Edward L. Pierce, Memoir and letters of Charles Sumner: volume 2

February 11.

Left Berlin in the middle of January, cold as the North Pole, and passed to Leipsic, to Weimar, Gotha, Frankfort, and Heidelberg; for a day and [134] night was shut up in the carriage with four Jews, one a great Rabbi with a tremendous beard. I heard their views about Christianity; they think their time is coming, and the faith in Christ is vanishing from the world. Everybody in Germany smokes. I doubt not that I am the only man above ten years old now in the country who does not. Often have I been shut up in a carriage where every person was puffing like a volcano. . . . I am here talking and studying German. I know many learned men; fill my own time by doing something; live cheaply; shall leave here in a fortnight and be in London the beginning of March, seeing the Rhine on my way. I look forward with great pleasure to meeting you and all my dear friends, with no little anxiety also to my future professional life. I shall wish to plunge at once,—that is as soon as possible—in medias res;but I anticipate mortification and disappointment, perhaps defeat. Still all this cannot destroy the stored recollections I have of Europe, of the world, of life; and to these I shall fondly recur as my springs of happiness. Are you aware how the French journals are discussing and eulogizing Washington? Guizot, by his translation of ‘Sparks,’¹ and particularly his ‘Introduction,’ has given him great vogue at present. See a leader in the ‘Journal des Debats’ about 15th November, and three articles by Saint-Marc Girardin in the same paper during the month of January. Also an article in the ‘Supplement du Constitutionnel’ at the end of December; also in the ‘National’ during January; also in the ‘Revue des deux Mondes,’ for January. I write entirely from memory, and do not know if these journals are procurable in Boston; but all these articles are interesting to Americans: they are well written, and come from distinguished pens. It was the first article about which I conversed with Prince Metternich. Von Raumer's German translation, which, by the way, was made by Tieck's daughter, seems to have fallen still-born. Nobody says a word about it. He seems a little mortified to see how Guizot has distanced him before the public. Good-by. ‘Leben Sie wohl.’

Ever affectionately yours,

C. S.