CHAPTER IV.
THE BUYER EXAMINES WHAT IS OFFERED.
"Give me your hand, Roland," said Eric. The boy gave it, looking uptrustingly and joyfully.
"My young friend," Eric added, "I thank you for that testimony ofrespect waving yonder; but now leave us, for your father wishes tospeak with me."
Father and son looked in amazement at the man who was giving his ordersin such a free and easy manner. The boy departed, Eric nodding to himagain.
After the two men were left by themselves, for a while no word wasspoken. Herr Sonnenkamp, who always carried his cigars loose in hispocket, offered Eric a large, black, broken one, which he accepted andlighted from the match Sonnenkamp held out to him, without taking itinto his own hand.
After drawing a few whiffs, he said,--"You will certainly agree withme, that it is an impolite politeness for any one to insist on takingthe lighted match into his own hand; between this giving and taking,one generally burns his fingers."
However insignificant this remark, it served for a beginning. HerrSonnenkamp leaned back in his chair, held the cigar-smoke for a longtime in his mouth, and then blew it out in perfect rings, which, asthey floated in the air, grew larger and larger until they vanished.
"You have great influence over the boy," he said, after a while.
"I think that the attraction is mutual, and this makes me hope that Imight succeed as the boy's tutor. Only love can educate, as love onlycan create and form. An artist who does not love his calling can nevertruly create. There are, indeed, many who love a child because theygive him instruction; but I can instruct only one whom I love."
"Fine, very fine,--noble. But Roland needs a strict hand."
"Love does not exclude but rather includes strictness; he who lovesrequires perfection in himself, as well as in the object of his love,and makes the highest demands."
Sonnenkamp nodded in a very friendly, even kindly manner; but there wasa sort of sneer upon his countenance, as looking down to the ground andplacing both hands upon his knees, he said:--
"We will speak now about personal matters; for things of that sort wewill find time by and by. You are a ----?"
"Philologist by profession; but I have devoted myself, by preference,to practical education."
"I know that,--I know that," Sonnenkamp said, still looking down as hespoke.
"I should like to know something about your personal history."
He did not look up, and Eric was deeply pained at the thought of beingobliged again to become his own biographer. He felt like a man whospeaks to a sober and cool listener after drinking with a set of booncompanions. He had unfolded himself freely and spontaneously toClodwig, the day before; and to-day he must do it in order to recommendhimself to a purchaser. And so it is! The seller must always say more,and expatiate more upon his goods, than the buyer. Wealth was atyrannical power exhibiting itself under an entirely new form.
Eric, looking at the back of the man's head, and at his broadneck,--for not a glance was vouchsafed him,--very soon lost allsensitiveness as to his position of being a seeker after employment. Hewas not the receiver, but the giver. A tone of self-respect breathed inthe words which he now uttered:--
"I offer you my free labor."
On hearing this, Sonnenkamp threw up his head quickly without changinghis position, cast a rapid glance upon the speaker, and let his headimmediately drop again.
"I mean," continued Eric, "that I offer to you and to your son all thatI am, and all the knowledge and science that I have made my ownhitherto. I look for no other reward than the free unfolding of my ownactivity; and I have the feeling of freedom in doing this, sincewhatever I may accomplish I accomplish also for myself, in bringingthat actually to pass which I have striven after, and which I have laiddown as a theoretical demand."
"I know what free labor is," Sonnenkamp said, looking towards theground. Then sitting upright, he added with a smiling countenance:--
"You are not dealing with a man of learning. I think we shall comesooner to terms, if you will regard me as a common-sense man who onlywants to know the plain matter-of-fact."
"I had hoped," Eric replied, "that the introduction of Count vonWolfsgarten--"
"I esteem highly the Count von Wolfsgarten, more highly than I do anyone else; but--"
"You are right; I will give you a personal explanation," Ericinterrupted.
Was it the cigar, or was it the painful position in which he felthimself placed, that caused the sweat to start out upon Eric'sforehead? At any rate, he laid the cigar down, and perceiving with asort of surprise that he was wearing his uniform, began to explainagain that he had put it on, for that day, because Count Wolfsgartenhad advised him to do so.
Sonnenkamp again sat up wholly erect, feeling himself completelyfortified against this man, who, an entire stranger, had takenpossession of his house, his wife, his son, and thought even todomineer over him, and make him a stranger in his own home. He wouldlet the applicant talk till he was tired.
"Go on, captain," he exclaimed, laying his right hand with the fingerscrooked upon the table, and then drawing it back again, as if he haddeposited a stake at play.
Eric had now become master of all his powers, and in a tone of cheerfulgood humor, began in a wholly different style:--
"Excuse a scholar for not throwing off his scholastic method. In theold poems, before the hero enters upon his career, the parents aredescribed; and although I am no hero, and what I have to unfold is norecord of personal prowess, yet allow me to give a preliminary accountof my father and mother."
Eric once more gave a brief and concise sketch of his life. Mindful ofClodwig's advice not to say anything about his fancied mission toeducate convicts, an incident occurred to him, which he had, in anincomprehensible way, wholly passed over before. He gave an account ofhis once having had charge of a powder-mill. "I was driven away by arevolting expression of my employer. From some cause never yetexplained, the mill blew up, and four men were killed. But what said myemployer when he reached the spot? Not one word of pity for the lostmen, but 'that it was a shame for so much good powder to be lost.'"
"What was the man's name?" asked Sonnenkamp.
Eric gave one of the most distinguished names of the principality, andwas not a little surprised to hear Sonnenkamp say, "A wonderfulman,--influential and powerful."
Eric found it difficult to continue his narrative with composure afterthis incident, and ended by saying,--
"I beg that you will not regard me as a weak, restless person, forhaving so often changed my calling."
"On the contrary," Sonnenkamp declared, "I have had experience enoughboth in the old and new world, to teach me that the most capable peopleare just those who determine for themselves upon their employment.Whoever changes his calling must do so either from some externalnecessity, or from real fitness for something else. Allow me to ask onequestion. Do you believe it possible for a man who undertakes,compelled by want or because he can find nothing better to do, someemployment, I do not like to call it a service, but a dependentposition--you know what I mean, but I am not familiar with theGerman--is it possible for him to devote himself heartily to thatoccupation? Will he not always feel himself bound, under obligation toserve, and often ill at ease?"
"Your frank objection," Eric replied, "does me great honor. I know wellthat the calling of an educator requires to be made supreme, frommorning until night. Nothing can be more desirable to me than toperceive that you are as deeply interested in the matter as I couldwish."
Again a peculiar expression darted across Sonnenkamp's countenance; butEric, without appearing to perceive it, continued, in a voice full ofemotion, "It is not because I can find nothing better to do that Iapply for the position of tutor in your family. I agree with you, thathe who takes such a place merely from necessity can never fulfil itsduties, although I do not mean to assert, and unconditionally, thatinclination may not be developed, or as we say, that one may not ma
ke avirtue out of necessity. My knowledge is not great, but I have learnedwhat one must do in order to learn, and therefore I think that I amable also to instruct. As far as earnest sincerity of purpose isconcerned, I will yield to no one; and so far as I can judge, I ventureto say, that were I placed in the most favorable circumstances, I wouldenter upon the calling of an educator in a spirit of freedom, withjoyful zeal."
"Right honorable, right honorable! go on!" Sonnenkamp interposed insuch a tone that Eric was somewhat confounded, hearing as he yet did,in a measure, the echo of his own earnest utterance, now so strangelyinterrupted. In a sort of triumphant tone, Sonnenkamp continued:--
"An amateur is all very well; but I prefer a man with a profession."
"I am entirely of the same opinion," Eric answered; "and I am amazed atthe good results practically secured in the new world, by adopting adifferent course."
With constrained calmness he continued,--
"In regard to this matter, I have only one desire, and only one requestto make."
"And that is?"
Sonnenkamp again placed his hand upon the table as if he were layingdown a stake at play.
"I should like that you would not find it disagreeable to consider meat first, for some days, a guest in your house."
Eric said nothing more, hoping that Sonnenkamp would answer at once inthe affirmative; but he cracked in two, abruptly, a cigar which he hadjust lighted, and which did not seem to draw freely, and threw it awayinto the shrubbery. His face became red again, and a mocking smileplayed upon his lips, as he thought: "Very confident indeed! This youngman imagines that if he can only get a lodgment for a few days, he canso bewitch every one that he will be deemed indispensable. We shallsee!"
As he maintained a persistent silence, Eric said:--
"It would be desirable as well for you as for me, before making apermanent agreement, to know more of each other; and I especiallydesire this on Roland's account."
Sonnenkamp smiled, and watched two butterflies chasing each other,hardly giving any attention to Eric as he went on to state, that theboy seemed to him in one respect too mature, and in another not matureenough to be made acquainted with the selection of a tutor, and perhapsto have a voice in it; therefore he must first know him as a guest inthe house, and afterwards as his tutor; also it was his own desire thatRoland should not know that his tutor received pay in money, or atleast, should not know the amount.
At the word money, Sonnenkamp seemed to come out of hisbutterfly-gazing.
"What sum would you demand?" asked he, putting into his mouth a freshcigar that he had held for some time in his hand. Eric replied that itwas not for him, but for the father, to determine that.
Sonnenkamp brought his cigar to a glow with a few violent whiffs, andwith great unction declared how well he knew that no sum was largeenough to compensate adequately the painstaking duties of education andinstruction.
Then leaning back in his chair, crossing his legs, and holding on tohis left leg with the right hand, manifestly well satisfied with thisdeclaration of his noble sentiments, he said,--
"Would you be willing to give me an exposition in a few words of theprinciples and method you must employ in the training of my son?"
"The method to be marked out in any particular case, the course Ishould adopt in actual instruction, I myself do not as yet know."
"What! you yourself not even know that?"
"I must take my method from Roland himself, for it must be adapted tothe pupil's natural characteristics. Let me take an illustration fromyour own surroundings. You see here the river. The boatmen have soundedthe bottom, and knowing where the shoal-banks are, keep well clear ofthem. So must I, first of all, fathom, in the peculiar sense of thatword, the depths of Roland's nature."
Eric looking up continued:--
"Or let me take a yet more pertinent illustration. If you see that yourservants, in going from the house to the servants' quarters, take bypreference a short cut over a grass-plot artistically measured and laidout, you will, if it is possible, give in to this beaten track, and notobstinately adhere to your artificial plan, however correct itmay be, and however much in conformity with the principles oflandscape-gardening. You will adopt this natural foot-path as a part ofyour plan. This is the method adapted to circumstances. Suchthoroughfares are found also in human beings."
Sonnenkamp smiled; he had, in fact, tried very hard, by means ofstringent prohibitions, to keep a bed of shrubbery in the middle of thecourt-yard free from foot-passengers, and finally had laid out apathway through it.
"Agreed as to the method, but how about the principles?" He smiled withself-satisfaction, for he perceived how nice a distinction he haddrawn. The man had made him conscious that, in an intellectualstruggle, he had here no mean antagonist.
"Here I must take a wider range," resumed Eric. "The great contest,which runs through the history of humanity and the whole of human life,shows itself in the most direct way in the training of one human beingby another; for here the two elementary forces confront each other asliving personalities. I may briefly designate them as individuality andauthority, or historic civilization and nature."
"I understand--I understand, go on!" was thrown in encouragingly bySonnenkamp, when Eric paused for a moment, anxious not to get lost ingeneralities.
"The educator is necessarily the representative of authority, and thepupil is a personality by the very endowment of nature," resumed Eric."There is continually then a balance to be adjusted between the two, atreaty of peace to be made between the contending forces, which shallat last become a real reconciliation. To train one merely as anindividual is to place a child of humanity outside of actual existence,and for the sake of freedom to isolate him from the common life, andmake it burdensome to him; to subject him merely to prescribed laws isto rob him of his inborn rights. The human being is a law to himself,but he is also born into a system of laws. It was the great mistake ofJean Jacques Rousseau, and the French Revolution, that in theirindignation at the traditions contradictory to reason, they thoughtthat an individual and an age could develop everything from themselves.A child of humanity neither contains all within himself, nor can hereceive all from without. I think then that there is a mingling of thetwo elements, and there must be an hourly and an imperceptibleinfluence exerted both from within and from without equally, inasmuchas man is a product of nature and a product of history. It is throughthe last, only, that man is distinguished from the beasts, and becomesan heir of all the labors and all the strength of the pastgenerations."
Sonnenkamp nodded acquiescingly. His whole mien said, This man laysdown very aptly what he heard yesterday from the lecturer's desk; andEric continued,--
"Man alone comes into an inheritance, and an inheritance is theheaviest human responsibility."
"That is something new to me. I should like to ask for a fullerexplanation."
"Permit me to illustrate: the beast receives from nature, from birth,nothing except its individual strength and its stationary instinctivecapacity, while the human being receives from his progenitors and fromhumanity a superadded strength which he has not in himself, but ofwhich he becomes possessor, and so he is the only inheritor. And let mesay further, that it is difficult to decide whether it is harder toturn to good advantage that which a man is in himself, or that which hemay receive, as for example your son will, as an inheritance. Mostpersons are of account only through what they possess. I consider thislast of no trifling importance, but--"
"Wealth is no sin, and poverty is no virtue," Sonnenkamp interrupted."I admit the depth and fineness of your perception in all this. Iconfess it is new to me, and I think that you have taken the rightview. But whether, in the education of one individual boy, you shallfind occasion for such great fundamental principles--"
"While engaged in the work of instruction," Eric quietly replied, "Ishall not be likely to have directly before my eyes universalprinciples, as everything must be developed from its own basis. Whileone is loading, aiming, an
d firing off a musket, he does not define tohimself the various physical laws that come into play, but he must knowthem in order to proceed in the right way."
Sonnenkamp was rather tired of this discussion; it was somewhat out ofhis line, and he had the unpleasant consciousness, that while trying tomake an impression upon the stranger, he had himself been made toappear infinitely small.
"Pardon, gracious sir," a groom interposed, as Eric was beginning toexpatiate anew. Sonnenkamp stood up hastily, and remarking that it wastime for his ride, with affable condescension he waived with his handthe discussion to some other time.
He went quickly away. Roland came along the path, and called out,--
"I may ride out with Herr Dournay, may I not, papa?"
Sonnenkamp nodded, and departed with a hurried step. He mounted onhorseback, and was soon to be seen riding a spirited black horse alongthe white high-road by the river. He made an imposing appearance as hesat on horse-back; the groom followed him.
Das landhaus am Rhein. English Page 16