Part 15 (1/2)
Fichte in fact married Rahn's daughter, Johanna. In 1752, Wieland[82]
repaid Bodmer for his previous disappointments, by staying with him for some two years.
Bodmer's zeal for the advance of literature was unremitting. Though he could not himself boast of much poetic genius, he was a prolific writer in both prose and verse. His great merit is his bringing to light again the fine old mediaeval poetry long since forgotten. The ma.n.u.script of the ”Minnesanger” and the famous ”Nibelungen” he had dug up from the lumber-room of Hohenems Castle. He moved heaven and earth to obtain royal protection and patronage for German literature. But little did he gain at the court of the great Frederick. To Muller, who presented the ”Nibelungen,” his majesty replied in characteristic fas.h.i.+on that the piece was not worth a single ”charge of powder.” Not less characteristic was Voltaire's reply when a request was made for the royal favour to Klopstock. ”A new 'Messiah' is too much of a good thing, the old one has not been read yet.”
Bodmer's influence on the young man of parts is noticeable. He gathered round him a large following of young Zurcher who had a taste for letters. Crowds of them would accompany him in his evening walks in the avenue Platzspitz, drinking in his words of wit and wisdom. Of the disciples thus gathered round ”Father” Bodmer--for so he was affectionately styled--some attained no little eminence in later life.
Amongst them we may mention Sulzer, who became art professor at Berlin, and stood in high favour with the king; and Solomon Gessner, the painter poet, whose word pictures are hardly less beautiful than the productions of his brush. His ”Idylls,” published in 1756, gave him a European reputation. The work was translated into all the literary languages, and in France and Italy was read with great eagerness, a first edition in French being sold out within a fortnight. Another important work is Hirzel's ”Kleinjogg,” or the ”Socrates of the Fields.” In this Hirzel, who was a physician and a philanthropist, brings to the fore the despised peasantry. ”Kleinjogg” is not a work of fiction solely, but an account of Jakob Gujer who lived in a small Zurich village. Jakob was a man of great intelligence, indomitable resolution, and practical wisdom, who by his admirable management raised a wretched country home into a model farm. Goethe, who on a visit ate at his table, was delighted with the philosophic peasant, and called him ”one of the most delicious creatures earth ever produced.”
Heinrich Pestalozzi, the philanthropist, but better known for his efforts in the cause of education, was also a Zurich man. His principles of education are embodied in his novel of rural life, ”Lienhard and Gertrude” (1781). His ideas are partly borrowed from Rousseau, but he failed to realize them in practice. The work at once won for Pestalozzi European fame. Ludwig Meyer von Knonau, a country magnate, was a poet and a painter, and wrote ”Fables.” Johannes Casper Lavater, Bodmer's favourite pupil, stirred to their depth the patriotic feelings of his countrymen by his famous ”Schweizerlieder,” which he composed for the Helvetic Society, in 1767. Indeed literary tastes seem to have been very prevalent amongst the Swiss at that time. More of Winkelmann's great work on aesthetics were sold in Zurich and Basel then would in our own day probably be sold in such cities as Berlin and Vienna. And Solothurn, we find, produced thrice as many subscribers to Goethe's works as the great cities just mentioned.
[Ill.u.s.tration: LAVATER.]
After Bodmer Lavater became the chief attraction at Zurich, and strangers flocked thither in great numbers to see him. He was the founder of the study of physiognomy, and his works on it were very largely read at the time. Goethe himself joined with Lavater in his ”Essays on Physiognomy.” The philosopher's personality being singularly charming and fascinating, he was one of the most influential men of his time. He was the pastor of St. Peter's church, and was full of high religious enthusiasm. He desired to take Christianity from its lifeless condition and make it a living thing, and was strongly opposed to rationalism--Anglo-French deism--then slowly creeping in, notwithstanding severe repressive measures against it. Goethe was for many years the close friend of Lavater, and carried on with him a brilliant correspondence. The great poet, it may be stated, paid no fewer than three visits to Zurich, viz., in 1775, 1779, and 1797. He considered his intercourse with Lavater the ”seal and crown” of the whole trip to Switzerland in 1779, and calls the divine the ”crown of mankind,” ”the best among the best,” and compares his friends.h.i.+p with ”pastureland on heaven's border.” Lavater's later years were marked by many eccentricities, and he fell into religious mysticism. But his sterling merits will not readily be forgotten by the Swiss.
A word respecting the Helvetic Society must close the present chapter.
This society was founded in 1762, with the view of gathering together those who were stirred by political aspiration. It gradually united all those who desired the political regeneration of their fatherland, and the most prominent men of both East and West Switzerland, and of both confessions, joined the new society. The young patriots regularly met to discuss methods of improving the country and its inst.i.tutions, and this in spite of the prohibitions of a narrow-minded executive, and the close control of the press. Stockar's scheme for amalgamating the free states into one republic mightily swelled the hearts of both Catholic and Protestant, and their efforts gave rise to many practical reforms. The most prominent result of these efforts was the rise of national education. Zurich with its higher schools occupied a leading position in the work of reform, and Pestalozzi established on his own estate a school for the poor. Unfortunately this admirable inst.i.tution failed for want of a proper manager. Later on, after the Revolution, when the soil was better prepared for it, Pestalozzi's system took vigorous root.
FOOTNOTES:
[79] Hettner's ”French Literature in the Eighteenth Century.”
[80] Switzerland was the cradle of the German drama in the sixteenth century; even the Oberammergau Pa.s.sion play can be traced to a Swiss origin (Bachtold).
[81] Haller, anxious to return to his native land, accepted an inferior post as director of salt-mines at Bex (Vaud), Bern, his native town, disregarding his great merits, declining to offer him either a professors.h.i.+p or a seat on the governing board.
[82] A daughter of Wieland was also married to the son of his great friend Gessner, the poet.
x.x.xI.
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION AND SWITZERLAND.
(1790-1798.)
None of our readers will need to be told the story of the French Revolution, nor shown that it was the natural outcome of previous misgovernment and oppression. Every one has read of the miseries of the lower cla.s.ses--intolerable beyond description; of the marvellous inability of the n.o.bles and clergy to see that amidst all their selfishness and pleasures they were living on the very edge of a frightful volcano; of the _tiers-etat_ and its emanc.i.p.atory movement, which, outgrowing its primary intention, brought about a series of stupendous changes; of Napoleon, how he stopped this disorder and how he made all Europe into one vast theatre of war. All this, in so far as it is the history of France, can only be alluded to here, but, inasmuch as Switzerland was dragged into the whirlpool of changes, we must dwell upon some of the effects of the great Revolution. Not less clearly than in France itself did the cry of ”_Liberte, and egalite!_” resound through the Swiss lands, filling the hearts of the unfree and the oppressed with high hopes. Yet it was only after terrible sufferings and endless vicissitudes that the liberal principles of the Revolution came to the front, and admitted of that practical realization which was to lead up to a n.o.bler and happier life for men.
[Ill.u.s.tration: THE LION OF LUCERNE.
(_From a photograph of the original._)]
Of the many popular risings in Switzerland due to the influence of France, we may briefly touch on those which precede the Bern catastrophe in 1798. In September, 1791, Lower Valais rose against the _landvogte_ of Upper Valais, but the intervention of Bern checked the revolt. In the April of the following year, Pruntrut (in the Bernese Jura) renounced its allegiance to the prince-bishops of Basel, and set up as an independent territory, under the style of the ”Rauracian Republic,” and three months later the widely-extended bishopric itself was amalgamated with France as the ”Department Mont Terrible.” It was on August 10th of this same year (1792) that the Swiss Guards defending the Tuileries against the Paris mob were ma.s.sacred. Every one knows the story. ”We are Swiss, and the Swiss never surrender their arms but with their lives,”
were the proud words of Sergeant Blaser to the crowds furious against the protectors of royalty, and claiming that their arms should be put down. When Louis was in safety, the Swiss Guards were withdrawn. But on leaving the palace they were suddenly attacked by thousands of the mob.
Resistance was plainly useless, yet the Swiss would not fly, and were ruthlessly slaughtered. Of the 760 men and twenty-two officers, but few escaped that terrible onslaught. The beautiful and far-famed Thorwaldsen monument--the ”Lion of Lucerne”--with its inscription, ”Helvetiorum fidei ac virtuti,” still keeps up the memory of the heroic courage of the Swiss Guards.[83] The outrage aroused intense indignation at home, but could not be avenged. The subjects of the prince-abbot Beda, of St. Gall, secured under his mild rule the abolition of serfdom.
His successor, Forster, however, refusing the measure his sanction, was driven from his see--till he returned under Austrian auspices--and a large rural district of St. Gall gained autonomy and freedom from the rule of the abbey in 1797. Geneva saw almost every possible change. At one time she was rescued by Bern at Zurich, but was, in 1798, absorbed by France. The singularly harsh bearing of Zurich towards the country districts brought about the widespread insurrection of Stafa, in 1795; an insurrection vigorously suppressed however. The Italian lords.h.i.+ps, severely treated by Graubunden, desired to be included in the Cis-alpine republic Bonaparte was forming, and the general advised that free state that it should be admitted into their pale as a fourth member of equal rank. Finding that his advice was not taken, he suddenly proclaimed the memorable maxim, ”that no people can be subject to another people without a violation of the laws of nature,” and joined Valtellina, Bormio, and Chiavenna to Lombardy. This arrangement he had ratified by the treaty of Campo Formio, in 1797, which destroyed the Venetian republic, handing it over, indeed, to Austria, France taking the Netherlands and Milan as her share of the plunder.
Few things served to draw the attention of France to Swiss lands more than the Helvetic Club at Paris. This famous club was founded in 1790, by malcontents, chiefly from Vaud, Geneva, and Freiburg. They were bent on the liberation of Switzerland from aristocratic domination, and desirous of a.s.similating the form of government with that of France.
This suited the French Directory exactly, their aim being to girdle France with a strong belt of va.s.sal states. Among these Switzerland was to serve as a bulwark, or at any rate as a battle-ground, against Austria; and France was not without hope of filling her _coffres-forts_ with Swiss treasure, now grown, after long years of peace, to great dimensions. Amongst the band of patriots two men stand out as leaders.
One was Cesar de La Harpe, a n.o.ble-minded and enthusiastic Vaudois, who, however, was more concerned for his own canton than for Switzerland at large. The other was Peter Ochs, of Basel, a shrewd and able man, but ambitious, and a creature of France. La Harpe had once been taunted by a Bernese n.o.ble, who reminded him that Vaud was subject to Bern, and this he never forgot. Even at the Court of Catherine II. of Russia, to which he had been called as tutor to the imperial grandchildren, he never forgot his republican principles. In 1797, returning from Russia, and being forbidden to enter Vaud, he joined the Helvetic Club at Paris, and thence launched forth his pamphlets against Bern. And in the Directory things were making against that hapless canton, Reubel, a declared enemy, gaining a seat. Napoleon too was no lover of Bern. On his way to the Congress of Rastatt, in 1797, he pa.s.sed through Switzerland, and, while accepting the enthusiastic welcome offered by Basel and Vaud, he declined altogether to respond to that of Bern and Solothurn. Peter Ochs enjoyed Napoleon's full confidence, and was by him summoned to Paris, and charged with the drafting of a new const.i.tution for Switzerland, on the lines of the Directory. La Harpe and Ochs thus worked towards the same end, though the motives of the two men differed greatly.
[Ill.u.s.tration: LA HARPE.]