lassenheit, Launigkeit, Schalkhaftigkeit, Wohlbehagen, Zufriedenheit, Gemüthsruhe, etc.
Now, some of these words have been and are still in use in the English language; but they have suffered strange usage. They have degenerated 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 Glück and Unglück are Fortune and Misfortune. The dark side of these ideas, Misfortune, has retained the strength and dignity corresponding to the German. Fortune, however, does not correspond to Glück as Misfortune corresponds to Unglück. It may be urged that Fortune had already lost its deep meaning in the Latin, perhaps because of the fickle and worldly character which poets attributed to the goddess Fortuna; but the difference in the comparative depth of signification 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 glücklich," he means to indicate a state of high satisfaction; but, when we say, "I am fortunate," 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?"
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 prayer."[1] The wide compass of this word is beautifully illustrated in that untranslatable poem in Goethe's "West-öestlicher 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 Wohlgeruch zu kosen, |
- ↑ 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 lust."
