Ewald

“ The stag [59] belled in the glade, before even the sun was up, and the hind answered and sprang. Every second, the fish leapt in the water; and there was no end to the croaking of the frogs in the ditch. The snake wriggled along the edge of the brook and made play with his tongue; in every hedge sat small brown mice exchanging amorous looks. Even the flies buzzed more fondly than usual.
But, when the gladness was at its highest, the young Prince of Spring stood at the top of the valley, where the mountains enclose it towards the North. He looked out over his kingdom. ”

“ On the death of Frederick V., however, Ewald first appeared prominently as a poet; he published in 1766 three Elegies over the dead king, which were received with universal acclamation, and of which one, at least, is a veritable masterpiece. But his dramatic poem Adam og Eva (Adam and Eve) , by far the finest imaginative work produced in Denmark up to that time, was rejected by the Society of Arts in 1767 and was not published until 1769. ”

“ They even fell on poor Ewald at an evening party. Ewald was staying with me and working hard at some Hebrew MSS. at the Bodleian. He was then already an old man, but in his appearance a powerful and venerable champion. He is the only man I remember who, after copying Hebrew MSS. for twelve hours at the Bodleian with nothing but a sandwich to sustain him, complained of the short time allowed there for work. He came home for dinner very tired, and when the conversation or rather the disputation began between him and some of our young liberal theologians, he spoke in short pithy sentences only. ”

“ He became one of H. Ewald’s most industrious pupils, though at first only with a view to general comparative philology, to which he now intended to devote himself with special zeal, in addition to his archaeological and historical studies. “Ewald,” he writes, “reads his Sanscrit Grammar in{33} his room before five or six hearers, a great advantage for us, for he has an extremely low voice, though at the same time he speaks with extraordinary clearness and correctness. ”

“ He felt that his record was in Heaven, and that his works would follow him. As he has been at rest for over thirty years, we think that the time has come when an account of his life should be added to that of other labourers in the same field, in which he was by no means the least conspicuous worker.
Ewald was born of Jewish parents, on September 14th, 1801, at the village of Maroldsweisach, near Bamberg, Bavaria. His parents were poor, and the education which the village offered was all they could [204] command. ”

“ Here’s the finest field of grass you ever saw in your lives! Hurry up and come. I’ve started grazing already.”
“You’ve started grazing, have you?” cried Two-Legs and came rushing up with his spear. “Out of this, you thief! Do you imagine that I have sown corn in the sweat of my brow for you to eat? Get out of it! This field belongs to me!”
The stag fled as fast as he could into the forest. But the sparrow flew round and told the news on every hand:
“Two-Legs has taken a great piece of land which no one is allowed to touch. He called the stag a thief when he tried to graze on it.” ”

“ I, who at times have soared to peaks that were my own, because the other birds dared not follow me, have myself brought him to the place where wings are clipped for flying respectably, with the flock.
"There was nothing else to be done," says the mother of my little boy.
"Really?" I reply, bitterly. "Was there nothing else to be done? But suppose that I had put by some money, so that I could have saved Messrs. Petersen and Nielsen and Fröken Hansen their trouble and employed my day in myself opening out lands for that little traveller whom I myself have brought into the land? ”

“ Ewald returned from his visit to Fossevang in a very confused state of mind. He appeared to himself like a bad actor who has assumed a rôle that is too big for him. He felt that he ought to skip all the intervening acts and make a dash for the dénoûement, and he would promptly have done so if a new character had not unexpectedly entered and complicated his innocent plot until it was beyond his power to unravel it. ”

“ He continued to follow Mitscherlich’s exposition of the Pharsalia of Lucan, and pursued Sanscrit with Ewald. He advanced the study of this important language so far into the foreground of his scientific labors that he placed himself in open opposition to the old philological school. This he did in conjunction with the two friends who, with himself, composed the clover leaf of Ewald’s auditory. In the spirit of F. A. Wolf, and encouraged by O. Müller, he wished to become acquainted with ancient humanity, not only in its entity but also in its development. ”

“ Ewald Nordahl was standing on a boulder in the middle of the rapids, making his fly dance on the smooth current, when a human voice seemed suddenly to break through the roar of the waters. He looked about him, and presently saw a tall young girl bending aside the alder boughs for an old man who was following close behind her. ”

“ The captain threatened the magistrates in vain: they could not be induced to molest the American.
III.
Ewald was walking up the hills to Fossevang. He had resolved to seek a personal interview in regard to the fishery question. He had no fear of being recognized, and yet his heart beat tumultuously at the thought of standing face to face with his father. He thought for a moment of giving up the whole plot; of saying, as Joseph did, with the proper modification: "I am your son, Ewald." ”

“ I do not know how I am [139] to conquer him. But I do know that it is not possible for one of us to flee from the electric spirit. For he dwells not only in the amber as you saw. He can take up his abode everywhere and in everything ... even in me ... even in every one of you.”
They pressed close together and gazed at him in alarm.
“Watch me now,” said Two-Legs. “Dismiss all your fears and look in wonder at what I shall show you.”
Two-Legs hung the little boy up between two ropes, so that he swung in the air at some height above the ground. Before him, from another cord, hung a glass tube. ”

“ Here the conversation naturally stopped, and poor Ewald was allowed to finish his dinner in peace. He had been Professor at Bonn, when Pusey came there as a young man to study Hebrew after he had been appointed Canon of Christ Church and Professor of Hebrew, and he expressed to me a wish to see Dr. Pusey. I told him it would not be easy to arrange a meeting, considering how strongly opposed Dr. Pusey was to Ewald’s opinions. Personally I always found Pusey tolerant, and his kindness to me was a surprise to all my young friends. ”

“ And all the other trees of the avenue whispered their assent.
"You think about it too much," said the elder-bush. "The more one broods upon a thing, the worse it becomes. I should have died long ago, you know, if I had stood and cried at the losses I have suffered."
"Yes, that's as may be," said the willow-tree. "We all take things in our own way and I in mine. I have not the least intention of throwing up the game, but I know that I am a cripple and shall never be anything else. I thought, a little time ago, that my branches up there would turn into a new crown, but that was sheer folly. ”

“ For ten years Ewald laboured earnestly in the work of the conversion of the Jewish inhabitants of Jerusalem, being also chaplain to Bishop Alexander during that prelate's occupation of the see.
One of the most interesting incidents connected with Ewald's labours in the Holy City was the instruction and baptism of certain rabbis. Three, named respectively, Abraham, Benjamin, and Eliezer, had placed themselves under Christian instruction. A deputation from the Jews of Tiberias arrived to enquire whether the report was true, that fourteen rabbis of Jerusalem had embraced Christianity. ”

“ Whilst NANNA in her terror makes every effort to raise him, they come into a familiar attitude, in which HOTHER, who has slain bears, and who is wiping the blood from his spear at the moment he appears, perceives them. He starts, and remains standing among the trees, so that he cannot hear what they say.
NANNA. Oh, rescue then my Hother!
Two savage bears among the bushes yonder
Attack’d him; if thou hast love for virtue,
Assist him quick; if thou delayest a moment,
The noblest heart that ever beat they’ll mangle!
Oh! quick: bethink thee not!
BALDER. No, cruel Nanna! ”

“ Reed-Warbler was up in the nest again, with six midge-grubs, which she had caught in one bite. Her husband was there too with a dragon-fly, which the children tore to pieces and ate up amid cries of delight.
"There's nothing the matter with their appetites or with their voices either," he said. "If only they could shift for themselves! I am as lean as a skeleton." ”

“ But the elder brother soon got tired and ran away, while the poet, after a series of extraordinary adventures, deserted to the Austrian army, where from being drummer he rose to being sergeant, and was only not made an officer because he was a Protestant. In 1760 he was weary of a soldier’s life and deserted again, getting safe back to Denmark. For the next two years he worked with great diligence at the university, but the Arense for whom he had gone through so much hardship and taken so much pains married another man almost immediately after Ewald’s final and very successful examination. ”

“ In the middle of last century there was no name more familiar to the friends of Israel than that of Dr. Ferdinand Christian Ewald; and no missionary to the Jews was more highly honoured for his work's sake than this distinguished son of Abraham.
It is somewhat difficult to write a memoir of one who was too modest and retiring to say or to write much about himself: and who left but few materials from which to frame a biography, for it was his express wish that no lengthened life should be written. ”

“ Ewald hoped, however, to make his way over the causeway and into the redoubt with the Americans, but the distance was too great and day was breaking. He had followed his nose, he says, and forgotten to look behind him, until, coming within a hundred yards of the redoubt, he found himself exposed to a sharp fire, which wounded some of his volunteers. He then looked round and found that his whole force consisted of one lieutenant and seven men. With these he threw himself upon the bridge, hardly forty yards from the redoubt, and dodged behind the stone parapet. ”

“ The captain listened with a problematic air to his story, and when Ewald had finished, seated himself at his desk and drew a heavy sigh. He opened a couple of drawers, took out some papers, and put them in the breast-pocket of his coat. Then he rose, walked across the floor to where Ewald was sitting, seized his hand, and shook it warmly.
"Mr. Graham." he said. "I have grown fond of you. You have come closer to me than any man ever did—since one—whom I lost. ”

“ There came two through the forest who were different from the others and whom no one had ever seen before.
They walked erect. Their foreheads were high, their eyes firm and steady. They went hand in hand and looked around them as though they did not know where they were.
“Who, in the name of wonder, are these?” asked the lion.
“They’re animals,” said the stag. “They can walk. But how oddly they do it! Why don’t they leap on all fours, seeing that they have four legs? Then they would get along much faster.” ”

“ Down below in the valley stood the Prince of Spring, young and straight, in his green garb, with the lute slung over his shoulder. His long hair flowed in the wind, his face was soft and round, his mouth was ever smiling, his eyes were dreamy and moist.
“You come too soon!” shouted Winter.
But Spring bowed low and replied:
“I come by our appointment.”
“You come too soon!” shouted Winter again. “I am not nearly done. I have a thousand bags full of snow and my gales [29] are just as strong and biting as they were in January.” ”

“ Ewald resigned his work as senior missionary in London. It was no easy matter to find a man qualified to succeed him. Only one seemed possible, and that was Stern, whose health, undermined by his unparalleled sufferings in Abyssinia, no longer permitted him to serve the Society in the East. ”

“ The reed-warblers were silent for sheer terror. And the pike struck out with his tail and swam away. The blow was so powerful that the reeds sighed and swayed and the birds flew up with startled screams. But the reeds held and the nest remained where it was. Mrs. Reed-Warbler settled down again and her husband began to sing, so that no one should see how frightened he had been. Then she said:
"A nice place this!"
"You take things too much to heart," said he. "Life is the same everywhere; and we must be satisfied as long as we can get on well together. ”

“ Could save thee but himself—the fool! his lofty
Courage shall prove his overthrow.
HOTHER. Ha, Vanfred!
LOKE. Well?
HOTHER. I do admire more and more thy wisdom.
But whilst we fought, where were the maids of battle?
LOKE. They were my dread; I quak’d at every shadow
And every leaf that mov’d, lest I should see them.
When I saw that no one of the sisters
Heard the high call, and din of shield and falchion,
My courage rose—I knew thou wast in safety:
They hear no fight where no one’s doomed to perish.
HOTHER. And now the spear thou spak’st about? ”