Das landhaus am Rhein. English by Berthold Auerbach
CHAPTER XI.
THE FRUIT IS SET ON THE GRAPE-VINE.
There is stillness in the vineyards on the mountain-side, and nopersons are among the green rows, for the vines, which until now wereallowed free growth, have been tied up so that the blossoms may notflutter about. The hidden blossom makes no show, but a sweet fragrance,just faintly perceptible, is diffused through the air. Now, the vineneeds the quiet sunshine by day, and the warm breeze by night; thebloom must be set as fruit, but the flavour, the aroma, and thestrength are not brought out until the autumn. After the fruit hasbecome set, storm and tempest may come; the fruit is vigorous, and sureof attaining its future noble destiny.
Roland and Eric went hand in hand over the country, with no definiteobject in view; the town was quiet, and the scattered country-houseswere deserted.
Bella, Clodwig, and Pranken had set out on a journey to Gastein, theMajor to Teplitz, the Justice with his wife and daughter to Kissingen.Only the doctor remained at his post, and he is now alone, for his wifehas gone to visit her daughter and grandchildren. Eric had determinedat the very first, before he knew of the journey to the Baths and ofbeing alone, to decline every distraction and every connection with awide circle of acquaintance, wishing to devote himself exclusively andentirely, with all his energies, to Roland. And so they were nowinseparably together, from early in the morning until bedtime.
He only who lives with nature, day in and day out knows all the changesof light, so various and fleeting, and only he who lives exclusivelywith one person knows thoroughly the sudden upspringings of thought,when all is illuminated and stands out in prominent relief. Eric waswell aware that Roland frequently dwelt upon the pleasures anddissipations of a life at the Baths, and that the youth had often toforce himself to a uniform round of duty, struggling and inwardlyprotesting to some extent against it; but Eric looked upon it as theprancing of an untamed horse, who resists bit and bridle, but soon isproud of his trappings. Numberless elements influence, move, form, andexpand whatever is in process of growth; man can bend and direct thatwhich is taking form and shape, but to affect the changes beyond thisstage is not in his power.
Eric brought three different influences to bear upon his pupil. Theycontinued to read Franklin's life; Roland was to see a whole man onevery side. The political career, which Franklin gradually enteredupon, was as yet not within the range of the youth's comprehension; buthe was to form some idea of such varied activity, and Eric knew, too,that no one can estimate what may abide as a permanent possession in ayoung soul, even from what is but partially understood. The White Houseat Washington took rank in Roland's fancy with the Acropolis at Athensand the Capitol at Rome; he often spoke of his ardent desire to go on apilgrimage thither.
It was hard to fix the youth's attention upon the establishment of theAmerican Republic and the formation of the Constitution, but he waskept persistently to it.
Eric chose, for its deep insight, Bancroft's History of the UnitedStates.
They read, at the same time, the life of Crassus by Plutarch, and alsoLongfellow's Hiawatha. The impression of this poem was great, almostoverlaying all the rest; here the New World has its mythical and itsromantic age in the Indian legend, and it seems to be the work not ofone man, but of the spirit of a whole people. The planting of corn isrepresented under a mythological form, as full of life as any which themyth-creating power of antiquity can exhibit.
Hiawatha invents the sail, makes streams navigable, and banishesdisease; but Hiawatha's Fast, and the mood of exaltation andself-forgetfulness consequent thereon, made upon Roland the deepestimpression.
"Man only is capable of that!" cried Roland.
"Capable of what?" asked Eric.
"Man only can fast, can voluntarily renounce food."
From this mythical world of the past, which must necessarily retirebefore the bright day in the progress of civilization, they passedagain to the study of the first founding of the great AmericanRepublic. Franklin again appeared here, and seemed to become thecentral point for Roland, taking precedence even of Jefferson, who notonly proclaimed first the eternal and inalienable rights of man, butmade them the very foundation of a nation's life. Roland and Eric sawtogether how this Crusoe-settlement on a large scale, as Frederic Kappcalls it, unfolded into a high state of culture; and that sad weaknessand compromise, which did not immediately abolish slavery, alsoconstituted a knotty point of investigation.
"Do you think the Niggers are human beings like us?" asked Roland.
"Undoubtedly; they have language and the power of thought, just as wehave."
"I once heard it said, that they could not learn mathematics,"interposed Roland.
"I never heard that before, and probably it is a mistake."
Eric did not go any farther in this exposition; he wished to cast noimputation upon the father, who had owned large plantations tilled byslaves. It was sufficient that questions were coming up in the boy'smind.
Nothing better could have been contrived for Eric and Roland; than forthem to learn something together. The architect, a man skilled in hisbusiness, and happy to have so early in life such an excellentcommission entrusted to him, was communicative and full of information.The castle had been destroyed, as so many others were, by the barbaroussoldiers of Louis XIV. encamped in Germany, exactly a hundred yearsbefore the French Revolution. An old main-tower, the so-called Keep,had still some remains of Roman walls, concrete walls, as the architectcalled them.
"What is concrete?" asked Roland. The architect explained that theinside and outside layers consisted of quarry stone laid in regularmasonry, and between, stones of all sizes were thrown in, and then thewhole was evidently cemented together with a sort of heated mortar.
Only one-third of the tower had apertures for light; the rest was solidstone wall.
The whole region had made use of the castle as a stone-quarry, and thecorners had especially suffered, because they contained the beststones. The whole was grown over with shrubbery, the castle-dwellinghad wholly disappeared, and the castle itself, originally Roman, hadprobably been rebuilt in the style of the tenth century. From a drawingfound in the archives only a few additional characteristics could bemade out; but from single stones and angles much of the generalstructure could be copied, and the architect showed how he had plannedthe whole, and he was particularly glad to have discovered the spring,out of which they had taken, to use his own expression, "a great dealof rubbish and dirt."
The insight into the inner mystery of a man's active calling produced adeep impression upon the youth, and he followed out the whole plan ofconstruction with great diligence; and he and Eric always placed beforethem, as a reward for actual work accomplished, this instructiveconversation with the architect, and even frequently a permission to beactively employed. It was a favorite thought of Roland's to live hereat some future time alone at the castle, and he wanted to have had somehand in the building.
Roland and Eric were regularly but not accidently, at the castle whenthe masons and the laborers engaged in excavation were paid off onSaturday, evening. The time for leaving off work being an hour earlierthan usual, the barber came from the town and shaved the masons, andthen they, washed themselves at the fountain; a baker-woman with breadalso came out from the town, and the workmen placed themselves, oneafter another, under the porch of a small house that had beentemporarily erected. Roland frequently stood inside the room, with theforemen, and heard only the brief words,--
"You receive so much, and you, so much."
He saw the hard hands which received the pay. Frequently he stoodoutside among the workmen themselves, or by their side, observing them;and the boys of his own age received his particular notice, and hethanked all heartily, when they saluted him. Most of them had a loaf ofbread wrapped up in a cloth under their arm, and they went off to thevillages where they lived, often singing until they were out ofhearing.
Eric knew that it was not in accordance with Sonnenkamp's
"He who wishes to build a castle need not know all the carters andquarrymen in the stone-pits around."
But Eric considered it his duty to let Roland have an unprejudiced,acquaintance with a mode of life different from his own. He saw theexpression of Roland's large eyes while they were sitting upon aprojecting point of the castle; where the thyme sent up its sweet odoraround them, and they looked out over mountain and valley; with thebells sending out their peal for the Sunday-eve; and he felt happy, forhe knew that an eye which so looked upon the hard-working hands, and athought which so followed the laborers returning to their homes, wasforming, an internal state that could not be hardheartedly unmindful ofone's fellow-men. Thus was a moral and intellectual foundation laid inthe soul of the youth. Eric took good heed not to disturb thegerminating seed by exposing it to the light.
One evening, when they were sitting upon the castle, the sun hadalready gone down, and the tops of the mountains only were tinged withthe glowing sunset, while the village, with its blue slate-roofsand the evening smoke rising straight in the air, seemed like adream--Roland said,--
"I should like to know, how it is that no castles are to be found inAmerica."
Eric repeated with pleasure Goethe's verses,--
"America, to thee is given A better fate than here is found! No mouldering castle-towers hast thou, No monumental columns fallen; No gloomy shadows of the past, No vain and useless strife Becloud thy heavens serene. To-day suffices with its good; And, sing your children in poetic strains, Be it on higher themes Than robbers, knights, and haunting ghosts."
Roland learned them by heart, and wanted to know more of Goethe.
In their quiet walks Eric repeated to him many of Goethe's poems, inwhich not man, but nature herself seems to have produced theexpression. The towering spirit of Goethe, with Hiawatha and Crassus,was now added to the sedate and unexciting study of Benjamin Franklin.
Roland felt deeply the influence of the various moral and spiritualelements in whose circle he lived: Eric was able to quote apt passagesfrom the classic poets of antiquity, as well as of his own country tohis pupil. This revealed to Roland's perception the doublemanifestation of all life, and made him long for the real and true.
One day, when Eric and Roland were sitting on the boundary of a field,they saw a hare which ate a little, ran off, and then ate again. Rolandsaid,--
"Timid hare! yes, why shouldn't he be timid? he has no weapons ofattack or of defence; he can only run away."
Eric nodded, and the boy went on.
"Why are dogs the enemies of hares?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, I can understand how the dog and the fox are enemies; they canboth bite: but why a dog should hate and pursue a hare, that can donothing but run, I can't understand." In spite of all his knowledge,Eric often found himself in a position where nothing but conjecturecould help him; he said,--
"I think that the dog in a wild state found his chief food in thedefenceless animals, as the fox does. The dog is really a tame cousinof the fox; education has changed him only so far that he now biteshares to death, but does not eat them. Animals that feed on plants livein the open air, but beasts of prey, in caves."
For a short time the boy sat silent, then he suddenly said,--
"How strange!"
"What is it?"
"You will laugh at me, but I have been thinking,"--as he spoke a brightsmile broke over the boy's face, showing the dimples in his cheeks andchin,--"the wild animals have no regular hours for their meals, theyeat all day long; dogs have only been trained by us men to take theirfood at certain times."
"Certainly," replied Eric; "the regulation of our lives by fixed hoursonly begins with education."
And without tedious or unnecessary diffuseness, Eric succeeded inbringing before his pupil what a great thing it is to measure time, andto set our daily life to the rhythm of the universe, of the wholestarry world.
Improbable as it may seem, it was really the fact, that from the timeof this conversation, which began with so small and insignificant amatter, but took so wide a range, the hours of study of the pair werestrictly fixed: Roland wished to have no more unoccupied time. This wasa great step in his life; what had before seemed like tyranny was now aself-imposed law.
A few weeks later, Roland himself gave up his favorite companions forEric's sake. On their walks through fields and over mountains, andtheir visits to the castle, the dogs had been taken as a matter ofcourse. Eric was ready to reply to every question of his pupil, but adisturbing companion was always with them so long as Roland never wentout without one of his dogs, and there could be no connected thoughtwhile the eye rested on the animal, however involuntarily. The dogconstantly looked up at his master and wanted his presenceacknowledged, and wandering thoughts followed him as he ran. It wasdifficult for Eric to bring Roland to leave them at home; he did notdirectly order him to do it, but he several times replied to hisquestions, by saying that he could not answer when their attention wasgiven to calling the dogs and watching their gambols. When this hadbeen repeated several times, Roland left the dogs at home, and saw thatEric meant to reward him for his sacrifice by his ready answers to allhis questions. Eric led Roland into departments of knowledge, but tookcare not to impart too much at once; on many points he put him off tilla later period, drawing him constantly to follow out the suggestions ofhis own observations. Yonder lies the field, and there is the vineyardwhere the grapes grow, collecting and transmitting within themselvesall the elements which float in the air, or repose in the earth; andmore than all, the rolling river sends forth into the fruit animmeasurable strength and a mysterious fragrance. The growth goes on byday and night, through sunshine and dewy shade; rain and lightning andhail do their work, and the plants live on to their maturity. Eachseparate plant is at first hardly to be noticed, but it grows to meetits nature-appointed destiny.
Who can name all the elements which mould and build up a human soul?Who can say how much of what Eric cherished in Roland has grown andthriven up to this very hour? And yet this unbroken growth brings themysterious result which forms our life.
Roland and Eric were present every morning and evening when the lawnswere sprinkled, and when the shrubs and flowers in tubs and pots werewatered; they helped in the work, and this endeavor to promote growthseemed to satisfy a thirst in themselves. There was a sense ofbeneficence in doing something to help the plants which gave beauty andfreshness to day and night.
"Tell me," Roland once asked timidly, "why are there thorns on arose-bush."
"Why?" answered Eric. "Certainly not that we may wound ourselves withthem. The butterfly and the bee do not hurt themselves with the thornsof the rose nor with the spines of the thistle; they only draw honeyand pollen from the flower-cups. Nature has not adapted herself to themuscular conformation of man, nor indeed to man at all. Everythingexists for itself, and for us only so far as we know how to use andenjoy it. But, Roland," he added, as he saw that the boy did not wellunderstand him, "your question is wrongly put. For what purpose? andwhy? these are questions for ourselves, not for the rosebush."
The park and garden blossomed and grew, and everything in its placewaited quietly for the return of its master; in Roland, too, a gardenwas planted and carefully tended. And the thought comes, Will themaster of this garden, and will his flowers and fruits, bring comfortand refreshment to those who live with him on the earth?
The nightingales in the park had grown silent, the intoxicatingsweetness of the blossoms had fled, there was a quiet growtheverywhere.
And while the days, were full of mental activity, in the quiet nightsRoland and Eric walked along the mountain paths, and feasted their eyeson the moonlit landscape, where on one side the mountains threw theirshadows, and in sharp contrast the moonlight rested on the vineyards,and the stars shone above and sparkled in the river.