New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1860-03-17


relations in which il had placed him. With what
affection he spoke of the dead and how constant
vas he to his old friendships His own heart was
perhaps often more deeply penetrated with the SEN
tment than those of the objects of his affection; but
where his love had once been awakened, he remained
steadfastly true, Judging of others feelings for him
BY his own for them.
What Wilhelm Grimm was in the social circle,
we have not ability To describe. He was amidbtc in
the finest sense of the term. As in the Mdrchen he
had caught the poetic spirit of the peasant and had
succeeded in preserving ofttimes his very language
with an artistic truth that could spring from none
but poetic nature and which no other has equaled,
extensive as this literature, Of which he was the
father has become: So in relating the most nsignifi
cant event or story, he caught lis true spirit and
clothed il in the most simple and natural express
sions. He enjoyed story telling. His conversation
was always eevatiDg, original and thoroughly char
acteristc of the man.
"In his purely scientific works. in hs less labored
papers, in the prefaces TO his books, and in his letters
we see manifested every where the same love and ex
acness Of observation, and the same felicity In clothing
its result in words. 80 .
ellis endowment of life seemed TO increase with his
wears. He seemed ever more coDtented and happier
This was true down TO his last days, nay, hours. All
his life lie delighted in doing acts Of friendship no less
in being the object Of them. He appreciated the
slightest token OF goodwill, and laid 1t up IN his
What has here been said Is no labored euogy; ii
10 lint that which memory ttill laboring under the
blow which fell so suddenly first offers ire topics
but those which first 10 hand. We do not eulo
gize such men, ives speak their names Not syllable
of paDegyric was spoken over hls colin, winch $1,000
there by the table, at which he had so long wrought
Books Law open upon that table If he had but J1st
looked into them There, too, were the inkstsnd the
pen the hits OF paper upon which he had ho'eo mem
oTanda. His pictures hung upon the walls, recalling
memories tf beloved friends of past scenes OF ENJOY
ment-it seemed impossible that he should behold them
no more - So long as that German tongue
shall last, which we speak, the name Wilhelm Grimm
will be a word denOtiDg noble man, whose life aud
strength were given 10 his people.
know no better answer in his ease, to the ques-
ton so often asked of distinguished pr Nonages-
" But what sort of man was he l'-than the above
Judging from the articles which We have recently
seen upon Washington Irving, he and Wilhelm
Grimm must have had many characteristics IN
common, however different their lives and studies
great similarity of taste is certainly manifested in
their writings in such points as their love of the
legendary, their keen perception of the humorous
especially in common life and their fOndness for the
simple and elegant in style. Irving was the first to
throw the charm of legend over the earlier periods
of American histOry-the father of literature be-
coming every year more extensive and dearer TO
every American heart. Wilhelm Grimm was IN
fact the father of the now very extensive MdrcheR
literature of Germany. 1t is a mistake TO suppose
that he merely assisted his brother Jacob in giving
the nimitable collection of Popular Stories to the
public The fact is Just the reverse. Its history Is
this
In 1907. Wilhelm graduated at the University of
Marburg having made jurisprudence his study, and
expecting an appointment from the Hesslan Govern
ment as his father had bad before him. The irrup-
tion of the French and the subsequent establish
ment of jerome Bonaparte's kingdom of Westphalla,
cut off his hopes in that quarter, and, together with
the utter failure of his health forced him to remain
in private life OF his physical suherings at this
period he saws, i'll a short autobiography (e1tend-
ing unfortunately but to lS30):
!" Nv health after the death of my mother, in 1908,
had continually grown worse, in addition to the asthma,
which made the ascent of half dozen steps heavy
burden and incessant pains in my chest, has now
added disease of the heart. TIE pain, which l can
only compare to the PASSAGE rom tune 70 ulne OF
tended with feeling of terrible anxiety. The disease
often exhibited itself in fierce beating Of the heart
which came suddenly, and with equal suddenness
ceased On several occasions this lasted twenty hours
leaving me utterly exhausted The feeling that death
was imminent was certainly well grounded. Many
night ] sat through sleepess in my bed awaiting mo-
tionless and longing, for days dawn, which ever
brout hit with il a feeling Of consolation
This disease took him the next year to Halle, to
consult the celebrated Rel, who after a careful ex
animation, could only comfort him with the assur-
ance, that lac " must experiment upon HIM, and
SET him a task, which his own time did not allow
tons for similar cases. The results of the expert
ments were happily favorable, and, though still an
invalid the patient in 1909 was able to pay visit
of some weeks to bis friend Achn vOn Ar1nn In
Berlin. After the return of the old Hessan Gov
eminent, Wilhelm was appointed second assistant
in the Library at Cassel, where Jacob had already,
for some years, been the first.
1t was during those years of feeble health that
he turned his attention to and laid the foundation
for his great acquaintance with ancient German lit
erature. and that he conceived and partly carried
out the idea of doing for the popular stories OF the
peasantry, what Achm Won Arnim and Clemens
BrentanO had lust done for the ballads IN Des
Knabeps UunderhOrn. Some suppose that the
Brothers Grimm are the authors of those stories.
This is in no case true. They were the collectors
they saved them at the critical moment, when,
through the commissions OF the time, they had been
otherwise lost irrecOverably. And as the idea was
Wilbelm's. so was most of the work done by him.
In fact they were, in great measure, obtained for
him from the lips of the peasant women, when
they came TO market in Cassel, or in the country
in their own houses, by young lady OF
Cassel. Dorothea Wild, descendant of Matthias
Gessner (of 'Thesaurus," not ''Idyl' memory, and
who for the last thirty years, has been his wife
OF the many different forms in which the UdrcheH
were found to exist among the people, was Grimms
task to select that which most perfectly CON
formed to and represented peasant life and ideas
So far as pOssible-in many cases without the
change of a WOrd-the tales were edited in the
language in which they were obtained. They are
therefore, 10 him who can appreciate them from
this point of view, perhaps even IN a higher degree
than their editors originally supposed, most val
liable contribution to the intellectual history of the
lower orders of the German people in ages past
And so, in 1912 and 1915, appeared those two vol
umes the first installment of a literature now com
prisiug works in almost every living language As