Thirty-eight wagons, each loaded with 40,000 rix dollars, in specie, crossed the bridge yesterday, as the first third of our contribution to Napoleon! BÖTTIGER TO SCHÜTZ. Dresden, Jan. 3, 1808. My old and worthy friend, a thousand thanks for your letter, the carrier-pigeon, with its message of peace, which, under the most favorable omens, flew into my cell exactly on new-year's day. When, instead of the steel, the silver glitters again, we will strike a silver medal, on the face of which shall be placed the lyre of Apollo, with the words, suscitat tacentem, and on the reverse, a cased quiver, with the words, neque semper tendit. The restoration of the Halle university deserves a pæan. Happy for you, if you can remain Jeromites. Happy every one who has already passed through the transformation. We Saxons are yet in the chrysalis state. But our turn will certainly come, and probably very soon. Be so kind as to forward me some good accounts. I cannot tell you how it troubled me, to think of your straying off to Berlin. Your journal could never flourish there. It must lie on the breast of a university town. Loder, Froriep, and all the exiles will undoubtedly return to Halle now. How will it be with Sprengel? BÖTTIGER TO SCHÜTZ. Dresden, Jan. 24, 1808. My dear friend, my cordial thanks for your two welcome letters. How heartily do I sympathize with you in all your joy at the prospects of your resuscitated university! But satisfy my mind on one point;-whence are your funds to be obtained? Silesia withdraws its 6000 rix dollars; and where are the disposable funds of Westphalia? Father Heyne writes me that all the universities of the new kingdom are to be continued, but are to depend on their own means! I have just read confidential letters from high officers in Westphalia. “A kingdom of beggars" is the result of all. King Jerome certainly means well; but can the higher power, which only takes, favor this? To-morrow our two deputies go to Cassel, to lay upon the altar the fair cantles of Thuringia and those on the Elbe, which a single hapless stroke of the pen robbed us of. The condition of Saxony is by no means enviable. We have been so long clipped on all sides, and bled, that nothing will be left but water for the dropsy. The saddest accounts reach the consistory that the sources of their revenue are every where drying up. I have delivered the message and the letter to the excellent Bachmann. He will re-cast the review of Thurot's Excerpts, and write to you. I perceive my review of Millin is printed. May I repeat my request for two copies? I must now husband every moment of time, in order to go on with my lectures on mythology, for which I have nothing collected, except what is in my head. At the close of each, I distribute printed sheets, for the purpose of review. I send you such as are already printed. They will need to be treated with great indulgence, being designed only for my hearers, among whom, however, I have the satisfaction of seeing two of our own ministers, two presidents, and six foreign ambassadors, Bourgoing himself at their head. I have determined to publish all these in a fuller and more exact form, as the second part of my Outlines of Lectures on Archaeology. I beg you to make faithful strictures on these. The remainder shall Where could I find a more instructive be sent to you. BÖTTIGER TO SCHÜTZ. Dresden, March 28, 1812. Professor Jacob, a bold champion of science from among you, has just brought me your salutation, my noble old friend. It does me good to learn that you continue to act so stoutly and vigorously. The old experienced helmsman, then, still knows how, in spite of all the sand-banks and custom-houses, to keep the literary ship afloat, and to fill it with a precious lading! That is a master-piece. Not to despair in these times, is heroism. If we all could become one kingdom,—and that is near at hand,—all the barriers between us must be thrown down. It gives me pain to hear that Griesbach is very feeble, and apparently near his end. What shall we do, when such "pillars of the church" fall? Our Reinhard also continues to be dangerously ill. Has Griesbach no where written an account of his studies, and of his literary history? When was he in England? and at whose. expense? BÖTTIGER TO SCHÜTZ. Dresden, April 5, 1812. Truly, my friend, the university of Jena, New Testament criticism, humanity, and the manly German character, have met with an irreparable loss in Griesbach's death. After learning his decease, through Bachmann, who was justly honored with the confidence of Griesbach, and of your excellent sister, I turned at once to your dedicatory epistle to him, prefixed to your edition of Cicero de Oratore. That is a monument "among the living" to his honor and your own. I made use of that in an obituary notice, which, in the first gush of my feelings, I prepared for the Leipsic Journal. BÖTTIGER TO SCHÜTZ. Dresden, Feb. 28, 1813. My old and valued friend, father Wieland, is also gone. In Osmanstädt will the nightingales long carol their vernal songs over his triple mound; but our degenerate age will peck and chatter, like mockbirds, around the poet's crown. I have placed in the accompanying inscription for him, the words, Immortuus est Ciceroni. He had finished his translation of Cicero's Letters, except the last book. I am commissioned by the publisher to request you to complete that work. You are the man. Write me by return of post. Any other literary labor,-for you certainly have several on the anvil, may wait. The manes of Wieland demand these libations of you. * * * * * * BÖTTIGER TO SCHÜTZ. Dresden, March 15, 1814. The fate of Wittenberg goes near my heart. The poor professors are mostly in exile in Schmeideberg. The villages belonging to the university are in ashes. The professors have no income, and no students. The Prussian soldiers, who are garrisoned there, say openly Wittenberg is to be a part of Prussia. I have written to Herbert Marsh, requesting him to open in Oxford and Cambridge a subscription to support the chair of Luther. * * * My removal from the Page Institute, now extinct, to the Knights' Academy causes me much labor. But I ought to thank God that my former salary is continued. You say not a word of the state of your university, though strange reports respecting it are in circulation. The noble spirit of your generous monarch will not suffer the Fredericiana to starve. You do not say whether you can complete Wieland's translation of Cicero's Letters. Gesner is dead. Who has taken up the business? I have no further accounts from Zürich. BÖTTIGER TO SCHÜTZ. Dresden, June 5, 1815. *** My fate is still undecided. Should the Knights' Academy be suspended, I shall be set entirely adrift. And with the present unavoidable reaction, there is a strong probability that it will be so. In your next, assure me, if you can, that my sentiments, as contained in my former letters to you, will induce your high-minded king to give me some appointment, if the Knights' Academy, on account of its too hasty organization, should go down. Dresden needs living interpreters of its treasures of art, to draw strangers here. Perhaps some use may be made of The minister von Bülow, and many of the officers of the Prussian government, have loudly declared themselves hostile to Humboldt's child, the Berlin university, and predict its speedy dissolution. At any rate, the Wittenberg funds will come to you. The best of the Wittenberg professors will be transferred to Leipsic, which will probably undergo a thorough reform. But you are not deficient in excellent teachers. Pölitz writes me, that the Saxon provinces, now given up to Prussia, will take from Saxony about 400 students. That would be a fine addition for Halle. Write me what is said among you on this subject. How many students remain with you? and how many lectures are actually read? A. B. CAILLARD TO SCHÜTZ. * * * Berlin, Dec. 27, 1796. *** Since your Eschylus has fallen into my hands, I have closed my Stanley, and have wished to read no |