To John Hirst   Octr 26/49

Marburg Oct^r 26/49¹

– ‘For Jemmy’² –

‘A lucky job that your letters came on Sunday when I have time to reply to them and an unlucky job they did not come on Saturday and thus spare me [8] silbergroschen³ which I am ill able to afford. I sent a packet of documents off last night & in it scraps to both of you; inwardly protesting to have done with all correspondence for at least 6 weeks, when lo! you missives appear & like the shifting sands of Shorecombe Bay⁴ my resolution is tossed aside to allow a reply to rush out of me.

‘There is one mind common to all individual men’ I actually laughed at the ridiculous truth of the adage as I read Jimmys letter.⁵ Without ever dreaming of Jimmy & his experiences, without having the least idea that he was turning up his toes and kicking at the pricks of fate, he will find a transcript of his own mind at the end of that affair which I have just sent off to the Chronicle.⁶ Arrak⁷ Jimmy! as the people in Ireland say, did you imagine that God and Nature intended you to sit quietly on your rump after the achievement of a lecture on Geology? Nature cries aloud, ‘I’d see you whipped first my little Sir’ – Are you going to set up a mark on the door post of the little closet in Northgate and say in your heart ‘I’ll grow until I reach such a height then I shall be a fine fellow, but the devil an inch taller will I stretch myself! I shall then look down upon Richardson & Tidmarsh and that’s enough for me.’ Jemmy however reaches the proposed mark & finds to his infinite chagrin, that nature did not intend him to stop there – ‘grow on you little cripple’ she cries; Jemmy clenches his teeth, looks with the ferocity of ten Tigers into the face of Nature and cries ‘I wont! I’m damn’d if I do! I’ll put a stone on my head first, I’ll warp my spine, turn my shin bones into circular ones, – do anything sooner than grow one inch higher!’ –

– ‘For Tom’ –

I will have a random rap at both of you through this sheet. Every man is a microcosm; a world in miniature, and the world according to the Heathenish notion was a tree, what a profit it is both for Tom Carlyle & me that it is so, as by the age of this phantasmal vegetable we can climb like Jack on his beanstalk to a region far higher than the stilts of Johnson or Walker⁸ would enable us to reach. Dear Igddrasil!⁹ fresh & beautiful you appear, yet is the sound of mourning in your branches as the wind passes over them. What says that little bough yonder? It peeps discontentedly upward and murmurs in its little timber heart. ‘What a miserable devil of a branch I am, to be stuck here; why did not nature contrive that I should sprout out a little higher? would that I could mingle my leaves with those yonder, how happy should I be then’ And thus whispers of discontent ruffle the sobriety of the vegetation from top to bottom. What says the highest branch? Is he contented? Infinitely so when he looks downward & compares himself with his brother twigs, but he turns his eye to heaven & begins to complain like the rest. ‘O Stars’, he cries, why did God set you out of my reach? Why do I not fold you like doves with silver wings in the umbrage of my leaves, – here I am fast rooted to this diabolical Earth, a prisoner to the laws of vegetable culture – Why Oh Heaven could I not spring up in a night like the gourd of Jonah¹⁰ & find the everlasting stars like dewdrops on my leaves next morning? Why? Oh Why? – ‘Patience, patience, dear disconted little mourner’, whispers a soft voice from between the cherubim,¹¹ ‘every branch of you is where it ought to be; the top branches may perhaps blossom in another age, yet without you they cannot exist: I will not say that you may not reach your tendrils higher, that depends upon your own chemical skill in the decomposition of CO₂, know then thy work, make use of the atmosphere around you this will lead you to results far more beautiful and blessed than looking upward in vain longing to a position which is in point of fact no wise more honourable than your own, be true to thine own position that is what is required of thee, in that must thy happiness consist.

‘For Jimmy’

Let me take another turn over to Jimmy & ask him a random question or two as they occur to me – Are you sure Jemmy that manufacture and Speculation¹² are so happy in this excitement? All very fine if it be a game of gain, but it may be a game of loss; they have something to shew for their labour say you – yes I know a speculator who has something to shew, viz, a bare rump to the winds I doubt much whether solid satisfaction will be found here – if your genius leans that way, try it by all means, but beware of letting a few failures, which every man that breathes the breath of life has at one time or another experienced, have too much influence upon you – Speculation! the word brings to my mind the unspeakable agony of poor John Richardson during his first transaction with Jonathan Crowther¹³ – The Scholar looks upon the healthy ploughman whistling all day long at his horses tails, as the happiest man; and the ploughman when he sees the scholar, damns his own thick head & hard fate which have shut him out from the enjoyment of the other. To many, the life of a German Student is very romantic, while in point of fact life is as prosy¹⁴ in Germany as elsewhere. Lord Lyttleton¹⁵ when at a theatre always fancied happiness in the next box to his own, but he never could make it his actual companion. Take care Jimmy. I say again that you do not find this speculation a mockery, a delusion, & a snare. I tell you plainly my mind, that if you had worked as hard at your profession, as I was obliged to do, you would by no means be disgusted with it – I’m afraid you have been playing the Engineer, and there is no peace on Gods earth for the man who does not handle his work in rough earnest. I know your proclivity in this respect, & I know my own, I have often smashed my shins over the same stumbling block, if you have failed & failed and failed, it is no more than others have done before you – ‘Never mind the defeat, up again old heart there is victory yet in store for you’¹⁶ I should like to know your state of mind during the preparation of that lecture,¹⁷ if contented then was the labour its own reward, you have increased your stock of knowledge and had besides an evenings calm happiness – had you begun another lecture next day on the mountains of the moon it would have effectually shut out vexation – you will probably gyrate & root yourself finally upon the same old rock–

— ‘Again I turn a new leaf for Tom’—

Here once for all I would set myself in ‘Stabiles gleichgewicht’¹⁸ and fix myself in that relation which I know I should occupy, even though I should descend sundry paces from the tip-toe eminence where friendship would place me. I will fix myself on something solid at all hazards, though I barter for it the glory of an occasional ride in a balloon – know then Tom that in this thing called Human Life I have a weight of things to bear – I’m not an egotist, I’m not cold, I’m not selfish, but my action when free is most effectual I hate responsibility, I would give my life for the life of my friend, but dont make me responsible for his life – I come to you then like the ochre slave which you see sometimes painted on tea trays, with

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a chain on my arms and another round my ankles and beg of you to have the goodness to shake them both off – liberate me and I am not the less your servant – My first act afterwards will be to fold you in my free arms and kiss you, swearing inwardly, though you may not hear the adjuration, that I will fight by your side more manfully than if ten thousand responsibilities pricked me forward. I am willing to lend and borrow on equal conditions, right gladly I will take part in all your battles, but henceforth and forever I disclaim the leadership, I will fight as a volunteer by your side, giving insight when I have it, and accepting it when I have it not. In making this arrangement I obey a dictate of my constitution, which has more than once manifested itself, and in doing so shirk no dictate of duty, but on the contrary I give my arm a freer swing. Do you understand me? You are playing deep Tom, there are heavy stakes on the board, if played bravely and with entire selftrust the result must be a dead gain. I have handled and am handling the same dice myself and would wish for entire freedom in the game. I am fearless but would be free.

Fichte is no milk for babes Tom – he is meat for strong men, beware of conformity. I would rather for my part see you pitching him to the devil, than that he should come between you and nature – apply yourself to his solution, feed on that which you can appreciate, but beware of being warped too far by Fichte or anybody else. You will sometimes, as by accident, drop upon the precise point from which he viewed the subject – I have done so sometimes in taking

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a walk – sometimes in the act of putting on my nighshirt, but this eternity which embraces us can be regarded from many points and your interpretation of it may be far better for your own private purposes than Fichte’s – I thought of writing to you before on this subject – Fichtes great gospel will I believe prove eternally true, which may be so condensed ‘Want is not the source of vice, it is the motive to activity and virtue; indolence, sluggishness is the source of all vice – How to enjoy as much as possible – how to do as little as possible This is the question of a perverted nature and the various attempts to answer this question are its crimes. There is no salvation for man until this natural sluggishness be successfully combated – until he find all his pleasures & enjoyments in activity & activity alone’¹⁹– –

– Scrap for Jemmy –

A deal of unhappiness arises from the simple dislike to try a strange track. I never commenced to level a line without a feeling akin to reluctance; but once upon it I could get on very well. I feel the same now with my dissertation, but I shall soon be in the middle of it and make friends with my new thoughts – Conceive a screw with a triangular thread conceive one of the bevelled surfaces of this thread produced indefinitely. I am to investigate the properties of this surface and to determine the conditions of equilibrium upon it. There are some who have a dislike to go into company but find themselves agreeably surprised when the 1^st formalities of the thing are rasped away. Jemmy appears to have the same reluctance in attacking a new subject where as if he did so he would in a few hours find himself among agreeable and entertaining friends. Oh Jemmy the power of Gold to produce happiness has been experimented upon since the world began and always with the same result. Would you change places with John Abbott? try it however and add your testimony the rest–

– Scrap for Tom –

I have just got a ‘Truth Seeker’²⁰ which contains an article from January Searle²¹ on Friendship – it is the best production of his that I have seen. I fancy however one recommendation of his at least would prove exceedingly perilous – an intimate friendship with a young lady without warmer feeling is a desideratum²² – I wonder would January himself like to choose as a wife a young lady who cultivated such a platonic intercourse with another – there is length, breadth, & depth in the article however & it is worth reading – I would be inclined to abolish what he calls ‘the scholar proper’. If I had a child I would teach him a trade, perhaps the use of boxing gloves to boot –²³

RI MS JT/1/HTYP/40-42

RI MS JT/1/T/523

Handwritten copy in Thomas Hirst’s hand