468 



GRIMM, JAKOB LUDWIG. 



ridge, in connection with the Danville Theo- 

 logical Seminary, he took a firm position on 

 the side of the Union. His death was caused 

 by congestive fever. 



GRIMM, JAKOB LTTDWIG, a German philolo- 

 gist and antiquarian, born in Steinau, in Hesse- 

 Cassel, Jan. 4th, 1785, died in Berlin, Prussia, 

 Sept. 20th, 1863. He was educated with his 

 brother Wilhelm, a year younger than himself, 

 and through life the two were almost insepa- 

 rable in their studies, pursuits, labors, recre- 

 ations and companionship. Their early educa- 

 tion was obtained at the Lyceum of Cassel, and 

 at the wish of their father, himself a jurist and 

 magistrate, they entered the University of Mar- 

 burg together, and studied law under Savigny. 

 In 1805, Jakob accompanied Savigny to Paris 

 to aid him in exploring the libraries of that 

 capital. The next year he returned to Hesse- 

 Cassel, and became a clerk in the bureau of 

 the Hessian Secretary of "War. In 1808, Hesse 

 was incorporated in the new kingdom of West- 

 phalia, and Jakob Grimm was appointed royal 

 librarian, and "Wilhelm his assistant. The 

 library which had been seized from the elector 

 of Hesse was large, and the king of "Westphalia, 

 who cared little for books, left the brothers 

 Grimm to make the most of their opportunities, 

 seldom requiring their services. This oppor- 

 tunity of study was eagerly improved, and 

 lasted for five years. During this period Jakob 

 was also Auditor of State. In 1813, the elector 

 was restored, and Jakob Grimm was made Sec- 

 retary of the Hessian legation at the head- 

 quarters of the Allies in 1814, and was one of 

 the members of the Congress of Vienna in 1814 

 and 1815. The French had carried the library 

 to Paris when the kingdom of "Westphalia was 

 swept away, and Jakob was sent to that city 

 with the special mission of reclaiming it, which 

 he succeeded in Accomplishing. The brothers 

 were now both retained in charge of it, and 

 continued in these duties till 1829, when Jakob 

 was appointed Professor of the German Lan- 

 guage, Literature and Laws at the University 

 of Gottingen, and "Wilhelm sub-librarian of the 

 University. In 1837, when Ernest (Duke of 

 Cumberland) became King of Hanover, one of 

 his first measures was an attempt to abrogate 

 the Hanoverian Constitution, and seven of the 

 professors of the University, including the two 

 brothers Grimm, Dahlmann, Gervinus, and 

 others, drew up and signed a protest against 

 this violation of the rights of the people. For 

 this offence the king dismissed them from their 

 posts and banished them from the country. 

 The brothers returned to Hesse-Cassel, where 

 they lived in retirement, engaged in literary 

 'labors till 1841, when the King of Prussia 

 called them both to Berlin, appointed them 

 professors in the University, and made them 

 members of the Academy of Sciences, Here 

 they continued to reside for the remainder of 

 their lives. Jakob presided over the assem- 

 blies of German philologists held in Frankfort 

 in 1846, and in Lubeck in 1847, and sat in the 



national assembly of 1848, and in the assembly 

 of Gotha in 1849, voting always with the mod- 

 erate liberal party. In private life, Jakob and 

 Wilhelm Grimm were remarkable for their 

 affection, tenderness and gentleness, and the 

 two genial, yet dignified old men were greatly 

 beloved by a wide circle of friends throughout 

 the continent of Europe. The death of Wil- 

 helm in 1859 was a severe blow to the sur- 

 viving brother, but was borne with great for- 

 titude and resignation. The tribute to his 

 brother's memory, before the Academy of Sci- 

 ences of Berlin, is one of the most touching 

 records of fraternal affection, and at the same 

 tune one of the best memoirs of life-long liter- 

 ary labor ever published. Wilhelm Grimm 

 was especially devoted to German poetry of 

 the medieval age, in which he was profoundly 

 versed, and for which a natural poetical taste 

 eminently qualified him. He edited with great 

 success many of the works of the earlier Ger- 

 man poets, enriching the editions with ample 

 notes and parallel passages from other writers. 

 Jakob Grimm was a philologist in the best 

 sense of the word, and though possessing a 

 keen appreciation of the poetical, romantic and 

 legendary in his own and other languages, this 

 was subordinated to a critical acquaintance 

 with the language, laws, customs, faith and 

 literature of every European and many Orien- 

 tal nations. One of his ablest works is his 

 " German Grammar," in five volumes, a treat- 

 ise of vast erudition, containing a history of 

 the grammatical forms of all the Germanic dia- 

 lects in the different eras of the language. He 

 had previously written a history of the Minne- 

 singers and Meistersangers of Germany, demon- 

 strating their relation to each other. To his 

 German grammar succeeded his Deutsche SccTits- 

 altenthumer, an account of the poetical and 

 fantastic customs prevalent in Germany in the 

 middle ages. To them were added an elabor- 

 ate work on German mythology in the early 

 ages, a " History of the German Language," in 

 which he traced the ethnological affinities of 

 the Germanic nations by the aid of comparative 

 philology; a collection of German proverbs, 

 editions of the old Spanish romances, or fairy 

 stories ; of the Hymns of the Ancient Church ; 

 of several Anglo-Saxon poems; of the Lathi 

 works of the tenth and eleventh centuries, in 

 connection with Schmeller, and of Reynarc 

 the Fox, the great comico-political poem 

 Germany. In connection with his broth c 

 Wilhelm, he had published the Kinder und 

 Hans Marchen, a collection of fairy legends 

 and popular tales of all ages, which has at- 

 tained a wide reputation, not only in Germany, 

 but in every other country of Europe, having 

 been translated into all the languages of the 

 Continent, and having- appeared in three or 

 four English versions. The greatest labor of 

 the two brothers was their Deutscfics Wortcr- 

 fiuch, a German dictionary, of which two vol- 

 umes had appeared, and which was nearly com- 

 pleted at the time of Jakob's deatb. In this 



