THE HOME OF LEPSIUS.
Since Lepsius’ fortunate entrance into the haven of matrimony we have devoted our whole attention to estimating his scientific achievements as a master workman, leaving unmentioned his personal experiences, except so far as they fell within the sphere of his scholarly labors. We thought it better to depict his domestic life, and the man Lepsius, in the circle of his family and friends, quite apart from his scientific occupations. These latter were carried on in the sanctuary of his study, in the lecture room, or in the public library. No one ever understood more thoroughly than he how to disengage his mind from his special pursuits, and to enjoy intercourse with wife or child, with individuals or general society. None better knew how to participate with both intellect and heart in animated conversations on art or literature, science or politics. His special acquirements remained hidden until a desire was expressed for information on such subjects, and he was appealed to.
The Lepsius who returned from the Orient and founded a home of his own, was essentially different from the young scholar who had been reckoned among the conservatives in Göttingen, and whom we saw indignantly quit Schleiermacher’s lectures on the Life of Jesus, in Berlin. During a long sojourn in England, which had brought him into connection with the leaders of political life, he had learned to appreciate the rights of the people, and the advantages of a free state under a constitutional government. He had spent three years in the East under unusual conditions, always in a position of authority and subject to none. What can so quickly expand even the most limited views, what can more certainly conduce to an unfettered and vigorous use of existence, what can more strengthen even the feeblest self-confidence, what can lead with more imperious necessity to self-examination and to knowledge of one’s own faults and merits, than a prolonged sojourn in the East, and in the silent desert?
He had returned home entirely self-reliant, understanding himself and his aims, and capable of maintaining his own stand in the face of opposition. He had become a free-thinker of dispassionate and temperate views, who had learned to despise the barriers which prejudices and one-sided opinions of every kind malevolently set between men. He no longer held to the dogmas and formulas of a circumscribed confession, but he still adhered to that Christ to whom his free-thinking father had taught him to look up as the harbinger of pure self-sacrificing human love.
And the choice of this man had fallen upon a maiden of eighteen years. All who knew her as a bride speak of her as a charming, happy creature, full of childlike archness. But nevertheless passionate blood ran through the veins of this young girl; Elizabeth’s finely cultivated mind was restless and over-active, and her soul was completely filled with ardent and fanatical religious zeal.
What contrasts! Seldom has there been a pair in every respects so different; and yet they confirmed Schiller’s lines: “For where the severe with the tender, where the strong and the gentle unite.” Love was the metal of that bell whose voice had drawn them together, and bound them to each other for a life time. It gave forth a pleasant sound, and only one discord, which became especially perceptible in their latter years, and which was produced by the great difference in their religious convictions. This disturbed his ear but slightly, for, calm and assured of his own aims, happy in his work and in his life, he devoted his time to labor and science, and his intervals of recreation to his children, to social pleasures, to the learned societies of which he was a member, to his garden, to music, whose pleasures he gladly shared with his wife, and to his beloved chess. At first she had attempted to realize the dream of her girlhood, and to kindle his heart with the fire of her own enthusiasm; but in vain. Tranquilly and cheerfully he accompanied her to church, and whenever his occupations permitted it, usually on Sunday, he took part in the daily household worship which she had instituted. He allowed her to train the children, and to instil into them that religious feeling in which he himself was not wanting, and in which he recognized the loveliest flower of the soul, and of the feminine soul especially. But he warned her against excess and exaggeration, which were so alien to his own nature, and possibly this unsympathetic attitude towards what to her was highest and holiest, only contributed to cause in her ardent heart still warmer devotion to the doctrines of her positive Protestant faith. We should here assert, in the most decided manner, that this devotion was of the most unobtrusive kind. Frau Lepsius never gave it public manifestation, and the only ones whom she allowed to share in it were her nearest relatives, her pastor, and her diary. She was ever averse to the course of the zealots and pietists, who enjoyed such palmy days under Frederick IV., and once, on hearing a sermon by the famous pastor Knak, she left the church in indignation. The noble Jonas and the excellent Kögel were her pastors, and certainly had more frequently to moderate than to kindle her zeal. Her husband saw no reason for serious interference with the excessive religious aspirations of her soul, for to him she gave everything that a man can ask from the companion of his existence: a heart overflowing with love, esteem heightened to admiration, and a warm interest in all his labors and productions, even the most abstruse. In addition to this she cared with prudence, skill and indefatigable industry for the management and embellishment of the home, and there were few houses where the hostess was able to make her guests so thoroughly at ease. Nothing was farther from her thoughts than a puritanical renunciation of the pleasures and delights of this world, and she gave a zest to the household festivals by the inexhaustible fertility of her ideas in the way of original representations and spectacles. She pleased in society by her amiability and wit; she was the best of mothers; and as the children grew up she was so excellent and untiring a teacher that he, who had never had any confidence in his own ability as a pedagogue, was glad and thankful to resign to her the charge of the mental and moral education of the children. Among them were boys who were hard to govern, yet they all turned out excellently. In matters of charity he gave her entire liberty.
The inner being of this rare woman lies plain before us, and we are permitted to follow the life of the Lepsius family almost from day to day. We ourselves visited the house of Lepsius only as a friend and guest, but the diary of its mistress, some twenty volumes, makes us a member of the household. It is honest, simple, and yet written with great intuitive perception. A number of poems are intermingled with the excellent prose. They are mostly of religious tenor, and many of them are distinguished by their lofty strain and beautiful thoughts. The perusal of this journal has therefore afforded us genuine pleasure, and it has exhibited to our soul as well as to our sight, the character of a woman so singular and noble in her love, her activity and her aspiration that we separate from it with sincere admiration, but also with deep regret. It would be to abuse a great trust, were we to yield to the desire to portray the character of its author from the avowals contained in this journal, and yet this would excite quite different, and tenfold greater, interest than that of her husband. For how much less alluring to the psychologist is the calm progress of a man who came early to maturity, his successful contests with the impulses of youth, and his tranquil labors after the goal was attained, than the ceaseless struggles of a woman distinguished above thousands by the ardor of her soul and the keenness of her intellect. Yet we may be at least allowed to extract from the diary all that can serve to give the reader a clear idea of life in the home of Lepsius, its intercourse with the outside world, and the experiences of its head as a husband, and as a member of a select society.
Every betrothal has its history. Lilli (Elizabeth) Klein,[92] who was greatly admired, had done some friends the favor to appear at an entertainment as the fourteenth guest. The ominous number thirteen was caused by Lepsius’ declining the invitation at a late moment. But, nevertheless, he appeared, after all the guests were assembled, and it was on this occasion that she made his acquaintance. “Oh Superstition” she wrote in her diary, “for the first time I bless thee.”
Even this first meeting had carried the day with her. The next Sunday she could not help thinking of him during the sermon, and when she visited him with several of her relations, amongst whom there were some young ladies, to inspect the curiosities which he had brought with him from the Orient, her young heart was not only disturbed, but deeply troubled, because he seemed to have paid more attention to her sister than to her, and she already loved him.