The Library of the University of Tartu proclaims by its very architecture that it is a sanctuary of ancient culture, for it is housed in the restored part of a beautiful old cathedral, crowning the Dom hill, ruined by fire in 1624. This height was a holy place even in the unrecorded past, and still upholds the sacrificial stones of pagan times.
The life they commemorate is gone, but the library standing near, a part of the church that succeeded but did not displace them, makes you feel that it physically touches the past, transmitting its wisdom to the present as the apostolic church transmits holiness by the physical laying on of hands. The height on which it stands preserves geologic records; the sacrificial stones commemorate the ancient Nature-worship; the half-ruined Cathedral still, in imperishable beauty, recalls the supreme Christian sacrifice; and the library within it lives on, storing the treasures of the past in orderly array, its open shelves awaiting the treasures of the present.
It keeps scientific records from all over the world, and stores up literature from every country. I saw a report from the Marine Biological Laboratory at woods hole, Massachusetts, lying open on a table. Among its 700,000 volumes is one of Goethe¹s ³Werther² from Napoleon¹s field library. Among its 3,200 manuscript letters - said to be the finest collection of its kind in the world - is one from Benjamin Franklin, from which I copied these sentences, as apt today Ppenned:K congratulate you on the success of your glorious campaign.
Establishing the liberties of America will not only makew the people happy, but will have an effect in diminishing the misery of those who, in other parts of the world, groan under Despotism, by rendering it more circumspect, and inducing it to govern with a lighter hand.
With the feeling that history was coming alive in my hands I read letters by Longfellow, Cooper, Bulwer, Faraday, Wellington, Malthus, Napoleon and George the Second; and read Luther¹s annotations in his own handwriting on the margins and on the flyleaf of a book printed in 1517.
He was a good deal of a gourmand, the young assistant librarian told me in explanation of the Latin words. Translated these are: ³Christ preserve us from an inexperienced physician, and a twice-baked dish.
I was interested to note that the first Estonian book was a book of prayer, printed in parallel columns, one German, one Estonian, at very early date. The second, entirely in Estonia, was printed in 1637 - not so very long after the invention of printing.
This whole enormous library was packed up in the boxes and shipped to Middle Russia for safe-keeping, when the Germans withdrew from the country after their defeat in the World War. The Russians let the Estonians have their precious books back again after the signing of the Peace of Tartu in 1920. ***
We drove out into the country to see the Eesti Rahva Muuseum - that is, the Estonian National Museum. It occupies a very beautiful building, of the same style as Sans Souci. This had been one of the sixteen estates of Baron von Liphart, who seems to have been a gentleman and a good sport, as well as a connoiseur of art. When Estonia took over his estates, along with other baronial holdings, he presented most of his fine collection as paintings to the new government, and the pictures hang as he left them in the stately art gallery. His own marble bust - that of a handsome patrician - seems to keep benevolent watch over them.
The pretty young woman who was the Assistant Curator, and who had an appaling knowledge of ethnology, in odd contrast, somehow, with her sophisticated clothing, told us that Baroness von Liphart did not share his finer qualities. She considered that the sight of servants or other humble people in her beautiful garden spoiled the aesthetic effect, and she forbade them to walk there, even to cross it on their way home. They had to slip along close to the walls, so as not to be seen. Today, people of the very class and race the Baroness thought so unsuitable to the landscape use this place to house the evidence of their own ancient culture, long preceeding the era of German rule and to further their own higher education. Their children play freely in the park.
There is a little sweet-smelling smoky peasant hut which shows the way the Estonian peasants used to live, transported bodily from the open fields to a corner of the museum. It was carried in, log by log, all scented with peat smoke, and rebuilt to the last detail. How incredible it would have seemed to the early builders and occupants of this little home, had anyone prophesied that it would end its days under the roof of a palace! It is furnished now just as it was centuries ago, even to the wooden cradle filled with straw, hung at one end of a branch of a tree, the other end of which is fixed in the wall. The large brick stove is there, with the large platform built over it whereon, in the warmth, people used to sleep, wrapped in their thick homespun blankets.
Outside stand wax statues of men, women, and children, dressed in their native costumes and surrounded by specimens of their handicrafts. Many of these objects and others, which go to give this museum its reputation as the best and largest ethnic collection in the world, have been gathered by the University students, continuing the willing, unpaid labor of private collectors interested in Estonian history. Miss Üprus, the assistant Curator, said the stone implements showed that the culture of the people living in this quiet part of Europe extended back 6,000 years before Christ. In some of the graves, gold and silver ornaments indicated that, long before our era, the Estonians had been trading with Russia and other countries to the east of them, for Estonia has no deposits of gold and silver ores. ***
From this glimpse into the distant past, we drove to a Vacation Home, where we saw the future in the making.This home is maintained by the Tartu Child Welfare Society and takes care of about 150 children at a time, from three years old to fourteen.
The Home is housed in another Baronial mansion, in a lovely park by a little lake. The children stay there throughout the summer months and are beautifully cared for. The doctor showed us the infirmary with obvious pride, saying it was his ideal of an infirmary, shining clean, airy, sunny - and empty.
(To be continued)
