 
this cannot replace the love of which I have been 
bereft." 

Previous to this he had collected together all 
the letters his wife had written to friends and fam- 
ily, as well as to himself, that he might revive in his 
heart the history of the years spent with Caroline. 
"A past life of five-and-twenty years lies before 
me," he wrote, " this little bundle contains an in- 
finitude of love and thought, truth and conflict, and 
evokes from their graves many a forgotten fact and 
feeUng. Yes, hfe is a dream, but a very serious 
one, and our dreams are solemn truths veiled in 
airy fictions." 

Not long after Matilda's marriage Perthes was 
persuaded to remove with his three children to the 
house of his son-in-law, Becker. He was heartily 
welcomed by his children to their home, and every- 
thing was done for his happiness and comfort. 
Still he could not overcome the fear of becoming a 
burden, as age came upon him. 

In July Caroline's mother came to Gotha, for a 
visit, and while walking with Perthes plainly told 
him that solitude was not good, he could not bear 
it, and that it was his duty to seek a companion 
for the remainder of his life. He made no reply, 



214 CHRIST IN A GERMAN HOME. 

but in an instant his heart turned to Charlotte 
Hornbostel, the sister of Becker, his son-in-law. 
Charlotte had returned to her home, a widow with 
four children, two of whom were hopeless invalids. 
She was now living in the next house to her broth- 
er, and was well known and loved by the daughter 
of Perthes. He himself had been strongly attract- 
ed by her clear intellect, quick wit, and good sense, 
as well as by her cheerful, untiring devotion to her 
sick children. But the possibility of a nearer rela- 
tion had never occurred to him, until it was sug- 
gested by his mother-in-law. 

A fierce conflict now arose in his heart which 
yearned for companionship, while it shrank from 
anything like infidelity to Carohne. In September 
he wrote to his mother-in-law telling her of the 
struggle through which he was passing. He says : 
" I am quite certain that Caroline foresaw, from her 
knowledge of my character and temperament, a 
second marriage for me, and I am equally certain 
that no new union could ever disturb my spirit's 
abiding union with her." After speaking of second 
marriages, he says : " To us, in our life here below, 
the love of the creature is given to educate us for 
the love of God. Can I dispense with this earthly 
help, and yet maintain love alive in my heart ? Can 



GOTHA. 215 

I, without family ties to constrain me, go on caring 
for others ? Can I escape the danger of isolating 
myself, and living in selfishness, gross or refined '? 
I recall many a fearful instance of this in others ! 
Is it, in short, weakness to say to myself, 'Thou 
canst not dispense wdth the earthly helps to a lov- 
ing spirit,' or is it arrogance to believe that I no 
longer need such? I do not know how to answer 
this question." 

But Perthes' gi'owing attachment for Charlotte, 
at last prompted him to make known to her his 
feelings, and to seek her love in return. After some 
days of suspense a favorable answer was received. 
The '25th of October was the day of betrothal, and 
on the following May they were married. 

This second marriage was one of great happi- 
ness, notwithstanding its many cares and anxieties. 
Perthes had not only his three children to educate, 
but was also responsible for four step-children. In 
addition four others were born, Eudolph, Caroline, 
Augustus, and Eliza ; but not for a single moment 
did he consider his large household a burden. On 
the contrary, the feeling of gratitude for the happi- 
ness conferred upon him remained with him till his 
death. 




/S^^^r-VDfeX^tS^'C>oe/E>^ 



XX. 



PERTHES^ VIEWS OF LIFE. 




I^^HE publishing business which Perthes 
■^^ estabUshed in Gotha in 1822, rapidly 
<^ increased in magnitude and importance. 
He seemed instinctively to know what 
the spirit of the age demanded. But for 
him many a valuable work would have never 
seen the light, while others of injurious character 
would have appeared in their places. He not only 
refused to issue any immoral book, but influenced 
not a few German publishers to take the same stand. 
He gave to the world numerous theological 
works and Scripture commentaries, whose good 
influence can only be estimated when we realize 
how strong a hold Rationalism had taken upon the 
German mind. Men of culture knew the Bible only 
by hearsay, and looked upon the peasant and 



PERTHES' VIEWS OF LIFE 217 

meclianic who read it with pity. Perthes says, 
" During the first ten years of my establishment in 
Hamburg I sold not a single Bible, except to a few 
bookbinders in neighboring country towns; and I 
remember very well a good sort of man who came 
into my shop for a Bible, and took great pains to 
inform me it was for a person about to be confirmed, 
fearing I should suppose it was for himself." 

One of Perthes' first acts as a publisher was to 
seek out the leading scholars of Germany, many of 
whom he incited to prepare histories of the differ- 
ent European states. 

His life was full of activity. Authors old and 
young sought his acquaintance. The most distin- 
guished men of Germany visited him ; and num- 
berless letters poured in from historians, theologi- 
ans, and friends, asking for advice, aid, and sympa- 
thy, which were freely given. " It was so comfort- 
ing," wrote a friend, " to know of one in the world 
from whom, in every case of need, one was sure of 
sincere sympathy, loving good-will, and judicious 
counsel." 

A large collection of his own letters are found in 

his biography, which are full of interest; but the 

limits of the present volume forbid other than a 

few detached extracts : 

28 



218 CHRIST IN A GERMAN HOME. 

" He who should attempt nothuig on earth but 
to meditate on God, and feel His presence, would 
soon cease to do either. The Christian is set in 
the midst of the world, and let him stand where he 
may, will always be called on to fulfil various exter- 
nal duties; in these he is to act as skilfully, expe- 
ditiously, and energetically as his faculties will 
allow, and he may not extinguish his earthly nature 
or his senses, for he needs them all in order to be 
God's faithful servant and steward." 

"I would have nothing to do with the man who 
cannot be moved with indignation. There are more 
good people than bad in the world, and the bad get 
the upper hand merely because they are bolder.'* 

"To love mankind in old age, and to remain 
steadfast in love even to death, is exceedingly diffi- 
cult. A youthful warmth of feeling can be pre- 
served in old age only by faith and humility." 

"Whoever is convinced of sin, and believes in 
redemption through Christ, is a Christian, no mat- 
ter what the color of his party." 

" It is a proof of the divinity of the Bible, that 
different books affect different Christians most, 
according to their difference of temperament and 
education, while yet all books lead to the same 
end." 



PERTHES' VIEWS OF LIFE. 219 

"One thing I am more and more sure of: men 
of giant intellect and high imagination are little 
fitted to govern ; the practical man, if he will avail 
himself of the intellect of others, makes the best 
administrator." 

" Napoleon will yet become the idol of the age ; 
many are longing for another such despot to appear ; 
and it is quite possible that their desire may be 
gratified, for, out of fermentations like the present, 
dragons may well arise." 

" I consider Napoleon to be one of the greatest 
and most remarkable phenomena in the history of 
mankind. He was a mighty instrument in the hands 
of Providence, and when he had done his work, and 
was no longer needed, he was thrown, like other 
wornout tools, into a comer ; for not in himself, but 
only as an instrument, had he any importance." 

" Go forward with hope and confidence. This 
is the advice given thee by an old man who has had 
a full share of the burden and heat of life's day. 
We must ever stand upright, happen what may, 
and for this end we must cheerfully resign ourselves 
to the varied influences of this many-colored life. 
You may call this levity, and you are partly right, 
for flowers and colors are but trifles light as air ; 
but such levity is a constituent portion of our human 



220 CHPwIST IN A GERMAN HOME. 

nature, without wliicli it would sink under tlie weight 
of time. While on earth we must still play with 
earth, and with that which blooms and fades upon 
its breast. The consciousness of this mortal hfe 
being but the way to a higher goal, by no means 
precludes our playing with it cheerfully ; and indeed 
we must do so, otherwise our energy in action will 
entirely fail." 

" I learn more and more to discern the Divine 
wisdom, which has set limits to revelation ; all that 
we need for our happiness is given us, and were the 
curtain lifted farther from holy mysteries, man's 
utter bewilderment would be hopeless." 

" He only can be unjust to Schiller who knows 
not the wrathful melancholy of the breast which 
heaves with longings for help, yet contains no nur- 
sery memories of the Christian faith. He only can 
condemn him who is unable to realize the feelings 
of a man who would fain hold intercourse with the 
living God, yet finds nothing in his age but the god 
of intellect, enthroned indeed in astronomical maj- 
esty, but insipid and impassable withal." 



T 




c.^^- 



^ ^^r r ^ 




XXT, 

LAST DAYS OF PERTHES. 

(HILE Perthes was called to respond to 
so many claims upon Ins time and 
p.^^^ sympathies, his life was firmly rooted 
in his home and family circle. It is 
true his family spread out yearly more and 
more. His eldest son Matthias had been a 
pastor in Moorburg since 1830; his second son, 
Clement, became in 1834 a public tutor in Bonn ; 
Andrew, after a preparatory residence in Hamburg, 
Prague, Switzerland, and France, became a partner 
in his father's business. All these sons were mar- 
ried. His eldest step-son died in 1827 ; the second 
one, Henry, for whom he had a true father's affec- 
tion, had gone to Berlin to study. In 1831 his 
fourth daughter married Moritz Madelung, and his 
step-daughter Bertha, Carl von Zeche. 

None of the daughters would allow many days to 



222 CHRIST IN A GERMAN HOME. 

pass without seeing tlijeir father in their own houses, 
were it but for a quarter of an hour ; and few weeks 
went by in which the whole family, daughters and 
sons-in-law alike, did not spend one evening at least 
with their parents. Despite all obstacles, they con- 
trived to keep up the animation of these meetings. 
Even after a hard day's work, Perthes would enter 
into a spirited conversation with youthful ardor, 
unconsciously exciting each to exert to the utmost 
all the faculties he possessed ; indeed it was almost 
impossible for any one to feel weary in his presence. 
With his absent sons he kept up a free and unbro- 
ken correspondence. With all his children he had 
ever aimed to preserve their individuality and inde- 
pendence, and now their intercourse was the most 
delightful. 

In 1833 occurred the death of Kudolph, the pet 
and darling of his father. It was a deep sorrow — 
one with which he struggled long and bitterly. 

In 1837 Perthes took a small house in Fried- 
richroda, about nine miles from Gotha, in order, 
with his wife and children, to spend the summer in 
the woods. It was a lovely spot among the hills 
and valleys of the Thuringian forest. From this 
time it became his custom to spend every summer 
here, and each year he loved it better. It was his 



LAST DAYS OF PERTHES. 223 

daily delight to take long rambles with his wife and 
children. On Saturdays and Sundays the house 
was all alive, grandchildren, daughters, sons-in-law 
came, till the rooms were too small to contain them, 
and kitchen and cellars were put to strange shifts ; 
and often Perthes was the youngest of the party in 
spirits and enjoyment. His sons, too, generally 
came from a distance to spend some weeks vvith 
him ; and even of historians and theologians there 
was no lack. 

With great pleasure Perthes led his guests here 
and there to show them the beauty of the hills and 
woods, while the country people marvelled why an 
old gentleman who had neither to burn charcoal 
nor to prepare tar, should persist in threading the 
long toilsome paths their day's work led them to 
traverse. But they all knew he had a heart for 
their joys and sorrows, and loved him for it. To 
prove their fondness, they gave him the freedom of 
their little town, with which he reported himself 
more pleased than with any other honor conferred 
upon him. 

Another honor enjoyed by Perthes during his 
latter years was the kindness shown him by the 
ducal house of Coburg. He was frequently a guest 
and a sharer of the society of royal dignitaries, 



224: CHRIST IN A GERMAN HOME. 

among whom were the King of Saxony, Prince Fer- 
dinand of Portugal, Prince Albert of England, and 
others. Of Prince Albert he writes: "Queen Vic- 
toria will find him the right sort of man ; and un- 
less some unlucky fatality interpose, he is sure to 
be the idol of the EngUsh people." 

Active and cheerful as he still was, Perthes now 
began to feel in different ways the approach of 
old age. Many dear friends and relatives were 
called away, among whom was his beloved Besser. 
In 1835 the old uncle died at the age of eighty- 
three, and in 1838 the old aunt followed, aged 
eighty-seven. 

In 1813, Perthes' children and grandchildren all 
came, according to custom, to gather round him on 
Christmas day. None were kept away by sickness, 
and he enjoyed himself with youthful glee, in the 
midst of his forty-nine descendants. 

From that time, however, he began to realize 
that his life was drawing to a close. His strength 
gradually failed, but in the intervals of weakness 
and disease his old activities revived. So long as 
he was able he had his letters, books and papers 
spread around him, and continued his correspond- 
ence with his absent sons. He once remarked that 
his wife was the very perfection of a nurse, be- 



LAST DAYS OF PERTHES. 225 

cause she never proffered lielp when lie did not 
need it. 

He punctually discharged every obligation, gave 
directions to his son Andrew who was to carry on 
his business, made his will and was then able calm- 
ly to await his departure. 

When he needed strength and comfort, he 
sought them exclusively in the Scriptures. Not one 
of his rehgious works satisfied his present needs. 
Formerly he had preferred the Epistles of St. Paul 
to all other portions of the Bible ; nor did he lose 
his love for them, but his love for St. John's wri- 
tings increased. As of old he had always turned to 
the Romans, so now the Gospel of St. John was al- 
ways open before him. " Hold simply and firmly 
to what our Lord has told us," he says, " and do 
not wish to know more. Eead again and again the 
fourteenth, fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth 
chapters of St. John's Gospel. He who has all 
these has all he needs alike for life and death." 

During the last two months of his life, he lived 
on these four chapters, and the nearer he ap- 
proached to death, the oftener did he read the sev- 
enteenth. 

On one occasion he said : " The season of faith 
will soon be over for me, that of sight is near, and 

Christ In Ger. Uomo. 29 



226 CHRIST IN A GERMAN HOME. 

yet liow mysterious the word, and how veiled its 
meanings. Sight ! I shall see with faculties I have 
never possessed here! As I have only with my 
bodily eyes beheld the visible, with my ears heard 
the audible, so understanding, feeling, reasoning 
have only afforded me the perception of this or that 
aspect of truth, not the truth itself. Knowing, in 
fact, is not seeing. If I am to see, I must have a 
new spiritual faculty conferred by perfect love, in 
order to make the reception of truth possible. Fain 
w^ould we question how this will be brought about, 
but be it unto thy servant according to thy word." 

On the morning of the 21st of April, his birth- 
day, he had his children and grandchildren assem- 
bled around him. All were sad and sorrowful, but 
he lay in his room, which had been dressed with 
spring flowers, in such perfect peace and joy, that 
it was impossible for them to give utterance to their 
grief. "Should it be possible," said he, "that I 
should still spend a little more time with you, I 
shall do so gladly, and I should return with pleas- 
ure to my dear Friedrichroda ; but this may not be. 
A rich life lies behind me. I have indeed had my 
trying days and hours, but God has been ever gra- 
cious to me. Do not mourn for me when I am 
dead. I know that you will often long for me, and 



LAST DAYS OF PEKTHES. 227 

I am glad of it. I need not say to you, * Love one 
another,' but, so bring up your children that they 
also may do so. I die willingly and calmly, and I 
am prepared to die, having committed myself to 
my God and Father. Here there is no abiding 
city, we needs must part; death cannot harm me, it 
must be gain." 

In May, to his great joy, Charlotte Besser, his 
sister, visited him. Perthes made her tell him much 
about earlier as well as present times, and with her 
he reviewed once more his whole past life. 

Matthias also returned home, giving his father 
a pleasant surprise. In parting from him some 
days later, Perthes said, " We shall meet again. I 
used to think, that in the certainty of an existence 
in God above, all desire of seeing and possessing 
again those we have loved would disappear, and I 
never attached much importance to the personal 
relations between man and man in heaven : but I 
have changed my views; I now hope to meet and 
enjoy again all I have loved on earth, and I beheve, 
too, that I shall do so." 

DurLQg his last days of pain and weakness, he 
was ever mindful of the comfort and happiness of 
others. On one occasion he selected a ring for his 
granddaughter, Fanny Becker, at the time of her 



228 CHEIST IN A GEKMAN HOME. 

confirmation, and another for his daughter Agnes, 
which he gave her in a basketful of flowers on her 
silver wedding-day. 

The 10th of May was the eighteenth anniver- 
sary of his second marriage. Much and long did 
he and his wife speak together of their mutual life, 
and then he added, " Death is here, and I am con- 
scious of a most strange feeling, as though all 
earthly ties were dissolving ; but there is no expres- 
sing this in words." 

Days of severe suffering followed, but his faith 
remained bright and unshaken, and death came 
peacefully at last. The words that reached his 
ear as his spirit was passing from earth were, " Yea, 
the Lord hath prepared blessedness and joy for 
thee, where Christ is the Sun, the Life, and the All 
in All." 

He died surrounded by his family, on the 18th of 
May, 1843, aged seventy-one years. Early on the 
morning of the 22d of May, he was buried in the 
churchyard of Gotha, and his favorite hymn was 
sung around his grave. 

'* What can molest or injure me, who have in Christ a part? 
Filled with the peace and grace of God, most gladly I depart." 



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