196 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



lassenheit, Launigkeit, Scbalkbaftigkeit, Wohlbehagen, Zufriedenheit, 

 Gemtithsruhe, etc. 



Now, some of these words have been and are still in use in the Eng- 

 lish language ; but they have suffered strange usage. They have de- 

 generated to lightness, losing their original weight and dignity, or they 

 have been actually lowered and have received an evil connotation. 

 And we generally find that the Latinized words degenerate in the 

 direction of levity, while the Saxon words degenerate in the direction 

 of vulgarity. 



As an instance of the first case, the English words corresponding 

 to Gltlck and Ungltick are Fortune and ^Misfortune. The dark side of 

 these ideas, Misfortune, has retained the strength and dignity corre- 

 sponding to the German. Fortune, however, does not correspond to 

 Gliick as Misfortune corresponds to Ungltick. It may be urged that 

 Fortune had already lost its deep meaning in the Latin, perhaps be- 

 cause of the fickle and worldly character which poets attributed to the 

 goddess Fortuna ; bvit the difference in the comparative depth of sig- 

 nification between Fortune and Misfortune illustrates what I mean. 

 Fortune has more and more turned toward a signification of luck or 

 chance, or to an expression of the most worldly accidents of happiness, 

 as wealth, etc. When the German says, " Ich bin gllicklich," he means 

 to indicate a state of high satisfaction ; but, when we say, " I am for- . 

 tunate," it conveys the impression of a transitory state of satisfaction ; 

 in fact, we are not necessarily happy or contented, the accent is not 

 thrown upon our own mood, but upon some outer fact, for we would 

 naturally ask, " Fortunate in what f " 



As an instance of the second case, we find the word Lust still used 

 in English, but in what an altered meaning from the German ! In 

 German, Lust denotes a wide, high, and intense pleasure. It would 

 not be amiss in German to speak of the '" high Lust of the converse 

 with God in praN^er." ' The wide compass of this word is beautifully 

 illustrated in that untranslatable poem in Goethe's " West-oestlicher 

 Divan," in which Lust is brought in connection with rose-water which 

 cost the life of a whole world of flowers, and with the great historical 

 event of Tamerlane's (Timour) inroad which also cost the life of myriads 



of existences ; 



" Dir mit Wohlgerucli zn kosen, 

 Deine Freuden zu erhohn, 

 Knospend niilssen tausend Eoseil 

 Erst in Gluthen untergehn. 



" Um ein Flaschehen zii besitzen 

 Das den Ruch auf ewig halt, 

 Sclilank wie deine Fingerspitzen 

 Da bedarf es einer Welt ; 



1 We are reminded of the story of a German missionary in Australia, who, ignorant 

 of this degeneration of Saxon words, exhorted his congregation " to do the will of God 

 with craft and lustP 



