Voltaire/Aus Russlands Vergangenheit (Sketches From the Early History of Russia)/Hegel..
Von D. F. STRAUSS. Leipzig. 1870.
Von DR. WILHELM PIERSON. Leipzig. 1870.
Von DR. KARL KOSTLIN. Tubingen. 1870.
Nahes und Fernes (Far and Near). Von F. W. HACKLÄNDER. Stuttgart. 1870. Vollständige Geschichte des deutsch-französischen Krieges von 1870 (Complete History of the German-French War of 1870). Vom GRAFEN HOHENTHAL. Leipzig. 1870.
STRAUSS’S Voltaire is a reprint of six lectures, which all readers can be glad to have an opportunity to read. Strauss is best known as the author of the Life of Jesus, so we may be sure of finding this book free from bigotry. On the other hand, the author is cool enough and the time is calm enough to permit the publication of a work which can rest simply on its literary qualities, and needs no fanaticism of disbelief to make it famous. In execution the book deserves the warmest praise. It is a difficult task, in so small a compass, to treat of a man whose work was so various, whose character was so complex, and whose influence was so far-reaching as Voltaire’s ; but the author manages to leave upon us a very complete impression of his subject, without undue attention to any single one of its many attractive qualities. A less careful writer might have been misled into an exaggerated consideration of Voltaire’s wit, or his relation to Christianity ; but Strauss has held himself continually in check, and the result is a valuable as well as interesting book. Strauss does not attempt to conceal Voltaire’s many personal faults, — his timidity, irritability, and a certain carelessness about the truth, — but he claims for him sincerity in that work which has made him really great, namely, his hatred of superstition. That is the point which concerns posterity, because it affects posterity ; his irritability was the business of those alone who had to live with him. And in respect to his sincerity, even those most opposed to Voltaire will agree to our author’s estimate, and by reading this book they may learn that all the truth is not told by those who so warmly assail him.
His life may be crudely considered as a double one : during the first half he was a poet, during the last a philosopher ; but his wit knew no such division. It is interesting to notice the liberality of his mind towards English models, as shown by his enthusiasm for Shakespeare, although so soon obscured, and his admiration of English freedom at a time when such liberality of opinion was almost unheard of. In that respect he was more modern than many of us. Another great advantage — it can scarcely be called a merit — was the length of his life with undecayed mental faculties. If he had died at sixty, although he had won a place in France which would have made him immortal there, upon the world at large his influence would have been very slight in comparison with what it is at present. It is from what he did after that age that he is known to us. He abandoned France, with its sensitive court and bigoted religion, and Germany, where his own disposition prevented him from staying, and on the Lake of Geneva fought the cause of toleration. Of this sort of after-life, — as if he had received the privilege of beginning again where others leave off, with all the rich experience of his sixty years and a reputation already made, — Strauss gives us an excellent description.
Perhaps the most interesting chapter is the fifth, an exceedingly lucid and temperate exposition of Voltaire’s philosophy. We have here the best of both Voltaire and Strauss. Appended to the book are.some translations of his writings upon religion, and his charming letters in the original French about his ward Marie Corneille, perhaps the most pleasing chapter in his private life, and one we especially recommend to all who hold him but little better than the Fiend incarnate.
Aus Russlands Vergangenheit is an entertaining collection .of sketches of the early history of Russia by Dr. William Pierson, who, if we are not mistaken, is a professor in one of the schools of Berlin. He begins with an account of the early Scythians, a race of savages who scalped their foes and slew their king, Anacharsis, who tried to civilize them offhand, and finally succumbed to the Sarmatians. These were themselves succeeded by the Scandinavian Ruriks, in about the fifth century after Christ. They, a warlike race, held their power until 1598. Soon after their appearance they attacked Constantinople, and with success. The emperor, Leo, was obliged to pay them tribute and support the Russian Embassador. By this intercourse with the Church the Russians became Christians. In the year 957 Olga, the widow of the Grand Duke Igor, was baptized Helena, and was made a saint by the Greek Church. Her grandson Vladmir adopted the same religion, and was baptized in the year 988. He, as ruler of all the Russians, commanded his people to break their idols and become Christians. They, with the disposition for obedience which seems to characterize that race, all obeyed, broke their idols, and in tears went to the rivers and were baptized. So great was their number that sometimes, as among the Lithuanians somewhat later, the inhabitants of one village being baptized together were all called Peter, in another Paul, etc. In spite of this docility, paganism seems to have held out among the Russians until a late date ; until the sixth century the worship of the snake endured, and even within a few years there have appeared religious ceremonies that appear to refer to ancient and mysterious heathen rites.
In the year 1224 came the Tartars, under the orders of Gengis Kahn, They were known as the Golden Horde, and by their numbers and their traditional cruelty conquered the always subservient Russians. Their power was not wholly destroyed until 1778. The two races became allied by intermarriages. Hence we see so sharply defined the peculiarities of both combined in the Russian of the present day. A Pole, if asked about the Russians, will say : “ A Russian is a Tartar, and a Tartar is an inferior being of medium height, a broad face, fiat nose, small eyes, and black hair, who prefers to eat his soap instead of washing himself with it, who does not cook his beefsteaks, but rides them raw beneath the saddle, and drinks his tea with sheep’s blood instead of sugar and cream.” Still, the opinion of a Pole about a Russian is apt to be soured by prejudice. A long chapter is devoted to a description of the country in the sixteenth century, and especially of Ivan IV., called Ivan the Terrible. He once, however, met his match. In Pepys’s Diary, under the date of September 5, 1662, we find the following anecdote : “ And among other discourse, some was of Sir Jerom Bowes, Embassador from Queene Elizabeth to the Emperor of Russia ; who, because some of the noblemen there would go up stairs to the Emperor before him, he would not go up till the Emperor had ordered those two men to be dragged down stairs, with their heads knocking upon every stair till they were killed. And when he was come up, they demanded his sword of him before he entered the room. He told them if they would have his sword they should have his boots too. And so caused his boots to be pulled off, and his nightgown and nightcap and slippers to be sent for, and made the Emperor stay till he could go in his nightdress, since he might not go as a soldier. And lastly, when the Emperor in contempt, to show his command of his subjects, did command one to leap from the window down, and broke his neck in the sight of our embassador, he replied that his mistress did set more by and did make better use of the necks of her subjects ; but said that, to show what her subjects would do for her, he would, and did, fling down his gauntlet before the Emperor, and challenged all the nobility there to take it up in defence of the Emperor against his Queene ; for which, at this very day, the name of Sir Jerom Bowes is famous and honored there.” This, probably, only increased the desire of the Czar to marry Queen Elizabeth. When she refused him, he tried to persuade Lady Hastings to share his throne with him, but with equal ill-success.
There are fearful tales told of his cruelty. This account of his death is very characteristic : “ Being terrified by a comet in the year 1584, he sent for the most famous astronomers and physicians from all parts of the Empire, and for sorcerers from Lapland. They came, sixty in number, to Moscow to foretell the issue of his illness. They prophesied his death for the 18th of March. For this he sent them to the stake. But his illness grew rapidly worse, and at the same time his penitence increased. After arranging his house and making his peace with Heaven, he took his last pleasure in gazing at his riches, which he had heaped up in his treasure - chamber. Here his daughter-in-law, the Czarina Irene, found him among his money-bags and jewels, and tried to offer him the consolation of the dying. But Ivan treated her with such brutality that she hastily took to flight. Thus the dreaded 18th of March came on. The sick man felt better, and put on an ornamented dressing-gown instead of the monkish cowl, saying he understood his old body much better than did the sixty prophets. He ordered the checker-board to be brought, but while setting the pieces he fell dead.” The people endured his brutalities with the utmost patience. They would say, with a submission which has not yet wholly disappeared : “ The word of the Czar is the voice of God. His will is God’s will. What he commands, that happens, and there can be no resistance,” etc. Still, the history of Russia is bloody enough to justify the witty saying of a Russian : “ La tyrannie temperée par l’ássassinat c’est la Magna Charte des Russes.”
A chapter tells the story of the false Demetrius, one of the most dramatic incidents in history, and which indeed has been dramatized by Pouschkine, Schiller, and Mérimée. Long and interesting extracts from various authors who visited Russia in the seventeenth century are given. We speak at length of this book, because the reader who is at all interested in Russian literature — in some respects, as in contemporary fiction, for example, hardly second to any in Europe — can learn from it so much that will explain certain Russian peculiarities, the docility of the people, their deep religious feeling, etc., etc. At any rate, they are a people of whom we know but very little, and they well deserve our study ; and this book is no mere dull record of dates and facts.
Dr. Karl Köstlin, of the University of Tubingen, has written a very readable book about Hegel, which we can recommend to all who have voluntarily given up the hope of ever knowing anything more than the name of one of Germany’s greatest men. Perhaps the book is condemned by the mere fact that it is called readable ; whether it fairly represents the philosopher we shall not venture to say, remembering the speech of Hegel on his death-bed: “There is only one man who understands me, and he don’t ! ” But with all modesty we recommend it.
In original fiction Germany lingers behind the rest of Europe, although there is probably no country in the world where foreign novels are so generally read. Hackländer’s last volume, Nahes und Fernes, however, is rather entertaining. There are two stories ; the first, called Die Spuren eines Romans, is gently comic, and may well be read by those students of the language who can let their satisfaction at mastering the German replace the proper pleasure the writer of fiction likes to produce within his reader’s breast. The other, Unter den päpstlichen Zuaven, is sentimental enough and charming enough to touch the crustiest reader.
There is naturally no lack in Germany of books about the war. The Vollständige Geschichte, by Count Hohenthal, is a work of popular character. We have only the second part before us. It was published before the close of last year, and contains on its cover the following advertisement, which will serve as an excellent example of the practical and prophetic nature of the Germans : “ Immediately after the conclusion of peace a last volume will be published, of about this size and price, entitled, 'Around and in Paris.’ Table of Contents of the third volume : Around Paris. The German Heroes. The captured and besieged Fortresses. The Theatre of War in the South and Southeast. The Size and Activity of the Hostile Fleets. In Paris. The Negotiations and Conclusions of Peace. The New Germany. Plan in Paris, etc.”