Jacques Hébert

“ He was not accustomed to considering himself from the outside—few primitive men are; but he had thought [Pg 165] a good deal as he went about his business in the solitudes of the mountains; and failure will open new vistas to those who are not eaten up by vanity. Though not given to succumbing to circumstances, Heber was tried by the enforced patience and inaction of the last week and his heart was heavy in him. ”

“ I must tell you that the proofs of friendly interest shown me by many of my comrades here, and notably our good little painter Hébert, have made me very happy. I have the keenest sense of gratitude for the care and attention with which I saw him listen to the rehearsal of my Mass. No indifferent person would have bestowed them, and it is always a pleasure to be able to mention a case of sympathetic interest. Knowing your affection for Hébert, I rejoice to tell you this, for I feel sure your regard for him will not be lessened on account of that he bears me. ”

“ At one period of his life Heber was a Member of Parliament, and throughout his career it seems that he found recreation from the sport of collecting in the sport of the fields. He has been known to take a journey of four or five hundred miles to obtain a rare volume, 'fearful to trust to a mere commission.' He bought by all methods, in all places, and at all times, a single purchase on one occasion being an entire library of 30,000 volumes. ”

“ Heber was now arrived in the most extraordinary region, Greece and Egypt perhaps excepted, which has ever been inhabited by mankind. And he was well calculated by his high enthusiasm, extensive learning, and remarkable freedom from prejudice, to conceive all the splendour of the scene before him, to enter profoundly into the spirit of its institutions, and to describe with graceful and simple eloquence the picturesque variety of manners which the natives of this vast empire present to the contemplation of a stranger. ”

“ Heber would have acknowledged him as a son if only for his energy, his unquenchable enthusiasm, and the exactness of his knowledge concerning the books which he pretended to know at all. For not alone is it necessary that a collector should know precisely what book he wants; it is even more important that he should be able to know a book as the book he wants when he sees it. It is a lamentable thing to have fired in the dark, and then discover that you have shot a wandering mule, and not the noble game you were in pursuit of. One cannot take his reference library with him to the shops. ”

“ There is the evidence of truth in the work. Heber is charming, but I haven't read him! People often say "charming" of books they have not read; but I have read extracts in two reviews, and have the pleasure of the book on the table before me.
I have not a scrap of news for you, except that an ass and a calf walked over my flower-beds, and that I did not kill either of them. If the ass had not provoked me to this degree, I was in imminent danger of growing too fond of him, as I never could meet him drawing loads without stopping to pat him, till clouds of dust rose from his thick hide. ”

“ That night, when at last Hobert made a pillow of his saddle-bags and coiled himself together, he felt as if a circle of fire were narrowing around him, and yet utter inability to escape.
"You need take no more thought for yourself." These words kept ringing in his ears like a knell, and the mistletoe striking through his bosom, and the beak of the raven in his heart,—these were the sensations with which, long after midnight, he drowsed into sleep. ”

“ Hebbel's knowledge of French was very imperfect, and he was as much isolated in Paris as he had been in Munich; he did not seek stimulus from without so much as freedom to develop the ideas that were teeming in his mind. When he left Hamburg, however, he was destined never to return thither except as a visitor, and started on the long, roundabout way to an unforeseen new home in Vienna. He had been but little over a month in Paris when he learned of the death of the little son that Elise had borne him three years before. ”

“ Nevertheless, Hebbel was no longer an unknown quantity in the world of letters when, in the early spring of 1839, he decided to return to Hamburg. Hope of aid from Campe, Heine's publisher, and from Gutzkow, the editor of a paper published by Campe, encouraged this decision. But Hebbel was really going home, going back to Elise, after having accomplished the purpose of his pilgrimage, even though for lack of money he could not take with him a doctor's degree. He came as a man who could do things for which the world gives a man a living. ”

“ Richard Heber, styled by Sir Walter Scott 'Heber the Magnificent, whose library and cellar are so superior to all others in the world,' was the eldest son of Reginald Heber, lord of the manors of Marton in Yorkshire, and Hodnet in Shropshire, and was half-brother to Reginald Heber, Bishop of Calcutta. ”

“ Are these words, instinct with pure, fate-driven tragedy, the fruit of Hébert's mind—Hébert gross with Paris slime, sensual, self-seeking, flushed with evil living? or is he, too, unwillingly amongst the prophets, mouthpiece only of an immutable law, which, outraged by him and his like, pronounces thus an irrevocable doom?
Well might Danton write—"This is chaos, and the worlds are a-shaping. One cannot see one's way for the red vapour. I am sick of it—sick. There is nothing but blood, blood, blood. Camille says that the infernal gods are athirst. ”

“ His widow was at Calcutta at the time. Some of the most popular poets of the time—Robert Southey, Mrs. Hemans, Mrs. Opie, and others—celebrated the event in mournful verse. An only child died before him.
Heber was a pious, amiable, and accomplished man, and his character is well displayed in his writings. His style is always elegant and perspicuous, and his matter sensible and in good taste. But his verse is wanting in the ‘divine afflatus,’ and his prose in strength and massiveness. His boyish poem on ‘Palestine,’ although the most popular work of its kind, is not a great poem. ”

“ At the time of Elisabeth's coming to the Home Farm, Hepworth was living his usual quiet and solitary life. He was entirely occupied with his farming, his books and his thoughts. He was in all respects a serious and sober man, taking the colour of his life from the quiet tints that surrounded him on every side, and there was no thought of change within him. ”

“ There were heavenly influences there, as though angels were there, and no doubt they were, prepared to escort him hence to the society of those whom he loved and who loved him dearly. I thought of the joy there would be in the spirit land, when Joseph, and Hyrum, and David, and Willard, and Jedediah, and Parley would welcome him to their midst, and the thousands of others who have gone before, and like them have been faithful. What a welcome to their midst will Brother Heber receive! to labor and toil with them in the spirit world in the great work in which we are engaged. ”

“ The old farmer was somewhat inclined to tease Hepworth about his marriage, and threw out sundry sly hints as to the sudden frivolities of middle-aged men. Hepworth took all in good part: he was so heartily at peace with himself and all the world that nothing could ruffle the calm sea of his content. He smoked his pipe and laughed at the old man's humour. Half of what was said he did not hear—he was thinking of Elisabeth. Once or twice, glancing round the room he caught sight of the stranger in the corner. ”

“ In person Heber was tall, strong, and well made, and until his last illness he was of robust health. He was very near-sighted. In general society, as well as in familiar company, his manners were most winning. His literary and bibliographical knowledge was equalled by few of his contemporaries, and he had a marvellous memory. He travelled extensively, mainly in search of books. His correspondence with booksellers and auctioneers both at home and abroad was very great; but he purchased in all methods, at one time a whole library of thirty thousand books at Paris. ”

“ Heber, born in 1783 and educated at Brasenose, gained the Newdigate with Palestine, a piece which ranks with Timbuctoo and a few others among unforgotten prize poems. He took orders, succeeding to the family living of Hodnet, and for some years bid fair to be one of the most shining lights of the English Church, combining admirable parochial work with good literature, and with much distinction as a preacher. ”

“ This was Heber’s style in general. Next to making modest people blush, nothing pleased him better than to annoy or ridicule any one who had the smallest pretensions to education; and yet naturally Heber was a kind-hearted man. Brigham’s style is very little better, and the substance of his discourses quite as bad. ”

“ Hebbel himself rightly dated an epoch in his life from his marriage and the renewed productivity which followed upon it. He enjoyed now for the first time not only freedom from economic worries but also complete serenity of mind. Outwardly, indeed, he still had to keep up his offensive and defensive warfare. ”

“ The great variety of form and size of lots, involving corners, angles, widths and lengths of streets, together with their peculiar names, almost exhausting the names of the fruit and vegetable kingdom, are all characteristic of the man, familiarly called 'Brother Heber,' ever evincing a strong desire to imitate nature in its eternal variety and beauty ”

“ Heber, having made all necessary preparations for his long voyage, and received consecration, repaired on the 16th of June on board the Company’s ship Grenville, in which he and his family were to proceed to India. As our traveller’s first desire, in whatever position he happened to be placed, was to effect all the good in his power, he no sooner found himself on board than he endeavoured to communicate to the sailors a sense of their religious duties; which he did with all that authority and effect which genius and virtue invariably exert over inferior individuals. ”

“ To hear, with Heber, was to believe. He was convinced that they taught the truth, and was constrained to receive their testimony. He saw, more clearly than ever, that he had embraced but a portion of the truth in the Baptist faith; that the creeds of Christendom, the religions of the world, were but remnants of the everlasting gospel, broken off fragments of that grand Rock of Ages, the same in all generations; mixtures of truth and error; lesser lights at best in the broad firmament of human faith; and that now, when the Sun had once more arisen, the stars that lit the night must pale away. ”

“ Some months prior to his appointment, in a conversation with Willard Richards in the streets of Kirtland, soon after the latter was baptized, Heber, filled with the spirit of prophecy, had predicted for himself a mission to the shores of Europe. ”

“ Brother Heber is now gone, and whilst we mourn the loss they rejoice at meeting one with whom they were associated before; for he was the friend of Joseph and Hyrum Smith, and he was the friend of God, and God is his friend, and they are his friends. And as they associated together in time so they will in eternity. It behooves us then not to think so much about dying, but about our living, and to live in such a way that when we shall fall asleep, no matter when, or how it may transpire, that our hearts may be pure before God. ”

“ Heber received his early education at the grammar school of Whitchurch; when he was thirteen years of age he was placed under the tuition of Dr. Bristowe, who took private pupils at Neasden, near Willesden. In 1800 he went to Brasenose College, Oxford, his father's college, and commenced a brilliant university career. In his first year (1800) he won the prize for the ‘Carmen Seculare,’ a Latin poem on the commencement of the new century ”

“ The evening before they started, Heber called their mother, Vilate, and her children into his room, and spent several hours with them, giving them much good counsel and explaining to them the relationship of the Lamanites, as a branch of the house of Israel, with the latter-day work, and the important part they were destined to play in this dispensation. He then blessed Heber and Solomon, and promised them in the name of the Lord that they should not see an Indian while they were gone. ”

“ It is now twenty-four years lacking three days, since Joseph and Hyrum were taken away from us. Twenty-four years so fruitful in labor, so abundant in toil, so rich in experience! During that period Brother Heber has never wavered, never trembled. It may be said of him with as much truthfulness to-day, as was said by Brother Brigham on one occasion in Nauvoo, 'his knees never trembled, his hands never shook.' He has been faithful to God; he has been true to his brethren; he has kept his covenants; he has died in the triumphs of the faith ”

“ It was indeed in practical affairs that Gerbert's interest was engaged, and his thoughts no more than his actions were disquieted by any considerations of religion. From a teacher Gerbert became a politician. We discern his character in the arts by which he obtained the archbishoprick of Rheims. [13] Full of resource, unscrupulous in intrigue, he had the shrewdness, the practical sagacity, of a man of the world: moral difficulties were no difficulties to him. ”

“ Yet when he died he possessed eight houses full of them, overflowing all the rooms, chairs, tables, and passages—two in London, one at Hodnet, one in the High Street of Oxford, others at Paris, Brussels, Antwerp, and Ghent, besides numerous smaller hoards in other parts of the continent. Heber's enormous collections were dispersed in a memorable series of sales lasting over three years. The books in England were sold by Sotheby & Son, Evans, & Wheatley, under the superintendence of Payne & Foss, and fetched 56,774l. ”