Ferdinand Lassalle by the Same Author

This is a reproduction of a library book that was digitized by Google as part of an ongoing effort to preserve the information in books and make it universally accessible. https://books.google.com UELAND-SliOTFORD °JWIQK°WTOEKSIXY FERDINAND LASSALLE BY THE SAME AUTHOR WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. A Critical Study. In One Volume. Demy 8vo. Price ios. net. RECOLLECTIONS OF MY CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH. In One Volume. With Portrait. Price ios. net. POLAND. A Study of the Land, People, and Literature. In One Volume. Demy 8vo. Price 12s. net. ANATOLE FRANCE. (Contemporary Men of Letters.) With Portrait. Price is. 6d. net. MAIN CURRENTS IN NINETEENTH CENTURY LITERATURE In Six Volumes. Illustrated. Price 5s. net each THE EMIGRANT LITERATURE THE ROMANTIC SCHOOL IN GERMANY THE REACTION IN FRANCE NATURALISM IN ENGLAND THE ROMANTIC SCHOOL IN FRANCE YOUNG GERMANY LONDON : WILLIAM HEINEMANN 31 Bedford Street, W.C. FERDINAND LASSALLE BY GEORGE BRANDES AUTHOR OF " WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE," ETC. LONDON : WILLIAM HEINEMANN NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY MCMXI M, JU rights reserved 161507 NOTE The master hand of George Meredith has made Lassalle a permanent figure in English literature. Those who know Lassalle only as Alvan, the passionate lover of the " Tragic Comedians," will wish to know him also as the democratic leader, the man of letters and of law. and to observe from a wider outlook the progress of the rest less career which ended in profound catastrophe. PREFACE " Flectere si nequeo Superos, Acheron ta movebo." Vergil. Professor Adolf Wagner wrote an appreciative review of this book at the time of its publication. With his theories in general I am unable to agree, but in the preface to his edition of Lassalle's letters to Rodbertus he did me the honour of char acterizing my work as " brilhant." Well meant as the expres sion doubtless was, it does not describe the nature of my efforts with reference to this portrait, or to the art of portraiture in general. My ideal is Velasquez, and his ideal was not brilliance, but truth. In this preface, however, Professor Wagner made one assertion concerning Lassalle which I can subscribe with entire conviction. He said that, divergent as were the judg ments which had been pronounced upon this man, both the friends and the enemies of the great Socialist agitator would readily agree that his work had made him an historical person ality of first-rate importance. It was this conviction which induced me seven years ago to make a first draft of this literary portrait of Lassalle, the first and the only attempt of the kind that had then been made. I have now completed the picture, and have done my best to give it life and reality. Lassalle's Socialism has reappeared in present-day Germany vii viii PREFACE under the form of State Socialism, and therefore is interesting as one of the burning questions of the day. In neither form, however, does Socialism form the subject of this work. Its chief subject is the historical development during one generation of the spirit which inspires modern Germany — a subject which certainly can never be a matter of indifference. I have, moreover, sought to excite interest by making one per sonality the point of connection between a series of ideas. This is a method which I have invariably employed, and which I regard as natural. The description of an individual inevit ably presupposes in my case a number of general ideas. The attraction of the subject for me is, on the one hand, the purely individual element, " a thing that never was before and never again can be," to borrow the definition of individualism given by Lenbach, the distinguished portrait-painter of Munich ; on the other hand, I am attracted by the great and permanent ideas of the age upon its civilization, by the problems which have confronted antiquity, and will constantly recur. Subjects which provide interesting personalities and ideas of such importance seem to me especially worthy of treatment, and the method of handling them which I have gradually evolved gives due weight both to the individual character and to the general ideas which that character may evoke. GEORGE BRANDES. CONTENTS PART I LASSALLE BEFORE THE AGITATION - - PAGE I PART II LASSALLE AS AN AGITATOR - - - 109 FERDINAND LASSALLE PART I LASSALLE BEFORE THE AGITATION One event during the nineteenth century has provoked the greatest surprise and astonishment in Europe. Unsuccessful attempts at its explanation have been, and are still offered by the different European nationalities. This event is the process by which the Germany of Hegel was transformed to the Germany of Bismarck. Some theorists speak as if the old German stock had suddenly died out, and a new race had sprung up without roots ; others, as if the old stock had been destroyed or ennobled by an infusion of Wendish-Slavonic blood. To some, modern Germany is enigmatic as the Iron Mask. The face of the philosopher and the poet was the real countenance, and this has now been hidden by Prussian domination, as the mask concealed the identity of the unhappy prisoner. Others, again, regard the old and pleasant counte nance of romance as the mask, hypocritically hiding the real features, which have now become visible. These views are alike injudicious, and are based in either case upon ignorance of the course of development which modern Germany has pursued. If this development is studied in literature, it will be seen how, step by step, the ideas, the methods of action, and the views of life pursued and entertained by the newer generation have de veloped organically from those of the past age. The gulf which divides the Germany of Hegel from the Germany of Bismarck will gradually be filled before our eyes. The faces upon either side of this gulf will appear as related by similarity of feature ; 2 FERDINAND LASSALLE while certain interesting and strongly marked countenances which stand out boldly against the background of history will of themselves typify the process of transition and amalga mation which has fused the intellectual individualities of two generations. Of these special features hardly any is more interesting or more clearly cut than the figure of Ferdinand Lassalle. He was born on April n, 1825, and died of a wound received in a duel on August 31, 1864. He was a distinguished pupil of Hegel, and was spoken of in his time as Bismarck's tutor, and not unreasonably ; for even though he cannot be shown to have influenced Bismarck directly, yet, if we examine the points which decided both the foreign and domestic policy of the great statesman, we shall find that this policy precisely realized the programme propounded by the philosophical agitator. CHAPTER I In order to understand Lassalle, we must begin with the study of his fugitive writings. His prose style will stir the least emotional of men ; his unusually wide learning is dominated by eloquence entirely modern, and strictly logical and prac tical in character ; between the lines the reader can detect a suppressed enthusiasm, which occasionally blazes out in letters of fire. His attacks are delivered with uncommon audacity, which is supported by the iron tenacity with which he conducts his defensive operations ; his language and style are often tasteful and always peculiar to him. Of mere rhetoric there is no trace. The extent of the writer's knowledge and power left no room for rhetorical display. Nor is the weight of his scholarship at any time perceptible. He marches out to battle in full panoply ; but it is rare to see heavy armour so easily worn. Little has been printed that bears upon the life and personality of our author. While travelling in Ger many, and afterwards during a residence of several years (1877-1881) in Berlin, it was my fortune to meet a considerable number of men and women, whose judgment I respect, who had known Lassalle personally. After Lassalle's sudden death had silenced the voices of his assailants, we know that public opinion concerning him underwent a change. Public recogni tion of his capacity and of his importance is by no means un common. On the other hand, expressions of private opinion concerning him are for the most part comparatively unfavour able. His private acquaintances displayed but fugitive interest in his writings, and rarely or never shared his views. His weak points were perfectly obvious, and no psychological analysis 3 4 FERDINAND LASSALLE was required for the discovery of them ; moreover, the private acquaintances of public men and the majority of the educated reading public are inclined to lay undue stress upon unconcealed weaknesses, especially when such failings are entirely dis regarded by a band of hero-worshippers. I did not expect to gather many approving judgments from the upper middle classes upon a man who died in feud with the whole middle class in his own country, sustaining the struggle almost single- handed, universally opposed by the Press. At the same time, I must admit that I was surprised to find disapproval so general, and, in my opinion, so unfounded and so keenly antagonistic to the dead man. To this antagonism is probably due the diffi culty which now confronts any attempt to form a complete and adequate picture of Lassalle. No systematic, and certainly no complete edition of his writings exists. Most of them can only be procured through a Socialist agent in Leipsic, whose utterly unbusinesslike habits make the result of an application to him entirely problematical ; while such copies as he possesses are printed on the worst of paper, and disfigured by careless misprints, which constantly distort the sense of a phrase.1 Lassalle's rarer writings are not to be found even in the Royal Library in Berlin.

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