Villa Eden: The Country-House on the Rhine. Auerbach Berthold
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into a system of laws. It was the great mistake of Jean Jacques Rousseau, and the French Revolution, that in their indignation at the traditions contradictory to reason, they thought that an individual and an age could develop everything from themselves. A child of humanity neither contains all within himself, nor can he receive all from without. I think then that there is a mingling of the two elements, and there must be an hourly and an imperceptible influence exerted both from within and from without equally, inasmuch as man is a product of nature and a product of history. It is through the last, only, that man is distinguished from the beasts, and becomes an heir of all the labors and all the strength of the past generations."
Sonnenkamp nodded acquiescingly. His whole mien said, This man lays down very aptly what he heard yesterday from the lecturer's desk; and Eric continued, —
"Man alone comes into an inheritance, and an inheritance is the heaviest human responsibility."
"That is something new to me. I should like to ask for a fuller explanation."
"Permit me to illustrate: the beast receives from nature, from birth, nothing except its individual strength and its stationary instinctive capacity, while the human being receives from his progenitors and from humanity a superadded strength which he has not in himself, but of which he becomes possessor, and so he is the only inheritor. And let me say further, that it is difficult to decide whether it is harder to turn to good advantage that which a man is in himself, or that which he may receive, as for example your son will, as an inheritance. Most persons are of account only through what they possess. I consider this last of no trifling importance, but – "
"Wealth is no sin, and poverty is no virtue," Sonnenkamp interrupted. "I admit the depth and fineness of your perception in all this. I confess it is new to me, and I think that you have taken the right view. But whether, in the education of one individual boy, you shall find occasion for such great fundamental principles – "
"While engaged in the work of instruction," Eric quietly replied, "I shall not be likely to have directly before my eyes universal principles, as everything must be developed from its own basis. While one is loading, aiming, and firing off a musket, he does not define to himself the various physical laws that come into play, but he must know them in order to proceed in the right way."
Sonnenkamp was rather tired of this discussion; it was somewhat out of his line, and he had the unpleasant consciousness, that while trying to make an impression upon the stranger, he had himself been made to appear infinitely small.
"Pardon, gracious sir," a groom interposed, as Eric was beginning to expatiate anew. Sonnenkamp stood up hastily, and remarking that it was time for his ride, with affable condescension he waived with his hand the discussion to some other time.
He went quickly away. Roland came along the path, and called out, —
"I may ride out with Herr Dournay, may I not, papa?"
Sonnenkamp nodded, and departed with a hurried step. He mounted on horseback, and was soon to be seen riding a spirited black horse along the white high-road by the river. He made an imposing appearance as he sat on horse-back; the groom followed him.
CHAPTER V.
A NEW PATRON AND A NEW TUTOR
By Roland's direction his own pony had been saddled, and also a horse for Eric. They mounted, and rode slowly through a part of the village which joined the estate. At the very end of it stood a small vine-covered house, with all the window-shutters closed. Eric asked who owned it, and why it was shut up. Roland told him that it belonged to his father, and that the architect, who built the villa, had lived there, and sometimes his father also, when he came from Switzerland or Italy during the building of the house, or the laying out of the park and garden.
"Now for a good trot," said Eric; "take your bridle more firmly in your left hand. Now!"
They started briskly, keeping side by side, but suddenly Eric's horse shied and began to rear. Roland uttered a cry, but Eric reassured him, saying, "I'll conquer him;" he drew his feet from the stirrups, and rode off at such a pace that the horse was soon covered with foam and quite submissive; then he rode back to Roland, who was waiting for him in anxiety.
"Why did you throw off the stirrups?" he asked.
"Because I didn't want to hang by them if the horse fell backwards."
They rode on quietly near each other. Eric asked: —
"Which do you like best, to have some fixed object for your ride, or simply to go over a certain distance, and then turn back?"
Roland looked puzzled.
"Didn't you understand my question?"
"Yes, perfectly."
"And what do you think?"
"I like to have some object, a visit to pay, at the end of my ride."
"I thought you would say so."
"Only think," said Roland, "they say I must have another tutor."
"Indeed."
"But I won't."
"What do you want?"
"I want to get away from home and go to a military school! Why should Manna go to the convent? They always say that my mother can't eat unless I am with her, but she'll have to eat when I'm an officer."
"Then you want to be an officer?"
"Yes, what else should I be?"
Eric was silent.
"Are you a nobleman?" asked the boy, after a pause.
"No."
"Shouldn't you like to become one?"
"We cannot make ourselves noblemen."
The boy played with his horse's long mane; glancing back, he saw that the flag had been lowered from the tower. He pointed it out to Eric, saying haughtily that he should hoist it again. His fine, delicately cut, but pale face gained strength and color as it lost its weary look, and assumed a daring expression.
Without noticing his domineering manner, Eric said how much he liked Roland's pride in being an American.
"You are the first person in Germany who has commended it," cried the boy joyfully. "Herr von Pranken and Fräulein Perini are always ridiculing America; you are the only man, – but I beg your pardon, I ought not to be talking so familiarly to you."
"Put away that notion; we want to be good friends."
The boy held out his hand, and Eric pressed it warmly.
"See, our horses are good friends too," said Roland. "Have you many horses at home?"
"No, not any; I am poor."
"Wouldn't you like to be rich?"
"Certainly, wealth is a great power."
Roland looked at him in surprise; none of his tutors had said that to him; they had all represented wealth as a temptation and a vanity, or had extolled it for the sake of flattering him.
After some time, in which the boy was evidently thinking about Eric, he said, "Are you French, like your name?"
"No, I am a German, but my ancestors were French emigrants. How old were you when you came to Europe?"
"Four."
"Have you any recollection of America?"
"No, but Manna has. I can only remember a song which a negro used to hum, but I can't quite recall it, and nobody can sing it to me."
As they rode up the mountain, the little man, whom they had seen at work in the garden, stood aside to let them pass, and greeted them respectfully. They drew up, and Roland asked Nicholas, as the dwarf was called, why he was going home so early.
The little man replied that he was going home now at noon, and then into the wood to get some of the new earth which Herr Sonnenkamp had found. Up in the wood was a spring which contained iron, and Herr Sonnenkamp had dug down and found the earth also impregnated with iron. In this earth he had planted hydrangeas, and the flesh-colored flowers had changed to sky-blue.
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