PART IV.
FROM SCHLEIERMACHER’S MARRIAGE IN MAY, 1809, UNTIL HIS DEATH, 12TH FEBRUARY, 1834.
FROM the time of his marriage until his death, Schleiermacher resided permanently in Berlin, in which place, while pursuing a laborious career of wide-spreading public activity and usefulness, he became the centre of a most happy and exemplary domestic life, and of a large and interesting social circle, and to many, far and near, the object of a devoted affection, which he returned in full measure. The pulpit, the professional chair, the academy of sciences, extensive literary undertakings, participation (at least for a time) in the administration of the State, his duties as a member of the Poor-law Directory, and other public offices, in addition to the claims of family and social life, fully occupied his time, and in consequence, as before observed, such consecutive and circumstantial records of his internal life, as his previous correspondence affords, do not exist in regard to this period, except in his written works. As early even as the year 1810 we find him, in a letter to Charlotte von Kathen, excusing himself for writing so seldom, as compared to formerly, with the fact that he was no longer a single individual, and that when his wife wrote it was the same as if he wrote himself.
Schleiermacher used to travel every autumn, mostly with his wife and children: sometimes, however, these vacation rambles or journeys in quest of health, were undertaken alone, or in company with other friends, and sometimes he remained at home, while wife and children went abroad. Retaining, after his marriage as before, that irrepressible desire for constant communication of thought and feeling to those he loved best, which had given rise to his earlier correspondence, the separations caused by these various journeyings each time called forth anew the activity of Schleiermacher’s pen in correspondence with his wife. However, there was but seldom occasion to enter minutely in these letters into questions regarding his outward or his inward life, and the contents have mostly no further interest than such as is connected with a cursory description of the little events of the journey, and the impressions received from the countries visited. They afford, nevertheless, in a certain measure, a consecutive picture of Schleiermacher’s life with his wife and children, and give an idea of the spirit that pervaded his home; and for this reason these unpretending letters, among which are included a few to other friends, as also extracts from the parents to the eldest son (Ehrenfried von Willich)1 when absent at school or at the university, are here given, in order in some measure to fill up the gap which this work would otherwise present.
[Respecting Schleiermacher’s taste for social intercourse, we learn from Henrietta Herz,2 who returned to Berlin after an improvement had taken place in her pecuniary position, and who was a constant member of Schleiermacher’s circle, that “the lovingness and sociableness of his nature was so great, that although intellectually-inciting conversation was most agreeable to him, he nevertheless also found great pleasure in intercourse with individuals who were not in point of mind on a level with him, and who were even mentally insignificant, the heart and the disposition alone being always sufficient to attract him. In consequence his social relations were very numerous, and took up a great deal of his time, and perhaps, indeed, were chiefly the cause of his not having had leisure during his lifetime to prepare his lectures for publication. It is true that he had the power of working at any time, his mind being always sufficiently collected for the purpose; but for this very reason he was ever inclined to think that he should be able to accomplish more than proved actually to be the case. He very rarely refused an invitation, and also saw a great deal of company at his own house; but frequently after the most luxurious and hilarious dinner-party or supper-party, he would sit down to his writing-table, in a moment be absorbed in the deepest speculations, and work far into the night. When it so happened that he had to preach the next day, and his drawing-room was full of company, he would draw aside for about a quarter of an hour, taking up his stand close to the stove, and looking thoughtfully straight before him. His more intimate friends were aware that at such moments he was reflecting on his sermon, and took care that he should not be disturbed. In a short while he was again a lively participator in the conversation going on; but in the interval he had jotted down a few notes with pencil on a slip of paper, and this was all that was ever written of his sermons before they were preached; yet I have frequently heard him the next morning, after a preparation seemingly so insufficient, deliver the most deeply-reflected and deeply-felt discourse.”