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Cornell University Library
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Ferdinand Lassalle.

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3 1924 030 356 459

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FERDINAND LASSALLE

FERDINAND
LASSALLE

BY

GEORGE BRANDES

AUTHOR OF
" WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE," ETC.

"Flectere si nequeo Superos, Acheroata movebo"
(If I cannot bend the will of Heaven, I w!U cause turmoil in hell)

Vbrgil

NEW YORK : THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

LONDON : WILLIAM HEINEMANN

MCMXI

.^--^r^tir

Printed in England

NOTE

The master hand of George Meredith has made Lassalle
a permanent figure in English literature. Those who
know Lassalle only as Alvan, the passionate lover of the
" Tragic Comedians," -will wish to know him also as the
democratic leader, the man of letters and of law, and
to observe from a wider outlook the progress of the rest-
less career which ended in profound catastrophe.

PREFACE

The first draft of this essay was published by instahnents in
1874 and 1875, in the monthly magazine the Nineteenth Cen-
tury. In his preface to " Captain Mansana," Bjomstjerne
Bjomsen (1879) referred to the character-drawing in the essay.
Some ten thousand copies were at once printed in Germany in
the form of magazine articles, and several thousand copies in
book form were also sold at a later date : the work was well
received, and enjoyed a considerable circidation, even in
Russia.

Old white-haired democrats of 1848 have thanked me for
my portrait of Lassalle with the speaking look and hand-
clasp which are the author's best reward. The chief repre-
sentative of modem pohtical economy at Berlin University —
Professor Adolf Wagner — ^wrote an appreciative review of the
book at the time of its pubUcation. With his theories in
general I am imable to agree, but in the preface to his edition
of Lassalle's letters to Rodbertus he did me the honour of char-
acterizing my work as " brilliant." Well meant as the expres-
sion doubtless was, it does not describe the nature of my efforts
with reference to this portrait, or to the art of portraiture in
general. My ideal is Velasquez, and his ideal was not brilliance,
but truth. In this preface, however. Professor Wagner made

viii PREFACE

one assertion concerning Lassalle which I can subscribe with

.entire conviction. He said that/ divergent as were the judg-

jments which had been pronounced upon this man, both the

I friends and the enemies of the great Socialist agitator would

f

I readUy agree that his work had made him an historical person-

5 aHty of first-rate importance. It was this conviction which

induced me seven years ago to make a first draft of this literary

portrait of Lassalle, the first and the only attempt of the kind

that had then been made. I have now completed the picture,

and have done my best to give it life and reality.

I Lassalle's Socialism has reappeared in present-day Germany

/ under the form of State Socialism, and therefore is interesting

I as one of the burning questions of the day. In neither form,

\ however, does Socialism form the subject of this work.

Its chief subject is the historical development during one
generation of the spirit which inspires modem Germany — a
subject which certainly can never be a matter of indifference.
I have, moreover, sought to excite interest by making one per-
sonality the point of connection between a series of ideas.
This is a method which I have invariably employed, and which
I regard as natural. The description of an individual inevit-
ably presupposes in my case a nimiber of general ideas. As
Soren Kierkegaard represents an individual fragment of the
history of Danish culture, so does Ferdinand Lassalle personify
a period of modern jurisprudence and political economy. The
attraction of the subject for me is, on the one hand, the purely
individual element, " a thing that never was before and never
again can be," to borrow the definition of individualism given
by Lenbach, the distinguished portrait-painter of Munich ;

PREFACE ix

on the other hand, I am attracted by the great and permanent
ideas of the age upon its civilization, and by the problems
which have confronted antiquity, and will constantly recur.
Subjects which provide interesting personaUties and ideas of
such importance seem to me especially worthy of treatment,
and the method of handling them which I have gradually
evovled gives due weight both to the individual character and
to the general ideas which that character may evoke.

GEORGE BRANDES.
Berlin, September, 1881.

CONTENTS

PART I

PAGE

LASSALLE BEFORE THE AGITATION - - i

PART II

LASSALLE AS AN AGITATOR - - 109

FERDINAND LASSALLE

PART I

LASSALLE BEFORE THE AGITATION

One event during the nineteenth century has provoked the
greatest surprise and astonishment in Europe. Unsuccessful
attempts at its explanation have been, and are still offered
by the different European nationalities. This event is the
process by which the Germany of Hegel was transformed to
the Germany of Bismarck. Some theorists speak as if the old
German stock had suddenly died out, and a new race had
sprung up without roots ; others, as if the old stock had been
destroyed or ennobled by an infusion of Wendish-Slavonic
blood. To some, modern Germany is enigmatic as the Iron
Mask. The face of the philosopher and the poet was the real
countenance, and this has now been hidden by Prussian
domination, as the mask concealed the identity of the imhappy
prisoner. Others, again, regard the old and pleasant counte-
nance of romance as the mask, hypocritically hiding the real
features, which have now become visible. These views are alike
injudicious, and are based in either case upon ignorance of
the course of development which rnodem Germany has pursued.
If this development is studied in lit»8&,ture, it will be seen how, i
step by step, the ideas, the methods of action, and the views of
life pursued and entertained by the newer generation have de-
veloped organically from those of the past age. The gulf which
divides the Germany of Hegel from the Germany of Bismarck
will gradually be filled before our eyes. The faces upon either
side of this gulf will appear as related by similarity of feature ;

2 FERDINAND LASSALLE

while certain interesting and strongly marked countenances
which stand out boldly against the background of history will
of themselves typify the process of transition and amalga-
mation which has fused the intellectual individualities of two
generations. Of these special features hardly any is more
i interesting or more clearly cut than the figure of Ferdinand
I LassaUe. He was bom on April ii, 1825, and died of a wound
vreceived in a duel on August 31, 1864. He was a distinguished
pupil of Hegel, and was spoken of in his time as Bismarck's
tutor, and not unreasonably ; for even though he cannot be
, ! shown to have influenced Bismarck directly, yet, if we_exainine
■ I thg^pointSJSidiich decidedj3ath~the foreign and domestic policy
of the great statesman, we shall find that this policy precisely
realized the programme propounded by the philosophical
agitator.

CHAPTER I

In order to understand Lassalle, we must begin with the study
of his fugitive writings. His prose style will stir the least
emotional of men ; his imusuaUy wide learning is dominated
by eloquence entirely modem, and strictly logical and prac-
tical in character ; between the lines the reader can detect a
suppressed enthusiasm, which occasionally blazes out in
letters of fire. His attacks are delivered with uncommon
audacity, which is supported by the iron tenacity with
which he conducts his defensive operations ; his language and
style are often tasteful and always peculiar to him. Of mere
rhetoric there is no trace. The extent of the writer's knowledge
and power left no room for rhetorical display. Nor is the
weight of his scholarship at any time perceptible. He marches
out to battle in fuU panoply ; but it is rare to see heavy armour
so easily worn. Little has been printed that bears upon the
life and personality of '^ur author. While travelling in Ger-
many, and afterwards a iring a residence of several years
(1877-1881) in Berlin, it was my fortune to meet a considerable
number of men and women, whose judgment I respect, who
had known LassaUe personally. After LassaUe's sudden death
had silenced the voices of his assailants, we know that public
opinion concerning him underwent a change. Public recogni-
tion of his capacity and of his importance is by no means un-
common. On the other hand, expressions of private opinion
concerning him are for the most part comparatively unfavour-
able. His private acquaintances displayed but fugitive interest
in his writings, and rarely or never shared his views. His weak
points were perfectly obvious, and no psychological analysis

3

4 FERDINAND LASSALLE

was required for the discovery of them ; moreover, the private
acquaintances of public men and the majority of the educated
reading public are inclined to lay undue stress upon unconcealed
weaknesses, especially when such failings are entirely dis-
regarded by a band of hero-worshippers. I did not expect t*
gather many approving judgments from the upper middle
classes upon a man who died in feud with the whole middle
class in his own country, sustaining the struggle almost single-
handed, universally opposed by the Press. At the same time,
I must admit that I was surprised to find disapproval so general,
and, in my opinion, so unfounded and so keenly antagonistic
to the dead man. To this antagonism is probably due the diffi-
culty which now confronts any attempt to form a complete
and adequate picture of Lassalle. No systematic, and certainly
no complete edition of his writings exists. Most of them can
only be procured through a Socialist agent in Leipsic, whose
utterly unbusinesslike habits make the result of an application
to him entirely problematical ; while such copies as he possesses
are printed on the worst of paper, and disfiguredjjy careless
misprints, which constantly distort the sense of a phrase.^
Lassalle's rarer writings are not to be found even in the Royal
Library in Berlin. Very few letters and very little biographical
material has been printed. But if, as I have said, this want of
material is the outcome of an antagonism to LassaUe which has
not yet disappeared, at the same time this antagonism has its
limits. I have been surprised by the expressions of good
feeling, recognition, kindliness, and admiration for the dead
man with which I have met — expressions which have been the
warmer where intimacy has been close. This fact is a high
testimony in favour of Lassalle ; for it is a circumstance which
is repeated in the case of every outstanding personality. Some
men may dazzle the onlooker by the attraction of their talent
or the splendour of their reputation, but closer acquaintanceship
will dispel the charm ; the prestige of the Pope is least in Rome.
Really great characters secure the most complete devotion from
those who know them best. For years I have mentally compared
and contrasted these varying judgments and opinions, while

,''i ^ Two instances may be given : Staatsanwalt is misprinted for Staatsgewalt,
Uind unerlaubien for erlaubten, in the " Trial for High Treason," 1864, 38, 43.

FERDINAND LASSALLE 5

my interest in the study of their subject remained persistent
and unimpaired. All these pronouncements, in conjunction
with the views and ideas upon Lassalle which I have earlier or
later conceived, now form a strange and many-voiced harmony
^o my mental ear. I know Lassalle as well as anyone can know
him who has never seen him or heard him speak. In considering
the brighter side of his character, I feel that delight which is
necessary for full appreciation of the subject, and I see that
the shadows are limited in extent. I cannot do full and
exhaustive honour to his manifold energy — this, indeed, would
only be possible for one who was no less accomplished a classical
scholar, thinker, legal authority, and political economist than
Lassalle himself ; but I will attempt to depict the main features
of LassaUe's intellectual character.

' The doctrines which Lassalle propounded in the last years of
his life have aroused an extraordinary number of writers in their
defence, and have urged even more to attack. Doubts have
been cast upon the truth of his doctrines, and that truth has
also been affirmed. A dispute of unusual violence has arisen
concerning the advisability of his last practical proposal. I
am incompetent to offer any opinion upon this dispute, and I
have no inclination to take part in it. One object I desire
and will attempt to secure, as no one else has been induced to
make an effort in this direction : I wish to explain Ferdinand
LassaUe's character, the ftmdamental principles of his nature,
his most profound mental characteristics, and his dominant
ideas ; I wish to display the main features of his intellect and
the nature of his talent — in short, to draw a picture of him as
a man, as a writer, as an orator, and as a great party leader.
I am equally anxious to avoid any confusion between this
object and the very different task, which to many minds seems
remarkably simple, of sitting in judgment upon one of the most
difficult and hotly-contested problems with which the present
age has to deal.

The life which I am to describe was lived with such passionate
vigour and haste that it passed away before the contemporary
world had had time to appreciate its importance. LassaUe's
scientific works were inaccessible to the ordinary circle of the
educated, and his pamphlets were but partially inteUigible to

6 FERDINAND LASSALLE

the working classes who read them. As a critical thinker,
Lassalle remains unvanquished. No institution or person
that he attacked was ever able to recover from his onslaught.
That a distinguished scholar should have made occasional
mistakes is nothing to the purpose. The stream of time
sweeps away the errors, and leaves the truth for the
inheritance of humanity.

CHAPTER II

The old Greek thinker Heraclitus, whom LassaUe made the
subject of long research, was in the habit of using various
^symbolical expressions to denote the primary force of existence
^Fire, Stream, Justice, War, Invisible Harmony, Bow and
L5n:e ; these expressions rise involuntarily in the mind if we seek
some sjTnbol to represent the dominant principle of Ferdinand
LassaUe's life. Somewhere, in one of his letters, which is fuU
of impatient outbursts against the tardiness with which
events develop, LassaUe uses the phrase, " my ardent soul."
Thousands use the expression as the mere figure of speech
which it has become. LassaUe, perhaps, alone could use it
without exaggeration, for his innermost being concealed some
force akin to fire. His burning love for knowledge and science,
his thirst for righteousness and truth, his enthusiasm, his un-
restrained self-confidence, his deep self-conceit, his courage, his
delight in power — ^these were characteristics which all found
expression in the same fiery and devouring manner. He was
a bearer of light and fire to the world ; a bearer of light, bold
and defiant as Lucifer himself ; a torch-bearer who delighted
to stand in the fuU glare of the torch with which he brought
enlightenment — grand oseur et grand poseur. In the world of
Heraclitus, the conjunction of bow and lyre denoted the domi-
nant and fimdamental force. The lyre is the type of harmony,
of fuU culture. The bow, with its deadly shafts of light,
denotes energy and destructive power. Lyre and bow were
also conjoined in LassaUe's spirit, as full culture and the restless
impulse to activity. Rarely has such a union of theoretical
and practical capacity been seen in the history of the world.

7

8 FERDINAND LASSALLE

Any close observer of Lassalle at the outset "of his career, if
his insight had been both sympathetic and prophetic, might
well have appHed to him the words which he himself quotes
from the neoplatonist thinker, Maximus of Tyre : "I understand
Apollo ; an archer is the god, and a musician, and while I love
his harmony, I fear his archery. "^

Lassalle was bom in Breslau. His father was a merchant of
no special capacity, but a sound and upright character, by
name Hesmiann Lassal : it was during his stay in Paris in 1846
that his son changed the spelling of his name. Both parents
were of Jewish origin. Throughout his life, LassaUe was
the most loving of sons, and his relations with his family were,
as is usual with Jews, very intimate and close. Lassalle's
whole career was followed by his mother with the greatest
enthusiasm ; she S3Tiipathized with every one of his enter-
prises and approved their results.

One special hardship he had to endure in childhood. When-
ever he played with other boys — it must be admitted, only as
their leader — ^his parents regarded him as responsible for any
damage that was done. A broken window-pane or a trampled
garden was visited upon Ferdinand Lassalle, though innocent.
He was bewildered by this circumstance, which he could not
imderstand, though it was due to his natural superiority over
all his comrades. At a certain age, boys become forward and
self-assertive, and these characteristics were unusually strongly
marked in the case of Lassalle. What he often in later life
referred to as his " impudence " was even then perceptible.
Ferdinand Lassalle grew up amid the environment of Jewish
society in a provincial town between 1830 and 1840. It was
a society of which the elder members were imable to speak
pure German, and living as they did in a period before the
emancipation of the Jews, they necessarily clung tenaciously
to the fact of their Israelitish descent and to their hereditary
manners and customs in general. In his mature years, Las-
salle displayed an extraordinary dislike for the Jews of his
time, regarding them as representatives of the materialist and
capitalist interests which he strove to crush ; but in boyhood
he was keenly conscious of his Jewish descent. From his

* Lassalle, " The Philosophy of HeracUtns the Obscure of Ephesus," i. iii.

FERDINAND LASSALLE 9

fifteenth to the end of his sixteenth year he kept a diary, which
provides evidence of this feeling, and, indeed, of all the experi-
ences and the general mental life of the early years during
which his mature character was in formation. An entry dated
February 2, 1840, made when he was only fourteen years of
age, states that a friend had expressed surprise at the warmth
with which he had defended the Jewish faith. " The ass ! As if'
one could not eat tripe and yet be a good Jew ! . . . I believe
myself to be one of the best Jews in existence, apart from
attention to the ceremonial law. Like the Jew in Bulwer's
' Leila,' I would risk my life to free the Jews from the oppres-
sion which now burdens them. I would not even shrink from
the scaffold, if I could restore them to a position of respect
among the nations. Whenever I indulge in childish dreams,
I prefer to picture myself sword in hand, at the head of the
Jews, leading them to recover their independence." ^

Towards the end of his life Lassalle was wont to assert :
" Two things in the world are my special objects of hatred —
journalists and Jews, and I am both." But at the age of
fifteen he felt himself a prince in Israel. On May 21, 1840,
he writes with reference to the outrages upon the Jews in
Damascus, of which he had heard an account that same evening :

" Oh, it is terrible to read and terrible to hear, and one's
hair rises and every emotion is turned to fury ! It is dreadful
that a people should endure these things, whether they patiently
bear their treatment or revenge themselves True, fearfully
true, is the following sentence from the report : ' The Jews in
this city endure cruelties which none but these pariahs of the
earth would bear, without making dreadful reprisals.' Thus,
even the Christians are surprised at our apathy, and wonder
that we do not revolt, and that we prefer death by torture to
death in battle. Was the oppression which once drove the
Swiss to revolt greater than this ? Could any revolution be
more righteous than that which the Jews in Damascus would
cause, if they were to revolt, to set every corner of the town
on fire, blow up the powder magazine, and perish with their
tormentors ? Nation of cowards, you deserve no better fate.
The trampled worm will turn, yet do you but bow the head
more deeply. You cannot die or wreak destruction, you know

10 FERDINAND LASSALLE

not the meaning of righteous vengeance ; you cannot bury
yourself with your foes and mangle them even in the agony

_Si death. You are bom to servitude !" When the silly
falsehood that the Jews used the blood of murdered children
in their religious ceremonies was again served up, Lassalle
wrote, on July 30 : " Again the preposterous story appears,

rthat the Jews make use of the blood of Christians. The
same story, in Damascus, in Rhodes, and in Lemberg. The
fact that every corner of the world makes the same charge
seems to me an indication that the time is ripe for us to help
ourselves in reality by the shedding of Christian blood. God
helps those who help themselves. The dice are on the board,
and only the players are wanted."

'"'^assalle's relations with his parents during his youth were
marked by boyish love and dutifulness : he was devoted to
them heart and soul, obedient and anxious to spare them any
trouble. His father was a tall, powerful man, with a clever
and attractive face, but he was something of a domestic tyrant,
violent and choleric in temper ; at the same time, he was a very
affectionate father to his son. His mother, who was a little
hard of hearing, was a querulous and somewhat trying char-
acter. The eldest child, Lassalle's sister Frederike, was a pretty
and lively girl ; her first engagement ended unfortunately, and
about the year 1840 she was betrothed to her cousin, Ferdinand
Friedlander, a very capable man, who was not at that time
appreciated by the family. Her brother, notwithstanding his
youth, is seen discussing his sister's circumstances with his
elders, and calculating with precocious coolness her prospects of
marriage, and the extent of the dowry which she would require.
His self-conceit was of early development. It was not, as
in the case of other youthful geniuses, the mere shadow cast
upon an immature mind by the rising consciousness of great
capacities. Even later we are repelled by it, when LassaUe had
reached manhood. He enters in his diary every little com-
pliment that was paid him, and we see that his elders not only
repeatedly praised his intelligence and sharpness, but even
used the term " genius " in reference to him. The self-
assertive, or even presumptuous, tendencies of his character
may be ascribed to his self-conceit, as also may his animosity

\

FERDINAND LASSALLE ii

towards his teachers, whom he regards as his sworn enemies,
and his generally refractory character during boyhood.

He was a hopeless failure as a schoolboy. In spite of his
keen intelligence and his unusual abilities, he was congenitally
idle, incessantly playing truant and cheating, copying the
exercises of his more industrious friends, and absenting himself
under false excuses. Even worse misdeeds are recorded. He
not only forged notes of excuse from his father to explain his
absence from school, but for six months systematically forged
first his mother's and then his father's signature to the bad
reports which he brought home from school, while he spent his
time at biUiards and cards. During the same period he
cherished the strongest and warmest sense of friendship, and
takes himself to task for his wickedness with a fine honesty,
as follows : " I do not know why it is, but I play billiards everjT
Saturday, though my father has strictly forbidden this game.
I sign my own conduct reports, which is equally wrong, and yet
I love my father most intensely, as only a child can love. I
would joyfully give my life to be of use to him, and yet . . .
But my want of thought is the cause of it all. At bottom I
am really good " (January 14, 1840). _

The contradiction between his boyish want of thought, to
which he aUudes, and the extraordinary vehemence of his
enthusiasms, is rather apparent than real.

He was of an impetuous and hot-headed disposition. When
his father one day gave him a sound thrashing, he resolved in
a fit of woimded pride to commit suicide, and was only pre-
vented from executing his intention by the fact that his father
followed him, and caught him up at the moment when he was
about to throw himself into the Ohle (January 29). When his
forgeries in the report-book were discovered, he was only
restrained from suicide by the thought of his parents' grief.
However, he soon recovered his spirits in thinking how trivial
these troubles and this humiliation would seem in future years.

His passionate nature is especially apparent in the intensity
of his anger and hatred, and of his thirst for revenge. He
swears inextinguishable, burning hatred to anyone who has
insulted him or his, and vows to behold the offence before him
in letters of fire until he has avenged it.

12 FERDINAND LASSALLE

Even at so early an age he displays a fierce ruthlessness and
an inclination to secure his wishes by forcible means ; at the
same time, a very prominent feature is the unbounded honesty
with which he never spares himself in the examination of his
inward self, and of his relations to those about him. His sense
of honour in this respect compensates to some extent for the
lack of honour which he sometimes shows in his choice of means
to secure his ends.

The discovery of the secret by which Lassalle secured good
reports in the gymnasium at Breslau aroused in him a desire to
leave that institution and to be sent to the commercial school
in Leipsic. Lassalle's father did not wish him to enter trade.
The friends and acquaintances of the family interfered in the
discussion, some supporting the father, others the son. The
consequence was family disputes and dissensions, which
enabled Lassalle to realize for the first time that it is both
confusing and foolish to consider or to act upon hints' that
may be given by people who know little or nothing of the
facts of a case. Just at this time he came across the old
fable of the peasant and his son, whose readiness to take the
advice of the passers-by eventually obliged both of them to
walk and to carry their ass ; hence he derived his first principle
of practical life, which he often quoted under the formula, " I
will not carry the ass."

In desperation at the vexatious annoyances in which he had
entangled himself, Lassalle gained his wish, and went to Leipsic
in May, 1840. Here, however, his relations with his teachers
became even worse than in Breslau. Here, also, he regarded
them merely as malevolent enemies. As he became more
profoundly conscious that he was no ordinary character, his
self-conceit increased. But he suffered from homesickness,
and longed for his family, especially for his father, to whom
he was always most tenderly devoted, and for his sister, for
whom his heartfelt and fine affection only increased with time.
In Leipsic he also formed enthusiastic friendships with different
companions. Among these was a certain Robert Zander,
whose sister Rosalie was Lassalle's first love ; to her the senti-
mental schoolboy sent many letters and poems, which were
unfortunately destroyed after her death in 1876.

FERDINAND LASSALLE 13

Lassalle did not remain at the commercial school after
August in 1 841. It became clear to him that he had mistaken
his vocation and was in no way fitted for a mercantile career.
His parents were not surprised to hear the fact, as they had
always wished him to be a student. As early as August 3,
1840, in an entry in his diary, he compares himself with Wilhelm
/^leister, and says that his heart, like the heart of Wilhelm,
beats for art, but that the following difference between them
exists : WUhelm's parents urged him to become a merchant,
while he himself has voltmtarily renounced aU sesthetic pursuits ;
but he now feels that he cannot renounce a public career,
whether it may lie in the path of art or politics. He is more con-
cerned " about freedom than about the prices of goods, utters^i
more violent curses upon the dogs of aristocrats, who deprive '
man of his highest boon, than upon the rival tradesmen who
lower prices. But he will do more than curse." _

We now find evidence in the diary which shows how rapidly
this boy, who was scarce seventeen years of age, became a
young man entirely convinced of the part which he wished to
play in Ufe, and with more than a suspicion of the fate which
awaited him.

He reads and admires Borne, who became his next ideal.
In Home's " Letters from Paris " he is horrified to find that
in Germany " thirty millions of men are plagued by thirty]
t5^ants." He approves Bome's invectives against Europe's
despots, but, characteristically enough, his sound pohtical
sense cannot accept Bome's childlike hopes for the immediate
future. On July 24, 1840, he writes : " But when he saysTl
' No European ruler is so blind as to suppose that his grandson 1
wiU ascend his throne,' I must unfortunately doubt his state- 1
ment. Things wiU be worse before they are better." _J

It is very remarkable that, in spite of the strength of his
revolutionary tendencies in youth, he can perceive an aristo-
cratic strain in his temperament, and feels that his democratic
bias is due rather to circumstances than to natural disposition.
On July 19 he writes : __j

" I went to the theatre ; Lowe gave Fiesco. Upon my
Iword, this Count of Lavagna is a grand character. My senti-
|ments are as revolutionary, as republican, and as democratic

14 FERDINAND LASSALLE

^as those of anybody, and yet I feel that in Count Lavagna's
place I should have acted as he did ; I should not have been
content to remain the first citizen of Genoa, but should have
stretched forth my hand for the diadem. Hence it seems, if I
examine tlie situation in the light of day, that I am an egoist.
If I had been bom a prince or a nobleman, I should be an aristo-
crat heart and soul. But as I am merely of middle-class origin,
I shaU. be a democrat in time."

In the diary we can trace the course of his mental struggles.
On August 24 he writes :

" Two opposed principles struggle within me for the mastery.
Is expediency or honesty to guide my life ? Shall I spread
my cloak to the breeze, flatter the great, intrigue to gain ad-
vantage and reputation, or shall I cling to truth and virtue
with republican obstinacy, and fix my gaze upon one sole
object — to deal a death-blow to aristocracy ? No, I will be no
fawning, cowardly courtier, though I may have the capacity to
play the part. I wiU proclaim freedom to the nations, though
I should perish in the attem.pt." And on August 26 : "I am
very sorry that I did not continue my studies. It is now clear
to me that I shall become a writer. Yes, I will come before
the German people and before all nations, and summon them
with burning words to fight for freedom. The menacing
frown of princes shall not intimidate me : I wiU not be bribed
with orders and titles to betray the cause of freedom, like a
second Judas. Never will I rest until they are pale with fear.
From Paris, the land of freedom, I wUl send the word to all the
. nations of the earth, as Borne did ; the teeth of all princes shall
jjchatter with fear, and they shall see that their time is come."
He spends much time over Heine, with whose work he now
becomes acquainted. " I love this Heine ; he is my second
uielf ." He does not understand that Heine is an apostate from
the cause of freedom, who has torn the Jacobin cap from his
head, and replaced it with a gold-laced hat. He cannot
believe that Heine is speaking aught but mockery when he
says, " I am a royalist and no democrat," nor can he under-
stand how Heine, in view of this statement, can be so affected
by the deaths of noble republicans.
The completion of his sixteenth year found Lassalle entirely

FERDINAND LASSALLE 15

decided with regard to his principles and his future. He
informed his father of his irrevocable determination to study.
When his father asked him what branch of learning he wished
to pursue, he replied : " The greatest and most comprehensive
study in the world, the study which is most entirely bound up
with the most sacred interests of humanity — the study of
history." His father went on to ask him whether he thought
he was a poet.

" No," he replied ; " but I shall devote myself to pamphlet'^
eering and agitation. Now is the time when the struggle is I
in progress for the most sacred objects of humanity. Until I
the end of the last century the world was bound in the chains j
of inert superstition. Then the force of intellect aroused a I
material power which overthrew the existing system amid blood
and ruin. The first outburst was terrible, as was inevitable.
Since that time the struggle has proceeded without interrup-
tion. . . . The struggle for the most noble of purposes will
be conducted in the noblest way. Truth must indeed be
supported hereafter by physical force, for those in possession
of the thrones wiU have it so. But let our object be to enlighten
and instruct the peoples, not to excite them."

For a long time the father was silent ; at length he said :
" My son, I am well aware of the truth in your words, but why
should you, of all people, become a martyr ? You, our only
hope and support ? Freedom must be gained by struggle,
but it will be gained even without your help. . . . You alone,
what difference can you make ?"

The young Lassalle then wrote in his diary : " Oh yes, he is
right. Why should I, of all people, become a martsn: ? But
if everyone said as much and withdrew with like cowardice,
when would a warrior be forthcoming ? Why should I, of all
people, become a martyr ? Why ? Because God has put a
voice in my heart that calls me to battle ; because God has
given me strength and fitted me for battle : I can feel it !
Because I can fight and suffer for a noble cause. Because I
wHl not deceive God in my use of the strength which He has (
given me for a definite purpose. Because, in one word, I cannotJ
help it !" What Lassalle afterwards spoke of jestingly as his
impudence here appears as a consecration to life and struggle.

i6 FERDINAND LASSALLE

At this point we encounter the racial characteristic of
Lassalle's disposition which was fundamentally distinctive in
his temperament : it is apparent in the quality best expressed
by the Jewish word " Chutspo," which connotes presence of
mind, impudence, temerity, resolution, and effrontery ; it will
be readily intelligible to anyone who regards it as an extreme
which the growth of culture necessarily and naturally pro-
duced by reaction from the timorous and shrinking subservience
imposed upon a race that has been harassed and oppressed
for more than a thousand years. We have an instance of
" Chutspo " when we find Lassalle, during one of his criminal
cases, flouting the public prosecutor in the course of his speech
for the defence, notwithstanding the threats of the president
to deny him a hearing. Even when he has been ordered to keep
silent, he obtains the right of speech by initiating a discussion
upon the question how far he can legally be deprived of his
right to speak. This " Chutspo " sometimes appears in average
members of the race in such repulsive forms as " pushfulness "
or unjustifiable desire to appear in the forefront. Sometimes
it takes the more attractive intellectual form of resolution and
determination. In the case of Lassalle, whose mind contained
high capacities awaiting development, challenge was the
element which appeared as the impulse to personal action,
and invariably lent its colouring to his innate energy. His
instinct and his capacity for action was not the pure Anglo-
Saxon or American spirit of enterprise, which is confined to
incessant production and to orderly arrangement. It was
an impulse to action which sought opposition, and could live
and breathe only in an atmosphere of antagonism. A German
writer, who had seen Lassalle only once in a concert-room,
said to me : "He looked like defiance incarnate ; but his brow
expressed such energy that one could not have felt surprise
if he had conquered for himself a throne." Thus the essence
of his nature was an energy which sought and conquered ob-
stacles, and utilized every possible element in his character as
a means to victory. His coolness, his love of struggle, his ambi-
tion, his domineering tendencies, the striking firmness of his
attitude at critical moments, became so many means to this
end.

FERDINAND LASSALLE 17

During his first imprisonment while imder trial, at the age of
twenty-three, far from obeying the prison regulations, he issued
his own orders to the warders ; and whenever the latter at-
tempted to exert their authority, scenes of great violence were
the result. On hearing that his sister had presented a petition
on his behalf, he immediately sent a statement to the King
to secure himself against any misunderstanding. His youthful
character showed points of resemblance to Csesar, though
horrified citizens were afterwards to regard him as a Catiline.
He was bom for power and marked out for rule, but birth had
placed him in the middle class below Princes and nobles, and
had made him a member of a down-trodden race ; he therefore
became a thinker, a democrat, and an agitator, in order to reach
by this path the position for which he was created. We have
seen that even in boyhood Lassalle was conscious of his destiny.
But even if his ideas upon this matter afterwards became less
precise, we must remember that what self-consciousness may
regard as an end is often to Nature nothing more than a means,
and that Nature urged him to demand power, reputation,
and even the applause and prestige which are conceded to the
distinguished leader of a people or of a class. We must re-
member that Nature had also brought him into the world as
a member of the extreme Left, and endowed him with the
sense that it was his duty to avenge the oppression and the
scorn of centuries. Was it not inevitable that he should regard
himself from the outset as a revolutionary and a faction leader ?
These tendencies were combined with the influence of modem
learning, and Lassalle was a bom scholar ; but the whole body
of modem science naturally promotes the progress of Radical-
ism, and the more entirely a man is overcome by the spirit of
learning, the more profoundly does he feel himself bound to
oppose whatever is based only upon the authority of tradition.

Early as Lassalle reached maturity, the child in hitn was
never overgrown or killed. He was not one of those men
who have never been children : he was one of those who ever
retain something of childhood's nature. Spielhagen's purely
poetical description of the hero of " In Reih' und Glied " must
not lead us to assume that Lassalle was a pale, quiet, and ever-
serious boy, like Leo, As a man, he possessed feeling and sym-

i8 FERDINAND LASSALLE

pathy. In private life he showed a want of self-control, would
give full rein to his animosity and domineering tendencies,
and a moment later would concede the point at issue with
entire amiability. He could be a child and play childish tricks
as weU as anyone. His love of outward show and the pleasure
he took in display are among his childlike, or even his childish,
characteristics. Democrat though he was, he was a dandy,
and very fastidious about his dress, though his taste was good.
He liked to see his rooms tastefully fitted up, or even decorated.
His house was characterized, not only by refinement, but
also by a touch of outward show. Early in the decade
1850-1860 Lassalle twice visited the East, and brought back
hangings and artistic objects for the adornment of his house.
He was a little histrionic, as dominant characters often are :
Napoleon and Byron are cases in point. When he enter-
tained his friends, he would have the most elaborate dishes in
Berlin, and this at a time when he was appearing as the
champion of the working classes. These characteristics are
not to be interpreted as the outcome of sheer inconsistency,
but as due to the contrast of ideas existing in a deep and
complex character, in a Jacobin endowed with a keen sense
of beauty, in a soldier of revolution fighting with splendidly
decorated weapons, in a man who had never entirely put away
childish things. LassaUe's intellectual powers comprised
extraordinarily modem and entirely classical elements, and
the latter, again, were of a twofold kind. He was an Alcibiades
in his love of enjoyment and in his capacity for accommodating
himself to any environment, to the society of scholars or of
revolutionaries, to a prison or a ballroom. " In his youth he
would go to prison with as much indifference as anyone might
go to a ball."^ He was an ancient Roman in his strength of
will, his energy, his political insight, and his capacity for
conquest and organization.

At the Universities of Breslau and Berlin LassaUe's enthu-
siasm for classical antiquity led him to the study of philology,
and thence to Hegel, whose dialectical method he appropriated
with zealous deHght. At the same time he was absorbing the
revolutionary ideas of Young Germany. After he had left

' Trial in Diisseldorf, June 27, 1864, conclusion.

FERDINAND LASSALLE i

the University, he lived a bachelor Hfe of independence on th
Rhine and studied Greek philology and philosophy both a
Diisseldorf and during his stay in Paris in 1845. In Paris
Lassalle, who was then twenty years of age, made the acquaini
ance of Heinrich Heine. The Aristophanes of the age wa
not easily hoodwinked, and our respect for the young student'
powers is considerably increased when we see how Heine wa
attracted and dazzled by him. Similarly, we can better realiz
the keenness of the poet's psychological insight when we weig
the terms in which he addresses and mentions one who mus
have seemed but a child in years and in intelligence when con
pared with himself. Apparently Lassalle, with his usue
energy, interested himself in the question of an inheritanc
which was then troubling the poet, who was iU and alone : h:
vigorous championship secured allies for Heine in German
whose influence was valuable in this matter of importance t
the poet's welfare. Heine's letters to Lassalle constantl
speak of him as " his dearly-beloved friend," " his deares
brother in arms," and contain such outbursts as the following

" To-day I wiU do no more than thank you ; no one has eve
done so much for me before. Nor have I ever yet found an}
one who combined such warm-heartedness and such clea
intelligence in dealing with affairs. You have the right to t
impudent : the rest of us merely usurp this divine right, th
heavenly privilege. In comparison with you, I am but
modest gnat." And elsewhere : " Farewell, and be assure
that my affection for you is inexpressible. How glad I am the
I was not mistaken in you ! But I have never trusted anyon
so much — I, whom experience, not Nature, has made so mii
trustful. Since I have had your letters, my courage has rise
and I feel better."^

There is something almost pathetic in the sight of the grea
poet, broken by many sorrows at the age of forty-six, tumin
for protection to the iron will of the youth, which had bee
inexorably steeled by the passage of twenty winters, and wa
ready to confront the many other difficulties and vexation
which lay before him. Heine turning to Lassalle for help-

1 Heinrich Heine, " Letters," third part; letters of January and Februari
1846.

20 FERDINAND LASSALLE

we think of the antelope asking protection from the young
Hon: A reference in a letter to Ferdinand's father shows that
LassaUe introduced himself to Heine as an avowed atheist.
Heine " would like to see his face " when he hears that the poet
on his death-bed had undergone conversion. Other humorous
allusions show what, in any case, was to be expected — that
Lassalle was neither unattracted by women nbr unattractive
to them during his stay in Paris. Fortunately, a letter from
Heine to Vamhagen von Ense has preserved a full description
of Ferdinand LassaUe ; the description is not only memorable
as a close portrait drawn by the cleverest pen which Germany
then possessed, but is doubly valuable because it provides us
with a picture of Lassalle as he was before he became a public
character or made his mark in the literary world. We have
here an etching of LassaUe avant la lettre :
|~~"My friend, Herr Lassalle, who brings you this letter, is a
j young man of the most distinguished intellectual powers. To
the most thorough scholarship, the widest knowledge and the
r^eateSt penetration that I have ever known, he adds the fullest
I endowment of imaginative powers, an energy of will and a
dexterity in action which simply astonish me ; and if he retains
his sympathy for myself, I expect that he will promote my
cause most energeticaUy. In any case, this conjunction of
knowledge and power, of talent and character, has been a very
pleasant experience for me. ... I should say that Herr
LassaUe is a definite and declared modernist. He wiU have
nothing to do with the renunciation and the modesty with
which we were accustomed, more or less hypocriticaUy, to dream
and prate away our time. The new generation demands full
possession, and insists upon making itself seen and heard. We
elder men were accustomed to bow humbly before the invisible,
aspiring to shadowy kisses and the scent of blue flowers amid
regretful renunciations. At the same time, we were perhaps
happier than those stem gladiators who advance so proudly
to the death-struggle."

What words ! In every line we observe the penetrating eye
of the artist, the hand of the master, and the clever irony of the
satirist, while the concluding sentence contains the prophetic
insight of the seer.

CHAPTER III

On August II, 1848, there appeared before the Assize Court
at Cologne, charged with complicity in the theft of a cash-box,
a youth of proud and attractive exterior, who was thus de-
scribed in the indictment : " Ferdinand Lassalle, twenty-three
years of age, of no occupation, bom at Breslau, 5 feet 6 inches
high, with brown curly hair, an open forehead, brown eyebrows,
dark blue eyes, a weU-proportioned nose and mouth, a round_
chin, a narrow face and slender figure." The young man thus
described delivered a speech in his defence upon that day of
which the worthy tribunal had never heard the like. He was
accused of inciting, two years previously, two other young
men, Oppenheim and Mendelssohn, to crime. These men
belonged to extremely rich and distinguished families, and
both, like himself, had vigorously interfered in the Hatzfeldt
family quarrels on behalf of the Countess Sophie von Hatz-
feldt. Lassalle was charged with inducing them to abstract
from the Count's mistress a cash-box, in which a contract was
supposed to have been kept securing to this mistress an income
of eight thousand thalers a year from the Count. Oppenheim
was already a Prussian assessor, no strong recommendation in
this case, and his motives for the theft were not likely to be
mKconstrued, as he was the heir to two or three million
thalers ; in December, 1846, he was therefore released, although
his hand had abstracted the cash-box. None the less, in
January, 1848, a jury condemned Mendelssohn, who was only
an accomplice, to five years' imprisonment for theft, and
LassaUe's turn had now come. He, however, adopted the
attitude rather of accuser than of accused. Far from limiting

22 FERDINAND LASSALLE

himself to defence, in the opening sentence of his speech he
scornfully brushed aside the charge against him, which stated
that he was the " intellectual originator " of the theft. He then
identified his own case with that of the Countess, and attacked
the exalted enemies of his client with all the passion of a youth-
ful popular orator and the superiority of a born conqueror.
He described the torments which the Countess had endured,
and then continued :

" The family was silent, but we know that when men hold
their peace the stones will cry out. When every human
right is outraged, when even the ties of kinship are silent and
a helpless being is abandoned by its natural protectors, then the
first and the last relation of such a being has the right to rise
in the person of another member of the human race. You all
know and have all read with indignation the dreadful story
of the unfortunate Duchess of Praslin. Which of you would
not have thrown himself forward in her defence, when she
was struggling for life ? Well, gentlemen, I said to myself.
Here is one who is in tenfold worse case than Praslin, for
what is the short struggle of an hour compared with the
long process of assassination which refined cruelty has set on
foot against the whole existence of a human being, against this
lamentable figure of a woman whose rights have been daily
trampled underfoot for twenty years, whose every claim has
been outraged, after every means has been tried to make her
the object of scorn and contempt, that she might be ill-treated
with impunity."

The young man who was prosecuted in so strange a case,
and who thus displayed such chivalrous sympathy, had made
the acquaintance at Berlin, when he was twenty years old, of
the Coimtess Hatzfeldt, by birth a Princess ; she was then
thirty-nine years of age, but was still handsome and command-
ing. Deeply moved by her misfortunes, he had assumed the
position of her champion. A majestic figure, with nobly-
modelled limbs, whose every movement betrayed grace enough
to conquer many a man ; finely-formed features ; heavy red-
gold hair, with a distinguished bearing and address ; a cahn

character, and a simple and sensible manner of expression

such were the weapons of the woman who was constantly de-

FERDINAND LASSALLE 23

scribed as a dangerous siren. But the combative soul of the
passionate youth was stirred, not so much by her beauty as
by the unusual unhappiness which the Countess had had to
endure. Her husband and cousin, Count Edmund von Hatz-
feldt, to whom she had been betrothed at the early age of
fifteen, had hated and ill-treated her from the outset. He was
the richest member of the powerful Hatzfeldt family, was
worth some five milHons of thalers, and possessed all the
privileges of the high Prussian nobility. Thus, in his behaviour
towards his wife he was far less subject to legal control than
any ordinary man would have been. What particular wrong
she had done to him is very difficult to discover, but in any
case it cannot have borne any proportion to the meanness of
the Coimt's revenge, or to the pettifogging and malignant
nature of his persecution. He confined her in his castles on
the Rhine ; he refused her medical help and advice when she
was iU ; he secretly abducted her children, to whom she clung
with all a mother's tenderness ; he deprived her of the very
means of existence, while he himself not only squandered his
patrimony in debauchery, but kept scribblers in his pay to
calumniate his wife. The Countess had no parents ; her
brothers and other relations were in high official posts, and
were more anxious to avoid a scandal than to help the sufferer.
However, upon more than one occasion the family — and once
even the King — had interfered, had succeeded in bringing
about a reconciliation between the married couple, and in
wresting a promise from the Count to be more careful in his
behaviour towards his wife. But his promises were made
merely to be broken.

Only one course of action remained open — an extremely
doubtful one in these circumstances — an appeal to law.

About this time the Mendelssohn who was involved in the
story of the cash-box introduced LassaUe to the Countess. It
is certain that the handsome bearing of the young man,
his well-made figure, and his imusually beautiful dark blue
eyes, made a very favourable impression upon her. A friend
of Lassalle has informed me that shortly after his acquaintance
with the Countess he went to the Count and challenged him.
The high-bom Junker merely replied from his lofty pedestal

24 FERDINAND LASSALLE

of nobility by laughing in the face of the "silly Jewish boy,'
and then it was that LassaUe seriously resolved to undertak
the cause of the Countess. In one of his letters he expresse
himself as follows upon the subject :

"" " So I said to myself. Never let anyone be able to say tha
you knew of this and still allowed that woman to be quietb
strangled without an effort to help her. If you did this, wha
right would you have to reproach others for their selfishnesi
and their cowardice ?

" I was a young man, twenty years of age ; I had just lefi
the University, where I had studied philosophy ; I knew
nothing of law, but nothing could restrain me.

" I said to the Countess, who was at the end of her resources
I ' You know very well that if you begin an action, your rela-
tions will abandon you or will turn against you, as you have
always been told ; but you also know that you have nothing tc
expect in that direction except empty words. If, therefore,
you are firmly resolved to conquer or to die, I will take up youi
case ; for though young, I am strong, and will swear to figh-
for you to the death.'

" She had confidence in her right, in her strength and ir
mine, and readUy accepted my proposal ; and I, a young Jew
without influence, advanced to the assault of the most for-
midable powers."^

LassaUe accompanied the Countess to Diisseldorf, and foi
several years of his life devoted the whole of his abilities to the
struggle to secure her property and her social position.

We can understand that at the first moment Lassalle's
parents could feel nothing but anxiety and regret when thej
saw their son turning aside to champion the cause of a persor
entirely unknown to them. At an early age he had dis-
played unusual capacity in the department of philology
such men as Boeckh and Alexander von Humboldt prophesied
the most brilliant future for the young scholar — the Wondei
Child, as Humboldt called him — and his mother would have
been very glad to see her son a professor. However, she was
soon reconciled to the course of events, especially when she was
informed that every road to the University was closed tc

" Une Page d'Amoiir de Ferdinand LassaUe," 71.

FERDINAND LASSALLE 25

Ferdinand by reason of his Jewish birth. For himself, how-
ever, it was undoubtedly a most severe wrench to abandon the
studies he had begun. His great work upon Heraclitus, which
had been almost finished at the end of 1846, did not appear
until 1859, in consequence of this distraction ; to this matter
he refers in his speech in his defence : __

" My own gaze, gentlemen, had long been directed upon
general questions and afifairs, and I should have hesitated,
perhaps, to devote the whole of my abilities to an individual
case of misfortime, to interrupt the whole of my career for some
years at least, although it is heartrending for a sympathetic man
to see another person whom he regards as good and noble hurled
to destruction in the midst of civilization. But in this case I
could see that general principles and points were involved : I
told myself that the Countess was a victim to her class ; I
told myself that no one who was not in the proud position of a
Prince or a millionaire would venture, or have ventured, thus
to outrage the moral consciousness of society without hesita-
tion. ... I did not conceal from myself in the smallest degree
the difficulties of this enterprise ; I saw very well that it would
be a most formidable task to clear up the rights and wrongs of
this long-standing and historical misdeed ; that if the matter
were brought to the courts, it would demand the whole of my
energies, and that the task of carrying through so complicated
an affair would necessitate a long interruption to my own
career. I knew very well the difficulties of overcoming false
appearances ; I realized that rank, wealth, and influence are
dangerous opponents, and that they alone can ever find allies
in the ranks of the bureaucracy ; I realized, too, that I might
be exposing myself to considerable danger. All this I knew, but
it did not deter me. I resolved to oppose truth to specious-
ness, right to rank, intellectual power to the power of money.
Obstacles, sacrifices, and dangers in no way deterred me.
Even if I had known what unworthy and infamous calumnies
were to be heaped upon me, how my purest motives were to be
distorted and misinterpreted, and what ready credence would
be given to the most miserable lies — well, even then I hope my
resolution would have remained unaltered, though at the price
of a hard and painful battle. " __

26 FERDINAND LASSALLE

Circumstances, allusions in the terms of the charge, and the
rumours inevitably in circulation, forced Lassalle to refer to
the accusation against him — that he was upon terms of affec-
tionate intimacy with his client. Nothing, he said, was more
generally believed than this accusation, and to protest against
it would be ridiculous. However, he appeals to that which
witnesses in reference to this circumstance have expressed as
their conviction — to his letters, which are produced, and
prove the opposite to be the fact. He then explains why he
had been inevitably met with incredulity upon this matter.
] " Gentlemen, very distinguished members of this town spoke
j to me — men who wished me well, who knew my position, and
who had received honourable testimony forbidding them to
believe that I was actuated by any mean motives of self-
interest — and these men themselves expressed their conviction
that I absolutely must be upon terms of affectionate intimacy
with the Countess ; and when I ventured to ask them what
grounds they had for their conclusions, they simply replied that
they had none — none, except the fact that such great sacrifices
for another's cause are inexplicable upon any other grounds.
Gentlemen, I will admit that these men judged as men of
experience with knowledge of the world ; but they forgot one
thing — they forgot my youth ; they forgot that, though
selfishness may be the ruling principle of our century, youth

Lhas ever been, and wiU ever be, the age of disinterestedness,
enthusiasm, and ready sacrifice."

In these words there is a certain ring of sincerity and truth.
Whatever Lassalle's relations with the Countess were, as a
man of honour he was certainly unable publicly to aver that
any amorous connection existed between them. But, in my
opinion, the mode of his denial plainly shows that, whatever
character the relationship between them may shortly after-
wards have assumed, it was originally guided, when he plunged
into this fierce practical struggle, by no sentimental tendencies,
but by his antagonistic temperament, his burning anger, and
his purely intellectual inclinations. These motives overcame
all misgivings, and he was actuated merely by the desire to
make the cause of right prevail against that of might.

Lassalle's relations towards the Countess in the years

FERDINAND LASSALLE 27

immediately following provided his opponents with continual
opportunities for attacking his morality and that of his client.
The real nature of these relations naturally remained unknown,
and it might, indeed, be said that public opinion had not the
smallest concern with them. In any case, the intimacy soon
assumed the form of a friendship concluded under unusual
circumstances between a young man and a middle-aged
woman. During Lassalle's later years the attitude of the
Countess towards him was in every respect that of a second
mother, and in conversation and correspondence she invariably
addressed him as " child."

LassaUe's assertion that in this particular affair he could
find general rules and principles exemplified may seem to
many a mere rhetorical trick. But such suspicions would
certainly be unfounded. It is a characteristic of distinguished
men to find a universal fate exemplified in the particular
instance which they may encounter, and which a thousand
others may encounter without regarding it as anything further
than an isolated and chance occurrence. Such men immedi-
ately divine, by force of momentary inspiration, how large a
number of unfortunate people groan beneath calamities similar
to the case which they have witnessed. Behind the wrong-doing
they see the social cause of it, and direct their attacks upon
these causes, where others might think only of the wrong-doer
immediately responsible. LassaUe, therefore, means what he
sa37S when he expresses the hope that in those days (1848), when
the edifice of lies, hypocrisy, and universal oppression collapsed,
the daylight of truth would also be bound to break " upon aiTl
individual fate and suffering which is as truly a microcosmos
as any individual case can ever be, reflecting the universal
suffering, the subservience and misery tottering to the grave ;
the hope that the light would break upon an honourable en-
deavour, undeterred by criminal prosecution or any other forms
of law from helping outraged right to secure due recognition."^

1 LassaUe, " My Defence against the Accusation of Inciting to the Cash-
box Theft," delivered on August ii, 1848, before the Royal Assize Court at
Cologne and the jury. " My Criminal Prosecution for Inciting to the Cash-
box Theft," or " The Charge of Moral Complicity : A Prosecution with Ulterior
Object." Cologne : Wilhelm Greven, 1848. These two pamphlets are not obtain-
able from booksellers, and are not to be found in the Royal Library at Berlin.
I found copies in the Royal Library at Munich.

28 FERDINAND LASSALLE

The speech from which we have quoted some fragments is
the first literary work which exists from Lassalle's pen.
Its interest consists in the fact that it gives us a glimpse of
the mental furniture with which he was provided in the years
of his youth. I have already drawn attention to the genuine
nature of the feeling which here comes to light. Character-
istics of this kind are betrayed by style, and cannot be imitated.
A belief in the ultimate triumph of right over might is deeply
rooted in his heart, and appears as a warm and youthful
enthusiasm. This belief is accompanied by his sense of self-
sufficiency. Lassalle believes not so much in the power of
intellect as in the power of his own intellect to defy and over-
come all difficulties. We here see the motives of chivalrous
feeling and love of conflict, while his mode of expression
betrays something of the advocate's talent for grasping a situa-
tion, turning incidents to account, and laying on the colours
with a heavy hand, " the rights of humanity," etc. Yet to say
so much is to say almost too much. When such characteristics
do appear, they are so delicate and imperceptible that they
lend little more than a vague colouring to the speech. But
one characteristic does undoubtedly appear, and one that was,
deeply rooted in Lassalle's nature — his ruthlessness. Ruth-
lessness is a very modem ideal of conduct. Bismarck some-
where replies in one of his letters to an intellectual friend of
long standing, who reproaches him with excessive ruth-
lessness, in words both sincere and highly instructive : " As
a statesman, I am by no means sufficiently ruthless —
indeed, rather cowardly." Ruthlessness, which must not be
regarded as synonymous with brutality, iconoclasm, or the
like, is an ideal which has arisen during the years 1870-1880.
It was not the ideal of our forefathers. How often have they
quoted Hamlet's words :

" And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought."

Whatever the deficiencies of the present age may be,
Hamlet's words are now inapplicable to it. Our resolutions
and determinations are carried out. To pursue one's object
ruthlessly, careless of opposition from without, and ready to
use the means that circumstances provide, is both the merit

FERDINAND LASSALLE 29

and defect of modem times. The incident which brought
Lassalle into the dock was of the kind in which nothing but
an early-developed ruthlessness could have involved him. To
stigmatize his attempt to abstract a deed affecting the interests
of the Countess as mere theft would be no less ridiculous than
stupid ; but a character in any way fastidious about its choice
of means would have shrunk from such an action. Even if he
was not immediately concerned in the execution of the act,
he was indirectly involved by his influence over the partici-
pators in it. The domination of his character is indicated by
the express statement in the indictment that, though he was
the youngest of the defenders of the Countess, his associates
obeyed him unquestioningly.

Thus, from the year 1846 onwards Lassalle conducted the
case of the Countess. He began by pouring a perfect flood of
lawsuits upon the head of the Count. If he had never studied
law before, he now began, and worked with unparalleled
enthusiasm. Even while he was occupied in the conduct of
these successive suits he was advancing his knowledge of juris-
prudence. In a few months he could hold his own with any
advocate. At the same time he set other forces in motion
with a certainty of touch which betrays the future agitator.
He appealed to the democratic Press, and a thousand echoes
resounded through it at his cry. He ruined the Count's
reputation with the public. Whenever the Count considered
that he had found a means for the final annihilation of his
Countess, his efforts turned against himself under Lassalle's
hands.

In January, 1847, the Count was no longer contented with
depriving the Countess of all means for the support of herself
and her children. She was then living upon money derived
from the sale of some jewels belonging to better times. He
now attempted to reduce her to subservience by starvation,
and for this purpose to destroy her personal credit. He
wrote, for instance, to her hotel-keeper in Deutz, and requested
him to give the Countess notice, as he would never pay for
his wife. The landlord replied with scorn that if he liked to
support the wife and children of the Count, who was allowing
them to die of hunger, that was no one's concern but his own.

30 FERDINAND LASSALLE

Lassalle, however, turned the Count's clumsiness to his own
account. The newspapers soon spread news of the event in
Treves, in Mannheim, and Breslau, and demanded that pubhc
beneficence should put the Count to shame, by providing the
Countess with the means for taking her case to the lawcourts.
It was a war without cessation or truce, a war to the death,
in which Lassalle gradually gained fresh allies among the
popular party and their Press. One friend alone upon whom
he had calculated left him, however, in the lurch. This was
Heinrich Heine, who kept silence chiefly because Count Hatz-
feldt's mistress, the Baroness Meyendorff, formerly a Russian
spy in Paris, was on friendly terms with the Princesse de
Lieven, the mistress of Guizot ; and Heine is known to have
drawn a yearly pension from Guizot, as did the majority of
the emigres settled in France during the July Monarchy.

The task, with all these legal difficulties, became so colossal,
and obstacles increased in such number, that Lassalle, though
an unparalleled worker, spent nearly nine years of his life in
this struggle, instead of one year, as he had thought would be
sufficient in 1848. He was no legal authority by profession ; but
he gained so thorough a knowledge of law by practice that he
was able to produce a theoretical work of permanent value.
One who has long been regarded as the first legal authority in
Germany, after studying the case, has privately declared that
no professional advocate could have conducted it so well.
Lassalle brought the case of the Countess before thirty-six
courts. Only so strong a wih as his could have been capable
of the stem tenacity which the case required, and during this
period he was at one time in confinement for examination on
the charge of complicity in the theft previously mentioned,
and at another time was imprisoned on the ground that he
had invited people to protect the Constitution by force of arms
against the couf d'etat of 1848. Undismayed, Lassalle con-
tinued to conduct the case from his prison cell ; when he was
liberated he prosecuted it with yet greater energy, though
philosophy, politics, economy, all his studies and all his pros-^
pects in life were set aside and postponed until he should be
freed from this ungrateful task. Previously to 1848 the
verdicts which he gained were, as a rule, favourable. After

FERDINAND LASSALLE 31

1848, when the counter-revolution was triumphant, hardly a
week passed in which some one of the large number of cases
which Lassalle had set on foot was not lost. Defeats showered
upon him, but he recovered new strength and found new
devices, though he afterwards himself asserted that he never
understood how he had been able to bring the case to a tri-
umphant issue. At length, in August, 1854, his opponent,
the Count, was exhausted. The silly Jewish boy had been too
much for him. His strength was broken. Lassalle set his
foot upon his neck, and dictated terms of peace under con-
ditions most hmniliating and dishonourable to the Count.
No verdict was announced, but an agreement was secured,
and LassaUe gained that for which he had striven, including
a princely settlement upon the Countess. While the case was
in progress he had shared with her the scanty sum which was
annually sent to him by his parents, for during that long period
the Countess was penniless. In return he had stipulated, by
written contract, for a definite yearly income of four thousand
thalers, if success should be attained. Thus from henceforward
he was relieved from aU anxiety concerning his daily wants,
and was able to devote himself to scientific and unremunerative
studies, without being forced daily to consider the necessity
of earning his bread.

CHAPTER IV

Lassalle first returned to his work on Heraclitus. As the
book now stands, the attentive reader can easily discover the
traces of two hands. The mature thinker has collected,
arranged, and published what the researches of the youth had
discovered. It is certain that in the course of years Lassalle's
metaphysical and purely Hegelian views had been replaced by
a more historical outlook. At the same time, the book pro-
vides a comparatively faithful picture of Lassalle's scientific
life in his early youth. The " Philosophy of Heraclitus the
Obscure " is a study in Hegelian style, a study in the history
of philosophy. Lassalle was inevitably and powerfully at-
tracted to the philosophy of Hegel, which was paramount
during his earlier years, by something in his disposition, by
the dialectical tendencies of his nature, and his yearning to find
some key or picklock to open the way to that understanding and
knowledge which imply power. Vast indeed were the promises
which Hegel's philosophy made to its disciples. The fact that
Lassalle paid special attention to Heraclitus may probably be
ascribed in the first instance to his passionate inclination to
make trial of his strength in the face of appalling difficulties. "
From the days of early antiquity Heraclitus had been known
as the Obscure, and such of his writings as remain consist of
few and scattered fragments ; the task of completing these
and making them intelligible implies a knowledge of the whole
of classical literature. Thus the enthusiastic disciple of Hegel
obviously discovered some pleasure in depicting a mind which
seemed to him a distant forerunner of Hegel himself, and who
might be thought, simply on the ground of his relationship to

32

FERDINAND LASSALLE 33

the modem master, to have missed due appreciation. Finally,
the young and vigorous apostle of his age may have been
attracted by the great figure of antiquity, many of whose
traditional characteristics will be found to correspond with the
instincts and tendencies which Lassalle felt at work within
himself. Heraclitus is also said to have " banished all peace_
and quietness from the world, which became for him onlyv
absolute motion." With what satisfaction does Lassalle"
assert in one passage : " We see that Heraclitus was far removed|>
from that apathy which inspires the ethical-political arguments V
of the Stoics with such profound monotony. His nature was!
one of storm. "^ Almost all of LassaUe's writings contain some
protest against the habit of considering separate sciences or
departments of laxowledge in irrational isolation, and in this
point the inherent width and universality of his outlook may
be seen. Similarly this work begins with an emphatic assertion
that since histoiry is now no longer considered to be a mere
collection of interesting or farcical incidents, and since the
idea is regarded as a historical product, and the history of
philosophy as the uninterrupted development of thought,
so the time cannot be far distant when the history of
philosophy wUl no longer be treated as an isolated department
of knowledge, any more than the history of art, constitutional
history, or the history of social forms of life. The emphasis
which is here laid upon the fact of historical development
should not, however, lead us to suppose that Lassalle in this
work adopted an attitude less Hegelian and more modem than
he actually assumed. The Introduction, which lays such
particular stress upon the historical mode of treatment, was
undoubtedly one of the parts of the book last composed. In
other respects his attitude is entirely speculative. The
scientific idea is certainly here termed a historical creation ;
but at the same time, the forms under which the idea is
conceived are regarded as etemal, transcendental realities,
producing history by their automatic movement and by the
revulsions which they create. Philosophers are not historically
arranged in order according to the stage of development
which their general intellectual Ufe has attained, but according
1 Lassalle, " Heraclitus," i. 51 ; ii. 443-

34 FERDINAND LASSALLE

to the place which is occupied in the system by the conceptions
which they represent. Herachtus corresponds to Becoming,
Parmenides to Being ; hence it is a priori obvious that Par-
menides must be regarded as preliminary and inferior to Hera-
clitus, however superior his intellectual powers may have been.^

By this we are very far from impl5^ng that Lassalle did not
understand Heraclitus. The contrary is the case. The meta-
physical method of Hegel was, indeed, an admirable instrument
for securing comprehension of a thinker whose strength and
chief characteristic was his almost hair-splitting dialectic. I
would not rely solely upon my own judgment in this matter, but
a weU-known authority in this department, Professor Steinthal,
of the University of Berhn, returned the following significant
reply when I asked him how far he considered that Lassalle had
understood Heraclitus : " Certainly he understood him. A nor-
mally gifted scholar will not, and, indeed, may not, understand
Heraclitus, but there is no denying that Lassalle understood him,
and that his book is an excellent and capable piece of work."

Lassalle's conception and statement of Herachtus's meta-
physics betrays the hand of the accomplished Hegelian : the
essential unity of the great contraries. Being and Not-Being,
the concept of Becoming which forms the transition from
Not-Being to Being, is the Divine law itself. Nature herself
is but the visible promulgation of this law which forms the
essence of her being, the law of the identity of contraries.
Day is but the impulse to become night, night but the impulse
to become day ; sunrise is but uninterrupted sunset, etc. The
cosmos is but the visible realization of this harmony of con-
traries which pervades and governs aU existence. Heiberg
himself could have carried Hegelianism no further, and could
have displayed no greater pleasure in the technicalities of this
school of thought than is apparent in the Hegelian explanation
_of the origin of Herachtus from the Eleatic School : " Their
pure universal Being is thus Being in itself, Not-Being : for
all real Being is but definite and qualitative Being ; the re-
moval and negation of aU real tangible Being is Not-Being. . . .
The reconciliation of this contradiction, the self-existent Not-

1 Lassalle, "Heraclitus," i. 35. Cf. Lazarus and Steinthal, Zeitschrift fitr
Volkerpsychologie uni Sprachkunde, ii. 333.

FERDINAND LASSALLE 35

Being, is the kernel and the whole depth (sic) of his philosophy. I
Thus far we may say, that this philosophy is contained in the \
one phrase, only Not-Being exists."^ _j

Heiberg was a Privy Councillor when he died, and if in the
next world his feehngs were not outraged by his agreement
with so notorious a revolutionary, he might well have joined
hands with Lassalle in approval of such an exposition as we
have outlined.^ Lassalle then explains with entire correctness
why Heraclitus, in spite of his transcendental principles, none
the less drew names for his fundamental concepts from the
material world. He conceived " Not-Being and its unity witli"
Being as operative, but also as invariably existing objectively,
and as positing and perfecting itself objectively. He did not
consider it as reflected upon itself, as existing only for itself as
a subjective idea ; and as his principle so far was nothing more
than Not-Being in objective existence, he could only speak of
it as such — that is to say, in terms of outward and objective
existence. Not-Being, however, as existing objectively, is
fire, water in motion, war, harmony, time, necessity, univer-
sally ruling justice, and Dike limiting action, etc." __

The method employed by Lassalle in this metaphysical and
philosophical investigation is purely Hegelian. On the other
hand, it is equally clear that the chief interest in the, subject
of his researches was for him the fact that Heraclitus antici-
pated his own great master. If Hegel had been bom in Asiatic
Greece, at the close of the sixth century before our era, he
would have become Heraclitus. Even in antiquity it had been
observed that while Heraclitus posits contraries as the origin
of "jthe world, he does not recognize the fundamental principle
of j the contradictory. Heraclitus had already adopted a
position comparable to the deification of Nature by Spinoza

* Lassalle, " Heraclitus," i. 25, 35.

^ Lassalle was never able entirely to abandon the use of Hegelian dialect
In his tragedy, " Franz von Sickingen," Charles V. speaks of his objects, and
says in true Hegelian manner :

" If you could make
My purposes the content of your will —

Then, Franz —
Then mightest thou rise."

In his last important work, " Capital and Labour," he speaks of the " revul-
sions " (UmscMagen) of conceptions . See also his " System of Acquired
Rights," ii. 9, for the dialectical activity of the concept.

36 FERDINAND LASSALLE

when he explained that to God everything was beautiful and
righteous, but that man had named one thing righteous and
another unrighteous. In Heraclitus may be found the philo-
sophical inclination, which was so predominant when Hegel-
ianism was at its height, to use every possible opportunity of
making assertions hopelessly unacceptable to the so-caUed
common sense. Lassalle himself observes : " Modem philosophy
was careful repeatedly to emphasize the fact that the most
simple and ordinary matters which everyone thinks he knows
by instinct are precisely those about which least is known,
and whose nature is utterly incomprehensible to the thinking
intelligence. But in fact Heraclitus was the first to announce
a truly speculative idea, and consequently he was also the
first to make this same assertion concerning the impotence of
_jion-speculative thought and of the subjective intelligence."

The ethical system of Heraclitus, says Lassalle, is contained
in the single idea, which is itself the eternal and fundamental
concept of morality — " surrender to the Universal." This
statement is both Greek and modern, but Lassalle cannot deny
himself the pleasure of a special exposition, showing how this
idea of the old Greek philosophers coincided with the political
philosophy of Hegel. " In Hegel's philosophy laws are alike
regarded as the realization of the universally existing will,
though this definition has not the smallest reference to the
formal wiU of the subjects or to their number. Similarly, the
Universal of Heraclitus is far removed from the category of
_CTnpirical totality."^

Stress is laid on this feature, not only on account of the
similarity with Hegel, but also because it coincided with
Lassalle's most cherished political views. From his earliest
youth he had regarded the idea of the State as the realization
of morality, right, and reason. His enthusiasm for this idea,
and his belief in the destiny of the State, not only as a pro-
tective force, but also as a positive stimulus to right and culture,
runs through all his writings. The idea may be traced in his
scholarly and scientific researches, as in this case of his " Hera-
clitus." It is more strongly expressed, though appearing only
incidentally, in his great legal work (" The System of Acquired

* Lassalle, " Heraclitus," i. 36, 92, 119 ; ii. 276, 431, 439.

FERDINAND LASSALLE 37

Rights," i. 47 ; ii. 603 et seq.) ; eventually it is proclaimed in his
political and economic pamphlets, with passionate attacks upon
the doctrine of the Manchester School, and with all the warmth
of conviction which made Lassalle so popular and so formidable
as a speaker and a writer.

The contrast between Heraclitus and Lassalle in this respect
is simply as follows : From the political teaching of the Greek
thinker it becomes quite obvious that, notwithstanding his
reverence for the Universal, he must have been in the bitterest
opposition to the rule of the masses which prevailed in his
town of Ephesus ; it is much harder to understand how
Lassalle could have advanced from kindred and Hegelian
conceptions of the State to practical conclusions, which remind
us much rather of Rousseau than of Hegel. But his attractive
personahty betrays an inward inconsistency which is often
noticeable in the case of prominent intellects. By instinct,
and as a result of his first principles, Lassalle was a worshipper
of intelligence, of reason, and a passionate opponent and
scomer of public opinion and of numbers. On the other hand,
by conviction, and as the result of his political and practical
principles, Lassalle, as everyone knows, was a most decided
champion of popular power, a persistent and successful sup-
porter of universal suffrage, and a pioneer in the service of
democratic power such as history had never yet seen. An intel-
lectual aristocrat and a social democrat ! The human heart
may contain yet greater contradictions than these, but not
without loss can they form part of a man's disposition. The
phenomenon that here meets us is, in the world of thought,
precisely that contrast which was outwardly apparent when
Lassalle, in his dandified clothes, his fine linen, and his patent-
leather boots, spoke formally or informally among a number of
grimy, horny-handed mechanics.

If, however, in this respect a certain contradiction existed
between LassaUe and the Greek philosopher he admired, on the
other hand a similarity is appareht when we read his description
of Heraclitus's character, with its incredible self-confidence and
scorn of humanity. Great must have been the appreciation
of his own importance possessed by anyone who, hke Hera-
clitus, could repeatedly assert that " mankind for the mosTl

38 FERDINAND LASSALLE

part is unintelligent, and that he himself alone possessed
knowledge, while all others acted as though they were in their
sleep." Hefcould also say of his fellow-citizens, speaking in
general terms, that " they deserved to be hung, for the masses

Q^only feed themselves like cattle," and in reference to a par-
ticular case, the expulsion of his friend Hermodorus : " The

"Ephesians ought to be strangled as they grow up, without
exception, and the State should be left to the children, for
they have driven out the most excellent of their number,
Hermodorus, sapng no one shall be the most excellent among
us, and if anyone holds that position, then let him be excel-
lent somewhere else and among other people."^

"We can hardly doubt that these words must often have
occurred to Lassalle in the years immediately before his death,
when he saw himself everywhere calumniated and slandered,
menaced with years of imprisonment, persecuted by the
authorities and the Press, and received with indifference by
the greater number of those whom he wished to help and for
whom he sacrificed his peace of mind. In my opinion, no more
striking counterpart can anywhere be found to the despairing
self-assertiveness of Heraclitus, the bitterness and scorn of
which reminds us of Timon of Athens, than the sad but
wonderfully written meditation with which Lassalle concludes
his work, " Capital and Labour."

" To think of this general descent on the part of the niiddle
classes in the land of Lessing and Kant, Schiller and Goethe,
Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel ! Did these intellectual heroes
merely sweep above our heads like a flight of cranes ? Of their
vast intellectual work, and of the influence which they exerted
upon the progress of the world, has absolutely nothing reached
the nation at large ? Does German nationalism merely con-
sist of a series of isolated individuals, each faithfully taking
up the inheritance of his predecessors and pursuing his lonely
labours, which to the nation are fruitless, in bitter contempt
of his contemporaries ? What is that curse which has dis-
inherited the middle classes, so that from the great work of
civilization which has been completed among them, and from
all this great atmosphere of culture, no single drop of refreshing

I Lassalle, " Heraclitus," ii. 269, 281, 442.

FERDINAND LASSALLE 39

dew has ever fallen upon their steadily decajdng brains ? They
celebrate the festivals of our great thinkers because they have
never read their works. If they had read them they would
bum them. They rave about our poets because they have
seen or read a few lines of their work, but have never been able
to appreciate their views of life."

The last point of coincidence between Heraclitus ariH"*
LassaUe consists in the passionate desire for fame and glory,
for praise and the admiration of others, which they felt in spite
of their self-consciousness and their pride ; it was Heraclitus
who uttered the oft-quoted saying : " Greater fates obtain the
greater lot " {i.e., the greater reward). Another saying of his
puts this sentence in the proper light : " The masses and"
those who think themselves wise foUow the poets of the people,
and ask the laws for counsel, not knowing that the masses are
bad, that few of them are good, and that the best choose one
thing instead of all, the ever-persisting reputation of mortals."^
Fame to Heraclitus was, indeed, the greatest reward that the"
greater fate could obtain. His love of honour did not spring
immediately and instinctively from his nature, but was also
founded upon reflection and philosophy. " Fame," says
Lassalle, " is, in fact, the most opposite of all things, most
opposite to the category of immediately real Being and its
several objects. Fame is the Being of mankind within the
sphere of his Not-Being. It is pure persistence amid the decay
of material existence, and is therefore the immortality of man_
obtained and reahzed." He adds the enthusiastic remark :
" This is the reason why fame has ever exerted so powerful aiP
attraction upon great souls, and has lifted them beyond all
petty and limited things. It is the reason why Platen sings
of it that it comes only ' hand in hand with the angel of
death that puts men on trial ' ; it is also the reason why
Heraclitus regarded it as the ethical realization of his specula-
tive principle." .

This estimation of fame and glory may be in complete

harmony with the metaphysical system of Heraclitus, but the

fact remains that it is sheer logical contradiction to unite this

desire for outside admiration with deep scorn for the judgment

1 lassalle, " Heraclitus," ii. 434, 436.

40 FERDINAND LASSALLE

of other people ; but the smallest knowledge of the world will
show that things logically incompatible may coexist without
dif&culty in the human soul. Hence we may observe even in
Lassalle a pride which is never cast down or despondent, in
close connection with an irresistible desire to obtain praise and
compliments, and to secure the admiration or the applause of
others. I am anxious not to be misunderstood. Nothing is
more natural or human than to enioy the approval and the
praise of the best men. Anyone who is indifferent to applause
of this kind could hardly become an author or take a leading
part in any direction ; indeed, we may go further, and say that
to the author and the orator a certain amount of recognition
is an absolute necessity, and is in certain respects the very
breath of his nostrils ; but if the stream is against him, or he is
forced to struggle against it, as was the case with Lassalle, he
can content himself with private manifestations of respect, and
to such private testimony he should appeal only reluctantly
and at rare intervals during the period of his public unpopu-
larity. But Lassalle was unable to withstand this temptation,
against which his pride was not adequate to defend him. He
appeals to private approval inopportunely and with want of
tact. In his case there is more than the orator's polemical
attitude ; it is something wholly natural to him. I am not
referring to the fact that he occasionally expresses with over-
weening self-consciousness that which was the simple truth, and,
in view of the lies and perversions which were poured upon
him, was weU worth mention — namely, the fact that he was no
mere amateur, but a great and, indeed, a supreme scholar,
who had produced works of permanent value, including one
important masterpiece. I am referring to his unfortunate
preference for the froth and fury of reputation, for the
drums and trumpets of fame which he required or claimed
for himself, even upon occasions of small importance. For
instance, he boasts before workmen of having attacked
in a literary satire the mediocre historian of literature,
. Tulian Schmidt — " amid the tumultuous applause of the
'' great scholars and thinkers of Germany, who are congratu-
\y I lating me by letter and by word of mouth." ^ The publica-
"'^--^ Lassalle, " The Festivals, the Press, and the Meeting of Frankfort Deputies. '

FERDINAND LASSALLE 41

tion of the pamphlet in question, an extremely clever and
presumptuous production, became, in his opinion, a high intel-
lectual achievement. The depth of this characteristic in him
can only be realized when we observe its emergence in Lassalle's
free poetical compositions, in his favourite hero, Ulrich von
Hutten, in the drama " Franz von Sickingen." With a pathos
drawn from the depths of Lassalle's heart, Ulrich describes his
feelings when " the gloomy tyranny of dogma " again raised
its head in Germany, when the closed columns of the obscuran-
tists revolted against the rise of science, and Cologne, " the
German capital of priestcraft," proclaimed Reuchlin and his
writing as heretical. The opening passage is excellent ; the
roar and thunder of delivery is entirely appropriate ; but
eventually we reach the unfortunate cry for applause :

And now I knew the purpose of my birth, -

Why I was welded in the forge of WQe. ^J

And, as the billow foams upon the deep.

As the wild breakers roar upon the shore

Back-beaten, so with eyes aflame inl wrath, "^

Trembhng with passion and the keen delight

Of battle, did I plunge into the strife —

The battle-axe of anger and the club

Of keen-spiked satire whirled I then aloft

And crushed the enemy beneath my feet,

Europe re-echoing with wild applause

And scornful laughter, as their wretched lives

That strutted in their tinsel finery

Were pilloried and put to open shame.

Then rose the hatred of an angry world

Encircling me, and thus I ever strove

Combating, breast to breast, until the death.

The foregoing analysis will perhaps somewhat lessen the
astonishment, which we might at first be incUned to feel, that
Lassalle should have devoted so large a part of his youth to
the study of a mind so remote from us in point of time and
civilization. It wiU be obvious that the Greek thinker, not
only by his logical tendencies and his dialectical method, but
also by his doctrine of duty, with its high appreciation of the
State and of sacrifice for the general welfare, and by his
characteristics, virtues as well as vices, coincided in a very
special degree with the character of his youthful admirer, whose
conquest he made some thousand years after his death, in
virtue of the same law which made Soren Kierkegaard so
passionate a disciple of Socrates.

CHAPTER V

I HAVE already mentioned that the period of Lassalle's life
which was occupied by his studies upon Heraclitus and by the
case of Countess Hatzfeldt also saw his first appearance as a
politician, and its consequences.

A few months after his trial at Cologne we find LassaUe once
more in the dock, on this occasion at Diisseldorf, and, to use his
own expression, " no less battered with criminal prosecutions
than the armour of a warrior with arrows." The great social
and constitutional movement of the year 1848 had suddenly
diverted his attention from his own private struggles. Not-
withstanding his youth, he was one of the most influential
and active members of the Republican party which was then
very numerous in Germany. Young as he was, he was one of
the leaders. He gathered political meetings and spoke before
them ; he arranged for the exhibition of posters at the street-
comers, calling for armed resistance when the Prussian Govern-
ment, by a breach of the Constitution, declared the National
Assembly dissolved. Hated for his share in the Hatzfeldt
affair, feared on account of his determined and undaunted
attitude, he was thrown into prison as soon as the counter
revolution secured the upper hand, and by legal quibbles of
every kind his period of detention during the preliminary
investigation of his case was protracted over more than half a
year.

The speech which LassaUe then delivered before his judges
is, in my opinion, one of the most remarkable examples of
youthful virility and eloquence that history contains. Unless
we were aware of the facts, no one would suspect that the

42

FERDINAND LASSALLE 43

speech was delivered by a young man in his twenty-fourth
year. On this occasion Lassalle was magnificent. He felt
himself inspired and inwardly enlightened by the noblest and
purest sympathy which can fill the human heart, and no one
for a moment can doubt the genuine nature or the depth of
his feeling. His oratorical blade is wielded with a vigour and
an art, a dexterity and a force, which cannot be surpassed,
and yet is never used for the sake of mere display. For the
first time he comes forth, handsome and radiant, at the height
of his powers. The speech has the fresh colouring of early
youth, and yet is never marred by youthful bombast or pre-
sumption ; but to describe a political speech, a knowledge of
which cannot be presumed, is impossible, the more so as its
strength is equally distributed over every part of it, so that
only by a knowledge of the whole can an estimate of its value
be formed. We can, and we must, give a few quotations, but
quotation gives but a feeble idea of the nervous vigour of the
speech. A iMcket ef water gives no idea of the depth of the
well.

Th« exordium ef the speech is very characteristic. Lassalle
does not propose to deal with the defence as such, for this the
defending counsel has already done, but with the charge which
the orator will hurl against the case which has been strained
against him, and the corpus delicti of which is to be found in
the documents of indictment.

Still more characteristic is the following explanation : Las-
salle says that he will always be ready to admit that his own
convictions have led him to adopt a revolutionary attitude,
and that he is a " revolutionary from principle." He wUl not,
however, conduct his defence from this standpoint, which the
Government would naturally decline to recognize. It is im-
possible, he says, to come to grips with an opponent or to
wound him, if one adopts a materially different standpoint
from the outset. The opponent is then out of range, and
blows fall upon empty air. It is, indeed, possible to overthrow
the opponent by adopting a precisely opposite standpoint and
exposing the erroneous nature of the opponent's fundamental
ideas ; but in that case he cannot be put to shame, and it is
impossible to demonstrate his inconsistency, his betrayal of

44 FERDINAND LASSALLE

the principles to which he declares adherence or which he is
forced to support for the sake of appearances. " In the interests

""of attack^ and to promote the vigour of my onslaught, I will
therefore descend to take up the position which the State
Attorney himself must at least make a show of assuming, as an
official in a constitutional State ; I will adopt a strictly con-
stitutional standpoint, and conduct my defence only upon that
ground."

A moment's consideration should be devoted to the ex-
pression " revolutionary by principle," which repeatedly
occurs in LassaUe's writings, has been often explained by
him, and has been as constantly misunderstood, for in a sense
it is the central point of his political and social views as a whole.^
Whenever he has been called a revolutionary, he replies that,
in the uprightness of his heart, he has admitted the truth of
the accusation time after time, wherever it has been brought
against him, in public, in his books, in his speeches, and even
before courts of law ; but it is important to understand the
sense in which he uses the phrase. In his speech before the
Court of Assizes he emphasizes the fact that the Government
have lost the support of " the weak and rotten crutch of

_Jegal title," and he goes on to say : " In national life legal title
is a bad position to assume, because law is only the expression
and the will of society reduced to writing ; it is never the
master of society ; when the will and the necessities of society
have changed, the old legal code should be relegated to the
museum of history, and the new presentation of current needs

^should take its place." For this reason, in another passage of
the speech, he appeals to his judges with the words : " Let
the courts of the Rhine openly proclaim themselves revolu-
tionary tribunals, and I am ready to recognize them and to

I explain myself before them. As I am a revolutionary by
principle, I know the kind of justification that can be claimed
by a triumphant power when it comes forward openly and
without concealment ; but I will never silently endure to see
the most bloodthirsty power exercised under the apparently

1 For this expression, compare " Speech before the Assize Court," 1848,
32, 49 ; " Labour Programme," 7 ; " To the Workmen of Berlins," 13 ; " Trial
for High Treason," 12 ; " Science and the Workmen," 41,

FERDINAND LASSALLE 45

sacred form of legal right, or to see law stand as crime, and
crime as law, under the aegis of the law."

These words may certainly indicate some personal preference""
for the employment of forcible means ; at the same time,
throughout his life Lassalle laid emphasis upon the purely
scientific sense of the word " revolution " as he used it. His
speeches abound with scornful commentaries upon those who
can neither hear nor read the word " revolution " without see-
ing ," pitchforks brandished " before their eyes. Revolution
implies reversal, and such a change has invariably taken place
when an entirely new principle has been substituted for
existing conditions, with or without the employment of force ;
for the means of change are of minor consequence. Reform,
on the other hand, begins when the principle underlying existing
conditions is retained, and is merely developed in milder or
more consistent or more righteous directions. Here again the
means employed is of minor importance. Reform may be
achieved amid uproar and bloodshed, and revolution amid the
profoundest peace. The terrible peasant war, which Lassalle
persisted in regarding as anything but a revolutionary move-
ment, was an attempt to secure reform by force of arms. The
discovery of the cotton-spinning machine in 1775, and, in
general, the peaceful development of modem manufacture,
was invariably described by LassaUe as revolution upon a
great scale. In this, as in so many other cases, the important
point is the readiness to understand. No thinking reader can
doubt that the cry which Lassalle somewhere utters is the
expression of deep feeling.^ __

" What ! Can anybody have struggled, like Faust, with
firm and serious tenacity though the philosophy of the Greeks
and the system of Roman law, through the various depart-
ments of historical science, as far as modem political economy
and statistics, and can you seriously believe that the conclusion
of this long course of development is to place the incendiary's
torch in the hands of the proletariat ? Is our knowledge of
science and our insight into its civilizing and humanizing
force so small that anyone can believe this result possible ?'^
This appeal does indeed contain a slight tincture of legal

1 Lassalle, " Indirect Taxation," 117.

46 FERDINAND LASSALLE

h3rpocrisy excusable in the dock. It is true that Lassalle's
object can never have been fire and sword, but for his friends
he did not attempt to conceal that he would not recoil
from a reign of terror as a means to secure his end. If we
wish to secure a true opinion of his inclination to forcible
means, we must gain a closer acquaintance with his leading
ideas than we have hitherto attained.

If I were asked what was the leading principle around which
Lassalle's ideas centred, or what was the main question upon
which his mind worked, I should reply. Might and right.
These were the two poles which marked the course of his
orbit. The fundamental question which occupied his mind
was undoubtedly how right and might stand in the relation
of cause and effect. The common misinterpretation of
his views is to consider that he put might in the place
of right. We shall soon see how remote this belief is
from truth, and what it was that gave rise to the misunder-
standing. His only poetical production is comparatively
valueless, regarded as a dramatic work, but is highly interesting
as the unreserved and rhetorical expression in lyrical form
of the teeming ideas and the full mental life of its author.
The passage occupied by the dialogue between Okolampadius
and Hutten deserves special attention :

rj-vw Okolampadius.

~' Believest thou then that this, our sacred light,

1 <• The light of truth and reason, which on high

Has risen for us, could e'er again be quenched
In darkness of unreason, and would fail
Of its own self to spread throughout the world ?

Hutten.
Master revered, thy knowledge of the past
Should teach thee better. Reason is its content
Therein thou spakest truly ; but its form
Abides eternal, and its form is force !

Okolampadius.
Bethink thee, knight. Wilt thou then desecrate
Our loving gospel with the bloody sword ?

Hutten.
Master revered I Think better of the sword !
The sword, uplifted for great freedom's cause.
Is sure the Word Incarnate that thou preachest.
Is God Himself, born for the sons of men.
The sword hath spread the teaching of the Christ,

FERDINAND LASSALLE 47

The sword in Germany baptized that Charles

Whom yet in wonder we do call the Great ;

The sword o'erthrew the heathen and restored

The tomb of the Redeemer to the world.

Tarquinius was driven forth from Rome,

Xerxes was lashed from Hellas' windy shores,

And art and science born for men to come.

Through that same sword with which Judge Gideon,

Samson and David slew their enemies.

Thus early and thus late the sword performed

The splendid exploits of the storied past.

And all the glory that shall ever be

Will owe its being to the sword, the sword !

In this declaration Lassalle first expresses without reserve
his respect for might and for forcible measures, which gives
so characteristic and so modem a touch to his genius. Through-
out the poem we find expressions in the mouths of the most
different people, proclaiming this delight in might as the
support of right. Thus, for instance, Balthasar says :

Then he appeared at Worms, was laughed to scorn.

Justice was then refused us, so he took

Certain ten thousand well-considered reasons.

I with steel head-piece, lady, also went

With him to Worms, and forthwith supervened

A demonstration and a disputation

In such sort as you well may understand.

And, in more exalted style, Ulrich von Hutten :

Might is the greatest blessing under heaven
When it supports a great and righteous cause ;
A miserable toy, when to sustain
Some tinsel state it cumbereth the hand
Wherein it rests.

It is often the case that some favourite word or metaphor
wiU betoken the nature of an author's ideal. Lassalle's
favourite word is " iron " or " bronze." Years before the words
blood and iron became a political cry in Bismarck's mouth,
Lassalle had appealed to the " iron lot." He uses no meta-
phor so constantly. Iron is to him the type of beneficent
despotism, the blow which clears the way and removes detri-
ment, the imperial stroke which shortens the painful progress
of time and accelerates the difficult birth of the ideal of a new
period. Franz von Sickingen praises iron as " the god of
man," as the magic wand, the stroke of which brings wishes to
fulfilment, as the last resort of the despairing, and the highest
pledge of freedom. In a style yet more distinctive and more

48 FERDINAND LASSALLE

characteristic of Lassalle, Franz indicates the decision by
force of arms, when the Emperor's herald offers him the choice,
in his master's name, either of submission with full justice from
the Emperor, or of outlawry as a rebel.

Herald, take hence this answer to thy lord ;

The time for words is past ; portentously

The hour of stern decision comes and knocks

With iron finger at the door of Time !

Low lies thine empire, quivering in the dust,

And by no legal patchwork shall the strife

That rends it e'er be quelled. Herald, behold !

See there the ordnance and the mouths of thunder

Whence for this age of ours resistless might

Is born into the world. Within my camp

I hold the power of the imperial courts,

A new commandment will I soon enforce.

And nerve me to an action, such as none

Of Roman emperors ever dared or dreamed.'

As a youth in his first case, Lassalle had asserted that he
represented right against might, and, strangely enough, with
expressions which he then used in a depreciatory sense but now
employed for laudatory purposes. Thus, in his speech before
the Assize Court, he scornfully says : " As it had been decided
r~to create right solely and simply by the cannon's mouth, why
I was not the civic guard simply disbanded without stating
|_^ny further reason ?" At that time he used expressions
which are put into the mouth of Balthasar in his poem to
denote admiration, but which he himself employed in bitterest
scorn : " If they had no rights, they had something better ;
they had in Berlin a state of siege, Wrangel, sixty thousand
soldiers, and several hundred guns ; in Breslau, Magdeburg,
Cologne, and Diisseldorf there were so many soldiers and so
many hundred guns. Those are imperative reasons which
anyone can understand." With the eloquence of passion in
this strong, proud speech, Lassalle had represented the stand-
point of law against that of force : " However, the Assembly was
"dissolved, and instead of summoning a new Assembly in virtue
of the same electoral law, a Constitution was forced upon us —
in other words, the whole system of public right was abolished
with one stroke. They were tired of slowly breaking the
constitutional organism of the country upon the wheel, shatter-
ing limb after Umb and law after law. They boldly threw the
1 I-assalle, " Franz von Sickingen," 2, 62, 85, 92, 140, 151, 207.

FERDINAND LASSALLE 49

whole concern into the lumber-room and replaced it with their jf
sic volo sic jubeo and with the eloquence of bayonets." Strange'
is the apparent contradiction to his praises of sword and iron,
when he then exclaimed : " The sword is indeed the swordT
but it is not legal right. Judges who would stoop to persecute
citizens because they wished to defend their laws, on the basis
of those very laws the maintenance of which is their sacred
duty, judges who impute the defence of their laws to their
nation as a crime, I will never consider judges, but can only
regard them as the satellites of force, and perhaps the nation
wiU think with me. ... In my prison cell I wiU endure what-
ever menaces the sword may have for me when it has desecrated
the forms of right. I shall allow my case to assume a form
most disastrous to myself before I will enter counter pleas or
fulfil any of the formal processes of law, for the purpose of
playing any part in the legal farce which force is pleased to_
perform."- These and many similar expressions show a keen
consciousness of legal right and a no less keen hatred of brutal
force, when usurping the place of right.

. But the mind of this young orator, who had thus early
reached maturity and practical power, was also dominated
by a conviction no less keen that ideal right was powerless
if it was not represented by active minds and strong wills,
capable of taking the right measures and using the proper
means for the realization of this right. This was a fact that
must have stirred the observation and the feehng of a young
genius, whose deepest characteristics and incUnations were
practical, when he Uved through the miserable failures that
marked the progress of the German Revolution of 1848.
Behind a forehead which expressed energy so strongly, it
was impossible that thought should not be active, when right
was seen to be miserably overthrown in consequence of some
idealist abhorrence of other weapons than those of words, in
consequence of an hereditary fear of armed authority, in
consequence of personal cowardice in one case, want of counsel
in another, conjoined with frivolous prating and a hesitation
worthy of Hamlet. Anyone who has read Fr. Engel's treatise,
" The German Imperial Constitutional Campaign " (the revolt
in Rhenish Prussia and Baden), which appeared in Karl Marx's

4

50 FERDINAND LASSALLE

Neue Rheinische Zeitung of 1850, will understand that this
helpless generation, with its lack of discipline, was necessarily
followed by a generation firmly resolved to clothe its ideals in'
adequate armour, and to give them a mighty sword — a genera-
tion which regarded the noble metal of right as incapable of
becoming current coin unless it was consolidated by the alloy
of might. Eventually both the noble and the base metal was
almost entirely amalgamated under the eyes of this generation
— a generation which realized that the dice of iron were the
hardest and the best, and which, like Brennus of old, threw
the steel into the scales.

Read Lassalle's lamentations in that speech, over the failure
of the National Assembly to create a real citizen force at the
right time for the protection of the Constitution. Read his
murderous sarcasm upon the invitation of the National
Assembly to begin a course of " passive resistance " against
jthe attacks of the Government : " Passive resistance, gentle-
men — and we must concede that our enemies have appreciated
the fact — the passive resistance of the National Assembly was
certainly a crime. Choose one of two alternatives — either the
Crown was Avithin its rights when it issued those measures,
and in that case the National Assembly was a band of rebels
and outlaws when it opposed the legal rights of the Crown and
brought discord upon the country, or the measures of the Crown
were illegal acts of force, in which case the freedom of the
people was to be vigorously protected with their persons and
their lives, and the National Assembly was bound to call the
land to arms. In that case the strange device of passive
resistance was a cowardly betrayal of the people, and of the
duty of the Assembly to protect the people's rights. . . .
The individual, gentlemen, if he suffers ill-treatment from the
State or from a body of men — ^if , for instance, I were condemned
by you — could honourably offer a passive resistance. I could
shelter myself within my rights, and utter my protest, as I
have not the power to make it effective. . . . The nation can
be subdued by force, as Poland was subdued, but the subjuga-
tion was not effected until the battle-field had been besprinkled
with the blood of her noblest sons and until her last forces
had been mown down. . . . Then, when all strength has

FERDINAND LASSALLE 51

been broken, the body of such a nation may content itself
with passive resistance — ^that is to say, with protests to secure
their rights, with endurance and toleration, with anger in their
hearts, with silent hatred repressed, waiting with folded arms
until some moment of salvation brings redemption. Passive
resistance of this kind, after the event, after every means of
active resistance has failed, is the highest degree of enduring
heroism ; but passive resistance before the event, when not a
blow has been struck, when not the smallest appeal has been
made to the forces ready to hand, is the profoundest disgrace,
the most supreme stupidity, and the greatest cowardice which
could ever be attributed to a nation. Passive resistance,
gentlemen, is self-contradiction incarnate ; it is tolerant resist-
ance — a resistance that does not oppose or resist. Passive
resistance is like Lichtenberg's knife which had no handle and
the blade of which was lost, or Uke fur which must be washed
without making it wet. Passive resistance is the inward will
without the practical action, and passive resistance is the
product of the following factors : a clear recognition of duty
imperatively urging resistance, and personal cowardice declining
resistance. These two factors during their abhorrent embraces
on the night of November 10 begot that consumptive child,
that hectic offspring, passive resistance."^ __

Can we be surprised that the man who could inveigh against
weakness and impotence with such emphasis at the age of
twenty-three should praise iron as the god of man ten years
later ?

This relationship between might and right is a problem that
always occupied Lassalle's mind. He penetrates more deeply
into the conditions of their interaction, and studies ever more
zealously their dependence upon one another.

In 1862, amid the Prussian constitutional struggles, he gave
a lecture in Berlin upon the nature of constitutions. He
attempts in this lecture to define the idea of a constitution or of
a fundamental law, and in analyzing the term "fundamental
law " he finds, firstly, that such a law must lie deeper than
ordinary legal decision ; so much is shown by the word " funda-
mental." Secondly, that as it is the basis of other laws, it must

1 " Speech before the Assize Court," i6, 26, 33-35, 48.

52 FERDINAND LASSALLE

preserve an active and operative influence upon them. Thirdly,
that these conceptions are necessary and inevitable, for the
idea of fundamental contains the idea of operative necessity
and active force.

If the constitution thus forms the fundamental law of the
land, it must be defined as an operative force, necessarily
making aU other laws and legal institutions in any country
what they are. Lassalle then proceeds to ask whether there
is in reality such an operative force. " Yes," is the answer,
" there is indeed such a force — namely, the actual conditions
of force which exist in any given society. These actual con-
ditions of force are the living power which so determines all the
laws and legal institutions of a society, that they cannot be
materially otherwise than they are."

To explain his meaning, Lassalle employs an example for
jllustration. " Suppose," he said, " that some gigantic con-
flagration destroyed aU written law in Prussia, and that the
land by some such calamity was deprived of all law, with the
consequence that the difficulty could only be solved by the
promulgation of new laws, are we to suppose that in such a
case the legislator could go to work as he liked ? Could he
issue any new laws he pleased ? Let us see. Suppose people
said : ' The laws have perished ; we are compiling a new
code, and on this occasion we decline to give the royal power
the position it had previously held, or we prefer to give it
no position at all.' In such a case the King would simply
say : ' The laws may have perished, but, as -a matter of
fact, the army obeys me, and will march as I order it. As
a matter of fact, again, the commanders of the arsenals and
barracks wiU send out their guns at my orders, and the
artillery wiU march through the streets, and, relying upon
this practical power, I wiU not permit you to assign any
^Otljer position to me than that which I choose to take.' "
J^assaUe then concludes : " You see, gentlemen, that a King
who is obeyed by his army and his artillery is part of the
_cpnstitution." Developing his argument in similar fashion,
^e goes on : " A nobility which has influence at Court and upon
the King is also an element in the constitution. — Now let us
suppose that King and nobility agreed in virtue of their full

FERDINAND LASSALLE 53

powers to introduce the mediaeval system of guilds ; for instance, 1
that the calico printer should employ no dyers, and that no I
master in any branch of handicraft should be allowed to have
more than a certain number of workmen ; in other words, that
production upon a large scale should be impossible. What
would be the result ? In such a case the great manufacturers —
men like Borsig, Egels, etc. — ^would close their works, and even
the railway directors would dismiss their workmen. The
whole mass of workmen crjnng for bread would then invade the
streets, incited by the whole of the middle classes, and a war
would break out, in which victory would not inevitably belong
to the army ; and thus you see, gentlemen, that such men as
Borsig, Egels, and great manufacturers in general, are also
elements in the constitution. In virtue of the Government's
need for large monetary resources, the great bankers and the
Stock Exchange in general are likewise elements.

" Let us now suppose that the Government should think well
to issue such a law as exists in Japan, to the effect that if anyone
committed theft, his father should be punished ; we then dis-
cover that general opinion and culture as a whole within certain
limits are also elements in the constitution. Let us further
suppose that the Government should deprive the citizens of less
importance, and the working classes not only of their political
but also of their personal freedom ; that it made them serfs
and slaves; and we can see that in certain extreme cases even
the common man, without the support of the great manu-
facturers, becomes a part of the constitution.

" Having thus seen what the constitution of a country is
— namely, the several forces existing within it, we proceed
to ask what is the relation of these forces to the legal constitu-
tion, and we can easily see how this constitution has been
brought about. The actual conditions of force are reduced
to writing, and are given documentary expression, and when
they have thus been written they are no longer actual conditions
of force, but have also attained legal force, have become legal
institutions, and those who act in opposition to them are
punished."

The explanation concludes with a proof that any change in
the actual conditions of force (the power of the nobility, the

'
J

54 FERDINAND LASSALLE

prosperity and progress of the towns, the relations between the
inhabitants of the capital, and the size of the army) is invariably
accompanied by some corresponding change in the constitution.
When too wide a discrepancy exists between the written and
the actual constitution, and when this discrepancy leads to
oppression, a conflagration occurs in the form of actual revolu-
tion. The conflagration which we proposed as an instance
had occurred in March, 1848, but — and here Lassalle returns
to his old complaint in the speech in his defence delivered in
1849 — the triumphant people, instead of creating a strong
defensive force from the lower classes and the proletariat, and
thus altering the actual situation, were so foohsh as to draw
up in writing a new and powerless constitution, which therefore
proved absolutely useless. " If, gentlemen, you have an
"^pple-tree in your garden, and hang a ticket on it bearing an
inscription, ' This is a fig-tree,' has the tree then become a
fig-tree ? No, and even if you gather together the whole of
your household, or all the inhabitants of the country, and make
them swear loudly and solemnly, ' This is a fig-tree !' the tree
remains what it was, and the following years wiU show that it
will bear apples, and not figs."

" Constitutional questions," concludes Lassalle, " are, there-
fore, in the first instance, not questions of right, but questions
of might. The actual constitution of a country has its existence
only in the actual conditions of force which exist in the country ;
hence written constitutions have value and permanence only
when they accurately express those conditions of force which
exist in practice within a society."

This analysis, incredible as it may seem, was immediately
interpreted by the Liberal newspapers as a declaration that
might should precede right. Even Count Schwerin said in
reference to the subject, amid the applause of the Chambers,
that in the Prussian State right preceded might. Newspaper
after newspaper, in the hope of silencing Lassalle, refused to
accept a short article upon the facts of the case, entitled " Might
and Right," in which he explained the misunderstanding, and
he found himself obliged to publish the article in pamphlet form.
|n it he says with admirable truth and emphasis : " If I had
created the world I should very probably have made an

FERDINAND LASSALLE 55

exception at this point in favour of the wishes of the Volks-
zeitung and of Count Schwerin, and have arranged that right
should precede might. Such an arrangement would be quite
in harmony with my own ethical standpoint and desires.
Unfortunately, however, I have not been entrusted with the
creation of the world, and must therefore decline any responsi-
bility, any praise or blame, for the nature of existing
arrangements." _

He then explains it was not his intention to analyze any
ideal conditions, but to state the facts as they exist, and that
he was not writing a treatise upon ethics, but a work of
historical investigation. The result is, that while right certainly
ought to precede might, might none the less takes precedence
of right without exception and until right can gather sufficient
power behind it to overthrow the might of injustice.

He analyzes the course of development by which the Prussian
Constitution since 1848 had been formed by continual breaches
of right, and says : " What is the meaning, then, of the com-
placent satisfaction with which the Chamber received the
declaration of Count Schwerin, that right precedes might in
the Prussian State ? The statement is nothing more than a
pious expression of hope. Any deeper meaning than this it
could only have for men who were determined to make might
inferior to right. No one in the Prussian State has the right to
speak of ' right ' except the democracy, the old and real
democracy, for that alone has invariably clung to right, and
has refused to humiUate itself by any compromise with I
might." J

The question of the relationship between might and right
was to Lassalle a question of facts and reaUty. His observa-
tions upon this subject are entirely true, and his position is
impregnable. He realized and apprehended better than anyone
else in what cases right is supported by might, and in what
cases it is not, and when also might can become right, and
when it becomes wrong.

It was not merely with reference to practical life, but also
with reference to the "deeper question of constitutional right,
that he examined and appreciated ^the interaction between the
force of the old right which the Conservatives championed.

56 FERDINAND LASSALLE

and the right of the new intellectual force, as represented by
the Radical paiiiies. The old right is an acquired right ; the
new might is the new consciousness of right. What, then, are
the relations of the new right to the acquired right ? The new
consciousness of right will both confer and assume rights, but
how far may it go in this latter respect ? What rights have
been properly acquired and are inviolable ? If aU old rights
have this character, progress is at a standstill, and the past
wiU slay the life of the present. If, on the other hand, no one
can base his position upon an acquired right, the present will
slay the past. Thus we reach the conception of acquired
right with which Lassalle's chief work, " The System of
Acquired Rights," deals.

CHAPTER VI

The task which Lassalle proposed to himself in this work is,
as he observes in the preface, nothing less than an exposition
of the political and social idea which has predominated
throughout the whole of our period. " What is it," he asksT
" that forms the principle inherent in our political and social
struggles ? The conception of acquired right has again
become a point of dispute. In the legal, political, and economic
spheres, the conception of acquired right is the mainspring and
impulse to all further development, and even where legal rights
as related to civil law appeared to be separated from political
rights, they are none the less even more political than political
rights properly so-called, for they form the social element." f

The fact that Lassalle thought it necessary to refer to this
point shows the superficiality, in his opinion, with which the
conception of political right was understood by the leaders
of the Liberal middle classes.

The title-page explains the object of the work as an attempt
to reconcile practical jurisprudence with the system of natural
right. The standpoint adopted by the author in this respect,
when compared with his standpoint in "Heraclitus," shows that
he has made a great advance. He is now less definitely
bound to Hegel. He certainly describes himself as an adherent
of Hegelian principles, nor would any other statement have
been in accordance with truth ; but this does not prevent him
from criticizing with the greatest freedom an important part
of Hegel's system and of his school. It soon becomes obvious
that he is upon the point of introducing a modification which
is indicated in his preface to " Heraclitus." This modification,

57

58 FERDINAND LASSALLE

which Hegel's French disciples afterwards adopted, tends to
change a system of philosophy which dealt more than any
former system with the Unconditional, to a philosophy of the
Relative, and to remodel as an historical system a view of life
which was more metaphysical than any other. The divergence
between this position and that of a thinker who desires to
apply the methods of the experimental sciences to jurispru-
dence is in appearance inconsiderable, but Lassalle's loyalty to
Hegelian dialectic and the tendency of his mind, which was
rather inclined to soar boldly aloft than to advance with
patience and care, and to prefer systems and hypotheses based
upon pure reason, also removes him from the scientific methods
in force at the present day.^

In Lassalle's opinion Hegel had merely indicated the general
logical outline for the work, and as the Hegelian school, with
their usual hesitation to go to the heart of the matter, merely
re-echoed his teaching, constitutional philosophy and practical
jurisprudence remained as widely separated as natural philo-
sophy and natural science. Hegel's philosophy of mind, indeed,
can only be evolved from his system at the price of some
sacrifice of logic. In Hegel's time the term " natural right "
would have been regarded as implying a right existing from
time immemorial, universally valid, and agreeable to reason.
Such an idea was related to positive or historical right, as the
first draft of a general idea is related to its execution in prac-
tice ; and people failed to see that natural right is also a matter
of history and is historical. Thus the fundamental concep-
tions of philosophical jurisprudence were regarded as eternal
and unconditioned and as categories of the logical concept ;
hence Hegel failed to apprehend the nature of historical right,
and retraced it to lack of reason, arbitrary dealing, and force.
But the work of mind in history is ever a process of becoming ;
consequently, in a philosophy of jurisprudence, it is impossible
to speak of the property, the wrong, the family, the right of
succession, the civil society, or the State. On the contrary, it
is necessary to examine the historical conceptions of the Greek,

•• Compare, for instance, with Lassalle's views a small treatise by Giuseppe
Saredo, a high Italian legal authority, " Dell' applicazione del metodo sperimen-
tale alio studio delle scienze civili e giuridiche."

FERDINAND LASSALLE 59

Roman, and Germanic minds, and to develop from thence Greek,
Roman, and Germanic ideas of property, etc. Hegel adopts a
very different position in his philosophy of religion. What would
have been the result if, instead of stud5nng different rehgions,
he had spoken of God, dogma, the future Ufe, etc. ? The
important point in this matter is that the historical, and not
the metaphysical, method should be used. In dealing with
the philosophy of jurisprudence, Hegel's pupils have merely
followed the misleading traces of their master. The most
capable of them, Gans, in his work upon inheritance,
straightway introduced our modem conception of heirship,
and then proceeded to regard this conception as a logical
category of universal validity. Three years later, during a
period of most violent agitation, in his work " Capital and
Labour," LassaUe analyzed the economic conception " capital "
and the legal conception " property," and showed that these
conceptions are by no means eternal and unalterable, but are
of historical growth and beset by historical limitations. Simi-
larly in this work, with reference to all legal ideas, LassaUe
has apphed the same historical point of view in the second
part of the book with special reference to the right of in-
heritance.^

Not less old than law itself is the reluctance to adopt retro-
spective legislation. The question of acquired right and the
question of the retrospective action of law coincide. The
reason of this reluctance is apparently to be found in the
apprehension that man's freedom might be infringed, retro-
spective legal action involving an arbitrary extension of the
idea of responsibility. Proceeding from this fundamental idea,
Lassalle, in divergence from aU previous investigators, succeeds
in defining acquired right in its relation to the retrospective
action of law in the following way :

1. No law may have retrospective force if it affects the
individual only through and in virtue of his voluntary
actions.

2. Any law may have retrospective force if it affects the
individual without the intervention of any such voluntary act,

1 " System of Acquired Rights," i. 68, 70. Cf. " Capital and Labour,"
165, note.

6o FERDINAND LASSALLE

and therefore affects him immediately in respect of attributes
which are involuntary, common to humanity, or transmitted
to him by society, or if it affects him only by producing an
organic change in social institutions.

Lassalle proves in considerable detail that the modern reluct-
ance to adopt retrospective legislation is entirely non-existent
among peoples and at stages of civilization in which no clear
conception has arisen of the human mind as possessing con-
sciousness, freedom, and responsibility. The Chinese pass a
new law denoting as criminal an act which has been previously
performed in entirely good faith in reliance upon existing law,
and punish the act unmercifully as criminal. Even the Jews
in antiquity had not attained to the reverence for acquired
rights which exists among enlightened nations. In the case of
the daughters of Zelophehad (Num. xxvii. i-ii), where the
God of Israel delivers a legal decision. He undoubtedly performs
a piece of retrospective legislation in civil affairs without any
apparent consciousness of the fact ; but, then, He was an eastern
God who had not studied Roman law, and was certainly not
a product of Greek culture and art ; in other words, He was
the God of a nation which had come to no high consciousness
of their humanity, as expressed in personal rights by Rome,
or in perfect beauty by Greece.

Lassalle's logical point of departure is thus primarily the
idea which he expressed in earlier years, in his first speech
before the Court of Assizes — ^the idea that law is a means of
expressing the national consciousness of right, and that the
whole body of legal right is merely a definition secured upon
one occasion by this national consciousness, which is in con-
tinual process of change. Hence every new definition which
proceeds from this national spirit immediately affects the
individual with the same right as preceding changes. The
individual, therefore, can only regard as securely his what he
has upon some one occasion by legal means and by his own
will and action diverted from this stream and so made his
own. The individual cannot stake out a claim within the
territory of right, and declare his independence within that
sphere for all time and against all future and preventive
legislation. The analysis of the whole range of jurisprudence

FERDINAND LASSALLE 6i

in the light of this idea occupies the first volume of the work.
The exposition is clear and most incisive, but hardly ever
polemical. Only with Stahl, the well-known romantic re-
actionary writer, does LassaUe pick a serious quarrel. He
shows that Stahl's doctrine leads him to regard the whole of
the existing social order as inviolable and sacred, as this order,
according to Stahl, together with aU the rights that arise
from it, must form the acquired right of the individual. Stahl
proclaims that no age is ever summoned to sit in judgment
upon the past and to recognize or to destroy the rights which
the past has produced, according to its own views of their
suitabihty. " Certainly," replies Lassalle ; " but just because"/
every age is autonomous, no age can be subject to the domina-
tion of another, and no age is bound to permit the continuance
as right of anything that contradicts its own consciousness oi
right, or seems to it to be wrong." With his usual penetration,
he then discovers Stahl in the act of contradicting himself upon
several occasions, and cannot deny himself the pleasure of
demonstrating that his adversary has been influenced by " the
unavoidable breath of Jacobinism, which every dabbler in
modem philosophy inevitably and even involuntarily receives
from it." _J

The most interesting section of this instructive first volume,
as illuminating the mental growth and the political standpoint
of the author, is undoubtedly that in which LassaUe treats
the question of retrospective legislation with regard to the
great French Revolution. Here the designation, which we have
before mentioned, " revolutionary by principle," appears in a
new light, and remarkable confirmation of his doctrine is
forthcoming. Here at length we see that LassaUe was guilty
of no empty boast, but spoke the bare truth, when he cried to
his judges : " Do you know the real thread of connection
miming through the history of the French Revolution, gentle
men ? I know it to its minutest fibre." ^

The ancients — Cicero, for instance — ^held that everything'
which was regarded as established by the moral consent of a
nation, even if it had been reduced to no legal form, might

1 "System of Acquired Rights," i. 6i, 197, 200-214, 449 ff : "Indirect
Taxation," 116.

62 FERDINAND LASSALLE

be regarded as an element in the national body of rights.
If it became a law, this new law could only be regarded as an
exposition of the content of that body of rights. Hence, in
the opinion of the ancients, such a law could reasonably have a
retrospective effect. Against this doctrine Lassalle emphasizes
the fact that it could only hold good with the men of antiquity,
among whom alone such complete moral unanimity can be Said
to have prevailed. For modem times the claim must be
maintained that only such elements in the universal conscious-
ness of right should lay claim to realization in the form of
law as have already found some form of expression, either
direct or tacit. The question then arises. When can it be
said that such expression has been found, and what does this
conception imply ? The conception obviously implies that
the elements of a nation's legal consciousness need not neces-
sarily be stated in words, but can be just as well realized and
made effective by national action.

The French Convention determined by its law of the 17th
Nivose, in the year II., that the succession to any inheritance
after July 14, 1789, should be subject to the terms of this new
law. During the reaction of Thermidor the regulations
respecting this matter were regarded and stated to be obviously
retrospective. At the same time, it certainly was not the
intention of the Convention to infringe the rule against retro-
spective legislation. The statement of the principles which
the law was to express denied that any retrospective action
took place, because the law merely developed the principles
then proclaimed by a great people, and the further phrase was
added : retrospective force would only begin at the moment
when these limits were overpassed. None the less, as we have
said, this so-caUed retrospective force was afterwards cited
as a proof of the atrocious acts of the French Convention ; but
on July 14, 1789, with the capture of the Bastille, the French
nation had certainly displayed a consciousness of right which
rejected privileges and monopoly rights. It cannot be main-
tained that this action gave rise to any legislation developing
this national consciousness of right to some practically new
form ; but the state of affairs was materially changed when the
content of the new right amounted only to a demand for the

FERDINAND LASSALLE 63

abolition of previously existing privileges. Hence, only such
laws as the Convention passed from this point of view are to
be referred to July 14, 1789. " Thus we see," says LassalleT
" that this philosophic assembly declared its legislation con-
cerning inheritance to contain only the formal declaration of
those principles which the people themselves had proclaimed by
storming the BastiUe, and had thereby established as rights,
and in two ways history has justified the Convention. In
the first place, the principles of hereditary succession, laid
down in the law of Nivose, which were transferred to the
civil code, remained undisputed under the First Empire,
during the Restoration, under the July Monarchy and under
the Second Empire, and have thus most clearly shown that
they were a necessary and integral portion of the conscious-
ness of right that became predominant with the Revolution.
In the second place, aU historians, French or German,
reactionary or revolutionary, whether writing philosophical
works or mere manuals, date the French Revolution from
July 14, 1789."

Apparently, it was not without a sense of inward triumpK^
that Lassalle stated these instructive facts, for they displayed
not only the demonstrated validity of laws which are brought
forth by a revolution, but the no less definite validity of
retrospective legislation, which was conceived as adequately
justified by a reference to " unwritten law," and to a new and
entirely revolutionary consciousness of legal right, expressed
in a piece of forcible or violent action which Lassalle re-
garded as profoundly justified. Very characteristic is the
absence of any reference in his words to the fact that the
Bastille at the time of its capture was almost an empty fortress
used for the confinement of actual criminals, and of any
reference to the much more important fact that the garrison
consisted of brave invalides who were anxious to spare the
assailants, whUe the attacking force was composed of a ruthless
and bloodthirsty street mob. Lassalle regards the capture of
the Bastille only as a typical action, denoting the fall of an
arbitrary despotism.

It should be clearly noted that there is no question here
of defending any popular rising or any retrospective law

64 FERDINAND LASSALLE

issued by authorities temporarily in power, nor is there
any want of a criterion by which revolutions justified upon
Lassalle's principles may be distinguished from unjustifiable
and purposeless risings. Lothar Bucher wrote a colour-
less preface which bears the stamp of his official position
as an introduction to the second edition of bassalle's great
work in 1881. In this he points out the difficulty which any
observer who stands too close to events must feel in deciding
whether at any definite point of time " a people has become
conscious of its rights." He asserts that not every destruction
of a building, though such action be styled t5^ical, is equivalent
to a storming of the BastiUe, with all its consequences. But
these observations are applicable to LassaUe only in the very
slightest degree.

Again, Rodbertus Jagetzow thought he had struck a blow
at Lassalle's doctrine by proposing the question : " How am I
to learn the intentions of the national consciousness of the
present day, and how am I to discover whether a national
consciousness rejects the whole content of previously existing
right, or merely certain forms of that right ?" Only in the
latter case, upon Lassalle's system, can any claim to compensa-
tion exist, and LassaUe was correct when he replied that this
question had not the smallest connection with the doctrine
of retrospective legislation. The question, " What are the
intentions of a national consciousness at the present day, or
what will its intentions hereafter be upon any subject such as
marriage, the State, the monarchy, hunting, mining, news-
papers, or property, is a question concerning the content of
the consciousness of an age to which no answer can possibly
be given by formal rules. The theory of retrospective legisla-
tion can do and is expected to do nothing more than to
establish the logical sense of right. Whatever may be the
content of a national consciousness now or hereafter, the logical
sense of right expresses the consequences which result from
the application of this consciousness to existing conditions. The
content of national consciousness itself must be presupposed as
known.

In thoroughly characteristic style, displa5nng his nature both
as a thinker and a leader, LassaUe writes to Rodbertus in a

FERDINAND LASSALLE 65

private letter under date February 17, 1863 : " You are'
naturally quite right when you say that it is impossible to
discover the intentions of the national consciousness at any one
time either by a decision of the majority or even by a plebiscite.
How do I then discover these intentions ? My opinion simply
is that what you can demonstrate as correct to yourself and
to the age by means of reason, logic, and science, the age will]
inevitably demand."

CHAPTER VII

The second part of Lassalle's great work is exclusively con-
cerned with the law of inheritance, and especially with Roman
law testamentary. The chief object of the book is to
break down the difference between the historical and the
dogmatic treatment of jurisprudence. Hence this portion of
the work is intended to show by a magnificent example how
the dogmatic element in a department of law can only be
understood by a comprehension of its historical meaning — that
is to say, by means of the definite historical position in which
any legal institution may find itself at any one time.

Lassalle now makes the very considerable claim that not
only particular details in the Roman system, but that the
whole of this system of testamentary jurisprudence has been
uncomprehended and misunderstood until his own time, and
has remained an unsolved riddle.

This assertion is based upon an unsatisfactory interpretation
of a dif&cult passage in Gaius concerning the idea of the
familicB emptor. In accordance with his idealistic conceptions
of history, and using Hegel's audacious method as an instru-
ment, Lassalle proposes a theory of Roman testamentary law
which modem science has rejected. The only point with which
I am immediately concerned is to give the reader a full and
true impression of the close and comprehensive thought, of
the penetration and scholarship, with which Lassalle has con-
ceived and developed his main ideas. I then wish to isolate
the purely psychological elements apparent in his method of
treating the subject, and to use his conception of Roman
testamentary law for the purpose of providing the reader with

66

FERDINAND LASSALLE 67

a view of the author's intellectual procedure, and of displaying
the main impulses which determined, unknown to himself,
the manner and object of his investigations. We shall see
that even when he is buried in pandects and commentaries
future systems of evolution or revolution are continuously
before his eyes in the course of his work.

Lassalle brought together a large amount of material to
prove his fundamental idea, which is that an heir in the Roman
sense originally inherited only the intentions, and not the
property, of the dead man. For this reason the objects and
the interests of the Roman law of inheritance, and also its
historical origin, do not belong to the subject of testamentary
jurisprudence, for, according to Lassalle's conception, this
law of inheritance does not imply any conveyance of property,
but a conception transcendental in its nature, which is in
direct contradiction with the natural idea of an heir. The
idea of eternity and of the infinite life of the soul in Chris-
tianity is preceded in history by another idea, the purely
material continuanceof the existence of the subject— theinfinity
of the personal will, which is related to, and can act upon, the
outer world. Quintilian naively says that there seems to be
no other consolation for death except the will which can
persist beyond death. In this passage LassaUe sees a proof
of his central idea that Roman immortality consisted in testa-
mentary disposition.^

A testament must invariably provide for an institutio
heredis, the formal institution of an heir, and any provision
in the testament which simply concerned the division of
property was null and void unless provision were made for the
direct institution of an heir to carry out the wiU of the testator.
Further, this institution was bound to precede aU other pro-
visions, in particular the mention of legacies, and must form
the beginning of the testament ; finally, if the heir died before
entering upon the inheritance, or if he declined it, the whole
testament was usually annulled, and the legacies became
invalid. Hence it is clear that the existence of the heir is
necessary to the existence of the testament, and that it is the
heir whose existence guarantees and provides legal existence
1 This view is supported by Maine, " Ancient Law," 1861, 188, 190.

68 FERDINAND LASSALLE

for the intentions of the testator. In consequence, only when
the intention of the deceased has been transferred to the heirs
as existing after his own death, can his intention be regarded
as still existing, and as securing execution in his testament. If
there be no one to continue the testator's intentions, those
intentions become what they actually are — dead, nuU and void.

Hence the conception of inheritance is bound up with the
continuation in practice of the intentions of the testator. The
interests, therefore, of the testator are concentrated, not upon
the future position of the heir, but upon his future action
and upon his action in accordance with the desires of the
testator. According to Roman ideas, the triumph of the
testator is to secure that the heir should act in accordance
with his wiU ; but as long as the heir is both in possession and
in action — in other words, as long as he receives and takes
over the inheritance — so long is the situation ambiguous ; for
the possibihty always remains open that his own interests
and his own selfish desires, instead of continuing the intentions
of the testator, may absorb or nullify these. There is but one
effective method of neutralizing this possibility — namely, to
give the heir no advantage whatever, and even to place him
in direct opposition to his own selfish interests. The heir who
receives nothing and yet remains an heir, and none the less
acts according to the intentions of the testator — ^the disin-
herited heir, in other words — ^is an irrefragable proof of the fact
that the will of the testator stiU exists by continuance in the
heir. The heir without inheritance is the highest triumph
of these intentions, and the fuUest enjoyment of the continued
existence with which these intentions can provide themselves.

Is this ingenious explanation probable ? Is it conceivable
that such a nation as that of Rome, which even by its language
is distinguished as practical, matter-of-fact, and acquisitive
in a high degree, should have failed to sanctify the property
interests of the individual, and to deify the conception of
possession, and should have developed the conceptions of
inheritance on the basis of a religious idea, conceptions with
which the conveyance of property has nothing whatever to
do ? The thing seems impossible from the very outset, and if
our sources of information are examined, our doubts are but

FERDINAND LASSALLE 69

confirmed. These sources provide no satisfactory explana-
tion. The most important original source, a short statement
in Gains, can be explained in different ways, while at the same
time an important passage in his text, which has only been
preserved to us in one manuscript of Verona, has been badly
mangled by the copyist. The so-called testamentum per ces
et lihram originated in Rome from two earlier forms of testa-
ment. With reference to its employment and the form of its
statement. Gains says that the testator, by means of mancipa-
tion, left his estatfe, a quantity of personal property, according
to the views of time, to the care of a friend, and indicated
to him, the so-called familice emptor, to whom he was to give
portions of the estate, and what each person was to receive.

This mancipation is what LassaUe regards as a cession of
personal authority to the friend, in virtue of which the friend
has fuU disposal of all that was previously subject to this
authority. As a proof that such personal authority is indicated
by the words familia and patrimoniwm, LassaUe quotes the
use of the term patrimonium in the phrase " things which are
outside our patrimonium " ; he understands the phrase to
imply that an object is unable " to fall within the property
sphere of private will."

This remarkable interpretation of the Latin term cannot be
defended. The conception of property includes dependence
upon the will of the possessor ; it is therefore impossible to
speak of the property sphere of private wiU. We may speak of
the sphere of private property or the legal sphere of private will.
To say that objects can come within the legal sphere of private
will is simply 'to say that they can be objects of private pro-
perty, for property rights imply the complete and full legal
dependence of an object upon the will of an individual. The
Latin phrase, " Things which lie without our patrimonium," is
thus not used to denote simple personal authority, but a special '
nature of this authority, property rights.

The central point in Lassalle's theory is the fact that he
regards as the heir the friend to whom the inheritance was
transferred for division, the man whom we should call the
executor. He asserts that Gains himself referred to the
familice emptor as an heir. But the passage in Gaius,

70 FERDINAND LASSALLE

correctly interpreted, has a different meaning. It runs as
follows : " But those two former kinds have now become
incapable of use. Only the kind which is brought about per
CBS et libram has remained in force. It is, indeed, otherwise
constituted than in the days of old, for formerly the familice
emptor — ^in other words, the man who receives the inheritance
from the testator by mancipium — took the place of the heir,
and for that reason the testator indicated to him what he
wished to be given to each man after his death ; but now one
man is appointed heir by the testament, and another, for ap-
pearance' sake, is called in as familice emptor, in imitation of
the old legal custom." It was only a strange mistake in
translation that enabled Lassalle to interpret this passage as
meaning that the familice emptor was regarded as the heir.^

Hence this passage provides no proof that the familice
emptor was originally identical with the heir, nor can this
identity be proved from the testamentary dispositions of
later times, as Lassalle believes, for the reason that a familice
emptor and an heir coexisted. At this time the persons who
were dependent upon the familice emptor could not act as
witnesses, but persons who were dependent upon the heir
could so act. The reason for this, in LassaUe's view, is that
the familice emptor was originally the former heir, whereas
the heir of later days was originally no more than a legatee.
The domestic position of the former, in contrast to that of the
latter, incapacitated him for the position of witness, for the
simple reason that the former was a party to the mancipation,
while the latter was not. So much is obvious from the fact
that in the later form of will by mancipation the household
of the mancipant were unable to act as witnesses. Here the
fundamental idea seems to be that, in the case of a mancipation
will, the witnesses were the representatives of the Roman
people, and that the people could not be represented against

1 " Sane nunc aliter ordinatur quam olim solebat, namque olim familias
emptor, id est, qui a testatore familiam accipiebat maucipio, heredis locum
obtinebat, et ob id ei mandabat testator quid cuiqne post mortem suam
dari vellet ; nunc vero alius hares testamento instituitur, a quo etiam legata
relinquuntur, alius formse gratia propter veteris juris imitationem familise
emptor adhibetur."

Lassalle did not understand the construction alius . . . alius, but connected
alius with heres, and translated, " anothef^heir."

FERDINAND LASSALLE 71

any single individual by those who belonged to his household
and were in his power. Even later, when the familicB emptor
came forward only as a matter of form, the custom was con-
tinued of incapacitating those subject to him from acting as
witnesses.

In other words, the case stands as follows : In early times
the familice emptor received the estate of the testator as his
own property in virtue of the twofold legal process, neither
part of which could be omitted. It was then his business to
distribute the estate among those to whom the testator had
left bequests. He was thus the executor of the testator's
intentions, and not the continuer of those intentions in Lassalle's
sense of the word. He was not an heir ; for the succession of
an heir is founded either upon a will — ^that is to say, upon a
one-sided and revocable appointment on the part of the
testator, or upon law, or upon hereditary tenement. The
position, however, of the familice emptor rests upon none of
these three foundations, and obviously upon neither of the
first two. Nor, again, is he in the position of one who inherits
under a contract, for in that case the heir must come forward to
secure the succession, whilst in virtue of mancipation a families
emptor becomes possessor of the estate without further cere-
mony. Finally, he is not an executor in the modem sense
of the word, but occupies an entirely unique position.

LassaUe explains the circumstance that no one before his
time had adopted the views upon testamentary law which he
formulates, by the fact that previous writers upon Roman
law had made Justinian the starting-point of their researches,
where legal developments are found in their latest form,
instead of going back to their origins. He explains the earlier
history of the law of inheritance as follows : Gains informs us
that a very frequent occurrence in the earlier years of Roman
history was the refusal of the person instituted as an heir to
accept the inheritance, as it was open to every testator to
exhaust the whole of the estate by legacies, and so to leave
the heir nothing but the empty title. To meet this abuse, he
goes on, the Furian law was brought forward about 183 B.C.
This law provided that, with the exception of particular persons,
no legatee should receive more than a thousand asses — a small

72 FERDINAND LASSALLE

amount ; but, continues Gains, even this limitation failed of
its object, as estates continued to be exhausted by legacies.
Hence the Voconian law was passed about 169 B.C., which
provided that no one in the position of a legatee should receive
more than the heir. This law at least provided a certain
prospect that the heir would obtain something. It proved,
however, ineffectual ; for by dividing the estate into a large
number of legacies, it was possible to leave so small a portion
for the heir that he regarded the advantage as far too inadequate
a compensation for the task involved by the whole burden of
the inheritance. In consequence, the Falcidian law was passed
about 40 B.C., which prohibited the bequests of legacies
amounting to more than three-fourths of the estate and secured
to the heir at least one-fourth of the inheritance.

Gains, at whose time, according to Lassalle's view, the old
metaphysical theory of inheritance was no longer understood,
regarded these successive provisions merely as so many efforts
to improve clumsy legislation. Lassalle, however, regarded
these three laws which were passed within a period of 150
years as evidence of a long and weary struggle which the
Roman spirit had fought out with its own inherent views.
This civil war was not carried on, as at one time was supposed,
between the heir and the legatees, but between the testator
and the heir. The legatee is merely the whipping-boy on
whose back the heir delivers the blows intended for the testator.
So much, says Lassalle, is clearly obvious from the nature of
these successive laws. The starting-point is provided by the
Twelve Tables, which place the legatee in the most favourable
position. His position suddenly becomes most unfavourable
in consequence of the Furian law, and is then materially
improved by the Voconian law, under which the legatee can
then receive a fuU half of the estate. The Falcidian law still
further improved his prospects, as a legatee under it could
receive three-fourths of the estate. This development, when
compared with the parallel situation of the heir, which also
became most favourable after the last law, seems inexplicable
if we assume that the struggle was carried on between the
legatee and the heir. LassaUe regards the struggle as entirely
different in nature ; it is the struggle of personal interest and

FERDINAND LASSALLE 73

sound human understanding against the rehgious and transcen-
dental views of Hfe and death which had dominated the whole of
the national spirit. As long as this national spirit in Rome was
left firmly rooted in its foundations and free from attack, the
personal interests of heirs could not initiate any revolt, for
the reason that inheritance represented the most binding and
sacred principle in this national spirit, its idea of immortality.
Only after lapse of long time can the heir venture to declare
as a principle that he desires to receive something, and some-
thing unconditionally for himself, independent of his relations
to the legatee. Such a development was bound to come
about, as sound human reason declines to be shut out of
consideration. The Falcidian law implies a clear recognition
of the fictitious nature of the principle on which the whole
system of inheritance is originally based ; hence with the lex
Falcidia the downfall of the whole Roman system of inheri-
tance definitely begins. Yet even at this point the Roman
national spirit finds a chapel within the temple of testamentary
law in which it can preserve its most sacred object. The lex
Falcidia was promulgated under Augustus, and under the
same Emperor the law appears concerning the fidei commissum
form of inheritance, which opens a new refuge to the testator.
Anyone who is an heir upon the basis of this voluntary fidelity
to the national spirit and its sacred traditions, neither can nor
should make any use of the new influence which the heir could
exert upon the testator by virtue of the preceding law, and
cannot claim the advantage provided by the lex Falcidia.

As long as the sense of Roman nationalism was in existence,
it strove to cling to the truth of the fiction which concerned the
continuance of the testator's intentions and the identity of
intentions between himself and the heir. History during
its course of development stamps the fiction as false ; Roman
nationalism attempts to save its existence, in however
reduced a form. The testament is, therefore, to the Roman
people a cult of the national existence, for it is the highest
form in which the national spirit can appear as operative, and
every act in which the people manifests the public spirit which
pervades, it is worship or is of a religious nature. Hence wills
are made, not only in popular assemblies and in the presence

74 FERDINAND LASSALLE

of the priests, but also in comitia expressly summoned for
purposes purely religious. Thus, the intentions of the Roman,
which during his lifetime were his private affair, became a
matter of public concern after his death. It has often been
said that the Roman testator, in view of his unlimited freedom
of action with reference to the system of intestate succession
as established by law, can be compared with a legislator ;
but this is an under-statement. It was customary in Rome
for the testator to threaten a monetary fine if his tomb were
sold or hired or mortgaged — a regulation inserted not only in
the testament, but also in the inscription on the tombstone,
which was often erected during his lifetime. These fines were
invariably payable to the Vestal Virgins, the high-priests, or
the public chest. A testator was not obliged to repeat this
injunction in his testament. Whence did he acquire the power
of inflicting a fine ? According to the usual conceptions of
Roman testamentary law, it was only the heir that he could
thus threaten, but the penalty is made applicable to the
outside purchaser as well as to the seller. This burial-right has
a twofold nature ; outwardly it is not a formal testament, but
in reality it is practically testamentary ; in other words,
it is a final expression of intentions with reference to
the maintenance of individual personality— an idea most
clearly proceeding from the conception of a testament and
the underlying significance of that conception. The Roman
at death obtains a right which he never possessed during his
life ; death raises him to the glory of a legislator. The dying
man, according to his own ideas and in his own interests,
must thus rise to a legislative power, for he has now to express
his intentions as a permanent, enduring, and definite part of
his environment. They must therefore appear as law. He must,
and he can, assume the attitude of a legislator towards other
persons in law, and can invade their spheres of right, for, com-
pared with the transcendental interest which the spirit of
nationalism feels in him, other persons in law who are merely
private individuals in comparison with him — the dead man —
are of no account. Thus, during the history of the Roman
Empire a transition slowly took place from this metaphysical
conception to the conception of property, and the person con-

FERDINAND LASSALLE 75

tinuing a dead man's intentions is transformed into the heir to
his property, until eventually under Justinian, by the intro-
duction of inheritance sub heneficio inventarii, the heir regards
the acquisition of property as the main point and as the only
point which concerns his relationship to the testator. The
process of detrition here ends, and with it disappears the
national character and the Roman national spirit.^

Such is LassaUe's theory. We have seen that Roman
jurisprudence did not originally recognize any testamentary
executor. However, the need of such an institution had already
been felt, and attempts were made to satisfy it by other
methods. Thus it was possible to make the heir himself an
executor by depriving him of the inheritance while laying upon
him the burden of its administration. The testator had the
right to exhaust the whole of his property in legacies, until this
right was limited by the Furian, the Voconian, and the Falci-
dian laws. The reasons which provoked the Falcidian law
were concerned with political taxation. Under the second
triumvirate inheritances by will were subject to taxation, to
cover the expenses of the war against Sextus Pompeius, and it
was therefore necessary to secure the due execution of testa-
ments, for the legal heirs, who were really nothing more than
executors, often preferred to decline the inheritance, and thus
to nullify the intentions of the testator, for the estate was then
administered as though in case of intestacy, and the legatees
received nothing. Legislation therefore attempted a com-
promise in the interests of those concerned by securing to the
heir a fourth of his inheritance. Thus the testator was less
free than before to dispose of his property by will, but at the
same time the execution of his testament was secured, as the
payment of the sums representing his bequests was now
certain.*

Shortly after Lassalle's " System of Acquired Rights " ap-
peared, Ihering objected to his speculative treatment of Roman
law upon no scientific grounds, but in the name of normal
human intelligence. He deals in a particularly humorous

1 See especially "System of Acquired Rights," ii. 21, 62, 72, 77, 101, 105,
179-184, 233, 486.

2 Hermann Deutsch, " Die Vorlaufer der heutigen TestamentsvoUstrecker
m Romischen Recht," 3-17.

76 FERDINAND LASSALLE

way with the statement that the Roman questions of in-
heritance in no way turned upon the transmission of real
property. From Lassalle's theory he draws the sarcastic
conclusion that Roman testamentary law is a region of specu-
lative thought realized in fact. Everything that it defines or
does not define, contains or does not contain, can be deduced
by philosophical argument, and if not a word concerning the
whole business had been preserved to us, Lassalle could none
the less have discovered it a priori. He illustrates Lassalle's
theory by the following amusing parody : Two baby twins
are left without parents ; one of them dies, and the other
inherits his estate ah intestato. The case may then be assumed
to develop as foUows : The testator, anxious to secure im-
mortality for his intentions or the continuity of them, has, by
a silent act of will, instituted his brother as " the person
continuing the existence of his own will." Having in this
way " overcome mortality, though with the help of the general
will," and casting a thankful glance upon the future executor
of his intentions, who is nestling at his side and performs his
responsibilities through a representative, he gently falls asleep
and returns with a sigh of satisfaction to his cosmic dust.^

As in Lassalle's view the whole Roman system of inheritance
was based upon certain religious and metaphysical theories,
he attempted to carry his foundations as deep as possible, and
for this purpose studied from the philological side the origin
of the conception to which his legal studies had brought him.
To discover this origin, he goes back to the prehistoric age of
the nation. The origin must be religious in character, for
religion invariably preserves a deposit of the earliest recol-
lections of a people. Lassalle then finds that this conception
was intellectually rooted in the ancient worship of the Manes
and Lares. The Manes, or spirits of the departed, were
regarded by the Romans not as the dead or as those who had
passed away, but as those who remained. The idea of the
Manes as remaining is seen in the word manere, to remain ;
the correctness or incorrectness of the derivation is of no
account, as it was the derivation current in antiquity. The

1 Ihering, " Scherz und Ernst in der Jurisprudenz," 32 ; and " Geist
des Romischen Rechts," ii. 2, 533 et seq. ; and iii. i, 247 and 295.

FERDINAND LASSALLE T]

Manes are and remain what they were — spiritual individuahties,
so far agreeing with the Roman conception of individuahty ;
persons able to will, with objects of will in the outer world.
The Romans did not originally burn a dead man, but buried
him in his dwelling upon the scene where his will had been
exerted, and only after the custom of cremation had been
introduced was the Lararium, or house chapel, regarded as the
abode of these spirits. The Lares thus become protecting
gods, the watchers and guardians of the house, and so long
as the same family continues to inhabit the house they are
family divinities, but they are bound to the house and not to
the family. They are not ancestral but local divinities, and
do not remain in possession of the family if the family removes.
The Lares are those in power, the powerful ones (potentes).
The Lar protects the place of his abode, but not as a household
god. He guards the house only as the particular sphere
subject to his power. Obviously, therefore, his relations with
a new owner will not be of the most friendly nature, as an
incomer is an intruder within his sphere of power. For the
purpose of appeasing the Lar and the goddess Mania, human
sacrifice was customary in Rome at the earliest times. The
new owner of a house sacrificed his own child upon the altar
to avoid damage to the family. As early as the period of the
Kings this worship was forbidden in Rome. Tarquinius, who
was an Etruscan, and therefore closely connected with religion,
reintroduced the worship. Junius Brutus put an end to it
by ordering that the oracle should be satisfied by cutting off
garlic and poppy heads ; in other words, this barbarous custom,
which originated in the Pelasgic period, was suppressed by
the Repubhc. The Pelasgic spirit becomes the Roman spirit.
The true rehgion of the Romans is law. Religion is but a pre-
historic point of departure, and is therefore preserved by the
Roman as an element alien to himself and his national spirit,
but as an element which none the less fills his mind with
reverential awe, as being the foundation of his nationalism.
While aU other peoples have their rehgious ceremonies per-
formed by their own priests, the Roman entrusts them to a
foreign nation, and this nation was the nation of his origin —
the Etruscans. The Haruspices, who demand the death of

78 FERDINAND LASSAI^LE

Curtius as an atonement to the Manes, are of Etruscan origin.
Etruscan also was the art of augury. The reconciliation be-
tween the dead and the hving, between the Lar and the new
owner, which is brought about by the Roman national spirit,
or rather is not brought about, but exists, took place within
the region of law. The appointment of a testamentary heir
is the outward sign of this reconciliation. Such an heir repre-
sents the continued existence of the deceased, and undertakes
to continue the deceased's will. But a deeper and more
essential necessity now brings it about that law is forced to
reflect the inherent breach and contradiction between the
dead and the living, which was a fundamental element in
religion. Thus upon the basis of a reconciliation already
effected there arises once more the old hostility between the
Lar as a permanent force of will and his successor, in the form
of the mutual antagonism between the testator and the heir.
This dissension was bound to reappear, for the same national
spirit which became obvious at the lower or religious stage of
development now asserts itself when a higher stage has been
reached. All previous developments fall into a new and wider
perspective in the light of this relationship, and so far as the
sense of Roman nationalism is concerned, its development in
the sphere of law now only becomes entirely clear. All nations
have laws, for all nations give practical expression to their
intellectual conceptions. What the Roman has here brought
to reality is the conception of personal will as unending ; in
other words, he has expressed the idea which is the basis of
all law. Hence it is the law, and not any one form of law,
which thus becomes the real expression of his being. The
transition from the original Pelasgic people to the Greeks and
Romans is the transition of the infinite ego, from the essential
imaginativeness of religion to the higher form of art among the
Greeks and to the higher form of law among the Romans.
Behind these two intellectual forms religion remains in the
case of Greece as the form of art, in the case of Rome as the
religious and transcendental foundation of law,

The weak side of this great poetical and philosophical ex-
planation of legal ideas as originating from religious concep-
tions seems to lie in the parallel between the household god

FERDINAND LASSALLE 79

and the new owner on the one hand, and between the testator
and the heir upon the other hand. Closer critical examination
in this case can find nothing but indications and no real
parallel. The household god did originally demand human
sacrifice, but on this we cannot lay stress, for all gods originally
did the same. This is too common a relation to be ex-
plained as an early state of antagonism to the heir, in which
the Roman testator of the theory is said to have existed.

After this ingenious investigation of the nature of Roman
hereditary law, LassaUe turns his eyes to the Germanic system
of inheritance, and thus reaches the main point of the work,
which is in no respect open to the objections above stated.
His conclusion is that not a word in his explanation of Roman
law has any application to the whoUy different system of
inheritance in force among the Germanic races. In this latter
case it is a fundamental rule that on the death of the testator
the inheritance immediately passes to the heir. When the
Germans appeared in history, their only institution of the kind
was intestacy, the right of inheritance when no will has been
made ; and there is a vast difference between intestate in-
heritance, which in Rome was only an emergency means
employed when the testator had not pronounced his individual
intentions, and intestacy as the sole form of inheritance,
excluding any divergency in the wiU of the testator. The
Germanic form of intestate inheritance is thus that which the
Roman form has been wrongly styled — simple family right.
The moral identity of persons resting upon the tie of blood
forms in this case the conception of the family. If an anti-
thetical form of statement is desired, we might say that Roman
hereditary right stands to the Germanic system as wiU stands
to love. The unity between the testator and the heir is in this
case undoubtedly identity of blood. The property, according
to his ideas, is regarded as the common family possession. It
is acquired by the heir as soon as he is begotten, and his
acquisition becomes practical upon the death of the testator.
Thus the rights of a possessor to his property are confined to
his lifetime. Hence testamentary dispositions are unknown
among the Germanic peoples. When they come inxontact with
the Romans, they certainly borrow from them the custom of

8o FERDINAND LASSALLE

making wills in a purely formal manner, without any com-
prehension whatever of the underlying meaning. They regard
the Roman testament as what it is in its outward material
form — a means of bequeathing property. As such they use it
because it flatters their sense of individual freedom, but they
understand its real meaning so little that for a long time they
regard a testamentary bequest as equivalent to a presentation
between living men, proceeding from the idea that a transaction
in property cannot possibly be conducted when one of the
parties to the business is dead. This erroneous view can be
described as logical. It is a mistake which contains more truth
than its rectification upon that basis.

Even when the legal character of the Roman testament has
been reconstructed within the Germanic system of inheritance,
it is divergent from those fundamental conceptions in which
alone its inner meaning and its possibility of existence were
rooted. It is transferred purely in outward form to an en-
vironment of ideas with which it is in every respect contra-
dictory, and in one respect inherently incompatible. The
testamentary law of the Germanic nations is thus a vast
mistake, a theoretical impossibility, and this is a statement
based upon no arbitrary and personal criticism of the testa-
mentary system, but upon practical criticism supported by
history itself.

The great mistake of modem writers has been to suppose
that the testament is part of natural law. The Roman, how-
ever, was very far removed from regarding the capacity to
make a will as natural to the individual, and therefore as part
of natural right. On the contrary, he was so impressed with
the natural incapacity of the individual to exert his intentions
after his death that the conjunction of two intentions, the
amalgamation of the dead man's desires with those of one
living who made the desires of the dead man his own, was
thought necessary in order that the deceased's testament
might reach execution. The whole system of the Roman law
of inheritance indicates a mighty effort to secure that a man's
desires shall not become inoperative with his death, but shall
be maintained for ever by the maintenance of his personality.
The system might thus be described with truth as the dogma

FERDINAND LASSALLE 8i

of immortality in Roman form. A right has been interpreted
as a natural right which never existed anywhere, either in
Roman or Germanic law, in any people or at any time.

Here again Lassalle adds his laudation of the philosophical
and legal insight displayed by the French Revolution : .^

" Only now are we able clearly and intelligibly to under-
stand how it was that at a time when, as Hegel says, the world
was placed upon its head — ^namely, reason — ^the French
National Convention abolished all possibility of bequeathing
property in a direct line by the law of March 7 to 10, 1793.
The reaction against aU empirical tradition gave rise to a
return of the national spirit to its own vital substance, and
deprived it of an element of Latinism. This reaction, however,
did not imply immediate retirement to the forests of Germany.
An heir by intestacy obtained no right to the property of a
testator during his life, and he could only inherit when any
property remained after death ; but he could not claim that
any part of his property should be transmitted by inheritance.
The idea of individual freedom as against the Germanic system
of law had developed so far that the owner had now become
the sole and unconditional owner. Property was thus no longer
family property as such, the common possession of which is only
dissolved by death. For this purpose it would be necessary
that, even during the lifetime of the possessor, the intestacy heir
should have a right limiting the possessor's powers of alienation.
Property, on the contrary, was now purely individual property ;
yet the owner who has children can only give his property
away within certain limits during his own lifetime. Upon
what principle, then, is intestate succession here based ? As
we have seen, it is not based upon any claim to the property
peculiar to the heir by intestacy, as such a claim must also have
been in existence during the testator's lifetime. As, again, the
testator cannot make testamentary dispositions, such rights
cannot be based upon his presumed will. It is therefore clear
that the claim rests upon nothing else than the general will
of the State, regulating questions of bequest. It rests,
indeed, upon the family, as it qualifies the family only for
inheritance, but not upon the family as inheriting by its own
right, nor upon the family as called to inherit by the presumed

6

82

FERDINAND LASSALLE

ui

1

will of the deceased ; but upon the family as a State institu-
tion. Even when testamentary freedom exists within a quanti-
tative Umit, as is for the most part the case with testamentary
rights at the present day, the character of the testamentary
right is that of the development which we have described up
to the point when this quotite disponibU is involved. Much as
we may be surprised or shocked by the fact, the fact remains,
when truthfully examined, that the majority of modem systems
of inheritance — such, for instance, as the Code Napoleon — ^in
their fundamental nature and up to the point where the
quotite disponible is involved, simply represent a regulation of
testamentary dispositions by society."

~"The great philosophers of earlier times, when considering
the law of inheritance, did not go to work historically like
Lassalle. The conception of hereditary right, as based upon
the moral identity of the members of a family which finds
outward expression in the necessarily common possession
of property, is due to Hegel. He, however, was mistaken,
and regarded as the idea of testamentary law in general
what was merely the particular historical idea peculiar
to Germanic law. Thus he only succeeded in producing a
theory of intestate succession, and was unable to arrive at
any permanent theory of the testament. The only great
philosopher, apart from Hegel, who attempted the question is
Leibniz, whose penetrating genius was upon the point of
developing the idea of Roman hereditary law by a process of
deduction, notwithstanding his entire want of historical
knowledge. He says : " Testaments would have had no im-
"portance whatever as law if the soul were not immortal, but
as the dead still live in reality, they remain masters of their
property, and the heirs which they leave behind must be con-
sidered as their representatives."^

"^ But while in Roman testamentary law a testator continues
his existence in his heir, who is himself the continuation in life
of the deceased, this idea cannot be considered as supported
by the spirit of Christianity, which believes that the individual

1 " Testamenta vero mero jure nullius essent momenti, nisi anima esset
immortalis ; sed quia mortui revera adhuc vivunt, ideo manent domini rerum ;
quos vero heredes reliquerunt concipiendi sunt ut procuratores in rem suam."

FERDINAND LASSALLE 83

continues his life in a totally different position and under quite
different conditions than in his finite will, which he abandons
when he abandons all mortality. If it is true that the testa-
ment depends for its significance upon the presupposition of
personal immortality, this only holds good when inunortaJity
is regarded as it was in ancient Rome ; for in the Christian
sense it is the soul that is immortal, and this possesses no
earthly property ; hence it cannot remain the permanent
master of property in any relationship of agreement with its
representative. Finally, the institution of the testament
could only be preserved by this means at the cost of destrojnng
the whole conception of property. As Adam was the first
testator, so he would be the only possessor.^

It has been by no means easy to compress within the space
of a few paragraphs an exposition which occupies more than
six hundred pages in LassaUe's concentrated style. Never-
theless I hope that I have given the reader a correct and
adequate conception of the characteristics and leading ideas
contained in the second portion of the work. The ultimate
issue of it is obviously the view directly expressed by LassaUe
in one passage of the book, that " a stricter conception of the
theory of the State is the source from which all prpgress that
has been made in this century has been and will be derived." 2

Beyond this statement there is no syllable or further hinT"
in this direction. The book is strictly confined to theoretical
considerations, and not a line of it indicates a desire to
translate the theory into practice. More than this, the book,
as a scholarly, historical, and philosophical investigation,
not only contains no single hint in the direction of practice,
but throughout the rest of his life, even during the most
passionate agitation and the most violent persecution of his
party by middle-class organs of opinion, never did LassaUe
indicate by any single sign that he would care to rouse an
agitation in support of a practical system corresponding to
his theory. In private life LassaUe was often wanting in

1 C/. " System of Acquired Rights," ii. 400-604 ; and also Von Sybil's
criticism of LassaUe's chief work in " Doctrines of Modern Socialism and
Communism" ("Lectures and Essays," 81 et seq.) ; and F. A. Lange's reply in
his book, " The Labour Problem," 399.

2 " System of Acquired Rights," i. 47.

84 FERDINAND LASSALLE

proper self-command, but in public life he was so entirely
master of himself, and was of so eminently practical a dis-
position, that he invariably devoted his efforts only to the
object immediately before him. Often and obstinately did he
call for agitation to attain such immediate objects as direct
and universal franchise, and often did he speak on behalf
of workmen's industrial enterprises to be supported by the
State, the institution of " productive unions " based upon
State credit. But in aU his pamphlet writings not a line or a
syllable touches upon the question of inheritance rights.
Lothar Bucher concludes the preface to his edition of the
" System of Acquired Rights " with a quotation from Lessing,
which he says he provoked LassaUe to utter one evening during
a party at his house : " At all times men have lived who were
fable to form a correct estimate of the future, but were unable
to await its arrival. They desired that movements for which
history requires the space of centuries should come to maturity
within the short space of their own lives."
"""The reader has seen that these words are applicable to no
one so little as to Lassalle, and in no respect can they be
applied to him in a less degree than as the author of the
" System of Acquired Rights."

It was in the year 1861 that he published this book, which
is his chief work, and was dedicated to his father on the latter' s
sixtieth birthday. He repeatedly expressed his intention 1 of
making this work the foundation-stone of a connected system
covering the whole range of mental philosophy, which he
1^' would perhaps complete some day, provided," he adds very
j characteristically, " that the period of leisure for theorizing
never ceases for us Germans." In the year 1859 ^^ ^^^
sent his " Heraclitus " into the world with regrets that the
struggles of practical life had postponed its publication for
so many years. Only two years later his chief work upon
law is accompanied with a further regret that the prevailing
political peace provided him with leisure enough to elaborate
this book. Deeply as he was able to bury himself in theories,
his desires and ambitions were directed to the work and
influence of practical life.

^ Preface ; cf. ii. 586, note.

CHAPTER VIII

To avoid interrupting the conjiection between certain ideas
propounded by LassaUe, we have followed his work down to
the year 1861. A retrospective glance now becomes necessary.
Berlin had become impossible as a residence for LassaUe
in consequence of his participation in the Revolution of 1848.
His life in Diisseldorf was a kind of forced exile from the
capital of his country, where he must have wished to live for
many reasons. Ten years of his life were spent on the Rhine,
and his house and purse during that period were ever
open to political refugees or to impoverished democrats and
workmen. Many years later, in one of his agitation speeches
to the Rhenish workers, he reminded them of this period of
his life Avith the following striking words : " You know meT
For ten years I have lived among the working-classes of the
Rhine. With you I spent the period of revolution and the
time of the white reign of terror in the fifties. As your address
truly says, you have seen me in both of these movements.
You know what house was the undaunted asylum of demo-
cratic propaganda, the asylum dear to the boldest and most
determined supporters of our party, notwithstanding the white
terror of Hinckeldey and Westphalen, notwithstanding the wild
lawlessness of that time, even to the last moment of my stay
in the Rhine Provinces." ^ At the same time LassaUe was
yearning for Berlin, and his wishes were known to his friends.
Dressed as a coachman he entered the capital in April, 1857,
after long years of absence, and attempted from his hiding-
place to secure permission through his patrons to remain.
No one exerted himself so zealously on his behalf as the old

1 LassaUe, " The Festivals, the Press, and the Meeting of Frankfort Deputies. ' '
Hinckeldey, chief of the Prussian police ; Westphalen, Prussian minister.

85

86 FERDINAND LASSALLE

and influential Alexander von Humboldt, whose house had
ever been open to him. The authorities had little or no
objection to Lassalle's residence in the capital, but the in-
fluential family of Countess Hatzfeldt desired at any cost to
prevent this lady from living in the neighbourhood of her
relations. It was regarded as inevitable that she would take
up her abode in Lassalle's house, and attempts were therefore
made to keep her at a distance by preventing any arrangement
of the kind. The Prussian authorities thus employed against
Lassalle a procedure precisely opposite to that which the
Austrian authorities had pursued against Byron in Italy, when
the whole family of the Guiccioli were banished from Ravenna
because they were convinced that Byron would follow the
young Countess.

One evening Alexander von Humboldt happened to be sitting
near Hinckeldey at a large dinner-party, and urged him to
give LassaUe permission to reside in Berlin. A member of the
company who heard the conversation told me that he had
plainly heard Hinckeldey 's answer : " Readily, so far as I
am concerned ; I have no objection to him. It is a matter
of total indifference to me, but the King will not hear of it."
" Is that the only objection ?" replied Humboldt. " I will
undertake to persuade the King." He kept his word, and
Lassalle remained in Berlin.

Berlin, the town to which he belonged, in which he had
studied philology in his youth and had absorbed the ideas of
Young Germany, provided precisely the environment which
he required in maturity ; the town of work, the great factory
in which ideas are forged and sharpened, the great smithy in
which plans are welded into action, the great storehouse in
which learning is gathered and from whence it is dissemi-
nated, the point of contact from which Germany's spirit sends
forth its illuminating beams ! So indeed the anagram runs :

Berolinum — lumen orbi !

Berlin ! Populated by inhabitants of mixed blood whose
intellects have gained the clear and decisive imprint of France
from the descendants of refugee Huguenots, and whose wit
has been so polished by well-to-do and well-bred Jewish immi-

FERDINAND LASSALLE 87

grants that it glitters in a thousand facets ! Berlin, the city
of Prussia over which the dominant spirit of Frederick still
hovers, even as his bronze figure on horseback towers above
the flowering linden-trees ! Berlin, the town of Frederick,
with a trace of Voltaire's smile still playing in the air !

In 1859 Berlin was not the great city with millions of in-
habitants which, as Germany's capital, it has since become. It
was a town of moderate size, in which an individual of dis-
tinguished powers was not lost in the crowd. It possessed
neither new and splendid public buildings, nor many of the
fine new streets in the west ; but if its architecture was poor,
its natural beauties were rich. The nearer part of the Thier-
garten had not yet been sacrificed to the necessities of city
extension. LassaUe settled in the pretty quarter in the
neighbourhood of the Thiergarten. From 1858 onwards he
lived at No. 13, in the fine and beautiful Bellevuestrasse,
a street in which there are no shops, with splendid rows of
chestnut-trees which seemed to be connected with the Thier-
garten, into which it opens. At the end of the year before his
death he moved house to another No. 13, in the Potsdamer-
strasse hard by.

Berlin was still the town of Frederick William IV. — the town,
that is, that had revolted against him. Beyond, on the other
side of the Thiergarten, from In den Zelten, the revolution of
1848 had proceeded. Its spirit was subjugated and repressed,
but not dead. Its weak breath still inspired the whole world
of scholarship and the whole of the upper middle-classes, in
the most distinguished houses of which all the leaders of the
yet undivided opposition met. All the opponents of the pre-
vailing and antiquated system met as allies in these circles,
careless of their different shades of opinion, held intercourse
with the leaders of science and art, and formed the good society
of that time.

LassaUe, with his brilliant personality, his reputation as a
scholar, and his obvious power of conquest, of inspiring en-
thusiasm and of domination, found little difficulty in obtaining
a footing in these circles. There were indeed salons, including
many of aristocratic character, which were closed to the "cash-
box thief," but access to houses thus limited can have had no

88 FERDINAND LASSALLE

great value for him. With such an income as that of which
Lassalle could then dispose, a citizen in Berlin was not only
comfortable, but almost rich. In his house, which was
decorated with elaborate splendour, according to the ideas
and conditions of that age, he enjoyed the pleasure of gathering
an ever-increasing circle of highly educated, clever, and cultured
men, free from prejudice, many of whom were far-famed, and
of beautiful, vivacious women, in many cases celebrated for
their wit and talent ; and among the aristocracy of mind were
to be found numerous members of the aristocracy of birth.
LassaUe kept a French cook, and did not care to drink wine
at less than twenty or thirty marks a bottle. " Why should
we leave all the good wine for WiUiam the Just ?" he was
accustomed to say ; and the numerous parties which he gave
in Berlin were enjoyed no less on account of the admirable
food and wines than they were famous for the perfection of
their social tone and their cheerfulness, and also for the un-
restrained and ideal freedom of conversation which visitors to
the house involuntarily adopted.

At his house were to be met, not only men of the generation
to which Lassalle himself belonged, but also many distinguished
members of the earlier generation, men whose experiences,
studies, works, and deeds, made their conversation delightful.
There was old Vamhagen, whose acquaintance Lassalle had
made through Heine ; there was Boeckh, born in 1785, who
had been the first to define classical philology as the knowledge
of antiquity in its totality and as the comprehensive repro-
duction of ancient culture, a man who was able to fulfil the
demands laid down by his own definition. It was Boeckh
who replied, when the beautiful wife of Professor Diderici
exclaimed at a party, " Lassalle is the handsomest man that I
have ever seen " : " The handsomest man ! I can offer no
opinion upon that, but he is the cleverest and most learned
man that I have ever met."^

Forster, the historian, was there, bom in 1791, the poet and
connoisseur who had ridden in his youth by the side of Komer
among Lutzow's volunteers. In 1817 he had been brought
before a court-martial to answer for his treatise upon the

1 Helene von Rackowitza, " My Relations to Ferdinand LassaUe," p. 46.

FERDINAND LASSALLE 89

constitution of Prussia, and since then had been living in
private hfe with a distinguished reputation as an author.
There was old General von Pfuel, bom in 1780, with whom
Lassalle was in constant intercourse for many years, Minister
of War and Prime Minister in September, 1848. He had entered
the army in 1797, had travelled through Europe with his
friend Heinrich von Kleist, had gone through the campaign
as a member of Bliicher's General Staff in 1809, had entered
the Austrian service after the peace, and the Russian service
in 1812, and had commanded the advance guard in the Battle
of Ligny in 1815. It was there that he mounted all his
drummers and sent them forward against the enemy drum-
ming loudly, so that the enemy imagined a powerful force
was in their neighbourhood, and did not venture upon any
movement until Pfuel was relieved by reinforcements. In
1815 he was in command in Paris, and in 1847 in Berlin ; in
1848 he had suppressed the revolt in Vienna. He was a man
who had seen history made, and had helped to make it.

In LassaUe's house were also to be found men of his own
age — scholars, authors, lawyers, energetic democrats, and men
of the Progressive party, most of whom are still living, and have
remained faithful to their youthful convictions, with the ex-
ception of Lothar Bucher, who has changed his views.

Lassalle found favour with many women. He desired to
make an impression, and it is a fact that he was often success-
ful. In his relations with the other sex he was, so to speak,
desirous of conquest, inconstant, carried away only momen-
tarily, rather anxious for the triumph of prHe than amenable
to the influence of the one woman. The earliest and deepest
feelings of his life had been devoted to Countess Hatzfeldt.
To her he remained faithful, because on this point he remained
faithful only to himself. The Countess had beUeved in him
when he was a nobody, had placed her fate in his hands when
he was young, unknown, and powerless ; nor could he ever
abandon the woman who had been the first to say to him, " I
believe in you." But his feelings were those of friendship,
gratitude, and pride, with, perhaps, at most, a few grains of
love at the outset. At a later time he certainly had love-
affairs, but was at no time deeply in love, while he was loved

90 FERDINAND LASSALLE

as such outwardly imposing and dominant men usually are.
Women who are admitted to their intimacy are often the most
brilliant members of their circle, as a rule the most unimagi-
natively gifted, and their powers are generally obvious at the
first glance. Who does not know the remarkable ring of female
forms which invariably surrounds genius and becomes a small
and exclusive world of strangely composed elements ? I
doubt whether Lassalle regarded women with other emotions
than those aroused by a somewhat crude sense of beauty, or
with other desires than to find wit and intellect and to receive
admiration. Between 1870 and 1880 I occasionally met old
ladies in Germany who were said to have been in close
intimacy with Lassalle. To the eyes of a younger genera-
tion these ladies seemed in no way particularly impressive.
There was a sharpness, a dry intelligence, and a certain virility
in all of them, and they spoke of Lassalle with the quiet
admiration which is customary in such cases.

Meanwhile, in the winter of 1858 and 1859, those Berlin
families who had taken Lassalle to themselves were put to a
somewhat severe test. His " motherly friend," the Countess
Hatzfeldt, arrived in Berlin, as was to be expected, settled
there permanently, and proceeded to exert her old rights over
her former protector. Her existence had been almost for-
gotten in Berlin. Male conversation knew her only in carica-
ture, and though tolerance was then the order of the day,
the respectable middle-class families would have been glad to
exclude her ; but on this point LassaUe was inexorable. The
reception and recognition of the Countess was regarded by
him as a cabinet question. He declinedintercourse with those
who would not know her, and, when confronted with this
alternative, hesitation disappeared, for society neither could
nor would be deprived of him. The much-discussed lady was
found to be generally pleasant and amiable, and her attitude
towards Lassalle was that of a mother. She acted as hostess
at his table, though they did not live in the same house. She
never betrayed any trace of jealousy, however zealous his
attentions to other younger or more beautiful ladies. Though
now fifty-four years of age, her splendid figure and her beautiful
shoulders, which she was careful not to hide, gained her such

FERDINAND LASSALLE 91

enthusiastic admirers as Marx and Riistow ; nor was she
indifferent to the admiration which she aroused. The smallest
knowledge of the world will enable us to understand that the
proximity of this lady and the irregular and ambiguous nature
of her maternal attitude towards Lassalle considerably in-
jured his social prospects. With her painted eyebrows and
lips, with all the art and industry which she expended upon
the preservation of her beauty, she brought a note of false
and almost ridiculous colour into his life and his house-
hold.

Lassalle's life in Berlin was divided between study and dis-
traction. Public attention did not lose sight of him, and he
had certainly no objection to publicity. Rumours of his
extraordinary whims and of the luxurious entertainments
which he gave spread abroad in Berlin. Distorted accounts
of them even appeared in the descriptions given of him by the
daily Press.

Thus, in the collection of " Contemporaries," a story may be
found to the effect that he was accustomed to intoxicate his
guests with hashish and to play similar senseless tricks. The
incident which gave rise to this story occurred only once,
when Lassalle and a few of his guests, as one of them has told
me, amused themselves by sitting in the smoking-room, which
was fitted up in Turkish style, wearing Turkish dresses which
he had brought home from the East, and trpng the effects of
hashish. Lassalle's conduct at this time also caused a scandal
of no importance, which none the less roused some painful
feelings. A gentleman whose eyes had been sharpened by
jealousy, conceived himself insulted by Lassalle and boxed
his ears at a large party when he was with a lady who was
certainly more interested in Lassalle than in the gentleman
concerned. Lassalle, who had invariably asserted that, as a
member of the Democratic party, he would not fight a duel, had
shown strong disapproval of the duel between Twesten and
Manteuffel ; and though he was a good fencer and a good shot,
he possessed sufficient self-command to decline the ensuing
challenge. The next day, however, his insulter with a friend
waited for Lassalle as he was taking his usual walk, and came
upon him in the neighbourhood of the Brandenburger Thor ;

92 FERDINAND LASSALLE

but Lassalle gave the two men so sound a thrashing as obliged
them to abandon their warlike intentions. This trivial and
unpleasant incident is of interest because it shows what a
height of passion Lassalle must afterwards have reached
when he sent the double challenge which became the
cause of his death. On the occasion of this attack Forster
presented him with a Robespierre stick, the handle of which
was a model of the Bastile in wrought gold. The transference
of such a stick to such hands was a remarkable coincidence.

Though Lassalle was strong enough when bodily exertion
was in question, his health was by no means invariably good.
As his first speech before the Court of Assizes proves, he
had suffered from a troublesome and chronic malady from
earliest youth, and when he was in the prime of life his health
had been undermined. He was therefore obliged to undergo
long and wearisome courses of cure.

WhUe undergoing some such course he was once forced to
keep his room for some weeks. Ernst Dohm, from whom I
have this information, one day received a note in which
Lassalle asked him to come and see him. " I want to show you
something with regard to which I require your help and advice.
You will probably laugh at me, but please come." My infor-
mant found Lassalle at work on the drama " Franz von
Sickingen." The first act was completed. The astonishment
of the friend may be understood at the idea of LassaUe, who
was certainly the most unpoetical of men, trpng his powers
as a poet. " I know what you will say," said Lassalle hastily.
" I know as well as you that I am no poet ; but Lessing
also wrote dramas with the full consciousness that he was not
a poet. I have no wish to compare myself with Lessing, but
I do not see why I should not try my hand," etc. He required
the help of Dohm for details of stage management, which he
did not understand, and upon matters of metre, in which
Dohm was an expert. Dohm began by advising Lassalle to
write in prose, nor could he have given better advice. Even
if the prose had been oratorical, it would have been excellent
of its kind ; while Lassalle's incapacity to produce a harmonious
verse in correct metre is quite astonishing. It cannot be
said that he had no ear, for he read metrical translations of the

FERDINAND LASSALLE 93

Greek poets aloud with good taste, and enjoyed them, but his
own lines form very amusing evidence of the uncertainty of
his sense of metre. Iambics of six feet appear in his drama,
and produce a most harsh and discordant effect among the
five-foot lines, while the emphasis in these halting verses is left
to fall where it may. " The scientific redecorator " sounded
to Lassalle a good iambic line in five feet. None the less, or,
more correctly, precisely on this account, Lassalle could not
be induced to give up verse as his chosen form, as it coincided
with the theories of tragedy which he had adopted from the
Greeks and from Hegel. Thus " Franz von Sickingen " received
its present form. As a work of art the drama possesses, apart
from its interesting plot, practically every defect of form
that a poetical work can have. It abounds with lapses from
good taste ; the scenes drag painfully, and are without central
point or climax ; naturally the work would never bear pro-
duction on the stage. At the same time it is impossible to
assert that this drama, which is fuU to the brim with Lassalle's
glowing energy, produces an unpoetical effect. The deep
political insight into an age which was stirred to great move-
ments, and the stormy pathos which thence proceeds, certainly
have their poetical value. As we have it, this drama is cer-
tainly a most valuable gold-mine for anyone who wishes to
study the mental life of its author. Whichever of Lassalle's
works we may have at hand, the drama rises continually to
recollection, for it contains everything ; it displays the strongly
marked characteristics of Lassalle's natural and individual
personahty, and it provides manifold and numerous indica-
tions which enable us to understand how he formed his ideas
of the world, and how his views of history, of foreign and
domestic pohtics, arose. The production is necessarily not a
uniform whole, and must not therefore be considered as pro-
viding a complete description of Lassalle ; but for purposes of
illustration it can be used at every point.

We now glance at the personal description of Lassalle which
the work contains. I propose to quote the most important
passages, giving a prose version of the poetry, which is often
dreadfully poor, and quoting only a few significant passages in
metrical form.

94 FERDINAND LASSALLE

Ulrich von Hutten describes his miserable life since his
excommunication by the Pope. He relates how Town Comicils,
in fear of difficulties with the Pope or the Princes, have not
ventured to grant him a refuge within their walls. " Still,"
he says, " if they had offered me shelter I would have promised
to remain quiet," but

I cannot hold my peace ; I cannot buy,
At price of silence, safety for myself ;
The spirit drives me on to testify :
I cannot stanch the mighty stream within.

" The general need," he says, " rises higher, so that everyone
confines himself in his house, as in a time of plague, or steals
noiselessly by anyone he meets. All the more am I driven
by the power of the Spirit to oppose this devastation and to
attack it the more vigorously, the more menacing its appearance.
Oh, that I had a thousand tongues ! With every one would
I now cry aloud to the country. I would rather wander from
village to village like a hunted animal than keep silent and
abandon my vocation for truth-teUing. Praise me not for
it, Franciscus ; many have blamed me bitterly for it.

And yet, when I perpend, I do not deem
Censure nor praise to be my rightful meed ;
A heart of ruth was set within my breast
Which feels the general woe ; the common pain
Stirs me more deeply than the heart of man
Is wont to feel : how can I help it, sir ?
'Twas set within me !

He describes the attitude of his friends. Some are de-
lighted to see him again, but many shun him in the cowardice
of their hearts. " Some openly declared that I was a burden
to them ; others would not so openly admit it, but I felt it
none the less. Others, again, who had been consoled by my
voice in times of trouble, whose sheet-anchor I had been in
many a storm, told me that they would gladly continue as
my friends in secret, but could not be seen with me again in
public, as they could not afford to quarrel entirely with Rome.

To sufier this from friends,
This, sir, from friends, to whom I did devote
Myself with ready service and with love
Unbounded, this is hard !

Ulrich is warmly received by Franz von Sickingen, and wins
the love of his daughter Marie, to whom he replies : " Before

FERDINAND LASSALLE 95

you surrender yourself to this love, Marie, learn the nature of
the curse which drives me on. It is the most powerful and
the most inevitable of aU that God, in the anger of His love,
can cast upon mortal head. For ever the old story remains
true. When an abyss yawned wide in Rome, and plague and
destruction threatened the State, the oracles said that the gods
could only be appeased if the most precious thing that the
State possessed were cast into the gulf ; and then on horseback,
decked in ftdl martial array, Curtius sprang into the abyss,
devoting himself to the gods of the lower world. The best
men must leap into the open jaws of a vengeful age, and only
over their bodies will the abyss close."

Franz thinks as Ulrich does, and as Lassalle also thinks.
He says : " We owe our Hves to those great purposes for
accomphshment of which generations are sent into the world
as workmen. I have done what I could. I feel relieved and
happy like one who has honourably paid his debt."

But of aU the utterances in the piece there is no better or
more complete characterization of Lassalle's mental life than
the following, which shows his condition when his powers were
strained to the utmost amid threatening dangers, and his
strength of wiU was derived from an inexhaustible source
within him. At this point he attains real poetic power, for
here he has felt so deeply that the words rise from these
depths in lyrical form. The difference between an artist in
language and a poet consists in the fact that the rhetorician has
others before his eyes while the Ij^ic poet is alone with himself ;
and LassaUe is alone with himself when he utters the following
outcry :

Look thou not earthwards, Balthazar, look up !

Only in danger's hour do we men learn

All that a man may be. Then shrink away

The pale and coward fears that, earthly born.

Would fetter him to earth. From out the wreck

Of well-schemed counsels and the overthrow

Of vain devices, rises to its height

His spirit pure, untrammelled, undismayed.

Then to the infinite almighty will

That sleeps within him doth he turn for strength.

And with closed eyes he drinks vitality.

New inspiration from himself, and stakes

His life and fortunes on a single cast ;

Then springs to action, casting care aside,

And strikes the blow which, like the lightning flash.

Shall change the face of all material things.

96 FERDINAND LASSALLE

These words, in my opinion, display the real and the ideal
Lassalle as he was in his most characteristic moments, and
surely at such times he was indeed himself. What result can
be gained in the case of great minds by counting all the hours
in which they were not truly themselves and judging them
thereby ? How much time have they not been forced to
concede to their bodily wants and the claims and distractions
of daily life ? How many hours have they not wasted in
illness, sleep, personal needs, and the claims of others upon
their attention and sympathy ? And all that may be said of
these hours definitely lost for the mental life, may be said
almost as entirely of the similar periods in their inward life
absorbed byuncontrolled passions, restless ambition, voluptuous-
ness, or weakness. Can we not forget, and ought we not,
as far as possible, to forget these moments when we wish to
know what the individual was in the depths of his heart, and is
it right or sensible to dwell continually upon the weaknesses
of a great soul ? In any case, it will be understood that the
artist who insists upon laying no less weight upon the negative
than upon the positive characteristics is not likely to produce
a picture of the man, whatever else he may make, for it is
certain that no one is capable of painting a portrait if he
attempts to represent the original as he might have been in all
situations, and if he has not a certain ideal of-the personality in
question before his eyes. The important point is not idealiza-
tion, but the power of seeing, with a keen eye for reality this
ideal figure in its essential expression and activity, or, in other
words, the person in his main characteristics as he revealed him-
self more or less completely to his contemporaries ; and such an
ideal picture of his nature Lassalle has given in those lines.

The play also contains a premonition of his sudden death.
Marie asks Ulrich, when she sees him despondent with regard
to his future, whether he does not believe in some higher Pro-
vidence which defends the cause of good. He replies :

The universe indeed may build thereon,
Wrapped in its own mysterious purposes,
Advancing ever to its mighty goal,
It wanders not from its appointed path.
« • * « »

Each single man doth build upon the force
Of chance, which, like a powder-mine, explodes,
And hurls his shattered fragments high in air.

FERDINAND LASSALLE 97'

These words contain a true and bitter philosophy of hfe ; a
philosophy with truth and consolation for a nation, with truth
and bitterness for the individual, but with greatest truth for
those who, like Lassalle, dig their mines and storm barricades
that have been undermined.

Any student of the writer's personality will feel that these
almost autobiographical features of the play are closely con-
nected with those revealed by Lassalle's fundamental views of
history and politics. Even in his speech before the Court of
Assizes Lassalle had described how the inward movement of
men's minds really determines the course of historical develop-
ment, and cannot be subjugated by measures which can only
affect the outward manifestation of feeling : " Long before]
barricades can be raised in the outer world, the citizen in thel
world of mind must have dug the pit which will swallow up.i
the forms of government." In conformity with this idea
Franz von Sickingen tells the Emperor Karl, in words of
much importance, that he should not overestimate his own
power, which " can only accelerate, but cannot retard, can
only modify, but cannot suppress." The principles of Lassalle's
historical faith are here seen transformed into a political
principle. Every theoretical conviction immediately assumed
practical form in his case. It was upon this conviction that a
definite and irresistible influence runs through history that he
based his dislike to the petty arts of diplomacy, to half-measures,
and to dissembling of any kind. When Karl wishes to negotiate
with the reformation, Franz replies : " There can be no negotia-
tion with truth ; you might as weU attempt to negotiate with
the fiery pillar which went before the people of Israel." After-
wards, when Franz simunons a levy of his troops in the neigh-
bourhood of the town of Treves, with the object of secretly
collecting an army which he can use as a trump-card in his
struggle against the other Princes, Balthasar, the keen-sighted
pohtician of the piece, tells him the foolishness of this policy.
" Whom are you deceiving ?" he asks. " Not your enemies ; for
however much a man may misrepresent himself, his enemies
wiU always suspect his thoughts and desires. The vital
instinct in a threatened man becomes speedily suspicious of the
intentions of any who threaten him with destruction. There-

7

98 FERDINAND LASSALLE

fore you have not deceived the Princes ; with infaUible instinct
they see in you the enemy of their order, and put no credence
in the story of this petty feud. Only your friends have you
carefully deceived and fooled, for they trusted your word.
To them this feud implied only the petty possibility which
you represented it to be, and they do not support you. Now,
if you wish to break loose, it were better for you to rise openly
against the Emperor Karl, to inscribe the reformation of
Church and State broad and wide upon your standard ; better
that, in virtue of the rightful character of your object, you
should proclaim yourself Emperor of this realm, and unchain
the fettered forces of the nation ; better this than play hide-
and-seek with your friends without deceiving a single member
of your enemies.

Oh, thou art not the first, nor shalt thou be
The last, who practised cunning in affairs
Of moment, to the loss of his own life.
For in the market-place of history,
Where only by thy harness and thy arms
The motley throng shall know thee for thyself.
There is no reason in disguise. — Put on.
And boldly wear the colours of thy flag,
Yea, wrap thyself therein from head to foot.
Then, in the shock of conflict wilt thou prove
The vigour and the power given by truth.
Wilt stand or fall, thyself in all thy might.
To fall is not the worst ; but overthrow
With strength unconquered, power unimpaired.
This is the worst that heroes can endure.

The political views expressed in this speech are those which
Lassalle maintained and followed throughout his later life.
These views he continually urged upon the Progressives at the
time when this party, during its struggle with the Government,
fondly imagined that the Ministry could be induced by continual
importunity to concede its faithfulness to the Constitution and
therefore to prove it. " You wish," he cries out," to hoodwink
the Government ; but all real success in life and history is only
to be obtained by real reform and remodification, and not by
hoodwinking." When Bismarck came to power, and the air was
full of curses against him, Lassalle's views immediately enabled
him to see in Bismarck the coming man, and to predict directly
what Bismarck would do. Accused of high treason on the
charge that he wished to overthrow the Constitution by his

FERDINAND LASSALLE 99

agitation in favour of universal suffrage, he said to his judges^
" Well, gentlemen, though I am but a simple individual, I '
can tell you that I will not only overthrow the Constitution,
but shall perhaps have done so within the space of a year !
Possibly in less than a year universal suffrage will be granted.
Bold games, gentlemen, can be played with cards thrown on
the table. The strongest diplomacy is that which does not
require to surround its calculations with any secrecy because
they have been founded upon iron necessity, and I therefore
teU you in this solemn place that in less than a year, perhaps,
Herr von Bismarck wiU have played the part of Robert Peel,
and direct and universal suffrage will be granted."

As is weU known, Bismarck fulfilled this prophecy, after the
war with Austria, with reference to the newly-formed North-
German Federation, and afterwards to the German Empire.

We have now seen the general political principles which this
drama contains — principles deeply characteristic of its author.
This is not the place to dwell upon the specially German nature
of its pohcy. I wiU only observe that that policy is now in force
to an unhmited extent — the policy of passionate opposition
to all petty Princes and to the principle of petty States.
" The breath of history," says Franz, " cannot pass through
such tiny particles." Of similar character is the deep exaspera-
tion at the retention of priestly rule, with its benumbing effect
upon the people, while the immediate object proposed as a
remedy is a Protestant Emperor at the head of the German
Empire.

In the autimm of i860, while Lassalle was staying at Aix-la-
ChapeUe to take a course of the waters for his malady, he
made the acquaintance of the young Russian lady who in 1878
revealed to the world in three languages the fact that Lassalle
had wooed her and had been rejected. The edition in which
LassaUe's letters were pubhshed in their original language,
French, bore the title " Une Page d' Amour de Ferdinand
LassaUe. Recit — Correspondance — Confessions." So far as
we can judge this incident from the matter published, it is a
strong proof of LassaUe's weakness of judgment where women
were concerned. After a few days' acquaintanceship with the
father and the daughter in Aix-la-Chapelle, he seems to have

100 FERDINAND LASSALLE

conceived the idea of marrying the young lady. In the French
text she is stated to have been twenty years younger than he,
or fifteen years of age, while the Russian text gives her age
as nineteen. We may safely conclude that she was young,
and, though she was far from beautiful, and by no means
wealthy or distinguished, she seems to have been a lively and
enthusiastic character. To her Lassalle offered his hand and
heart with astonishing precipitation.

|..r^The most original feature in LassaUe's autobiographical
love-letters is the circumstance that in them he details his dis-
advantages, uninterruptedly and with the utmost care relates
everything which could produce disinclination to a imion with
himself, and concludes by asking the girl whether, in spite of
all these defects, she is bold enough to unite her fate with his.
She can bring him no dowry, but he states that this is a matter
of total indifference to him, not because he is too simple
to know the value of money in this world ; for he admits with
the greatest openness that he would perhaps have married a
woman even if he had not loved her, provided that she brought
him a dowry of three or four mUlion thalers, for so large an
amount is in itself a power which he could have used for
artistic, scientific, or political purposes. But as things are,
he is in love with her, can look only at herself, and dismiss
pecuniary matters from his mind. He tells her the amount
of his income, which would in the course of time increase
by about three thousand thalers yearly, and informs her that
she will not be able to live on this sum as she might have been
accustomed to live in Russia on her father's estates (which
had long before been sold), but that she would be forced to
undergo some privations. He further adds that she must not
expect that he will ever add a single halfpenny to the
amount of his income. His work is purely intellectual, and
it is entirely against his principles to write for money, which
he calls " the most unworthy and unnatural of aU proceedings."
This is the attitude of intellectual exclusiveness which Bjnron
also adopted in his youth, but speedily abandoned. Lassalle's
hatred of journalism induced him to confuse justifiable literary
business with the trade of writing for pay where the writer
is obliged to deny or even to combat his own convictions, a

FERDINAND LASSALLE lOi

phenomenon of daily occurrence. But as things were at that
time in Germany, a man with such capacities as Lassalle
could gain nothing worth mentioning by his pen unless he
held a definite position as a journalist ; and though Lassalle
felt no scruples in basing his economic existence upon the
income derived from the Hatzfeldt property, he none the less
had such a horror of journalism that he regarded it as im-
possible under any circumstances to increase his income by
literary work.

The lady has attempted to preserve her anonymity. Her
name was at that time Sophie Solnzew, and is now Arendt, of
Simferopol, where she is lady superior of an asylum. Her
father was a Russian official, deeply in debt, the Vice-Govemor
of Witebsk, and the family had a bad reputation for many
reasons. It is clear that the Russian lady had succeeded in
impressing Lassalle with the idea that she was of royal blood.
Those about her knew that she derived her origin from no less
an ancestor than the ancient Vladimir who introduced Chris-
tianity into Russia ; but the derivation was based only upon
similarity of name, and not upon any genealogical tree.
Vladimir received from the people the additional name of
Solnze (the sun), the addition of " w " to which produces
Solnzew ; no derivation could be simpler. The lady was far
from noble, and was herself obliged to admit that her father
was not acquainted with any language but his own — a most
unusual circumstance among the higher classes in Russia.
How the father was able to excite Lassalle's admiration to the
high degree betokened by the letters is quite inexpUcable, as
the two men were unable to converse. The letters are un-
doubtedly genuine. Their tone and style are entirely Lassalle's,
and even the solecisms which they contain are some evidence
of their genuineness, as they are mistakes which could only
be committed by a German writing French. But it is im-
possible to discover the contents of the letters which are said
to have been lost, or what omissions, alterations, and so forth
may have been made. Equally impossible is it to decide how
much coquetry and what overtures the lady employed ; her
own account represents her as encircled with a halo of iimo-
cence, and therefore it is hopeless to gain any clear idea of the

102 FERDINAND LASSALLE

character of this intimacy. Sophie Sohizew shortly afterwards
made several attempts, which remained fruitless, to make a
name for herself as an actress and a singer. The part which
she played to win Lassalle's attention seems to have been that
of a young and enthusiastic disciple, whose life and thoughts
were devoted to the welfare of the poor in her own country.
The letters show that Lassalle's infatuation disappeared as
rapidly as it had arisen. It was but a transitory whim, which
left no trace behind it. The only certain fact is that Lassalle's
choice upon this first occasion, as afterwards, fell upon an
object hardly worthy of him. It is also noteworthy that the
two girls whom he desired to marry were actresses of moderate
ability.^

1 trom Russia I have received a considerable amount of infornaation
concerning the lady who edited the letters. In the light of this information
it seems very doubtful that her description gives an accurate account of the
intimacy between Lassalle and herself. I have seen two photographs of
her, one taken in early youth and one at a later date.

It is noteworthy that the Russian and French edition are entirely dis-
crepant, wherever she speaks in her own name. Many circumstances which
in other respects bear the stamp of truth are given in the Russian edition,
though the author has seen good to withhold them from her non-Russian
readers. Conversely, in the Russian edition a passage from Lassalle's long
letter to her is left out immediately after his declaration : " I will begin by
saying that I will not marry you unless I am completely cured of my illness."
The omission runs as follows : " For you need a man of full bodily vigour and
strength, as I was a few months ago." The reason for the omission is clear.

The real cause why Lassalle's proposals were rejected is not plain. The
lady's sudden attack of homesickness, her yearning desire to devote herself
to the education of Russian peasant children and the wish to teach, which she
asserted of herself in the Russian edition, are hardly more credible than her
royal origin. Did the father think the match too unsafe ? Was he afraid
of losing his office if his daughter married Lassalle ? Did he in return show
unusual friendliness to his daughter's lover ? How are we to explain this
outburst of admiration on the part of Lassalle : " What I admire as much
as the generosity and delicacy of your sentiments is your account of your
father's attitude. He is a man above all that I have seen in my life ; indeed,
he is prodigious ! What a man he is !"

In the social democratic newspaper, the Vorwaris of September 25, 1878,
the following statement is to be found : " Although doubts were felt on our
side also at first concerning the genuineness of the said letters, it afterwards
appeared — and Countess Hatzfeldt supported the statement — that the letters
were written by Lassalle himself."

No such evidence on the part of the Countess has been published, but it
can easily be seen that such a statement in no way guarantees the genuineness
of the letters in any particular point, and still less their completeness.

The answer by the head of the firm of Brockhaus to one of my friends,
whom I asked to put a few questions to him as the publisher of the letters,
runs as follows : " On the other hand, I can return an equally definite negative
to the second question, whether we have felt any doubts concerning the
authenticity of the letters since their publication. We had no doubts as to
their authenticity previously, either upon internal or external evidence,

FERDINAND LASSALLE 103

otherwise we should not have undertaken their publication. Since that time
the originals of the letters have, in part at least, come before our eyes, and
have convinced us that they are in Lassalle's well-known handwriting."

It is very remarkable that the firm of Brockhaus should have undertaken
the edition without previously seeing the original letters and testing their
genuineness by experts, and it is still more remarkable that this firm should
only have succeeded in seeing a part of them since that time, apparently
after these questions had induced them to make inquiries. The reason cannot
have been any fear that the firm might betray the name of the editor, for
this name had been communicated to the firm as a business secret, as Herr
Brockhaus expressly states in the above-mentioned letter.

CHAPTER IX

Precisely at the moment when Lassalle sent his " Franz von
Sickingen " into the world he was i;nduced, for the first and last
time in his life, to expound, under the cloak of anonymity,
against his usual practice, his views concerning the foreign
policy to be followed by Prussia. War with Austria had been
declared. Europe was shaken by a great wave of national
feeling, and the national liberal middle-class in Prussia were
excited, and had lost their bearings. They were calling for
war upon Louis Napoleon, to punish his attack upon Austria,
which it was thought should be supported at any price as a
land of German nationality. The righteousness of Italy's
cause and the political interests of Prussia were lightly aban-
doned in favour of an evil policy of sentimentality. This state
of things induced LassaUe to cast upon the world his pamphlet
entitled " The Itahan War and Prussia's Task : A Voice from
the Democracy." Here he shows first that the democracy
could not trample upon the principle of free nationalities,
unless it broke with its own programme. He then explains
that it would be foolish to allow mere hatred of Napoleon III.
to dictate an attack against him at a point when he had
undertaken, no matter for what reason, an enterprise which
must and would be most dangerous to himself. He then
proceeded to show that Napoleon was even then tottering,
that his Councils were divided and distracted, that, allied
to Victor Emmanuel and supporting the Pope, he was
fighting for national freedom in order to strengthen his
own despotism. In consequence, he was not nearly so dan-
gerous to the democracy as Austria, for Austria was then

104

FERDINAND LASSALLE 105

" a thoroughly firm, consistent and consequently reactionary
principle." Eventually he strikes the point by clearly
demonstrating that the political results of the Italian war could
only be to the advantage of Prussia and Germany. The
reason was that the defeat of Austria would compensate for
the obstacles which stood in the way of German unity, the
obstacles upon which the revolution of 1848 and the German
efforts for unity had so miserably made shipwreck. To
what purpose had the revolution of that time dissolved the
German Federation, which, with strange simplicity, the people
regarded as the cause of disruption ? This movement did
not remove the real and inherent cause of disruption— namely,
the balance of power existing between the two great German
States. Division was due, not to a defective Constitution, but
to the actual conditions of power. The Italian war, assuming
that France was victorious, would inevitably deal the first blow_
overthrowing the balance of power between the States. " On
the day when Austria is destroytsd as a State of the German
Federation the colours upon the toll-gates of Bavaria, Wtirtem-
berg, and the other countries will pale." On that day German
tmity was founded and secured for Lassalle, and with prophetic
insight of surprising depth, which was reaUy derived from his
profound understanding of all existing conditions, Lassalle pro-
ceeds to prophesy, undisturbed by the very divergent dreams and
inclinations of the national spirit, unmoved by the forebodings
and menaces of opposition newspapers, and states everything
that would come, and, indeed, has come, to pass : that France
would annex Savoy and Nizza, and that Italy, against Napo-
leon's wish, would become an independent State. Involved
in the usual German prejudices towards Denmark, he demands
in the name of the principle of nationality that Prussia should
declare war against Denmark, and annex Slesvig and Hol-
stein ; that she should then exclude Austria from the German
Federation, and finish her work by the foundation of the
German Empire.

When the peace of Villafranca had been concluded, Lassalle
undertook a journey to Italy, stayed with Garibaldi at Caprera
for several days, and is said to have attempted to persuade
him to undertake a freebooting expedition in Austrian terri-

io6 FERDINAND LASSALLE

tory, with a view to forwarding German unity by this means.
To accompHsh something for his own country akin to the
achievements of Garibaldi for his Fatherland was, strangely
enough, one of the dreams for the future which Lassalle per-
haps entertained in moments of hope. For the present, when
calm had descended upon the political world, he retired to his
study, and elaborated his " System of Acquired Rights," with
which, in 1861, he had completed two great works of theoretical
speculation. He was now in the prime of life, at the age of
thirty-six, and a spectator by necessity of the few events pro-
ceeding in the outer world. It was a year before Bismarck
took up his post as Minister of Foreign Affairs, and the field
of foreign policy lay fallow. The social problem which filled
the mind of the young scholar in preference to any political
question had disappeared from pubhc discussion in Germany
since 1849 ; the old democratic party had ceased to exist.
With the enthusiasm which distinguished Lassalle in every-
thing that he undertook, he now penetrated more deeply into
the complications of political economy with which he had been
occupied from his earliest youth. Only by the thorough study
of this subject, which appealed to the practical disposition" of
his temperament, was he able to lay the coping-stone upon a
series of scientific investigations, the starting-point of which
lay in the metaphysics of a remote antiquity, and which opened
a deep-cut road through history and philosophy to politics and
statistics of the most modem character.

With fierce impatience, he saw superficial and officious
charlatans persuading public opinion to tinker with the great
social question. He saw honourable, but unscientific and un-
important people attempting to satisfy the crying necessities
of the moment with the most inadequate and often the most
mischievous measures. Deep sympathy was burning in his
heart, and capacities yet undeveloped lay dormant within
him. Though a bom public speaker, it was now more than
ten years since he had spoken. He was provided with all the
gifts necessary for dealing with the case before him — a con-
fident bearing, presence of mind, determination, the power of
leadership, and a rare capacity for organization. Yet, with a
world of unsolved problems before him, he was obliged to fold

FERDINAND LASSALLE 107

his hands and rest. He had attempted to arouse those in
power by his words, and perhaps for a moment he had hoped
to see Prussia stirred to action, and to accomplish by the
methods which he had indicated that which he regarded as the
task and inevitable object of his country. He had attempted,
fl&ctere superos, to move those in high places, but his voice had
been drowned amid the outcries of many others. His social
position and his past precluded for ever any possibility that
he might himself attain to power, and thus perform something
to forward his own ideas and the welfare of the people. Thus
the thought must have continually recurred to him that it
might be possible to organize and to prepare for political
action the masses who had been excluded from pohtics for the
last twelve years. Much might be done by working from below.
As the line in Virgil runs, " If I cannot move the gods, I will
stir the lower world to uproar."

' Then came the period of political struggle in Prussia. The
dispute concerning military organization placed the Govern-
ment and the Chamber in deadly opposition, and the majority
thought that the result would be a war, with absolutism or
democracy as the stakes. For a moment Lassalle seems to
have hoped that the middle classes would take energetic action
through their representatives. In 1861 several members of the
Liberal party, in conjunction with the Democratic party,
which had reappeared after the election of Waldeck in Decem-
ber, i860, had coalesced, and formed the Progressive party.
LassaUe approached the Committee of this newly-founded
party with a request to support his candidature, but his rejec-
tion, and the attitude of the Chamber upon the whole matter,
finally convinced him that the middle class had ceased to be
a force in politics. Their conservative interests inevitably led
them to prefer the loss of their freedom rather than to call
in the dreaded fourth estate for the protection of it. Thus
the working classes once more became a power ; they alone
had no reactionary interests, but were by nature the supporters
of national freedom. For a Government which found itself in
a life-and-death struggle with the middle classes, no other
resource remained, in Lassalle's opinion, than to appeal to the
workmen as a class. Lassalle was entirely excluded from aU

io8 FERDINAND LASSALLE

immediate influence upon the Government, and therefore upon
the development of society in the State. He stood upon the
farther side of the great gulf formed by the obscurantism of
the petty nobility and revolutionary Radicalism. But Lassalle
was by no means excluded from exerting influence indirectly,
if he were able to avoid creating unnecessary enemies for him-
self by attacking the Monarchy in general, or the reigning
d57nasty, or the Government, or national sentiment, or religion,
or hereditary right, and could raise the so-called fourth class
from its political impotence, and rouse it to a struggle properly
conducted by lawful means, for the purpose of securing social
and pohtical equivalence (not equahty) with the other classes.
This seemed no impossible purpose. No wonder, therefore, if
Lassalle, pondering like AchiUes in his tent, mentally repeated
to himself for nights and days the burden of Virgil's line :

" Flectere si nequeo superos, Acheronta movebo."

PART II

LASSALLE AS AN AGITATOR

It was as an agitator that Lassalle came forth from his tent.
The word seems to have been made to describe him. An
agitator in the fuU sense of the word is a man who has the
power to inspire dead masses with the life of his spirit, and
simultaneously to vivify and to lead them. The agitator's art
is to electrify and to inform with one and the same shock, and
for this purpose supreme will is no less necessary than supreme
intellectual power. An agitator must be simultaneously an
orator, a writer, a guerilla chief, and a general : he must appear,
now here, now there, make his influence felt at once over
many scattered points, and yet keep all the strings of action
well in hand. But for intentional and sudden action of this
kind, electrifying by unexpected shocks, Lassalle had ever been
destined. What was the chief requirement for such a destiny ?
In every case strength of wiU, and strength of wiU to him was
life. The expression of will at sudden moments, yet continu-
ously, was needed, and this was his calling. I say his calling,
for strength of wiU describes his inmost nature. At the first
glance it seems as if Lassalle's life had hitherto shown but
scanty traces of those characteristic and unconscious elements
in a man's nature which go to compose what is known as his
calling. He belongs rather to those who choose than to those
who are called. A chance occurrence meets him on his way ;
he chooses to pursue it with the whole passion of his soul, and
thus makes it an actual necessity for himself, but such occur-
rences cannot be regarded as necessities imposed by Nature.

109

no FERDINAND LASSALLE

It was by chance that Lassalle became a lawyer, in order to
help Countess Hatzfeldt, and spent nearly ten years of his life
upon a department of learning which was not his profession.
For years he devoted himself to the most difficult problems of
classical philology, but never made the study of classical
antiquity his special province. Upon occasion he was a poet ;
he investigated modem and ancient law from the standpoint
of theoretical jurisprudence, but in none of these cases do we
feel that he was obeying a definite call. He selects an object,
and pursues it to the end. But ultimately he has no desire to be
a learned jurist, or a dramatic author, or a classical philologist,
or a practical solicitor. Hence the observation of F. A. Lange
concerning Lassalle is profoundly appropriate, when he says
" that the legal matter contained in his chief work has been
elaborated with extraordinary ingenuity, but none the less was
elaborated merely for the purpose of this particular achieve-
ment."^ It is impossible to characterize in better terms an
object arbitrarily chosen by an act of will, as distinguished
from objects imposed by definite caU ; but, as we have already
observed, the truth is that Lassalle's will was in itself a call.
Lassalle's acts of will invariably betray something of the
agitator in their nature, taking the term " agitator " in its
widest and fundamental meaning, and not in the ordinary
sense. The concept agitare, in contrast with agere (to act),
implies the constant pursuit of new points of departure — the
repeated, restless, energetic and unchecked desire for further
action. The agitation which he carried on in public was but
the outward sign of the uninterrupted mental agitation in
which his will existed. This inward tumult was his life, and
became his death. Only in his will did he find full life, as
Goethe, by his own confession, found life only in the creations
of his intellect, and it was this will which made him invincible
in practice — that is to say, when he directed himself to great
and important objects ; but, considered abstractly, in other
words, when his will subordinated everything to the one object
of gaining his desire, his will became his fate, his curse, and
eventually his death. This will was his strength as long as it
repelled or overpowered the desires, temptations, impulses, or

* F. A. Lange, " The Labour Problem," 248.

FERDINAND LASSALLE iii

distractions which rose around him, and might prove in the
youthful mind so many obstacles to the studies and plans
which he proposed. This will became his misfortune when it
was stirred to passion by resistance in the course of his last
love-affair, and eventually destroyed love, reason, the sense of
moderation and proportion, and some of the best impulses of
the mind. But for the moment this will raised its own memorial
by its restless work of creation.

CHAPTER I

The years 1862 to 1864, the last two years of Lassalle's life,
embrace the whole of that part of his work which has made
his name known throughout Europe. He almost seems to
have concentrated the exertions of ten years within these two,
and what he performed in this space of time is astonishing.
Between March, 1862, and June, 1864, he wrote no less than
twenty works, three or four of which, both in their extent and
their contents, may be considered as books, and most of which,
in spite of their brevity and the popularity of their style,
contain a wealth of thought, and are written with a scientific
regard for logic which very few great books display.^

Apart from this, at the same time he delivered numerous
speeches, was constantly negotiating with deputations of work-
men, emerged from the entanglements of some ten political
lawsuits, founded the General Union of German Workmen,
carried on an enormous correspondence, and organized the
conduct of the Union. He seems to have had some premonition
of his approaching death, which led him to put forth almost
supernatural exertions.

The most remarkable criticism of Lassalle's general activity

1 The order of his writings is as follows :

1862. " Herr Julian Schmidt, the Historian of Literature," " Constitutional
Theory,'' " The Workmen's Programme," " Fichte's Philosophy," " Science
and the Working Classes," " Criminal Trial, the Court of Second Instance."

1863. "Indirect Taxation," "Might and Right," "Criminal Trial, the
Court of Third Instance," " Open Letter of Reply,'' " The Working-Class
Problem," "The Workmen's Handbook," " The Festivals, the Press, the
Frankfort Deputies' Meeting," " To the Workmen of Berlin."

1864. "Herr Bastiat-Schultze von DeUtzsch ; or. Capital and Labour,"
" Prosecution for High Treason," " Reply to a Criticism," " Speech at
Ronsdorf," " Criminal Trial on June 27."

113 8

114 FERDINAND LASSALLE

during this period, which was offered after his death, is the
accusation that his work is lacliing in originahty. This state-
ment is based either upon misunderstanding or upon an in-
adequate knowledge of the writings which are criticized.
During his Hfetime his enemies boldly denied the truth of the
historical facts and the economic laws which he asserted.
After his death they adopted an opposite form of procedure,
and repeatedly emphasized " astonishing lack of originality,"
as characteristic of the evidence which he adduced, the truth of
which is now indisputable. But so far as the economic facts
are concerned to which Lassalle continually returns in this
period of his life, he by no means proclaims himself as their
discoverer, but, on the contrary, passionately asserts that
they are truths long before recognized by science. Statements
which have passed from handbook to handbook for centuries
have been made the bases from which his conclusions were
drawn, and are treated by his opponents as inventions of his
own. He never reproaches his adversaries with the fact that
they shut their eyes to his discoveries, but with the incredible
ignorance, as he considered it, which they displayed when they
accused him of making new and unheard-of assertions {e.g.,
his arguments concerning indirect taxation).^ No scholar has
yet ventured to complain that the author of the " System of
Acquired Rights " was lacking in scientific independence and
originality. With regard to questions of pure political economy,
or, more correctly, with regard to the great theoretical ques-
tions concerning the fundamental points of contact between
political economy and law, there is but one earlier thinker of
importance, to whom Lassalle, and Marx in an equal degree,
owes a distinct debt. This was Rodbertus Jagetzow, whom
Adolf Wagner has called the Ricardo of economic Socialism.
That the existence of this debt is in no way derogatory to
Lassalle as a scientific thinker is obvious, and is in addition
stated by Wagner. With regard to the points upon which
Rodbertus and Lassalle differed in their conclusions, the

T" ' " Scientific men have shouted themselves hoarse for centuries, and their
cries have at length reached the ears of the Government. One state counsel
and one court of justice have remained unmoved by the general outcry,
have stopped their ears with wax as Odysseus stopped his ears to the Siren's
song, and for this reason I am to go to prison ! How unreasonable I "

'"J^ Indirect Taxation," 95).

FERDINAND LASSALLE 115

above-mentioned distinguished economist, who is still alive,
proclaims his preference for the latter.

The theoretical foundations upon which Lassalle's agitation
was based are not entirely characteristic of him, though the
manner of their development is characteristic enough, but in
this respect he claims no honours which were not duly his.
His main point of view was that generally adopted by the
German democracy, properly so called, of 1848. This demo-
cracy, which must not be confused with the opposition con-
stitutional party, called itself sometimes Socialist and some-
times Communist. The manifesto of the Communist party,
issued anonymously, but composed by Marx and Engels,
and almost a mere translation from Victor Considerant,
contains in compressed form and drastic expression the ideas
which Lassalle afterwards propounded and developed in a
style at once the most definite and the most politically prudent.
This old Socialism of 1848 is the basis of the whole of Lassalle's
activity, and for reasons of prudence he does not immediately
refer his ideas to it, though at the very last — indeed, not imtil
his last speech of all, and then with considerable reluctance —
does he admit that he might be called a Socialist. Where he
bases his theory upon Marx in one individual point, in his
explanation of the nature and formation of capital, and modifies
the doctrine of Marx only to a very small extent, he is careful
to state the fact with the fullest possible acknowledgment.

Throughout the period when Lassalle was thus active, Marx
kept silent, but after Lassalle's death asserted with some
bitterness that he had borrowed his own economic doctrines.
Marx might have added, without too great a concession to the
dead man, that his special characteristic as an agitator con-
sisted, and must consist, not in theoretical elaboration, but in
practice, in method and in form. Lassalle himself often
asserted the fact that while a theoretical work is all the better
in proportion to the completeness with which it deduces the
very farthest conclusions from its principles, practical agita-
tion, on the other hand, is powerful in proportion as it is con-
centrated about one cardinal point upon which all others
turn. There is, therefore, no opportunity in this case for
displa37ing originality in point of theory. The art of attaining

ii6 FERDINAND LASSALLE

practical results consists in concentrating one's strength upon
one point, looking neither to right nor to left. The only theo-
retical requirement in such a case is that this point should be
theoretically on the highest plane, so that all due conclusioi^s
can follow from it in practice and in course of time. The special
nature of Lassalle's movement consists in the conjunction of
two circumstances — ^its deep scientific truth and its popular
character. As it was easily intelligible, it was able to influence
the great majority of the uneducated ; and as it was scientific-
ally profound, it was also able to influence the little band of
highly cultured thinkers among the educated classes.^ Re-
garded from a literary point of view, the originality of the
movement consists in the clarity with which the agitator was
able to compress the last and highest results of scientific in-
vestigation, and make them comprehensible to audiences in
whom no scientific knowledge could be presupposed. In other
words, Lassalle was original by reason of the tangible and
definite form which he impressed upon every one of his utter-
ances.

^ "Open Letter of Reply," 31; "Capital and Labour," 174, note;
" Trial at Diisseldorf , " 21 ; " Trial for High Treason," 33.

CHAPTER II

Any writer who takes himself seriously has a twofold and
difficult problem to solve. He must ask himself, " How can
I maintain the creative freshness of my mind day by day,
when the facts of life are continually intruding upon my
inmost thoughts ? How, again, can I induce some thousand
fellow-citizens to whom my person, my life and my interests
are absolutely indifferent, to read my prose or — an almost pre-
posterous supposition — ^to buy my book ?" But this twofold
difficulty is as nothing compared with the countless obstacles
against which an opposition leader in Lassalle's position is
bound to fight.

An author can, within certain limits, promise his reader some
amount of pleasure. What prospect can the leader of a new
opposition party — an opposition which he must himself create
— hold out to his adherents ? Troops can be induced to
advance under fire when the happy fields of Italy are promised
for their plunder. How can an agitator induce his adherents
to advance, when all that can be honourably and certainly
promised for their attainment within a reasonable time is the
persecution and hatred of those about them, the loss of their
money and reputation, passionate complaints of their be-
haviour in the newspapers, and a thousand obstacles in the way
of their future progress, supposing that their progress be not
immediately cut short ? The leader of a rising opposition
party has no reinforcements upon whom he can rely. Generals
and Ministers need not be men of outstanding capacity ; they
have but to give their orders, and to direct the strength of
the masses where they will. The founder of an opposition party

117

ii8 FERDINAND LASSALLE

must do the same, without any outward or practical authority,
by the mere inward force of his personality, by his power for
inspiring enthusiasm and attracting, and by his capacity for
convincing and rousing others to fanaticism.

To have courage for oneself is no great art. In hours of
depression a man may fold his arms and wait tiU the crisis is
past, or he may allow the waves to pass over his head in the
consciousness that he -will rise to the surface hereafter, or he
may clench his teeth and force a way through difficulties in
obstinate silence. But when he may not be silent, must ever
be speaking and giving counsel and consolation, and pointing
the way for others, the case is very different. Very different is
the necessity of finding courage for twenty others who lose
their heads and their nerve at every moment, and ask their
leader to inspire them with that confidence in a fortunate
issue which he does not himself feel. He may show no sign
of weariness, unless he is prepared to see the whole band fling
themselves down and remain l5^ng in the road. Tired to death
is the burden of LassaUe's closing letters to his friends.

Ten or fifteen letters must be answered daily, apart from
letters which can be destroyed when read. At every post
the beU rings, and a bundle of letters is brought in ; more
drudgery, more questions, fresh matters which must be
considered and decided on the moment — announcements of
new disasters.

With the letters come the newspapers ; fresh attacks, mis-
representations, accusations, insults from anonymous and
known writers. The hostile Press — and at the outset the whole
Press is necessarily hostile — ^utters its cries of fury morning and
evening ; and even if this uproar frightens no man, at any rate
it works unconsciously upon the nervous system. Lassalle
may indeed write : " Such a daily concert of bankrupt musi-
teans I never heard before ; I could die of laughing." Whether
a man dies of laughing or frets himself ill is a matter of indiffer-
ence, if the last word in either case spells illness or death. It
is indeed ridiculous when such a writer as Max Wirth discovers
that the law of wages to which Lassalle appeals " is a very
antiquated standpoint "; when a Faucher discovers that
Lassalle knows nothing whatever of political economy ; when

FERDINAND LASSALLE 119

the Workmen's Union of Nuremberg declares that he is a
" paid tool of the reaction "; or when Schultze writes his
" piteous answer." But what does it profit the subject of
these remarks, if no one but himself can appreciate the
humour of the situation, and if the public regard the cater-
wauHng of newspapers as the voice of morality and true
science ?

Then the agitator feels the necessity for dealing some great
blow, and the need of victory becomes for him the firm con-
sciousness which produces victory. In such a frame of mind
LassaUe writes to Rodbertus, after determining to deliver a
speech in Frankfort : " You are quite right in saying thai
pubUc disputations of this kind produce no result, but upon
this occasion I need a disputation. The Berhn Press has been
turning the recent workmen's comedy here to account, and as
we have no organ in which we can express ourselves, I feel the
necessity for some display which will force the middle-class
Press to serve my purpose ; so I must go, and I must be tri-
umphant. I feel the want of a triumph. The people there
are unanimously against me, and have only invited me out of
poUteness, but I shaU stake everything upon this throw, and
the old war-horse wiU shake his revolutionary mane. Things
will be bad if I do not conquer. The general knowledge of
the fact that these unions are collectively against us \dU
increase the triumph of our victory, and will deprive defeat
of its sting, if defeat should come to pass."

In Frankfort he was triumphant, but hundreds of triumphs'
of a very different character were necessary, for disappointment
followed disappointment. Then, according to the law of con-
sciousness, the everlasting illusions of good fortune and success,
of the influence which he exercised, and of the support which he
found, rose afresh before his mind. The following words are
from an unpublished letter, and reproduce the feverish haste
and pressure in which the agitator's life was passed :

" Dear M.,

" Thank you for your letter. You will receive herewith
for distribution gratis three hundred copies of my address (to
the workers of Berhn). It has an enormous effect here, and

120 FERDINAND LASSALLE

we think it likely to bring over the Berlin workers in a body.
At last I ana making way here ; at last !

" As regards the other pamphlets, you may distribute any-
thing gratis that you have from my pen ; the rest do not belong
to me, but to the publisher or to the Union.

" Now a point of the greatest importance. We absolutely
must have a plenipotentiary in Konigsberg. This is most im-
portant. Wherever merely one such official is stationed,
a community rises automatically. Experience has shown this
to be true everywhere ; so appoint master-mason Schmidt to
be our plenipotentiary in Konigsberg. Write him an urgent
and imperative letter, representing his acceptance of the post
as a duty incumbent upon him and demanding an immediate
statement of his choice, and send me within the next week
official notice that you have appointed Schmidt as plenipoten-
tiary for Konigsberg.

" In a week I shall be publishing the recent new appoint-
ments which I have proposed for the different parts of Ger-
many, and I should be extremely glad if I were able to announce
at the same time the appointment carried out by you to
Konigsberg.

" This would make a very good impression. I count uncon-
ditionally upon your readiness to fulfil my desire at the right
_time."

The italicizing of words|here betrays passionate emphasis.
We feel the words trembling on his lips, " I demand, I order,
I will endure no refusal." We feel that he is then forced
to remember that he can only request, and we see how he
compensates for this restriction by making his request an
imperative demand.

The addressee to whom this letter was sent writes to me :
" You will see from this letter under what illusions Lassalle
still laboured in October, 1863, as regards the strength of the
movement which he had aroused among the working classes.
I was unable to fulfil the desires expressed in his letter, because
in Konigsberg, as in the whole province of Prussia, scarce a
man was to be found with any adequate knowledge of the
question or any readiness to take part in the agitation."

FERDINAND LASSALLE 121

And yet he did not lose courage. Amid all these disappoint-
ments and this disquietude, he went on preparing his speeches
— often out of humour, weary, hoarse, and overstrained, obliged
to show himself in public and make a display of invincible
power. He must concentrate his mind with his faculties undis-
turbed and unimpaired by the daily waste of time expended
upon current business, direct his thoughts to a rough and
surging assembly of partly hostile hearers, and elaborate in his
study the phrase that can strike home and arouse enthusiasm —
the effective and convincing argument, the immemorable
oratorical form.

CHAPTER III

A CONSIDERATION of the agitation in its outward form implies
an estimate of Lassalle as an orator.

It might be thought that he was not specially gifted by
Nature for this purpose, and that his best quaUfication was his
very unusual memory. He told one of my acquaintances that
in his youth he knew the whole of the " Ihad " and " Odyssey "
by heart, and he delivered his long lectures, which were never
improvised, word for word as he had written them, without a
manuscript before him. In ordinary conversation his voice
was high and shrill, and he spoke with a lisp ; but as soon as he
appeared in pubhc these defects disappeared, and his voice
soimded strong and attractive. His literary work had trained
him for oratory, and seems, indeed, to be the best of schools
for this purpose. In ancient Rome it was generally asserted
that oratorical readiness could only be gained by speaking ;
but Cicero, whose authority is indisputable in aU that concerns
eloquence, most vigorously attacks this view (" De Oratore,"
i- 33)- " It might as well be said," Crassus asserts in Cicero's
dialogue, " that the power of speaking badly would be most
easily attained by bad speaking. No," he continues, " the
great point is to write as much as possible. Writing is the best
school and the best means of education for the coming orator."
I believe this to be the case when it is necessary to make a
speech which can afterwards be read with profit. If the
speech is to make but a momentary impression, previous
literary training is hardly required. Gambetta's speeches, for
instance, which exerted so powerful an influence, owing to
the fiery nature of his temperament, and the beauty of his

122

FERDINAND LASSALLE 123

voice, make no great impression when they are read. They
provide a momentary solution of the question at issue, but
are far too lacking in depth of thought to rivet attention for
any lengthy period, nor is their expression stamped by any
definite Uterary character. The wide point of view from
which all questions are regarded, the keenness and novelty of
his ideas, the great foundation of scholarship suspected by
the hearer, but not displayed by the orator, together with
the brevity and strength of his style, give the best of Lassalle's /
speeches permanent literary value.

Ancient writers — ^for instance, Quintilian — divided eloquence
into the Asiatic and Attic styles, or the flowery and the dry
styles. If we adopt this principle, Lassalle's eloquence un-
doubtedly belongs to the dry and nervous style. But in
one single and important point Lassalle is very far from the
Attic style, and this is his preference for superlatives. The
delight with which he strides along the highest summits
of the adjectival forms is incredible, as also is the en-
thusiasm with which he devises and heaps together such
expressions as "the immense," "the horrible," "the gigan-
tic." In this one instance the admirable phrase of Metter-
nich, " the superlative is the mark of fools," is not confirmed ;
but such heavy artillery remains no less unwieldy, even when
worked by a man of talent. The German author who has
studied Ferdinand Lassalle with deeper intelligence than
anyone else, uttered in my presence the sharp criticism of
him : " He had no taste at all." This is somewhat
exaggerated, but it can justly be said that his taste was
very uncertain. From French literature he learned astonish-
ingly little, though considerable parts of it must have been
known to him. I have already mentioned that he did not
shrink in his drama from making Ulrich von Hutten de-
scribe his own greatness in the purest bombast. When he
speaks of the considerations which forbade him to unite the
life of a beloved woman with his own uncertain and perilous
existence, he speaks as if he could shatter the earth in pieces,
and uses such expressions as :

When in my wild career athwart this globe
Of earth I crash confounded, hurtUng wide
In manifold disruption.

124 FERDINAND LASSALLE

And again, when he describes his greatness and his ill-fortune,
he says :

Then in a Baltic haven I embarked ;

The vessel could not bear me and the planks

Beneath my feet did part incontinent.

This is rhodomontade in utter lack of taste. While he was
thus entirely wanting in a sense of hunnour, his speeches do not,
at any rate, reach such points of exaggeration as we find in his
poetry ; but it happens occasionally that the metaphors by
which he attempts to attract the attention of his hearers are
ridiculous enough to arouse laughter. In his first speech before
the Court of Assizes he speaks of the " Erinnys of the murdered
basis of right." In " Science and the Working Classes " he
says : " The proud and lofty tree of scientific knowledge has
been transmitted from age to age with holy reverence." ^ The
murder of a legal basis and the transmission of the tree of know-
ledge are pictures somewhat too highly coloured ; but a
masterly painting is not ruined because a line here or there is
out of drawing.

I said that Lassalle's style was of the dry type ; the meta-
phors are therefore rare and short. The use which he makes
of them is, generally speaking, all the more remarkable.

Lassalle never uses metaphor for purely decorative purposes.
His metaphors always contain a logical explanation of the
true nature of the matter at issue, and are therefore logical
continuations of his arguments, while they serve at the same
time to crystallize his ideas, and to arouse the enthusiasm of
his hearers. For instance, in his speech before the Court of
Assizes, LassaUe was obliged to deal with one difficult point :
he had appealed for armed defence of the overthrown Consti-
tution, which, among other things, had contained provisions
for uiiiversal suffrage. He proved that the Government, by
the coii/p d'etat, had outraged and scorned the manifest desires
of the people ; but the people, by taking part in a new election
conducted upon the law of December 6, which provided for
the three classes of electors, recognized the Constitution that

C' " The Erinnys of murdered legal right. . . . But that which has grown
more powerful than them all . . . transmitted from age to age with holy
reverence, is the proud and lofty tree of scientific knowledge " {" Science
and the Workmen," 3).

FERDINAND LASSALLE 125

had been forced upon it, and to this fact the Government
appealed.

Lassalle refutes this assertion : " On what erroneous coi>l ^^-4-^1
elusions are these attempts based which would justify the foolish
idea that because the people voted to procure means of expres-
sion for themselves, and to gain champions by whose help
they might recover the freedom of which they had been robbed,
they, by this very action, have recognized the robbery as legal ?
I will take the first example, gentlemen, which occurs to me.
Supposing a robber, while I am asleep, snatches from my side
a precious Damascus blade, and leaves me his clumsy club in
its place : when I start up and seize the club for the purpose
of pursuing him and recovering my property, have I, by the
act of using the club, admitted the justice of its exchange for
my Damascus sword ?" _^

Whether this analogy was really the first that came to hand,
or whether it was elaborated by careful thought, I regard it in
any case as a model of what a simile should be. The picture
by no means interrupts the course of the description, and not
only illuminates the business under discussion, but also
removes a difficulty which could oiily have been explained
away by a much longer political argument in logical form. It
is no mere rhetorical decoration, but gives vigour to the speech.
On some occasions liassaUe succeeded in so compressing his
thoughts in a simile of this kind that it passed from mouth
to mouth as representing the quintessence of his ideas. For
instance, in his " Workmen's Programme " he develops the con-
nection between the ideas of the working classes and of the
time, and thus exclaims : " The high honour in the history"
of the world which this deterxnination implies (the desire to
become the ruhng class) must claim aU your thoughts ; not for
you are the vices of the oppressed, or the idle distractions
of the thoughtless, or even the harmless carelessness of the
unimportant ; you are the rock upon which the church of the_
present is to be built." Similarly, he characterizes the political
philosophy of the Manchester school in reaUstic fashion :
" Thus the middle class conceives the moral object of the StateT
This object consists simply and solely in securing the personal
freedom of the individual and his property. This is the night-

126 FERDINAND LASSALLE

watchman theory, gentlemen, for this conception can regard
the State only under the form of a night-watchman whose
duties are confined to preventing burglary and theft."

In Cicero's times (De Oratore, ii. 28) the orator's task was
formulated as follows : it was threefold — the orator must
instruct his hearers, win their sympathy, and urge them to
action. " To win their sympathy," says Cicero, " a man's
personality must be attractive "; and he adds, with some
childishness, " the orator will not find this difficult if he is an
honourable man." He need only consider the views and
inclinations of his hearers. We know to what resources the
orator in ancient times turned, in order to win the public to his
point of view, and we know with what similar sentimentalities
— ^the production of children in tears, etc. — our juries can be
moved at the present day.

Lassalle, when confronted with his judges, not only despised
such surreptitious methods of securing their sympathy, but
invariably adopted so proud and unbending an attitude that
one can only suppose him to have been desirous of gaining the
approval of those upon whom his fate depended, by means
of the calmness and greatness of heart which he displayed in
the face of his judgment. I have given examples of his power
of crystallizing his thomghts and informing his audience by
means of metaphor. Here is an instance of another kind,

_when he attempts to win approval with the help of metaphor :
" Upon a man," he says, " such as I am, who has devoted his
life to science and the working classes, even the condemnation
with which he may chance to meet will produce no other effect
than the bursting of a test-tube would make upon a chemist
absorbed in his scientific experiments. With a slight frown
at the difficulties which the properties of matter raise in his
path, he will continue his investigations and his work as soon
as he has cleared away the damage. But for the sake of the
nation and its honour, for the sake of science and its dignity,
for the sake of the country and its legal freedom, Mr. President
and Councillors, I call upon you to pronounce for my libera-

jtion."

Finally, when Lassalle is not concerned with instructing or
attracting his hearers, but with urging them to action, his style

FERDINAND LASSALLE 127

and his metaphors become entirely martial. His preference
for similes drawn from batSe and war is preponderant. In
one place he concludes :

" In this case let us not be carried away by conciliatory
sentimentalism, gentlemen ; you have now seen by fully
adequate experience what the old absolutism is. Let us, then,
have no fresh compromise with it, but overthrow it with our
thumbs in its eyes and our knees upon its breast." In anotheT
place he appeals to the working classes of Berlin to join his
union, and his summons is couched in the style of a bulletin.

" The most important centres of Germany have been won PI
Leipsic and the manufacturing districts of Saxony are for us ;
Hamburg and Frankfort-on-Maine are marching under our
banner ; the Prussian Rhine Provinces are advancing at the
charge. Reinforced by Berlin, the movement wiU be irre-
sistible. Will you, workmen of Berlin, take upon yourselves
the responsibility of delaying by your attitude this great
German movement and this triumph of your common cause ?
WiU you, workmen of the capital, whose duty it is to take the
lead, bear the reproach of being the last to join the movement ?'^

Such expressions as " smashing blows," " review of the
troops," " battalions," " the iron hand," " the iron grip,"
" iron law," and others of the kind, are metaphorical ex-
pressions which constantly recur in his speeches. He was
invited by the Progressive party to speak before their own
workmen's union in Frankfort, and succeeded in two successve
speeches in winning over an audience originally hostile. He
relates his success as foUows : " I defeated the men of progressl
in a two days' conflict with the troops which they had themj
selves brought against me." When he was accused of attempts
to begin a revolution, he describes the revolution which he was
not desirous of producing, but which he was certain would
arrive, by the following metaphor : " The revolution mayl
occur in aU legal form, and with all the blessings of peace, 1
if the government is wise enough to resolve upon its I
introduction in proper time, or it will break upon us, 1
within a period unknown to me, with aU the convulsions of I
force, with hair wildly streaming and iron, sandals upon its 1
feet." ^

128 FERDINAND LASSALLE

The chief object of Lassalle's warUke outbursts and of his
most impetuous attacks is that organ which is both the servant
and the master of the middle classes at the present day — the
Press. Anyone who studies his style when he " calls for
action " — ^to use the phrase of the ancients — must be particu-
larly impressed by his war against the newspapers. It extends
through almost all his writings. As an instance of the tone
and style of Lassalle's compelhng rhetoric, I will quote a few
sentences from one of his most important pamphlets upon
th is subject : " The series of personal concessions which the
\ "journalists have made to the Government, purely in the
interests of their own business, naturally could not be granted
as concessions by those concerned. . . . Thus, the only alter-
native was to represent these concessions to the pubUc as so
many new points of view which the pubUc mind should adopt,
and to impose them upon newspaper readers by representing
them as developments and salutary compromises in the interests
of the national welfare. Thus it was possible to emasculate
and to dilute the national spirit to the point at which the con-
tinuance of the lucrative newspaper business could be guaran-
teed. ... If anyone wishes to earn money, let him manufac-
ture cotton or cloth, or gamble on the Stock Exchange ; but
daily to inject spiritual death into the nation from a thousand
syringes for the sake of some contemptible gain is the most
criminal proceeding of which I can conceive. . . . Much as I
regret it, I have no hesitation in telling you that if we do not
shortly see a complete transformation of our daily Press, and
if this plague of newspapers rages for another fifty years in its
present form, our national spirit will be destroyed and brought
even to the dust. The reason is easily intelligible : thousands
of journalists, the modern teachers of the people, with their
countless voices, are daily inoculating the nation with their
crass ignorance, their lack of conscientiousness, their insensate
hatred of everything true and great in politics, art, and science ;
and the nation, in credulous confidence, stretches out its hands
for this poison, under the impression that it is deriving intellec-
tual nutriment from this source. Under such conditions, the
national spirit must be ruined, were it thrice as noble as it is.
Not even the most highly gifted people in the world, not even

FERDINAND LASSALLE 129

the Greeks, could have survived the influence of such a Press.
... I have explained that the corruption of the Press is a
necessary consequence of the fact that, under the pretext of
championing intellectual interests, it is steadily becoming a
commercial speculation in virtue of the system of advertise-
ment. The problem is thus simple enough, and merely con-
sists in separating these two things, which have no connection
with one another. In so far as the Press represents the in-
terests of the national Ufe, it may be compared with the pulpit
orator or the schoolmaster. In so far as it exists to publish
advertisements, it is but the town crier or the public bell-
man, announcing to the pubUc with its countless voices where
a watchchain has been lost, where the best tobacco or the best
malt extract is to be procured. The preacher has nothing to do
with the town crier, and the union of these two functions is a
sad miscarriage. In a Social Democratic State a law must
therefore be passed forbidding newspapers to pubUsh any
advertisements, and confining advertisements exclusively and
solely to the official papers pubhshed by the State or com-
munity. . . . Grasp firmly and with glowing enthusiasm the
solution which I offer you — scorn and hatred, death and de-
struction to the ignorant Press ! It is a bold solution, pro-
pounded by one man against the thousand-handed institution
of the Press, against which even Kings have fought in vain ;
but as truly as you hang with eager passion upon my words,
and as truly as my heart trembles with pure enthusiasm while
its feeUngs overflow to yours, so truly am I penetrated with the
certainty that the moment wiU come when we shall launch the
thunderbolt which wiU whelm this Press in everlasting night."

I am far from regarding the methods which Lassalle recom"
mended to check the corruptions of the Press as either effective
or practicable, but the scorn which boiled within LassaUe like
molten bronze is here poured out, and has assumed in cooling
the strongest form of words.

I said that although Lassalle was a bom orator, he developed
his power of using the spoken word by perfecting his mastery
of the written word. Sparklingly eloquent as he was in society,
the gift of extempore speech was apparently denied to him, nor
did he ever attempt to acquire it. At the same time, he was

9

130 FERDINAND LASSALLE

so good a speaker that his oratory seemed to be the result of
momentary inspiration, while he was so unconstrained that if he
was interrupted or obliged to answer an unexpected question,
he was able to combine the interruption of the moment in the
speech he had prepared with such dexterity that no transition
point is perceptible. Cicero says of this gift : " A man who
proceeds to the art of oratory after much practice in writing
has this advantage — ^that even when he speaks unprepared,
what he says will sound as though it had been written. . . .
Even as a vessel in rapid movement continues its progress when
the rowers cease their efforts, so, too, in the stream of oratory,
when written matter comes to an end, the spoken word retains
its impetus, and the speech speeds forward along the path of
the written matter." A few examples of Lassalle's presence of
mind under these conditions may now be given.

In his speech in his defence (January 15, 1863) he had
demonstrated that every point in the accusation was based
upon ignorance and lack of intelligence. He exclaims : " How
can I help the literary incompetency of the counsel for the
State ? How can I be responsible for his lack of acquaintance
with every department of progress at the present time —
progress already recognized and catalogued by science ? Am
I to be the scientific whipping boy of the counsel for the
State ?"

The counsel now interrupted Lassalle's speech, and entered
a most vigorous demand that he should be refused a further
hearing, as this outburst " was the culmination of his mockery
of the State counsel." He concluded : " I therefore demand,
Yeferring to Article 134 and the supplementary law of May 3,
1852, that the accused should be refused a further hearing,
and that he should be removed from the court if he should
continue further to reply." (Sensation.)

The President. " The accused is accordingly refused a
further hearing, and any further expressions on his part are
therefore inadmissible."

The Accused {quickly). " Mr. President, upon this point I must
ask for an expression of opinion by the whole court. I demand
such an expression, and ask that I should be allowed to speak
in justification of this demand."

FERDINAND LASSALLE 131

Counsel. " I must protest against any further speaking by
the accused, as the President has already deprived him of a
hearing."

The Accused. " This is a confusion of ideas. I have been
refused a hearing on the main point ; I have demanded a
resolution by the whole court on this question, and the court
cannot decide upon so important a matter without first hearing
what I have to say about it."

The President. " The accused may speak upon the question
whether he is to have a hearing or not."

Counsel. " Then I will at least point out that the accused
cannot be heard upon any other subject."

The Accused. " You need feel no anxiety. I wiU confine
myself to the point."

He then proceeded to explain what in any case was obviousr
that he could not be said to have insulted anyone by calling
himself a scientific whipping boy, and that anyone to whom, for
instance, an opponent in a literary quarrel exclaimed, ' ' Am I your
scientific whipping boy ?" would be dismissed from any court
if he attempted to bring an action for libel against his oppo-
nent. Lassalle then proceeds immediately and undisturbed
to continue his interrupted speech in his defence.^ The situa-
tion is worthy of Shakespeare. One might almost be reading
the scene in which Mr. Justice Shallow holds his Court in
" Henry IV."

But the most amusing and instructive instance of Lassalle's
gift of rising to the occasion which I can find is the following :
in the speech which he delivered at Frankfort-on-Maine at the
invitation of his opponents, he demonstrated that one of the
literary men who was opposing him had asserted in some book
of very moderate merit precisely the statements which he now
disputed when they were brought forward by Lassalle.

Lassalle. " You see, gentlemen, a hired workman is, in my
opinion, a very honourable character, but a hired writer is
something very different." (Cries of " Order !" Great uproar.
" Let him speak !" " Put the question !" " No, let him speak !")

The President. " I must ask the speaker, once for all, to avoid
personal remarks. On this occasion he has been personal."

1 " Science and the Workmen," 43 ; " Criminal Trial," part ii., 15 et seq.

132 FERDINAND LASSALLE

Lassalle. " This is quite a new experience for me, and the
scene that has just taken place shows the point that we
have reached. Gentlemen, I will not be deterred from open
expression of my opinions. (Loud cheers.) Apart from this,
I ask you to notice one fact : I have uttered no criticism of
anybody in particular, but have merely enounced a general
statement. I did not say that Herr Max Wirth was a writer
for hire ; no one can have heard anything of the kind ; I appeal
to the reporters. . . . The President, therefore, has no right
to censure the intention of my words." (Cheers from the hall
and galleries, and cries of " Stop !" and " Go on!")

The President. " Are you not aware, gentlemen, that this is
a meeting upon which the eyes of half Germany are turned ?
Pray do not let it be said that this assembly could not main-
tain order, because the working class are lacking in Parliamen-
tary tact. I interrupted Herr Lassalle because he used the
phrase ' writer for hire ' in connection with Herr Max Wirth ;
no one can doubt that fact, although that was perhaps not the
phraseology which he used. I am therefore within my right in
calling the attention of the speaker to the necessity of avoiding
anything of the kind in future."

Lassalle. " I must again remind the President that he may
object to unparliamentary expressions, but not to the sense of
my speech. Freedom of speech depends entirely upon the
possibility of indicating a point apart from expressing it
directly — of saying what one pleases, provided Parliamentary
language is used. Both freedom of speech and the capacity
Df the orator are based upon this point. Otherwise, suppose
^ou feel indignation at anything or any man, how do you pro-
pose to communicate your feelings to others ? (Loud cheers
from the hall and galleries.) I have thus demonstrated that
Herr Wirth in his work has stated precisely what I have stated.
Possibly in the same book, which I have not read, other pas-
sages may occur in which he has stated the opposite. . . .
Vou may wonder how I have been able, as I have not read the
Dook, to point to the crucial passages. On this matter I owe
,7ou an explanation. When the book appeared, a copy reached
ne, but after running through a few pages I discovered
:hat it was an unoriginal compilation, and threw the book

FERDINAND LASSALLE 133

aside, as I have no time to waste over worthless compilations
of the kind ; but on the present occasion a friend (it was
Rodbertus) sent me the book and pointed out that passage.
I wiU make a further observation in reference to the President's
objection to my mode of expression. I may use unqualified
language, but in that case I am not personal, for I am keeping
to my argument throughout. I merely show a lack of refine-
ment, and that is quite a different matter. Unrefined I must,
can, and should be, as I will prove to you. Every representa-
tive of a great cause must use unrefined methods against all
who intervene with falsehoods between him and his great
object, and I am resolved to overthrow with the smashing blows
of intellect those who come between you and me with false-
hoods. In your interests, therefore, I must be unrefined, and
I both may and should be so ; for if Herr Max Wirth, who wiU
afterwards have an opportunity of replying to me, cared to
show as little refinement towards me, there would, in any case,
be an enormous difference between what he says and what I
say. For instance, if he wished to call me an unoriginal com-
piler, as I have called him, he would merely arouse enormous
laughter from every scholar who knows me. But when I use
the term to him, every expert knows how enormously true it
is, and therefore my words come upon his head with crushing
force." (Loud applause.) __

This passage — ^in which, by the way, the word " enormous "
occurs three times in succession — seems to me a real model of
rhetorical vigour and readiness. The special talent of the orator
is apparent, not in the veiled personal attack (and the veil here
is extremely transparent), though the definition which Lassalle
here gave bases the orator's capacity upon his power of veiling
his direct attack, but in the manner in which he repels an
attempt to reprimand him. His style contains none of those
characteristics peculiar to authors who are forced to keep
themselves strictly in hand under the pressure either of a
Government or of hostile feeling. Such writers appeal chiefly
to the power of imagination, which is hampered by direct
expression, but rather stimulated by veiled suggestion. The
reader who knows the caution which the author is obliged
to observe, and the httle which he dare express of his

134 FERDINAND LASSALLE

real and deepest meaning, reads attentively, and a secret
bond of sympathy is formed between hirft and the author. The
one conceals his meaning and the other his comprehension.
None of these characteristics can properly be attributed to
Lassalle, who utters his meaning straightforwardly and without
reserve, up to the point at which he considers the laws against
incitement to rebellion or high treason might become applic-
able. He appeals, in other words, not to the imagination, but
to the will and energy of his hearers.

We have given examples of his style and tone, and it is now
worth while to consider his speeches on their artistic side, and
to glance at their logical construction. The orators of anti-
quity taught that the supreme law governing the arrangement
of matter and argument was to omit no opportunity of making
a deep impression. We might say that if this law had never
previously been observed, Lassalle would have been credited
with its discovery, for he had a special capacity for grasping
the opportunity with unusual readiness, and of making it his
own. The ancients also said that the first and most important
point of all in a speech was to establish the question at issue,
to define the facts of the case, and to give them their true
names. In this respect Lassalle is one of the greatest masters
that ever lived. The capacity here required is practical
common sense, and in the case of a political orator the term
implies political inssight. Political insight, in my opinion,
may be defined as an eye for the centre of gravity. To see the
position of this point among conflicting political forces is the
first condition under which interference becomes possible ; and
political capacity, in accordance with this definition, may be
further defined as the power of changing this centre of gravity.
The power of seeing the means by which such a change can be
itiade is the second condition under which political action can
become effective. The third and last condition is that a man
should have the means within his power, and understand how
to use them.

In full harmony with Lassalle's peculiarity of style, his habit
of direct utterance, is his characteristic realism, which induces
him to express and to emphasize the bare facts of the case on
every occasion. The real and logical point of departure in his

FERDINAND LASSALLE 135

conduct of the agitation consists in the revelation and destruc-
tion of false appearances. As an instance, I will choose the
speech in which LassaUe exalts his own practice to the dignity
of political theory. He had been involved in some trouble
by a pamphlet in which he asserted that constitutional
problems are ultimately and invariably problems of poHtical
power. Disseminated during the constitutional conflicts of
1862, the pamphlet had aroused special excitement in the
governmental camp. The Minister of War disapproved of it,
though in the same breath he uttered its leading ideas ; the
President of the Ministry, Herr von Bismarck, made use of
expressions which led directly to Lassalle's assertions ; the re-
a.ctiona.TyKreuzzeitung devoted a.lea.ding article to the pamphlet,
which it termed in its own dialect, " A Speech delivered
by a Revolutionary Jew of whom much has been formerly
heard, who has shown a Profound Instinct for hitting the
Nail on the Head." In a following pamphlet (" What Now ?")
LassaUe considered the means at the disposal of the Chamber
for enforcing its will in the face of so determined and so powerful
a Government, and showed that the most natural means, a
general refusal of taxation, would be quite ineffective. In
England, where the army is of secondary importance, the
real elements of power are in the hands of the nation. Relying
upon this fact, men might refuse, and refuse unpunished, to
pay their taxes, and such methods would inevitably produce a
result ; but they would be ineffectual in Prussia, where no one
would venture to execute the threat. Such a resolution on
the part of the Chamber would therefore be nothing more
than a beating of the air. What, then, is to be done ? Lassalle
considers that there is but one means, as simple as it is infallible,
which he defines as follows : "to state the facts." This is
the means which he himself employed throughout his career
as an agitator. In his opinion, it is the most powerful form
of political leverage. As Fichte has shown, it was one of the
favourite methods of the great Napoleon, and in our own days
has been one of the means most constantly used by Bismarck.
Lassalle examines its appUcation to the given case, and shows
that the result would be to make absolutism impossible. The
prevailing power in Prussia at that time was absolutism,

136 FERDINAND LASSALLE

ostensibly limited by a constitution. Why, then, did abso-
lutism exist in so hypocritical a form ? Because the counter-
revolution after 1,848, wherever it reintroduced the arbitrary
system of government, considered that some concession was
advisable to the spirit of the times — ^in other words, to the
unorganized power of the people. Even Napoleon III. after
the coup d'etat conceded a chamber elected by the people ;
even Austria, which had originally declared the Constitution
of 1849 invalid, restored the Constitution on its own initia-
tive. Hence LassaUe concludes that Prussia could not afford
to do without a Constitution, in view of the power of its
middle-class. If, therefore, the Government persisted in
their presumption, the great means of bringing compulsion
to bear was to renounce all such outward forms, and this
result, thinks LassaUe, might be secured if the Chamber would
only " state the facts." Supposing, then, that the Prussian
Chamber was to declare : "In view of the fact that the
I Government is incurring expenses on its own responsibility
\ which the Chamber has declined to approve ; and in view of
the fact that the Government has even declared its intention
of continuing in this course ; considering, further, that under
these circumstances it is unworthy of the representatives of
the nation to support the Government in maintaining an out-
ward show of constitutional form — ^the Chamber resolves to
suspend its sittings for an indefinite period until the Govern-
ment intimates that it has the approval of the Chamber for
its expenditure." In this case the Government would be
forced to decide either to give way or formally to appear
before the world as that which it really was — a bare absolutism.
LassaUe explains that the Government neither can nor will
adopt the latter alternative. It cannot, because, in Talley-
rand's phrase, " you can do anything with bayonets except
sit on them." Bayonets cannot provide a solid and per-
manent foundation. Again, the Government wiU be unwilling
to adopt the latter alternative, for, requiring as it does so
great an annual sum, and incessantly putting its hand into
the pocket of every citizen, it must at least maintain an out-
ward show of possessing every citizen's approval. The
Government would also be unwilling, because in every foreign

FERDINAND LASSALLE

137

dispute it would expose itself to the most insolent and intoler-
able insults on the part of the other Powers, as a Government
which was in open and constant antagonism with its own
nation, and therefore unable to hide its weakness from any-
body.

As we know, the Progressive party at that time made no
attempt to use the means which Lassalle had indicated.
Only one member of the Prussian House of Deputies — Martiny,
who is now a distinguished advocate in Dantzig — considered
that he could best serve his own honour and the dignity of
his party by resigning his seat, after delivering a detailed and
carefully argued proposal, to the effect that the House should
suspend its sittings until the Government recognized its
obligation to administer the financial affairs of the State only
upon the basis of a budget legally adopted, and ceased to spend
nfioney upon objects to which the House refused consent. I
have in my possession a printed copy of Martiny's proposal,
and also the manuscript of it. The latter is a very interesting
document, as Lassalle carefuUy corrected it, and introduced
alterations in blue pencil to strengthen the expression and to
emphasize the decisive arguments. Compare, for instance :

Martiny.

Considering that the House, if it
continues its functions under such
conditions, would not only be ex-
posed to the insult to its honour and
dignity implied in the disregard
shown to its rights, but would also
further the openly expressed inten-
tions of the Government, to make
the present constitutional impotency
of the House an element of constitu-
tional practice, and so to make the
House a party to the breach of the
constitution of the country. . . .

Lassalle.

Considering that the House, if it
continues its functions under such
conditions, would expose its rights
to the disregard of the Government,
and its honour and dignity, together
with that of the nation, to the insult
which such disregard implies ; con-
sidering, further, that this House
would simply promote the openly
expressed intention of the Govern-
ment to make its present constitu-
tional impotence an element of
constitutional practice, and would
support the continuance of Absolu-
tism under an outward show of Con-
stitutionalism, and would thus be-
come a party to the breach of the
national Constitution. . . .

Naturally, the resignation of one individual produced a
moral, but no political, effect. Whether Germany would have
been advantaged if this example had been followed, is a ques-
tion which I shall not attempt to decide. The great army,

138 FERDINAND LASSALLE

over the approval of which the parties were quarrelling, was
necessary for the accomplishment of Bismarck's comprehen-
sive plans. At the same time, a bolder attit^de on the part
of the House would have forced him to communicate his
intentions to the party leaders, and would have inspired him
with a useful respect for the Liberal party in future. No
wonder that no indications of such respect are to be found in
him afterwards ! The only point now at issue is, whether the
means proposed by Lassalle would have been effective, and
what their effect in general would be. For my part, I
have approved this practice ever since I have been able to
think at all. I have always asserted that this simple method,
which is within the power of anybody — ^the method of calling
the facts of a case by their proper names — is the only means
by which helpless Right can attain to Might. When intellectual
Might is impotent, but at the same time is recognized, as it
is in all so-caUed civilized countries. Might, as such, is invariably
based upon some outward show or lie, and the most certain
method, though it be lengthy, of overcoming brutal Might
will always consist in producing such revelations as will oblige
Might openly to admit the real nature of its intentions. The
important point is to undermine it precisely where it assumes
the outward appearance of an intellectual force.

However, the only point with which we are concerned is
the fact that this means was the means of Lassalle's choice,
and that this standpoint of his, " Down with appearances,"
is the logical and actual foundation of all his speeches
and of the whole of his agitation. In every case these
appearances can be more definitely defined — e.g., the pre-
tence that Right and not Might is predominant ; that the
German middle-classes can seriously be called democratic ;
that indirect taxation is chiefly paid by the property-owning
class ; that the position of one particular class has improved
in relation to that of others, because it has improved when
compared with its position in previous centuries, etc. Similarly,
the pretence in question may receive a more definite name,
such as " apparent freedom of action," " apparent liberty of
thought," " apparent prosperity," or anything else of the
kind. Lassalle's invariable point of departure when embarking

FERDINAND LASSALLE 139

upon a speech in opposition is ever to rend the veil of outward
show.

I regard this point of departure as very happily adopted. I
think with Lassalle that apparent freedom is most poisonously
destructive to real freedom, and that nothing can be so
emasculating and so soporific, for the simple reason that the
good object which ought to be attained seems to have been
already attained ; consequently, all those whose duty it would
have been to struggle on behalf of this purpose at once relapse
into complete self-satisfaction. On the other hand, if pseudo-
freedom is forced to reveal itself as such, and to display its
many consequences inimical to freedom, there is some prospect
of attaining the main object at issue in all intellectual struggles.
The indifferent may be won over, and as many minds as possible
may be induced to feel sympathy with the oppression which
others experience. But this can only be done if people like
Lassalle, in contrast to the Progressive party, decline to be
intimidated by the threats of opponents, and steadily defy them
until they are forced either to put their threats into practice — a
proceeding which will affect many more men than the one
individual concerned, and will disperse the halo of apparent free-
dom which encircles the head of the persecutor — or until they
are forced to give way, whatever their reluctance, in order to
retain their fictitious halo.^ This is a means which, naturally,
can lead only those to ultimate victory who are in the right ;
for if people seek martyrdom with the errors of centuries upon
their side, with the object of appealing to the sympathy of
the thoughtless multitude — a policy boldly and cleverly
followed in Prussia and Switzerland by the Catholic clergy —
their prospects of ultimate victory are not increased. Every
falsehood has its martyrs and its apostles, but the assertion
of " that which is not," whatever its boldness or audacity,
is in the long run the most hopeless policy in the world.

We have thus seen that, in the strictest sense of the word,
Lassalle's point of departure was what Cicero calls the decisive
point of departure for an orator — ^to define his facts and give
them their true names. Upon this principle the logical con-
struction of his speeches rests, which must be studied in their
» " What Now ?" and " The Festivals, the Press," etc., 1 1.

140 FERDINAND LASSALLE

argumentation. I may be allowed one example as an illustra-
tion, and will choose his speech upon indirect taxation.

He was accused of rousing the lower classes to hatred and
contempt of the well-to-do, by his assertions upon the
subject of indirect taxation, which he stated were chiefly
paid by the poor. With secure mastery of an important
scientific subject he collects in fifty pages the statements
of great economists, together with statistics confirming the
correctness of his assertions and even the mildness of their
expression. He proves how much greater is the prevailing
_ extent of poverty than is generally supposed.

" Thus we have 11,400 persons in the whole State of seven-
teen millions with an income of more than 2,000 thalers, and
44,400 persons (including the 11,400 just mentioned) in the
whole State with an income of over 1,000 thalers. Such is
the condition of our social balance-sheet.

" You would hardly have believed this, gentlemen, or have
regarded it as possible, if the facts were not to be found in
official publications. It is a ridiculously small handful of
people with their families, who fill the theatres, the concert-
halls, the parties, the balls, the clubs, the restaurants and the
wine-shops in every town, and by reason of their ubiquity
assume the appearance of an extraordinary number. They
think and speak only of themselves, imagine themselves to be
the world, and, by controlling all the newspapers and estab-
lishments where public opinion is manufactured, they induce
everyone else to share their beliefs and to be persuaded that
these 11,000 or 44,000 are really the world.

" And beneath this scanty handful of people, who alone
live and move, speak, write, perorate, realize and secure theif
own interests, and persuade themselves that they pay the
taxes^beneath this handful of men writhe in silent, inex-
pressible misery the swarming numbers of the poor, the
seventeen millions who produce everything that makes hfe
tolerable for us, make possible for us the indispensable con-
dition of moral existence, the existence of the State, fight its
battles, pay its taxes, but has no one to think of them or to
represent them.

" Justice, therefore, for this class, gentlemen, and do not

FERDINAND LASSALLE 141

gag the men, in any case sufficiently isolated, who take up I
the cudgels on their behalf." ^ _^.. j

Lassalle has thus shown that his assertions concerning
indirect taxation rest upon facts, and are irrefutable. He
then demonstrates that even the Government which was
accusing him had made the same assertions under Manteuffel's
Ministry, and had expressed them even more strongly. Man-
teuffel's Ministry had attempted, by legislative proposals, to
lighten the burden of taxation which rested on the poorer
classes, but the proposals were a failure. The upper classes
roused public opinion against the law with all their might,
which was naturally an easy task for them, as aU the means
of stirring public feeling were at their disposal ; and when the
proposed law came before the First Chamber, it was rejected.
The Government then declared, with a deep sigh of regret, that
the task of reform must be abandoned, as public opinion was
not yet sufficiently prepared to receive it. LassaUe further
shows that the Prussian Privy Councillor Engel, the Director
of the Statistical Office, in a speech a few months previously,
had made the assertion for which Lassalle has been accused.
With the permission of Privy Councillor Engel, he produces a
letter in which the Councillor declares his agreement with
LassaUe : " Thus, that which I am proclaiming to you, gentle^
men, is practically a State doctrine." -J

He then shows that the main argument usually adduced
in favour of indirect taxation is that the small man under
direct taxation knows that he is pa5dng taxes, but under
indirect taxation he imagines that he is pa5nng as octroi duties
to the town what he is reaUy giving to the State. It is there-
fore a most useful and politic action to explain the ruinous
nature of these taxes to the small man. But, it will be
asserted, it is not because such statements are made, but be-
cause they are made to the working classes and to uneducated
people that they become criminal. LassaUe wishes to know
whether these " uneducated " classes have not their share in

* In confirmation of Lassalle's statement of the scanty numbers of
citizens in comparative affluence, compare Lange's calculations upon the
Distribution of Meat Foods ; F. A. Lange, " The Labour Problem,"
183 et seq. Indirect taxation was steadily restricted irom Lassalle's death
to 1877, but since the change in Bismarck's economic policy has become the
most oppressive of burdens.

142 FERDINAND LASSALLE

the legislative power, and whether they are to vote in absolute
blindness, without knowing upon what subject or for what
reason they are voting. For all the above-mentioned reasons
Lassalle does not hesitate to declare that it is question-
able whether the accusation raised against him does not
itself imply a breach of the Constitution. AU that he
desires is to lay the theoretical foundation of a legal and
peaceful agitation for the purpose of advancing the prospects
of universal and direct suffrage. If it is a principle that
burdens should imply corresponding rights, " why do the
poorer classes have only a third of the vote, when they pay
in taxes five, six, ten, and twenty times as much as the pros-
_£erous classes ?" Lassalle then explains his political principle
in a few eloquent sentences : " Let us have one of two things —
either pure absolutism or universal franchise. There may be
different and conflicting views upon these two things, but any
compromise between them is impossible, erroneous, and
illogical.

" An absolute power, removed by its position from all
contrasts of class, standing high above society and all social
interests, might conceivably devote itself to the general
interest — ^the interest of the vast majority. Whether and
how far it has done so has depended upon the accident of
personal insight, capacity and character ; it might, at any
rate, have so acted, and was reminded of its duty in this
direction by its position ; and such, in truth, was the motto
of the old absolutism in its best period : ' Nothing by the
people, everything for the people.'

" This time is past ; the age of constitutionalism has begun —
the age in which society, conceiving that it has reached years
of discretion, desires to decide questions affecting its interest
upon its own responsibility. Henceforward it becomes a
logical impossibility, a tangible inconsistency and a burning
injustice, to place this decision in the hands of the minority,
in the hands of the prosperous classes of society. These
classes are not above social interests. On the contrary,
standing as they do amid the cross-fire of such interests, they
cannot but turn the power of decision to their own social
advantage, and thus sacrifice to their selfish purposes the

FERDINAND LASSALLE 143

general interest — the interest of the vast majority of the (
lower classes." ^ I

It is here worth while to glance at the art of war as
practised by Lassalle. His principle is to use every attack
delivered upon his previous statements as a means of
advancing his parallels a little farther towards the enemy's
position.

He had, for instance, to prove the truth of his previous
assertion that indirect taxation was paid for the most part
by the poorer classes. He first shows by quotations that
numbers of economists, who are not writing on behalf of any
special theory, are agreed upon this point ; next, that his own
description of this abuse is couched in the mildest terms ;
further, that the Government which accuses him has made
the same statements as himself ; and, finally, that, like him-
self, they have attempted to remove the evil, but were pre-
vented by popular prejudice.

The point of special importance was to show that the
proclamation of such principles before the proletariat was an
admissible course of procedure. Lassalle proves that the
prejudices which shipwrecked the governmental measures
originated among this very proletariat, and that in champion-
ing his own principles he was therefore working for the
Government and consequently deserved rather a civic
crown than a prison. He had been opposed on the basis
of the principle that great burdens should bring corre-
spondingly great privileges, and he ultimately proves that
the transference of this principle into practice will lead to
the introduction of the universal franchise for which he is
fighting.

A characteristic common to all Lassalle's speeches in his
defence is his habit of accumulating testimony with reference
to one disputed point which he maintains with the utmost
energy, his practice of adopting the attitude of an accuser,
his tactical advance to the attack from a defensive position,
and his thorough demonstration of the ill-founded nature of
the accusations against him. When criticizing accusers,
advocates, and judges, whom he had confronted in the lower

1 " Indirect Taxation," 50, no.

144 FERDINAND LASSALLE

courts, he treats all these subordinate intellects as helpless
weaklings and lashes one with another as Vikings lashed
Eskimoes. The presiding magistrate usually plays the same
part during this procedure as the court officials in Shake-
speare's " Much Ado about Nothing." When Lassalle has
shown that an accusation is a breach of the law, he exclaims
as if he himself were the judge. Audiatur et altera pars, or
he says : " thus the accusation is meaningless ; I will put
I it in more direct terms than the State counsel has done "; ^
or he delivers a personal attack upon the State counsel.
Even in his first speech before the Court of Assizes he read
out a special document, which he had sent to his first accuser,
requesting him most energetically to conduct his prosecution
in person, as he intended to call him to account. Lassalle then
turned to the judge, and added : " You see, I attempted to

tlash his sense of honour into life enough to drive him here,
so that he might now be called to account by me. My efforts
were in vain." In his speech upon " Science and the Working
Classes " he gained a triumph by continually quoting state-
ments from Schelling, the famous philosopher, which breathe
a passionate sense of freedom, against the State counsel, who
was Schelling's son. To the amusement of the audience, the
result was a very comical disputation between Schelling senior
and Schelling junior. In short, Lassalle was never so much
in his element as when he was in the dock. This is
the oratorical position which especially stirs his brilliancy and
evokes his capacity for battle ; for his capacities were by nature
military, and were only displayed in their full power under
arms.

During these two years he was, in a metaphorical sense,
continually in the dock. Every word that he uttered or wrote
became a war-cry, rousing the attacks of a thousand voices
and a thousand newspapers. The great connected develop-
ment of his ideas, which appears in his work " Capital and
Labour," was produced in a most warlike frame of mind, and
was written with bitterness and passion to confute Schultze-
Delitzsch and the moderate school which he represented, with
the result that the book in its present form is comparable to a

1 " Science and the Workmen," 31, 39.

FERDINAND LASSALLE 145

scornful piece of lampooning. But it is perfectly obvious that
the penetrating vigour of polemical writing brought one
advantage with it, of which Lassalle was entirely conscious,
and which is a partial compensation for the poor and]'noisy
tone of his exposition, for its crudity and lack of repose. As
he himself said, hundreds and thousands would read this book
who would coldly and carelessly pass by a systematic develop-
ment of his ideas in several volumes.

10

CHAPTER IV

What, then, were these ideas ? Whence were they derived ?
What were their chief sources ? And to what modification
did Lassalle subject them ?

/ These ideas were the traditions of the revolutionary Germany
of 1848, as they were proclaimed in the manifesto of the
Communist party, which was pubhshed in London, in February,
1848, and, in particular, as they appeared in the Socialist
writings of Marx and Engels. Their historical source is to
be found in the attempts at social revolution which were made
in the Reformation period.

Spielhagen, in his book, " In Reih und Glied," has used the
traditions of the age of the peasant wars (die BundscJmh) as
a background for Leo's agitation. The hero grows up amid
descriptions of the struggles of that age, and the author's
idea is correctly — and, indeed, excellently — conceived ; for as
soon as proposals for Socialist reform began to be discussed
in Germany about 1848, recollections were aroused of the
terrible class struggle to which the Reformation had given rise,
and which it had vainly attempted to master. A glance at
these intestine conflicts, as they were conceived by the German
revolutionaries of 1848-50, is necessary in order to realize
in its proper proportions the connection of the modem German
working-class movement with an earlier and distantly related
event of the same kind, and to understand its position with
reference to its historical background.

In 1848 the Radical party held the following ideas of the
Reformation period : There were in that age three great camps
— the Roman Catholic and Conservative camp, the Moderate

146

FERDINAND LASSALLE 147

Citizen and Lutheran Reform party, and the Revolutionary
party (the peasants and people), whose demands were most
clearly expressed by Thomas Miinzer. Luther and Miinzer
were perfect representatives of their parties, both by their
doctrines and by their characters and attitudes. In 1517,
when Luther first attacked the Catholic Church, his opposition
had assumed no decided character, and, though it did not go
beyond the demands of earUer middle-class heresy, it did not
exclude any further hne of action, nor could it do so. At the
first moment it was necessary to set in motion aU the forces of
antagonism and the strongest revolutionary energy in general,
and to represent the whole body of earlier heresy against
CathoMc orthodoxy. In precisely similar fashion in 1847 the
Liberal middle classes styled themselves " Revolutionary "
and "Socialist," and enthusiastically championed the Kbera-
tion of the peasant and workman.

Luther's strong nature broke out in the most unrestrained
fashion during this first period of his career. " If you (the
Roman priests) are to continue your mad ravings, in my
opinion there can be no better counsel and medicine to check
them than that Kings and Princes should interfere with force
and put an end to the business with arms, and not with words.
As we punish thieves with the sword, murderers with the
rope, and heretics with the fire, why should we not much rather
attack these dangerous teachers of destruction — Popes, Car-
dinals, Bishops, and the whole swarm of the Roman Sodom —
with every kind of weapon, and wash our hands in their
blood ?"

This first fury, however, was of no long duration. When
the whole German people had been stirred to its depths,
when the peasants and poor citizens regarded Luther's out-
cry against the Popes in his preaching of Christian freedom
as the signal to rise against their oppressors, when the secular
authorities were only concerned to break the power of the
clergy, and to enrich themselves by appropriating Church
property, and when Luther was therefore forced to choose,
he did not hesitate for a single moment, protected as he was
by the Elector of Saxony, and surrounded by followers, who
constantly flattered the distinguished teacher. He allowed the

148 FERDINAND LASSALLE

popular element to go its way, and joined the group of citizens,
nobles, and Princes. The outcries for a war of extermination
against Rome died away, and he proceeded to preach on
behalf of a peaceful solution and of passive resistance, as did
the German National Assembly in 1848, upon the occasion of
the coup d'etat.

When Hutten invited him and Sickingen to come to Ebem-.
burg, the centre of the conspiracy of nobles against the Pope
and the Princes, Luther replied : " I have no wish that the
cause of the Gospel should be advanced by force and blood-
shed. By the Word the world has been overcome ; by the
Word the Church has been maintained ; by the Word it will
again be restored, and the Antichrist, as he came to his own
without force, will fall without force." It will be seen that
these are the words to which Lassalle represents Hutten as
repl5nng with his praise of the sword, in his drama, " Franz
von Sickingen."

Luther's career now underwent a change, was occupied
with bargaining and chaffering about the institutions and
dogmas which needed reformation, and was fiUed with un-
seemly negotiations, concessions, intrigues, and agreements,
the result of which was the Augsburg Confession of Faith.
To the undeceived Radicals of 1848, this result seemed typical
of all the attempts at compromise and of all the haggling and
chaffering which they had observed, as they watched the life
of the German National Assembly. The very sublunary
character of the official German Reformation seemed to them
to show a similarity to the attempts of the citizen parties
carefuUy wavering between a policy of abolition and a policy
of maintenance.

In the history of the Reformation, however, a counterpart
could also be found to the reversion of the citizen class to
reactionary views. When the peasant war broke out, even in
districts where the peasants were for the most part Catholics,
Luther attempted to adopt an attitude of mediation. He
made a decided attack upon the Government. Governmental
oppression was to be blamed for the revolt ; the Government was
rousing, not only the peasants, but God Himself. At the same
time, the revolt was certainly sinful and contrary to the Gospel,

FERDINAND LASSALLE 149

and for this reason he summoned both parties to concession
and agreement. The movement, however, rapidly spread, in
spite of these well-meant attempts at intervention, invaded
even Protestant districts, and rapidly outgrew the citizen
reform. When the most determined section of the rebels,
under Miinzer, made Thiiringen their headquarters, in Luther's
immediate neighbourhood, and when a few successful battles
would have sufficed to spread conflagration throughout
Germany, it was seen that intervention was hopeless. In the
face of the revolution, old quarrels were forgotten, and priests,
nobihty, Princes, Luther, and the Pope, united in defence
against " the murderous and marauding bands of peasants.
They are to be cut down, strangled, and stabbed, secretly and
publicly, by anyone who is able, as if they were mad dogs,"
cried Luther ; " and therefore, my dear lords, liberate here,
bring safety there ; stab, strike, and slay them as you can ;
and should you die in the enterprise, well for you, for you
can find no more blessed death." Luther maintained that no
false sympathy with the peasants should be felt, as God
Himself had no sympathy with them. At a later time the
peasants themselves would be glad if they were forced to
surrender one cow, that they might eat the other in peace.
" Only let them hear the whistle of bullets, for otherwise they
wiU be a thousand times worse." Was there any great dif-
ference, people asked, between this language and that which
was used by the citizen classes of Germany and France,
notwithstanding their one-time inclination to Socialism and
Humanitarianism, when the proletariat demanded their share
of the fruits of victory, after the March revolution ? The days
of June, 1848, in Paris, when workmen were shot down by
thousands, seemed to be a commentary upon Luther's old text.
Luther had placed a powerful weapon in the hands of the
proletariat movement by his translation of the Bible. Over
against the haughty Christianity of the feudal period he had
placed a picture of the modest Christianity of early times,
and the peasants had availed themselves of this implement.
Luther now turned the Bible against them, and drew from
its contents a song of praise on behalf of the authority set up
by God. Princes by the grace of God, obedience unquestion-

150 FERDINAND LASSALLE

ing, and even serfdom, were approved with the help of the
Bible. Not only the peasant rising, but also Luther's own
revolt against ecclesiastical and secular authority was thus
disavowed. Had not rebels been shot down in 1848 in pre-
cisely similar manner, and thrown into prison in the name of
Christianity ? Was not such action based upon a religion,
the essence of which was a crude communism ?

Luther was confronted by the popular rebel, Thomas
Miinzer, whose father had died on the gallows, a victim to a
noble's arbitrary wiU. His wide learning in the theology of
the age had procured him a doctor's degree, but at the same
time he treated the dogmas and the worship of the Church
with the utmost contempt. He abolished the use of Church
services in Latin long before Luther ventured to go so far.
From the outset the object of his attacks was only the ecclesi-
astical power, and, like Luther, he urged the employment of
force ; but his free-thinking doctrines were directed, not only
against Catholicism, but against Christianity in general.
Under mysterious formulae, he taught a pantheism almost
modem in character, and declined to regard the Bible either
as the only means of revelation or as infallible. The only
real source of revelation was reason, which had existed at all
times and among all peoples. The Holy Ghost of which the
Bible speaks was reason ; faith was nothing more than the
life of reason in man, and therefore even the heathen could
possess faith. By this faith man became divine and blessed.
Heaven was not reserved for the life beyond the grave, for
the Kingdom of God was to be set up here on earth. The only
devil was the evil desires and lusts of men. Christ was a man
like ourselves, and the Last Supper was merely a memorial
feast. These religious views were accompanied by a corre-
sponding Socialist programme, demanding a society without
differences of class, without rights of inheritance, and without
a Government from which the members of the State were
excluded.

Miinzer had broken with Luther and his party at an early
period. Luther was necessarily forced to accept many ecclesi-
astical reforms which Miinzer had introduced without con-
sulting him. As early as the spring of 1524 Miinzer had written

FERDINAND LASSALLE 151

to Melanchthon, saying that neither he nor Luther understood
the movement, but were attempting to stifle it by their dogma
of the verbal inspiration of the Bible.^ Challenges issued by
Luther to meet him in theological disputation were declined
by Miinzer, who replied that if Luther's intentions were honest
he would use his influence to stop the persecution of Miinzer's
printers, and to remove the censure from his books, in order
that the struggle might be fought out in the Press without
hindrance. Luther then came forward to denounce him in
pubUc. In his letter to the Prince of Saxony, " against the
rebel spirit," he declared Miinzer to be a tool of Satan, and
invited the Prince to interfere and drive him out of the
country.^

Similarly, in the French National Assembly before and
during the presidency of Louis Napoleon, the so-caUed Liberal
majority had disavowed its past. It had constantly thundered
one single word against the minority — " Socialism." Even
middle-class Liberalism was declared to be Socialist, and the
same accusation was levelled against civic enlightenment. To
build a railway where there was already a canal was Socialism.
It was Sociahsm to defend oneself with a stick if attacked with
a dagger. " The middle class," says Marx,^ " correctly saw"
that all the weapons which they had forged against feudalism
were turning upon themselves, and that all the means of
culture which they had brought forth were rebelling against
their own civihzation. . . . But what they failed to perceive
was the consequence that their own Parliamentary govern-
ment and their pohtical supremacy was now to be universally
condemned as Socialist. ... If they saw ' peace ' endangered
whenever the social organism gave signs of life, how could
they lead society to champion the rule of unrest, their own
rule, Parhamentary rule — the rule that Hves in battle and by
battle, to use the expression of one of their orators ? Parha-

* Dear brothers, away -with your hesitation and delay ; it is time, for
summer is at our doors. Make no peace with the godless, who prevent the
Word from working with full power. Flatter not your Princes, otherwise
you will perish with them. Ye tender scribes, be not unwilling ; I can do
nought else.

2 Cf. Karl Marx, Neue Rheinische Zeitvmg, 5, 6, vol. for 1850 ; " The German
Peasant War," by Friedrich Engels.

3 Karl Marx, " The Eighteenth Bruma,ire of Louis Naipoleon," 26,

152 FERDINAND LASSALLE

mentary government lives on discussion ; how, then, could it
forbid discussion ? The strife of oratory in Parliament calls
forth the strife of the scribblers of the Press. The Parlia-
mentary debating club finds its necessary complement in
debates held in drawing-rooms and in public houses. If those
in power at the summit of the State proceed to pipe, -why
should they expect that those beneath them will not darice ?
The middle class, condemning as Socialist what they had
formerly honoured as Liberal, thereby admit that their
own interest demands the abohtion of the dangers involved
by self-government, for the purpose of restoring peace to the
country." To apply the conditions then existing in France to
Germany was obvious, and a comparison between Luther's
attitude and the position of the German citizen class at that
critical age was no less intelUgible.

People were inclined to think that they were living in an age
which had begun the work of the Reformation period anew.
Upon the theological side the Reformation had been continued
by Strauss and Feuerbach, while the Democratic party hoped
in the political and social departments to resume the ideas
and plans of the Reformation which had never come to fulfil-
ment. But the party was not sufficiently instructed upon the
nature of the Reformation. It forgot that the success of that
movement was solely due to the fact that it had been confined
and limited, both upon its negative and positive sides, and
also to the fact that, though it proceeded from a strong and
vital moral sense, it had been able to attract political powers
and passions. The Reformation had emerged triumphant
from its duel, because it had been seconded by the political
advantages of those in power, but the Revolution of 1848
was purely idealistic and radical ; it was anxious to transform
everything at one blow. For this reason, " the old Socialists,"
Marx and Engels, go back to the peasant wars, and glorify
them. Lassalle, like them, was attracted by these wars, but
regards them with greater intellectual power and with more
historical insight. He observes that the peasants who were
enchained by medieval ideas regarded landed property, the
economic power of the Middle Ages, as the qualifpng condition
for participation in the government, whereas it never occurred

FERDINAND LASSALLE 153

to them that a man might have a right simply as a man to a
share in the governmental power. In contrast to Marx and
Engels, Lassalle now directs his studies by preference to the
aristocratic revolts of that time and to the rising of the nobility
under Sickingen. His researches in this direction gave him
the idea for his drama, " Franz von Sickingen." We must
return once more to this important source of evidence upon
LassaUe's mental life. In his preface to this work he mentions
the erroneous idea that the spirit of the Reformation had been
more or less created by Luther. He shows that this spirit
not merely existed before Luther's time, but was also inspired
by pure human enthusiasm, arising from the renaissance of
the sciences, which Luther turned into the narrow channel of
one-sided dogmatic theology. He further demonstrates that
this spirit of reform, which existed before the Reformation,
was wider, freer, and more human in its scope than its own
fruit, the Reformation. A letter from Hutten to Count
Nuenar, referring to Luther's first appearance, runs as follows 2_
" They are beginning to destroy one another. Perhaps you
do not yet know that a party has risen in Wittenberg, in
Saxony, against the dignity of the Popes, while another party
is defending the Papal indulgences. Both sides are using
every possible means and straining their utmost. The leaders
of either party are monks, and are shouting, howling, and com-
plaining as loud as they can ; recently they have even begun to
write. Paragraphs, pamphlets, and articles, wiU be printed
and disseminated. I hope that they will contrive to over-
throw one another (' Sic spero fiet, ut mutui interitus causas
sibi invicem praebeant '). When a mendicant friar recently
told me the news, I replied : ' Devour one another, so that none
of you remain ' (' Consumite, ut consumamini invicem ') . So
I trust that our enemies will destroy and devour one another
in their mutual conflicts."

It is thus not the theological, but the moral and political
reform that is represented by the two heroes of Lassalle's drama,
Hutten and Sickingen ; and, in order that the piece might
fuUy represent the later fate of its writer, Hutten finally joins
the leaders of the peasant revolt, and persuades Franz to take
the lead of the rebel peasants.

CHAPTER V

In the spring of 1862 the days passed by in hard work and
fruitful thought, but as yet without feverish haste or restless-
ness, in the well-known house in the Belle vuestrasse. The
little winter garden, which was full of beautiful and rare plants,
peacefully exhaled its scents into the rooms about it. The
beautiful life-size marble and alabaster statues which were there
placed, and stood out most effectively from the dark velvet
curtains, seemed to be in perfect harmony with the life and
habits of their owner. The mirrors, bronzes, Chinese vases,
the modern pictures on the walls, the old papyrus rolls and
folios in the library, bore no indication that their possessor
would soon be reproached for his ownership of such luxuries,
or be told that he should distribute them elsewhere ; nor did
they give any premonition of the approaching time when they
would all be scattered to the winds.

In the evening old friends and acquaintances continued to
gather together. Franz Duncker, the supporter of the party
of progress and owner of the Volkszeitung, who was soon to
quarrel with Lassalle ; the botanist Prietzel, a friend of earHer
years ; Ziegler, formerly chief burgomaster of Brandenburg ;
the old, simple, and undaunted battle-poet Scherenberg ;
Martiny, Lothar Bucher, Boeckh, Von Pfuel, and others, were
there. Sometimes the lively and excitable Hans von Biilow
would sit down at the splendid grand piano, and Liszt's com-
positions filled the lofty room.

Much laughter went on in the study when Lassalle had
thrown aside his pen, so weary of writing his sparkling com-
mentary upon the spiritless and halting prose of Julian

154

FERDINAND LASSALLE 155

Schmidt, under the cloak of the " compositor," that Lothar
Bucher was obhged to write the last third of the book, under
the cloak of the " compositor's wife." They read aloud the
preposterous ideas which the golden words of poor Julian have
transmitted to posterity concerning the Seven Wise Men of
Greece. They enjoyed his penetrating observations upon the
Schwdbensfiegel, the famous medieval code of Suabian laws,
which he regarded as a modem German collection of songs of
innocence. They laughed over his serious criticism of " Faust,"
" the virtuoso with no idealism," and over his fooHsh, misty
phrases concerning Fichte and Hegel. There was laughter,
too, in the drawing-room ; jokes and sarcastic puns were
made upon the Progressive party that had recently been
founded under the intellectual leadership of Schultze-Delitzsch.
These people had not even the courage to call themselves
Democrats, and what in all the world did they expect to signify
or to represent if they were not ?

The breach between LassaUe and the Liberals had not yet
occurred ; it was not far off, but had not yet become irreparable.
Hence might be explained the circumstance that just at that
time Lassalle received a complimentary invitation from one
of the most cultured and almost ofl&cial circles in Berlin —
the only official recognition which was ever offered to him
during his lifetime by high society. Philosophical society
in BerMn had taken him to itself unanimously, for the author
of " Heraclitus " was regarded as an obviously qualified
member. He was now requested to deliver the memorial
oration in the course of the celebrations which this society
and the Society of Art and Science proposed to celebrate in
memory of Fichte on May 19, 1862.

It cannot be denied that in this lecture, " The Philosophy of
Fichte and the Significance of German Nationalism," Lassalle
brilliantly performed his difficult task. Strictly scientific as
the lecture is, and wide as is the information given in very
narrow limits of space, it is none the less light in style and
characterized by noble simplicity. How clever and true, for
instance, is the illustration which Lassalle gives of Kant's
' ' Critique of Pure Reason, ' ' which, by the superiority of self -con-
sciousness, is able to overthrow the certainty of the outer world.

156 FERDINAND LASSALLE

the fragments of which reflect only the critique itself. Las-
salle exemplifies this by quoting a passage from Goethe's

^ Faust."

" The giant spirit of Kant," says Lassalle, "is in reality

j the Faust to whom the chorus of spirits call " —

" Woe, woe !
Thou hast destroyed
This beauteous world
With, mighty hand ;
It falls, it fades !
A demigod hath stricken it ;
We bear

The ruins over to the shades of night
And weep

For beauty perished : but thou
Mightier

Than the sons of earth
Build it

Once more in greater splendour,
Build it up within thy heart !

" and even so," adds Lassalle, " as the poet's cry of yearning
calls to Faust, did he reconstruct the world in his heart. The
German spirit, while he reconstructs the world from his own
inner consciousness, is Fichte."

But Lassalle's lecture dealt with Fichte, not as a philosopher,
but as a patriot ; he lauded him as the enthusiast who brought
enlightenment to the spirit of Germany, and as the prophet
who announced her unity. His love of this idea and his faith
in it formed the ultimate bond between himself and his com-
patriots of his own rank. Upon that evening he clung to it
as if it were the last sign of communion between himself and
his fellow-citizens, with their Liberal ideas and their scientific
culture.

His efforts were in vain ; his views were already known, and
he was himself unpopular. During the lecture he was inter-
rupted by outcries, the doors- behind him were continually
opened and banged. The audience did not hesitate openly to
show their anxiety to go to dinner, and the conclusion of
this masterly speech was heard only by a small number of
the public. Thus in due form he was expelled from the midst
of the Liberal middle class.

The lecture which Lassalle had delivered in Berlin upon
Constitutional theory had attracted the attention of the

FERDINAND LASSALLE 157

workmen. They were yet more strongly aroused by his
lecture upon the connection between the present age and
the aims of the working class, which he delivered on April 12,
1862, before a union of Berlin workmen in the suburb of
Oranienburg. At the outset of 1863 a committee met to call
a general meeting of German workmen in Leipzig. The leaders
had been greatly flattered by the f>rogressive party, but had
been unable to decide their course of action. They now
determined to invite Lassalle to tell them what, in his opinion,
would be the most correct and advantageous method for them
to pursue.

He sent an Open Letter of Reply to the committee, in which
he declared with great precision and clearness his programme,
which was precisely opposed to that of Schultze-Delitzsch.
His words made an irresistible impression, and shortly after-
wards the Universal German Workmen's Union was founded.

It would be waste of time to explain his economic principles
in the order in which he proclaimed them in his agitatory
speeches and lawsuits. I will therefore give here a general
view of them in compressed form as they may be found
scattered throughout his writings.

Lassalle, as a true Hegelian, divides the past history of the 1^
world into three epochs, the two first of which form contrasts, \
while the latter unites the permanent elements in the two !
fortner. He then shows that all historical development has '
proceeded from corporate life and action, without which no /
civilization at all could have been formed. /

Throughout antiquity and medieval times human solidarity
or corporate life was regarded as based upon subjugation
and subjection. The French Revolution of 1789, and the
period which it dominated, sought for freedom in the
dissolution of all solidarity and corporate life, though freedom
apart from corporate life is mere licence. Finally, the modem
period, which Lassalle regards as beginning in 1848, attempts
to find the bond of union in freedom. It is instructive to
observe in passing, that a philosophic historian of Hegel's
school feels no hesitation in dividing the history of the world
into three epochs of equal importance for the purpose of
producing two complementary conceptions, though one of

158 FERDINAND LASSALLE

these epochs embraces some five or six thousand years, and
the other scarce sixty. It seems more natural to regard the
development after 1849 as a continuation of the movement
begun in 1789 than to exaggerate contrasts and to ascribe
so short a period to the second epoch, in order to produce the
Hegelian tripartite idea, with its revulsion of concept.

LassaUe is, none the less, correct in proceeding from human
corporate life as an actual point of departure. He concludes
that the fact of human solidarity may fail to be realized, but
cannot be abolished, and that it exists, even though social
institutions fail to recognize or to guide it. In such cases it
appears as brute natural force, while the individual who is
forced to rely upon himself is at its mercy. The interaction
of social forces, their rise and fall, brings wealth to one,
throws others into poverty, and sports with the labour and
industry of the individual. Lassalle therefore maintains that
attempts to limit and overcome this intermittent action are by
no means intended to remove the freedom and responsibility of
the individual, but, on the contrary, endeavour to give this
freedom every opportunity of expressing itself in a reasonable
way. The unfortunate fact, in his opinion, is that favourable
circumstances at the present day usually have but a very slight
and transitory influence upon the condition of the working
classes, whereas unfavourable conditions recoil with destruc-
tive power upon those who own no property. Immediate
reduction of wages, diminution of employment or an entire
absence of work, are the blows delivered upon the backs of
the workmen by bad times and by the fluctuations due to the
greedy rivalry of speculators.

The school of political economy, represented in France by
Bastiat, and in Germany by the leader of the Progressive
party, Schultze-Delitzsch, had regarded the mutual exchange
of commodities as the whole secret of political economy.
Against this Lassalle vigorously emphasizes the fact that human
society and human work in the present age does not merely
consist in the association of men within definite localities,
and the interchange of the products of their personal labour.
He shows that production is a common result of co-operation,
produced by the complex activities of a numerous body,

FERDINAND LASSALLE 159

, while at the same time the profits of production are not
\ divided as common property, but, as products or values,
become the personal possession of the contractor or manufac-
turer. The manufacturer thus makes labour productive,
inasmuch as his agreements with the whole of the working
class, whose co-operation has brought about production, are
subject to that law of wages which must inevitably be developed
under these circumstances — the law which plays so im-
portant a part in the works of Marx and in the agitation of
Lassalle ; the law which, never denied except by Lassalle's
most ephemeral opponents, was formulated by Ricardo and
has been recognized by all economists of any reputation ; the
law that wages, upon the average, are limited to the sum
which is unconditionally necessary for the maintenance of life
and the propagation of the species, and will vary according to
the habits of the people in question. The current rate of
wages will oscillate about this point, never rising far above
it or sinking far below it. Thus, according to Lassalle, the
profound contradiction in modem society is due to the fact
that the principle of co-operation is invariably employed for
production, whereas the distribution of the profits is made
solely upon the principle of individuahsm.

The antiquated economic school of exchange had depicted
conditions as if every man worked immediately for his own
purposes, and then, under some idyllic system, proceeded to
exchange such products as he could not use himself for those
of his neighbours. Lassalle scornfully asks whether under-
takers' establishments exist primarily to provide for cases of
death in the family of the owner, and only when such cases are
rare, exchange for other commodities such trappings of woe as
may be superfluous.

The same economic school spread the doctrine that saving
and hoarding were the only means by which capital could be
formed. Lassalle shows how irrational is the assumption that
such a purely negative procedure as saving and not consuming
could ever be the source by which the capital of a State is
formed. " What products of labour," he asks, " can be con-
sumed, and what cannot be saved ? Corn, meat, wine, and
similar articles of food and drink — these things which can be

i6o FERDINAND LASSALLE

consuttied, must be consumed in general within a certain space
of time, because as a rule they will not keep ; but if we glance
at the other products which chiefly compose the capital Wealth
of modern society, such as steam-engines and farming imple-
ments, houses, raw materials of every kind, such as iron bars,
pigs of copper, bricks and blocks of stone, need we ask whether
these commodities can be consumed or will not be saved ?
Is it reasonable so zealously to crown the capitalists for their
services in not consuming aU these steam-engines, all this
guano, all these bars of iron and blocks of stone, or will the
statement be brought forward that they have not sold them ?
But if we are discussing the political economy of the State,
and not that of the individual, it is obviously a matter of in-
difference whether a thing belongs to Peter or to Paul. It is
only a misunderstanding of Adam Smith's century-old defini-
tion of capital as accumulated labour that has led to the
doctrine of saving.

Instead of making unscientific attempts to represent capital
as a natural necessity of eternal permanence, Lassalle enters
upon an investigation to show how capital actually arose in
the course of history.

In ancient times a man who had a hundred slaves could
very well consume the product of sixty slaves' labour, and
accumulate the product of forty slaves. This, however, was
not saving. In the Middle Ages the overlord similarly accumu-
lated the labour of his servants. This, again, was not saving.
Then came the Revolution of 1789, when labour was declared
free by law. But obviously work cannot be begun without
tools and without the means of maintaining existence while
the work is in progress — in other words, without previous work,
which means capital. Hence the workman is under compul-
sion no less onerous than before to give his master the whole
profits of his labour so far as that profit exceeds his own daily
wants. Thus the labour previously performed, the dead labour
or capital, outweighs the living labour in every society which,
like our own, produces under the laws of open competition
and individualism.^

* " We have been reproached with a desire to abolish property personally
acquired by a man's own efforts, property which is the foundation of all
personal freedom, energy, and independence. Are you speaking of the pro-

FERDINAND LASSALLE i6i

The workman is killed by the products of his own toil.
His labour of yesterday rises up against him, strikes him
down, and deprives him of the profits of his labour of to-day.
The work of the wild Indian, his hunting, produces no super-
fluity. Superfluity is only produced by labour carried on
under the principle of the division of labour, and the division
of labour is only possible when capital has been previously
formed. Labour divided or united, producing the culture of
which it is the condition, was originally and for a long time
only possible in the form of slave-labour, brought together and
kept in subjugation by force ; but it is the task of our period
to aboUsh slavery and its various forms, and therefore, in
LassaUe's view, our age must not merely put an end to these
conditions — so much is unquestionably its task — ^but it must
make this end a new beginning.

History thus shows that capital funds have not been formed
by saving or by individual labour ; equally impossible is their
formation by these methods at the present day. They are
formed by the interconnection of society. Capital profit is
very far removed from the nature of a wage paid in return for
personal inconvenience. On the contrary, it constantly
accrues, although the capitalist has not raised a finger or
denied himself the smallest pleasure. Such increment may
occur, for instance, by a rise in the value of land or of railway
shares. It was simply in order to avoid the admission that
labour alone creates value that Bastiat invented service as an
economic idea. According to his theory, the standard of value
does not consist in the necessary work expended upon the
production of a commodity, but in the work that the consumer

perty of the small citizen and the small peasant which preceded citizen
property ? We do not need to abolish this, for the progress of manufacture
has abolished it and is daily abolishing it. But does paid work, the work of
the proletariat, bring property to the labourer ? By no means ; it creates
capital, in other words the property which exploits paid labour. . . . By
freedom we understand free trade, free purchase and sale within the present
conditions of civic production, but if haggling comes to an end, even free
haggling will cease. You are horrified because we wish to abolish private
property ; but in your existing society, property is beyond the acquisition
of nine-tenths of its members. It exists simply because it does not exist
for these nine-tenths. You are therefore reproaching us for our desire to
abolish property, the existence of which necessarily presupposes the incapacity
of the vast majority of society to possess anything." — Karl Marx, " Com-
munist Manifesto," 1848.

i62 FERDINAND LASSALLE

is " saved " by the transference of the commodity to him, and
this " saving " contains the idea of service. Lassalle asks
whether a railway company could reasonably ask a price for
the ticket which would correspond to the trouble, loss of time,
and expense to which the traveller would have been put if he
had been obliged to make his journey on foot or by carriage.

Against this LassaUe urges with Marx that labour is activity,
and therefore movement. But all continuous movement im-
plies time ; the solution of all values as consisting in the
quantity of labour expended upon them, and this, again, in
the time expended upon labour, is Ricardo's contribution to
the subject. All value thus amounts to the time necessarily
expended in labour for the production of a commodity. Is,
then, this time the time expended by the individual ? When
the workman is isolated it is so. With reference to the com-
modity produced, it is only so if I produce objects for my
actual personal use ; but if I produce commodities for exchange
— ^that is, for the use of others — my labour includes general or
society labour. Thus, the commodity in question implies not
only individual time, the time spent in labour by me personally,
but also general or social time spent in labour, and this it is
which forms the measure of unity for the amount of labour
represented by the commodity produced. Now, the time of
a society expended in labour has an independent existence of
its own as money. Money is social labour-time in tangible
form, abstracted from the special purposes of the particular
labour, such as may be spent upon needles, wood, linen, etc.
It is only by taking a salto mortale, or leap to destruction, into
the sea of money that commodities can prove the truth of their
existence as social labour-time externalized in tangible form.
The statement of Say, that products can only be exchanged
for products, that the capital of a land consists in wares, and
not in money, and that money is not capital, is a truth which
is only true when abstracted from the actual objects of economic
intercourse. In actual practice products are never exchanged
for products, but for money, and so long as products avoid
this salto mortale into the form of money they are not capital.
They are potential capital, but nothing more.

The pulsation of capital, which interpenetrates the civic

FERDINAND LASSALLE 163

process of production, is interrupted, and during the time of
its interruption capital is known as commodities. When the
circulation recommences, commodities are removed and con-
sumed for the purpose of further production. Production is,
therefore, a stream, the motive-power of which is formed by
capital, and is brought to a standstill in the produced com-
modity. This commodity can only return to the form of capital
if it is turned out of its fixed form and thrown once more into the
stream of production — ^if, in other words, it ceases to be a pro-
duct, whether it is a means of life, or whether it is raw material
for further work. There is but one product in the case of
which this circulation is never interrupted, but is as constant
as the circulation of the blood — and this is money. Money is,
therefore, capital in the truest sense of the word. Money was
certainly borrowed in antiquity and in the Middle Ages, but
only with the object of consuming the amount of the loan.
For this reason high rates of interest — in fact, interest at all —
was often regarded as something dishonourable. The point of
departure was that a loan made only for the purpose of use,
and which made the borrower no richer, ought not, therefore,
to enrich the lender — ^in other words, it was regarded as dis-
graceftJ to use the necessities and the embarrassments of
another man in order to plunder him. Among us, on the
other hand, it is not loans of this kind, but productive loans,
that play the most important part. The lender's whole object
in this case is to enrich himself — an object which the borrower
readily shares with him — and a loan thus imphes the same as
an economic share in business profits. Gold and the riches
of the ancients were capital in embryo form, but not capital
itself. When the commerce of the Middle Ages began to rise
to importance, the embryo attained development ; but only
after the French Revolution were all the barriers removed
which prevented free competition, and only then did capital
become a fuUy developed organism. Henceforward all legal
conditions of production are absorbed in one purely practical
condition, preliminary possession of the necessary money
enabling the producer to have his capital in his hands. In
the Middle Ages the value of commodities depended partly
upon the intentions of the producer. He might, for instance.

i64 FERDINAND LASSALLE

insist upon a proiit corresponding to his social position ; but
the price of commodities is now determined by the cost of
production. Under the equaUzing predominance of free com
petition, one producer underbids another in order to secure the
market for himself. Hence an actual advantage for the con-
sumer is cheapness, but this fact again necessitates production
upon a large scale, and a large amount of money in hand, or a
large capital. Consequently, under our present social arrange-
ments, all capital necessarily tends to become large in size and
to absorb smaller capital sums.

The standard of value for the commodity — ^in other words,
the amount of labour-time necessary for its production — ^may
be called the conscience of civic production. Now, this con-
science is necessarily and continually outraged by the continual
oscillation of prices between excess and deficiency. This, how-
ever, is a matter only of importance for the individual capitalist
With regard to capital as such, the several swings of the pen-
dulum compensate for one another. Like the price of all other
commodities, so also the price of labour or the rate of wages
is determined by the relations of demand and supply. Mean-
while, the price of every commodity is determined by the
necessary expense of its production. What, then, does it cost
a workman to be productive ? The ordinary and necessary
expenses of life for him and his family — in other words, the
costs of producing labour — are equivalent to the cost at which a
workman can produce. What, then, would happen to the sellers
of other wares, supposing they were unable to hold out for several
weeks in succession against a demand that did not correspond
to their prices ? The seller of that commodity known as labour
cannot hold out. He must sell, under compulsion of hunger.
The special characteristic of the civic epoch is the cold and
impersonal attitude of the manufacturer towards the work-
man, as though he were a commodity like other commodities
on the market, produced according to the law of the cost of
production. In this way it therefore appears that the average
wage is necessarily limited to the amount usually regarded by
the people as necessary to maintain daily life. Any, surplus
profit of labour comes to benefit capital in its different forms,
and becomes a bonus upon capital.

FERDINAND LASSALLE 165

The secret of the fruitfulness of capital is thus seen to
consist in the unfruitfulness^of labour. In the difference
between the amount of labour expended, which is paid for
in the price given for the commodity produced, and, on the
other hand, the sums paid in wages, lies the profit that accrues
to capital, or bonus, which appears as the capacity and power
of capital to increase continually, a capacity that first gains full
liberty of action by means of free competition. The bonus
on capital is not, as has been said, merely a wage due to the
intellectual powers which guide labour. This idea can be
refuted merely by considering the difference between the wages
of a company director and between bonus. Nor do wages rise
with an increase of annual production, for, though a larger
amount may then be paid in wages, it is merely distributed
among a larger number of workmen — in other words, accord-
ing to LassaUe's theory, there is not, under existing arrange-
ments, a single shilling earned by a workman or a single drop
of his sweat which does not on the morrow produce a new and
unprofitable drop of sweat for the workman and a new shilling
for capital. The implement of labour — namely, capital — has
then become separated from the workmen, and attained in-
dependence. Its suckers absorb all fruitfulness to itself, and
concede to the workman merely the compensation for the vital
force necessarily expended in the course of the work. Capital
thus makes labour unfruitful. What, then, is capital ? It is
an implement of labour that has become independent, that has
changed parts with the workman, has reduced him from a
living being to a dead implement, and has raised itself, a dead
implement, to the position of a living and productive force.
If a stronger definition be wanted, capital is an advance made
in virtue of labour previously expended, an advance which is
necessary during the division of labour under a system of
production which depends upon exchange ; necessary also
during the unrestrained course of commercial rivalry for the
daily maintenance of the producer, until his commodities have
been delivered to their eventual consumers ; an advance pro-
ducing the consequence that the profits of labour which exceed
the amount necessary for daily maintenance accrue to the
man who has made the advance. The statement of Lassalle's

i66 FERDINAND LASSALLE

opponents is thus entirely true when they assert that the
market price of a commodity is payment for nothing else than
for human labour ; but, be it observed, the payment is made,
not to, the workman, but is absorbed by the sponge of capital :
" the workman's own has become another's."

The most obvious revelation of the uncertainty of modem
social conditions, and the impossibility of basing calculations
upon them, is found by Lassalle in the procedure of the Stock
Exchange, with its gambling upon the rise and fall of stocks
and the investment of property in shares, State bonds, and
loans in general. Every event in Turkey or Mexico, every
act of peace and war, every change of public opinion, a false
telegram, a loan in Paris or London, the wheat-harvest on the
Mississippi, gold-mines in Australia — ^in short, any outward
event occurring by purely outward movements of society as
such, whether in the sphere of the State, or the money market,
or trade, daily produces upon the Stock Exchange some
alteration for the weal or woe of the individual, and creates
new conditions under which he must live. Lassalle asks how
Socialism may be well defined. It may be certainly defined
as the distribution of property by social means, but it is pre-
cisely this condition which is nowadays in force. The state
of things as prevaiHng is nothing else than lawless Socialism
in the guise of personal production. What Socialism as a
regulating force would abolish is thus not property, but law-
lessness ; in fact, it desires to introduce no property except
personal property founded upon labour.^

If now, says Lassalle, we turn our gaze from capital property

1 Marx, who was an even more tenacious adherent of Hegel's principles of
rhjrthm and symmetry in the philosophy of history than Lassalle, laid down
three main periods of economic history. In the first, the workman owns his
means of production and conducts a small business upon his own account.
In the next period, the accumulation of capital, when it is not the direct
consequence of the transformation of slaves and serfs into wage-earners,
is based upon the exploitation of the immediate producer — i.e., upon the
disappearance of private property as acquired by individual labour. But
this first transition from scattered private ownership to capitalist ownership
finds its counter part in the transition from capitalist to social ownership,
as a negation of a negation. The first point at issue is the exploitation of the
people at large by a few robbers. But whereas centuries were occupied in
the first transition, Marx with his abstract radicalism imagines that the latter
transition can proceed so rapidly and easily as the progress of his own specula-
tions and be accomplished by one stroke and by a sudden revolution, a most
unhistorical point of view.

FERDINAND LASSALLE 167

as existing, which has certainly accrued in due correspondence
with the prevailing state of affairs, we have the indisputable
right to make the property of the future, as yet unproduced,
the property of labour, by reforming the methods of produc-
tion. There is to be no breach with the division of labour,
the source of aU civilization ; only capital is to be once more
reduced to its position as a dead implement of work in the
service of man. For this purpose it is only necessary that
throughout the realm of production individual private capital
for productive purposes should be aboUshed ; that the labour
of society, which was previously common, should be main-
tained in employment by the common capital of society,
while the profits of production should be divided among the
feUow-labourers according to the value of their achievements.
The means of transition to this purpose, the simplest and
mildest of all, are, in Lassalle's opinion, productive unions
supported by State credit.

CHAPTER VI

We have taken a general view of the theoretical foundation
upon which Lassalle's polemical writings are based. We must
now see what specially advanced points in his theory were
brought under the enemy's fire during the progress of the
conflict, and which of these points proved to be indefensible.
We have held a rapid review of his forces ; we must now
observe their attitude in attack and defence during the battle.

We will therefore take the first disputed point — the law of
wages. Lassalle placed the law of wages in the front of all
his economic arguments, calling it by preference the " cruel
iron law." He told the workmen, when anyone spoke of
improving the conditions of their daily Uves, to ask him first
of all whether he recognized this law or not. If he did not
recognize it, further negotiations with him were not worth the
trouble, for the law was recognized by all leaders of economic
science. If he did recognize the law, the second question
arose — How did he think the law could be abolished ?

The Progressive party of that time, led by Schultze-Delitzsch
as representing their economic theories, was, however, very
far removed from recognizing the existence of that law.
Open refusal to admit, ambiguous denial, attempts to explain
the facts away, the imputation of low motives actuating the
declaration of this "untruth" — all these methods were
attempted. Such procedure can be only partially excused by
the unwarrantable and exaggerated conclusions which Las-
salle deduced from this law. He represented as something
pecuUar and especially formidable to the working class the
fact that its income should at all times correspond with its

i68

FERDINAND LASSALLE 169

most urgent necessities, while at the same time the necessities
increased with an increase of income. As there are extremely
few men whose income perceptibly surpasses their require-
ments, this law does not express anything peculiar to the
working class alone, nor anything which, considered in and
for itself, should arouse horror ; but instead of emphasizing
this circumstance, Lassalle's opponents attacked his principle
as a pure piece of invention. Lassalle rightly says that the
anger of his enemies was " boundless " after he had revealed
this law in the argument of his " open answer." Men turned
upon him, as in antiquity they turned upon a priest who had
betrayed the mysteries of Ceres. " Had my enemies beeiH
Romans," he says, " they would have struck me down in '
open market, as the patricians once struck down Gracchus ;
but my enemies are not Romans, and for that reason they
attempt to strike me down with calumnies, and not with
swords."^ _

Just at that time Lassalle had been condemned to four
months' imprisonment, as a punishment for the pacificatory
and purely historical tone of his " Workmen's Programme."
The newspapers professed to have discovered at one time that
his opposition to the middle class was based upon hopes of
ameliorating the rigours of his confinement, or that he
was acting as a deserter, or as a tool of the reaction, or,
again, as an ignorant amateur in the department of political
economy. None the less, no one succeeded in explaining
away the existence of the law. Thus the only issue was to
regard it as an economic law of nature which, as such, could
never be overthrown, and this last resource was also adopted.

Lassalle asserts that all attempts to improve the position
of the working class by means of savings-banks, sick-clubs,
.accident insurances, and the like, are invalidated by this law,
and must ever be naturally fruitless. If these institutions
are intended to counteract the manifold misfortunes — ^insanity,
illness, old age, etc. — which reduce individual workmen by
chance or necessity below the general level of their class, they
have a relative though a very subordinate value ; but for the
welfare of the class as such they are purposeless. Lassalle
1 " Labour Problem."

170 FERDINAND LASSALLE

then considers the co-operative societies of consumers, founded
by Schultze-Delitzsch for similar humanitarian purposes. He
shows that the workmen require help, not as consumers, but
as producers, for aU men as consumers stand, comparatively
speaking, upon the same level. The point is to relieve pressure
where the shoe pinches. He then examines the credit and
raw material societies, and points out that the inevitable
movement of industry is daily killing the labour of the in-
dividual handicraftsman by the system of manufacture on a
large scale. Hence these unions, which at most place the
poor craftsman in a position to compete with the prosperous,
do but unnecessarily prolong the deadly struggle of individual
labour with the larger manufactories.

Finally, he draws attention to the illusory nature of the
comparison constantly made between the position of the work-
man to-day and his position in earlier centuries, by which the
true question is quietly obscured. The point at issue is not
the position of the workman in comparison with his position
three hundred years ago, but his position in comparison with
the necessities and customs of life at his time. The cannibal
savage cannot be said to regard the lack of a decent coat as a
want. Similarly, before the invention of printing, the work-
man felt no privation if he were unable to procure a
useful book. Privation is the point at issue. LassaUe finally
demonstrates that such retrospective views of the history of
civilization are of very doubtful value, for the manufactured
products, which tend to become cheaper, are consumed by
the workman to a far less degree than the necessities of life,
which show no similar steady tendency to cheapness.

Thus the usual considerations and compensating measures
leavethe law of wages untouched, and are therefore, in Lassalle's
opinion, of no importance to the working class, considered as a
class. Hence he takes the view that the only remaining
remedy is State interference. To oppose this position, his
adversaries changed their tactics, and asserted that the law of
wages is a law of nature, against which, therefore, the State
ought not to fight. Lassalle's view was, as we have already
seen, that economic laws are not natural, but historical.

A short explanation of this disputed point now becomes

FERDINAND LASSALLE 171

necessary. Ricardo's theory of wages is the following :
Everything has a natural price and an actual price, and labour
is no exception. The natural price consists in the amount
of labour expended upon the production of the commodity.
If this object is labour itself, the natural price of labour con-
sists in the expenditure necessary to produce a workman — that
is, in the sum absolutely necessary for the support of himself
and his family. The actual price of every article depends upon
supply and demand, but, as a rule, will only diverge from the
natural price for short intervals of time and to an insignificant
extent. As regards labour, a steadily increasing demand for
it will naturally produce a rise in wages, but at the same time
will produce a greater influx of workmen. If the demand is
reduced, the resulting distress will diminish the number of
workmen, and therefore again produce a rise in wages.

The point below which wages cannot fall is most intimately
connected with the mode of life under which the workman
finds he can live and rear his family in any particular land or
at any particular time. The reasons which prevent wages
from faUing below this point are stated by Lassalle, in his
answer to the Workmen's Committee, to be emigration, the
faU in the marriage rate, artificial sterihty of marriage, and
the diminution of the working population by distress.

Of these causes, the last alone is decisive. The connection
of the marriage and birth rates with the general prosperity,
and especially with the price of com, is universally recognized,
but will not explain variations in the rate of wages ; for these
occur within spaces of time too short to admit the influence
of variations in the numbers of the rising generation. Emigra-
tion and migration within a country are merely forms under
which distressjis outwardly expressed. This, therefore, re-
mains the only 'material influence.

No one wiU deny that this law of wages is as hard as
" iron," as Lassalle called it, if he knows the difference between
the longevity of the rich and the poor, and realizes that want,
even if it claims victims only sporadically, none the less steadily
undermines vitaUty. Its influence is almost equally oppressive
whether the average prosperity of the population is high or
low ; for when the average is high, the workman will cling as

172 FERDINAND LASSALLE

long as possible to the objects characteristic of his social
status, which can be seen and are regarded by him as outward
tokens of his position, and will do this even at the sacrifice
of the greatest necessaries of life.

It was certainly a gross mistake on the part of Lassalle's
opponents to dispute an assertion which he could so easily
prove, as that all scientific authorities are agreed in regarding
the law of wages as really existing. He was equally correct
in pointing out the deceptive nature of comparisons between
the present position of the workman and his position in
earlier times ; but, none the less, one circumstance exists
which, if it does not invalidate the existence of the law,
invalidates Lassalle's conclusions — namely, that wages within
recent years have, as a matter of fact, risen.

The law by no means excludes the workman from the possi-
bility of improving his mode of life, in consequence of the pro-
gress of civilization, and even if the law cannot be abolished
under existing social conditions, the conclusion does not follow
that an improvement in the workman's position under present
society is impossible. Such an improvement has been actually
brought about in spite of the law, and to this Lassalle's action
has largely contributed ; for such progress has been due,
partly to the interference of the State in the most obvious
abuses, partly to the fear of a threatening social revolution,
and partly to the sympathy which a few leading men were
able to arouse on behalf of the working class ; partly, also,
to the co-operation of the workmen for the protection of their
common interests — all of which influences were either furthered
or in many cases created by Lassalle's agitation.^

The second point at issue is the alternative of self-help, or
State-help. The destructive influence of a system of support
and the strength inherent in the principle of self-help were
generally acknowledged in Germany, which regarded England
as the pattern State, after the abortive revolution of 1848.
Hence we cannot be surprised at the outcry of disgust aroused
by the word " State-help." Lassalle replies by urging that
it is obvious foolishness to be continually calling upon the

1 F. A. Lange, "The Labour Problem," 161-172 ; Lujo Brentano, "The
Position of Labour in Modern Law," 179 et seq.

FERDINAND LASSALLE 173

workman to help himself. The individual without capital is
helpless, and one might as well call out to a man who had
fallen into the water, with a weight of a thousand pounds in his
pocket, advising him to swim to the shore. In the second place,
Lassalle emphasizes the fact that State interference by no
means excludes social self-help. No one, for instance, pre-
vents a man from climbing a tower by his own strength, if he
lends him a ladder for the purpose. Nor, then, does the
State prevent youth from developing their own powers by
providing teachers, schools, libraries, etc., for their benefit.
Thirdly, he proves that the Manchester school itself was so un-
principled as to demand State-help, on finding itself unable to
procure other resources, at a time when it was necessary to
stop the emigration of workmen during the cotton famine,
brought about by the great American War.

In these general statements LassaUe is correct, but he shows
a tendency to hair-sphtting in his fourth criticism, which is
directed against an enterprise of his chief opponent, Schultze-
DeUtzsch, who attempted to find enough capital among the
workmen to found a bank, which is stiU flourishing at the
present day. This bank was to give credit to workmen's
unions which reaUy deserved it, and LassaUe criticizes the
idea as if Schultze-Dehtzsch had dropped his own principle
and adopted Lassalle's. Schultze-Delitzsch always formulated
his principle as foUows : He stated that the weak forces of the
smaller workmen and craftsmen would always be able to
obtain credit if they would unite for purposes of self-help.
After he had covered Germany with a vast net of unions,
with a turnover of many millions, he crowned his system with
the bank, that by this means he might be able to divert a
large amount of capital into the smallest channels of his
widely distributed unions. He conducted this plan upon
such strict business principles that the shares of the bank
even to-day enjoy the best of reputations upon the Berlin
Stock Exchange ; while the industrial bank founded by his
Conservative opponent. Privy Councillor Wagner, Bismarck's
factotum, has disappeared from the Stock Exchange quota-
tions. Lassalle is certainly correct in stigmatizing the attitude
of Schultze-Dehtzsch as shameless, when he made his appeal

174 FERDINAND LASSALLE

to the working class : " If you are to choose between Herr
Lassalle and us, we need only say, ' There fine phrases, and here
capital.' " When, however, LassaUe asks whether it would
not be better to accept help from the State than receive it
as alms from private individuals, we must point out that in
this case there was no question of charity, but of an actual
business enterprise.

The central point of his demonstration is to show that the
vast majority of the population are without means, and that
the State is, in reality, nothing more than an association of
its population. " Why, therefore," Lassalle appeals to the

r working class, " cannot your great association, the State,
exert a fructifying and stimulating influence upon your
smaller associations ?" This the State not only can, but
must do. Its task and its intention is to facilitate the pro-
gress of civilization among mankind. For this purpose the
State exists, and has always existed. Without State inter-
ference neither canals, highroads, railways, nor telegraphs,
would have been introduced. England paid twenty millions
of pounds for the abolition of slavery in her colonies, and if
the fact be established that free competition, as it exists
I among us, means for the poor that they must fight with teeth
/ and nails against cannons and firearms, why should the State
Ljiot interfere in this case also ?' ^

If we examine these two catch-words, " Self-help " and
" State-help," from the historical point of view, as they were
understood in Germany in 1863 and 1864, both will be found
to suffer from great lack of precision. As we have already
observed, Schultze-Delitzsch a few years previously had
succeeded, after making a small beginning in his own town,
in creating a connected series of unions to advance cash and
raw materials, founded upon the principle of " self-help." In
connection with these, a number of workmen's educational
unions, conducted in the same spirit, was gradually founded.
This spirit was very different from that which prevailed in
the Enghsh workmen's associations, which were based upon
actual self-help. In the case before us the workman had or

'■ Cf. Lassalle, " The Labour Problem " ; " Open Letter of Reply " ;
" The Workmen's Handbook " ; " Indirect Taxation."

FERDINAND LASSALLE 175

took no initiative ; his position was determined upon a
patriarchal system, his education was guided by those in
better positions than himself, to whose interest it was to
prevent the existing difference between the advantage of
the manufacturer and that of the workman from ending
in open struggle, for the manufacturer naturally regarded
a settlement of contradiction by peaceful means as most
important. In other respects the movement displayed aU
possible sympathy towards the working class : there were
credit unions for those of them who already possessed a little
capital, and wished to rise slowly above their class. Popular
lectures were given upon astronomy, geography, natural
science and history, whales and electrical machines, but
politics were taboo. The workmen would then automatically
join the Liberal party. This system was called self-help,
for aU were entirely agreed that there should be no State-help
for the working classes. " No State-help granted from above,
lest the Conservative party should be strengthened, and no
State-help extorted from below, because the sense of democratic
independence among the workmen necessary to secure such
extortion was detested."^

In opposition to this system, Lassalle propounded his solu-
tion of State-help, which was intended to induce the workman
to help himself with serious intent, but also to call in the State
as a regulating power. We have already seen what he was
able to say in general in favour of State interference, and how
he emphasizes the duty of definitely forwarding objects of
civilization as incumbent upon the State. Upon this point
thinkers of the most different schools agree with him to-day,
but it cannot be denied that even before Lassalle's time such
agreement was also widely spread. Schultze-Delitzsch, for
instance, had often emphasized this duty of the State, but with
regard to the limits within which the State could justifiably
interfere there was, and there still continues, much divergence
of opinion. It is, however, certain that one of the most
fruitful branches of Lassalle's activity is to be found in his
vigorous emphasis of the rights and duties of the State, as
against the one-sided views of the Manchester school.

1 F. A. Lange, " The Labour Problem," 361.

176 FERDINAND LASSALLE

We must now conclude with a glance at his practical
proposals.

Here we have the third point in dispute — productive unions
supported by State credit. Lassalle has nothing to say con-
cerning any State organization of workmen, and makes no
proposals in the least resembling the national factories erected
in Paris in 1848 (by the enemies of the Socialists), which
inevitably ended in disaster. He demands the voluntary
co-operation of individuals. He only asks that these unions
may be enabled to begin their existence by an advance of the
necessary capital from the State. The State is thus to help
them by giving them credit, but is not to " organize " them,
and is not to carry on the work at its own expense or in the
position of a manufacturer. On the contrary, it is, by giving
credit, to enable the workmen to organize themselves and to
work for their own advantage.

But for the success of his plan not only must a credit
union include all existing workmen's unions, but an insurance
system must embrace the several unions within any one
branch of trade and thereby provide a balance to cover
practically all losses. Capital risk, therefore, does not exist
for individual unions, since competition is excluded. The
common organization of aU the unions in the country would
at any rate go so far that they would keep one another in-
formed of the conditions of production and the state of the
markets. The business books of the several unions would be
audited by a central committee appointed for the purpose,
and thus would become a real foundation for scientific statistics
of the conditions of production. By this means it would
be possible to avoid any likelihood of over-production, and
even so long as this object was not attained, over-production
would simply become production by anticipation, as the
colossal capital of the unions would abolish the necessity of
competitive sale. Thus society would be saved the crises
brought about by over-production, and this advantage, in
Lassalle's opinion, would be accompanied by a great and
positive addition to the wealth of the community.

To what an extent expenses are cut down by production
upon a large scale is universally recognized. It has been

FERDINAND LASSALLE 177

proved, for instance, that by combining the bakeries of Saxony
into large firms, with uninterrupted production, at least a
million thalers a year would be saved in fuel alone. Lassalle
maintains that such great co-operative enterprises would not
only transform the problem of distribution, but would increase
production to an unexampled extent by abolishing the hap-
hazard methods at present in vogue. He further asserts that
the markets of the world would consequently belong to the
nation which first resolved to introduce this social transforma-
tion.

With regard to Lassalle's proposals for the future, it should
be observed above aU things that he never regarded them as
containing any solution of the social question, nor did he ever
profess to anybody that he could solve that problem. He has
repeatedly asserted that this solution was a task demanding
generations, and perhaps centuries, of time. In his pamphlet,
" Open Letter of Reply," he never once used the phrase,
" the social problem," and even less did he speak of its solu-
tion. Such a phrase was repugnant " to his conscience as a
thinker," to use an expression he employs in a letter. His
habitual term invariably was, " the improvement of the
position of the working classes." Productive unions sup-
ported by State credit were to him merely the necessary
first step upon the road which he was firmly convinced
posterity would and must follow.

Many elements in LassaUe's fundamental views were derived
from Hegel, and ascended the throne in company with Bis-
marck. One of these is his exaggeration of the State as the
highest moral unity in which the individual can be merged.
For Lassalle, with his love of power, it was a matter of indiffer-
ence whether a decree from above forced society to modify its
nature or whether such modifications were gradually introduced ;
as the outcome of the widest possible political freedom.
Though he was a lover of freedom, he was by nature a dominat- i
ing, commanding and patronizing character, and regarded the
independence of the masses as no more than a very remote
object. I do not beUeve in the vitahty of a union which is not , ,
independently developed, and does not conduct its own affairs..
An official body in charge of the details of organization would

178 FERDINAND LASSALLE

be more likely to stifle than to stimulate any inclination to
independence on the part of the workman, which is the great
point at issue. The principal question is whether such unions
would increase the scale of production above its present extent.
It is not so much defective methods of distribution as the
necessary limitations upon production which are the causes of
the oppression under which the poorer classes labour. At the
present time, with the stimulus of competition, with long hours
of work and the subjection of the workmen, we are unable to
produce more than we do, and is it likely that production
could be increased under new regulations less severe in their
operation ? Is it true that co-operation alone would produce
so material a change in the conditions of production ? In
the opposite case the productive union would be unable to
guarantee the participants any profits much beyond the present
rate of wages, simply because the capitalist, or, in other words,
the bonus on capital, had been excluded from the enterprise.
Let us suppose that a great manufacturer has four thousand
workmen, and makes an annual profit amounting to the
colossal sum of £10,000. If we regard this sum as a bonus
on capital, and divide it, each workman would annually obtain
an addition of only £2 los. Lassalle has apparently over-
looked the fact that private landed property is the first to
profit by a rise in values produced by labour, and that such
property, without „ny expenditure of labour, chiefly absorbs
the fruits of labour.

While Lassalle continually repeats the fact that capital is in
immediate enjoyment of aU advantages, he lays no weight
upon the fact that it is also immediately exposed to all risks
and losses. Risk and loss do undoubtedly affect the workman
indirectly, but he does not directly bear them. Obviously,
the productive unions which could only be organized by slow
degrees would never be able to bear a loss unless they were
supported by State credit. The capitalist who has £100,000
can lose £50,000, and is not reduced to beggary ; but if we
suppose that two thousand union workmen lost a similar
amount — workmen living immediately upon their incomes —
how could their difficulties be in any way relieved without
drawing upon State credit to an almost unlimited extent ?

FERDINAND LASSALLE 179

If the existence of Lassalle's productive unions is to be assured,
the simultaneous erection of all unions in one branch of trade
becomes necessary.

Even in such a case State-help in this form would scarcely
be a permanent guarantee, unless we possessed the Universal
State. A State can also suffer loss, and against such loss
there is no insurance. It is surely superstitious to suppose
that the connection between the price of commodities and pre-
vailing circumstances can be severed. Surely, in opposition
to Lassalle's view, the first State to introduce the new order
of things would be in the worst possible position in the markets
of the world, because it would be the least able to bear a
loss.

Finally, the productive unions supported by the State, which
are intended to abolish class differences, would inevitably intro-
duce a new system of class differences by introducing new
privileges. The object of Lassalle's historical efforts may be
briefly stated as an attempt to replace the predominance of
the third estate by that of the fourth, which he regards as
sjmonymous with the human race. He readily admits
that the third estate, when it rose against the classes
favoured with privileges and protected by inequality in the
sight of the law, during the great French Revolution, did
regard its cause in its initial enthusiasm as the cause of the
whole nation and of humanity at large (the declaration of the
" Rights of Man ") ; but at the same time he maintains that
this estate was speedily seen to be bringing with it a new
privilege — the privilege of capital — and that it necessarily con-
cealed among its numbers a new and unprotected estate, the
fourth. Then this fourth estate, which can show no exclusive
quahfication for a share in the governmental power, neither
nobihty nor landed property nor capital, becomes for Lassalle
equivalent with the human race, and its freedom is the freedom
of the human race, " for we are all workmen." Here I will
only point out that the fourth estate, as described by Lassalle,
is not a reality, but an ideal of his own conception. Even if
this estate were unwiUing to offer any fresh privileges either to
nobility, landed property, capital, or education, its ideas would
follow the obvious course of argument and it would probably

i8o FERDINAND LASSALLE

infer : because I am neither rich nor noble nor educated, I have
a right to maintenance and to a share in the Government. But
there is a far more obvious danger apparent. Would not the
gradual formation of productive unions supported by State
credit place the workmen who were not members in a critical
position ? The gradual formation of such unions would reduce
to a lower stage the working class who were forbidden by the
nature of their occupation to make any use of such a union
(such as porters, hodmen, and casual labourers of every kind).
The foundations of a fifth estate would then be laid. The
process would be repeated which occurred after the declara-
tion of the " Rights of Man." It would be seen that the new
programme was incapable of embracing more than one class,
or of forming an5H;hing else than a new aristocracy.^

All these objections, whatever their justification or impor-
tance, are of no considerable interest here, for the simple reason
that the question of productive unions supported by State
credit was of very subordinate importance to Lassalle himself.

It is true, he thought, that the formation of such unions
upon a large scale would be a means of accommodating supply
to demand, as the enormous credit which these unions would
enjoy would secure them against the necessity of selling com-
modities regardless of times and seasons ; but for him they
were nothing more than a means to an end.

On April 22, 1863, he writes to Rodbertus, who did not
believe in the value of the productive unions : " If you can
"show me another means equally effectual, I shall be equally
ready to accept it and to subscribe to it. I have only pro-
posed the association temporarily, because at the moment I
really see no means which would be, relatively speaking, so
easy and so effective. For the workman must have some-
thing quite definite and tangible proposed, not a mere law, to
become interested in it." A month later he writes again :
"" Here we are only dealing with a practical means of transition,
and not with a theoretical and final solution of fundamental
importance. This you yourself will hardly expect for another
five centuries. That this solution can be gradually brought about
by the association, a.nd facilitated hy it to an astonishing extent,

1 F. A. Lange, " The Labour Problem," 361.

FERDINAND LASSALLE i8i

seems to me indisputable, and I will do my best to prove it to |
you. Moreover, I do not see any other means of transition 1
equally practicable. You have yourself admitted"^and most
strongly emphasized the fact that a final solution,''^hich you
do not expect for five centuries, will only be brought about by
a series of transitions, and cannot possibly be produced at one
stroke. At the same time, it is quite possible that you may
have devised an even better means of transition than
mine. In this case, as I have said, I will most readily I
support it." _J

Rodbertus, who wished to retain and modify the principle
of wages, does not seem to have been able to indicate any
other means. In any case, the utmost interest attaches to
the fact that in September, 1878, Bismarck expressed himself
favourably upon LassaUe's proposal. He declared the founda-
tion of productive unions to be an idea concerning the inex-
pediency of which he was by no means convinced. " I cannot
say," he states, " whether I have been impressed by Lassalle's
arguments or am stiU influenced by the convictions which I
acquired in part during my stay in England in 1862 ; but it
seems to me that the foundation of productive associations,
such as are flourishing in England, would provide a possibility
of improving the position of the workman, and giving him a
material share in the business profits." He asserted that the
attempts made in Germany proved nothing, as they had been
carried out upon too small a scale. He referred the idea of
these unions to the " sensible efforts " which at that time were
the driving-wheel of the Social Democratic movement, and
summed up his exposition in the following terms : " What
LassaUe told me on this point was stimulating and instructive,
for he knew and had learnt a great deal."

The statements quoted prove, in the first place, that the

system of productive unions supported by State credit, pro-

/ posed by LassaUe as the immediate object of the agitation,

' was in itself for him simply a means to attain a distant and

final object — the abolition of landed and capital property. In

\ a letter to Rodbertus he describes this as being the essence of

his views, since he had begun to study political economy at all.

He adds that this was an object which he certainly would not

i82 FERDINAND LASSALLE

venture to put before the mob, and which he had therefore
been careful to avoid mentioning ; but, on the other hand, his
statement undoubtedly shows how entirely he was convinced
of the correctness and practicability of his means. He firmly
believes that unions supported by State credit would, in the
course of some centuries, inevitably lead to his object. Rod-
bertus, in his " Posthumous Papers," says upon this point :
" It must be said, without any desire to cast the smallest slur
upon Lassalle's character, that there was an esoteric and an
exoteric Lassalle, and in my opinion such practical questions
as the social problem must always be discussed from these
two points of view." These words were at once connected by
Lassalle's opponents with those previously quoted (see, for
instance, the impudent and valueless plagiarism from Becker :
A. Kutschbach, " Lassalle's Death "), and were adduced as a
proof that he did not himself believe in the means which he
propounded to the workmen, whom in reality he regarded as
the mob ; but such an assertion contains a double untruth.
It is untrue to say that Lassalle had no confidence in this
means, and it is untrue to say that he regarded the workmen
as a mob, for he applies this term, on the contrary, to the vast
and half-educated forces of Philistinism.

However, the fact is clear that the economic position of
society cannot be permanently relieved by purely economic
methods. Lassalle, with his excessive belief in the efficacy of
outward methods, forgot that greater and richer production
can only be attained under the influence of intellectual and
moral education. He certainly manifests his anger against the
large production of senseless objects of luxury. He reasonably
attacks the middle classes for the foolishness with which they
confuse the expensive with the beautiful. In other words, he
clearly saw the desirability of removing the steadily increasing
difference between the modes of life followed by the lowest and
the highest groups of society. This change could be pro-
duced by substituting a larger production of indispensable
commodities in place of our modem requirements. But,
this sensible and justifiable praise of equality is not sup-
ported as its interests imperatively demand, by due emphasis
of the fact of inequality. The master-workman should

FERDINAND LASSALLE 183

and must earn more than the apprentice ; the foreman
deserves more than the labourer, and the overseer more
than all. In other words, when Lassalle appears as a dema-
gogue, we feel the want of any desire to inspire respect for
intellectual work or to stimulate his hearers to rise to a higher
stage of culture. They are to him an imposing force, as
indeed they are, merely by numbers and weight. Thus, in
his zeal to obtain another mode of distributing surplus products,
he never says a word in any of his pamphlets on behalf of
attempts to secure an increase in the value of products, such
as a radical improvement in elementary education under the
cheapest possible conditions. Only once in the long article
which appeared in the Kreuzzeitung of July 19, .1864, does he
ask for " the education of the working classes to a far wider
extent under compulsion." Perhaps it is too much to ask
that he who was obliged to create this movement from the
outset should also have an eye to every consideration or
teservation which was desirable.

In this point also he disagreed with Rodbertus, and their
want of harmony upon this question was the reason that
Rodbertus, though he approved Lassalie's principles and
theories, declined to support his agitation with the great
influence of his name. Lassalle wished to make the Socialist
party a political force ; Rodbertus wished to confine its efforts
to economic objects. Lassalle declined to join him unless he |
would take political action. This condition he based upon the
view that under Schultze-Delitzsch the workmen had become
a political force, but had been led astray into wrong economic
paths, and that only by a stronger political agitation could they
be led back from their economic aberrations. Hence he placed
universal franchise as the first immediate object before himself
and his opponents. The Liberals, who were fighting for free
trade, were by no means favourably inclined to this demand^
On this question he writes to Rodbertus in May, 1863 : " I
have no intention of allowing the social question to be over-
powered by the electoral question. You may rely upon me
for that, but both myself and my party are injured by pseudo-
democratic arguments (we neglect the development of political
freedom, etc.), and so I must outbid my opponents upon

i84 FERDINAND LASSALLE

L either side, and defeat them both as a Democrat and as
a SociaHst."

To the best of my understanding, under existing circum-
stances no other path was open to Lassalle than that which
he chose. His genius grasped the situation completely, and
dominated it with tactics in which no fault can be found.
It was his intention in the first place to raise the workman
in the political world, and only then could he contemplate
the task of improving and securing his social position.

CHAPTER VII

If we are to form a correct estimate of the agitation created
by LassaUe, we must consider the pohtical conditions under
, which it began. These conditions seem very remote, because
even greater pohtical changes have taken place in Germany
since that time than in the previous half -century. The
Government was then supported by the Kreuzzeitung party.
The Progressive party, generally corresponding to the
National Liberals of to-day, had entered the political arena
in 1861, and had thus waged for only one year their
apparently hopeless war against those in power, which
was continued until 1866. This conflict produced no result,
until the Government, after all possibility of ending the
strife by overthrowing their opponents was removed, cleared
the way by war after war, and partially carried out
the programme of the party whose views had hitherto been
desperately opposed. The old German democracy of 1848 had
left the scene, or had resigned itself to join the Progressive
party. To Lassalle's restless spirit it seemed daily clearer
thkt this party was lacking in political capacity and energy.
At the outset of i86a he seems to have entertained
some weak hopes that the opposition would change their
tactics, and would definitely insist upon their desires (the
speech " What now ?"). When these hopes had vanished, h<
necessarily turned his gaze in another direction. His answer
to the Workmen's Committee in Leipsic became, as we have
mentioned, the occasion for the formation of the General
Union of German Workmen, with the attainment of universal
and direct suffrage as its object, and the presidency was

185

i86 FERDINAND LASSALLE

offered to Lassalle. He was not particularly anxious to accept
it, as the prospect of acquiring immediate power by which
any serious achievement could be secured was very small.
As he says in one of his letters : " Political action means
Pimmediate and instantaneous effectiveness. Everything else
jean be secured by scientific methods."^ He yielded, however,
to the persuasions of Countess Hatzfeldt, and undertook the
difficult and harassing task of organizing and guiding a great
workmen's union in face of the passionate opposition of the
ruling classes, who were ready to use any means that came to
hand.

The political object of his agitation can be described in a
few words. Like Marx, he held the fundamental view that
the whole course of social history, as known to us, has been a
history of class warfare. In his book " The Italian War "
he demonstrates the erroneous nature of the view that the
French Revolution of 1789 was a purely political movement.
It was a social revolution, and consisted in the overthrow of
the old feudalism by modem civic society. With the object
of destropng the new social order, feudal Europe joined in
alliance against France. To defend and to secure its social
significance, the Revolution abandoned its political form under
Napoleon and became a military dictatorship. The French
middle class, under Napoleon, fought for the confiscated
property of the emigres, which was estimated to be worth
twelve miUiards, for the abolition of monopolies and for free-
dom of competition. The object of the French middle class
at that time was to overthrow feudal methods of production
in manufacture and agriculture, and to secure freedom of
capital. For these purposes the middle class displayed both
energy and vigour. Purely political freedom, on the other
hand, according to Lassalle's views, would never have been
able to inspire the middle class with a readiness to self-sacrifice,
for such freedom is never regarded by this class as of sufficient
importance. 2

1 B. Becker, " Revelations Concerning the Tragic Death of Ferdinand
Lassalle," 28. The genuineness of the letters printed in this low pamphlet
is not disputed. Yet the possibility of falsification in points of detail is not
excluded in the case of copies taken secretly, as these.

2 Lassalle, " The Italian War," 54 ; " The Workmen's Handbook,"
63-65

FERDINAND LASSALLE 187

Hence Lassalle's idea was to make class and social interest
the moving force behind the cause of political freedom, and
the only interest to be found was that of the poorer classes,
whose numbers make them formidable indeed. He made the
acquisition of universal franchise a question of daily food for the
workman. In the working class he found the only adequately
imposing force which could cope with the forces of political
reaction prudently equipped with all the instruments of power.
" Give me," he cries optimistically, " five hundred thousanSH
German workmen as members of my union, and the reaction!
is no more." ^

If we can contrive to imagine ourselves in his position,
we cannot refuse him our admiration. Schultze-Delitzsch
was at that time the man of the hour. All the forces
of independent thought flattered him, venerated him and
followed him. Even Bebel was then walking in his foot-
steps. His doctrine of self-help was the only solution. From
the moment when Lassalle rose against him he received as his
portion scorn and mockery, and outbreaks daily renewed of
hatred and overflowing contempt. The Liberal party beheved,
as one of the tenets of their faith, that LassaUe was in the ,
service of the reaction — ^unconsciously, according to the calmer
spirits ; with firm intent and purpose, said the hotheaded
members of the party. The efforts of the Liberal leaders must
have made him appear a secret reactionary to a large propor-
tion of the working class. The sharp-sighted regarded him
as a SociaUst, as a man dangerous to society, and therefore to
be treated as an outlaw. At the same time the philosophers
of Sociahsm — Rodbertus, Marx, and Engels — wrapped them-
selves in profound silence which could only be interpreted as
disapproval and necessarily aroused distrust.

In this apparently desperate situation LassaUe showed
himself really great. It was impossible for him to f oUow Rod-
bertus, and, while agreeing to sacrifice the political element in
his movement, to restrict himself to proposals aiming at social
improvement, as purely theoretical disputes naturally would
have been their only outcome. By such methods progress
would have been impossible. Equally impossible was it for him
to follow the example of Marx, and to preach revolution and

i88 FERDINAND LASSALLE

the violent overthrow of every form of social order hitherto
recognized, while declaring the abolition of private property as
the object of his movement, unless he wished to end his time
in penal servitude or in London, like Marx, who had fled the
country. He came forward with perfect knowledge of men.
He knew very weU the strength of the Prussian monarchy,
the slackness of the middle classes, and the thoughtlessness of
the workmen. The middle-class cry for freedom produced
no impression upon the working class. The working class had
been aroused by the proclamation of equality, for which their
first demand was expressed in their desire to exercise universal
and direct suffrage. But it was not only necessary to arouse
the working class, but to strengthen their sense of honour and
of independence. Lassalle attained this end by disseminating
his pamphlet, " Science and the Workmen." He showed the
workmen that the highest culture and the greatest knowledge
then existing were in alliance with them. It was further neces-
sary to inspire them with the confidence of victory, and here
Lassalle succeeded by explaining the numerical relations between
the prosperous and the poor, and by showing the working classes
in how diminishing a minority their favoured opponents were.

At the same time, in order to stir even the most indifferent
among his hearers, he produced official statistics of the death-
rate among the children of factory-workers, and appealed to
paternal feeling and the love of mankind when his appeal to
the love of freedom failed to strike home.^

Throughout the' course of his agitation he used no single
inflammatory or illegal phrase. No other object was proposed
or admitted except the improvement of the condition of the
working classes.

He was ready to dominate and to use threats, and did not
shrink from the danger of stirring the powers of the uneducated
against society ; but he was anxious to control and organize
the masses, as indeed he did, by inspiring them with great
ideas. " What is the origin," he asks in one of his speeches
in his defence,^ " of the political fear which the middle classes
entertain of the people ?" He replies : " The recollections of

1 C. A. Schramm, " Rodbertus, Marx, Lassalle," 70.
^ " Science and the Workmen," 24 et seq.

FERDINAND LASSALLE 189

the spring of 1848, when poHce discipHne was broken down,
when the people filled all the streets and public squares, and
everyone was completely in the hands of men hke Karbe,
Lindenmiiller, and other thoughtless agitators of the time— men
without knowledge, culture, or insight, whirled to the surface
by the storm which stirred political life to its very depths."

At that time the middle classes shut themselves trembling"
in their houses. " Where," asks Lassalle, " were the intellects'!
of Berhn, the men of science and of thought ?" " They were
not cowardly," he replies, " but they told themselves, " the
people does not understand our ideas or our language.' Now,
gentlemen," he exclaims, " are you so certain that a political
convulsion will never return ? Do you wish that your lives
and property were again in the hands of men like Karbe j
and Lindenmiiller ? If not, you may thank the men who
have devoted themselves to the work of filling the abyss which
divides scientific thought and scientific language from the
people. You may thank those men who have undertaken at
the expense of their own intellectual efforts a work, the results
of which may benefit you aU, every one of you. Maintain
such men at the public cost in the Prytaneum, and do not
subject them to prosecutions." j

The movement which LassaUe's action accelerated was not
directly marked by any characteristic repugnant to the con-
stitutional system of monarchical Prussia. Even in his earliest
youth, when he admitted in open court that he was " an
adherent of the Social Democratic Republic," he possessed
sufficient self-command and insight most decisively to restrain
the workmen from any attempt to preach a State revolution^
He says in his first speech before the Court of Assizes : " I
turned to the workmen, I adjured them never to give way to
the idea that they might use the opportunity to proclaim a
Republic forthwith. Such action would be treachery to the
common cause, for it would cast the apple of discord among
the ranks of the citizens, who must now join like one man to
avenge the insults offered to the law."

If such was his language as early as 1848, obviously in 1863
he was still further removed from any inclinations to come
forward as a Republican. On the contrary, a mind so supremely

igo FERDINAND LASSALLE

practical as his, far from entertaining desires for the overthrow
of the ruhng powers, was prepared to make a compromise with
them, and to use them as a support where possible. In a
word, he had considered all the given circumstances, and had
resolved to make himself as few enemies as possible.

1 In this respect Lassalle is utterly different from Karl Marx.

/Marx in character is as remote from LassaUe as a slowly moving

I mind filled with profound and bitter resentment is remote from
a versatile and eloquent spirit, but in theory he is related to
Lassalle as the power of generalization to the power of dealing
with particular conditions.^ Marx had the whole world before
his eyes ; Lassalle was concerned only with Germany, or, more

1 correctly, only with Prussia. The difference between their
doctrines is immaterial, but their methods were different.

1 Marx was international, Lassalle was national. Marx regards
social equivalence as only feasible in his Social Democratic
Republic, from which religion was banned, and his idea is a
federation of European Republics. Lassalle saw that the
European nationalities were still firmly established, that
national ideas were a factor of supreme importance, and that
religion would long retain an influence which no one could
afford to neglect, and he thought it possible, even under
existing political circumstances, to give the initial impulse to
a movement for transforming social conditions. As he so often
said, aU he asked from the State was the " little finger."
Eventually he thought he had found in the Prime Minister of
that time, Herr von Bismarck, a man who was capable of
carrying out the work.

The complaint, which is justified up to a certain point, and
can be raised against Lassalle from the outset of his agitation,
is that his words at times ring with the true spirit of the dema-
gogue. In his " Workmen's Programme," he flatters the
working class and heaps charges upon the upper classes to
an unjustifiable extent. However vigorously he may state
that the legal accusation against him was founded upon
stupidity and misunderstanding, the moral accusation remains.
A man is guilty who tells his workmen that the ruling classes

1 Rudolph Meyer, " The Ominous Development of Socialism and the
Doctrine of Lassalle."

FERDINAND LASSALLE 191

/

are forced in their own interests " daily to oppose all that is '
great and good, invariably to regret its success, and no less
invariably to rejoice at its failure," etc.^

However far this may be true of individuals, a man does
but rouse the hatred and passion of the blind mob when he
enumerates such actions as demonstrable in the case of whole
classes of feUow-citizens, many of whom have shown themselves
capable of rising above their own class interests. It is little
use for Lassalle, in attempting to defend his assertions con-
cerning the necessary immorality of the upper classes, to appeal
to the far stronger expressions of the Gospel. The Gospel
was not an authority for him, and is equally little an authority
for the rest of us, and such a wrong by no means makes
Lassalle right. 1

It is also impossible to acquit Lassalle from the reproach of
appeahng indirectly to the brute force of the masses, for he'
never utters a word to explain the low and subordinate value
of such brute force in every case where an intellectual point
is at stake. His excuse is to be found in his principle that
there is nothing more nearly related to pure intelligence than
the sound common sense of large masses of men, and also in
the principle which he had proved by practice that nothing
is so amenable to organization as these great masses. In
short, from the outset, the men of the French Convention
were his real political ideals, and force gradually became all
in all to him.

The place which he thus gave to force brought a change, at
first imperceptible but by degrees quite obvious, upon the
character of his agitation. It had begun as a purely Demo-
cratic movement, but the bitter and very personal feud which
the several organs of the middle classes immediately opened
against LassaUe were so many speedy intimations to the
reactionary party that a new force had here appeared in the
pohtical arena, alliance with which might be well worth their
trouble to obtain. By an old historical and political law,
extreme parties are invariably drawn to one another ; so it
now happened that these several reactionary papers, hence-
forward designated Conservative by Lassalle, joined his side.

1 " Workmen's Programme," 25.

192 FERDINAND LASSALLE

The Liberals, as we have already mentioned, attempted to
alienate the working class from Lassalle by the unanimous
cry that he was the servant and tool of the reaction. About
this time Lassalle made the personal acquaintance of Bismarck.
His first visit to the Prime Minister is said to have been occa-
sioned by the telegram to Bismarck, printed at the conclusion
of Lassalle's Rhine speech (" The Festivals," etc.), demanding
compensation for the violence of the police towards him. In
my opinion, the form of the telegram indicates that the ac-
quaintance had already been made. LassaUe found Bismarck's
table covered with his pamphlets, and he found in the Prime
Minister a kindred spirit who was entirely captivated by his
personal influence, though this in no way prevented successive
criminal prosecutions being brought against Lassalle.

About the time when he came in contact with Bismarck he
received support of another kind, which he thought he could
not venture, for reasons of prudence, to reject, but which
injured his cause with good reason in the eyes of free and
honourable thinkers, on account of the manner in which he
used this help. He accepted the overtures of the clergy. This
step was certainly not taken without some reluctance. Spiel-
hagen is doubtless correct in reference to Lassalle when he
depicts Leo as forced at the end of his career, witR inward
reluctance and many searchings of heart, to make common
cause with the most reverend Privy Counsellor Urban. The
Catholic clergy, which can never be accused of stupidity and
invariably moves with the times, immediately saw that popu-
larity and advantage might be gained by showing LassaUe the
honour that was his due, and by supporting his efforts for the
welfare of the lower classes. The Bishop of Mayence, after-
wards the well-known Ketteler, was the first who openly
declared for him. Lassalle was delighted at the acquisition
of this new ally. In his speech at Ronsdorf, he declared with
his usual emphasis that " the most brilliant representatives of
German science, and the most distinguished names, before
which even the State Counsel and the Judges must bow," had
expressed by writing and word of mouth the highest approval
and the most enthusiastic estegm for his book, " Bastiat
Schulze." He then continued : 1" I will, however, give you a

FERDINAND LASSALLE 193

proof which is far more cogent than any that I have yet
adduced. I will mention a name which will be heard by any
court of justice on the Rhine, not only with the respect which
those other names command, but with the highest reverence.
A short time previously no less a person than a servant and
Prince of the Church, the Bishop of Mayence, Freiherr von
Ketteler, was impelled by his conscience to pronounce his views
upon the workmen's question. He is a man who enjoys the
reputation almost of a saint upon the Rhine, a man who for
long years has devoted himself to scholarly research. He has
pubHshed a book entitled ' Christianity and the Problem of the
Working Classes,' and in this work he has declared for each
several point in my economic principles and theories, in opposi-
tion to the so-called Progressives." J

It is indisputably somewhat strange to hear from Lassalle
this increasing emphasis of expression which advances from
respect for great scholars to reverence for the clever priest in
the princely cloak. It was also hardly worthy of Lassalle to
appeal to the innocent confidence of the ignorant mob, who
were thereby induced to regard as a saint the well-paid Bishop,
who in after-years defended the syllabus and championed the
Obscurantist party. Nor does he improve his case by intro-
ducing such qualifications as : " You know, my friends, that
I do not belong to the pietists." He was obviously entering
upon an undesirable alliance, but in his position Lassalle would
none the less have been acting senselessly if he had rejected so
powerful an ally who voluntarily offered his support. More-
over, at that time he had reached the highest pitch of irrita-
tion, in consequence of his lack of success and the opposition he
encountered — irritation which history shows is experienced by
those who attempt to make a disputed idea prevail against
superior force. " The Messiah of the nineteenth century," as
Heine, with poetical boldness, called LassaUe, was suffering
the universal fate of Messiahs ; the tokens of his approaching
downfall were manifest.

However, immediately before his downfall he was to ex-
perience yet one more triumph, such a triumph as had ever
been his dream, amid thunders of applause, the enthusiasm of
thousands, and a short enjoyment of the sweets of power.

13

194 FERDINAND LASSALLE

As an agitator he had constantly shown his possession of the
most remarkable gifts for winning the support of the masses ;
devotion, admiration, blind obedience, and even absolute
reverence were the feehngs which the workmen displayed for
him. The fact is the more remarkable, as Lassalle had
hitherto never maintained a permanent connection with
members of the working class. A talented workman, how-
ever, by name Kichniawy, had possessed his full confidence
in Diisseldorf, and during his lifetime LassaUe was always in
closest intimacy with this man ; but at the present moment
enthusiasm for him spread like wildfire. I have already men-
tioned how, like a second Napoleon, he won over to his side
in Frankfort the troops which his opponents brought against
him. His journey through the Rhine Provinces in September,
1863, was not so much a tour to raise agitation as a magnificent
review of troops.

From town to town Lassalle reviewed his adherents. In
Elberfeld he spoke before an audience of three thousand and
in Solingen before five thousand under one roof ; when the
meeting was broken up by the police upon a pretext, and
LassaUe was arrested, he was accompanied by ten thousand
workmen, amid a continual storm of cheers, from the place of
meeting to the telegraph-office, where he telegraphed to Bis-
marck, as we have stated.

This arrest, which became a triumphal procession, was un-
wisely described by part of the Liberal Press as if the police
had been forced to accompany LassaUe to secure his personal
safety, and had been obliged to protect him against the curses
of the population with fixed bayonets. Naturally, such a false-
hood produced no effect upon the eye-witnesses of the occur-
rence, and only served to evoke the angry devotion which is
the reward and the satisfaction of men who are attacked with
such weapons.

But aU the ovations of this first campaign were as nothing
to the triumphs which Lassalle gained when he made another
tour through the Rhine Provinces in the spring of 1864, and
for the first and last time took a personal part in the festivities
celebrating the foundation of the Universal Union of German
Workmen. Little harm was done by the fact that the hired

FERDINAND LASSALLE 195

quarters of the Union were found closed almost everywhere,
for the reason that the police, with threats which were anything
but ambiguous in character, had induced the landlords to break
their word. Other meeting-places were soon found. In every
case the same scenes occurred. Hundreds of workmen met
him at every station, offered him their greetings at the various
stopping-places, accompanied him in procession to his lodging,
which was decorated with wreaths and flowers, and presented
him with testimonials. In all the towns and upon aU the roads
were serenades, gateways of honour, garlands, inscriptions,
endless cheering, and the delighted uproar of a thousand voices.
Workmen, young and old, wherever he appeared, pressed forward
about his carriage, which was decked on every occasion with
flowers, wreaths, and flags, to shake his hand or to gain a word
from him. Sometimes as many as twenty-five decora ted carriages
followed him as a procession of honour. This feeling was the
more remarkable, as Ronsdorf and the neighbouring town of
Solingen are among the few districts in the Rhine Provinces
which both before and afterwards sent members of the Pro-
gressive party of the time to the German Reichstag. To give
a correct idea of it, I will quote an extract from a newspaper
report of the time, dated Ronsdorf, May 23 :

" As the carriage approached the limits of Ronsdorf it couldH
be seen even from a distance that old and young were abroad, I
for the heights were thick with people. At the boundary
of the town was an archway with a wreath which bore the
inscription :

' Welcome to Dr. Ferdinand !
A thousand welcomes to this our land ! '

With wreaths and garlands and inscriptions of this kind the
road was decorated throughout its length. At the boundary
the President's carriage, which could be recognized by its
decoration and the transparency, ' Be at One !' was con-
stantly overwhelmed with a rain of flowers, thrown with
sure and laughing aim by the factory girls. At this point
the workmen of Sohngen and Wermelskirch were drawn
up in thick array to receive the President and to join the
procession. The enthusiasm was indescribable. Till Rons-
dorf was reached there was a continual round of greetings

196 FERDINAND LASSALLE

and cheers. Where the road turns and goes downhill
a very interesting sight was afforded, as the masses of the
people who had come out to the welcome attempted to keep
pace with the carriage downhill, and ran either upon the
side-walks or upon the road itself in pursuit of the procession ;
so great was their zeal and enthusiasm that most of them
reached Ronsdorf together with the carriages."

" ^ Such reports of tours made by royal personages or high
of&cials are common enough. In these cases public feeling is
easily aroused to enthusiasm by various motives — ^the loyalty
of subservience, the hope of promotion and rank, the fear of
reprimands or the anxiety to be noticed ; but such spon-
taneous expressions of gratitude and enthusiasm as are above
described are unusual among the unemotional peoples of the
North. Indeed, as Social Democracy was never able to gain
a firm footing in this district for a long time afterwards, the
enthusiasm seems to have been as short-lived as its blaze was
fierce for the moment.

The speech which Lassalle now delivered, amid tumultuous
cheers, to celebrate the foundation-day of the Workmen's
Union, entirely corresponded with the prevailing enthusiasm.
It was a long and proud retrospect of the results attained, of
the rapidity with which the Union had spread and the ready
reception it had received from the working classes in all
German towns and districts from the greatest to the smallest.
LassaUe, as we have mentioned, referred to the testimony of
great scholars and of the venerable Bishop on behalf of his
cause, and proceeded to emphasize the fact that King Frederick
William IV., who had sent bayonets against the Silesian
weavers in 1844, had shortly before graciously received a
deputation from Silesia, and had directly promised to consider
the miserable position of the workmen in the cloth factories.
All these facts LassaUe summed up in the cry : " We have now

riorced workmen, people, scholars, Bishops, and the King, to

1 testify to the truth of our principles."

At the moment when Lassalle uttered these words he reached
the zenith of his life and his influence. His words were truth,
and their truth was power. " Wherever I have been," he said,

l'*'! have heard observations from the workmen which -may be

FERDINAND LASSALLE 197

summed up as follows : We must weld our wills unanimously
into one single hammer, and put that hammer in the hands of
a man whose intelligence, character, and good-will we can
trust, that he may raise the implement and strike." And in
virtue of the dictatorship of insight he now held this heavy
hammer in his hand, and was as happy to feel its weight as
the god Thor when he again grasped his long-lost Mjolnir.
Like the god, LassaUe had now gained the desired weapon,
without which he was not entirely himself. For a moment he
brandished it rejoicing, as if he had reached his goal, though
in his thoughts he must have reviewed the strange vicissitudes
of his life, of which two whole years had been spent in prison,
while five fresh criminal actions were now threatening him — a
life which had passed through fire and storm, but had been
filled by an invisible harmony, the twanging of the bow-string
and the sounds of the lyre. His heart swelled beneath the
enthusiastic applause of the grateful crowds, but at the same
moment the picture changed, and he saw in giant outline before
his eyes the many anxieties which he had kept from the know-
ledge of his hearers — ^the dangers which threatened him, the
attempts which had failed, the weakness, the indifference, the
hatred, the envy, the brutality and the power against which
he had to fight. Such was the darker side of the picture.
News had reached him the previous day that he had been again
condemned to four months' imprisonment in contumaciam (as
he had failed to appear within the limits of time appointed by
the court), and he knew that the judges in the Rhine Provinces
were almost exclusively composed of members of the Progres-
sive party. He also knew that the position of the Workmen's
Union was by no means so brilliant as he thought prudent to
represent it, to describe it to his warmest friends and to see
it in his optimistic moments. The Union exhausted his powers,
absorbed his property, which had been considerably increased
by his father's death, and was far from making the progress he
had expected. LassaUe's letters at this time complain bitterly
that everjTthing might have been very different " if the working
classes had done their duty." And he was well aware that his
enemies were infinitely more energetic than his friends. No
wonder that thoughts of death and downfall arose within him

igS FERDINAND LASSALLE

during this moment of brilliant enthusiasm. He concluded
this last speech which he delivered to his adherents with these
words :

" WeU, I hope to refute these two charges, as I have refuted
so many others. Strong, however, as a man may be, he is lost
when confronted by a certain bitter antagonism. But this
troubles me little. As you may think, I did not raise this
standard without full knowledge beforehand of the possibility
that my own downfall might be the consequence. (General
sensation throughout the meeting.) The feehng that over-
comes me upon the thought that I personally may be set aside
cannot be better expressed than in the words of the Roman
poet, ' Exoriare aUquis nostris ex ossibus ultor '; or, in German,
' If I am overthrown, may some successor and avenger arise
from my bones.' May this great a'nd national movement
towards civilization not come to an end with myself. On the
contrary, may the fire that I have kindled spread and devour
as long as one of you draws breath. Such is the promise that
I ask from you, and in token of it I wiU ask you to raise
[_your right hands."

It might be thought that when Lassalle uttered these words
he had a clear premonition that three months later he would
be a corpse. A week previously, in a meeting of the Union at
Diisseldorf, he had said to the members : " Next year you will
jT)e obliged to drape this room with mourning." Possibly he
even foresaw that this national movement, if it did not die
with him, would lose its national and monarchical character,
and that the organization which he had founded would be
absorbed in a few years by International and Republican
Socialism.

Upon several subsequent occasions, though his health was
shaken, he was obliged to speak in public. In the course of
the prosecution directed against him at Diisseldorf, he who
had shattered I know not how many criminal charges vainly
made a last effort to win his freedom. The court condemned
him in the first instance to six months' imprisonment. He felt
deeply despondent. When Paul Lindau, the young editor of
the Dusseldorfer Zeitung, who had done Lassalle the courtesy
of reproducing verbally his speech in his defence, called out to

FERDINAND LASSALLE 199

him, as they took leave of one another, " We shall meet again,
Herr Lassalle !" he replied, " Who knows ?" And when
Lindau looked at him in surprised interrogation, he added :
" I cannot endure imprisonment for a year or even six months.
I simply cannot stand it, and should prefer to go into exUe.
My nerves are completely broken down." Weary in body
and soul, he went to his usual watering-place in July, at Rigi-
Kaltbad. Here he was again overwhelmed with work, but
attempted to restore his shattered health by feasting his eyes
upon the beauties of Nature, and then it was that the fate
overtook him which became his death.

CHAPTER VIII

We have seen that Lassalle understood that his efforts for the
moment were fruitless. Countess Hatzfeldt had written to
him : " Can you not content yourself for a time with science,
friendship, and the beauties of Nature ?" He replied from
Rigi on July 28 : " You think that politics are a necessity to
me. How little you know my nature ! I desire nothing more
earnestly than to be rid of politics once for aU, and to be able
to retire to science, friendship, and the beauties of Nature. I
am tired and weary of politics. Doubtless my political ardour
would flaine as fiercely as ever if any serious incidents called
it forth, or if I had power or saw a means of gaining it
— a means that I could suitably adopt, for without supreme
power nothing can be done. I am too old and too great a man
for mere child's play. For that reason I was very unwilling
to accept the presidency. It was only at your request that I
gave way, and it is at the present moment a heavy burden.
If I could only lay it down, I could decide at once to travel with
__you to Naples, but how can I be rid of it ?"^

This is not the kind of thing that one would have expected
to hear two months after the speech at Ronsdorf, but it is the
language of weariness and overstrain. A few days before this
was written, on July 25, a young woman had caUed upon
Lassalle at Rigi. This incident was to lead to the conclusion
of his life. It is an incident of which the low tongues of
scandalmongers have made great use, but it wiU only be
described here as far as it illustrates Lassalle's character or
is explicable by it.

Fraulein Helene von Donniges was the daughter of a dis-

^ B. Becker, " Revelations," 28.
200

FERDINAND LASSALLE 201

tinguished Bavarian diplomatist. Her father was an influential
Privy Counsellor of King Max, and since the early sixties had
gathered round him at Munich a circle of cultured scientific
men, legal authorities, historians, and poets, including such
men as Liebig, Bluntschli, Sybel, Geibel, Heyse and Dingelstedt.
He was known throughout Bavaria for his hostility to the
power of the Catholic Church. Her mother was a beautiful
Jewess, who had been converted to Protestantism in order to
marry her father. The parents lived a luxurious, worldly and
pleasure-seeking life. Their daughter, Helene, was left greatly
to herself and to a devoted maid in her youth, and became a
spoilt and neglected girl of lively spirit, impressionable and
thoughtful at an early age — ^in short, a premature woman of
the world. When she was twelve years old she was as fully
developed as an ordinary girl of nineteen. She was un-
usually pretty, of sensual and challenging beauty, with a
magnificent head of fiery red hair — one of the beauties who
invariably gather men round them in any company, because
they show without ambiguity that men are the chief object of
their interest. Her ambition was to be the most daring of
horsewomen and the most desirable partner at balls. At the
same time a tendency to enthusiasm for art and artists and for
men of greatness and daring slumbered in her heart. When
she visited Berlin in the winter of 1861 she had a pleasant
South German or rather Southern manner, showed a readiness
to please and a somewhat imperious spirit. She had been
already involved in several love affairs, and her reputation was
widespread.

She frequented those circles of Berlin society with which
Lassalle was connected, heard accounts of him here and there,
and heard even the most fastidious men speak of him in terms
of admiration. One day a clever man whom she met for the
first time said to her after a short conversation : " You are
the first woman whom I have ever been able to think of as
Lassalle's wife."^

1 Dr. Oldenberg has assured me that he actually did speak these surprising
words, which were repeated altuost literally by Helene von Donniges, or
as she afterwards called herself, using the name of her first husband, von
Rackowitza (afterwards Friedmann, and now Schewitz), in her book, which
in all material respects is reliable and truthful, " My Relations with Ferdinand
Lassalle," 1879.

202 FERDINAND LASSALLE

They met one another at the houses of common friends, and
fell in love immediately. Each of them had then become the
subject of conversation on account of their respective minor
love affairs — Lassalle for an intimacy with a lady of Berlin,
and Fraulein von Donniges for the ardour with which she was
pursued by a young WaUachian Bojar named Yanko, Prince
of Rackowitza, to whom she had hitherto regarded herself as
half engaged. But these new feelings dispelled any that they
had hitherto entertained. As Lassalle immediately said of
them, " each was the other's fate."

Helene's passion was of the overpowering kind which may
bring a spoilt and unusually brilliant woman to worship the
man in whose neighbourhood she first feels that her will is
subordinate to another far stronger will ; that her pulses stand
still in fear and delight ; that her mind sinks beneath the
domination of a superior nature, and rises in yearning towards
it. Lassalle's feeling for the young lady was calmer, but by
no means cool, and she made no concealment whatever of her
lively interest in him. His period of youth was at its close.
He was seriously thinking of marriage, and something in
Helene's character attracted him so strongly that the idea of
a marriage rose in his mind at their first meeting.

The couple, however, had but few opportunities of seeing
one another. Helene lived with her grandmother, who knew
nothing of Lassalle except that he was a " horrible demagogue,
who had once been involved in a prosecution for theft." Her
house was therefore closed to him, and invitations from Las-
salle's acquaintances were declined. At the same time there
is no doubt that the lovers met oftener than Helene von Racko-
witza declares. I have certain information of the fact, but her
silence upon the point is natural, and in any case no definite
plans for the future had yet been made.

On that July evening at Rigi Lassalle saw her on horse-
back with a whole company of strange ladies and gentlemen.
In his delight at meeting her again, so fair and radiant, Lassalle
immediately resolved upon the serious step of a definite engage-
ment. Half jestingly and half seriously he proposed, in order
to avoid all difiiculties with respect to parental objections, that
they should elope to France, and there be married. She replied,

FERDINAND LASSALLE 203

as was quite natural, that in case of necessity she was prepared
to agree, but she asked him first to make a serious attempt to
gain her parents' consent. Lassalle promised to offer his pro-
posals for the hand of the young lady, and immediately com-
municated his intentions to the Countess. She wrote a letter
attempting to dissuade him, to which he replied : " You sayH
in your letter that I should feel some doubts, as I was
recently head over ears in love with another girl, and I reply
that the expression, being head over ears in love, can never
apply to me. But in any case, it is no small piece of
fortune for a man already thirty-nine and a half years of age
to find a woman so beautiful, so free, and so entirely suitable
to me, who loves me so much, and who finally will give up her
will entirely to mine, which is an absolute necessity for me." __

We see that LassaUe, in this letter of August 2, discusses
the subject with a certain calmness and coldness, though such
a tone is less surprising, as he is writing to the Countess. As
a matter of fact, he was neither calm nor cold. He had spent
the week after July 25 in a whirl of love and happiness.
Politics, the agitation, and his many vexations were all for-
gotten. He had become young again. His relations with
Helene were innocent and youthful. She could do with him
as she would. She played with him as with a great dog, and
if she said " Lie down !" he was prostrate at her feet. When
she had gone away, he used to do his work in the telegraph-
office of Rigi in order that he might be able to send her a
message whenever he felt inclined. The tapping of the instru-
ment calmed his nerves. Moreover, within three days he
sent her six stormy love-letters — effusions of wild adoration.
He followed her to Bern, read poetry to her, gave her books
to read, told her of his life and his struggles, and allowed this
adoring woman, twenty years of age, to learn full details of his
plans, while she before her idol, her Caesar, her royal eagle,
again became a child and rejoiced at her happiness. His love
was that of a student or a poet. He has " window dreams "
while sitting on her window-sill during a beautiful moonlight
night, lost in imaginings of the future and the wildest aspira-
tions of youth. She may still see the day when he will be able
to place the crown of victory upon her brow. Would she like

204 FERDINAND LASSALLE

a triumphal entry into Berlin in a carriage drawn by six white
horses ? Our enemies are as numerous as the sand, but we
shall drive over their bodies with people rejoicing and cheering
about us, " Ferdinand the defender of the people !" a (proud
title, isn't it ? " Long live the Republic and its golden-haired
lady President !" But they return to earth. From one who
was supposed to be Bismarck's right-hand man she had heard
that Lassalle had visited him, and that he was " awfuUy im-
pressed." Is that true ? Has LassaUe been to him, and on
what account ?

He is silent, and plays with her hand. " What a child you are !
It is absurd with such small fingers — for, you know, it is absurd
to have such small fingers — I say it is absurd with these fairy
fingers to try and pry into my deepest secrets, which I preserve
as precious stones in the strong-box of my heart. Yes ; I did
visit Bismarck. The great man of iron tried to captivate me,
and iron is a precious metal, so strong and hard, so reliant for
cutting and thrusting. What is there that iron has not secured
in this world ? Almost everything has been wrought and
founded by means of iron. I tell you, almost everything.
But there is another metal more pliable and more seductive,
useless for heroic exploits and deeds of arms, and yet more
powerful than this omnipotent iron ; it is gold. What iron
has destroyed gold rebuilds. It is very questionable which of
the two metals is the stronger and more effective, but effect,
after aU, is the one important point. And, finally, iron grows
rusty in course of time, and the place for rusty iron is the
lumber-room. Away with it to history, the lumber-room of
centuries. I prefer gold — such gold as my darling wears upon
her head, and has been given to me, in my mysterious power
to attract men and to make them mine. You shall see, my
beloved, that our gold can attain ever3rthing."

" But you yourself speak a great deal about weapons and
blood, and battles and revolutions cannot be brought about
without weapons and without iron."

" Child, why talk of aU this upon so beautiful a moonlight
night ? To talk of battles and the caU to arms is by no means
the same thing as to hew down one's brothers and one's fellow-
men with cold, hard, and blood-stained hands. Don't you

FERDINAND LASSALLE 205

understand what weapons I mean ? Don't you know that I
mean my golden weapons of intellect, the art of speech, the
love of humanity, the task of improving and raising the poor,
the miserable, the toilers and moilers, and, finally, and above
all things, the will ? Don't you know that I desire to use
these noble and reaUy golden weapons for more noble and
beneficent purposes than the murderous implements of the
Middle Ages ? Blood and iron are but the last necessity,
when men will listen to nothing else ; but I think they will
learn to fear us without any drawing of swords." Then fol-
lowed a long embrace, kisses, whispering, and farewell.

This week, with its bright hopes and its long whispered con-
versations in the moonhght at the low window, was the poetry
of their love, its true Hfe, disturbed by no hostile elements and
no violent passions. Indeed, this week, with its forgetfulness
of the world and its surrender to love^, marked the height of
peaceful joy that was granted to both of them. A few days
later the card-castle of happiness was overthrown.

Lassalle generally and in theory was aware of the fact that
he was hated and abhorred by the upper classes of German
society, but he had never yet attained any keen or true realiza- '
tion of the height which this hatred and this bitter abhorrence
had reached. He saw himself as he was, with his great gifts
and capacities, with his defects, which as a whole were not
repellent, and he forgot how distorted a caricature of himself
was in circulation among society, and how much dirt his
detractors had cast upon his name. He was a simple nature,
and he thought in his simple pride that he could easily bring
two reluctant parents to reason. The only point was to dis-
cover " what they had against him." He relied upon his gift
of attraction and upon his rights. He had the girl's consent,
and he was no ordinary man. Moreover, Helene was of age,
and a statesman like her father would hardly be likely to cause
unnecessary scandal by a refusal.

On the morning of August 3 Helene von Donniges came to
meet her parents at Geneva. On the afternoon of that day
Lassalle was to arrive at an hotel in the town. Helene found
her relatives in a state of cheerful excitement. One of her
sisters had become engaged to a man after her parents' hearts.

2o6 FERDINAND LASSALLE

a Count of high rank. She determined to take advantage of
the prevailing good-humour, and to tell her mother everything,
and she informed her that she was engaged to Lassalle.

Had she informed her mother that she had brought a for-
midable and deadly poison, and was proposing to administer
it to the whole family, she could hardly have aroused greater
horror and dismay. In spite of Helene's requests, her mother
hurried away in tears to inform her father. He rushed in,
thundering : " What is the meaning of this horrible affair with
that scoundrel LassaUe ?" The friends of the family intervened,
each with some dreadful story of LassaUe and his life with women,
his relationship to the Countess, and his pernicious energy
as an agitator. What was Lassalle ? The braggart chieftain
of a marauding robber-band, with a prosecution for theft in
his past history. Of all those present, the most poisonously
disposed was a man whom LassaUe had once ordered to be
thrown out of a public assembly, and who had sworn to repay
the insult.

The girl remained unshaken in her declaration that, sorry as
she was to vex her relations, she was none the less determined
to marry Lassalle. Her father with curses informed her that
if she persisted in her resolution he would permit no further
intercourse between her, her mother, and her brothers and
sisters. She ran out of the house unobserved, and hastened
to LassaUe's hotel, where she had sent her maid a few hours
previously with a letter of warning. LassaUe's train, however,
was late. He had only just reached Geneva, had not received
the letter, and Helene met him at the door of the hotel as he
was getting out of the carriage. He was surprised by her
desperate and distracted appearance. He opened the door of
a room in the hotel. She feU down before him, calling herself
his wife and his property. Now was the moment to flee to
France by the next train.

She was right. The moment had arrived, and would never
return. It was the only possibility of saving their future.
LassaUe laughed at her. He could not understand or realize
the state of affairs, and was simple enough to believe that
Helene was exaggerating. Why in aU the world could he
not openly obtain his bride like other men ? What reasons

FERDINAND LASSALLE 207

called for a romantic elopement ? At that moment of his
life Lassalle was not himself, and he never forgot it. For
the first time in his hfe he acted irresolutely and according
to social convention, and instead of escaping with Fraulein
von Donniges, he gave her his arm and took her to a lady
friend. There her mother found her, and treated Lassalle,
who maintained his calm demeanour, as an outcast whose
observations demanded no reply. Stricken with stupidity and
bUndness, he gave Helene back to her mother in order to show
her his power over her daughter, in the foohsh belief that he
could easily persuade a sensible and educated man like her
father, and in the desire of papng his addresses in legal and
conventional form. Her father now proceeded to pour the
vials of his wrath upon the girl. Seizing her by the hair, he
dragged her across the road to his house, locked her up, and
began to subject her weak and broken will to a system of
compulsion and persuasion which would have deprived a
stronger woman of all power of action.

When Lassalle discovered that his access to Helene was cut
off, he broke into despair at what he himself called his
" drivelling," and made a firm resolve to recover Helene at
any cost. The difficulties with which he was confronted raised
and were to raise his passion to the highest degree, which was
further inflamed by his scorn of himself for casting away by
his weak and conventional action the happiness which had
readily been offered to him. When, however, Lassalle's
passion reached boiling-point under the influence of these
events, the bold and enthusiastic pride of the girl was broken
by the interpretation which she placed upon his action, and
which we can easily understand. She loved Lassalle as
tenderly as ever, and doubtless believed in his power to secure
their union, but the fiery and dauntless character of her feelings
had expired. She had staked everything upon one throw.
Weak as she was, she had completely surrendered to him, and
had acted with a desperate determination unusual in her sex
and her youth, and her overflowing passion had been greeted
with prudential considerations. Her violent adoration for him
whom she called her beautiful and noble eagle began to fade
from the moment when the eagle appeared to act like a common

2o8 FERDINAND LASSALLE

domestic fowl, and then her doubts began to rise. Was he
really hotly in love with her ? Had he been entirely seriohs,
and, if so, why did he thus voluntarily give her up and hand
her over to her parents ?

By August 4 her father extorted from her a declaration,
which was handed to Lassalle, in which she broke off their
engagement. Lassalle was prepared to believe anything,
except that the girl's passion for him had faded, as his feeling
for her had now reached the point of madness. He correctly
interpreted the declaration as extorted by force, suspected that
his beloved was kept in confinement and ill-treated, bribed
the servants to open communications with her, began legal
proceedings to remove her from the guardianship of her father,
and, in short, stirred heaven and earth. With his preference
for forcible measures, even when milder means would have
afforded more prospect of success, he travelled to Munich,
interviewed the Minister who was the superior of Herr von
Donniges, in the hope of working upon his anxiety by threats.
He telegraphed east and west to his friends, induced them to
negotiate with Herr von Donniges, with his daughter and
with the people of the house, and inquired of Bishop Ketteler,
through the Countess of Hatzfeldt, whether he would be pre-
pared to marry himself and Helene if he became a convert to
the Catholic religion. At the same time, he did not conceal
that the reason for this inquiry lay less in his own convictions
of the truth of Catholicism than in the fact that Helene pro-
fessed this religion. As a matter of fact, she was a Protestant ;
but Lassalle proceeded in such frantic haste that he never gave
himself time to verify the fact, and the inconsiderable influence
exerted by questions of creed at the present day is well evidenced
by the fact that this loving pair had never yet exchanged
a word concerning the religious communion of the bride.

A thousand plans shot through Lassalle's brain, while his
proud heart rapidly sank at the idea that his efforts might
possibly be shipwrecked by an actual change in the girl's
feelings. But about this time a successful issue appeared
possible. It is extremely difficult to prevent two lovers for
any length of time from exchanging letters or from meeting,
and a single conversation between Lassalle and Helene would

FERDINAND LASSALLE 309

have been enough to clear up the misunderstanding and to
secure the future. Unfortunately for him, he chose, as if he
had been stricken with insanity, the most disastrous method
of opening negotiations with Helene.

As long as he felt no doubts of her love he had fully under-
stood that his continued friendly relations with Countess Hatz-
feldt might lead Helene's parents to regard him with disfavour.
He had promised Helene that, when they were married, they
should not be troubled with the continual presence of the
Countess, and he also saw that his proposed marriage would
find in the Countess herself an adversary who could not very
easily be appeased. In his letters, therefore, he was careful to
keep her away from Switzerland, and eventually he ordered
her in somewhat unceremonious words to " obey his com-
mand " and to stand aloof. Hardly, however, had his doubts
of Helene's loyalty arisen, hardly had he begun to fear that he
had been mistaken in the woman whom, with considerable
lack of prudence, he had belauded in a letter to the Countess
as the one woman in the world for him, than he became anxious
to find someone upon whose devotion he could unconditionally
rely, and, following the habits of the last twenty years, he
applied to the Countess, asking her to use her " eloquence "
to strengthen Helene in her determination. He probably
thought that a woman would more easily find access to the
house than himself, and he was at the same time detained in
Munich by his attempts to influence Herr von Donniges
through the Minister of Foreign Affairs. He did not consider
that the Countess had already regarded Helene with the
mistrustful eyes of jealousy, had begun to despise the girl
from the bottom of her heart since the failure of her courage,
and was therefore much more likely to do her best to dissolve
an engagement which she could only regard as disastrous to
her friend. But before Lassalle had applied to the Countess
he had summoned by telegraph his friend, the well-known
historian. Colonel Riistow, and had commissioned him, while
he was otherwise occupied, to discover Helene's real feelings, to
find out her place of residence after her removal from Geneva,
and to bring about her liberation. He forgot, or did not con-
sider, that Riistow and Countess Hatzfeldt were at that time

14

210 FERDINAND LASSALLE

quite unanimous and more than intimate. As a matter of
fact, the Countess inflicted a deadly insult upon the girl by
demanding a meeting with her " to settle the question of her
relations to Lassalle," in terms to which only a refusal or no
answer at all was possible. Riistow at the saipe time appeared
as Lassalle's ambassador, and frightened Helene by his cold
and hostile bearing. Were these Lassalle's best friends ?
Were these the people in whom she was to confide ? People
who could not see or understand, or would not realize, that
she was acting under threats and compulsion, and that her
every word was dictated by her selfish and imperious father.

Meanwhile Lassalle was daily writing long urgent letters of
ardent and beseeching explanation, in which he told her that
both in Swiss and Bavarian law she was of age, and could
marry anyone she liked, that there was no material objection
to their marriage, etc. But by a really tragical fate, and by a
sinister consequence of her father's plans which Lassalle did
not expect and never learnt until his death, not one of these
letters was read by Helene. One alone reached her hands,
but only after she had given her father her word of honour to
return it unread.

Why did she not break her word, and abandon all other
considerations ? It is perfectly obvious that some fibre in her
being had been broken when Lassalle handed her over to her
parents. Her feelings for her lover changed at the moment
when he deserted her. She was bewildered at never hearing
from him ; she was insulted and wounded by the hostile atti-
tude of his ambassadors. The compulsion to which she was
subjected in her parents' house broke her spirit, and accus-
tomed her to the idea of abandoning Lassalle. She was in-
capable of taking any step whatever on her own responsibility.
Help must come from without, directly from Lassalle, and she
had seen him for the last time upon the day when he gave her
back to her mother.

Half intimidated by her father's threats, and partly led by
her repulsion to Riistow, bewildered, disheartened, exhausted,
and vacillating, she declared before her father and Lassalle's
friends, Riistow and Dr. Hanle, that she regarded her relations
with Lassalle as at an end and desired no further com--

FERDINAND LASSALLE 2ii

munication with him. At that moment the family sent for her
former fianc6, Yanko von Rackowitza, with whom she had
broken since her acquaintance with Lassalle, and hurried on
preparations for his marriage with Helene.

As long as Lassalle was in doubt concerning a change in
Helene's feelings he was utterly harassed and despairing.
Such phrases as the following from a letter to the Countess
are not of rare, but of constant occurrence : " I am so unhappy"
that I am weeping — ^the first time for fifteen years. You are
the only one who knows what it means when a man of iron
Uke myself writhes in tears, like a woman." And he writes to"
Helene : " I am suffering a thousand deaths hourly." The
word death is of frequent occurrence in all these letters.

LassaUe definitely felt that if he were humiliated and beaten
in this affair he was overthrown for ever. He realized that
the pride and self-consciousness which had carried him through
so many hard struggles would be shattered, and that his belief
in his " star " would be gone for all time. To regard the cause
of his overthrow as wounded pride is too severe a judgment.
His belief in other men and his confidence in himself were
suddenly destroyed at the moment when he was forced to
regard the passionately desired object of his adoration as
faithless.

In one of his letters he says : " If I am now overthrown, iF
will not be by brute force, which I have so often defeated, but
by the most unparalleled vacillation and flightiness on the
part of a woman whom I love beyond all permissible bounds.'^
Elsewhere he says : " So I fall with and through her will — a"
dreadful example of the fact that a man should never tie
himself to a woman. I am overthrown by the most horrible
treachery and the most repulsive felony which the all-seeing
sun has ever beheld." ^

His bitterness at the " boundless ridicule " to which he
would be exposed for stirring up a whole Ministry for the sake
of a girl who would have nothing to do with him,as he imagined,
is also to some extent responsible for those exaggerated out-
bursts which were dictated by the extremity of despair ; but
he wouldjnever have spoken of downfall and death if the vital
power within him had not received some flaw, and if he had

212 FERDINAND LASSALLE

not thought that he had lost all control of his fate. Moreover,
his despair now brought to the surface all the coarser elements
of his disposition — elements the existence of which he had
hardly suspected in his better moments. His letters to
Riistow contain passages which cannot be printed, so hideous
is the feeling by which they are inspired.

As soon as apparent certainty had replaced the period of
painful doubt, Lassalle sent a challenge to Herr von Donniges,
and a letter full of the coarsest insults against Helene to Herr
von Rackowitza, which was bound to evoke a challenge from
the bridegroom. Herr von Donniges speedily left Geneva, and
the challenge which Lassalle received from the insulted bride-
groom decided the matter. The seconds agreed upon a duel
with pistols, the conditions of which were as follows •}

P" " Conditions.

I " The combatants to stand firm at fifteen paces, to fire
within twenty seconds marked by counting one, two, three, at
the beginning, middle, and end of the time. Pistols to be
smooth-bore, with fore and back sights. The combatants to
adopt any attitude they please, each'P!to have thrfte shots.
Refusal to^fire to count as a shot. The same second to load
both pistols on each occasion. Seconds to draw lots for their
turn in loading. Count Kayserlingk and Dr. Amdt to procure
the surgeon. Meeting-place, the omnibus terminus in Carouge,
at half-past seven in the morning, August 28. R. I., A. II.,
B. III. Each combatant leaves in the hands of his second a
statement that he has committed suicide in case of eventu-

_alities."

Lassalle's second and intimate friend. Colonel Riistow (who
committed suicide in 1879), says that at midday on the 27th
he informed Lassalle in the Victoria Hotel of these conditions,
earnestly begged him to get] some practice in shooting and
told him of a place where he could find opportunities. Las-
salle, however, spoke of this advice as " nonsense." His
opponent was of another opinion. The same afternoon he

1 Carl Schilling, " The Expulsion of President Bernhard Becker from the
General Union of German Workmen," 31.

FERDINAND LASSALLE 213

fired 150 shots in a shooting-gallery. I now quote a few pas-
sages fronti Colonel Riistow's description of the next morning :

" At midnight I went to bed in Lassalle's rooms. At three]
o'clock the next morning I got up, and, after dressing, hurried j
to my lodging, where I had several small things to fetch./
Then I went to the gunsmith and found him at work at fourj
o'clock repairing a pistol-spring. I took the pistol from him,,
and went back to the Victoria Hotel. At five o'clock I woke
Lassalle, who was sleeping quietly. He happened to catch
sight of the pistol. He seized it, fell upon my neck and said :!
' It is just what I want.' We started for Carouge. On the|
way Lassalle repeatedly asked me to see that the duel was!
carried out upon French soil, that he might be able to stayl
in Geneva and to settle affairs with the old ' runaway.' Glad j
as I was to see him so confident, I thought this was a little too |
much. I pointed out to him that he was not the only com- I
batant, and that every bullet might find a mark — 'that one |
should never despise one's opponents. My words, however,
made no impression. We reached Carouge before seven {
o'clock, and as the other parties had not yet arrived, we |
waited. Lassalle, who betrayed not the smallest excitement,
drank a cup of tea. At half-past seven the others arrived.
They had Dr. Seiler with them, who knew a suitable place.
They were in front and we followed. Near the place which
Dr. Seiler wished to reach, we got out of our carriage, and went
through the bushes until we had reached the spot. When we
drew lots it feU upon me to load for the first shot, and to give
the word of command.

" The parties were led into position while I loaded. I wasj
several times urged to give the word of command loud andi
distinctly — naturally an unnecessary request. Twenty seconds \
were allowed for each shot, and were to be marked by the \
second who loaded by calling one at the beginning, two at ,
ten seconds, and three at twenty seconds. I was careful to
call, ' Are you ready ?' beforehand. I gave the first word of
command. Hardly five seconds afterwards the first shot
exploded, fired by Herr von Rackowitza. Scarce a second 1
afterwards Lassalle rephed. He missed, for he had already I
met his death. It is surprising that he was able to fire at all. I

214 FERDINAND LASSALLE

After he had fired he made two involuntary steps to the left.
Only then did I hear, for I had been obliged to look at my
watch, that someone — I did not know whether it was General
Bethlen or Dr. Seller — asked : ' Are you wounded ?' Lassalle
replied : ' Yes.' We immediately placed him on a rug, and
temporarily dressed his wound. While the opposite party
went away. Dr. Seiler and I took Lassalle to a carriage, and
helped him in. We both went with him, and supported him
on the way as well as we could. I made the coachman choose
a way where there were no paving-stones, which we were only
obliged to cross for 200 yards. LassaUe was very quiet during
the drive. Only when we came upon the rough paving-stones
did he speak of the pain caused by the wound, and asked
whether we should soon be home. The bullet had entered
the lower part of his body in the left side, had injured all the
chief organs, and issued at the right side. In spite of his pairi,
he went firmly up the hotel stairs in order not to frighten
I Countess Hatzfeldt, \Yho was waiting to know the result of the
duel. He then lay in pain for three days under continual
jinfusions of opium. We knew from the outset that his wound
jwas mortal, and he died on August 31."

CHAPTER IX

So poor and melancholy — indeed, so unworthy — was the death
that ended a life of great promise and full performance ; but
this death was no mere accident. It was a fate necessarily
resulting from the nature of his character. Whatever Lassalle
had accomplished in life he owed to himself, and to no outside
help. He was also the destroyer of his own fortunes, and
went to his doom as though of set purpose.

The words found upon the breast of the wounded man were :

" I hereby declare that it is I myself who have put an end
to my hfe.

" F. Lassalle.

" August 28, 1864."

-i
These were the last words that he ever wrote, and were

intended to disseminate an innocent untruth for the purpose
of shielding an opponent, but they contain a higher truth and
express the full nature of Lassalle's fault. No one but he
could have ended his life in so unworthy a manner — a life to
which he himself had given so great an importance and on
which he had laid so great a responsibility. The strain of pride
and of despotism in his nature, which prevented him from
devoting himself entirely to his own business, moulded as he
was for one purpose, brought him to his downfall.

As soon as the news of his death spread abroad, a com-
mittee was formed in Geneva of Repubhcans from every
country for the purpose of arranging a magnificent funeral.
The members of this committee included Colonel Johann
Philipp Becker for Germany, Generals Georg Klapka and

215

2i6 FERDINAND LASSALLE

Bethlen for Hungary, Bakunin and Alexander Herzen for
Russia, Thaddeuz Strynski and Fr. Bosak for Poland, Elie
Ducomme and James Fazy for Switzerland, Francesco Garrida
for Spain, Giuseppe Pino and Giuseppe Zamperini for Italy.
The funeral, which was attended by more than four thousand
persons, took place on September 2 in the Temple Unique at
Geneva.

The Countess had Lassalle's body embalmed, and took it
with her to Germany, with the intention of la5ring it in state
wherever he had worked and gained adherents, but this project
was forbidden both by his family and the Prussian Govern-
ment. None the less, his funeral was celebrated with fanatical
grief and sorrow in the towns by the " communities," then
comparatively few, which Lassalle had founded. Men lamented
as if a national liberator had died, and even to-day the Socialist
workmen of Germany remember the anniversary of his death
as the death of the Redeemer is remembered by the Christian
Church.

Lassalle's body reached Breslau on September 14, and was
laid in the family vault in the Jewish churchyard. A simple
monument raised above him bears the following iiiscription,
composed by Boeckh, then eighty years of age :

" HERE REST THE MORTAL REMAINS OF

FERDINAND LASSALLE,

THINKER AND WARRIOR.''

He never lived to see any of the ideas for which he had
struggled brought to realization. His grave lies at the en-
trance of that bloodstained road upon which a new Germany
strains vigorously forward towards a goal which he and many
others had before their eyes — ^the power and unity of the
Empire — ^but which was attained by means which his en-
thusiasm and intelligence alone could indicate. Probably
Lassalle, like his friend Lothar Bucher, though in another
way, would have been a political support to Prince Bismarck
during his struggle for the formation of the German Empire,
had his life been prolonged ; on the other hand, he would have
laid great demands upon the Government for social measures
— demands which the Government never thought of satisf jnng

FERDINAND LASSALLE 217

after his death. But it is certain that the coldness of the
Government towards burning social questions has contributed
more than anything else to abohsh Lassalle's national SociaUsm,
which disappeared with the condition which secured its
supremacy— its easy practicability. Within a few years after
Lassalle's death, if his adherents were unable to secure the
election of their own candidates, they preferred to vote for a
Conservative rather than for a member of the Marx-Bebel
party. In no long time the Social Democratic groups were
divided upon trivial personal questions, and Lassalle's Work-
men's Unions invariably voted for the most radical candidates
when elections by vote took place. The unions have now
been amalgamated. As long as Prussia remained a kingdom
in black and white in the old style, the working-class popula-
tion was either without influence upon politics, or followed
Liberal leaders. It was not until the North German Federa-
tion was founded that Social Democrat principles began to
spread through Germany, and it was not until the conclusion
of peace with France that their astonishiagly rapid growth
began. The movement seems to increase in proportion to the
disappearance of the spirit of provincialism.

The fact is still remembered that the attempted assassina-
tion of the German Emperor gave Bismarck the opportunity
of passing a law which temporarily outlawed the German
Socialists, and it is a well-known fact that after he had pro-
claimed and begun to carry out a complete revolution of the
economic policy of the Empire, he attempted to complete his
Socialist legislation by his State Socialism, and put into
practice several of the main principles contained in the pro-
gramme of the exponents of SociaUst theory.

During the first discussions upon the Socialist legislation in
September, 1878, when Bebel and Bismarck were the chief
speakers, the latter discoursed at considerable length upon his
relations with Lassalle.

Bebel's most important arguments were that the Govern-
ment had always attempted to use the Social Democratic
party for its own advantage, and as he devoted much of
his speech to the meetings and the close relations between
Bismarck and Lassalle, the Chancellor was obUged to go

2i8 FERDINAND LASSALLE

into this burning question in some detail. But no one
believed that he would have confined himself exclusively to
these personal recollections, to the complete neglect of the real
nature and the practicability of the law. After delivering a
blow at the previous speaker, Professor Hanel, and declaring
his inability to follow him " upon the main battle-field of
rhetoric," he immediately attacked the personal question and
deHvered himself of a fragment of biography, together with a
eulogy, of Lassalle, surprising in its warmth. Obviously, if
Bismarck was not prepared with the curt denial (which a
politician in necessity might have used) of Bebel's statements
concerning his close intimacy with Lassalle, his only alterna-
tive was to represent Lassalle as by no means dangerous to
the State ; but the warmth of his words was not necessary for
political purposes, and was apparently the outcome of genuine
admiration, nor do I remember ever having heard Bismarck
speak with such full recognition of a political personality. He
first emphasized the fact that it was Lassalle who had ap-
proached him, and not vice versa, as against Bebel's statements,

^and then continued :

"~ " I saw him, and since the first few hours conversation
with him, I have never regretted my action. I did not see
him three or four times in that week, but have seen him
perhaps three or four times altogether. Our relations could
not possibly take the form of political negotiations. What
was there that Lassalle could have offered or have given
me ? He had nothing behind him. In political negotiations,
the principle of do ut des (I give that you may give) is an
implied principle, though dignity may forbid the expression
of it — (laughter) — but if a man is forced to ask himself. What
can a poor wretch like you give ? the principle does not hold
good. He ha,d nothing which he could have given me as a
Minister. What he had was something which attracted me
extraordinarily as an individual. He was one of the most]
intellectual and amiable men with whom I have ever had to/
deal — a man who was ambitious upon a large scale, and by no,'
means Republican. His ideas were very definitely national
and monarchical, and the ideal before him was the German
Empire. Here, then, we found a point of contact. Lassalle,

FERDINAND LASSALLE. 219

I say, was ambitious upon a large scale, and whether the
German Empire was to end in the Hohenzollern or the Lassalle
d5masty was to him perhaps a matter of doubt — (great laughter)
— but his ideas were thoroughly monarchical. Had he been con-
fronted with the miserable epigoni who are now boasting of *
him, he would have launched upon them a quos ego, would
have hurled them scornfully back to their nonentity, and have
made them powerless to misuse his name. Lassalle was an
energetic and very clever man. A conversation with him was
most instructive. Our talks lasted for hours, and I was
always sorry when they came to an end. At the same time
it is wrong to suppose that I came to any rupture with Las-
salle concerning our personal relations and personal goodwill,
as he apparently entertained the pleasant impression that I
regarded him as a man of genius whose society was agreeable
to me, while he also had the no less pleasant impression that
I was an intelligent and interested listener. Thus, there can
be no question of negotiations, for the simple reason that I
had but little chance to speak in our conversations. (Laughter.)
He took the burden of conversation on his own shoulders, but
in a pleasant and attractive manner, and everyone who knew
him will agree with my description. He was not a man with
whom definite agreements upon the basis of do ut des could be
concluded. I am only sorry that his political position and
mine did not allow a more extended intercourse between us,
and I should have been glad to have a man of such talents and
intellectual capacity as a next-door neighbour. (Laughter.)"

If these assertions be regarded with the eye of criticism, one"
point appears of very subordinate importance — the question
whether Bismarck saw Lassalle some twenty or thirty times,
as the Countess Hatzfeldt asserts, or whether they had three
or four interviews, as he himself states. A man's memory
may easily deceive him upon such points after the lapse of
fifteen years. Probably the Countess is exaggerating and Bis-
marck is underestimating, but an error upon such a matter is
immaterial. This, however, is not the case with reference to
the nature of their intercourse. We can easily understand that
Bismarck would attempt to represent this as innocent and
unimportant from the political point of view, but is such a

320 FERDINAND LASSALLE

statement in any way probable or credible ? The Chancellor,
who was well able to make the best of his capacities, did not
disdain to declare with humour half good-tempered and half
mahcious that LassaUe was rather too fond of hearing himself
talk, and thus prevented the conclusion of any arrangement
between them. He forgets that a moment previously he had
spoken of LassaUe as free from all petty pride, and had de-
scribed him as ambitious in a great style. Then he proceeds
to dispute the possibility of a do ut des between himself and
LassaUe, between the Revolution as engendered from above
and from below. He says that LassaUe had nothing behind
him. Nothing ? Bismarck in 1863 was not so simple as to
regard the great German Labour party, which had just been
founded, as nothing. What LassaUe had behind him and could
offer was a very valuable aUiance for the Goverimtient in times
of struggle, and if this aUiance was not then accepted, it cer-
tainly was not rejected. Finally, if, as Bismarck asserts, the
principle of do ut des forms the political rule of negotiations,
why did Bismarck give something to LassaUe, who could offer
him nothing in return ? Universal direct suffrage was Las-
salle's requirement and only his programme, and thislBismarck
conceded. Productive unions supported by State credit were
only LassaUe's idea and his immediately practical object, and
Bismarck induced the King of Prussia to give a large sum of
money from his private chest to support the first attempts in
this direction. Bismarck's expressions upon this point are
somewhat ambiguous. " Our conversation certainly turned

piipon the question of universal suffrage. ... I am readily
convinced, and I see no harm in discussing the question with

I a clever man. ... I am quite sure that we have spoken

I about it."

So it was not in virtue of conviction that Bismarck intro-
duced universal franchise. He adopted it " with a certain
reluctance, as a Frankfort tradition." It was during the
political struggles of those days " a card which had previ-
ously been played, and was left lying on the table." The
undoubted result was that this card was played against the
ruling middle classes, and that the advantage of it was bound
to fall to the lot of the pure Democracy.

FERDINAND LASSALLE 221

In this connection the point of chief interest to myself in
these assertions is not the pohtical question, but the picture
which they give of Lassalle in private hfe, as he appeared to
the gaze of the greatest statesman of the age. We have here
a sketch of LassaJle immediately before his fall, which forms an
historical counterpart to the portrait of him drawn by Heine
at the outset of his career.

The consideration, what future would have been reserved
for Lassalle if he had not been taken away in the prime of life,
may be attractive, but is futile. Everyone appears in history
characterized by what he has been and what he has done, and
no figure is more clearly stamped than that of LassaUe.

In the German literature of the nineteenth century we become
acquainted with three successive generations of minds. First
comes the romantic school, who avoid the present and practical
realities of life, and forget the poverty of daily life in a world
of their own imagining. Then, about the time of the July
Revolution, appear the first pohtical authors, such as Borne and
Heine, who desire to liberate the whole race from all the bonds
of law and tradition, and cry aloud to humanity as a whole in
the course of their attempts to shake off the oppression of
State religion and despotism. Young Germany is the con-
tinuation of this Radicalism, which is rather universally
humanitarian than pohtical. Among the Hegelians of the
Left, such as the talented Ruge ; among such writers as Gutz-
kow, Herwegh, Prutz, Freiligrath, Moritz Hartmann ; and
among orators hke Kinkel, the revolt against the existing
system — a movement also supported by high capacities for
poetry, thought, or oratory — retains the vagueness of outline
which marks the liberationist group before the month of March,
1848. Then comes the third and present generation, in love
with power. In them the vague and lyrical element has passed
away. They are marked by their close and often harsh grip
of reahty, while they rest upon a broad basis of knowledge.
This is the generation which Bismarck has impressed with the
mark of his genius, and which has gradually subjected itself
to him, as the French Republicans of 1793 subjected them-
selves to the bold despotism of Napoleon.

But though he had no experience of Bismarck's performances.

222 FERDINAND LASSALLE

and though he was uninfluenced by Bismarck's spirit, Lassalle,
in spite of the fact that he descends from 1848, bears the strong
intellectual impressions of New Germany — complete freedom
from doctrinaire traditions, the keenest practical insight, the
gift of energy based upon scientific training. With regard to
social questions, he has seen into the future to a point beyond
any that we have yet reached, and so far he belongs, not only to
the present, but to the future. Beneath the political and social
surface of Europe is fermenting a great and comprehensive
idea which many years ago Lassalle announced to a few thou-
sand men, and which is now supported by four millions of
German voters — the idea that our present economic system
cannot be maintained, that it must be remodelled, and
that in place of the domination now supported by brutality
and injustice, conditions must supervene under which our
accumulated and as yet untried economic science can be used
in the service of liberation and order ; and the fact that this
idea has become a universal sentiment is due to Lassalle more
than to anyone else.

Nature had endowed Lassalle with great and fine capacities ;
she had given him a will of Spartan strength, intellectual
and oratorical talent ; Hke a youth from Athens of old he
had the bow and the lyre. But from the harmony of these
great gifts rose a character unequally developed. There was
an impure deposit of pride and haughtiness — a " Hybris,"
to use the Greek term — and this pride became his ruin. Cir-
cumstances granted the opportunity which his capacities
demanded in theory only, and not in practice. Throughout
his life, in freedom or in prison, he was a caged eagle, and
under stimulus his force of will rose and became overstrained
until it overpowered his other abilities, and destroyed the
equilibrium of his nature. Other men might die of undue
greatness of heart. Lassalle died of undue greatness of will,
but this will or self-coirfidence, excess of which caused his
death, had at the same time maintained him throughout his
life. He stands in history as a monument to will-power. The
romantic school had found employment for their self-confi-
dence in the caprices and tricks of huniour. The revolutionary
political school satisfied their self-confidence in a struggle for

FERDINAND LASSALLE 223

freedom conducted with genius, but necessarily without
poHtical purpose. Lassalle's self-consciousness obliged him
to provide within this period a great and memorable example
of personal energy, dispersed and concentrated in a manner
wholly characteristic of him.

For these reasons all that he has done will ever arouse an
interest which is purely human and partially independent of
scientific considerations.

INDEX

Absolutism, Lassalle and, 135-36
Acquired Rights, the system of,

Lassalle's work on. See Lassalle
Aix-la-Chapelle, 99
Arendt, Sophie. See Solnzew, Sophie
Arndt, Dr., 212
Augsburg Confession, the, 148
Augury, the art of, 78
Augustus, the lex Falcidia, yi
Austria, the Constitution restored,

136
Austrian war with Prussia, 104

Bakunin, 216

Bastiat, his principles, 158, 161

Bastille, captured July, 1789, 62-64

Bebel, Herr, 187 ; Socialist legisla-
tion, 217-18

Becker, B., " Revelations," T.S6note i,
200

Becker, Colonel Johann Philipp, 215

Berlin : Royal Library, 4, 27 note 1 ;
University, 18 ; Lassalle's return
in 1857, 85-87 ; a picture of, in
1859, 87 ; Lassalle's house in the
Bellevuestrasse, 154-55

Berlin union of workmen, Lassalle
and, 120, 127

Bern, 203

Bethlen, General, 214, 216

Birth-rate and the general prosperity,
relation between, 171

Bismarck, Prince : Letters quoted on
ruthlessness, 28 ; policy, 47, 106 ;
relations with Lassalle, 98-99, 135,
190, 2 1 6, 219-20 ; economic policy,
141 note I ; and Wagner, 173 ; and
the foundation of Productive
Unions, 181 ; Lassalle's visit to,
192, 204 ; his State Socialism, 217-
18 ; his appreciation of Lassalle,
217-19 ; influence, 221

Bliicher, 89

Bluntschli, 201

Boeckh, 24, 1 54 ; a saying of, quoted,
88 ; inscription on Leissalle's tomb,
216

Borne, " Letters written from Paris,"
Lassalle on, 13, 14 ; principles, 221

Borsig, manufacturer, 53

Bosak, Fr., 216

Brandenburger Thor, the, 91

Brentano, Lujo, " The Position of
Labour in Modern Law," cited, 172

Breslau, 30, 48 ; birthplace of Las-
salle, 8 ; gymnasium, 12 ; Uni-
versity, 18 ; Lassalle buried at,
216

Brockhaus, Herr, publication of the
letters, 102 note i

" Bronze," a favourite word of
Lassalle, 47

Brutus, Junius, yy

Bucher, Lothar, 64, 89, 154, 155, 216

Billow, Hans von, 154

Bulwer, " Leila," 9

Burial-rights, Roman, 74

Byron, Lord, 86, 100

Capital and Labour, Lassalle's ideas

concerning, 59, 159-67
Caprera, 105
Carouge, 212, 213
Chinese laws, 60
Christianity and testamentary law,

82-83
Cicero, " De Oratore," cited, 122, 126,

130, 139
Code Napol'6on, the, 82
Cologne, priestcraft in, 41 ; the

Assize Court, trial of Lassalle, 21,

27 note I
Communist party manifesto, 1848,

146
Conservatives, the, 146 ; their idea

of Right, 5 5
Considerant, Victor, 1 1 5
Constitution, the, established, 48-49
Constitutions, Lassalle's lecture on

the nature of, 51-56
Cotton-spinning machine, discovery,

45
Coup d'ttat of 1848, 30
Curtius, 78, 95

225 15

226

INDEX

Damascus, Jews of, 9-10

Democratic party, the, 107

Deutz, 29

Diderici, Professor, 88

Dingelstedt, 201

Dohm, Ernst, advice to Lassalle, 92-93

Donniges, Countess von, and Las-
sale, 203, 205-07

Donniges, Fraulein Helene von. See
Rackowitza, Helene von

Donniges, Herr von, and Lassalle,
201, 206, 208, 209 ; the duel, 212-14

Ducomme, Elie, 216

Duncker, Franz, 154

Diisseldorf, 24, 42, 48, 85 ; Lassalle
at, 19 ; Lassalle's speech at, 198

DUsseldorfer Zeitung, the, 1 98

Ebernburg, 148

Egels, manufacturer, 53

Elberfeld, 194

Eleatic School, the, 34

Engel, Prussian Privy Councillor,
Lassalle's accusation against, 141

Engels, Friedrich : " The German
Imperial Constitutional Cam-
paign," 49 ; Socialism of, 115, 146,
152, 187; "The German Peasant
War," 151 note 2

Ephesus, 37

Etruscans, the, and the Roman
religion, 77-78

Falcidian law, the, 72, 73

Fame, Lassalle's estimation of, 39

Families emptor, 66, 69-71

Faucher, 118

Fazy, James, 216

Feuerbach, 152

Fichte, cited, 38, 135 ; Lassalle's lec-
ture on, 155-56

Fidei commissum, the, 73

Fines, Roman, 74

Forster, the historian, 88-89 ; his
present to Lassalle, 92

Fourth estate, the, considered by
Lassalle, 179-80

Frankfort-on-Maine, speech of Las-
salle, 119, 131-34

Frederick William IV., 86-87, 196, 217

Freiligrath, 221

French Revolution, the, and retro-
spective legislation, 61-64 ; Las-
salle on the philosophical and legal
insight displayed, 81 ; political
nature of, 157, 160, 186

Friedlander, Ferdinand, 10

Furian law, the, 71, 72

Gaius, cited, 66, 69-70, 71, 72
Gambetta, speeches of, 122

Gans, his work upon inheritance, 59

Garibaldi, visit of Lassalle to, 105

Garrida, Francesco, 216

Geibel, 201

General Union of German Workmen
founded, 113 ; Lassalle's presi-
dency, 185-86 ; his tour, 194-99

Geneva, Lassalle at, 205-14 ; funeral
of Lassalle, 216

German federation dissolved, 105

German Labour party, founded 1863,
220

Germany : Forces influencing de-
velopment of modern, i-2 ; revo-
lution of 1848, 49, 85, 87, 146, 189;
Germanic system of inheritance
considered, 79

Goethe, 38, no, 156

Guilds, medieval system of, 53

Guizot, 30

Gutzkow, 221

Hamburg, 127

Hanel, Professor, 218

Hanle, Dr., 210

Hartmann, Moritz, 221

Haruspices, the, 77-78

Hatzfeldt, Count Edmund von, and
Lassalle, 23-24, 29, 31

Hatzfeldt, Countess Sophie voa :
Story of, 21-31; the Berlin authori-
ties and, 86 ; Lassalle's friendship
for, 89, 102 note i, 186, 214; arrival
in Berlin, 1858, go-91 ; letters to
Lassalle, 200 ; and Fraulein von
Donniges, 209-11 ; on Lassalle's
relations with Bismarck, 219

Hegel, philosophy of : Lassalle's at-
traction for, 18, 32-41 ; " natural
right," 58 ; his idea of testamentary
law, 82 ; his three periods of eco-
nomic history, 157-158, 166 note i

Heiberg, 34, 35

Heine, Heinrich : A letter describing
Lassalle, quoted, 20 ; Lassalle on,
14 ; his letters to Lassalle, quoted,
19-20 ; abandons Lassalle, 30 ; on
Lassalle, 193 ; principles, 221

Heraclitus : Symbolic expressions
used by, 7 ; Lassalle's work on,
analyzed, 25, 32-41

Hermodorus, 38

Herwegh, 221

Herzen, Alexander, 216

Hejrse, 201

Hinckeldey, 85, 86

Holstein, 105

Huguenots in Berlin, 86

Human sacrifice, yj

Humboldt, Alexander von. 24, 86

Hutten, 148, 153

INDEX

227

Ihering and Lassalle's " System of
Acquired Rights," 75-76

Inheritance : Intestate inheritance,
79-82 ; Germanic system, 79 ; laws
made by the National Convention,
7-10, March, 1793, 81 ; the right of
inheritance, 59 ; the laws con-
sidered in Lassalle's " System of
Acquired Rights," 66-84. See also
Testamentary Law

Institutio heredis, the, 67-70

" Iron," a favourite word of Lassalle,
47-49, 204

Italy, independence of, 105

Jagetzow, Rodbertus : Correspon-
dence with Lassalle, 64-65, 119,
180-84; principles, 114, 187; "Pos-
thumous Papers," quoted, 182 ;
break with Lassalle, 183

Japanese law, 53

Jewish law and acquired right, 60

Jews, I-assalle's attitude towards
the, 8-9 ; outrage on, in Damascus,
9-10

Justinian, 71, 75

Kant, 38 ; " Critique of Pure

Reason," 155-56
Karbe, 189

Kajrserlingk, Count, 212
Ketteler, Bishop. See Mayence,

Bishop of
Kichniawy, 194
Kierkegaard, Soren, 41
Kinkel, 221

Klapka, General Georg, 215
Kleist, Heinrich von, 89
Konigsberg, the labour question in,

120
Komer, 88

Kreuzzeitung, the, 183, 185
Kutschback, Becker A., " Lassalle's

Death," 182

Lange, F. A., " The Labour Prob-
lem," cited, 83 note i, no, 141
note I, 172, 180
Lararium, the, jy
Lares, the, worship of, 76, 77-79
Lassal, Frederike, 10
Lassal, Heymann, 8, 10, 15
Lassal, Mme., 8, 10 ; attitude towards

the Hatzfeldt case, 24-25
Lassalle, Ferdinand —

Account of: Childhood, 2, 8-9;
Jewish environment, 8-9 ; his
relations with his parents, 10 ;
at Leipsic, 12-15 ; in the dock at
Diisseldorf, 18, 42 ; first appear-
ance as a politician, 42 ; the ex-

pression " revolutionary by

Erinciple " considered, 44-45 ;
.assafie's definition, 44, 60 ; life
in Berlin, 87-89 ; women friends,
89-92 ; ill-health, 92, 99 ; views
on Russian foreign policy, 104 ;
political struggle of 1861, 107-08 ;
founds the General Union of
German Workmen, 113; attack
on the Press, 1 28-29 ; a view of
his economic principles, 157-67 ;
Marx and, compared, 190 ; and
the overtures of the clergy,
192-93 ; his arrest and telegram
to Bismarck, 192, 194 ; tour
through the provinces, 1864, 194-
99 ; imprisonment, 198 ; pre-
monition of his death, 198 ; the
duel, 212-14; funeral, 215-16

Character : His intellectual char-
acter, 5-6; self-conceit, lo-ii ;
impetuosity 11-12, 17-18; his
racial characteristic, 16 ; hir
character compared with Caesar's
and Catiline's, 17 ; a description
by Heinrich Heine, 20 ; ruthless-
ness, 28-29 ; preference for repu-
tation, 40 ; his respect for Might
and Right, 46-51 ; aversion to
duelling, 91-92 ; strength of will,
109 ; an unusual memory, 122 ;
power over the masses, 194 ; in-
fluence in Germany, 221-23

Letters of, quoted : On the Hatz-
feldt case, 24 ; love-letters, 99-
103; to Rodbertus, 119, 180-81 ;
an unpublished letter, 119-20;
open letter to the workmen of
Berlin, 156, 157, 177; to the
Countess Hatzfeldt, 200 ; to
Colonel Riistow, 211-12

Political Life and Principles : Po-
litical pamphlets, 54-55, 135, 138,
169; as an agitator, 109-11 ;
style of eloquence, 122-24 ; his
" Workmen's Programme," 125,
169, 190-91 ; similes, 125-27 ;
breach with the Liberals, 155 ;
and the law of wages, 168-72 ;
on productive unions supported
by State credit, 176-84 ; and
the education of workmen, 182-
84

Quoted on : The Jews of Damascus,
9-10; Borne, 13-14; Heine, 14;
Fame, 39 ; the Passive Resis-
tance of the National Assembly,
50-51 ; the philosophical and
legal insight displayed by the
French Revolution, 81 ; the
question of State-help, 172-75

228

INDEX

Lassalle, Ferdinand —

Relations with : Heinrich Heine, 1 9-
20, 30 ; the Countess Sophie von
Hatzfeldt, 26-27 : liis conduct of
her case, 29-31 ; Garibaldi, 105 ;
Bismarck, 135, 192, 194, 204,
217; Helena von Rackowitza,
200-214
Speeches : Before the Court of As-
sizes, 21-22, 24-25, 28, 42-45, 48,
50-51, 124, 144, 189 ; extempore
speeches, 129-30 ; speech in his
defence, January 15, 1863, 130-
31 ; at Frankfort, 131-34 ; politi-
cal insight displayed, 134 ; upon
indirect Taxation, 140 - 43 ;
Science and the Working Classes,
144 ; " What Now," 185 ; at
Ronsdorf, 192-93
Works : Misprints in his works, 4
and note i ; his fugitive writ-
ings studied, 3-6 ; a list of his
works, 1862-64, 113 i^ot^ I
" Bastat Schulze," 192-93
" Capital and Labour," 35 note 2,

38, 59
" Franz von Sickingen," 35
note 2, 41, 97, 148, 153 ; the
dialogue between Okolam-
padius and Hutten, 46-48 ;
Lassalle as a poet, 92-93 ;
Ulrich on his miserable life,
94-95 ; a premonition of Las-
salle's death, 96-97 ; conversa-
tion of the Emperor Karl,
97 ; Lassalle's political views,
98
" Heraclitus," 8, 32-41
"Indirect Taxation," 45, 114

note I
Lecture on the " Nature of Con-
stitutions," 51-56; on "The
Philosophy of Fichte and the
Significance of German Na-
tionalism," 155-56
" Might and Right," pamphlet

on, 54-55
" Science and the Workmen,"

pamphlet on, 124, 188
" System of Acquired Rights,"
30, 36-37, 56 ; acquired right
in its relation to retrospective
law, 57-65 ; the law of inheri-
tance, 66-84 ; the Germanic
system of inheritance, 79
" The Italian War," 104, 186
Legacies, laws regulating, 72-75
Legislation, retrospective, modern
reluctance to adopt, 59-60 ; and
the French Revolution, 61-64
Leibnitz, on Testaments, quoted, 82

Leipsic : Commercial school, Lassalle
at, 12-13; Lassalle and, 127;
Labour movement in, 157

Lemberg, Jews of, 10

Lessing, 38

Liberal newspapers, the, on Las-
salle's lecture on Constitutions,

54
Liberals : Breach with Lassalle, 155 ;

principles, 183 ; and Lassalle, 187,

192
Liebig, 201

Lieven, Princesse de, 30
Ligny, Battle of, 89
Lindau, Paul, and Lassalle, 198-99
Lindenmuller, 189
Liszt, 154
Louis Napoleon, 151 ; attack on

Austria, 104
Lowe, 13-14
Luther : Doctrines, 147-48 ; and the

Peasant War, 148-49 ; and the

Bible, 149-50; and Miinzer, 150-

51 ; the Reformation, 153
Lutheran Reform party, 147
Lutzow, his volunteers, 88

Magdeburg, 48

Maine, " Ancient Law," cited, 67

Manchester School, the, principles,

37. 125. 173. 175

Mancipation, 69-71

Manes, the, worship of, 76-79

Mania, the goddess, jy

Mannheim, 30

ManteufEel, 91, 141

Marriage, and the general prosperity,
relation between, 171

Martiny, 1 54 ; proposal of, and resig-
nation, 137-38

Marx Karl : Neue rheinische Zeitung,
49; principles of, 91, 1 14-15, 146,
151, 152, 186-88 ; works, 159, 162 ;
" Communist Manifesto," quoted,
160 note I ; on the periods of eco-
nomic history, cited, 166 note i ;
his principles compared with Las-
salle's, 190

Marx-Bebel party, 217

Max, King, 201

Maximus of Tyre, quoted, 8

Mayence, Ketteler, Bishop of, and
Lassalle, 192-93, 208

Meister, Wilhelm, Lassalle and, com-
pared, 13

Melanchthon, 151

Mendelssohn and the Hatzfeldt
quarrel, 21, 23

Metternich, saying of, quoted, 123

MeyendorfE, Baroness, 30

Meyer, Rudolph, cited, igo

INDEX

229

Might and Right, the relation be-
tween, Lassalle on, 46-51

Moderates, the, 146-147

Money and Capital, the relation be-
tween, 159-67

Miinich, Royal Library, 27 note 1

Munzer, Thomas, 147, 149 ; doctrines
of, 150 ; and Luther, 150-51

Napoleon I., 135, 186

Napoleon III., 104, 136

National Assembly, the : Dissolved in
1848, 42, 48, 148 r its policy of pas-
sive resistance, Lassalle on, 50-5 1

National Consciousness, 63-65

National Convention, the, and retro-
spective legislation, 62-63, 81

New Germany, 222

Nizza, annexation of, 105

North German Federation, 99, 217

Nuenar, Count, 153

Obscurantist party, the, 193
Ohle, the, 1 1

Oldenberg, Dr., 201 note i
Oppenheim, 21
Oranienburg, 157

Paris : Lassalle in, 19 ; June, 1848,
149 ; national factories, 176

Passive Resistance of the National
Asserhbly, Lassalle on, 50-51

Patrimonium, the term, 69

Peasant war, Lassalle and the, 45

Pfuel, General von, 89, 1 54

Pino, Giuseppe, 216

Platen, 39

Poland, subjugation of, Lassalle on,
50-51

Pope, the. Napoleon and, 104

Praslin, Duchess of, 22

Press, Lassalle and the, 128-29

Prietzel, the botanist, 154

Productive Unions, supported by
State credit, the question con-
sidered, 176-84

Progressive party, the, 98, 107, 137, 185

" Property," 59

Prussia : The constitutional struggle,
1862, 51 ; foreign policy of, Las-
salle's views on, 104 ; the dispute
concerning military organization,
107

Prutz, 221

Quintilian : cited, on death, 67 ; on
eloquence, 123

Rackowitza, Helene von, " My Rela-
tions with Ferdinand Lassalle," 88,
201 note I ; story of, 200-214

Rackowitza, Herr von, 202, 211 ; the

duel, 212-14
Radicals, the, their conception of

Right, 56
Reform, Lassalle on, 45
Reformation period in Germany, 146-

Republican party in Germany, Las-
salle and the, 42 ; the Republicans
of Germany, 215-16

Reuchlin, 41

Revolution, Lassalle on, quoted, 44-45

Revolution of 1848. See Germany

Revolutionary party, the, 147

Rhenish Prussia and Baden, the
revolt in, 49

Rhine, the, Lassalle on, 85

Rhodes, Jews of, 10

Ricardo, 159; his theory of wages,
171

Right : Natural, 80-81 ; testamentary,
81-82 ; acquired. See Lassalle

Rigi-Kaltbod, 199, 200

Rodbertus. See jagetzow

Roman Catholics, and the Reforma-
tion, 146 ; Lassalle and the, 192-93

Roman testamentary law : Lassalle's
theory regarding the heir, 66-71 ;
the Furian law, 71-72 ; the Vo-
conian law, 72 ; the Falcidian law,
72-73 ; the fidei commissum, 73 ;
wills, 73-74 ; Christianity and, 82-

83
Rome, worship of Lares and Manes,

76-79
Ronsdorf, LassaUe's speech at, 192,

195
Rousseau, 37
Ruge, 221
Riistow, Colonel, 91 ; and Fraulaln

von Donniges, 209-11 ; advice to

Lassalle, 212-13 ; account of the

duel, 213

Saredo, Giuseppe, " Dell' applica-

zione," etc., 58 note i
Savoy, annexation of, 105
Saxony: Bakeries combination, 177;

Luther and the Prince of, 151
Say, cited, 162
Schelling, cited, 38, 144
Scherenberg, poet, 154
Schiller, 38

Schilling, Carl, cited, 212
Schmidt, Julian, 40, 155
Schmidt, mason, 120
Schramm, C. A., " Rodbertus, Marx,

Lassalle," cited, 188
Schultze-Delitzsch, 119, 144, 155;

principles, 157, 158; and the law

of wages, 168 ; his workmen's bank.

230

INDEX

principle of self-help, 173-75 ! ^.nd
tlie principle of State-help, 175 ;
influence of, 187

Schwabenspiegel, the, 155

Schwerin, Count, on Lassalle's lec-
ture, 54, 55

Seller, Dr., 213, 214

Sextus Pompeius, war against, 75

Sickingen, Franz von, 148, 153 ; his
praise of iron, 47-48. See also
Lassalle

Silesians, the, 196

Simferopol, loi

Slesvig, 105

Smith, Adam, cited, 160

Socialism : Lassalle and the Socialism
of 1848, 115 ; and the French
National Assembly, 151 ; Lassalle
on, 166

Socialists, German, Bismarck's law
against, 217

Society of Art and Science in Berlin,
Lassalle and, 155

Solingen, Lassalle in, 194, 195-96

Solnzew, Sophie, Lassalle's love-
letters to, 99-103

Spielhagen, " In Reih' und Glied,"
17, 146, 192

Spinoza, deification of nature, 35-36

Stahl, Lassalle and, 61

State, the : Lassalle's idea of, 36-37,
177 ; State credit supporting pro-
ductive unions, 176-84 ; State-help
for workmen considered, 172-75

Steinthal, Professor, on Lassalle's
" Heraclitus," 34

Stock Exchange, 173 ; and social con-
ditions, 166

Strauss, 152

Strynski, Thaddeuz, 216

Sybel, 201

Talleyrand, saying of, quoted, 136

Tarquinius, religion under, 77

Taxation : Roman, 75 ; indirect, Las-
salle on, 140-43, 141 note i

Temple Unique, Geneva, 216

Testamentary law {see also Roman
Testamentary Law) : the institutio
heredis, 67-71 ; German, 79-80

Testamentum per tss et Hbram, 69

Thiiringen, 149

Treves, 30, 97

Twelve Tables, the, 72

Twesten, 91

Union of Berlin Workmen, 157

Universal German Workmen's Union
founded, 157

Universal Sufirage, Lassalle's opin-
ions, 99, 183-84, 220

Unwritten law, 63

Vamhagen von Ense, letter from
Heine, 20 ; and Lassalle, 88

Vestal Virgins, the, 74

Victor Emmanuel, 104

Victoria Hotel, the, 212, 213

Villafranca, peace of, 105

Virgil, quoted, 107

Vladimir, loi

Voconian law, the, 72

Volkszeitung, the, 154

Von Sybil, " Doctrines ■ of Modem
Socialism and Communism," 83
note I

Wages : Laws regulating, 159, 164-67 ;
Lassalle's views concerning, 168-72

Wagner, Adolf, on Rodbertus Jaget-
zow, cited, 114

Wagner, Privy Councillor, bank
founded by, 173

Waldeck, election, 107

Wermelskirch, 195

Westphalen, 85

White terror, the, 85

Wirth, Max, and Lassalle, n8, 132-33

Witebsk, loi

Wittenburg, 153

Workmen : Lassalle and the workmen
of Berlin, 156-57 ; and the law of
wages, 168-72 ; the question of
State-help considered, 172-75 ; pro-
ductive unions supported by State
credit, 176-84 ; education of, Las-
salle's principles concerning, 182-84

Workmen's Committee of Leipsic,
Lassalle's reply to, 171, 185

Workmen's Union of Nuremberg, 119

Workmen's Unions, 197 ; amalgama-
tion, 217

Wrangel, 48

Young Germany, principles, 18, 86

Zamperini, Giuseppe, 216
Zander, Robert, 12
Zander, Rosalie, 12
Ziegler, burgomaster of Brandenburg,
154

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