# A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Arnim, Bettina von

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ARNIM, BETTINA VON,
Best known to us by her letter published as the "Correspondence of Goethe with a Child," Is considered by the Germans one of their most gifted female writers. The very remarkable intercourse between the great "poetical Artist" and the "Child," is of a character which could never have happened but In Germany, where Philosophy is half-sister to Romance, and Romance appears half the time in the garb of Philosophy.
Bettina Brentano, grand-daughter of Sophia de la Roche, was born at Frankfort on the Maine, about the year 1701. Her father. General Brentano, died of wounds received in the Prussian service; his wife did not long survive him, and their children, of whom Bettina was the youngest, were left orphans at an early age. There were two sons: Clement Brentano became celebrated in Germany for his work. ​"Des Knaben Wünderhorn," (The Boy's Wondrous Horn,) a collection Of German popular songs; and Christian is mentioned in Bettina's letters; she had also a sister Sophia. Little Bettina, soon after the decease of her parents, became the favourite of Goethe's mother, who resided at Frankfort. It was his birth-place—Bettina's mother had been one of his devoted friends; so that from her earliest remembrance, the "Child" had heard the praises, of the "Poet;" and now his mother, whose love for him was little short of idolatry, completed the infatuation of Bettina. She had an ardent temperament; the name of Wolfgang Goethe acted as the spell of power to awaken her genius, and what was more remarkable, to develop the sentiment of love in a manner which seems so nearly allied to passion, that we cannot read her burning expressions without sadness, when reflecting that she, a maid of sixteen summers, was thus lavishing the rich treasures of her virgin affections on a man sixty years old, whose heart had been indurated by such a long course of gross sensuality, as must have made him impenetrable, in his selfish egotism, to any real sympathy with her enthusiasm.
The correspondence with Goethe commenced in 1807, when Bettina was, as we have stated, about sixteen, and continued till 1824. Soon after that period she was married to Ludwig Achim von Arnim, who is celebrated in Germany as a poet and novelist. He was born and resided at Berlin; thither he removed his lovely but very romantic wife; and Bettina became the star of fashion, as well as a literary star, in the brilliant circles of that metropolitan city. The sadden death of her husband, which occurred in 1831, left Bettina again to her own guidance; but she had learned wisdom from suffering, and did not give up her soul, as formerly, to the worship of genius. Since her widowhood she has continued to reside in Berlin, dividing her time between literature and charities. The warm enthusiasm of her nature displays itself in her writings, as well as in her deeds of benevolence. One of her works, "Dien Buck gehoert dem Könige" (The King's Book,) was so bold in its tone, and so urgent on behalf of the "poor oppressed," that many of her aristocratic friends took alarm, and avoided the author, expecting she would be frowned upon by the king; but Frederick William is too politic to persecute a woman who only pleads that he will do good, and Madame von Amim retains his favour, apparently, though his flatterers look coldly on her. The work has gained her great popularity with the people. Another work of hers, "Die Gündarode" a romance in letters, is also very much admired, especially by young ladies; it is wild and extravagant, as are all her writings, but, at the same time, full of fine thoughts and beautiful feelings. All the natural impulses of the mind and heart of Bettina are good and pure; what she needed was and is a higher standard of morality, a holier object of adoration. The Æsthetic philosophy, referring the soul to the Beautiful as the perfection of art or human attainments, this, and not the Divine philosophy of the Bible, was the subject of her early study: the first bowed down her nature to worship Goethe—the last would have exalted her spirit to worship God! How the sweet fountain of her affections was darkened by the shadow of Goethe, and how this consciousness of his presence, as it were, constantly incited her to thoughts and expressions foreign to her natural character, most be evident to all who read the "Correspondence with a Child."