many. 4 .6 those which I have so rescued." Even now I have not yet sufficiently regained my composure, but I fulfil" towards you among the first that debt of correspondence, which I owe to And although you bid me renew the endless sorrow of the Leyden disaster, of which I was but a small part, and almost happy in comparison with the fate and calamities of many, which I could not fully describe, though I had a hundred tongues and a hundred voices—yet as you wish to be acquainted with my part in it, and as such a longing pos sesses you to know my state, I will begin :— 14 9 18 15 It was the 12th of January, the last day of the winter holidays: having prepared my lecture-room for the lecture of the following morning, I returned to my study to go on with Plutarch.10 I spread out books and papers" on desks under the windows, according to my usual practice, and began to work.12 When I went away to dinner,13 I left all things just as they were, with the intention of returning very soon. I was sitting at table alone with my niece, when the sound of an awful crash thundered out, as if a whole park of artillery had been discharged at once.16 I had scarcely raised my eyes, when I saw the roof of the next house falling towards us; plates, dishes," bottles, glasses, and windows spontaneously burst into shivers,19 which struck us as we jumped up and ran out of the house. In the street we found our neighbours, who had suffered in the same way20 and were alarmed as we were, asking one another, wondering, and ignorant of the cause, which was soon betrayed by the smell of gunpowder," and the sight of the neighbouring houses thrown down for 100 yards22 towards the east, and the lamentations of those who had fled from the ruins, both those who were wounded, and others, who bewailed their friends buried under the fallen houses,23 and implored the assistance of those who were safe,24 assistance which the authorities 25 could not immediately furnish, but which was to be sought from individuals in the more distant parts of the city,26 as every one in the neighbourhood had either received some injury himself, or was engaged in searching for his friends or his property. 4 Exercise XXII. The same continued. 3 6 I HAD not yet looked before my feet-there I saw the ground covered and bestrewed with papers-I recognised my MS. notes--you must know that my library looked out into the street, and the flashing whirlwind had torn away the windows, made the papers fly from the desks, cast some of them into the street, where I recovered them, sank some of them in the neighbouring canal, and given some of them to the west-wind to carry to the east, which was the chief seat and beginning of the ruin. Truly I ought to consider this circumstance as a great blessing bestowed upon us by Divine Providencenamely, that this wind carried in a different direction the destructive violence of the explosion, seeing that the infernal' vessel was lying not 180 yards from my house. Whence it happened that on the other side, houses much further off were thrown down. I soon returned home desiring to know, ὅττι μοι ἐν μεγάροισι ἀγαθόν τε κακόν τε τέτυκται (Od. iv. 392). There the walls were burst, the roof carried off, the lectureroom fallen down-all the doors, windows, utensils,—whatever was not of the hardest materials- -were broken to pieces. I walked over heaps and sharp-pointed fragments of glass, china, stone, wood, iron, without hurting my feet, although I had no boots on 10-I happened to be so, when I rushed from the house at the instant of the disaster." On the whole, I have enjoyed better health during this time than I had before. For, although on account of the difficulty of moving, I was obliged to remain twenty days in the dilapidated13 house— which had only two rooms safe from instant ruin-and these too exposed to all the inclemency of the weather,1—and though we were annoyed by the wind, the cold, the rain, the snow, and the eaves-dropping, my health has not suffered in the slightest degree, and in spite of the constant alarms of neighbouring fires, of the adjoining houses tumbling down, and orders to quit my own, in the midst of these and other distractions I have retained my presence of mind." 16 15 12 And now, living in my pleasure house just out of town,18 I acknowledge as saved the two most valuable branches of the three things which a man can call bis own—namely, my body and my mind; of the third, my property, I have lost some books and papers, and a large part of my furniture," wardrobe, and utensils;20 in money about 100 ducats," lost either in the tumult itself, or carried off by thieves; yet all this may be either regained or at least forgotten22 by one who has retained the two better parts of what was his own. Exercise XXIII. The same concluded. 3 THUS much have I written, most excellent Schütz, both to comply with your wishes' and to make a return for your kindness. For, assuredly, I should not have thought of narrating the disasters now before you, had I not been requested, and incited by your kindness-disasters, though great to me, yet, in comparison with the losses of others, small, or rather most insignificant. The persons crushed and killed by the ruins are 150; among these two Professors, Kluit and Luzac: many are saved indeed, but wretchedly wounded and maimed; and yet it is marvellous that not more have perished considering the number of houses either fallen down or burst open, which amount to one thousand. ταῦτα μὲν δὴ ταῦτα. 8 Kai Now I really wonder, my dearest friend,' that you make no mention of the change of circumstances which has so recently befallen you, and have so taken to yourself the grief and fellowship of our misfortune, as though nothing had happened in your own locality." Whether this " 11 silence springs from your extreme consideration 12 or from any other reason, I infer from it13 that all is going on well and as it ought" with you. I have long been uninformed as to the state of classical scholarship 15 in Germany, what new editions are being prepared.16 The journals, although I order them," 20 nevertheless very seldom reach me. I am especially anxious to know what you are about. Have you, then,18 on the completion of your Eschylus, published the rhetorical works of Cicero ? I have told the booksellers to send for the last edition of the former on my account." The latter I have not yet seen, and you will greatly oblige me by sending the book.21 The Oxford University men received from me a year and a half ago my Commentary on the Moralia of Plutarch, carried down to the treatise on the virtues of women,' and I hope it will be published immediately; I know nothing for certain, on account of the greater restrictions on commercial intercourse.24 22 Farewell, then, my dearest friend; salute in my name your distinguished 25 colleagues, Wolf and Niemeyer. I am intending to write to the former at this very time; but I shall glance briefly at what has happened here,26 and if he thinks it worth while he will learn this 27 from your letter. If it is not too much trouble,28 do answer this soon;29 and continue to return my sincere regard for you.30 Leyden, 7th April, 1807. 31 Villa, near P.S. I thought it safer to inclose my letter to Wolf in mine to you. If you will take care If you will take care 32 that he has his letter, you will add an additional obligation to your other kind Another Letter on the same subject, To the most friendly, and also most learned man, F. A. Wolf, T 2 Ἐκ τοῦ κακοῦ τ ̓ ἤνεγκεν ἀγαθὸν ἡ φύσις. The catastrophe at Leyden has brought me a letter from you, my dearest Wolf, which, but for that, I was likely to have waited for3 somewhat longer. Now you have atoned for its delay both by its seasonable arrival, and by your striking and touching* kindness, in showing so much anxiety about me and my 1 safety as soon as you heard the news of our calamity, and in sending to inquire and wishing to know from myself how the matter stands. Now I really intended at once and without delay to write to you, in order to make a return for your letter, and such manifestations of your regard for me; but as neither leisure, nor my hand, nor my thoughts were at my own disposal, I was obliged to defer my duty to a more tranquil season-in such general confusion was I involved. Now, at last being, I will not say entirely freed, but a little released from this, I do not return to myself before I return to you, my dear Wolf. .10 6 12 For myself, I am content to have escaped safe and sound from that horrible shipwreck-that is, unhurt in body, though considerably 10 damaged in other respects. As you have been at Leyden, it may perhaps interest you to remember where the house of our friend Ruhnken stood; on the same canal," the same side, to the west, stood my house, with an interval of 500 yards. Between the houses stood the powder-ship," 180 yards from mine, 320 from the other house, and yet it was shattered more dreadfully than mine, through favour1 of the west wind, which carried a part of the explosion towards the east. Still fortune dealt roughly enough with me. If you think it worth while, I would prefer that you should learn my lot 16 from Schütz. To this most excellent man and very dear friend, who asked me to give him a circumstantial account of my situation, I have done so much justice," that I fear he will think me even too circumstantial.18 15 As many as 150 individuals have perished; very few indeed 20 compared with the destruction of so many houses; for still more have come off wounded and maimed. No one of my University pupils has lost his life, for many were absent in consequence of the Christmas holidays, and those who were here were aided by good luck or their activity in escaping. Two Professors have been cut off;" Kluit in his own house, with his wife, and an immense collection of books and notes concerning the history and antiquities of Belgium, a subject on which he was the first authority;22 Luzac, whom you knew, at the door of a friend's house, which he was just entering to make a call; for his own house was less shattered 23 |