1839-12-29. Edgar to Bruno, from Berlin

17 When Marheineke sent me your letter, he had me told at the same time that I should come to him one of these days. I went the very next day to him. He received me with a serious look and spoke thus: "You too seem not to like my lectures on dogmatics, since you have not attended them for so long. You have the correction of Daub and Hegel to attend to; I should think my lectures must be comprehensible to you." "Yes indeed, Herr Professor," I replied, "only a boil on my cheek and the cold, which could easily have made the boil dangerous, have hitherto prevented me from going out."

18 And he raised himself from his sofa, lit a Havana cigar and spoke: "But you have in the meantime had an incident with the police, on account of smoking cigars on the street." "That was before," I said to the rear part of his body, which he had turned towards me with dignity. "Report has been made of it in the Senate."

19 Before I report our conversation further to you, I must give you a commentary on the foregoing. Marheineke's hearers are becoming ever fewer; indeed, recently he even had to experience that a student smiled when he inserted into his explications about God one of his logical categories of being and non-being. I smiled along with him. When the Herr Professor sees us smiling thus, he interrupts his lecture with the following speech: I foresee that those gentlemen who attend my lectures have already penetrated deeper into science and are acquainted with the phraseology of which I make use. Those who are not would do better to stay away. Since that time many have gone over from him to Twesten: usually there are now twenty students in his lecture. For myself it was good that I once heard a genuinely theological lecture. It has brought about in me the resolve to give up theology and to go over to history. There is still much to be done here.

20 Ad vocem "cheek boil," you must know that I recently went out with a student of law who has torn my cheek and lip. The scar, which will soon disappear, is not so significant as to deter me from the study of theology; seek therefore not herein the ground of my desertion.

21 After he had taken a slip of paper from his desk, he lay down again on the sofa, bade me sit down and spoke: I have written down here a few points about which you are to write to your brother. Firstly, tell him that he should write to you or to me, what intention he followed in the elaboration of Hegel's Philosophy of Religion, how he applied the notebooks, etc. The printing of the Philosophy of Religion is namely soon finished and since I must write a preface to it, I would gladly wish that your brother explain himself more closely and in more detail on those points. (Does he then wish to write the preface in your name or in his own? Were the former the case, he would only need to have you write the preface, briefly and well.)

22 This was the one point. Concerning the second he expressed himself as follows:

23 I have written to the Herr Minister von Altenstein on account of your brother, and indeed in such strong terms that I feared to arouse his displeasure. When, however, Privy Councillor Schulze reported on this matter to the Minister, Herr von Altenstein expressed himself very approvingly about my good sentiments. So that I, by that through which I feared to fall into disfavour, have only risen still higher in the Minister's favour. (Herewith the speaker smiled; I smiled along with him to oblige him, yet about something quite different from that about which he smiled.) The Minister has immediately granted your brother a hundred thalers. Write that to him and that he should not become impatient; the Ministry loves slowness in the execution of its decisions.

24 Recently there stood in the Hamburger Correspondent a report from Leipzig, in which it was said that the Hegelian philosophy was forbidden in the Prussian state, that some lecturers in Halle had been given to understand by the local government commissioner that they could never hope for a professorship (Ruge and Echtermayer are said actually to wish to emigrate from Halle to Leipzig) and that the Berlin Yearbooks would cease. I questioned Philippus about this. Yes, he said, that is a shameful article; it only remains that one should cut off people's heads, then one would be rid of them entirely. As regards the Yearbooks, they will continue; we have only had a dispute with the censorship, the Herr Minister has remedied that. —

25 I also told Schmidt from Livonia about that article. Yes, he said, there is now nothing more useful to do than to keep oneself aloof from the so-called Hegelians. Thereupon he railed in his pious zeal against Ruge and his followers; they had occupied themselves with "filth", they were therefore also to be reckoned only as filth. When they believed themselves to soar high above "the material", one saw yet too clearly that they only strove to grasp the material. When I thereupon revealed to him my views on theology and religion, he approved my resolve to depart from the former, but spoke of the latter the wisest words: "I too was in such a situation and in such views as you; but one gradually comes back from them. Only wait, you will yet one day learn to know the value of feelings, of which you now want to know nothing. Only wait until you once have wife and child. What will you do with your child if you do not make it acquainted with the feelings in which all times have found their peace and a comfortable situation? Philosophy must be pursued far away from that."

26 there is now nothing more useful to do than to keep oneself aloof from the so-called Hegelians. Thereupon he railed in his pious zeal against Ruge and his followers; they had occupied themselves with "filth", they were therefore also to be reckoned only as filth. When they believed themselves to soar high above "the material", one saw yet too clearly that they only strove to grasp the material. When I thereupon revealed to him my views on theology and religion, he approved my resolve to depart from the former, but spoke of the latter the wisest words: "I too was in such a situation and in such views as you; but one gradually comes back from them. Only wait, you will yet one day learn to know the value of feelings, of which you now want to know nothing. Only wait until you once have wife and child. What will you do with your child if you do not make it acquainted with the feelings in which all times have found their peace and a comfortable situation? Philosophy must be pursued far away from that."

27 As long as you have been away, I have been to the theatre at most three times, never for my own money. I saw Seydelmann in "Molière as a Lover," where he did not disturb; then I saw him again as Carlos in Clavigo, where you already know him; and lastly I saw Hagn as Käthchen of Heilbronn, where she also did not please me, since she often fell into her pert tone, which does not suit Käthchen. Altogether, Käthchen of Heilbronn is the most tedious and abominable piece that one can see; especially as it is still very much botched for performance. At the end the Emperor declares that Käthchen is his child, but not from the wife of the armourer, but that she is his legitimate child, which he once handed over to the armourer for safekeeping "for reasons". Thereby an apparent offensiveness is indeed removed, but the character of the armourer is falsified. The armourer stands at the end on the stage even more ridiculous than in Kleist's piece. — That you read the Vossische Zeitung solely for the theatre announcements and thermometer readings is right: those announcements are the only accurate ones in it........

28 Altogether, Käthchen of Heilbronn is the most tedious and abominable piece that one can see; especially as it is still very much botched for performance. At the end the Emperor declares that Käthchen is his child, but not from the wife of the armourer, but that she is his legitimate child, which he once handed over to the armourer for safekeeping "for reasons". Thereby an apparent offensiveness is indeed removed, but the character of the armourer is falsified. The armourer stands at the end on the stage even more ridiculous than in Kleist's piece. — That you read the Vossische Zeitung solely for the theatre announcements and thermometer readings is right: those announcements are the only accurate ones in it........

29 most tedious and abominable piece that one can see; especially as it is still very much botched for performance. At the end the Emperor declares that Käthchen is his child, but not from the wife of the armourer, but that she is his legitimate child, which he once handed over to the armourer for safekeeping "for reasons". Thereby an apparent offensiveness is indeed removed, but the character of the armourer is falsified. The armourer stands at the end on the stage even more ridiculous than in Kleist's piece. — That you read the Vossische Zeitung solely for the theatre announcements and thermometer readings is right: those announcements are the only accurate ones in it........

30 I am, except for the two days when I also give afternoon lessons, daily in Charlottenburg. There I make combinations with Mother. Where may Bruno be now, what may he be thinking, whether he also remembers the coffee and his rue-garden in Charlottenburg? Now he probably goes walking arm-swinging along the Rhine and watches the colourful ships glide down the river. What does he think to himself? He thinks about whether this walk is also far enough to promote a proper digestion.

31 Egbert and family are most cheerful. At Christmas Egbert lit a pyramid and I drummed and fiddled on a violin for little hopeful Edgar, who already has several teeth and is learning to walk, which I brought him from the Christmas market. I shall train him to be a musician for you, and when you come to Charlottenburg, he will greet you with song and sound.

32 Next to me lives a theologian, who is at the same time one of the most zealous adherents and admirers of Beneke and reads his lectures aloud to himself at home. At this very moment I hear again his boringly monotonous voice.

33 Berlin, 29th December 1839. Edgar