les
and centres so compact, and the great French authoresses and
epistolographers so world-famed.

Schleiermacher, the philosopher-theologian of that transition period,
said once that society on a grand scale could at that time be found only
in the houses of the Jews. Though still disfranchised in many respects,
their admission to all the rights of citizenship being accorded first in
1812 on account of Stein's reforms, some eminent Jewish families
possessed sufficient wealth and aspirations for culture to form such
social and intellectual circles. Marianne Meyer became the wife of
Prince Reuss, and as such assembled an aristocratic literary society in
her house at Berlin. But the climax of a German salon was realized by
two brilliant women of Jewish origin, Henriette Herz and Rahel Levin.
The former, wife of the famous physician and philosopher Marcus Herz,
formed the first Goethe community in Berlin and scattered his fame
broadcast through Berlin society. Without original talent, she
exercised, nevertheless, great influence by her beauty, her social
skill, and her ability in presenting the intellectual treasures of
others. She was attractive to all. Jean Paul and Schiller came to her
salon when in Berlin; famous foreigners, like Mirabeau, Madame de Stael,
etc., visited her; the celebrities of Berlin were her constant guests,
e.g., the brothers Humboldt, the poet Arndt, Prince Louis Ferdinand of
Prussia, the Duchess of Courland; foremost among all, Schleiermacher,
who had a fantastic devotion and friendship for her; and Borne, who for
a time loved her passionately.

The same personages and many others, especially foreign diplomats,
artists, and noblemen, enlivened also the house of Rahel Levin, who in
1814 became the wife of the author Varnhagen von Ense. Rahel was not
beautiful, or especially scholarly, but she was noble, helpful, and
good; she was original, attractive, had the charm of "Attic salt" in her
conversation, and understood how to listen as well as how to talk. As
she had in her youth studied the poet Novalis and the
patriot-philosopher Fichte, so later she studied Hegel's philosophy. She
won the friendship of such men as Ranke and Prince Puckler. Her
attractiveness did not depend upon her youth, for, according to the word
of a lady of highest nobility, Jenny von Gustedt, "she touched with her
philosophy life itself, her thought became deed, as she aroused with her
spirit the spark of soul-life in others,