Karl Ludwig Sand | Page 6

may
understand from the character of the child what was that of the man.
Besides, we shall see him develop, always calm and superior amid
small events as amid large ones.
About the same time Sand escaped almost miraculously from two
dangers. One day a hod full of plaster fell from a scaffold and broke at
his feet. Another day the Price of Coburg, who during the King of
Prussia's stay at the baths of Alexander, was living in the house of
Sand's parents, was galloping home with four horses when he came
suddenly upon young Karl in a gateway; he could not escape either on
the right or the left, without running the risk of being crushed between
the wall and the wheels, and the coachman could not, when going at
such a pace, hold in his horses: Sand flung himself on his face, and the

carriage passed over him without his receiving so much as a single
scratch either from the horses or the wheels. From that moment many
people regarded him as predestined, and said that the hand of God was
upon him.
Meanwhile political events were developing themselves around the boy,
and their seriousness made him a man before the age of manhood.
Napoleon weighed upon Germany like another Sennacherib. Staps had
tried to play the part of Mutius Scaevola, and had died a martyr. Sand
was at Hof at that time, and was a student of the gymnasium of which
his good tutor Salfranck was the head. He learned that the man whom
he regarded as the antichrist was to come and review the troops in that
town; he left it at once and went home to his parents, who asked him
for what reason he had left the gymnasium.
"Because I could not have been in the same town with Napoleon," he
answered, "without trying to kill him, and I do not feel my hand strong
enough for that yet."
This happened in 1809; Sand was fourteen years old. Peace, which was
signed an the 15th of October, gave Germany some respite, and
allowed the young fanatic to resume his studies without being
distracted by political considerations; but in 1811 he was occupied by
them again, when he learned that the gymnasium was to be dissolved
and its place taken by a primary school. To this the rector Salfranck
was appointed as a teacher, but instead of the thousand florins which
his former appointment brought him, the new one was worth only five
hundred. Karl could not remain in a primary school where he could not
continue his education; he wrote to his mother to announce this event
and to tell her with what equanimity the old German philosopher had
borne it. Here is the answer of Sand's mother; it will serve to show the
character of the woman whose mighty heart never belied itself in the
midst of the severest suffering; the answer bears the stamp of that
German mysticism of which we have no idea in France:--
"MY DEAR KARL,--You could not have given me a more grievous
piece of news than that of the event which has just fallen upon your
tutor and father by adoption; nevertheless, terrible though it may be, do
not doubt that he will resign himself to it, in order to give to the virtue
of his pupils a great example of that submission which every subject
owes to the king wham God has set over him. Furthermore, be well

assured that in this world there is no other upright and well calculated
policy than that which grows out of the old precept, 'Honour God, be
just and fear not.' And reflect also that when injustice against the
worthy becomes crying, the public voice makes itself heard, and uplifts
those who are cast down.
"But if, contrary to all probability, this did not happen,--if God should
impose this sublime probation upon the virtue of our friend, if the
world were to disown him and Providence were to became to that,
degree his debtor,--yet in that case there are, believe me, supreme
compensations: all the things and all the events that occur around us
and that act upon us are but machines set in motion by a Higher Hand,
so as to complete our education for a higher world, in which alone we
shall take our true place. Apply yourself, therefore, my dear child, to
watch over yourself unceasingly and always, so that you may not take
great and fine isolated actions for real virtue, and may be ready every
moment to do all that your duty may require of you. Fundamentally
nothing is great, you see, and nothing small, when things are, looked at
apart from one another, and it is only the putting of things together that
produces