Project Gutenberg's Christian Gellert's Last Christmas, by Berthold Auerbach

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Title: Christian Gellert's Last Christmas
From "German Tales" Published by the American Publishers' Corporation

Author: Berthold Auerbach

Release Date: September 18, 2007 [EBook #22665]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHRISTIAN GELLERT'S LAST CHRISTMAS ***

Produced by David Widger

CHRISTIAN GELLERT'S LAST CHRISTMAS

By Berthold Auerbach

From "German Tales." Published by the American Publishers' Corporation.

1869

Three o'clock had just struck from the tower of St. Nicholas, Leipzig,
on the afternoon of December 22d, 1768, when a man, wrapped in a loose
overcoat, came out of the door of the University. His countenance was
exceedingly gentle, and on his features cheerfulness still lingered, for
he had been gazing upon a hundred cheerful faces; after him thronged a
troop of students, who, holding back, allowed him to precede them: the
passengers in the streets saluted him, and some, students, who
pressed forwards and hurried past him homewards, saluted him quite
reverentially. He returned their salutations with a surprised and almost
deprecatory air, and yet he knew, and could not conceal from himself,
that he was one of the best beloved, not only in the good city of
Leipzig, but in all lands far and wide.

It was Christian Furchtegott Gellert, the Poet of Fables, Hymns, and
Lays, who was just leaving his college.

When we read his "Lectures upon Morals," which were not printed until
after his death, we obtain but a very incomplete idea of the great power
with which they came immediately from Gellert's mouth. Indeed, it was
his voice, and the touching manner in which he delivered his lectures,
that made so deep an impression upon his hearers; and Rabener was
right when once he wrote to a friend, that "the philanthropic voice" of
Gellert belonged to his words.

Above all, however, it was the amiable and pure personal character of
Gellert which vividly and edifyingly impressed young hearts. Gellert was
himself the best example of pure moral teaching; and the best which a
teacher can give his