The University of Chicago

HERDER’S CONCEPTION OF
“DAS VOLK”

A DISSERTATION
SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY
OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOLS OF ARTS AND LITERATURE
IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

DEPARTMENT OF GERMANICS

BY
GEORGIANA R. SIMPSON

Private Edition, Distributed By
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO LIBRARIES
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS
1921

Composed and Printed By
The University of Chicago Press
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.

DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY
OF MY
FRIEND AND TEACHER
FRÄULEIN AGNES BURCHARD
OF
ROSTOCK, GERMANY

NOTE

I wish to express my sincere thanks to all my Professors, but especially to Professors Starr W. Cutting, Martin Schütze, and Francis A. Wood, under whom the major portion of my work in the Graduate School has been pursued.

This particular study, however, is the outcome of interest awakened by Professor Schütze while I was a member of his seminars.

I owe a special debt of gratitude to him, not only for his guidance in this endeavor, but for the inspiration and encouragement which has come to me from the very beginning of my work under him.

Georgiana R. Simpson

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I
SEMASIOLOGY OF VOLK—THE IDEA IN OTHER WORDS

Before going directly to the main discussion of our theme, a background is sought in a brief semasiological study of the word Volk. The word is widespread in the Germanic languages; Gothic, however, offers no examples. Among the earliest recorded Germanic forms are those in Old English and in Old High German. Old English folc meant people, common people, multitude, a people, tribe, family, army:

“He sloh folces Denigea fyftyne men”—Beowulf.

“Folces hyrde”—Beowulf.

It was particularly used originally of a crowd of people. Skeat’s Etymological Dictionary suggests the possibility of its being related to both flock and full.

Old High German folc meant people, body of warriors, servants, crowd, mass. The oldest meaning here suggests forces of war: dhazs himiliscâ folc.

The word occurs in Old Frisian as folk; in Old Saxon, folc; and in Old Norse, folk; with meanings equivalent to those found in Old High German and Old English.

Kluge’s Etymological Dictionary says that the meaning “division of an army” seems to be the fundamental meaning of the family group, from which Lithuanian pulkas, heap mass, Old Slavonic plŭkŭ, host of war, are borrowed forms.

In Middle English the word took on the additional meaning of an aggregation of people in relation to a superior; e.g., God, a king, or priest; further it began to mean also the vulgar or lower classes, this use easily rising out of the meaning “mass” or “the many.” Such expressions occur as beboden waes Godes folce, Folkes Mass Book.

In Middle High German the meaning was people, hosts of war, army, servants, subjects, multitude: er das Volk gewan (Gudrun, 1162, 2).

In Modern English the word is chiefly colloquial, being superseded in more formal use by “people.”

In numerous combinations (following German precedent) it has the sense of pertaining to, current among, or existing among the masses of the people or the common people. Such expressions as folk-belief, folk-custom, folk-literature, folk-name, folk-song, and folk-speech are prevalent.

Modern High German has retained the word with nearly all of its primitive meanings: die schottischen Völker empören sich und drohen abzuziehen;[1] Mein Volk zu mindern;[2] Was rennt das Volk?;[3] du weisst, wir alten fahren, und ihr junges Volk reitet;[4] den Teufel spürt das Völkchen nie.[5]

The large number of compounds in which the word is used limit its connotation to either “the masses” or “the common people”: Volksbuch, Volksdichter, Volksgeist, Volkslehrer, Volksschule, etc. Kluge in his Etymological Dictionary says: “Connection with Latin vulgus is uncertain; for it is questionable whether the Latin word together with the Germanic family group would come from an original qelgos, qolgos.”

Weigand, Deutsches Wörterbuch says: “The earlier comparison with the Latin, volgus, is not possible. Rather to be compared here are the word voll and roots related to the Greek πλῆθος.”

THE IDEA IN OTHER WORDS

The ideas conveyed by the fundamental meanings found in the word Volk appear in other words and in various languages:

GREEK

πλῆθος—a great number, a throng, a crowd, multitude, especially of people.

πολύς—properly of number, many; opposed to ὀλίγος.

οἱ πολλοί—the many; that is, the greater number.

ὄχλος—a moving crowd, a throng, irregular crowd, in a political sense, the populace or mob, opposed to δῆμος.

γένος—race, stock, family, whether by blood or by nationality: αἷμα τε καὶ γένος

——a race in regard to number, γένος ἀνδρῶν, mankind.

φῦλον—a set of men or any living beings as naturally distinct from others; a race or tribe; in a closer sense, a race of people or a nation.

ἔθνος—a number of people living together, a company, a body of men.

ἔθνος ἑταίρων—a band of comrades.

ἔθνος λαῶν—a host of men.

ὁ δῆμος—a district, country, land. Also the people of such a district, hence (as in early times the common people were scattered through the country while the chiefs held the city) the commons, common people. δήμου ἀνήρ opposed to βασιλεύς.

LATIN

Vulgus—people collectively or without distinction, the public or people generally: Non est consilium in vulgo. The multitude, the common people, the populace.

Populus—a people, the commons in contradistinction to the senate and knights: senatus populusque Romanus. The inhabitants of a country or town, a nation, a whole people: Populus Romanus victor dominusque omnium gentium. A large number of people, a crowd, throng: populus fratrum.

Plebs—The common people, commonality, the ignoble opposed to patricii, patres or senatus; whereas populus comprises both classes. When the knights, equites, were raised to a separate class, the plebs formed the third; i.e., the last or lowest class; hence, the lower class of people, the populace, the mass.

FRENCH

Peuple—a multitude of people of the same country and living under the same laws: Les peuples ne souffrent que par les fautes des rois.[6]

Peuple—a multitude of people who, although not occupying the same country, have the same religion or the same origin: et je serai leur Dieu, et eux ils seront mon peuple.[7]

Peuple—that part of a nation considered as opposed to the classes among whom there is either more ease or more education: Il y a le peuple qui est opposé aux grands. C’est la populace et la multitude.[8]

In Middle English the word people was already a synonym for folc: “A Blysful lyf, Ledden the peoples in the former age” (Chaucer).

In Modern English the word people has almost entirely displaced Volk except in colloquial or archaic speech. Like Volk in its fundamental sense we have:

People—a body of persons composing a community, tribe, race, or nation.

People—persons in relation to a superior, or to some one to whom they belong.

People—the common people, the commonality; the mass of the community as distinguished from the nobility and ruling, or official, classes, etc. “A people’s voice! We are a people yet” (Tennyson).

CHAPTER II
CONCEPTIONS OF VOLK AS SEEN IN HERDER’S USE OF THE TERM

I

Volk is that part of a nation which is the governed class as distinct from those who are above them in authority and who stand as the ruling class; i.e., the governed as separate from the governing.

I, 16: “Man weiss dass nach den Staatsplänen Lykurgs und Solons, die als die Muster der übrigen glänzten, die Stimme des Volks, eine Stimme des Staats, ja beinahe selbst Gott war.” Volk here is the collective mass of individuals constituting the state as opposed to the ruling heads.

I, 16: “Dies konnte das Volk beantworten, nicht aus Staatseinsichten, sondern weil jeder Bürger streiten musste.” Herder is discussing the power which the people have in the simplest democratic form of government to declare or to forbid war. Volk is here the collection of citizens which make up the state as opposed to nominal rulers.

I, 188: “Cicero ärgert sich, dass er dem Volk zu gefallen, ‘pulcher’ und ‘triumphus’ statt ‘pulcer’ und ‘triumpus’ aussprechen müsste.” In similar connotation are such phrases as: “fraget das Volk”; “die niemand als das Volk geben wird”; “worauf das Volk hinkte, wenn es nicht gehen konnte”; “bloss weil das Volk sie vor Drüsen ansahe.”

I, 18: “Selbst das Volk ist nicht mehr dasselbe. Dort war dieser Name ehrwürdig: er begriff alle Bürger, Rath und Priester ausgenommen.” The collective mass of citizens who form the state in contradistinction to the individuals who were nominal rulers.

I, 22: “So sieht man, dass ihre Schutzgötter, und ihre Gottesdienste, dass Orakelsprüche und Ceremonien blos heiliger Nebel und Opferrauch waren, die Augen des Volks zu blenden.” Herder here mentions Cicero as augur and writer on religious subjects; Volk are the citizens, exclusive of those occupying the official rank such as that held by Cicero, for example.

XIV, 34: “So ist ein Unterschied zwischen Cultur der Gelehrten und Cultur des Volks.” Herder speaks here concerning the organization of the state among ancient peoples. The Gelehrten were the teaching and priestly class—those who were in possession of certain secret knowledge. The Volk, while not having this knowledge, were nevertheless not without culture. We may take Volk to mean nation or people in the same sense in which a modern people might be considered as such and include its clergymen and lawyers who had special professional training.

II

Quotations in which Volk is used as synonymous with nation. The ideas of collective personality and of Nationalgeist are prominent here.

I, 23: “Der Charakter unseres Volks ist nicht mehr die dreiste Wildheit der Alten; sondern eine feinere und mässigere Freiheit; die Freiheit des Gewissens.” Herder discusses the question of freedom in the fatherland and uses “fatherland” as synonymous with Volk; Volk is nation.

I, 147: “Ein Volk das ohne Poetische Sprache grosse Dichter ... gehabt hätte ist ein Unding.” Volk is nation.

I, 261: “So sehr sich immer Voltaire, und die seines Theils sind, beklagen, dass wir ein eckles dummes Volk aus einem Winkel der Erde so sehr erheben.” Wir here refers to the German people in the eighteenth century. Volk, then, means a nation.

I, 262: “singen wir denn für Juden? die sich für das einzige Volk Gottes hielten? die von dem feurigsten Nationalstolz belebt wurden?” Volk, here, in the light of Nationalstolz, clearly means nation. In the same connection and with the same meaning he says: “Unser Gott ist ein Vater der Menschen nicht eines Volks.”

I, 276: “Ein Rabbi, der für sein Volk Patriotismus, Känntniss seiner Gebräuche.” Volk here refers to the Jews, hence means nation.

II, 8: “Allerdings ist auch die Sprache einer Nation ein beträchtliches Stück in der Litteratur derselben.... Man kann die Litteratur eines Volks, ohne seine Sprache nicht übersehen.” Volk is clearly a synonym with nation.

I, 13: “ein Vorrath, der freilich oft durch Raub und Beute Nachbarn bereichert, aber so wie er ist doch eigentlich der Nation zugehört, die ihn hat ... der Gedankenschatz eines ganzen Volks.” In this passage, language (Sprache) is the word Vorrath, to which reference is made. Volk is the same as nation.

II, 28: “Der ganzen Nation wäre ein solches Buch ein Schatz: ... denn der Genius, der über die Wissenschaften eines Volks wachet ist zugleich der Schutzgott der Sprache desselben.” Volk is nation.

II, 32: “Und was dörfen wir uns unserer Consonanten schämen, wenn sie Concente der Tapferkeit sind, um Götter und Stammväter unseres Volks, Helden und Erretter der Nation zu preisen.” Volk is nation.

II, 160: “Gemeiniglich waren die grössesten Schriftsteller zugleich die grössesten Nationalautoren. Den Geist ihrer Zeit, die Denkart ihres Volks, die Natur ihrer Sprache, wusten sie.” Volk is nation.

III, 30: “sie werden Thränen und Thaten wecken: ein Schatz des Vaterlandes, und das Gefühl, das sie besingen und wirken, Gefühl des Volks, Nationalgeist.” Volk here is nation.

III, 62: “ihn sollte ein Held anstimmen, der zugleich König war, der dadurch die Griechen rettete, der ihnen die Opferung versprochen hatte: dieser also sein Wort brechen, sein Volk nicht lieben, dafür auch nicht etwas Saures thun wollen?” Volk here refers to the ancient Greeks, and therefore has the meaning of nation.

III, 398: “Wo, unsre Religion noch sinnlichen Vorstellungen Raum gibt; wo sie sich einer Poetischen Bildersprache bequemt: da ist sie—Orientalisch. Unter einem Volke gebildet, das ihr Gott auf alle Art von Bildnissen abwenden wollte, in Gegenden, die das Uebermenschliche suchten, in Nationen, die Verhüllungen des Körpers, und Geheimnisse des Geistes lieber verehren als das offne Schöne lieben wollten—im Geist und in der Sprache dieses Volks die sinnliche Bildersprache unsrer Religion also geoffenbaret.” Volk is nation.

III, 414: “Wenn er durch Dichter gebildet war, wenn einem Publikum in Griechenland Dichterverse und Poetische Bilder ihrer Mythologie im Kopfe schwebten, ohngefähr auf die Art, als unserm Volke Kirchenlieder, Bibelsprüche (eine Vergleichung die hier blos Nationalunterschied seyn soll).” Volk is nation.

III, 425: “eine Nation, deren Merkwürdigkeiten eben so verwickelt von der Politischen Wissenschaft sind, dass eine einzelne Münzensymbole sie nicht vorstellen kann, ein Volk, das aus der verblümten Bilderzeit hinaus, Wahrheit suchet, und Wahrheit findet: ein Volk endlich, in dem die Münzen und der Geschmack auf denselben durchaus für keine Produktion des Publikum gelten kann—ein solches Volk soll sich seine Geschichte des Geschmacks und der Kunst aus Münzen weissagen, sich ein Buch durch mit einem andern, dessen Numismatik Himmelweit von der ihrigen abliegt, hämisch vergleichen lassen? wer ist Bürger dieses Volks, und sagt nicht: unde mihi lapides?” This passage shows Volk to be synonymous with nation.

There are frequent uses of the word Volk in the plural, Völker, with the same connotation:

II, 19: “Die Litteratur fremder Völker und Sprachen ist oft als eine fremde Colonie unter andere Nationen eingeführt.”

II, 23: “Was haben Völker und Sprachen für Vor- und Nachtheile gegen einander?”

II, 79: “das Namenregister ... das mich aus allen Zungen und Sprachen und Völkern und Gesellschaften der Erde überführen soll.”

III, 32: “eine Ader des Gefühls, die die besten Dichtungen und Geschichte, nicht blos der Griechen, sondern aller Völker durchströmt.”

III, 52: “warum die Griechen in Bildung des Schönen so hoch gekommen, um allen Völkern der Erde hierinn den Preis abzulaufen?”

IV, 168: “der das Schöne unter allen Völkern und Zeitaltern sucht.”

V, 86: “der Erste Kopf der an eine wahre Philosophie der Grammatik ... denkt, muss gewiss erst die Geschichte derselben durch Völker und Stuffen hinab überdacht haben.”

I, 2: “Gestorbene Sprachen.... Glücklich, dass die Völker denen sie eigen waren, verlebt sind.”

I, 3: “Hier knüpft die Politik des Staats die Sprachen zur allgemeinen Kette der Völker.”

I, 262: “Von allen Völkern der Erde abgesondert, brachte es seinem Schutzgott Nationalgesänge.” (Jews.)

V, 500: “Der Stamm des Baums zu seiner grössern Höhe erwachsen, strebte, Völker und Nationen unter seinen Schatten zu nehmen, in Zweige.”

V, 501: “Wenn alle Völker unter dem Römischen Joche gewissermaasse die Völker zu seyn aufhörten, die sie waren?”

V, 514: “Norden wars. Und was man auch nun über den Zustand dieser Völker für Ursprünge und Systeme ersinnen mag.”

VI, 115: “Kannte Noah diese ganz? Konnte er allen Völkern die Warnung Gottes bekannt machen?”

VI, 128: “Ich bleibe bei den Umwandlungen dieser Philosophie bei spätern benachbarten Völkern, und dünkts mich kein Traum.”

“Aber dass sich die Geheimnisse mit Ideen dieser Gattung unter allen Völkern beschäftigt.”

III

Volk, a special group, less cultured, unaltered in certain respects by the influence of civilization. There are marked implications of theories of universalism and democracy here. The largest part of the people are the most important and respectable.

In the following two passages we have a degree of characterization of the rabble:

XVII, 91: “den leider ist es nur Ein Ding, Poebelsinn und Tyrannei, mit zwei Namen genannt, wie die rechte und linke Seite.”

XXV, 323: “Volk heisst nicht der Poebel auf den Gassen, der singt und dichtet niemals, sondern schreyt und verstümmelt.”

These characterizations of Poebel suggest not a lack of culture but culture of a sort that has had a warping effect. If Volk is not this rabble and, yet, not the learned class, it must stand in some respects, at least, between the two. It is more dignified and respectable than the rabble; it has certain intellectual aptitudes and moral traits found among primitive peoples, but which are usually effaced by a high degree of civilization and culture.

I, 392: “O eine Schrift, die das ist, was eine Erbauungs—eine Bildungsschrift für den grössten, nutzbarsten und ehrwürdigsten Theil der Menschen, das Volk sein soll.” The author has been regretting that the weekly journals, religious books, and sermons are not suited to the common man, and suggests the kind of literature that would meet his needs. Volk is here the largest, most useful, and most respectable part of mankind. These people are to be edified and cultivated.

VII, 246: “die bei dem grossen ehrwürdigen Haufen Volk erregt werden müssen, wenn etwas würken soll. Dies Volk noch nicht zu Raisonnement gebildet, glaubt und handelt.” These are too naïve to have reason; Volk are the naïve, simple people.

VI, 294: Herder here calls the Bible “Orakel Gottes für den besten, grössten Theil der Menschheit, Kinder und Volk.”

VI, 309: “über den Euch noch immer Kind und Volk, der edelste Theil der Menschheit.”

VI, 443: “wie die Kindes- und Volkswelt sich das ursprünglich denken konnte.”

In these last three passages the mental capacity of Volk is that of a child, and the thought therefore implies for Volk a meager degree of education and culture.

VI, 104: “Wo sind in allen unsern Ländern Weisheitsschulen für den ehrwürdigen Theil unsers Publikum, den man das Volk nennet?” Herder says these are human beings who form the stock of the nation and distinguishes them from the nobility who would refuse to enlighten the Volk that these might be the better utilized by the nobility and the better become the subjects of their tyranny. Volk is here a class beneath the nobility, but ideally they are enlightened and made better by social contact and religious observances.

VI, 301: “Zu dem schrieb er fürs Volk; ich verstehe unter diesem Namen die Menge derer, die sich nicht durch die Sprachlehre zu Deutschen gebildet hatten.” Herder here refers to Luther and the people for whom he wrote; these were the less cultured people.

I, 298: “Weil damals noch nicht ein Unterschied zwischen der Sprache der Weisen und des Volks, zwischen der Denkart der Vornehmen und Geringen war; was Homer sang war die Sprache der Götter und zugleich eine veredelte Sprache des Pöbels.” Herder is speaking of Homer’s language and times. In the parallel the wise are the aristocratic; the Volk are those of humble rank.

IV

Volk meaning a special group characterized by primitivism in various forms.

II, 25: “wie die Denkart des Volks mit der gelehrten Denkart neben und in einander laufe?” “Was giebt die Denkart und Sprache des Volks dem Philosophen, Dichter und Redner für Masse?” “Was hat dies für Vortheile und Nachtheile für die Weisen und dem Schüler des Volks?” Here Herder discusses two separate manners of thinking, designating one as being peculiar to the Volk and the other as being that of the Gelehrten; one as belonging to the Volk, the other to the Philosophen, Dichter and Redner. Here is a clear implication that the Volk is a class apart from philosophers, poets, and orators; a class different from the sages. Not being wise and learned, they must be those upon whom artificial methods of training and culture have had less effect than upon the philosophers, poets, and orators. They are therefore more nearly the natural man.

I, 157: “So wie das Völkerrecht jetzt im Staat zum Gesez ward: so in der Sprache.... Es entstand ein Adel ein Pöbel und ein Mittelstand unter den Völkern wie er in der Gesellschaft entstand.” Herder here has traced the development of prose out of poetry. He finds that the language of passion gave way to that of mediocre wit, and this in turn became the speech of reason. Here is suggested a parallel between the rights of the people, which passed into state laws, and the language which passes from Poebel to Mittelstand and then to Adel. If we make parallel the Völkerrecht in the development of law with the Mittelstand in the social status, then Volk is a class between the rabble and the nobility. If we follow the analogy suggested in the second sentence of the quotation, we shall make the rabble those who have the language of passion; the Volk those who have the language of mediocre wit; and the nobility those whose language is that of reason. Herder’s Volk here would be a middle class.

Volk is used commonly to mean primitive peoples, i.e., people who have reached only an early stage of civilization. Among those to whom frequent reference is made as such are: Greenlanders, Laplanders, Early Scandinavians, Early Germans, Greeks of Homer’s time, Ancient Hebrews, Ancient Celts in Scotland and Ireland, and American Indians. The moral standards and intellectual equipment found among these are eulogized and idealized whenever these peoples as groups are compared with civilized communities.

V, 189: “In mehr als einer Provinz sind mir Volkslieder, Provinziallieder, Bauerlieder bekannt, die an Lebhaftigkeit und Rhythmus und Naivetät und Stärke der Sprache vielen derselben gewiss nichts nachgeben würden.” Here Volk is put in apposition with that which is provincial, which has a peasant character. A meaning which is equivalent to the less cultured. Herder is discussing the whereabouts of Volkslieder which he locates among the Volk, and Volk are to be found in the lanes, in the fish markets, and in the country.

V, 185: “Zuerst sollten also wohl für die Seele des Volks die doch nur fast sinnlicher Verstand und Einbildung ist.” ... Herder here considers the Volk as having the kind of soul which would be formed by contact with the forces of nature, unaltered by the hand of man, and, especially, little touched by reflection, the reasoning faculty.

II, 349: “Alles was für das Volk redete und schrieb, Redner, und Geschichtsschreiber, musste populär sprechen; alles was für Gebildetere schrieb, Dichter, und Philosoph, und Redner, und Briefschreiber war freyer.” This statement clearly opposes Volk to those more cultured. The adjective, “populär,” used with reference to that which would befit them, gives a shading to the meaning of Volk, derived from the meaning of “popular,” that which partakes of a quality peculiar to the populace. Volk here are the less cultured.

V
CONNATIONS ARISING FROM USES WITH ADJECTIVES

These imply an emphasis on a group in which crudeness, the natural as opposed to the cultured and polished, are eulogized.

XIII, 299: “Jedes eingebohrne sinnliche Volk hat sich also mit seinen Begriffen auch in seine Gegend umschränkt.”

XIII, 303: “Was ich auszuzeichnen habe sind einige allgemeine Wahrnehmungen aus diesem Schattenreich phantasierender Völker.”

Herder gives as an example of the phantasierender Völker the people of Greenland, India, Lappland, Japan, Peru, and Africa at a period of their existence when they have a mythology. The mythology he calls a philosophical effort of the human soul, which dreams before it awakens and gladly remains in its childhood.

XIII, 328: “Auch unter den wildesten Völkern unterscheidet sich das Weib vom Mann.”

XIII, 389: “Daher ist auch bei den rohesten Völkern die Sprache der Religion immer die älteste.”

XIII, 392: “die göttlichen Gesetze und Regeln der Humanität, die sich wenn auch nur in Resten bei dem wildesten Volk äussern.”

XIII, 393: “Von den rohen Völkern der Vorwelt.”

V, 681: “.... wie die Römische Staatskunst mit den Deutschen Fürsten spielte; und die Grundverfassung dieser Barbarischen Völker in Freiheit und Einigung zu erschüttern suchte.”

XXV, 7: “Rohe Gesänge eines rohen Volks! Barbarische Töne und Märchen, der Grundsuppe einer Nation.”

XXV, 7: “Ohne Zweifel war das Gallische, Englische und noch mehr das Nordischere Volk blos Volk!”

XXV, 8: “Und wenn man sich nun diese Lieder..... in die lebendige Rührung des Volks zurückdenkt.”

XXV, 9: “die Denkart der Nation selbst National; das Volk mit ein so ansehnlicher Theil des Volks dessen Namen man also nicht so Schaamroth oder eckelnd und betroffen ansah und abscheute.”

XXV, 11: “die Reste aller lebendigen Volksdenkart rollen mit beschleunigtem letzten Sturze in Abgrund der Vergessenheit hinab. Das Licht der sogenannten Kultur frisst wie der Krebs um sich.”

COMPOUNDS WITH VOLK

Words compounded with Volk show all the various meanings distinguished in the following simple usages.

XXIV, 268: “Wenn Du Deine Ballade einem jungen Bauermädchen aus einem Thale .... gäbest die ausser den Kirchenliedern .... oder sonst einem alten schlichten Gesang nie eine Musik gehört dabei jedoch von Natur eine angenehmere und für den Zweck deines Gedichts passendere Volks-Melodie wählen als irgend einer unserer grössten Virtuosen.”

XXIV, 280: “Ein engerer Bund zwischen Gott und dem Stammvater eines Hirtenvolks wird darauf dieses Volks Losung.” This Hirtenvolk is the Hebrews.

XXIV, 305: “dieser grosse Völkerstamm sich nicht von Nord nach Süden hinab sondern von Gallien Nordwärts.” This Völkerstamm is the Irish and Scotch.

XXIV, 307: “nur so viel ist gewiss dass die allgemeine Volkssage Ossian einige Jahrhunderte später leben lässt.”

XXIV, 399: “und da sie Gesetzgeber, Volksleiter waren.”

I, 86: “Die herumschweifenden Beduinen sind noch solche Rhapsodisten als Homer war: sie sammeln einen Volkhaufen um sich.”

I, 157: “so wie das Völkerrecht jetzt im Staat zum Gesez ward.”

V, 8: “Eigentlich ist diese Sprache der Natur eine Völkersprache für jede Gattung unter sich und so hat auch der Mensch die Seinige.”

V, 132: “Eine Morgenländische Urkunde über die Trennung der Sprachen (die ich hier nur als ein Poetisches Fragment zur Archäologie der Völkergeschichte betrachte).”

V, 218: “Shakespeare .... fand keinen so einfachen Volks- und Vaterlandscharakter.”

V, 486: “Wie tausendmal mehr thöricht wenn du einem Kinde .... deine allgemeine Völkerliebe voll tolerante Unterjochung .... gönnen wolltest!”

V, 493: “ob der Phönicier gleich nicht aus Menschenliebe, Nationen besuchte, es ward eine Art von Völkerliebe, Völkerbekanntschaft, Völkerrecht sichtbar.”

XXV, 5: “Dünkts mich indessen recht, dass wenn auch diese nie ganz erwünschbare Vaterlandsschätze gefunden würden, sie doch kaum Volks-Vaterlands-Lieder für uns im strengern Verstande wären.”

XXV, 6: “nur mit den Augen sehen und mit dem Herzen verstehen .... wie es allemal Volksrührung ist und seyn sollte.”

XXV, 10: “Natürlich musste auch die Denkart und ruhige Volksart der Deutschen an dem ewigen Zwistgewitter theilnehmen.”

XXV, 313: “ganz Volksartig, d.i. leicht, einfach, aus Gegenständen und in der Sprache der Menge.”

XXV, 314: “Der grösste Sänger der Griechen Homerus ist zugleich der grösste Volksdichter. Sein herrliches Ganze ist .... Sage lebendige Volksgeschichte.”

XXV, 316: “und doch ist überall der alte ehrwürdige Volkssänger der einfältige Hirt.”

XXV, 323: “Zum Volkssänger gehört nicht, dass er aus dem Pöbel sein muss, oder für den Pöbel singt.”

XXIV, 263: “Heisst also die Romanze, obwohl ihr nachher der Gebrauch eine engere Bedeutung gegeben eigentlich nichts als Muttersprache der südlichen Länder Europens und in ihnen Volksrede, Volksgesang.”

XXIV, 265: “die alten Englischen und Schottischen Volksgesänge.”

XXIV, 267: “Und so wäre mit echten Volksgesange abermals nicht etwa nur ein Hauptzweig alter, edler, rühmlicher und Ruhmweckender Poesie sondern der Grund aller Poesie die innere Rechtschaffenheit und Honnettetät im Herzen des Volks—ermordet.”

XXIV, 411: “Ungebundenheit (License) soll Endzweck der Regierung sein: Volkslaune (populare humour) Ursprung der Regierung.”

XIII, 39: “Die Abessinier sind ein Arabischer ‘Völkerstamm’ (race).”

XIII, 214: “Völkerschaften die den Dörfern und Städten nah sind mildern und mischen auch mehr ihre Sitten und Züge.”

XIII, 231: “Kennten wir nun noch die zahlreichen Völkerschaften die über ihren dürren Gegenden .... wohnen.”

XIII, 392: “so ist dieser Begriff, als allgemeiner Volksglaube auf der Erde.”

XIII, 427: “Priester- und Volkstradition.”

XIII, 437: “Geschlechtstafel dieser Stämme .... hält sich in den Schranken ihrer Völkerkunde und ihres Erdstrichs.”

XIII, 438: “.... widerspricht nicht nur der Zeitrechnung und der gesammten Völkergeschichte.”

XV, 124: “Damit ich mich des altdeutschen Volksausdrucks bediene.” “Aus dem Latein kam er ins Englische ins Deutsche, wie mehrere Wörter und noch ist er in der Volkssprache.” Herder is discussing the word Priamel which he says is perhaps from the Latin praeambulum. Volk in the two compounds must mean the less learned.

V, 493: “nun müsste der Bewohner des Schiffs und der Küste der expatrirte Seestreicher und Völkerläufer dem Bewohner des Zelts und der Ackerhütte ein ganz anderes Geschöpf dünken.”

V, 501: “Völkerrecht.”

V, 515: “Ihre Feudaleinrichtung wie untergrub sie das Gewühl Volkreicher üppiger Städte.”

The foregoing citations indicate two distinct senses in which Herder uses the term Volk:

Volk is equivalent to nation; nation carrying the idea of a group bound together by blood or language or government, or by all three. As such, a Volk is a collective personality, has a marked individuality, and is characterized by a national spirit.

2. (a) Volk is a race or a nation that never advanced beyond primitive grades of culture; that therefore never was subject to what he considers the deteriorating and degrading effects of higher civilization; (b) Volk is a group to be found within a civilized nation; a group which has retained the primitivism just noted above. Primitivism then is characteristic of all Volk included in section II. This primitivism whether in the entire race or in a special portion is always eulogized. These primitive specimens have the most pronounced racial individuality because civilization has not interfered with the influences of environment.

CHAPTER III
CONCEPTIONS OF VOLK AS GATHERED FROM HERDER’S COLLECTION OF VOLKSLIEDER

That Herder’s conception of that group of people which he calls Volk bears relationship to a certain genre of poetry is implied in the fact that he first coined the word Volkslied:

“Volkslied, n. von Herder, August, 1771 geprägt.” F. L. K. Weigand, Deutsches Wörterbuch, Giessen; Verlag von Alfred Töpelmann, 1909.

“Volkslied zuerst von Herder.” M. Heyne, Deutsches Wörterbuch, Leipzig; Verlag von S. Hirzel, 1895.

Herder himself has made a collection of specimens of this peculiar type of song. According to his own statements these poems bear the distinguishing marks of that sort of people which he has in mind as being distinctively Volk. In his essay, Ähnlichkeit der mittlern englischen und deutschen Dichtkunst, he says:

Alle unpolizirte Völker singen und handeln; was sie handeln singen sie und singen Abhandlung. Ihre Gesänge sind das Archiv des Volks der Schatz ihrer Wissenschaft und Religion ihrer Theogonie und Kosmogenien der Thaten ihrer Väter und der Begebenheiten ihrer Geschichte, Abdruck ihres Herzens, Bild ihres häuslichen Lebens in Freude und Leid, beim Brautbett und Grabe.

Herder’s collections are from national bodies of people. We ought to find among these groups of songs common factors which would not be found as such in that body of poetry which Herder excludes as not being Volk songs.

Further, we should be able to reduce these common factors to lowest terms which would embody some interpretation of Herder’s conception of Volk: “Das sind einmal alte Nationalstücke die das Volk singt, und sang, woraus man also die Denkart des Volks, ihre Sprache der Empfindung kennen lernet.”

VOLK SONGS COLLECTED BY HERDER

DANISH—FOUR PIECES

Content—themes: love, marriage, fairy tales.

Form—rhythm and rhyme marked; often irregular.

Method of appeal—concrete.

GERMAN—SIXTY-TWO PIECES

Content—themes: love, war, religion, dance, court life, rural life, fairy tales, domestic life.

Form—rhythm and rhyme marked; often irregular.

Method of appeal—concrete pictures; abstract thinking.

ENGLISH AND SCOTCH—THREE PIECES

Content—themes: love, war, religion, domestic life, idyllic scenes, court life, vengeance, ghost and fairy tales.

Form—marked rhyme and rhythm; blank verse, irregular rhyme and rhythm.

Method of appeal—concrete pictures; abstract thinking; deep reflecting; dramatic presentations.

ESTHONIAN—FIVE PIECES

Content—themes: love, war, marriage, tyranny.

Form—marked rhythm and rhyme.

Method of appeal—somewhat concrete.

FRENCH—THIRTEEN PIECES

Content—themes: love, idyllic scenes, court life, domestic life, phenomena of nature, classic mythology.

Form—marked rhyme and rhythm.

Method of appeal—concrete pictures, abstract thinking.

GALLIC (OSSIAN)—SIX PIECES

Content—themes: love, war, religion, death, personified nature.

Form—little rhyme, rhythm often marked but irregular.

Method of appeal—concrete, vivid visual and auditory pictures, dramatic presentations.

GREEK—SEVEN PIECES

Content—themes: friendship, freedom, marriage, love.

Form—rhyme and rhythm, sometimes irregular.

Method of appeal—direct and concrete.

GREENLAND—ONE PIECE

Content—theme: death.

Form—parallelism.

Methods of appeal—concrete.

ITALIAN—FIVE PIECES

Content—theme: hope, care, springtime, love.

Form—rhythm regular.

Method of appeal—concrete and abstract.

LAPLAND—TWO PIECES

Content—theme: love for animals, love.

Form—rhythm regular.

Method of appeal—concrete.

LATIN—SIX PIECES

Content—theme: temptation, marriage, religion.

Form—rhythm, rhyme, sometimes irregular.

Method of appeal—concrete, abstract.

LETTIC—FIVE PIECES

Content—theme: love, marriage, springtime, lordship.

Form—rhythm and rhyme.

Method of appeal—concrete.

LITHUANIAN—NINE PIECES

Content—love, marriage, war, idyllic scenes, fairy tales.

Form—rhythm, rhyme, often irregular.

Method of appeal—concrete pictures, abstract thinking.

SKALDIC—TEN PIECES

Content—themes: mythology, battle.

Form—rhythm is regular.

Method of appeal—concrete, rugged.

PERUVIAN—TWO PIECES

Content—theme: mythological, love.

Form—rhyme irregular, rhythm.

Method of appeal—somewhat concrete.

SPANISH—THIRTY-FOUR PIECES

Content—themes: love, war, religion, court and city life.

Form—rhyme and rhythm quite regular.

Method of appeal—moralizing and abstract thinking. Few concrete pictures.

This investigation of these poems leads to the following: Each group of poems embodies an expression of personality, individuality which grows out of peculiar environment; not merely physical environment, but also social, political, and religious environment. Each, either in content, form, or in its method of appeal, sometimes in all three, bears traces of the milieu out of which it sprung.

The notes of waning glory and ancestral lament of Ossian gain their character from a different period in the life of the nation from that recorded in the Moorish battle songs in the Spanish collection.

The ruggedness of the Skaldic poetry bespeaks a roughness in climate and scenery not to be found in the French poems.

The mythology of the Scotch Highlanders and of the Norsemen, depicted in their poetry, is different indeed from the Mohammedanism of which the Spanish pieces speak.

The English and German songs which are characterized by Christian customs are colored neither by Mohammedanism, Gallic, nor Classic mythology. The deep reflective moods of the Shakespeare specimens grew out of a social and intellectual environment entirely the opposite of that in which the concrete and vivid pictures of many of Percy’s Reliques had their birth.

In all this difference, the common feature is that individuality is expressed. Individual traits appear within each group. Racial consciousness distinguishes one group from the other.

Now personality and individuality are corner stones in Herder’s system of thought. His discussion of Lessing’s “Laokoon” sets forth the principle that true art will be characterized by these.[9]

Herder’s philosophy is also emphatic in showing that all art is shaped by the environment out of which it grew. The essays “Shakespeare,” “Homer und Ossian,” and “Vom Geist der Ebräischen Poesie” are replete with such thought.

The art of every nation then will bear national imprint. The national stamp, this expression of personality and individuality, both products of various kinds of environment, belongs to Herder’s conception of Volk wherever the idea is identical with that of nation or race.

Now the preceding chapter has shown that however often Herder uses the term as synonymous with nation or race, he has also a distinctive and a sort of esoteric use.

The evidence that poetry has been shaped by environment and expresses the individual consciousness of a group of people cannot be taken as conclusive evidence that the group from which it emanated belongs to Herder’s Volk of the specific type, for Herder excludes from the category of Volkslieder that poetry which bears the imprint of scholastic and pedantic cultural milieu to the extent that certain primitive traits find no expression.

Another common factor, then, must be sought which is distinctive of people in this more restricted sense.

The way in which the material is presented is what I have called in my analysis of the pieces “the method of appeal.” There is no common basis on which we can place the specimens viewing them from this side. Many of them present vivid visual and auditory pictures. Many others are marked by abstract thinking or sober reflection. Some are dramatic presentations, others are simple descriptions. Some are cold moralizing; others expressions of strong emotions.

All of these selections are in some kind of rhythmic form. It may be parallelism, rhythmical blank verse, or marked feet and rhyme. But we cannot make use of this as a very definite factor, since many specimens are translations which cannot preserve the original exactly. However, we have in the original the English and Scotch, the Ossian and the German collections. All of these present a form of rhythm which is usually so irregular that it would not meet the demands for measured feet, verses, and rhyme to be found in the highly polished and formal poetry. Now in his discussion of rhythmic forms in poetry Herder indicates that the human love for rhythm has its foundations in the physiological processes and symmetry of the body: Der Pulsschlag der Natur, dies Athemholen der Empfindung ist in allen Reden des Affekts ... in der Poesie ... die doch eigentlich Rede des Affekts seyn soll.

The people who produced this poetry, then, were close to nature in their forms of rhythmical speech.

The content of these poems remains to be considered.

Among the Esthonian pieces is a little love song which Herder has heard the harvesters sing at work. It is idyllic in setting. Thoughts of love are all-abounding. Happiness amidst rural scenes is common among all nations.

“König Ludwig” is an Old High German battle song which interweaves thoughts of God and religion; subjects which never cease to engage the attention of mankind.

Wiegenlied einer unglücklichen Mutter, a Scotch mother’s song of unfaithful love; the poem has a setting in domestic life. Litthauische Daina—song of the departure of a young bride who goes to her new home; domestic life and custom are the themes. There is sadness at leaving the home of her girlhood.

These embody expressions of common, human feelings.

A number of the Spanish songs have their scenes laid in the city and at court; but they sing of love, vengeance, and jealousy—all of which are intensely human.

Erlkönigs Tochter, is a Danish piece which sings of elves. Thoughts of the supernatural are among all mankind.

Frühlingslied, is an Italian piece which rejoices at the coming of the flowers and birds and the budding of the trees. This season always awakens human happiness.

Röschen auf der Heide presents personified nature. Such personification is among all men.

Totenlied comes from Greenland. All peoples bemoan and eulogize their dead in song.

Tanzlied is German. Nearly every collection has pieces which present the rhythm and joyous emotions of the dance. This kind of pleasure is common among all races.