Title: Christian Gellert's Last Christmas - From "German Tales" Published by the American Publishers' Corporation
Author: Auerbach, Berthold
Language: English
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CHRISTIAN GELLERT’S LAST CHRISTMAS

By Berthold Auerbach


From “German Tales.” Published by the American Publishers’ Corporation.

1869


Three o’clock had just struck from the tower of St. Nicholas, Leipzig,
on the afternoon of December 22d, 1768, when a man, wrapped in a loose
overcoat, came out of the door of the University. His countenance was
exceedingly gentle, and on his features cheerfulness still lingered, for
he had been gazing upon a hundred cheerful faces; after him thronged a
troop of students, who, holding back, allowed him to precede them: the
passengers in the streets saluted him, and some, students, who
pressed forwards and hurried past him homewards, saluted him quite
reverentially. He returned their salutations with a surprised and almost
deprecatory air, and yet he knew, and could not conceal from himself,
that he was one of the best beloved, not only in the good city of
Leipzig, but in all lands far and wide.

It was Christian Furchtegott Gellert, the Poet of Fables, Hymns, and
Lays, who was just leaving his college.

When we read his “Lectures upon Morals,” which were not printed until
after his death, we obtain but a very incomplete idea of the great power
with which they came immediately from Gellert’s mouth. Indeed, it was
his voice, and the touching manner in which he delivered his lectures,
that made so deep an impression upon his hearers; and Rabener was
right when once he wrote to a friend, that “the philanthropic voice” of
Gellert belonged to his words.

Above all, however, it was the amiable and pure personal character of
Gellert which vividly and edifyingly impressed young hearts. Gellert was
himself the best example of pure moral teaching; and the best which a
teacher can give his pupils is faith in the victorious might, and the
stability of the eternal moral laws. His lessons were for the Life, for
his life in itself was a lesson. Many a victory over the troubles of
life, over temptations of every kind, ay, many an elevation to
nobility of thought, and to purity of action, had its origin in that
lecture-hall, at the feet of Gellert.

It was as though Gellert felt that it was the last time he would deliver
these lectures; that those words so often and so impressively uttered
would be heard no more from his mouth; and there was a peculiar sadness,
yet a peculiar strength, in all he said that day.

He had this day earnestly recommended modesty and humility; and it
appeared almost offensive to him, that people as he went should tempt
him in regard to these very virtues; for continually he heard men
whisper, “That is Gellert!”

What is fame, and what is honor? A cloak of many colors, without warmth,
without protection: and now, as he walked along, his heart literally
froze in his bosom, as he confessed to himself that he had as yet done
nothing--nothing which could give him a feeling of real satisfaction.
Men honored him and loved him: but what was all that worth? His
innermost heart could not be satisfied with that; in his own estimation
he deserved no meed of praise; and where, where was there any evidence
of that higher and purer life which he would fain bring about! Then,
again, the Spirit would comfort him and say: “Much seed is lost,
much falls in stony places, and much on good ground and brings forth
sevenfold.”

His inmost soul heard not the consolation, for his body was weak and
sore burdened from his youth up, and in his latter days yet more than
ever; and there are conditions of the body in which the most elevating
words, and the cheeriest notes of joy, strike dull and heavy on the
soul. It is one of the bitterest experiences of life to discover how
little one man can really be to another. How joyous is that youthful
freshness which can believe that, by a thought transferred to another’s
heart, we can induce him to become another being, to live according to
what he must acknowledge true, to throw aside his previous delusions,
and return to the right path!

“The youngsters go their way! Do your words follow after? Whither are
they going? What are now their thoughts? What manner of life will be
theirs? My heart yearns after them, but cannot be with them: oh, how
happy were those messengers of the Spirit, who cried aloud to youth or
manhood the words of the Spirit, that they must leave their former ways,
and thenceforth change to other beings! Pardon me, O God! that I would
fain be like them; I am weak and vile, and yet, methinks, there must be
words as yet unheard, unknown--oh! where are they, those words which at
once lay hold upon the soul?”

With such heavy thoughts went Gellert away from his college-gate to
Rosenthal. There was but one small pathway cleared, but the passers
cheerfully made way for him, and walked in the snow that they might
leave him the pathway unimpeded; but he felt sad, and “as if each tree
had somewhat to cast at him.” Like all men really pure, and cleaving to
the good with all their might, Gellert was not only far from contenting
himself with work already done: he also, in his anxiety to be doing,
almost forgot that he had ever done anything, and thus he was, in the
best sense of the word, modest; he began with each fresh day his course
of action afresh, as if he now for the first time had anything to
accomplish. And yet he might have been happy, in the reflection how
brightly beamed his teaching for ever, though his own life was often
clouded. For as the sun which glows on summer days still lives as
concentrated warmth in wine, and somewhere on some winter night warms up
a human heart, so is the sunshine in that man’s life whose vocation it
is to impart to others the conceptions of his own mind. Nay, there
is here far more; for the refreshing draught here offered is not
diminished, though thousands drink thereof.

Twilight had set in when Gellert returned home to his dwelling, which
had for its sign a “Schwarz Brett” or “black board.” His old servant,
Sauer by name, took off his overcoat; and his amanuensis, Gödike, asked
whether the Professor had any commands; being answered in the negative,
Gödike retired, and Sauer lighted the lamp upon the study-table. “Some
letters have arrived,” said he, as he pointed to several upon the table:
Gellert inclined his head, and Sauer retired also. Outside, however, he
stood awhile with Gödike, and both spoke sorrowfully of the fact that
the Professor was evidently again suffering severely. “There is a
melancholy,” said Gödike, “and it is the most usual, in which the inward
depression easily changes to displeasure against every one, and the
household of the melancholic suffers thereby intolerably; for the
displeasure turns against them,--no one does anything properly, nothing
is in its place. How very different is Gellert’s melancholy! Not a soul
suffers from it but himself, against himself alone his gloomy thoughts
turn, and towards every other creature he is always kind, amiable, and
obliging: he bites his lips; but when he speaks to any one, he is wholly
good, forbearing, and self-forgetful.”

Whilst they were talking together, Gellert was sitting in his room, and
had lighted a pipe to dispel the agitation which he would experience
in opening his letters; and while smoking, he could read them much more
comfortably. He reproached himself for smoking, which was said to be
injurious to his health, but he could not quite give up the “horrible
practice,” as he called it.

He first examined the addresses and seals of the letters which had
arrived, then quietly opened and read them. A fitful smile passed over
his features; there were letters from well-known friends, full of
love and admiration, but from strangers also, who, in all kinds of
heart-distress, took counsel of him. He read the letters full of
friendly applause, first hastily, that he might have the right of
reading them again, and that he might not know all at once; and when he
had read a friend’s letter for the second time, he sprang from his seat
and cried, “Thank God! thank God! that I am so fortunate as to have
such friends!” To his inwardly diffident nature these helps were a real
requirement; they served to cheer him, and only those who did not know
him called his joy at the reception of praise--conceit; it was, on the
contrary, the truest modesty. How often did he sit there, and all that
he had taught and written, all that he had ever been to men in word and
deed, faded, vanished, and died away, and he appeared to himself but a
useless servant of the world. His friends he answered immediately;
and as his inward melancholy vanished, and the philanthropy, nay, the
sprightliness of his soul beamed forth, when he was among men and looked
in a living face, so was it also with his letters. When he bethought
him of the friends to whom he was writing, he not only acquired
tranquillity, that virtue for which his whole life long he strove; but
his loving nature received new life, and only by slight intimations did
he betray the heaviness and dejection which weighed upon his soul. He
was, in the full sense of the word, “philanthropic,” in the sight of
good men; and in thoughts for their welfare, there was for him a real
happiness and a joyous animation.

When, however, he had done writing and felt lonely again, the gloomy
spirits came back: he had seated himself, wishing to raise his thoughts
for composing a sacred song; but he was ill at ease, and had no power to
express that inward, firm, and self-rejoicing might of faith which lived
in him. Again and again the scoffers and freethinkers rose up before his
thoughts: he must refute their objections, and not until that was done
did he become himself.

It is a hard position, when a creative spirit cannot forget the
adversaries which on all sides oppose him in the world: they come
unsummoned to the room and will not be expelled; they peer over the
shoulder, and tug at the hand which fain would write; they turn images
upside down, and distort the thoughts; and here and there, from ceiling
and wall, they grin, and scoff, and oppose: and what was just gushing as
an aspiration from the soul, is converted to a confused absurdity.

At such a time, the spirit, courageous and self-dependent, must take
refuge in itself and show a firm front to a world of foes.

A strong nature boldly hurls his inkstand at the Devil’s head; goes to
battle with his opponents with words both written and spoken; and keeps
his own individuality free from the perplexities with which opponents
disturb all that has been previously done, and make the soul unsteadfast
and unnerved for what is to come.

Gellert’s was no battling, defiant nature, which relies upon itself; he
did not hurl his opponents down and go his way; he would convince them,
and so they were always ready to encounter him. And as the applause of
his friends rejoiced him, so the opposition of his enemies could sink
him in deep dejection. Besides, he had always been weakly; he had, as
he himself complained, in addition to frequent coughs and a pain in
his loins, a continual gnawing and pressure in the centre of his chest,
which accompanied him from his first rising in the morning until he
slept at night.

Thus he sat for a while, in deep dejection: and, as often before, his
only wish was, that God would give him grace whereby when his hour was
come, he might die piously and tranquilly.

It was past midnight when he sought his bed and extinguished his light.

And the buckets at the well go up and go down.

About the same hour, in Duben Forest, the rustic Christopher was rising
from his bed. As with steel and flint he scattered sparks upon the
tinder, in kindling himself a light, his wife, awaking, cried:

“Why that heavy sigh?”

“Ah! life is a burden: I ‘m the most harassed mortal in the world. The
pettiest office-clerk may now be abed in peace, and need n’t break off
his sleep, while I must go out and brave wind and weather.”

“Be content,” replied his wife: “why, I dreamt you had actually been
made magistrate, and wore something on your head like a king’s crown.”

“Oh! you women; as though what you see is n’t enough, you like to
chatter about what you dream.”

“Light the lamp, too,” said his wife, “and I ‘ll get up and make you a
nice porridge.”

The peasant, putting a candle in his lantern, went to the stable; and
after he had given some fodder to the horses, he seated himself upon
the manger. With his hands squeezed between his knees and his head bent
down, he reflected over and over again what a wretched existence he had
of it. “Why,” thought he, “are so many men so well-off, so comfortable,
whilst you must be always toiling? What care I if envy be not a
virtue?--and yet I ‘m not envious, I don’t grudge others being well-off,
only I should like to be well-off too; oh, for a quiet, easy life! Am I
not worse off than a horse? He gets his fodder at the proper time, and
takes no care about it. Why did my father make my brother a minister? He
gets his salary without any trouble, sits in a warm room, has no care in
the world; and I must slave and torment myself.”

Strange to say, his very next thought, that he would like to be made
local magistrate, he would in no wise confess to himself.

He sat still a long while; then he went back again to the sitting-room,
past the kitchen, where the fire was burning cheerily. He seated himself
at the table and waited for his morning porridge. On the table lay
an open book; his children had been reading it the previous evening:
involuntarily taking it up, he began to read. Suddenly he started,
rubbed his eyes, and then read again. How comes this verse here just at
this moment? He kept his hand upon the book, and so easily had he caught
the words, that he repeated them to himself softly with his lips, and
nodded several times, as much as to say: “That’s true!” And he said
aloud: “It’s all there together: short and sweet!” and he was still
staring at it, when his wife brought in the smoking porridge. Taking off
his cap, he folded his hands and said aloud:

    “Accept God’s gifts with resignation,
        Content to lack what thou hast not:
    In every lot there ‘s consolation;
        There ‘s trouble, too, in every lot!”

The wife looked at her husband with amazement. What a strange expression
was upon his face! And as he sat down and began to eat, she said: “What
is the meaning of that grace? What has come to you? Where did you find
it?”

“It is the best of all graces, the very best,--real God’s word. Yes,
and all your life you ‘ve never made such nice porridge before. You must
have put something special in it!”

“I don’t know what you mean. Stop! There ‘s the book lying there--ah!
that’s it--and it’s by Gellert, of Leipzig.”

“What! Gellert, of Leipzig! Men with ideas like that don’t live now;
there may have been such, a thousand years ago, in holy lands, not among
us; those are the words of a saint of old.”

“And I tell you they are by Gellert, of Leipzig, of whom your brother
has told us; in fact, he was his tutor, and have n’t you heard how pious
and good he is?”

“I would n’t have believed that such men still lived, and so near us,
too, as Leipzig.”

“Well, but those who lived a thousand years ago were also once living
creatures: and over Leipzig is just the same heaven, and the same sun
shines, and the same God rules, as over all other cities.”

“Oh! yes, my brother has an apt pupil in you!”

“Well, and why not? I ‘ve treasured up all he told us of Professor
Gellert.”

“Professor!”

“Yes, Professor!”

“A man with such a proud, new-fangled title could n’t write anything
like that!”

“He did n’t give himself the title, and he is poor enough withal! and
how hard it has fared with him! Even from childhood he has been well
acquainted with poverty: his father was a poor minister in Haynichen,
with thirteen children; and Gellert, when quite a little fellow, was
obliged to be a copying office-clerk: who can tell whether he did n’t
then contract that physical weakness of his? And now that he ‘s an old
man, things will never go better with him; he has often no wood, and
must be pinched with cold. It is with him, perhaps, as with that student
of whom your brother has told us, who is as poor as a rat, and yet must
read; and so in winter he lies in bed with an empty stomach, until day
is far advanced; and he has his book before him, and first he takes out
one hand to hold his book, and then, when that is numb with cold, the
other. Ah! tongue cannot tell how poorly the man must live; and yet your
brother has told me, if he has but a few pounds, he does n’t think at
all of himself; he always looks out for one still poorer than he is, and
then gives all away: and he ‘s always engaged in aiding and assisting
others. Oh! dear, and yet he is so poor! May be at this moment he is
hungry and cold; and he is said to be in ill-health, besides.”

“Wife, I would willingly do the man a good turn if I could. If, now, he
had some land, I would plough, and sow, and reap, and carry, and thresh
by the week together for him. I should like to pay him attention in such
a way that he might know there was at least one who cared for him. But
his profession is one in which I can’t be of any use to him.”

“Well, just seek him out and speak with him once; you are going to-day,
you know, with your wood to Leipzig. Seek him out and thank him; that
sort of thing does such a man’s heart good. Anybody can see him.”

“Yes, yes; I should like much to see him, and hold out to him my
hand,--but not empty: I wish I had something!”

“Speak to your brother, and get him to give you a note to him.”

“No, no; say nothing to my brother; but it might be possible for me to
meet him in the street. Give me my Sunday coat; it will come to no harm
under my cloak.”

When his wife brought him the coat, she said: “If, now, Gellert had a
wife, or a household of his own, one might send him something; but your
brother says he is a bachelor, and lives quite alone.”

Christopher had never before so cheerfully harnessed his horses and put
them to his wood-laden wagon; for a long while he had not given his
hand so gayly to his wife at parting as to-day. Now he started with
his heavily-laden vehicle through the village; the wheels creaked and
crackled in the snow. At the parsonage he stopped, and looked away
yonder where his brother was still sleeping; he thought he would wake
him and tell him his intention: but suddenly he whipped up his
horses, and continued his route. He would n’t yet bind himself to his
intention--perchance it was but a passing thought; he does n’t own that
to himself, but he says to himself that he will surprise his brother
with the news of what he has done; and then his thoughts wandered away
to the good man still sleeping yonder in the city; and he hummed the
verse to himself in an old familiar tune.

Wonderfully in life do effects manifest them-selves, of which we have no
trace. Gellert, too, heard in his dreams a singing; he knew not what it
was, but it rang so consolingly, so joyously!... Christopher drove
on, and he felt as though a bandage had been taken from his eyes; he
reflected what a nice house, what a bonny wife and rosy children he had,
and how warm the cloak which he had thrown over him was, and how well
off were both man and beast; and through the still night he drove along,
and beside him sat a spirit; but not an illusion of the brain, such as
in olden time men conjured up to their terror, a good spirit sat beside
him--beside the woodman who his whole life long had never believed that
anything could have power over him but what had hands and feet.

It is said that, on troublous nights, evil spirits settle upon the necks
of men, and belabor them so that they gasp and sweat for very terror;
quite another sort it was to-day which sat by the woodman: and his heart
was warm, and its beating quick.

In ancient times, men also carried loads of wood through the night, that
heretics might be burned thereon: these men thought they were doing a
good deed in helping to execute justice; and who can say how painful it
was to their hearts, when they were forced to think: To morrow, on this
wood which now you carry, will shriek, and crackle, and gasp, a human
being like yourself? Who can tell what black spirits settled on the
necks of those who bore the wood to make the funeral-pile? How very
different was it to-day with our woodman Christopher!

And earlier still, in ancient times, men brought wood to the temple,
whereon they offered victims in the honor of God; and, according to
their notions, they did a good deed: for when words can no longer
suffice to express the fervency of the heart, it gladly offers what
it prizes, what it dearly loves, as a proof of its devotion, of the
earnestness of its intent.

How differently went Christopher from the Duben Forest upon his way! He
knew not whether he were intending to bring a purer offering than men
had brought in bygone ages; but his heart grew warm within him.

It was day as he arrived before the gates of Leipzig. Here there met
him a funeral-procession; behind the bier the scholars of St. Thomas,
in long black cloaks, were chanting. Christopher stopped and raised his
hat. Whom were they burying? Supposing it were Gellert. Yes, surely,
he thought, it is he: and how gladly, said he to himself, would you now
have done him a kindness,--ay, even given him your wood! Yes, indeed you
would, and now he is dead, and you cannot give him any help!

As soon as the train had passed, Christopher asked who was being buried.
It was a simple burgher, it was not Gellert; and in the deep breath
which Christopher drew lay a double signification: on the one hand,
was joy that Gellert was not dead; on the other, a still small voice
whispered to him that he had now really promised to give him the wood:
ah! but whom had he promised?--himself: and it is easy to argue with
one’s own conscience.

Superstition babbles of conjuring-spells, by which, without the
co-operation of the patient, the evil spirit can be summarily ejected.
It would be convenient if one had that power, but, in truth, it is not
so: it is long ere the evil desire and the evil habit are removed from
the soul into which they have nestled; and the will, for a long while
in bondage, must co-operate, if a releasing spell from without is to set
the prisoner free.

One can only be guided, but himself must move his feet.

As Christopher now looked about him, he found that he had stopped close
by an inn; he drove his load a little aside, went into the parlor, and
drank a glass of warmed beer. There was already a goodly company, and
not far from Christopher sat a husbandman with his son, a student here,
who was telling him how there had been lately quite a stir. Professor
Gellert had been ill, and riding a well-trained horse had been
recommended for his health. Now Prince Henry of Prussia, during the
Seven Years’ War, at the occupation of Leipzig, had sent him a piebald,
that had died a short time ago; and the Elector, hearing of it, had
sent Gellert from Dresden another--a chestnut--with golden bridle,
blue velvet saddle, and gold-embroidered housings. Half the city had
assembled when the groom, a man with iron-gray hair, brought the horse;
and for several days it was to be seen at the stable; but Gellert dared
not mount it, it was so young and high-spirited. The rustic now asked
his son whether the Professor did not make money enough to procure a
horse of his own, to which the son answered: “Certainly not. His salary
is but one hundred and twenty-five dollars, and his further gains are
inconsiderable. His Lectures on Morals he gives publicly, i. e., gratis,
and he has hundreds of hearers; and, therefore, at his own lectures,
which must be paid for, he has so many the fewer. To be sure, he has now
and then presents from grand patrons; but no one gives him, once and
for all, enough to live upon, and to have all over with a single
acknowledgment.”

Our friend Christopher started as he heard this; he had quite made up
his mind to take Gellert the wood: but he had yet to do it. How easy
were virtue, if will and deed were the same thing! if performance could
immediately succeed to the moment of burning enthusiasm! But one must
make way over obstacles; over those that outwardly lie in one’s path,
and over those that are hidden deep in the heart; and negligence has a
thousand very cunning advocates.

How many go forth, prompted by good intentions, but let little
hindrances turn them from their way--entirely from their way of life!
In front of the house Christopher met other woodmen whom he knew, and--
“You are stirring betimes!” “Prices are good to-day!” “But little comes
to the market now!” was the cry from all sides. Christopher wanted to
say that all that did n’t concern him, but he was ashamed to confess
what his design was, and an inward voice told him he must not lie.
Without answering he joined the rest, and wended his way to the market;
and on the road he thought: “There are Peter, and Godfrey, and John, who
have seven times your means, and not one of them, I’m sure, would think
of doing anything of this kind; why will you be the kind-hearted fool?
Stay! what matters it what others do or leave undone? Every man shall
answer for himself. Yes, but go to market--it is better it should be so;
yes, certainly, much better: sell your wood--who knows? perhaps he does
n’t want it--and take him the proceeds, or at least the greater portion.
But is the wood still yours? You have, properly speaking, already given
it away; it has only not been taken from your keeping....”

There are people who cannot give; they can only let a thing be taken
either by the hand of chance, or by urgency and entreaty. Christopher
had such fast hold of possession, that it was only after sore wrestling
that he let go; and yet his heart was kind, at least to-day it was
so disposed, but the tempter whispered: “It is not easy to find so
good-natured a fellow as you. How readily would you have given, had the
man been in want, and your good intention must go for the deed.” Still,
on the other hand, there was something in him which made opposition,--an
echo from those hours, when, in the still night, he was driving
hither,--and it burned in him like sacred fire, and it said, “You must
now accomplish what you intended. Certainly no one knows of it, and you
are responsible to no one; but you know of it yourself, and One above
you knows, and how shall you be justified?” And he said to himself, “I
‘ll stand by this: look, it is just nine; if no one ask the price of
your wood until ten o’clock, until the stroke of ten,--until it has
done striking, I mean; if no one ask, then the wood belongs to
Professor Gellert: but if a buyer come, then it is a sign that you need
not--should not give it away. There, that’s all settled. But how? what
means this? Can you make your good deed dependent on such a chance as
this? No, no; I don’t mean it. But yet--yet--only for a joke, I ‘ll try
it.”

Temptation kept him turning as it were in a circle, and still he stood
with an apparently quiet heart by his wagon in the market. The people
who heard him muttering in this way to himself looked at him with
wonder, and passed by him to another wagon, as though he had not been
there. It struck nine. Can you wait patiently another hour? Christopher
lighted his pipe, and looked calmly on, while this and that load
was driven off. It struck the quarter, half-hour, three-quarters.
Christopher now put his pipe in his pocket; it had long been cold, and
his hands were almost frozen; all his blood had rushed to his heart. Now
it struck the full hour, stroke after stroke. At first he counted; then
he fancied he had lost a stroke and miscalculated. Either voluntarily or
involuntarily, he said to himself, when it had finished striking, “You
‘re wrong; it is nine, not ten.” He turned round that he might not
see the dial, and thus he stood for some time, with his hands upon the
wagon-rack, gazing at the wood. He knew not how long he had been thus
standing, when some one tapped him on the shoulder, and said, “How much
for the load of wood?”

Christopher turned round: there was an odd look of irresolution in his
eyes as he said: “Eh? eh? what time is it?”

“Half-past ten.”

“Then the wood is now no longer mine--at least to sell:” and, collecting
himself, he became suddenly warm, and with firm hand turned his horses
round, and begged the woodmen who accompanied him to point him out
the way to the house with the “Schwarz Brett,” Dr. Junius’s. There he
delivered a full load: at each log he took out of the wagon he smiled
oddly. The wood-measurer measured the wood carefully, turning each log
and placing it exactly, that there might not be a crevice anywhere.

“Why are you so over-particular to-day, pray?” asked Christopher, and he
received for answer:

“Professor Gellert must have a fair load; every shaving kept back from
him were a sin.”

Christopher laughed aloud, and the wood-measurer looked at him with
amazement; for such particularity generally provoked a quarrel.

Christopher had still some logs over; these he kept by him on the wagon.
At this moment the servant Sauer came up, and asked to whom the wood
belonged.

“To Professor Gellert,” answered Christopher.

“The man’s mad! it isn’t true. Professor Gellert has not bought any
wood; it is my business to look after that.”

“He has not bought it, and yet it is his!” cried Christopher.

Sauer was on the point of giving the mad peasant a hearty scolding,
raising his voice so much the louder, as it was striking eleven by St.
Nicholas. At this moment, however, he became suddenly mute; for yonder
from the University there came, with tired gait, a man of a noble
countenance: at every step he made, on this side and on that, off came
the hats and the caps of the passers-by, and Sauer simply called out,
“There comes the Professor himself.”

What a peculiar expression passed over Christopher’s face! He looked
at the new-comer, and so earnest was his gaze, that Gellert, who always
walked with his head bowed, suddenly looked up. Christopher said: “Mr.
Gellert, I am glad to see you still alive.”

“I thank you,” said Gellert, and made as though he would pass on; but
Christopher stepped up closer to him, and, stretching out his hand to
him, said: “I have taken the liberty--I should like--will you give me
your hand, Mr. Gellert?”

Gellert drew his long thin hand out of his muff and placed it in the
hard oaken-like hand of the peasant; and at this moment, when the
peasant’s hand lay in the scholars palm, as one felt the other’s
pressure in actual living grasp, there took place, though the mortal
actors in the scene were all unconscious of it, a renewal of that
healthy life which alone can make a people one.

How long had the learned world, wrapped up in itself, separated from
the fellow-men around, thought in Latin, felt as foreigners, and lived
buried in contemplation of bygone worlds! From the time of Gellert
commences the ever-increasing unity of good-fellowship throughout
all classes of life, kept up by mutual giving and receiving. As the
scholar--as the solitary poet endeavors to work upon others by lays that
quicken and songs that incite, so he in his turn is a debtor to his age,
and the lonely thinking and writing become the property of all; but the
effects are not seen in a moment; for higher than the most highly gifted
spirit of any single man is the spirit of a nation. With the pressure
which Gellert and the peasant exchanged commenced a mighty change in
universal life, which never more can cease to act.

“Permit me to enter your room?” said Christopher, and Gellert nodded
assent. He was so courteous that he motioned to the peasant to enter
first; however, Sauer went close after him: he thought it must be a
madman; he must protect his master; the man looked just as if he were
drunk. Gellert, with his amanuensis, Gödike, followed them.

Gellert, however, felt that the man must be actuated by pure motives: he
bade the others retire, and took Christopher alone into his study; and,
as he clasped his left with his own right hand, he asked: “Well, my good
friend, what is your business?”

“Eh? oh! nothing--I ‘ve only brought you a load of wood there--a fair,
full load; however, I ‘ll give you the few logs which I have in my
wagon, as well.”

“My good man, my servant Sauer looks after buying my wood.”

“It is no question of buying. No, my dear sir, I give it to you.”

“Give it to me? Why me particularly?”

“Oh! sir, you do not know at all what good you do, what good you have
done me; and my wife was right; why should there not be really pious
men in our day too? Surely the sun still shines as he shone thousands
of years ago; all is now the same as then; and the God of old is still
living.”

“Certainly, certainly; I am glad to see you so pious.”

“Ah! believe me, dear sir, I am not always so pious; and that I am so
disposed to-day is owing to you. We have no more confessionals now, but
I can confess to you: and you have taken a heavier load from my heart
than a wagon-load of wood. Oh! sir, I am not what I was. In my early
days I was a high-spirited, merry lad, and out in the field, and indoors
in the inn and the spinning-room, there was none who could sing
against me; but that is long past. What has a man on whose head the
grave-blossoms are growing,” and he pointed to his gray head, “to do
with all that trash? And besides, the Seven Years’ War has put a stop
to all our singing. But last night, in the midst of the fearful cold, I
sang a lay set expressly for me--all old tunes go to it: and it seemed
to me as though I saw a sign-post which pointed I know not whither--or,
nay, I do know whither.” And now the peasant related how discontented
and unhappy in mind he had been, and how the words in the lay had all
at once raised his spirits and accompanied him upon the journey, like a
good fellow who talks to one cheerfully.

At this part of the peasant’s tale Gellert folded his hands in silence,
and the peasant concluded: “How I always envied others, I cannot now
think why; but you I do envy, sir: I should like to be as you.”

And Gellert answered: “I thank God, and rejoice greatly that my writings
have been of service to you. Think not so well of me. Would God I were
really the good man I appear in your eyes! I am far from being such as I
should, such as I would fain be. I write my books for my own improvement
also, to show myself as well as others what manner of men we should be.”

Laughing, the peasant replied: “You put me in mind of the story my poor
mother used to tell of the old minister; he stood up once in the pulpit
and said: ‘My dear friends, I speak not only for you, but for myself
also; I, too, have need of it.’”

Christopher laughed outrageously when he had finished, and Gellert
smiled, and said: “Yes, whoever in the darkness lighteth another with a
lamp, lighteth himself also; and the light is not part of ourselves,--it
is put into our hands by Him who hath appointed the suns their courses.”

The peasant stood speechless, and looked upon the ground: there was
something within him which took away the power of looking up; he was
only conscious that it ill became him to laugh so loudly just now, when
he told the story of the old minister.

A longer pause ensued, and Gellert seemed to be lost in reflection upon
this reference to a minister’s work, for he said half to himself: “Oh!
how would it fulfil my dearest wish to be a village-pastor! To move
about among my people, and really be one with them; the friend of their
souls my whole life long, never to lose them out of my sight! Yonder
goes one whom I have led into the right way; there another, with whom
I still wrestle, but whom I shall assuredly save; and in them all the
teaching lives which God proclaims by me. Did I not think that I should
be acting against my duty, I would this moment choose a country life for
the remnant of my days. When I look from my window over the country, I
have before me the broad sky, of which we citizens know but little, a
scene entirely new; there I stand and lose myself for half an hour in
gazing and in thinking. Yes, good friend, envy no man in the rank of
scholars. Look at me; I am almost always ill; and what a burden is a
sickly body! How strong, on the contrary, are you! I am never happier
than when, without being remarked, I can watch a dinner-table thronged
by hungry men and maids. Even if these folks be not generally so happy
as their superiors, at table they are certainly happier.”

“Yes, sir; we relish our eating and drinking. And, lately, when felling
and sorting that wood below, I was more than usually lively; it seems as
though I had a notion I was to do some good with it.”

“And must I permit you to make me a present?” asked Gellert, resting his
chin upon his left hand.

The peasant answered: “It is not worth talking about.”

“Nay, it might be well worth talking about; but I accept your present.
It is pride not to be ready to accept a gift. Is not all we have a
gift from God? And what one man gives another, he gives, as is most
appropriately said, for God’s sake. Were I your minister, I should be
pleased to accept a present from you. You see, good friend, we men have
no occasion to thank each other. You have given me nothing of yours, and
I have given you nothing of mine. That the trees grow in the forest is
none of your doing, it is the work of the Creator and Preserver of
the world; and the soil is not yours; and the sun and the rain are not
yours; they all are the works of His hand; and if, perchance, I have
some healthy thoughts rising up in my soul, which benefit my fellow-men,
it is none of mine, it is His doing. The word is not mine, and the
spirit is not mine; and I am but an instrument in His hand. Therefore
one man needs not to utter words of thanks to his fellow, if every one
would but acknowledge who it really is that gives.”

The peasant looked up in astonishment. Gellert remarked it, and said:
“Understand me aright. I thank you from my heart; you have done a kind
action. But that the trees grow is none of yours, and it is none of mine
that thoughts arise in me; every one simply tills his field, and tends
his woodland, and the honest, assiduous toil he gives thereto is his
virtue. That you felled, loaded, and brought the wood, and wish no
recompense for your labor, is very thank-worthy. My wood was more easily
felled; but those still nights which I and all of my calling pass in
heavy thought--who can tell what toil there is in them? There is in the
world an adjustment which no one sees, and which but seldom discovers
itself; and this and that shift thither and hither, and the scales of
the balance become even, and then ceases all distinction between ‘mine’
and ‘thine,’ and in the still forest rings an axe for me, and in the
silent night my spirit thinks and my pen writes for you.”

The peasant passed both his hands over his temples, and his look was as
though he said to himself, “Where are you? Are you still in the world?
Is it a mortal man who speaks to you? Are you in Leipzig, in that
populous city where men jostle one another for gain and bare existence?”

Below might be heard the creaking of the saw as the wood was being
sundered: and now the near horse neighs, and Christopher is in the world
again. “It may injure the horse to stand so long in the cold; and no
money for the wood! but perhaps a sick horse to take home into the
bargain; that would be too much,” he thought.

“Yes, yes, Mr. Professor,” said he--he had his hat under his arm, and
was rubbing his hands--“yes, I am delighted with what I have done; and
I value the lesson, believe me, more than ten loads of wood: and never
shall I forget you to my dying day. And though I see you are not so poor
as I had imagined, still I don’t regret it. Oh! no, certainly not at
all.”

“Eh! did you think me so very poor, then?”

“Yes, miserably poor.”

“I have always been poor, but God has never suffered me to be a single
day without necessaries. I have in the world much happiness which I have
not deserved, and much unhappi-ness I have not, which perchance I have
deserved. I have found much favor with both high and low, for which
I cannot sufficiently thank God. And now tell me, cannot I give you
something, or obtain something for you? You are a local magistrate, I
presume?”

“Why so?”

“You look like it: you might be.”

Christopher had taken his hat into his hands, and was crumpling it
up now; he half closed his eyes, and with a sly, inquiring glance,
he peered at Gellert. Suddenly, however, the expression of his face
changed, and the muscles quivered, as he said: “Sir, what a man are you!
How you can dive into the recesses of one’s heart! I have really pined
night and day, and been cross with the whole world, because I could not
be magistrate, and you, sir, you have actually helped to overcome that
in me. Oh! sir, as soon as I read that verse in your book, I had an
idea, and now I see still more plainly that you must be a man of God,
who can pluck the heart from one’s bosom, and turn it round and round.
I had thought I could never have another moment’s happiness, if my
neighbor, Hans Gottlieb, should be magistrate: and with that verse of
yours, it has been with me as when one calms the blood with a magic
spell.”

“Well, my good friend, I am rejoiced to hear it: believe me, every one
has in himself alone a whole host to govern. What can so strongly
urge men to wish to govern others? What can it profit you to be local
magistrate, when to accomplish your object you must perhaps do something
wrong? What were the fame, not only of a village, but even of the whole
world, if you could have no self-respect? Let it suffice for you to
perform your daily duties with uprightness; let your joys be centred in
your wife and children, and you will be happy. What need you more? Think
not that honor and station would make you happy. Rejoice, and again I
say, rejoice: ‘A contented spirit is a continual feast.’ I often whisper
this to myself, when I feel disposed to give way to dejection: and
although misery be not our fault, yet lack of endurance and of patience
in misery is undoubtedly our fault.”

“I would my wife were here too, that she also might hear this; I grudge
myself the hearing of it all alone; I cannot remember it all properly,
and yet I should like to tell it to her word for word. Who would have
thought that, by standing upon a load of wood, one could get a peep into
heaven!”

Gellert in silence bowed his head; and afterwards he said: “Yes, rejoice
in your deed, as I do in your gift. Your wood is sacrificial-wood. In
olden time--and it was right in principle, because man could not yet
offer prayer and thanks in spirit--it was a custom and ordinance to
bring something from one’s possessions, as a proof of devotion: this was
a sacrifice. And the more important the gift to be given, or the request
to be granted, the more costly was the sacrifice. Our God will have no
victims; but whatsoever you do unto one of the least of His, you do unto
Him. Such are our sacrifices. My dear friend, from my heart I thank
you; for you have done me a kindness, in that you have given me a real,
undeniable proof, that my words have penetrated your heart, and that I
do not live on for nothing: and treasure it up in your heart, that you
have caused real joy to one who is often, very often, weighed down with
heaviness and sorrow. You have not only kindled bright tapers upon my
Christmas-tree, but the tree itself burns, gives light, and warms: the
bush burns, and is not consumed, which is an image of the presence of
the Holy Spirit, and its admonition to trust in the Most High in this
wilderness of life, in mourning and in woe. Oh! my dear friend, I have
been nigh unto death. What a solemn, quaking stride is the stride
into eternity! What a difference between ideas of death in the days
of health, and on the brink of the grave! And how shall I show myself
worthy of longer life? By learning better to die. And, mark, when I sit
here in solitude pursuing my thoughts, keeping some and driving
away others, then I can think, that in distant valleys, upon distant
mountains, there are living men who carry my thoughts within their
hearts; and for them I live, and they are near and dear to me, till one
day we shall meet where there is no more parting, no more
separation. Peasant and scholar, let us abide as we are. Give me your
hand--farewell!”

And once again, the soft and the hard hand were clasped together, and
Christopher really trembled as Gellert laid his hand upon his shoulder.
They shook hands, and therewith something touched the heart of each
more impressively, more completely, than ever words could touch it.
Christopher got downstairs without knowing how: below, he threw down
the extra logs of wood, which he had kept back, with a clatter from
the wagon, and then drove briskly from the city. Not till he arrived
at Lindenthal did he allow himself and his horses rest or food. He had
driven away empty: he had nothing on his wagon, nothing in his purse;
and yet who can tell what treasures he took home; and who can tell what
inextinguishable fire he left behind him yonder, by that lonely scholar!

Gellert, who usually dined at his brother’s, today had dinner brought
into his own room, remained quite alone, and did not go out again: he
had experienced quite enough excitement, and society he had in his own
thoughts. Oh! to find that there are open, susceptible hearts, is a
blessing to him that writes in solitude, and is as wondrous to him as
though he dipped his pen in streams of sunshine, and as if all he wrote
were Light. The raindrop which falls from the cloud cannot tell upon
what plant it drops: there is a quickening power in it, but for what?
And a thought which finds expression from a human heart; an action,
nay, a whole life is like the raindrop falling from the cloud: the whole
period of a life endures no longer than the raindrop needs for falling.
And as for knowing where your life is continued, how your work proceeds,
you cannot attain to that.

And in the night all was still around: nothing was astir; the whole
earth was simple rest, as Gellert sat in his room by his lonely lamp;
his hand lay upon an open book, and his eyes were fixed upon the empty
air; and on a sudden came once more upon him that melancholy gloom,
which so easily resumes its place after more than usual excitement.

It is as though the soul, suddenly elevated above all, must still
remember the heaviness it but now experienced, though that expresses
itself as tears of joy in the eye.

In Gellert, however, this melancholy had a more peculiar phase: a sort
of timidity had rooted itself in him, connected with his weak chest,
and that secret gnawing pain in his head; it was a fearfulness which
his manner of life only tended to increase. Surrounded though he was
by nothing but love and admiration in the world, he could not divest
himself of the fear that all which is most horrible and terrible would
burst suddenly upon him: and so he gazed fixedly before him. He passed
his hand over his face, and with an effort concentrated his looks and
thoughts upon surrounding objects, saying to himself almost aloud:
“How comforting is light! Were there no light from without to illumine
objects for us, we should perish in gloom, in the shadows of night. And
light is a gentle friend that watches by us, and, when we are sunk in
sorrow, points out to us that the world is still here, that it calls,
and beckons us, and requires of us duty and cheerfulness. ‘You must not
be lost in self,’ it says, ‘see! the world is still here:’ and a friend
beside us is as a light which illumines surrounding objects; we cannot
forget them, we must see them and mingle with them. How hard is life,
and how little I accomplish! I would fain awaken the whole world to
goodness and to love; but my voice is weak, my strength is insufficient:
how insignificant is all I do!”

And now he rose up and strode across the room; and he stood at the
hearth where the fire was burning, made of wood given to him that very
day, and his thoughts reverted to the man who had given it. Why had he
not asked his name, and where he came from? Perchance he might have been
able in thought to follow him all the way, as he drove home; and now...
but yet ‘tis more, ‘tis better as it is: it is not an individual, it
is not So-and-so, who has shown his gratitude, but all the world by
the mouth of one. “The kindnesses I receive,” he thought, “are
indeed trials; but yet I ought to accept them with thanks. I will try
henceforth to be a benefactor to others as others are to me, without
display, and with grateful thanks to God, our highest Benefactor: this
will I do, and search no further for the why and for the wherefore.” And
once more a voice spoke within him, and he stood erect, and raised his
arms on high. “Who knows,” he thought, “whether at this moment I have
not been in this or that place, to this or that man, a brother, a
friend, a comforter, a saviour; and from house to house, may be, my
spirit travels, awakening, enlivening, refreshing--yonder in the attic,
where burns a solitary light; and afar in some village a mother is
sitting by her child, and hearing him repeat the thoughts I have
arranged in verse; and peradventure some solitary old man, who is
waiting for death, is now sitting by his fireside, and his lips are
uttering my words.”

“And yonder in the church, the choir is chanting a hymn of yours; could
you have written this hymn without its vigor in your heart? Oh! no, it
_must_ be there.” And with trembling he thought: “There is nothing so
small as to have no place in the government of God! Should you not then
believe that He suffered this day’s incident to happen for your joy? Oh!
were it so, what happiness were yours! A heart renewed.”... He moved to
the window, looked up to heaven, and prayed inwardly: “My soul is
with my brothers and my sisters: nay, it is with Thee, my God, and in
humility I acknowledge how richly Thou hast blessed me. And if, in the
kingdom of the world to come, a soul should cry to me: ‘Thou didst
guide and cheer me on to happiness eternal!’ all hail! my friend, my
benefactor, my glory in the presence of God.... In these thoughts let me
die, and pardon me my weakness and my sins!”

“And the evening and morning were the first day.”

At early morning, Gellert was sitting at his table, and reading
according to his invariable custom, first of all in the Bible. He never
left the Bible open--he always shut it with a peaceful, devotional
air, after he had read therein: there was something grateful as well as
reverential in his manner of closing the volume; the holy words should
not lie uncovered.

To-day, however, the Bible was lying open when he rose. His eye fell
upon the history of the creation, and at the words, “And the evening
and the morning were the first day,” he leaned back his head against
the arm-chair, and kept his hand upon the book, as though he would grasp
with his hand also the lofty thought, how night and day were divided.

For a long while he sat thus, and he was wondrously bright in spirit,
and a soft reminiscence dawned upon him; of a bright day in childhood,
when he had been so happy, and in Haynichen, his native place, had gone
out with his father for a walk. An inward warmth roused his heart to
quicker pulsation; and suddenly he started and looked about him: he had
been humming a tune.

Up from the street came the busy sound of day: at other times how
insufferable he had found it! and now how joyous it seemed that men
should bestir themselves, and turn to all sorts of occupations! There
was a sound of crumbling snow: and how nice to have a house and a blaze
upon the hearth! “And the evening and the morning were the first day!”
 And man getteth himself a light in the darkness: but how long, O man!
could you make it endure? What could you do with your artificial light,
if God did not cause His sun to shine? Without it grows no grass, no
corn. On the hand lying upon the book there fell a bright sunbeam. How
soon, at other times, would Gellert have drawn the defensive curtain!
Now he watches the little motes that play about in the sunbeam.

The servant brought coffee, and the amanuensis, Gödike, asked if there
were anything to do. Generally, Gellert scarce lifted his head from his
books, hastily acknowledging the attention and reading on in silence;
to-day, he motioned to Gödike to stay, and said to Sauer, “Another
cup: Mr. Gödike will take coffee with me. God has given me a day of
rejoicing.” Sauer brought the cup, and Gellert said: “Yes, God has given
me a day of rejoicing, and what I am most thankful for is, that He has
granted me strength to thank Him with all my heart: not so entirely,
however, as I should like.”

“Thank God, Mr. Professor, that you are once more in health, and
cheerful: and permit me, Mr. Professor, to tell you that I was myself
also ill a short time ago, and I then learned a lesson which I shall
never forget. Who is most grateful? The convalescent. He learns to love
God and His beautiful world anew; he is grateful for everything, and
delighted with everything. What a flavor has his first cup of coffee!
How he enjoys his first walk outside the house, outside the gate! The
houses, the trees, all give us greeting: all is again in us full of
health and joy!” So said Gödike, and Gellert rejoined:

“You are a good creature, and have just spoken good words. Certainly,
the convalescent is the most grateful. We are, however, for the most
part, sick in spirit, and have not strength to recover: and a sickly,
stricken spirit is the heaviest pain.”

Long time the two sat quietly together: it struck eight. Gellert started
up, and cried irritably: “There, now, you have allowed me to forget that
I must be on my way to the University.”

“The vacation has begun: Mr. Professor has no lecture to-day.”

“No lecture to-day? Ah! and I believe today is just the time when I
could have told my young friends something that would have benefited
them for their whole lives.”

There was a shuffling of many feet outside the door: the door opened,
and several boys from St. Thomas’ School-choir advanced and sang to
Gellert some of his own hymns; and as they chanted the verse--

    “And haply there--oh! grant it, Heaven!
        Some blessed saint will greet me too;
    ‘All hail! all hail! to you was given
        To save my life and soul, to you!’
    O God I my God! what joy to be
    The winner of a soul to thee!”

Gellert wept aloud, folded his hands, and raised his eyes to heaven.

A happier Christmas than that of 1768 had Gellert never seen; and it was
his last. Scarcely a year after, on the 13th of December, 1769, Gellert
died a pious, tranquil death, such as he had ever coveted.

As the long train which followed his bier moved to the churchyard of St.
John’s, Leipzig, a peasant with his wife and children in holiday clothes
entered among the last. It was Christopher with his family. The whole
way he had been silent: and whilst his wife wept passionately at the
pastor’s touching address, it was only by the working of his features
that Christopher showed how deeply moved he was.

But on the way home he said: “I am glad I did him a kindness in his
lifetime; it would now be too late.”

The summer after, when he built a new house, he had this verse placed
upon it as an inscription:

    “Accept God’s gifts with resignation,
        Content to lack what thou hast not:
    In every lot there’s consolation;
        There’s trouble, too, in every lot.”





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