• 153. Caroline to Friedrich Schlegel in Dresden: Braunschweig, August? 1795 [*]
[Braunschweig, August? 1795]
[Beginning of letter is missing.]
|366| . . . to speak with clarity and warmth, without vehemence, and yet with persuasive enthusiasm. He has changed in that he prefers the French language to the others, that he is now swept away with it, and that he is writing the most charming French letters, which, however, I would nonetheless not want to trade for the German ones he has written me. He also has a slightly different opinion now about my friends, the Republicans, and is no longer the aristocrat at all. Indeed, his impartiality in this matter is yet one more thing that makes his |367| company even more appealing. And indeed, once I have cured him of his detachment — then my educational task will be complete.
Truly, my dear Fritz, ultimately I will doubtless see that it would be a good idea to cultivate and master myself as well, that I, too, might then calmly observe everything that is happening. You will hardly believe that I have gleaned some practical tips in this regard from the essay on the French national character. [1] Wilhelm considers this essay to be an immature one that confuses cause and effect and fails to present the facts themselves faithfully.
I did, however, notice the accuracy in one particular view, namely, the view that passion, from which derive the highest strength and pleasure, must be moderated and diverted in order to produce virtue and happiness. Is it not such that the essential difference between your ancient Greeks and my modern Franks [French] consists in the degree of passion? If the latter had a bit less hot blood in their veins, all the nations of the earth could not but both envy and love them.
Whence, however, does that hot blood come, and how are they to extirpate it? The climate and its products will remain the same — imagination has set out in a certain direction that the revolution has not yet diverted by insinuating other concepts into it. To me it seems to have been mistuned more by the chance event that subjected Gaul to a conqueror than by any other influence. Early on, this imposed a yoke on them, which, in order to cloak it in radiance, they . . .
[Conclusion is missing.]
Notes
[*] Reprinted in KFSA 23:249–50. — Caroline’s reference to “Republicans,” here and elsewhere, refers, of course, to supporters of the French Revolution and the incipient French republic. Back.
[1] Karl Ludwig Woltmann, at the time a professor of history in Jena, “Beitrag zur Geschichte des französischen Nationalcharakters,” Die Horen 2 (1795) no. 2, 15–49: “whom I would never have thought capable of something that good,” thus Friedrich to Wilhelm Schlegel on 7 August 1795 (Walzel, 232; KFSA 23:245). Back.
Translation © 2011 Doug Stott