History of the Jews, Vol. 6 (of 6): Containing a Memoir of the Author by Dr. Philip Bloch, a Chronological Table of Jewish History, an Index to the Whole WorkGraetz, Heinrich
History
History of the Jews, Vol. 6 (of 6): Containing a Memoir of the Author by Dr. Philip Bloch, a Chronological Table of Jewish History, an Index to the Whole Work
Graetz, Heinrich
Jews -- History
Before entering upon the duties of his office he hastened home, and in
the beginning of October, 1850, solemnized his marriage with the loyal
woman whose patience had never failed, who had never been discouraged
by hope deferred, and had never lost confidence in his ability. He
could not have found a truer, a braver comrade than the wife who shared
the fortunes of the rest of his career. By her harmonious, temperate,
and loving nature, she not only glorified his home and cheered cloudy
days, but also restrained his impetuous disposition, and moderated
his proneness to sharp, caustic, aggressive words. She understood the
needs of his inmost soul, in the recesses of which a reverberation was
sometimes heard as of vague, unfulfilled longings. His personality was
made up of many an incommensurable factor that baffled explanation.
With all his communicativeness he was reserved; the most intimate
emotions of his heart were never revealed. To outsiders he always
appeared wholly unruffled and serene, and no one suspected the thoughts
and feelings stormily surging through his being under its placid
surface. But in order to preserve his equanimity, he stood in need of
frank expression to some one or in some way. It was the outlet and
the purification of the easily excited and strongly reacting emotions
of a nature responding quickly to external pressure. Probably the
leaves of his diary served this purpose; most of them were written
under the stimulus of tense passion. From the day of his marriage the
record becomes more and more attenuated, until it ceases entirely. In
his life-companion he had found the responsive being devoted to him
in boundless veneration and sympathy, whose sentiments were a perfect
echo, clearer usually than the original sound, of his thought and
feeling. And as she took part in his soul-life, so she shared in his
intellectual plans. She made her husband’s scientific interests her
own, and in his scholarly research afforded him the efficient help of a
careful assistant.
The new principal began his work in Lundenburg on October 15 with
zeal and love for his task--he superintended, classified, taught, and
delivered solemn addresses. Apparently success was not lacking, for he
met with encouraging applause. In the shelter of his modest but happy
home, he resumed his literary plans and work. While preparing his
Nikolsburg lectures, he had gathered together an abundance of material
on the Talmudic era, which he now meant to put to use.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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