THE

From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, September, 1818.

CHRISTIAN WOLF.

A TRUE STORY......FROM THE GERMAN,

HE arts of the surgeon and the shopkeeper arranged under the same physician derive their greatest im- head with a Borgia, just as we find the provements and discoveries from the beds edible and the poisonous heads of of the sick and the dying. Physiolo- Fungus classed together in the manuals gists draw their purest lights from the of Botany? hospital and the madhouse. It becomes the psycologist, the moralist, the legislator, to follow the example, and to study with like zeal dungeons and executions, above all courts of justice, the dissecting rooms of guilt.

Nothing can be more useless, more absurd, than the manner in which history is commonly written. Between the strong and excited passions of the men of whom we read, and the calm meditative state of mind in which we read of In the whole history of mankind, them, there exists little sympathy. The there is no chapter more abounding in gulf between the historical subject and instruction, both for the heart and the the reader is so wide, that things which intellect, than that which contains the ought to excite in our breasts emotions annals of their transgressions. In every of a very different character, are passed great offence some great power is set in by with a far-off shudder of unconcern. motion; and that machinery which We shake the head coldly when the escapes observation in the dim light of heart should be alive and trembling. ordinary transactions, when its opera- We contemplate the unhappy being tions are commanded by some stronger who, in the moment of conceiving,planpassion, gains from their influence the ning, executing, expiating his guilt, distinctness of colossal magnitude. The was still a man like ourselves, as if delicate observer, who understands the he were some creature whose blood mechanism of our nature, and knows flowed ot with the same pulse, whose how far we may venture to reason by passions obeyed not the same law analogy from one man to another with ours. We are little interested in from great guilt to small-may learn his fortunes, for all sympathy with the much from contemplating these terrible fate of our neighbour arises from some displays. remote belief in the possibility of its

By those who study the hearts of men, one day becoming our own; and we are at least as many points of likeness as of very far, in instances such as these, contrast will be discovered. The same from desiring to claim any such coninclination or passion may display itself nexion. It is thus that the instruction in a thousand different forms and fash- is lost, and that what night have been ions, produce a thousand irreconcilable a school of wisdom, becomes merely phenomena, be found mixed in the tex- a pastime for our curiosity.

ture of a thousand characters, apparent- We are more interested in discoverly of the most opposite conformation. ing how a man came to will and conTwo men may, beth in action and cha- ceive a crime, than how he perpetratracter, be essentially kindred to each ed it. His thoughts concern us more other, and yet neither of them for a mo- than his deeds, and the sources of the ment suspect the resemblance. Should former much more than the consemen, like other departments of the king- quences of the latter.. Men have scrudom of nature, be at any time so fortu- tinized the depths of Vesuvius, in o nate as to find a Linnæus, one who der to learn the cause of its burning: should classify them according to ten- Why is it that moral attract less attendencies and inclinations, how would tion than physical phenomena ? Why individuals stare at the result of his la- is it that we are contented to observe bours? how, for example, should we nothing in the human volcano but its be astonished to find some quiet paltry eruption?

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Christian Wolf.

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How many a maiden might have away the little he gained from his share preserved her innocent pride, had she in the profits of the Sun. Too idle learned to view with somewhat less of and too ignorant to think of supporting horror and hatred her fallen sisters, his extravagance by speculation; too and to regard the experience as some- proud to descend from Mine Host into thing that might be useful to herself. a plain peasant, he saw only one way How many a careless man might save to escape from his difficulties-a way himself from ruin, would he conde- to which thousands before and after him scend to hear and study the history of have had recourse theft. Bielsdorf the prodigal, whom folly has already is, as you know,situated on the edge of made a beggar! if from contemplat- the forest; Wolf commenced deering the slow progress of vice, we derive stealer, and poured the gains of his no other lesson, we must at least learn boldness into the lap of his mistress. to be less confident in ourselves, and less intolerant towards others.

Whether the offender, of whom I am about to speak, had lost all claim to our sympathy, I shall leave my reader to decide for himself. What we think of him can give himself no trouble; his blood has already flowed upon the scaffold.

Among Hannah's lovers was one of the forester's men, Robert Horn. This man soon observed the advantage which Wolf had gained over her, by means of his presents, and set himself to detect the sources of so much liberality. He began to frequent the Sun; he drank there early and late; and sharpened as his eyes were, both by jealousy and poverty, it was not long beChristian Wolf was the son of an fore he discovered whence all the mofunkeeper at Bielsdorf, who, after the ney came. Not many months before death of his father, continued till his this time a severe edict had been pub20th year to assist his mother in the lished against all trespassers on the management of the house. The inn forest laws. Horn was indefatigable was a poor one, and Wolf had many idle hours. Even before he left school he was regarded as an idle losse lad; the girls complained of his rudeness, and the boys, when detected in any mischief, were sure to give up him as the ringleader. Nature had neglected his person. His figure was small and unpromising; his hair was of a coarse greasy black; his nose was flat; and his upper lip, originally too thick, and twisted aside by a kick from a horse, was such as to disgust the women, and furnished a perpetual subject of jesting to the men. The contempt showered upon his person was the first thing but passion and revenge held him fast which wounded his pride, and turned a portion of his blood to gall.

in watching the secret motions of his rival, and at last he was so fortunate as to detect him in the very fact. Wolf was tried, and found guilty; and the fine which he paid in order to avoid the statutory punishment amounted to the sum-total of his property.

Horn triumphed. His rival was driven from the field, for Hannah had no notion of a beggar for a lover. Wolf well knew his enemy, and he knew that this enemy was the happy possessor of his Hannah. Pride, jealousy, rage, were all in arms within him; hunger set the wide world before him,

at Bielsdorf. A second time he decame a deer-stealer, and a second time, by the redoubled vigilance of Robert Horn, was he detected in the trespass, This time he experienced the full severity of the law; he had no money to pay a fine, and was sent straightway to the house of chastisement.

He was resolved to gain what was every where denied him; his passions were strong enough; and he soon per. suaded himself that he was in love. The girl he selected treated him coldly, and he had reason to fear that his rivals were happier than himself. Yet the The year of punishment drew near maiden was poor; and what was its close, and found his passion inrefused to his vows might perhaps be creased by absence, his confidence granted to his gifts; but he was him- buoyant under all the pressure of his self needy, and his vanity soon threw calamities. The moment his freedom

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was given to him, he hastened to Biels- They sung songs whose atrocity at first dorf, to throw himself at the feet of horrified me, but which I, a shame- ̈ Hannah. He appears, and is avoided faced fool, soon learned to echo. No by every one. The force of necessity day passed over, wherein I did not at last humbles his pride, and overcomes hear the recital of some profligate life, his delicacy. He begs from the wealthy the triumphant history of some rascal, of the place; he offers himself as a the concoction of some audacious vilAt first I avoided as much as day-labourer to the farmers, but they lany. despise his slim figure, and do not stop I could these men, and their discourfor a moment to compare him with his ses. But my labour was hard and sturdier competitors. He makes a last tyrannical, and in my hours of repose attempt. One situation is yet vacant I could not bear to be left alone, with-the last of honest occupations. He out one face to look upon. The jailoffers himself as herdsman of the swine ors had refused me the company of my upon the town's common; but even dog, so I needed that of men, and here he is rejected; no man will trust for this I was obliged to pay by the any thing to the jail-bird. Meeting sacrifice of whatever good there rewith contempt from every eye, chased mained within me. By degrees I grew with scorn from one door to another, accustomed to every thing; and in the he becomes yet the third time a deer- last quarter of my confinement I surstealer, and for the third time his un- passed even my teachers. "From this time I thirsted after happy star places him in the power of his enemy. freedom, after revenge, with a burnThis double backsliding goes against ing thirst. All men had injured me, him at the judgment-seat; for every for all were better and happier than I. judge can look into the book of the I gnashed my fetters with my teeth, law, but few into the soul of the cul- when the glorious sun rose up above prit. The forest edict requires an ex- the battlements of my prison, for a emplary punishment, and Wolf is wide prospect doubles the hell of duThe free wind that whistled condemned to be branded on the back rance. with the mark of the gallows, and to through the loop-holes of my turret, three years' hard labour in the fortress. and the swallow that poised itself up

This period also went by, and he on the grating of my window, seemed once more dropt his chains; but he to be mocking me with the view of was no longer the same man that en- their liberty; and that rendered my It was then that tered the fortress. Here began a new misery more bitter. epoch in the life of Wolf. You shall I vowed eternal glowing hatred to guess the state of his mind from his every thing that bears the image of man -and I have kept my vow. own words to his Confessor.

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"I went to the fortress," said he, My first thought, after I was set "an offender, but I came out of it a at liberty, was once more my native villain. I had still had something in town. I had no hope of happiness the world that was dear to me, and my there, but I had the dear hope of repride had not totally sunk under my venge. My heart beat quick and high shame. But here I was thrown into against my bosom, when I beheld, afar the company of three and twenty con- off, the spire arising from out the trees. victs; of these, two were murderers,* It was no longer that innocent hearty the rest were all notorious thieves and expectation which preceded my first reThe recollection of all the misevagabonds. They jeered at me if I turn. spake of God; they taught me to utter ry, of all the persecution I had experiblasphemies against the Redeemer, enced there, aroused my faculties from a terrible dead slumber of sullenness,

In some parts of Germany no man can suffer

the least severity of the law, unless he confess his set all my wounds a-bleeding, every guilt. The clearest evidence is not received as an nerve a-jarring within me. I redoub ed equivalent. Even murderers have right to this inlieu of immediate death) indulgence it may be mies with the horror of my aspect-I dulgence, if indeed (considering what they suiter in my pace-I longed to startle my ene

called.

2W ATHENEUM. Vol. 4.

thirsted after new contempts as much the scale of life than myself. as I had ever shuddered at the old.

never loved her.

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I had

"The clocks were striking the hour "My mother was dead. My small of vespers as I reached the market-place. house had been sold to pay my credi- . The crowd was rushing to the church- tors. I asked nothing more. I drew door. I was immediately recognized; near to no man. All the world fled every man that knew me shrunk from from me like a pestilence, but I had meeting me. Of old I had loved the at last forgotten shame. Formerly I little children, and even now, seeking in hated the sight of men, because their their innocence a refuge from the scorn contempt was insufferable to me. of others, I threw a small piece of money Now I threw myself in the way, and to the first I saw. The boy stared at found a savage delight in scattering me for a moment, and then dashed the horror around me. I had nothing coin at my face. Had my blood boiled more to lose, why then should I conless furiously, I might have recollected ceal myself? Men expected no good that I still wore my prison beard, and from me, why should they have any? that was enough to account for the I was made to bear the punishment of terror of the infant. But my hard sins I had never committed. My inheart had blinded my reason, and famy was a capital, the interest of which tears, tears such as I had never wept, was not easy to be exhausted. leaped down my cheeks.

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The whole earth was before me; The child, said I to myself, half in some remote province I might peraloud, knows not who I am, nor haps have sustained the character of whence I came, and yet he avoids me an honest man, but I had lost the delike a beast of prey. Am I then mark- sire of being, nay, even of seeming such. ed upon the forehead like Cain, or Contempt and shame had taken from bave I ceased to be like a man, since me even this last relick of myself,—my all men spurn me?' The aversion of resource, now that I had no honour, the child tortured me more than all was to learn to do without it. Had my three years' slavery, for I had done my vanity and pride survived my inhim good, and I could not accuse him famy, I must have died by my own of hating me. hand.

"I sat down in a wood-yard over "What I was to do, I myself knew against the church; what my wishes not. I was determined, however, to were I know not; but I remember it do evil; of so much I have some dark was wormwood to my spirits, that none recollection. I was resolved to see the of my old acquaintances should have worst of my destiny. The laws, said vouchsafed me a greeting-no, not I to myself, are benefits to the world, one. When the yard was locked up, it is fit that I should offend them; I unwillingly departed to seek a lodg- formerly I had siuned from levity and ing; in turning the corner of a street, necessity, but I now sinned from free I ran against my Hannah: Mine host choice, and for my pleasure. of the Sun,' cried she, and opened her "My first step was to the woods, arms as if to embrace me- You here The chase had by degrees become to again, my dear Wolf, God be thanked me as a passion; I thirsted, like a for your return!'-Hunger and wretch- lover, after thick brakes and headlong edness were expressed in her scanty leaps, and the mad delight of rushing raiment; a shameful disease had mar- along the bare earth beneath the pines. red her countenance; her whole ap- Besides, I must live. But these were pearance told me what a wretched crea- not all. I hated the prince who had ture she had become. I saw two or published the forest edict, and I bethree dragoons laughing at her from a lieved, that in injuring him, I should window, and turned my back, with a only exercise my natural right of retallaugh louder than theirs, upon the sol- iation. The chance of being taken dier's trull. It did me good to find no longer troubled me, for now I had that there was something yet lower in a bullet for my discoverer, and I wel!

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knew the certainty of my aim. I slew man yielded up his spirit. Long stood every animal that came near me, the I speechless by the corpse; at last I greater part of them rotted where they forced a wild laugh, and cried, no died; for I neither had the power, more tales from the wood now, my nor the wish, to sell more than a few friend!' I drew him into the thicket of them beyond the barriers. Myself with his face upwards! The eyes stood lived wretchedly; except on powder stiff, and stared upon me. I was seand shot, I expended nothing. My rious enough, and silent too. The devastations were dreadful, but no feeling of solitude began to press grievsuspicion pursued me. My appear- ously upon my soul. ance was too poor to excite any, and "Up till this time I had been acmy name had long since been forgotten. customed to rail at the over severity of "This life continued for several my destiny; now I had done somemonths.-One morning, according to thing which was not yet punished, my custom, I had pursued a stag for An hour before, no man could have many miles through the wood. For persuaded me that there existed a betwo hours I had in vain exerted every ing more wretched than myself. Now nerve, and at last I had begun to de- I began to envy myself for what even spair of my booty, when, all at once, then I had been. I perceived the stately animal exactly "The idea of God's justice never at the proper distance for my gun,- came into my mind; but I remembered a my finger was ready on the trigger, bewildered vision of ropes, and swords, when, of a sudden, my eye was caught and the dying agonies of a child-murwith the appearance of a hat, lying a deress, which I had witnessed when a few paces before me on the ground. I boy. A certain dim and fearful idea looked more closely, and perceived the lay upon my thoughts that my life was huntsman, Robert Horn, lurking be- forfeit. I cannot recollect every thing. hind a massy oak, and taking delibe- I wished that Horn were yet alive. I rate aim at the very stag I had been forced myself to call up all the evil pursuing at the sight, a deadly cold- the dead man had done when in life, ness crept through my limbs. Here but my memory was sadly gone, was the man I hated above all living Scarcely could I recollect one of all things; here he was, and within reach those thousand circumstances, which of my bullet. At this moment, it quarter of an hour before had been seemed to me as if the whole world suffered to blow my wrath into phrenwere at the muzzle of my piece, as if zy. I could not conceive how or why the wrath and hatred of a thousand I had become a murderer. lives were all quivering in the finger "I was still standing beside the that should give the murderous pres- corpse,-I might have stood there forsure. A dark fearful unseen hand was ever, when I heard the crack of a upon me; the finger of my destiny whip, and the creaking of a fruit wagpointed irrevocably to the black mo- gon passing through the wood. The inent. My arm shook as if with an spot where I had done the deed was ague, while I lifted my gun-my teeth scarcely a hundred yards from the chattered-my breath stood motionless great path. I must look to my safety. in my lungs. For a minute the barrel "I bounded like a wild deer into hung uncertain between the man and the depths of the wood; but while I the stag-a minute-and another was in my race, it struck me that the and yet one more. Conscience and re- deceased used to have a watch. In venge struggled fiercely within me, order to pass the barriers, I had need but the demon triumphed, and the of money, and yet scarcely could I buntsman fell dead upon the ground. muster up courage to approach the "My courage fell with him place of blood. Then I thought for a

Murderer! -I stammered the word moment of the devil, and, I believe,couslowly. The wood was silent as a fusedly, of the omnipresence of God. church-yard, distinctly did I hear it I called up ail my boldness, and strode

Murderer!- -As I drew near, the towards the spot, resolved to dare earth