Forgotten today outside the academy, Schleiermacher was a giant in German philosophy in the 19th century. Wilhelm Dilthey worked all his own life on a multivolume biography of Schleiermacher. He did not finish it. Fortunately We do have an English translation of a less intellectual attempt at gauging Schleirmacher's significance.
THE LIFE OF SCHLEIERMACHER, AS UNFOLDED IN
HIS AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND LETTERS. TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN BY FREDERICA ROWAN. (1860) gives us a glimpse of a scholar's life and a scholar's wife. The next brief sentences, are from letters Schleiermacher wrote to his wife when they were separated in war torn Germany. They had been married a matter of months. She was the widow of Schleiermacher's friend, and had two children when she married him.
[Spring 1811]To-day I have given myself a treat which I have never before enjoyed; I took a walk through the garden at half-past five o'clock in the morning. It had rained in the night, the air was delicious, and the roses were very much refreshed; they give promise of a second bloom. ......
[Another letter excerpt]
I wrote to you so full of glad hope to beg you come back ; we had not then heard of the retreat of the army into Silesia; and to-day we have received news of the brilliant action near Hagenau! It has struck me like a thunderbolt! In what state of mind may you be, and where may you be? Have you sought refuge in some corner of Bohemia, or are you still in Schmiedeberg, full of fear that you may have to fly at any moment? And I, who ought to be your counsellor and your support, I am here [Berlin]! I reproach myself most bitterly for having been so foolish as to send you away! O God ! it is a heavy, heavy trial, and I do not know how I shall bear it. Sweet heart, have I not sinned grievously against thee and the children? Have I not wantonly precipitated that hardest of fates, which ought only to have been brought about by the most important events? Are you not already as lonely and forlorn as if you were a widow? Everything around me looks indescribably gloomy, and I begin even to despair of the public cause.[the defeat of Napoleon] ....Sweet wife, you whose destiny I have bound up with mine, had I but your hand in mine, could I but gaze into your eyes, could we but seek new strength and courage heart pressed to heart! My tender love for you and the children is the only happy feeling I have left—or rather my love for you, for I confess it at this moment the children are very secondary in my eyes, because as yet they have not the consciousness of what is going on around them; but at the bottom of my heart there is an immeasurable love for them also, which might at any moment be converted into a lion's love. But I must cease, I must tear myself away, I am too excited.....
2nd June, [1811]
...About an hour ago, dear heart, I received your letter of the 25th. I am sincerely rejoiced that you have so happily got over the first fright and difficulties, and that I can fully approve of all that you have done and planned...... Oh, to be separated under such circumstances is too dreadful! What you say so kindly, dear love, about feeling consoled at the thought of my being in quiet and safety, has cut me to the heart; and when you write, "the happy ones, who remained,"—ah, my darling wife, it drives me to despair to think that I sent you away!
In one respect, you are far better off than I. You suffer, but at the same time you are called upon to act. But I can only look on, while my heart is being torn to pieces; and then to feel that, as far as you are concerned, I have brought this upon myself! Ah! I shall never be at peace until I hold you again in my arms, and then I shall hardly feel myself worthy of folding you to my bosom But I will force myself to go to work, that I may not fall into a morbid state.
June 10th, Evening.
. . . . It is four weeks to-day since you left, and I hope that only one week more will elapse before you are back again, for I can hold it out no longer. At moments I feel as if I were transported back into my old days of bachelorhood, and as if it were only a dream that I had ever changed my condition, and a shudder of horror comes over me. Then again, when I bring you and the children vividly before my imagination, and the old presentiment returns that you will not keep me long, an indescribable sadness steals over me, at the thought of all that is precious and all that is vain in life, of all that is good and noble which, by the grace of God, has been developed in me, and of so much that is unworthy...... Come, dearest, hasten to join me, to fill out my life again, and to save me, by your sweet presence, from this dreamy state, which solitary work at the writing-desk does not suffice to conquer
[soon thereafter]
.....The anniversaries of the most important epochs of our lives are drawing near— the day on which I saw you for the first time, when you gave me a touching impression of a pious, gentle girl, under the influence of a first and holy love, such as I had never before witnessed. How tenderly attached to you I was! I looked upon it as the highest happiness left to me, to be near you and to witness and to bless your wedded life. [He refers to her marriage to his friend] Then again, the time when I felt such an irresistible desire to see you again as a sorrowing widow, and when gradually a deeper love still was developed. Yes, Jette, it was Divine guidance that led me to you; and I feel it now as deeply as ever, I could never have loved any other woman as I love you. I press your dear head to my bosom, imprint a kiss on your forehead, and once more promise to guide and support you through this chequered life, with all the strength of my love and my whole being, and to pour upon you all the good that wells up in my own heart, as also all that I can gather in the world around me.
[June 21] Today I have begun to write an essay, which I am to read to the Academy on Thursday next, on the various methods of translation. It may prove interesting, if I be allowed proper leisure.....
THE LIFE OF SCHLEIERMACHER, AS UNFOLDED IN
HIS AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND LETTERS. TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN BY FREDERICA ROWAN. (1860) gives us a glimpse of a scholar's life and a scholar's wife. The next brief sentences, are from letters Schleiermacher wrote to his wife when they were separated in war torn Germany. They had been married a matter of months. She was the widow of Schleiermacher's friend, and had two children when she married him.
[Spring 1811]To-day I have given myself a treat which I have never before enjoyed; I took a walk through the garden at half-past five o'clock in the morning. It had rained in the night, the air was delicious, and the roses were very much refreshed; they give promise of a second bloom. ......
[Another letter excerpt]
I wrote to you so full of glad hope to beg you come back ; we had not then heard of the retreat of the army into Silesia; and to-day we have received news of the brilliant action near Hagenau! It has struck me like a thunderbolt! In what state of mind may you be, and where may you be? Have you sought refuge in some corner of Bohemia, or are you still in Schmiedeberg, full of fear that you may have to fly at any moment? And I, who ought to be your counsellor and your support, I am here [Berlin]! I reproach myself most bitterly for having been so foolish as to send you away! O God ! it is a heavy, heavy trial, and I do not know how I shall bear it. Sweet heart, have I not sinned grievously against thee and the children? Have I not wantonly precipitated that hardest of fates, which ought only to have been brought about by the most important events? Are you not already as lonely and forlorn as if you were a widow? Everything around me looks indescribably gloomy, and I begin even to despair of the public cause.[the defeat of Napoleon] ....Sweet wife, you whose destiny I have bound up with mine, had I but your hand in mine, could I but gaze into your eyes, could we but seek new strength and courage heart pressed to heart! My tender love for you and the children is the only happy feeling I have left—or rather my love for you, for I confess it at this moment the children are very secondary in my eyes, because as yet they have not the consciousness of what is going on around them; but at the bottom of my heart there is an immeasurable love for them also, which might at any moment be converted into a lion's love. But I must cease, I must tear myself away, I am too excited.....
2nd June, [1811]
...About an hour ago, dear heart, I received your letter of the 25th. I am sincerely rejoiced that you have so happily got over the first fright and difficulties, and that I can fully approve of all that you have done and planned...... Oh, to be separated under such circumstances is too dreadful! What you say so kindly, dear love, about feeling consoled at the thought of my being in quiet and safety, has cut me to the heart; and when you write, "the happy ones, who remained,"—ah, my darling wife, it drives me to despair to think that I sent you away!
In one respect, you are far better off than I. You suffer, but at the same time you are called upon to act. But I can only look on, while my heart is being torn to pieces; and then to feel that, as far as you are concerned, I have brought this upon myself! Ah! I shall never be at peace until I hold you again in my arms, and then I shall hardly feel myself worthy of folding you to my bosom But I will force myself to go to work, that I may not fall into a morbid state.
June 10th, Evening.
. . . . It is four weeks to-day since you left, and I hope that only one week more will elapse before you are back again, for I can hold it out no longer. At moments I feel as if I were transported back into my old days of bachelorhood, and as if it were only a dream that I had ever changed my condition, and a shudder of horror comes over me. Then again, when I bring you and the children vividly before my imagination, and the old presentiment returns that you will not keep me long, an indescribable sadness steals over me, at the thought of all that is precious and all that is vain in life, of all that is good and noble which, by the grace of God, has been developed in me, and of so much that is unworthy...... Come, dearest, hasten to join me, to fill out my life again, and to save me, by your sweet presence, from this dreamy state, which solitary work at the writing-desk does not suffice to conquer
[soon thereafter]
.....The anniversaries of the most important epochs of our lives are drawing near— the day on which I saw you for the first time, when you gave me a touching impression of a pious, gentle girl, under the influence of a first and holy love, such as I had never before witnessed. How tenderly attached to you I was! I looked upon it as the highest happiness left to me, to be near you and to witness and to bless your wedded life. [He refers to her marriage to his friend] Then again, the time when I felt such an irresistible desire to see you again as a sorrowing widow, and when gradually a deeper love still was developed. Yes, Jette, it was Divine guidance that led me to you; and I feel it now as deeply as ever, I could never have loved any other woman as I love you. I press your dear head to my bosom, imprint a kiss on your forehead, and once more promise to guide and support you through this chequered life, with all the strength of my love and my whole being, and to pour upon you all the good that wells up in my own heart, as also all that I can gather in the world around me.
[June 21] Today I have begun to write an essay, which I am to read to the Academy on Thursday next, on the various methods of translation. It may prove interesting, if I be allowed proper leisure.....
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