HARNED / WHITMAN     Notes & Memoranda     Autobiography of Heinrich Zschokke   (L.C. 77)
Box 2 Folder 477  [Notes upon and quotations from the autobiography of Heinrich]
ZSCHOKKE.  3 p. on 3 1.  26 1/2 x 16 1/2 cm. Holograph, in pencil on yellow 
paper.

Zschokke

Probably no autobiography ever permanently 
occeived mankind  .----

The life of Man is interesting and
striking enough to stand by itself
un[d]warped by the merit of the 
Author, or the celebrity of the
Statesman.----

Zschokke, born 1770
Commenced preface to "Autobiography" 1840, (in 70th year)
"I thought that I was alone with God in
world, and that He was educating
me in the School of Life, until I
should be fit to live at home
in Heaven with Him. -- For me He
had built this wonderful place, (the 
Earth.) and all which I saw, men, women,
children, animals, were all moved about
solely for me and in my presence, being 
without life or motion when I was away.---
Whenever I came God hastened to continue
the wonderful spectacle for me, to 
teach and educate His child.----

[*603*]Z       2
I had learnt to feel at home and 
cool amid all the changing vicissitudes 
of fortune --- to laugh in adversity
and remain cautious in prosperity ;---
to dispense with ease and superfluity --
to live independent and frugal.---
I had learnt ease and politeness in 
social intercourse
As in great cities men adopt the
most ridiculous customs, for fear 
of appearing ridiculous, I played, like
others, my part in the motley mask 
of life.---
p 50
An old philosophe,  more fameworthy than 
famous --- the German Diogenes [Co] of
Paris, Count Gustav von Schlabrendorf, --
He was upwards of 60, lean and tall, with 
ragged hair, and a worn out dressing-gown, of
indescribable color ; a hermit of his charcoal 
fire, which he scarcely ever quitted... just
escaped the guillotine -- preserved in his 
little room (or rooms) as much coolness 
and self=possession in his views of the 
men and the events going on around him, as 
if centuries lay between him & then  ----
Without seeking influence he had obtained 
it, like Socrates, by instructive conversation 
and a profound knowledge of men & this
[*604*]Z    3

Yet I had become by this time too thoroughly
Europeanised to relish the life of
Rousseau's homme natural.

"I understood neither the stones under my 
feet, nor the stars over my head, nor the 
commonest flower that blossomed in 
forest or meadow."

"It was now I learnt how much 
more a teacher can learn of 
children than children can learn 
of a teacher.---

It was early my endeavor to prevent any 
taste or predilection from becoming a 
passion with me.---

Zschokke evidently (with great natural goodness 
as a substratum) modeled his life on principle, 
after the philosophy of Polonius' advice to his 
son, in Hamlet.
[drawing of a pointing hand]

[*605*]