* * * * *

If the poems discussed in the preceding pages were found to be largely didactic and gnomic in character, the great collection called Die Weisheit des Brahmanen is entirely so.  The poems composing this bulky work appeared in installments during the period 1836-1839, and, while many of them, as will be shown below, are the outcome of Rueckert’s Oriental studies, the majority simply embody general reflections on anything and everything that happened to engage the poet’s attention.  “Es muss alles hinein, was ich eben lese:  vor acht Wochen Spinoza, vor vierzehn Tagen Astronomie, jetzt Grimms ueberschwenglich gehaltreiche Deutsche Mythologie, alles unter der nachlaessig vorgehaltenen Brahmanenmaske...."[187] These are the author’s own words and render further detailed characterization of the work superfluous.  It is well known that the sources for the great didactic collection, even for that part of it which is not composed of reflections on matters of contemporary history, politics and literature, or relating to questions of family and friendship, are more Occidental than Oriental.[188] In fact, the Brahmanic character of the wisdom here expounded consists mainly in the contemplative spirit of reposeful didacticism which pervades the entire collection.  Nor is there anything Oriental about the form of the poems,—­the rhymed Alexandrine reigning supreme with wearisome monotony.

A detailed discussion of the Weisheit, therefore, even if it were possible within the limits of this dissertation, will not be attempted; the less so, as such a discussion, so far as the Oriental side, at least, is concerned, would be very much of the same nature as that given of the Brahmanische Erzaehlungen.  A general Oriental influence, especially of the Bhagavadgita-philosophy or of Rumi’s pantheism, is noticeable enough in many places,[189] but particular instances of such influence are not hard to find.  We shall adduce only a few, taken from the fifth division or Stufe, called Leben.  Of these there are taken from the Hitopadesa Nos. 25 (Hit. i. couplet 179; tr.  Hertel, 141), 26 (ib. i. 178; tr.  Hertel, 140), 111 (ib. i. couplet 80; Wilkins’ tr. p. 56).  From the Gulistan are taken Nos. 290 (Gul. i. 13; K.S. dist. p. 42), 326 (ibid. vii. 20; K.S. dist. p. 230), 366 (ibid. vii. 20; K.S. p. 232).  No. 60 was probably suggested by the fable of the ass and the camel in Jami’s Baharistan (tr.  K.S. p. 179).  No. 476 draws a moral from the fact that the Persian title mirza means either “scribe” or “prince,” according to its position before or behind the person’s name.  In No. 201 we recognize a Persian proverb:  [Arabic] “little goat, do not die; spring is coming, you will eat clover.”  No. 364: 

    “Herr Strauss, wenn ein Kameel du bist, so trage mir!”
    Ich bin ein Vogel.  “Flieg!” Ich bin ein Trampeltier