New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1844-02-02
Fredertka Bremen.

written, doUDtieSs, at ms urgent SuggesLioh' o4'
beautifully characteristic. We copy the follow,
ing translation of it from the Democratic Review
To Mr.. Brockhaus, Lepstc
HoNoREp Sir Your letter has awakened IN
me feelings of gratitude and pleasure which would
gladly find occupation in complying with your
wish. that | should communicate to you some
thing of my LIE and the course of my education.
Rut this has its difficulties, as can only slightly
allude to the events of my inner life, while Just
in these lies the principal part OF my history
Hereafter, when I no more belong to earth,
should love to return to it spirit, and lmParl
to men the deepest Of that which have sullefeo
and enoyed, lived and loved. AND no one hecd
fear me: should I come in the midnight nour TO
str;v;no and unquiet spirit, 1t would be only to
make it more quiet, It's mgnt-iamp Durn more
brightly. and myself its friend and sister.
In the meantime any benevolent eye may cast
q glance through the curtain which conceals the
outward circumstances of a life by no means
important or extraordinary and see simply that
was born on Annals street, and had Tor my god
fathers pretty good number of the academicians
of Abo; and from this fact, if the beholder have
the Gift of the second-sight, he may trace an
effect which will not here dwell upon. At the
age of three years, l was taken from my home
in Finland, and have retained of this period only
one solitary recollection this is of word, a
mighty name; in the depths of heathenism, the
Finnish people pronounced it in fear and love,
and thew speak it still with the same feelings,
though ennobled by Christianity; and / often
think / hear his word in the thunder of Thor, as
he strides over the trembling earth, or in the
lonely wind that refreshes and consoles it that
word is Tumela.*
IF you will kindly 60 with me from the soil of
Finland to that of Sweden, where my father be-
came landed proprietor, after he had disposed
of his estates in Finland, will not trouble you
to accompany me further into my childhood and
youth, amidst the superabundance thinner chaotic
elements, or the outward circumstances of
family presenting nothing unusual or especially
interesting who travelled every autumn in a COW
cred carriage from their estate in the country to
their dwelling in the capital; and every spring,
from their dwelling in the capital to their estate
in the country This family contained young
daughters, who drew in crayons, played sonatas,
and sung ballads, educating themselves in every
way that can be thought Of, looking longlngly
towards the future to see and to perform miracles
In humility must confess always thought OF
myself as warlike heroine
And you may glance again at that family cir
Gle, and find them collected in the large parlor of
their country dwelling, listening to READINGS and
if it please you, remark the impression which
some of the literary stars of Germany produce
upon one of those daughters If that one could
die from violent emotion, she would have fallen
stone dead from the chair at the reading of Schil-
ler's Don Carlos; or to speak more accurately,
had she abandoned herself to her emotion, she
had been suddenly dissolved IN flood of tears
But she survived this danger, and lived to learn
much of the country which may be Justly called
the heart of Europe, and from whose rich foun-
tains of culture she yet derives nourishment.
Would you look more deeply into the soul
See, then, how thick earthly reality gradually
spread its dark cover of clouds over her splendid
youthful dreams how twilight surprised the
wanderer early on her way how anxously, yet
how in vain she sought to escape from it. The
air is darkened as by thick fall of snow; the
darkness increases; it becomes night. And in
this deep, endless winter night, she hears COM
planning voices from the East and from the West
from dying nature and from desparing hui
manly; and she sees life, with all its love and
beauty, buried, with its loving, beating heart be-
meath cold beds of ice. Heaven is dark and
empty; there is no eye there, and no heart. All
is dead or dying except sorrow.
Perhaps you have noticed the significant
figures with which all deeper mythologies begin.
We see in the beginning light and warm divine
principle losing itself in darkness and fog; and
from thus empire of light and darkness, fire and
tears, a God is conceived | believe something
similar happens to every one who is born to a
deeper life; and something similar happened to
her who writes these lines.
If you see her a few years later, you will find
that great change has taken place. You will
see the eye, SO long moistened with tears, beam
Al az
the grave, to d new life. What has caused this
change? Have her splendid youthful dreams
been realized Has she become warlike hero
inc, victorious in beauty, love- or reputation
No, nothing of all this. Her youthful illusions
have vanished, her season of youth is passed.
Yet she is now young again; for in the depths
of her soul freedom has arisen; over the dark
chaos, "Let there be light" has been pro-
nounced, the light has penetrated the darkness,
and illuminated her also. Her eyes steadily d.
rected towards that she has said, amidst tears of
Joy, "Death, where is thy sting! 0 grave,
where is thy victory" The grave has opened
since then, and torn away many whom she ten
derby loved. She has felt, and yet feels the
sting of many grief; but her heart beats freshly
yet. The dark night has disappeared, but not lis
fruit for as certain flowers open only at night,
50, often in the dark hours OF great sorrow, the
human soul first opens to the light of the eternal
stars.
Perhaps you wish to hear something of my
authorship. This commenced in the eighth year
OF my age, when l apostrophized the moon in
the French verses:
C corps celeste de la nature
And for a long time continued to write in the
same sublime spirit, the reading of which viii
spare my enemies, if such | have. wrote un
der the influence of unquiet, youthful feelings
without design, as the waves leave their trace:
on the shore wrote to write. Afterwards,
took up the pen from different motives, and wrote
what you have read