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VOL. 11.
Be Kind to the Erring.
Be kind to the erring, the humble and
meek,
Tis the coward alone would trample the
weak ;
,Ye know not how deeply the past they
deplore—
Jn charity cover their sins evermore.
Be kind to the erring, the lowly, the sad;
Oft circumstance ruleth, whose chain
driveth mad:
Ah! boast not thy virtue, but con thy
heart o’er,
Communion with self erusheth pride ever
more.
Commune with thyself; think how reckless
thou art,
Enriching thy colters to wither thine
heart;
Take warning by thousands on yonder
dark shore—
Kemember, thy soul must exist evermore.
Cherish good for itself, nor measure thy
gain.
Such motives are sordidly selfish and vain;
In deeds blessing all, and with heart gush
ing o’er,
Flowing on to the ocean of love evermore.
Religion is naught, all pretensions are
vain,
If works are still wanting, ah! where is
thy gain ?
A- bark cast away on some desolate shore.
As wreck on the deep, thou art gone ever
more.
Thy days fleet away as a meteor's gleum;
Flashing bright for a moment they fade as
a dream;
Yea. dream though it he, yet on far distant
shore
Shall in thunders re-echo the past ever
more.
As flower dost thou blossom, mere thing
of a day,
As breath of the llower thou wilt vanish
away;
Let love he thy motto this weary life o’er,
Then in sunshine of love wilt thou bask
evermore.
THE THREE SOULS.
In 1845 I finished my sixth year of
transcendental philisophy at. Heidelberg
You know of what a lordly sort the un
iversity life is. You get up at mid-day,
smoke your old pipe, drink a glass or
two of schnapps, and then you button
jour coat up to the chin, set your hat on
one side, and go to listen calmly for half
an hour to the illustrious Professor
Hasenkopf. Every one is free to do as
lie chooses—to go to sleep if he likes.
Hie lecture over, you betake yourself to
the tavern of Gambrimis, where the
pretty servant maids, in black silk bod
ices, bring you plates of sausages, with
slices of ham, and glasses of strong beer,
ion whistle an air from the “Robbers”
°‘ Schiller; one calls his dog* Hector; or.
sometimess a quarrel begins, when in ■
copies the watchman, and you are carried
°n Jo pass the night in durance vile.
xn this way the days, months and years
passed by.
I wasthen thirty-two years old, and the
K'tt.e the pije, and saur-kraut had bueun
° F ail , mm y estimation. I felt the need
oi a change. Often did I say to myself
Kasper Zaan, it is not good to know !
wo much; nature has no more illusions'
tor thee!”
was my melancholy state of
mil ph when toward the close of the
'P rin f of 1845, a terrible event happen
'v?Kh taught me that I was far from
Knowing everything, and that the path of
is not always strewn
Tdi roses.
Among my old comrades was a certain
o gang bchart, the most inflexible
. 'gician I have ever met with. Figure
yourself a little dried-up man, with
nt e eye-lids, and eyes sunken in his
p. 1 * 1 bushy red hair, and hollow
. s horned with a coarse beard*
earing, moreover, a tattered cloak over
his broad shoulders, and you have him
before you. Wolfgang thought only of
metaphysics. For five r r six years he
had lived on bread and water, in a garret
of the old meat-market; so that the poor
fellow was frightful to look at. This
strange being, in his voluntary isolation,
seemed to feel for me alone a little
sympathy. He came to see me from
time to time, and gravely seated in my
arm-chair, he would impart to me his
wild meditation.
“Kasper,” said he to me one day—
“ Kasper, what is the soul ?”
Proud of displaying my learning to his
eyes, I replied, with a pedantic air, “Ac
cording to Thales, it is a kind of magnet
according to Aselepiades, an excita
tion of the senses. Anaximander said—”
“Yes ! yes ! but what think you of
the substance of the s< ul!
“Me, Wolfgang? 1 know nothing about
it. All judgment must come of the
senses; and, since the soul does not fail
under my sense, I can make no judg
ment concerning it.”
“Nevertheless, Kasper, see how many
animals, such as insects; fishes, etc.,
wanting one or more of the senses. How
do we know whether we have them all
ourselves? May there not exist some of
which we have not even an idea?”
“Quite possible; but, in the doubt, I
hesitate to say.”
“Do you think, Kasper, that we can
know anything without having learned
it? ’
“No; all science proceeds either from
experience or from study.”
“But, then, comrade, how happens it
that the little chickens, when they break
the shell, start off to run and take their
food of themselves. How is it that they
discover the hawk far up in the clouds,
and take refuge under the mother’s
wings? Did they learn to know their
enemy while they were yet in the egg?”
“All that is the result of instinct,
Wolfgang; all animals are obedien to
instinct.”
“Then it seems that instinct consists
in knowing what has i.ever been learned?
“Oh !” said I, “you ask me too much.
How can I tell !”
He smiled disdainfully, threw the
corner of his cloak over his shoulder,
and went out without adding another
word. I looked upon him as a lunatic,
but of the most harmless kind. Wno
would have thought that the passion for
metaphysics could be dangerous?
Things stood thus when the old cake
woman, Catharine Wogel, suddenly
disappeared. This good woman, as was
her custom, came to the beer-houses of
Gambrinus at about eleven o’clock. The
students joked with her about the freaks
of her youthful days, at the rernember
ance of which she seemed much amused,
and laughed heartily Her disappear
ance came to be remarked the third day
after this.
“What can have become of Catharine?
Can she be ill? She seemed so merry the
last time we saw her !”
My opinion was that the old woman,
having drank a little too much kirsch
wattcr, had fallen into the river during
the night.
On the morrow*, corning out from
Hasenkopf’s lecture, I met Wolfgang.
As soon as he perceived me he hastened
toward me, his eye sparkling, and said
“Kasper, I’ve been looking for you;
man, the hour of triumph has come—
follow me,”
His look, bis pallor, h:s very motion
betrayed extreme agitation; and, as he
seized me by the arm, leading me to
j waf d the quarter of the Tanners, I
j could not keep down the feeling of un
j G fi*“ed fear that crept over me. The
| through which we proceeded at a
jshaip walk led behind the minister into
1 % ° u- ieC m 0n of k° uses old as Heidelberg
itself . The square roofs, the wooden
| baicomes, the exterior crooked stair
; ways; the many wan and curious faces
peering will eager air down on the stran-
AUGUSTA, GAI., JTJLY 17, 1869.
gets from the garret windows; the long
poles stretched from house to house,
loaded with dripping skins; the dense
smoke escaping from the rude chimneys
—all this scene passed before my eyes
like a vision of the middle ages; and the
few bright rays of light which found
their way through these many obstruc
tions, gilding the dilapidated walls where
they touched, osdy added to my emotion
by the strange contrast they produced*
There are moments when a man loses
ail presence of mind. It never occurred
to me to ask Wolfgang-where we were
going. Soon we reached the deserted
quarter of the old meat-market. All of
a sudden, Wolfgang, whose dry, cold
hand seemed riveted to my wrist, led
me into a hovel, between the hay-loft of
the Landwehr and the eattle-pen of the
slaughter-house.
“Go on ahead,” said he to me.
I followed along a wall of dry earth,
at the end of which was a broken stair
case. We climbed thiough the rubbish;
and although my companion kept all the
time, repeating, in an impatient voice,
“Go on higher yet !” I stopped several
times, seized with fear, under the pre
text of regaining breath, but in reality
to ask myself if it were uot about time
to turn back.
At last we came to the foot of the
ladder, the top of which was hidden bv
the darkness, reach".ig up into a lofc
above. How I had the folly to climb up
that ladder, without asking the least ex
planation from my friend Wolfgang, is
a mystery" to me. It would seem as
though madness were contageous.
Up I climded, he behind me, until I
reached the top There I stepped upon
the dusty floor of the loft, and looked
around me. It was an immense
garret, the roof pierced with three win
dows, and in the midst stood a small
table loaded with books. It was im
possible to look outside, for the windows
were at a height of ten or twelve feet
above the floor. I did not at first per
ceive a low door, and a large, square
hole at come height up, contrived in the
wall. Wolfgang, without saying a word,
pushed toward me an old box which
served him for a chair; and, taking up in
his two hands a pitcher of water, he
drank a long draught, while I looked
on in silence.
“We are in a loft of the old slaughter
house.” said lie, with a strange smile,
setting down his pitcher on the floor,
“the council has voted funds for building
one outside the city. I have been here
for five years without paying any rent.
Not a soul has come to interrupt my stu
dies.” Sitting down upon some old logs
of wood in one coiner—“ Now,” contin
ued he, “let us come to the point, Are
you certain, Kasper, that we have a
soul?”
“Hark J’ou, Wolfgang !” replied I; if
you have brought me here to talk me
taphysics, you’ve made a great mistake.
I had just come from Ilasenkopfs lecture,
and was going to the beer house for
dinner, when you stopped me. I have
had my dose of abstraction, and that is
sufficient. Explain yourself clearly, then,
or else let me return to my dinner.”
“You live, then, only to eat?” said lie,
in a harsh tone. “Do you know that I
have passed whole days without tasting
a morsel of food, only fur the love of
science?”
“Each to his taste; you live oti syllog-
I isms and dilemmas —l love sausages and
1 strong beer. What else do you want?”
; He became very pale, and his lips
; trembled; but, restraining his anger, lie
! said, Kasper, since you won’t answer
| me, at least listen to my explanation.
; Man needs admirers, and I want you to
j admire, and be in some degree astounded
by the sublime revelation that I am about
to make to )ou. It is not too much, I
think, to ask you to listen for an hour
to that which has cost me ten whole
years of faithful study.”
“Well, go on; I am listening.
His face was agitated anew by some
powerful emotion, and I began to bitterly
repent having climbed up the ladder. I
assumed a grave expression in order not
to anger him any further; and this ap
peared to calm him somewhat; for, after
a moment’s silence, he exclaimed. “\ r ou
are hungry; well, there is my bread, and
there my pitcher—cat—drink but
listen.”
“Never miud, Wolfgang; I will listen
to you without that.”
He smiled bitterly and went on :
“We are not the only beings that have
souls. From the plant up to man, all
beings live—they are animated—there
fore they have a soul. Y r es, all organized
existences have at least one soul; but, the
more their organism is perfected, the
more complicated does it become, and
the number of souls is increased. That
is what distinguishes living beings, the
one from the other. The plant has only
one soul—the vegetable soul. Its func
tion is simply to obtain nutriment from
the air through the roots. The animal
has two souls : first, the vegetable soul,
whose functions ure the same as in
the plant; and the animal soul, strict
ly so-called, whose org*n is the heart.
Lastly, man has tltree souls—the vege
table soul; the animal soul, whose func
tions are carried on the same as the
brute; and the human soul, or the
reason, whose organ is the brain.”
Here Wolfgang paused for some mo
ments, and, looking at me, said, “Well,
what do you think of this?”
“Why it’s a theory, like any other: the
only difficulty is, that the proof is
wanting.”
A sort of frenzy seized Wolfgang at
this reply. He sprang from his seat, ex
claiming, “Yes—yes—the proof is
wantiug; that is what has troubled my
soul for ten whole years! That has
been the cause of all inv sufferings and
privations! Upon myself; yes, upon my
self, Kasper, 1 tried to experiment first.
More and more was this sublime convic
tion forced upon me, without my being
able to prove it. But at last the proof
is found, I have it here; soon shall you
hear the three souls manifest and pro
claim themselves:you shall hear them?”
After this burst of enthusiasm, which
'sent a cold chill through me, so much of
fanatic strength did it display, he sudden
ly became calm: ana sitting down, and
leaning his elbow upon the table, he
went on, point ing at the same time to the
wall in which was the opening before de
scribed:
“The proof is there—behind that wall;
you shall soon see it for yourself. But
first, you must follow the onward march
of my ideas. I have maintained the
distinct existence of three souls. Reason
told me that every man, before reaching
his final development, must pass through
the condition of the plant or animal. I
determined to resolve this problem. To
do this, it was necessary to extinguish in
myself the three souls successively, and
then to revive them. I had recourse to
a rigorous fast; but, unfortunately the
human soul had to yield first, in order
to permit the free action of the animal
soul. Hunger made me lose the faculty"
of observing the animal state myself—
the exhaustion prevented me from judg
ing anything concerning it After many
fruitless attempts upon rny own organism
I felt convinced that there was but one
means of reaching the desired end—l
must have someone else. But who
would be willing to submit to such treat
ment?”
Wolfgang paused: his lips were con
tracted; aud, in a quick tone, he added,
“I felt lynust-have a subject at any price.
I determined to experiment on some
one !”
I shuddered, for this man was, I saw
capable of anything.
“Do you understand?” said he.
“Perfectly. Y r ou wanted a victim ”
“To analyze,” added he, coolly.
“And have you found one?”
“Yes; I promised that you should hear
the three souls. It will be difficult just
now. But yesterday you could have
heard them, off and on, howling, groan
ing, praying, and gnashing the teeth.”
My face grew pale: but Wolfgang
calmuly lit a small lamp which he used
for his study, and, approaching the hob
coutrived in the wall, “Look,” said he,
advancing the lamp into the darkness
beyond, that we might see the better,
“come and look—and then listen !”
In spite of my fatal presentiment; in
spite of the chill which ran through me,
drawn on by a mysterious attraction, I
bent forward and peered into the space
behind the wall. Then, by the faint light
of the lamp, I saw a rude apartment,
about fifteen feet high, and having no
other outlet than that by the garret
where we were. At first I could per
ceive nothing, and told Wolfgang so.
“Look closely,” said he, in a low voice
“do you see what looks ljke a bundle of
clothes in one corner? It is old Catharine
Wogel, the apple-woman ”
He had not time to finish, for a sharp
angry cry, like the howl of a cat in
agony, was heard, and an enraged being
sprang up, and seemed trying to climb
up the wall with its nails.
More dead than alive, with the cold
sweat starting from my forehead, I drew
back, crying, “Oh, it is horrible !”
“Did you hear it!” said Wolfgang,
his face lighted up with an infernal joy.
“Wasn’t it the cry of a cit? Ha !ha !
Yes ! The old woman has been both a
cat and a panther. Yes ! yes! Hunger
and thirst work wonders, I can tell you ”
He did not look at me; he was enjoy
ing his infernal triumph. The howling
of the poor old woman had ceased; and
the maniac, laying his lamp down upon
the table, added, in explanation:
“This is the fourth day of her fast. I
enticed her here under pretext of selling
her some kirsch-water. I made her go
down into that room, and then I shut her
in. The first two days the human soul
was strong in her. She prayed, she
implored me, she protested her innoceuce
saying that she had never injured me in
any way; then she loaded me with
reproaches, denounced me as a monster
aud a wretch, and called down upon
my head the curse of heaven. The
third day, which ways yesterday—
Wednesday—the human soul disappear
ed altogether. Hunger was strong, and
she began to mew and howl like a cat.
Luckily we are in an out-of-the-way
place, for last night you would have
thought that there was a regular battle
of the cats—the cries would have made
you shudder. But, now, Kasper, when
the animal soul shall be extinguished,
do you know what will come then:
The vegetable soul will have its time,
and it is the last. It has been noticed
that the nails and hair of the head
grow while the body lies in the grave In
the same way, there is formed in the
opening of the skull a kind of human
lichen, which is thought to be a species
of moss, engendered by the juices of the
brain. At last, the vegetable soul itself
will die. So, yoa see, Kasper, that the
proof of the three souls is complete.”
These words struck upom my ear a«
the ravings of a maniac. The cry of
Catharine Wogel pierced to my very
marrow. I seemed to lose all knowledge
of where I was, or what had happened.
But, all of a sudden, waking from this
moral stupor, I sprang up, seized the
maniac by the throat, aud dragged him
toward the ladder.
“Villain !” cried I, “how have you
dared to iaise your hand against your
fellow creature to satisfy your iufamous
curiosity! I will give you up to justice !’
He was so much surprised at my attack
—fur to him his act seemed perfectly in
nocent that at first lie offered no resis
tance; and I dragged him easily to the
ladder. But, there, turning on me with
astonishing quickness, he in turn seized
me by the throat, lifted me from the floor
No. 18.