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It is not likely that such a keen and cynical observer as Heinrich Heine would have written as he did concerning Lassalle, had not the latter been a brilliant and magnetic youth. Heine wrote to Varnhagen von Ense, the German historian: My friend, Herr Lassalle, who brings you this letter, is a young man of remarkable intellectual gifts.
Varnhagen von Ense had described his mingled surprise and admiration at seeing those "lively, impudent, mean-looking little fellows," who had beaten the splendid soldiers trained in the school of Frederick the Great. His wonder was natural; but all who looked beneath the surface well knew that Prussia was overthrown before the first shot was fired.
I accordingly introduce here for such comparison Roger's chapter on wounds of the neck, and the corresponding chapter of Gilbert. Roger says: "De vulnere quod fit in cervice. "Si vero cum ense vel alio simili in cervice vulnus fiat, ita quod vena organica incidatur, sic est subveniendum. In vulnere autem pannus infusus mittatur, non tamen de ipso vulnus multum impleatur.
The day for their merit, the place for their glory, and the persecution overcome by virtue. Though they suffered both death in one day and in one hour, yet it was not in one place but in diverse within Rome, and hereof saith a versifier in this wise: Ense coronatus Paulus, cruce Petrus, eodem Sub duce, luce, loco, dux Nero, Roma locus.
For the rest, they were all so accustomed to political change that they looked on his government as provisional, and put up with him only as long as the army triumphed abroad and he could make his power felt at home. Such was the impression of Paris gained by Varnhagen von Ense.
To the charge of being the Aretino of the Holy Alliance, Gentz could retort with Mirabeau that he was paid, not bought. The friendship of Rahel and Varnhagen von Ense acquits him of suspicion. Nor is his undying hostility to the Revolution more surprising than that of Burke, whom he translated, or of Rivarol, whose elusive but studied grace of style he not unsuccessfully imitated.
"Perfect," cried Lassalle, who had been listening complacently. "But it's not that letter. The letter of introduction he gave me to Varnhagen von Ense when I was a boy of twenty in the year we met." "How should I not remember that? Was it not the first you showed me?" A sigh escaped her. In that year when he had won her love, she had been just twice as old as he.
"Ense velut stricto, quoties Lucilius ardens Infremuit, rubet auditor, cui frigida mens est Criminibus, tacita sulant praecordia culpa." So that they thought the imitation of Lucilius was more proper to their purpose than that of Horace.
"Another lecture from Emerson 'Poetry, Religion, Love' 'superna respicit amor. His whole discourse was a storehouse of delights and inspirations. There was a fine contribution from Goethe; a passage where he bravely recounts his indebtedness to the great of all ages. Varnhagen von Ense, Jacob Boehmen, Swedenborg, and the poets brought their share.
By intercourse with the learned, and by the friendships which he formed, he soon became thoroughly German, which he proved by his poems, which were distinguished above the crowd of such compositions by the originality of their style, and peculiar vigour. From 1804 to 1806 he published the "Almanack of the Muses," in conjunction with Varnhagen von Ense.
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