LEOPOLD VON RANKE. 548 



of Emerson, has clearly shown the effect of heredity in the develop- 

 ment of the Concord jahilosopher from a long line of cultivated New- 

 England clergymen. In studying the descent of Eanke, one is im- 

 pressed with a similar fact. For several generations, indeed as far 

 back as his progenitors can be traced, they were liberally educated 

 men ; and they were all clergymen with the sole exception of Ranke's 

 father, Gottlob Israel, who at the University of Leipzig changed his 

 course from theology to law ; but he afterward repented his choice 

 and urged Leopold, his oldest son, to become a clergyman. In fact, 

 the youth studied theology, in connection with the classics, at Leipzig, 

 and once spoke in his brother Heinrich's church at Frankfurt on the 

 Oder, where the coming historian taught school before his call to 

 Berlin. While one of his brothers actually became a clergyman, 

 Leopold and three others were differentiated from the pastoral stock 

 and became university professors. The historian's son, Otto, reverted 

 to the original type, and is now a pastor in Potsdam. 



The best sources of information respecting Ranke's early life and 

 the characteristics of his family are his brother Friedrich Heinrich 

 Ranke's " Jugenderinnerungen," which reveal wonderful powers of 

 exact description, and withal charming glimpses into German homes 

 and German local life ; and Ranke's own " Lebenserinnerungen," frag- 

 ments of which were published in the " Deutsche Rundschau " for 

 April, 1887. Rauke says, "Die Vorfahren, die uns bekannt sind, 

 waren alle Geistliche, meist in der Grafschaft Mansfeld." He sketched 

 his family history from the seventeenth century. The oldest known 

 ancestor was Israel Ranke. " Er lebte ganz seiner Pfarre," says 

 Ranke. Israel had a brother Andreas, who was a clergyman and 

 "ein Gelehrter." He wrote dissertations, and was fond of mingling 

 local history with his sermons ; indeed, Ranke says this man's work 

 is quoted to this day as an authority in his parish. Among the great 

 historian's ancestors was a second Israel Rauke, a clergyman of such 

 broad views that he prayed for God's blessing upon his labors in 

 the liberal arts (" auch in den freien Kiinsten "), so that he might 

 be of service to his fellow-men. Here, perhaps, lay the ancestral 

 germ of that fair humanity which Leopold von Ranke developed in 

 all his writings. The historian's grandfather, Heinrich Israel, was 

 also a clergyman, and lived to the age of fourscore (1719-99). 



Longevity appears to have been an hereditary trait in the Ranke 

 family. This trait was strengthened, if not developed, by the regular- 

 ity and quiet life incident to the clerical profession in country districts. 

 Men have not yet ceased to marvel at the phenomenon of Leopold 



