East and West in the Thought of Hamann

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Notes

The best discussion of Hamann’s epithet is to be found in Wilhelm Koepp, Der Magier unter Masken (Göttingen, 1965), pp. 88–114.

See Jacob Minor, J. G. Hamann in seiner Bedeutung für die Sturm- und Drangperiode (Frankfurt am Main, 1881).

See Rudolf Unger, “Hamann und die Romantik,” in Festschrift für August Sauer. Eds. R. Backmann et al. (Stuttgart, 1925), pp. 202–22; Erich Ruprecht, Der Aufbruch der romantischen Bewegung. Munich, 1948.

This point is generally conceded by Herder-scholars. However, Robert T. Clark, Jr. presents in Herder: His Life and Thought (Berkeley, 1955) a dissenting view. See my review of this book in The Germanic Review, XXXII (February, 1957), 77–79, for a criticism of Clark’s thesis.

(Durham, N.C., 1964), p. 50. In his 1901 Columbia University dissertation Arthur F. J. Remy devotes a chapter to Herder’s interest in the Orient, but fails to mention Hamann at all. See The Influence of India and Persia on the Poetry of Germany (New York, 1966), pp. 16–19. More surprising is the fact that there is no mention of Hamann in Helmuth von Glasenapp’s recent and generally valuable Das Indienbild deutscher Denker (Stuttgart, 1960). Cf. also Ren6 Gerard, L’Orient et la Pensee Romantique Allemande (Paris, 1963), which devotes considerable space to Herder but mentions Hamann very briefly only three times (pp. 8, 45, 188).

See Fritz Blanke’s introduction to Vol. I of Hamanns Hauptschriften erkliirt (Güter- sloh, 1956), p. 5; also Ronald Gregor Smith, “The Hamann Renaissance,” The Christian Century, LXXVII, No. 26 (June 29, 1960), 768–69.

J. G. Hamann, Sämtliche Werke. Historical-critical edition (Vienna, 1949–57), Vol. VI, p. 257, col. 1. References to this and the first five volumes of this definitive edition of Hamann’s works will hereafter be made in the text and notes simply by citing the rotnan numeral, followed by the page and line number. Cf. also Ferdinand J. Schneider’s statement: “Mit dieser Abwendung von der Antike [i.e., Hamann’s rejection of neoclassicism] und diesem nachdrücklichen Hinweis auf Kulturwerte des Orients war in unserer Literatur eine entscheidende Wendung eingeleitet. Noch uhbewußt regt sich hier zum erstenmal wieder die dem deutschen Schrifttum durch Opitz verlorengegangene Lebenskraft.” Die Deutsche Dichtung der Geniezeit (Stuttgart, 1952), p. 61.

See my “J. D. Michaelis: Rational Biblicist,” Journal of English and Germanic Philology, Xl. IX (April, 1950), 172–81.

Hamann und die Aufklärung (Jena, 1911), Vol. I, p. 228. (References to this volume will hereafter be made with the letter U.)

This is not to deny that Hamann had otherwise strong Romantic tendencies. Philip Merlan has well said that the Magus “is motivated by a strange mixture of two ingredients: orthodox though highly personal Christianity and what could be termed a proto-romantic attitude.” Claremont Quarterly, III, 4 (April, 1955). p. 93.

See my Unity and Language: A Study in the Philosophy of Hamann (Chapel Hill, 1952), esp. pp. 16–17.’’

An allusion to the ancient Arabia Felix. “The highland of Asir and Yemen with part of Hadhramaut constitute the Arabia Felix of old time imagination … ” Encyclopaedia Brittanica (1941), XI, 169. Hamann has in mind here, of course, a cultural not a geographical felicity.

II, 211:32–37. This passage is cited in Latin. I have quoted the English translation from The Works of Francis Bacon, ed. James Spedding et al. (New York, 1864), VIII, 474–475.

211:38–39: Spedding, p. 474. Hamann, whose sobriquet was so closely associated with Zoroastrianism, actually showed little interest in a study of the subject. He was acquainted with the Zend-Avesta, but it made little impression on him. See especially V, 297:36: ZH, III, 237:16–18, 290:4–5, 360:8–10, 371:1–3. His chief interest lay in the Semitic religious heritage: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Moreover, the German version of the Zend-Avesta appeared only in 1776, thus after his Orientalizing period.

II, 139:23; Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle (1657–1757), author of Histoire des oracles (1687) and other works important for the rationalistic interpretation of religion and myth. See Frank E. Manuel, The Eighteenth Century Confronts the Gods (Cambridge, Mass. 1959), pp. 41–53 et passim for the discussion of his work. Manuel calls him “Bayle’s Catholic counterpart in Paris” (p. 41).

Socratic Memorabilia: A Translation and Commentary (Baltimore, 1967), pp. 8ff. et passim.

In Hebrew, Arabic, Syriac, and Sanskrit grammar the third person singular is considered to be the root form of the verb.

See Unity and. Language: A Study in the Philosophy of Hamann, pp. 34–39.

A History of Western Philosophy (New York, 1945), p. 595.

J. G. Hamann. Briefwechsel. Eds. Walther Ziesemer and Arthur Henkel (Wiesbaden, 1956), p. 45, lines 11–13. (Hereafter referred to as ZH, followed by volume, page, and line numbers.)

Cf. II, 201:27.

In Jerusalem, oder über religiöse Macht und Judentum (1783).

“Verglcichung der mahomedanischen Religion mit der heidnischen von Indostan, durch Ali-Ebn-Omar” in Recueil de pieces curieuses sur les matieres les plus interessantes (Rotterdam, 1736) Radicati assumes in this treatise the role of a Moslem writing in Arabic to a Brahman in India. IV, 195:207.

III, 115:5–7. Even in his pre-convcrsion period the young Hamann alluded to Mohammed as an example of greatness. IV, 237:30–37.

There are numerous references, scattered over a period of three years, to his study of Arabic. Following are the main ones pertaining especially to the study of the Koran: ZH, II 50:8–10; 78:7; 83:6–19; 93:17–18; 97:3–5; 103:17. On July 26, 1763, however, he wrote: “Weg mit dem Gold Arabia!” ZH, II, 223:16. Hamann considered Arabic as important as Greek for a physician, and taught it to his son years later. ZH, IV, 468:34–35. Arabic had unquestionably a great fascination for him at one period. Thus he wrote in 1760 that Arabic has “so viel Zaubcrey als die Algebra,” and consequently he found it necessary to exert will power to avoid spending too much time on it. ZH, II, 49:15–18.

Terms borrowed from Islamic culture, usually with an ironic twist, appear frequently in his writings, throughout his life, e.g.,: II, 68:17; 342:34; III, 99:2; 126:11; 210:22; 211:38; 397:13.

III, 407:5 cf. III, 30:11(1. No one has ever taken the sexuality of man more seriously than Hamann: it is at the center of his thought. His objection to Mohammedan doctrine is its ascription of a continuing sexuality to man in the after-life, not to a recog- nition of its importance in the present life.

ZH, II, 354:24–25; cf. II, 75:9.

See Chisaburo Yamada, Die Chinamode des Spätbarock (Berlin, 1935).

Cf. II, 63:4; also Hamann’s Socratic Memorabilia: A Translation and Commentary, pp. 116–117. An interesting parallel to Hamann’s indictment of the shallowness of the chinoiserie of the Rococo is found in Yamada’s statement: “Der Spätbarockmensch hat niemals den Kern der ostasiatischen Kunst berührt … . Er genoß die japanischen Kunstarbeiten [as indeed all Oriental art-objects] als rein dekorative Kunst und benutzte sie zur Dekoration.” The reason for this was that “die Spätbarockkultur und die Kultur Ostasiens sind doch grundverschieden … ” Die Chinamode des Spätbarock, p. 71.

See Koepp, passim.

See VI, 75–76 s.v.

III, 69:23; 70:20; 83:15. Cf. Koepp, pp. 33, 134, 186. In Golgatha und Scheblimini Hamann refers to “die Ader eines chinesischen Ceremoniels” in the Prussian state of his day. N, III, 307:12–13. In the same work Frederick II is covertly likened to the “Imperator zu Pekin.” Ibid, 310:34.

C. H. Gildemeister, J. G. Hamann’s, des Magus im Norden, Leben und Schriften (Gotha, 1868), V, 647.

For example, there was much stir in Germany in 1723 when Christian Wolf (1679–1754) lectured approvingly at the Pietistic University of Halle on Chinese moral philosophy. The fact that he was driven out of Halle merely increased interest elsewhere in Germany in the subject, resulting in his being recalled to Halle later by Frederick II.

At the conclusion of the Seven Years’ War Frederick II brought to Prussia about 200 tax specialists from France who were expert at extracting the last penny from the populace. They were thoroughly despised by the king’s subjects, high and low.

This book was translated into English under the title: A Philosophical and Political History of the Settlements and Trade of the Europeans in the East and West Indies. To which is added the Revolution of America by the Same Author. (Edinburgh, 1772), 6 vols.

II, 311:19. Hamann got this term from G. S. Bayer, Museum Sinicum (St. Petersburg, 1730), meaning “saffron colored bird dwelling securely and quietly in forested mountains.” Other occurrences of the nickname: III, 77:13; 83:28; 187:8–9; IV, 377:5.

Diderot and the Encyclopedists. New Edition (New York 1879), p. 380.

It is not surprising that also Immanuel Kant showed no appreciation of the Oriental point of view: “Wollte Gott,” he wrote, “wir wären mit orientalischer Weisheit verschont geblieben; man kann nichts daraus lernen, und die Welt hat niemals von ihnen als eine Art mechanischer Kunst, Astronomie, Zahlen etc. gelernt.” Or again: “Die asiatischen Nationen haben ihren Stillstand da, wo die Erweiterung ihrer Vollkommenheiten aus Begriffen geschehen mußte, und nicht bloß aus Anschauungen.” Quoted by Helmuth von Glasenapp, Indien in der Dichtung und Forschung des deutschen Ostens (Königsberg, 1930), p. 12. It is precisely the cleaving of the Oriental to “Anschauungen” and his instinctive distrust of abstract “Begriffe” which appeals to Hamann. Here, as almost everywhere else, Kant and the Magus are at opposite philosophical poles.

For example, he seems to quote approvingly a criticism of the representation of the lingam in Indian temples. V, 347:12–19.

(New York, 1946), pp. 300ff., 335ff. et passim.

Northrop, p. 496. Hamann’s disciple, Herder, likewise believed in the possibility of blending the two cultural modes (more explicitly: the cultures of India and Europe), despite the fact that this notion involved him in a contradiction of his own basic principles. See Ronald Taylor, “Herder, India and the Ideas of European Culture,” Forum for Modern Language Studies, III, 1 (January, 1967), 17. Nietzsche’s opinion, on the other hand, would seem to agree with Hamann’s: “Es scheint kaum möglich zu sein, mit dauerndem Erfolge einen fremden Mythus überzupflanzen, ohne den Baum durch dieses Überpflanzen heillos zu beschädigen.” Die Geburt der Tragödie aus dem Geiste der Musik, xxiii.

Unity and Language, pp. 10–32.

It is interesting that a denigrating critic of Hamann’s Socratic Memorabilia once compared it to a “Japanese and Chinese painting.” II, 87:12–13.

This distinction emerges clearly in the following passage: ” … Apollo will die Ein- zelwesen gerade dadurch zur Ruhe bringen, daß er immer wieder an diese als an die heiligsten Weltgesetze mit seinen Forderungen der Selbsterkenntnis und des Maßes erinnert. Damit aber bei dieser apollinischen Tendenz die Form nicht zu ägyptischer Steifigkeit und Kälte erstarre, damit nicht unter dem Bemühen, der einzelnen Welle ihre Bahn und ihr Bereich vorzuschreiben, die Bewegung des ganzen Sees ersterbe, zerstörte von Zeit zu Zeit wieder die hohe Flut des Dionysischen alle jene kleinen Zirkel, in die der einseitig apollinische “Wille” das Hellenentum zu bannen suchte.” [my italics] Die Geburt der Tragödie, ix.

Cf. the following lines from “The Light Divine” by the Persian poet Hafiz: “Within the Magian tavern / the light of God I see / In such a place, O wonder / Shines out such radiancy / Boast not, O King of pilgrims / The privilege of thee / Thou viewest God’s own Temple / God shows Himself to me.” The “Magian tavern” symbolizes the world of darkness into which the divine light shines; the “King of pilgrims” is the leader of the annual pilgrim-caravan to Mecca. (See Fifty Poems of Hafiz, trans. Arthur J. Arberry. [Cambridge, 1953], pp. 117, 169–170) In such a way the Oriental poet internalizes his faith, decrying the attempt to find God in mere externalities, even though they be as sacred as the Kaaba at Mecca. Hamann was not acquainted with Hafiz, but he would no doubt have seen in these lines an authentic confession of the inwardness of faith, expressed in a manner characteristic of the Orient.