I've been rereading the Suhm letters since felis turned up a professional translation. I had hoped to get through the entire volume by now, but I didn't sleep well all week, so I'm about halfway through. These are my mostly trivial notes so far.
1) Fritz, early in the correspondence, thanking Suhm for the Wolff translation, writes:
[My] soul, feeling it owes to you only, after God, its existence...
Which immediately struck me as parallel to the Duhan letter where he writes:
I owe you more, finally, than the author of my days: He gave me life in his young love; But he who teaches me, whose reason enlightens me, He is my nurturer, and my only father.
So, FW gets credit for giving Fritz life, Duhan his mind, and Suhm his soul. <33
2) A footnote by the helpful editor tells me:
Suhm had previously written to the prince, telling him he amused himself by sawing wood, in his moments of recreation.
(Many of Suhm's letters weren't printed, apparently, sigh.)
Sawing wood! This I confess I had not expected.
Fritz has brought it up twice so far.
In the first time, Fritz reported that he's been getting more exercise at the advice of his doctor, but not to fear--he's giving up sleep so as to have more time to read! Why horseback riding? Well...
I was near becoming one of your sect, and to have set about sawing wood, but the fine weather made me determine otherwise.
*g*
Then, when Suhm tries to convince Fritz not to give up sleep (he does the thing that Fritz does in condolence and get-well-soon letters, which is "You must take care of your health for the sake of other people! Both because you're a prince and because people love you!", Fritz replies,
When a man knows what you do, and when a happy genius aided by treasures drawn from the study of the belles lettres, has elevated him to the point of perfection wherein I see you shine, he has full permission to saw wood and to give himself leisure. But when he only begins his course, he ought not to stop at the first step, but rather to sink down than not attain the desired end.
"Stop trying to talk me out of being a workaholic!" Fritz concludes.
FW: My son hates everything which includes effort and work.
Us: *facepalm*
Anyway, I now have this lovely mental image of Suhm sawing wood and Fritz considering it!
3) Another editor's footnote tells me that FW started a commission to look into Wolff as early as 1736, and that he was proclaimed innocent. Do we know if this is true? I ask because we had tentatively concluded that FW started reading Wolff in late 1739 after Fritz had encouraged AW to read Wolff, and maybe AW convinced FW that Wolff was worth reading.
4) Fritz refers to "morality" (French 'morale') in a context that makes it clear that it refers to Stoicism in the face of misfortunes. He's comforting Suhm over the latter's financial misfortunes that are forcing him to look for a job (the horror!)--this is right before he gets the St. Petersburg posting--and after giving some Stoic advice, writes,
How easy, my dear Diaphane, it is to give this precept, and how difficult to follow it! I know that a heart preyed upon by chagrin in the bitterness of its grief, is little flexible to the remonstrances of morality.
This is relevant to our interpretation of the line in the mystery affliction letter to Camas that goes, "I beg you to take part in [my troubles], and not to preach to me either a morality beyond my reach, or a heroism which renders me insensitive to the events of life."
I'm increasingly sure that's just a parallel construction, and "morality" refers to Stoic philosophy.
5) I had encountered two explanations for "Diaphane" so far: wordplay on Durchlaucht ("Illustrious", a title given to German princes), according to Hamilton, and Suhm's open-heartedness, according to MacDonogh. I'd been wondering if they had an 18th century origin, and I now see that both of these speculations are included in the same footnote by this one editor.
I still stand by my interpretation, which is backed by Fritz drawing effectively the same comparison, of the sun breaking through his dark moods, about Keyserlingk!
6) Finally, whoever scanned this pdf decided, apparently deliberately, to scan several pages out of order. This is super annoying, and I might fix it in our library copy someday. WTF, scanner.
As hobbies go, this is certainly an excentric one, to be sure. Well, at least presumably the sawed wood is used for heating?
"Stop trying to talk me out of being a workaholic!" Fritz concludes.
FW: My son hates everything which includes effort and work.
Us: *facepalm*
No kidding.
Another editor's footnote tells me that FW started a commission to look into Wolff as early as 1736, and that he was proclaimed innocent. Do we know if this is true?
As Stabi offers the ordering of up to six volumes of books via mail, I will soon find out, I presume.
As hobbies go, this is certainly an excentric one, to be sure. Well, at least presumably the sawed wood is used for heating?
That was my first guess, yes.
As Stabi offers the ordering of up to six volumes of books via mail, I will soon find out, I presume.
!!!! <3333
Yay!
As much as I always get a rush from acquiring a book, it's gotten to the point where it's almost more exciting when you get one, because you have the concentration and the German ability to do something with it! Thank you!
Anyway, I now have this lovely mental image of Suhm sawing wood and Fritz considering it!
This is very endearing. :D And I love the playfulness of the whole thing.
Another editor's footnote tells me that FW started a commission to look into Wolff as early as 1736, and that he was proclaimed innocent. Do we know if this is true?
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Suhm letters
1) Fritz, early in the correspondence, thanking Suhm for the Wolff translation, writes:
[My] soul, feeling it owes to you only, after God, its existence...
Which immediately struck me as parallel to the Duhan letter where he writes:
I owe you more, finally, than the author of my days:
He gave me life in his young love;
But he who teaches me, whose reason enlightens me,
He is my nurturer, and my only father.
So, FW gets credit for giving Fritz life, Duhan his mind, and Suhm his soul. <33
2) A footnote by the helpful editor tells me:
Suhm had previously written to the prince, telling him he amused himself by sawing wood, in his moments of recreation.
(Many of Suhm's letters weren't printed, apparently, sigh.)
Sawing wood! This I confess I had not expected.
Fritz has brought it up twice so far.
In the first time, Fritz reported that he's been getting more exercise at the advice of his doctor, but not to fear--he's giving up sleep so as to have more time to read! Why horseback riding? Well...
I was near becoming one of your sect, and to have set about sawing wood, but the fine weather made me determine otherwise.
*g*
Then, when Suhm tries to convince Fritz not to give up sleep (he does the thing that Fritz does in condolence and get-well-soon letters, which is "You must take care of your health for the sake of other people! Both because you're a prince and because people love you!", Fritz replies,
When a man knows what you do, and when a happy genius aided by treasures drawn from the study of the belles lettres, has elevated him to the point of perfection wherein I see you shine, he has full permission to saw wood and to give himself leisure. But when he only begins his course, he ought not to stop at the first step, but rather to sink down than not attain the desired end.
"Stop trying to talk me out of being a workaholic!" Fritz concludes.
FW: My son hates everything which includes effort and work.
Us: *facepalm*
Anyway, I now have this lovely mental image of Suhm sawing wood and Fritz considering it!
3) Another editor's footnote tells me that FW started a commission to look into Wolff as early as 1736, and that he was proclaimed innocent. Do we know if this is true? I ask because we had tentatively concluded that FW started reading Wolff in late 1739 after Fritz had encouraged AW to read Wolff, and maybe AW convinced FW that Wolff was worth reading.
4) Fritz refers to "morality" (French 'morale') in a context that makes it clear that it refers to Stoicism in the face of misfortunes. He's comforting Suhm over the latter's financial misfortunes that are forcing him to look for a job (the horror!)--this is right before he gets the St. Petersburg posting--and after giving some Stoic advice, writes,
How easy, my dear Diaphane, it is to give this precept, and how difficult to follow it! I know that a heart preyed upon by chagrin in the bitterness of its grief, is little flexible to the remonstrances of morality.
This is relevant to our interpretation of the line in the mystery affliction letter to Camas that goes, "I beg you to take part in [my troubles], and not to preach to me either a morality beyond my reach, or a heroism which renders me insensitive to the events of life."
I'm increasingly sure that's just a parallel construction, and "morality" refers to Stoic philosophy.
5) I had encountered two explanations for "Diaphane" so far: wordplay on Durchlaucht ("Illustrious", a title given to German princes), according to Hamilton, and Suhm's open-heartedness, according to MacDonogh. I'd been wondering if they had an 18th century origin, and I now see that both of these speculations are included in the same footnote by this one editor.
I still stand by my interpretation, which is backed by Fritz drawing effectively the same comparison, of the sun breaking through his dark moods, about Keyserlingk!
6) Finally, whoever scanned this pdf decided, apparently deliberately, to scan several pages out of order. This is super annoying, and I might fix it in our library copy someday. WTF, scanner.
And that's all I have for now. :)
Re: Suhm letters
As hobbies go, this is certainly an excentric one, to be sure. Well, at least presumably the sawed wood is used for heating?
"Stop trying to talk me out of being a workaholic!" Fritz concludes.
FW: My son hates everything which includes effort and work.
Us: *facepalm*
No kidding.
Another editor's footnote tells me that FW started a commission to look into Wolff as early as 1736, and that he was proclaimed innocent. Do we know if this is true?
As Stabi offers the ordering of up to six volumes of books via mail, I will soon find out, I presume.
Re: Suhm letters
That was my first guess, yes.
As Stabi offers the ordering of up to six volumes of books via mail, I will soon find out, I presume.
!!!! <3333
Yay!
As much as I always get a rush from acquiring a book, it's gotten to the point where it's almost more exciting when you get one, because you have the concentration and the German ability to do something with it! Thank you!
Re: Suhm letters
This is very endearing. :D And I love the playfulness of the whole thing.
Another editor's footnote tells me that FW started a commission to look into Wolff as early as 1736, and that he was proclaimed innocent. Do we know if this is true?
I read something like this in the Manteuffel book preview, yes, and quick googling gives me lots of other mentions for it, too. So there was definitely a commission in 1736 (consisting of Reinbeck, Noltenius, and Cocceji, among others), which proclaimed Wolff innocent, which is also why Manteuffel could start his Societé des Alethophiles in 1736. Apparently FW even issued a "now stop fighting" order for the Lange vs. the Wolff camps in September. He probably still didn't start reading Wolff until 1739, though, and the first offer to return seems to have been from 1739, too.
Re: Suhm letters
Agreed. And thank you for the Manteuffel details!