Die letzte Reise der Smaragde (German Edition)

On April 28, , the prince laid the foundations of a stronghold which he called "Sophienburg" after his lady- love. The prince was not fitted to carry out such an undertaking. He was a typical noble of a small German State. He had an exaggerated idea of his own im- portance, and thought he could carry himself in America with the same attitude toward his people as he could in Germany.

He rode around the country followed by a retinue of officers dressed in the fashion of German military officers. His train consisted of an architect, a cook, and a professional hunter jager. They, of course, did not understand such conduct. It was entirely out of accord with the free and open life of the plains.

He deserves great credit however for the sacrifices which he made, and the efforts he gave to try to better a bad condition of affairs. His greatest lack was, however, his little knowledge of business. Texas Quarterly, II, pp. Kaiserl, Konigl, apostolischen Majestat Rittmeister Germans in Texas 25 The reports of the prince to the colonial directory in Ger- many show, however, that he understood the conditions of affairs in Texas; that he was active in the interests of the Verein and that he read correctly the motives of such men as Bourgeois d'Orvanne and Fischer.

He was evidently a dreamer and thought of establishing in Texas a German State that would gain for the Fatherland all of the commercial advantages which had accrued to England through the East India Company. He under- stood thoroughly what sort of land was needed to carry out the aims of the Verein and might have obtained it at much more favorable terms, had the German noblemen listened to his re- quests.

Fischer had caused the Verein to think that they had enough money to carry out the undertaking. They had not reckoned on prices in Texas. Prince Solms resigned his position and on February 24, , Baron von Meusebach was appointed his suc- cessor. On his way, he was met by Germans who presented complaints against the society. Roemer met him while in Texas and accompanied him on his expedition into the Indian country. Roemer says that the new commissary-general began his activ- ity with the carrying-out of a more regular business policy and a more carefully systematized method of keeping the accounts.

He im Konig Friedrich August von Sachsen 3. Cuirassier-Regiment, Gross- kreuz des konigl. Hannoverischen Guelphcn-, dcs Herzogel. He studied jurisprudence and political science and finance in Bonn and Halle. He had held many offices in Germany before leaving for Texas. He was a diplomatist of great skill. This is shown by his treaty with the Indians and his relations with the Anglo-Americans. He knew how to create respect and obedience. He was looked up to by the Indians. He was unpopular at first with the Germans, but later they came to know his real worth, and in they chose him as State Senator.

He became a naturalized American citi- zen under the name of John O. He bore himself well under the heaviest stress of circumstances. Kapp says, had he remained in Germany, he would have risen to the highest position. On May 15, , Solms-Braunfels left, and when von Meusebach entered upon his work, he found affairs at a crisis. A number of colonists were on their way to Texas. The money had been spent. As soon as he arrived, he demanded an ac- counting from the treasurer of the Verein, which that official was unable to give. Prince Solms had left for Galveston shortly before the new director's arrival.

Fest-Ausgahe, hereafter, will be used in place of Entzuickelungs-Geschichte. McCulloch County, Austin, ; also cf. Germans in Texas 27 lot of immigrants arrived. In a letter dated November 30, Soergel states that the Verein secretary, Dr. Hill, told him that persons, in seventeen ships were leaving for Texas. He was in new straits. The treasury was empty, and this large mass of emi- grants was about to be thrust upon him. Some 5, immigrants were to be landed on the coast and there was only a mere pittance with which to care for them.

Twelve were from Antwerp, and twenty-four from Bremen. These ships landed 5, persons. Some 2, reached New Braunfels and Friedrichsburg. A thousand were left at Indian Point, and on the road towards New Braunfels. Five hundred returned to Germany. Roemer says the number was Kapp states the number who died in the summer of , on the way, at New Braunfels and at Friedrichsburg, as They were huddled together in the holds, steerage, and on the decks of the ships like sheep, and when they reached shore, they were in a very weak condition.

They were covered with vermin. Hundreds died soon after they landed. Some 3, were left at Indianola. The shore was covered with improvised tents and huts, chests and cofifers, clothing, etc. Roemer says it would remind one of an Oriental caravan. After a journey of two months, only 2, out of 2, passengers in all the vessels, entered Galveston. They were then transported to Indian Point. It consisted of a few houses. Barracks of boards were built which afforded refuge for only a few. The rest dwelt in tents.

They had to wait more than six months along the low, un- healthy shore. The war with Mexico had taken all means of transportation. The price for transportation rose to enormous sums. There was not enough money among the poor immi- "' Letter quoted, Bracht,- p. This has reference to immigrants of Soergel was an eye-witness of accounts he narrates ; also of. Kapp, Aus und uber Amerika, p. Based mainly on Soergel; also, article by H.

All are sub- stantially the same. Kapp says this condition was no exaggeration. He was in the colony in Germans in Texas 29 grants to purchase teams. Rain and north wind poured through the dwelHngs. Wood and water were lacking.

1. Eternals By Neil Gaiman (Eternals (2006-2007)).
2. !
3. Hot Fun In The Country.
4. The Picture of Dorian Gray (Webster's German Thesaurus Edition) - PDF Free Download.
5. .

They were sur- rounded by swamps in which mosquitoes swarmed, and fevers arose. Rum holes increased their misery and changed men into beasts. Many fell a prey to epidemics. Whole families betook themselves on the road to New Braunfels. The whole road was lined with corpses of dead or with dying men. In many instances the set- tlers along the way were forced to buiy the bodies of immi- grants who had been left by their companions to die by the way- side unpitied and alone.

In the day was heard the cry of beasts of prey; in the night, the howl of wolves and the shrill cry of the Comanches. One man left his wife to perish and later was left by his companions. Arrived in New Braunfels, conditions be- came worse. The place was without means of sustenance. The poor peasants tried to forget their misery by dancing and drink- ing.

It is even stated that men were torn from their wives and buried before they were dead. This was the condition of affairs that von Meusebach had to face. In the summer of '46, there were still several hundred persons camping on the coast. The last immi- grant was brought to New Braunfels. Camps were pitched on both sides of the Comal and Guadaloupe rivers.

Horses, oxen and cattle grazed beside hut or tent. In March, , Meusebach raised money on credit, and arranged for the transportation of the immigrants. In the mid- dle of December, '45, he sent thirty-six men to break a way north of the Pedernales. In the beginning of , block-houses were built. This became the later settlement of Friedrichsburg. On April 23, , the first settlers were sent thither.

They consisted of about twelve persons. As soon as possible the com- "' Kapp says two-thirds died of epidemic. Schubert and placed him in command of the new settlement. Schubert built here a wretched inn and made a journey to the limits of the land. This was in the territory of the Comanche Indians. In April, Meuse- bach betook himself to the Farm "Nassau" to obtain grain and supplies for the people in Indianola and New Braunfels but without any result.

Friedrichsburg num- bered 1, souls by August, He signed a treaty with the Indians. This was dedicated March 22, This society was the first German protestant association and the first incorporated com- pany in Comal county. Spies became Meusebach's successor in office as direc- tor general.

No customer reviews

Herff had arranged a special con- tract with the Verein for the settlement of a new colony. Castell is "' Ibid, p. Roemer's account, Roemer, Ch. Germans in Texas 31 to-day quite a settlement. Leiningen is a small settlement. It was a communistic colony, and was named "Bettina" after the author, Bettina von Arnim. Dresel was made general business agent of the society.

He had charge of the finances of the society. A combat en- sued in which a man was killed. Spies and his confederates were tried for murder. This cost the Verein a large amount. Under its auspices, the first public holiday was celebrated July 4, of that year. The first number of the "Zeitung" contained a call of a committee of citizens to defend their rights against the Bastrop claimants and other separate claims. Half of this was reserved for the State.

The Union lost possession of all its lands. He was appointed general agent of the society and was recognized as such by the Texan government. The Verein had great difficulty in maintaining its rights to the land grants which it had received, both from the Texan Republic and from the government of the State of Texas.

The commissioners appointed by the latter issued grants of 1,, acres to the Verein. Fisher and Miller had assigned on Decem- ber 30, , its principal interest in the contract to the German Emigration Society, as the Verein was officially designated by the Texan government. The expenses of the enterprise were enormous. The Society became badly in debt and the legislature of Texas passed a law Jan.

The company was permitted to receive its share of the land direct from the state. On September 15, , the company assigned and trans- ferred to their Texan creditors all their property in Texas and all rights accruing to them by the colonization contract. After the creditors had thus gained the land from the Verein, the legis- lature took it from the former and granted it to the colonists or their assignees.

Statutes of Texas Vol. During the year , 8, Germans landed at the port of Galveston, and during three months previous to July, , 4, Germans had landed at that port. A certain Ludwig Martin was the moving spirit. He says that the members consisted of himself, Avhom he styles advocate of Freiburg, Graf von Cas- ' Rosenberg, p. Germans in Texas 33 tell, and railroad director, Ubaghs. It offered roseate prom- ises similar to those of the "Adelsverein," if that were possi- ble.

An agent was to accompany the emigrant to the place of abode. This came to naught, and sim- ply shows that the idea of the Verein still held root. After the catastrophe of the Adelsverein, emigration stopped until the Revolution of ' State offi- cials, aristocrats, teachers, merchants and peasants came in great numbers. The colony now became flourishing. Mills were established, and the industrious German people soon forgot the troubles of the forties. Dcr nord amerikanische Freistaat Texas, ein Hand- buch fiir solche, die dahin inbesondere aber nach dent der deutschen Colo- nisationsgcsellschaft fiir Texas angehorigen, in dcr County Bexar gelcgcnen Land bezirk answandern wollen.

Copyrighted, , by J. The Discovery of the Mississippi. The first German upon the lower Mississippi was one of the last companions of the French explorer, La Salle. As the found- ing of the first settlement of Germans on the lower Mississippi also took place at a very early period in the history of Louisi- ana, we will first cast a glance into the history of the discovery of the Mississippi and the taking possession of the northern gulf coast by the French. Twenty years later Ponce de Leon came to Florida, and in 15 19 Cortez began the conquest of the Aztec empire of Mexico.

In the same year another Spaniard, by the name of Pifieda, sailed from Jamaica to circumnavigate Florida, which at that time was still thought to be an island; and as he always sailed along the northern gulf coast, he finally reached Mexico. For a long time it was believed that Pifieda on this voyage had discovered the Mississippi and called it "Rio del Espiritu Santo" ; but Hamilton, in his "Colonial Mobile," maintains that the river discovered by Piiieda was not the Mississippi, but the Mobile River, and that Piiieda passed the mouth of the Mississippi with- 34 The Settlement of the German Coast of Louisiana I35 out noticing it, it being hidden by sand banks, drift wood, and bushes.

In an expedition to Florida led by Panfilo de Nar- vaez failed, but, in April, , four of its members, among whom was Gabeza de Vaca, reached Mexico by land after many years of wandering. These men must have crossed the Missis- sippi on their way to Mexico, and from their voyage and that of Pineda date the claims of Spain for the ownership of the whole northern gulf coast from Florida to Mexico.

Induced by de Vaca's glowing descriptions of the country, De Soto, in , began his adventurous expedition from Florida into the interior. About the 30th degree of latitude, he discovered the Mississippi April, and found his grave in it; where- upon Moscoso, with the remnants of the expedition, floated down the Mississippi and reached the Spanish possessions on the gulf coast.

This discovery was without any practical results, how- ever, as no second attempt to reach the mouth of the Mississippi was made for the next years. Meanwhile the French had set foot on Canada Port Royal, later called Annapolis, ; Quebec, and discovered the upper Mississippi.

Many years, however, passed before La Salle, coming from Canada, followed the great river southward in its whole length, reached its mouth, and there, on the 9th of April, , took possession of the Mississippi valley for France, calling it "Louisiana," in honor of the king of France, Louis XIV. Then he returned by the same way to Canada, and thence went to France to report on his discoveries and submit his plan to estab- lish communication between Canada and the Gulf of Mexico by means of the Mississippi, and to secure the Indian trade of these vast regions by a chain of forts.

La Salle's propositions found favor with the king of France, and on the 24th of July, , he sailed from La Rochelle for the Gult of Mexico, intending thence to enter the Mississippi and to found on its banks a French establishment. San Domingo was then and had been for many years the headquarters of the buc- caneers, whose calling was at that time considered a quite legiti- mate business, the riches of the Spanish silver ships and the many obstructions to commerce in Central and South America having, so to speak, provoked the other nations to smuggling and piracy. Merchants and many other highly respectable people of Europe furnished and sent out privateers, and rejoiced at their golden harvests.

French, English and Dutch adventurers soon congre- gated in San Domingo, and these were joined by many Germans who had grown up in the wild times of the Thirty Years' War, and could not find their way back to peaceful occupations. In this company La Salle's men gave themselves up to riotous living, in consequence of which many fell victims to disease, and La Salle was compelled to enlist new men.

The First German on the Lower Mississippi. Among the new men engaged in San Domingo by La Salle was a German, a buccaneer, an artillerist, who was known only by the name of "Hans ;" i. The French wrote his name "Hiens," but Hennepin, a Dutch contemporary, calls him "Hans," and all agree that he was a German. The record of La Salle's attempt to find the mouth of the Mississippi River from the Gulf of Mexico reveals a series of quarrels between the commanders, of misfortunes, errors and malice.

One of the four ships of his flotilla laden with thirty tons of ammunition and utensils and tools for his new colony, was cap- tured by the Spaniards near San Domingo, because Beaujeu refused to follow the course recommended by La Salle. The expedition landed in Matagorda Bay, in Texas Febru- ary, , where the frigate L'Aimable, on attempting to enter a river, was stranded. Joutel, an eyewitness, says: Then Beaujeu abandoned La Salle, left with La Joli for France, and took the crew of L'Aimable with him, thus violating his agreement with La Salle, and leaving the latter behind with the La Belle with eight cannon and not a single cannon ball.

Finally, La Belle ran aground and was also lost. La Salle then built a fort in Texas Fort St. Louis for the protection of his people, and from there made several attempts to find the "fatal river," as he called the Mississippi. On one of these expeditions, which brought them up to the Coenis Lidians, Hans, the German buccaneer, almost lost his life. They were crossing a river, when Hans, "a German from Wittenburg" so Father Anastasius, a priest accompanying the expedition, calls him got stuck so fast in the mud "that he could scarcely get out.

This was to be a desperate attempt to march with a picked crew of seventeen men from Texas over- land to Canada to get succor, and on the way there to find the "fatal river. Twenty persons, among whom were seven women, were left behind in the Texas fort, where they eventually perished. In this plan Duhaut, of whom all seem to have been afraid, was openly defied by Hans, the German buccaneer, and Father Anastasius, an eye witness, reports as follows: In our presence he shot the murderer of La Salle through the heart with a pistol.

He died on the spot, unshriven, unable even to utter the names of Jesus and Mary.

Product details

Hiens also wished to kill L'Archeveque and thus com- pletely avenge the death of La Salle, but Joutel conciliated him. Only a few of La Salle's last companions reached Canada. Two of them, Father Anastasius and Joutel, published accounts of La Salle's last voyage, which have been followed in this nar- rative. Gleditschen's Son, Leipsic, Ten years passed before steps were again taken to found a French settlement on the northern gulf coast. After ascending the river as far as the village of the Oumas, opposite the mouth of Red River, he sent his barges back to the mouth of the Mississippi, while he with two canoes entered Bayou Manchac, discovered Lakes Maurepas and Pont- chartrain, and reached Ship Island by this route in advance of his barges.

Despairing of getting his big ships over the bar of the Mis- sissippi, he resolved to make a settlement on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico; and on the 8th of April, , active work was begun at the present site of the town of Ocean Springs, Missis- sippi, on "Fort Maurepas," the first French establishment in Louisiana. The main settlement, however, was ''Fort Louis de la Louisiane," founded in , "sixteen leagues from Massacre Dauphine Island, at the second bluff" on the Mobile River.

Full text of "German American annals"

Near there Creoles still fondly point out the site of 'Vieux Fort,' and there French maps, as early as , place a 'vieux fort, detruit. There, then, on a wooded spot, twenty feet above the river, hardly deserving the name of bluff, save above ordinary high water, was Fort de la Louisiane, commanding the wide, turbid river. It was not one of the many Forts St. In a great rise in the river occurred, which overflowed both the fort and the little town that had sprung up around it.

A change of base was then decided upon, and "Fort de la Louis- iane" was built on the site of the present city of Mobile.

Follow the Author

In 17 10 the old fort was abandoned. The Settlement of the German Coast of Louisiana 41 Here, at the old and at the new Fort de la Loiiisiane, or rather on Datiphine Island, at the entrance of the harbor of Mobile, where the large vessels from Europe discharged their passengers and cargoes, around the Bay of Biloxi and on Ship Island Isle aux Vaisseaux in the Gulf of Mexico, the life of the colony of Louisiana centered for the next twenty years.

Here the principal events took place, and here also landed the first Germans. In the beginning of the colony the French committed the grave error of not giving any attention to agriculture. Two years after the founding of Mobile, in , the civilian part of the population of Louisiana consisted of only twenty-three families, with ten children, who lived along the shore in huts with palmetto or straw roofs, fishing and hunting.

It is true that they also had little gardens around their huts, but for pro- visions they relied on the vessels from France. They pre- tended that nothing could be grown on the sandy soil of the 42 The Settlement of the German Coast of Louisiana gulf coast, and they complained not only of the soil, but of the water also. I have it from Madam Hubert, the wife of the 'Commissionaire Ordonnateur,' that at the time when the French were at that post there were seven or eight sterile women who all became mothers from the time when they established themselves with their hus- bands on the banks of the Mississippi, whence the capital had been transferred.

The truth is that the first colonists did not want to work, and the governors of that period complained bitterly of that fact. The people expected to find gold, silver, and pearls as the Spaniards had done in Mexico. The French also expected to do a great deal of business with the Spaniards in Mexico.

Since the expected mineral treasures of the gulf coast, how- ever, have not been discovered even to-day — since the Spaniards, who claimd the whole northern gulf coast for themselves, were unwilling to trade with the French — since the trade with the Indians and with the Canadian hunters was too insignificant, — since France, whose treasury had been emptied by Louis XIV. The Settlement of the German Coast of Louisiana 43 Louisiana was for many years in a precarious condition and at times on the very verge of ruin.

Thus the colony continued until, in , Crozat, a French merchant, took in hand its management as a commercial venture. He received the trade monopoly for fifteen years, but after the first five years he found himself compelled to ask the, regent of France to rescind his contract, which request was granted. This company received the trade monopoly for twenty-five years.

It was granted the right to issue an unlimited number of shares of stock, and the privilege not only of giving away land on con- ditions, but also of selling it outright. For these and other considerations the company obligated itself to bring into the colony during the life of its franchise at least white people and negroes.

The shares of the company were "guaranteed" by its assets. In order to develop all these sources of wealth to their fullest capacity, agriculture was now also to be introduced on a grand scale. For this purpose large tracts of land, concessions, were now given to such rich men in France as would obligate themselves to bring the necessary number of people from Europe to till the soil. One of the largest concessioners was John Law, the presi- dent of the company, who caused two concessions to be given to himself. The larger one was on the lower Arkansas River, 44 TJie Settlement of the German Coast of Louisiana on whicli he obligated himself to settle many people, for whose protection against the Indians he promised to keep a company of dragoons.

His second concession was seven lieiies below New Orleans, on the Mississippi River, below English Turn, and ad- joining one of the concessions to the minister of war, Le Blanc, whose principal possessions were on the Yazoo River. As a shrewd business man, which he no doubt was, John Law knew that, to make his venture a success, he needed not only capital but also people able and willing to toil for him; and, as he knew from the reports of the former governors how little adapted to agriculture the former French colonists had proven themselves, he resolved to engage for his own conces- sions Germans from the country on both sides of the river Rhine, and from Switzerland.

A great agitation was now begun, partly to induce rich people to take shares in the general enterprise and buy land for their own account, and partly to entice poor people to become engages hired field hands for the company or for the different concessioners. After a while, land was also to be given to the poor engages to enable. A German Description of Louisiana in the Year About this time, pamphlets in several languages were printed, containing extracts from letters of people who had already set- tled in Louisiana, and giving glowing descriptions of the country.

Such a pamphlet, in German, which, perhaps, came to Louisiana with one of the German pioneer families, was found by the author some twenty-five years ago in a little book shop in Ex- change Alley, New Orleans, and at his suggestion it was bought for the Fisk Library, where it can be seen. It was printed by J. Sohn, Leipsic, , and bears the title: The northern lim- its are entirely unknown. In , a Canadian, M. But there is still another district known of over miles, for which reason it is almost to be supposed that this country extends to the 'Polum Arcticum.

The abundance of the country can- not be easily imagined. There is also game, which every person is permitted to kill: Deer is the most useful game, and the French carry on a great "negotium" in doeskins, which they purchase from the savages. Ten to twelve leaden bullets are given in exchange for such a skin. The principal things, however, are the mines: If one wishes to hunt for mines, he need only go into the country of the Natchitoches. There we will surely 'draw pieces of silver mines out of the earth. The savages will make them known to us. Soon we shall find healing remedies for the most dangerous wounds, yes, also, so they say, infallible ones for the fruits of love.

About New Orleans a man writes to his wife in Europe: Its circumference will be one mile. The houses are poor and low, as at home with us in the country. They are covered with large pieces of bark and strong reeds. Every- body dresses as he pleases, but all very poorly. One's outfit con- sists of a suit of clothes, bed, table, and trunks. Tapestry and fine beds are entirely unknown. The people sleep the whole night in the open air. I am as safe in the most distant part of the town as in a citadel. Although I live among savages and Frenchmen, I am in no danger.

People trust one another so much that they leave gates and doors open. From this basis it follows that acres, which, as stated already, cost Talers when purchased, are really worth 30, Talers. For this reason one can easily understand why these shares may yet rise very high," No wonder that the agitation on both banks of the river Rhine, from Switzerland to Holland, bore fruit, and that thou- sands of people got themselves ready to emigrate to Louisiana. Ten Thousand Germans on the Way to Louisiana. German historians state that, as a result of this agitation, 10, Germans emigrated to Louisiana.

This seems a rather large number of people to be enticed by the promoter's promises to leave their fatherland and emigrate to a distant country; but we must consider the pitiable condition under which these people lived at home. To get the free app, enter mobile phone number. See all free Kindle reading apps. Don't have a Kindle? Independently Published 27 May Language: Be the first to review this item Would you like to tell us about a lower price? Share your thoughts with other customers. We live in an age when men treat art as if it were meant to be a form of autobiography.

We have lost the abstract sense of beauty. Some day I will show the world what it is; and for that reason the world shall never see my portrait of Dorian Gray. It is only the intellectually lost who ever argue. Tell me, is Dorian Gray very fond of you? Of course I flatter him dreadfully. I find a strange pleasure in saying things to him that I know I shall be sorry for having said. As a rule, he is charming to me, and we sit in the studio and talk of a thousand things.

Now and then, however, he is horribly thoughtless, and seems to take a real delight in giving me pain. Then I feel, Harry, that I have given away my whole soul to some one who treats it as if it were a flower to put in his coat, a bit of decoration to charm his vanity, an ornament for a summer's day. It is a sad thing to think of, but there is no doubt that genius lasts longer than beauty.

That accounts for the fact that we all take such pains to over-educate ourselves. In the wild struggle for existence, we want to have something that endures, and so we fill our minds with rubbish and facts, in the silly hope of keeping our place. The thoroughly well-informed man-that is the modern ideal. And the mind of the thoroughly well-informed man is a dreadful thing. It is like a bric-a-brac shop, all monsters and dust, with everything priced above its proper value. I think you will tire first, all the same. Some day you will look at your friend, and he will seem to you to be a little out of drawing, or you won't like his tone of colour, or something.

You will bitterly reproach him in your own heart, and seriously think that he has behaved very badly to you. The next time he calls, you will be perfectly cold and indifferent. It will be a great pity, for it will alter you. What you have told me is quite a romance, a romance of art one might call it, and the worst of having a romance of any kind is that it leaves one so unromantic.

As long as I live, the personality of Dorian Gray will dominate me. You can't feel what I feel. You change too often. Those who are faithful know only the trivial side of love: There was a rustle of chirruping sparrows in the green lacquer leaves of the ivy, and the blue cloud-shadows chased themselves across the grass like swallows. How pleasant it was in the garden! And how delightful other people's emotions were! One's own soul, and the passions of one's friends--those were the fascinating things in life.

He pictured to himself with silent amusement the tedious luncheon that he had missed by staying so long with Basil Hallward. Had he gone to his aunt's, he would have been sure to have met Lord Goodbody there, and the whole conversation would have been about the feeding of the poor and the necessity for model lodging-houses. Each class would have preached the importance of those virtues, for whose exercise there was no necessity in their own lives.

The rich would have spoken on the value of thrift, and the idle grown eloquent over the dignity of labour. It was charming to have escaped all that! As he thought of his aunt, an idea seemed to strike him. He turned to Hallward and said, "My dear fellow, I have just remembered. It was at my aunt, Lady Agatha's.

She told me she had discovered a wonderful young man who was going to help her in the East End, and that his name was Dorian Gray. I am bound to state that she never told me he was good-looking. Women have no appreciation of good looks; at least, good women have not. She said that he was very earnest and had a beautiful nature. I at once pictured to myself a creature with spectacles and lank German chased: Zierlich, delikat, lecker, fein, gelinde, zart.

Lack, Lackieren, Firnis, Firnissen, Lacken. Oscar Wilde 15 hair, horribly freckled, and tramping about on huge feet. I wish I had known it was your friend. Dorian Gray is in the studio, sir," said the butler, coming into the garden. The painter turned to his servant, who stood blinking in the sunlight. Gray to wait, Parker: I shall be in in a few moments. Then he looked at Lord Henry.

Your aunt was quite right in what she said of him. Don't try to influence him. Your influence would be bad. The world is wide, and has many marvellous people in it. Don't take away from me the one person who gives to my art whatever charm it possesses: Mind, Harry, I trust you. Hausdiener, Herrenknecht, Kammerdiener, Butler. He was seated at the piano, with his back to them, turning over the pages of a volume of Schumann's "Forest Scenes. They are perfectly charming. When he caught sight of Lord Henry, a faint blush coloured his cheeks for a moment, and he started up.

I have just been telling him what a capital sitter you were, and now you have spoiled everything. Gray," said Lord Henry, stepping forward and extending his hand. You are one of her favourites, and, I am afraid, one of her victims also. We were to have played a duet together- German beg: Verzeihung, Begnadigung, Vergebung, verzeihen, entschuldigen, amnestieren, Entschuldigung.

Oscar Wilde 17 -three duets, I believe. I don't know what she will say to me. I am far too frightened to call. She is quite devoted to you. And I don't think it really matters about your not being there. The audience probably thought it was a duet. When Aunt Agatha sits down to the piano, she makes quite enough noise for two people. Yes, he was certainly wonderfully handsome, with his finely curved scarlet lips, his frank blue eyes, his crisp gold hair.

There was something in his face that made one trust him at once. All the candour of youth was there, as well as all youth's passionate purity. One felt that he had kept himself unspotted from the world. No wonder Basil Hallward worshipped him. The painter had been busy mixing his colours and getting his brushes ready. He was looking worried, and when he heard Lord Henry's last remark, he glanced at him, hesitated for a moment, and then said, "Harry, I want to finish this picture to-day.

Would you think it awfully rude of me if I asked you to go away? I see that Basil is in one of his sulky moods, and I can't bear him when he sulks. Besides, I want you to tell me why I should not go in for philanthropy. It is so tedious a subject that one would have to talk seriously about it.

But I certainly shall not run away, now German answered: Aufrichtigkeit, Wahrheitssinn, Ehrlichkeit, Gerechtigkeit. Klavier, Piano, das Klavier. You don't really mind, Basil, do you? You have often told me that you liked your sitters to have some one to chat to. Dorian's whims are laws to everybody, except himself. I have promised to meet a man at the Orleans. Come and see me some afternoon in Curzon Street. I am nearly always at home at five o'clock. Write to me when you are coming. I should be sorry to miss you. You never open your lips while you are painting, and it is horribly dull standing on a platform and trying to look pleasant.

Ask him to stay. I insist upon it. I beg you to stay. Sit down again, Harry. And now, Dorian, get up on the platform, and don't move about too much, or pay any attention to what Lord Henry says. He has a very bad influence over all his friends, with the single exception of myself. He was so unlike Basil. They made a delightful contrast. And he had such a beautiful voice. After a few moments he said to him, "Have you really a very bad influence, Lord Henry? As bad as Basil says? All influence is immoral--immoral from the scientific point of view. Oscar Wilde 19 "Because to influence a person is to give him one's own soul.

He does not think his natural thoughts, or burn with his natural passions. His virtues are not real to him. His sins, if there are such things as sins, are borrowed. He becomes an echo of some one else's music, an actor of a part that has not been written for him. The aim of life is self-development. To realize one's nature perfectly--that is what each of us is here for. People are afraid of themselves, nowadays. They have forgotten the highest of all duties, the duty that one owes to one's self. Of course, they are charitable. They feed the hungry and clothe the beggar. But their own souls starve, and are naked.

Courage has gone out of our race. Perhaps we never really had it. The terror of society, which is the basis of morals, the terror of God, which is the secret of religion--these are the two things that govern us. And yet--" "Just turn your head a little more to the right, Dorian, like a good boy," said the painter, deep in his work and conscious only that a look had come into the lad's face that he had never seen there before.

But the bravest man amongst us is afraid of himself. The mutilation of the savage has its tragic survival in the self-denial that mars our lives. We are punished for our refusals. Every impulse that we strive to strangle broods in the mind and poisons us.

The Picture of Dorian Gray (Webster's German Thesaurus Edition)

The body sins once, and has done with its sin, for action is a mode of purification. Nothing remains then but the recollection of a pleasure, or the luxury of a regret. The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself, with desire for what its monstrous laws have made monstrous and unlawful.

It has been said that the great events of the world take place in the brain. It is in the German beggar: Gray, you yourself, with your rose-red youth and your rose-white boyhood, you have had passions that have made you afraid, thoughts that have filled you with terror, day-dreams and sleeping dreams whose mere memory might stain your cheek with shame--" "Stop! I don't know what to say. There is some answer to you, but I cannot find it. Or, rather, let me try not to think. He was dimly conscious that entirely fresh influences were at work within him. Yet they seemed to him to have come really from himself.

The few words that Basil's friend had said to him--words spoken by chance, no doubt, and with wilful paradox in them-- had touched some secret chord that had never been touched before, but that he felt was now vibrating and throbbing to curious pulses. Music had troubled him many times. But music was not articulate. It was not a new world, but rather another chaos, that it created in us.

How terrible they were! How clear, and vivid, and cruel! One could not escape from them. And yet what a subtle magic there was in them!

They seemed to be able to give a plastic form to formless things, and to have a music of their own as sweet as that of viol or of lute. Was there anything so real as words? Yes; there had been things in his boyhood that he had not understood. He understood them now. Life suddenly became fiery-coloured to him. It seemed to him that he had been walking in fire.

Why had he not known it? With his subtle smile, Lord Henry watched him. He knew the precise psychological moment when to say nothing. He felt intensely interested. He was amazed at the sudden impression that his words had produced, and, remembering a book that he had read when he was sixteen, a book which had revealed to him much that he had not known before, he wondered whether German amazed: Fleck, beflecken, flecken, Beize, beizen, Klecks, einflecken, beschmutzen, leicht schmutzig werden, sudeln.

Oscar Wilde 21 Dorian Gray was passing through a similar experience. He had merely shot an arrow into the air. Had it hit the mark? How fascinating the lad was! Hallward painted away with that marvellous bold touch of his, that had the true refinement and perfect delicacy that in art, at any rate comes only from strength. He was unconscious of the silence.

The air is stifling here. When I am painting, I can't think of anything else. But you never sat better. You were perfectly still. And I have caught the effect I wanted-- the half-parted lips and the bright look in the eyes. I don't know what Harry has been saying to you, but he has certainly made you have the most wonderful expression. I suppose he has been paying you compliments. You mustn't believe a word that he says.

Perhaps that is the reason that I don't believe anything he has told me. It is horribly hot in the studio. Basil, let us have something iced to drink, something with strawberries in it. Just touch the bell, and when Parker comes I will tell him what you want. I have got to work up this background, so I will join you later on. Don't keep Dorian too long. I have never been in better form for painting than I am to-day. This is going to be my masterpiece. It is my masterpiece as it stands.

He came close to him and put his hand upon his shoulder. Heilung, heilen, kurieren, genesen, Heilmittel, Kur, behandeln, wiederherstellen, gesunden. He was bareheaded, and the leaves had tossed his rebellious curls and tangled all their gilded threads. There was a look of fear in his eyes, such as people have when they are suddenly awakened. His finely chiselled nostrils quivered, and some hidden nerve shook the scarlet of his lips and left them trembling. You are a wonderful creation. You know more than you think you know, just as you know less than you want to know.

He could not help liking the tall, graceful young man who was standing by him. His romantic, olivecoloured face and worn expression interested him. There was something in his low languid voice that was absolutely fascinating. His cool, white, flowerlike hands, even, had a curious charm. They moved, as he spoke, like music, and seemed to have a language of their own.

But he felt afraid of him, and ashamed of being afraid. Why had it been left for a stranger to reveal him to himself? He had known Basil Hallward for months, but the friendship between them had never altered him. Suddenly there had come some one across his life who seemed to have disclosed to him life's mystery. And, yet, what was there to be afraid of?

He was not a schoolboy or a girl. It was absurd to be frightened. You really must not allow yourself to become sunburnt. It would be unbecoming. Oscar Wilde 23 "I don't feel that, Lord Henry. Now, wherever you go, you charm the world. Will it always be so? You have a wonderfully beautiful face, Mr. And beauty is a form of genius-- is higher, indeed, than genius, as it needs no explanation.

It is of the great facts of the world, like sunlight, or spring-time, or the reflection in dark waters of that silver shell we call the moon. It cannot be questioned. It has its divine right of sovereignty. It makes princes of those who have it. People say sometimes that beauty is only superficial. That may be so, but at least it is not so superficial as thought is. To me, beauty is the wonder of wonders. It is only shallow people who do not judge by appearances. The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible. Gray, the gods have been good to you. But what the gods give they quickly take away.

You have only a few years in which to live really, perfectly, and fully. When your youth goes, your beauty will go with it, and then you will suddenly discover that there are no triumphs left for you, or have to content yourself with those mean triumphs that the memory of your past will make more bitter than defeats. Every month as it wanes brings you nearer to something dreadful. Time is jealous of you, and wars against your lilies and your roses.

You will become sallow, and hollow-cheeked, and dull-eyed. You will suffer horribly Don't squander the gold of your days, listening to the tedious, trying to improve the hopeless failure, or giving away your life to the ignorant, the common, and the vulgar. These are the sickly aims, the false ideals, of our age. Live the wonderful life that is in you! Let nothing be lost upon you. Be always searching for new sensations. Be afraid of nothing. A new Hedonism-- that is what our century wants.

You might be its visible symbol. With your personality there is nothing you could not do. The world belongs to you for a season. The moment I met you I saw that you were quite unconscious of what you really are, of what you really might be. There was so much in you that charmed me that I felt I must tell German belongs: I thought how tragic it would be if you were wasted.

For there is such a little time that your youth will last--such a little time. The common hill-flowers wither, but they blossom again. The laburnum will be as yellow next June as it is now. In a month there will be purple stars on the clematis, and year after year the green night of its leaves will hold its purple stars. But we never get back our youth. The pulse of joy that beats in us at twenty becomes sluggish. Our limbs fail, our senses rot. We degenerate into hideous puppets, haunted by the memory of the passions of which we were too much afraid, and the exquisite temptations that we had not the courage to yield to.

There is absolutely nothing in the world but youth! The spray of lilac fell from his hand upon the gravel. A furry bee came and buzzed round it for a moment. Then it began to scramble all over the oval stellated globe of the tiny blossoms. He watched it with that strange interest in trivial things that we try to develop when things of high import make us afraid, or when we are stirred by some new emotion for which we cannot find expression, or when some thought that terrifies us lays sudden siege to the brain and calls on us to yield.

After a time the bee flew away. He saw it creeping into the stained trumpet of a Tyrian convolvulus. The flower seemed to quiver, and then swayed gently to and fro. Suddenly the painter appeared at the door of the studio and made staccato signs for them to come in. They turned to each other and smiled. The light is quite perfect, and you can bring your drinks. Two green-and-white butterflies fluttered past them, and in the pear-tree at the corner of the garden a thrush began to sing.

Gray," said Lord Henry, looking at him. I wonder shall I always be glad? That is a dreadful word. It makes me shudder when I hear it. Women are so fond of using it. They spoil every romance by trying to make it German beats: Oscar Wilde 25 last for ever. It is a meaningless word, too. The only difference between a caprice and a lifelong passion is that the caprice lasts a little longer. The sweep and dash of the brush on the canvas made the only sound that broke the stillness, except when, now and then, Hallward stepped back to look at his work from a distance. In the slanting beams that streamed through the open doorway the dust danced and was golden.

The heavy scent of the roses seemed to brood over everything. After about a quarter of an hour Hallward stopped painting, looked for a long time at Dorian Gray, and then for a long time at the picture, biting the end of one of his huge brushes and frowning. Lord Henry came over and examined the picture. It was certainly a "My dear fellow, I congratulate you most warmly," he said. Gray, come over and look at yourself. I am awfully obliged to you. When he saw it he drew back, and his cheeks flushed for a moment with pleasure. A look of joy came into his eyes, as if he had recognized himself for the first time.

He stood there motionless and in wonder, dimly German beams: The sense of his own beauty came on him like a revelation. He had never felt it before. Basil Hallward's compliments had seemed to him to be merely the charming exaggeration of friendship. He had listened to them, laughed at them, forgotten them. They had not influenced his nature. Then had come Lord Henry Wotton with his strange panegyric on youth, his terrible warning of its brevity. That had stirred him at the time, and now, as he stood gazing at the shadow of his own loveliness, the full reality of the description flashed across him.

Yes, there would be a day when his face would be wrinkled and wizen, his eyes dim and colourless, the grace of his figure broken and deformed. The scarlet would pass away from his lips and the gold steal from his hair. The life that was to make his soul would mar his body. He would become dreadful, hideous, and uncouth. His eyes deepened into amethyst, and across them came a mist of tears. He felt as if a hand of ice had been laid upon his heart. It is one of the greatest things in modern art. I will give you anything you like to ask for it. I must have it. I shall grow old, and horrible, and dreadful.

But this picture will remain always young. It will never be older than this particular day of June. If it were only the other way! If it were I who was to be always German amethyst: Nebel, Dunst, Dampf, Qualm, Schleier. Oscar Wilde 27 young, and the picture that was to grow old! For that--for that--I would give everything! Yes, there is nothing in the whole world I would not give!

I would give my soul for that! You like your art better than your friends.

1. .
2. .
3. The Suicide Club.
4. .
5. .

I am no more to you than a green bronze figure. Hardly as much, I dare say. It was so unlike Dorian to speak like that. He seemed quite angry. His face was flushed and his cheeks burning. You will like them always. How long will you like me? Till I have my first wrinkle, I suppose. I know, now, that when one loses one's good looks, whatever they may be, one loses everything. Your picture has taught me that. Lord Henry Wotton is perfectly right. Youth is the only thing worth having. When I find that I am growing old, I shall kill myself. I have never had such a friend as you, and I shall never have such another.

You are not jealous of material things, are you? I am jealous of the portrait you have painted of me. Why should it keep what I must lose? Every moment that passes takes something from me and gives something to it. Oh, if it were only the other way! If the picture could change, and I could be always what I am now! Why did you paint it? It will mock me some day--mock me horribly!

Elfenbein, Elfenbeinern, Aus Elfenbein, Elfenbeinartig. Silber, silbern, versilbern, silbrig, das Silber. Lord Henry shrugged his shoulders. What is it but canvas and colour?