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diff --git a/5596.txt b/5596.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d54c3e1 --- /dev/null +++ b/5596.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2039 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook The Story of My Life, by Georg Ebers, v4 +#157 in our series by Georg Ebers + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**EBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These EBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers***** + + +Title: The Story of My Life, Volume 4. + +Author: Georg Ebers + +Release Date: April, 2004 [EBook #5596] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on August 24, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + + + + + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STORY OF MY LIFE, BY EBERS, V4*** + + + +This eBook was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net> + + + +[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of the +file for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making an +entire meal of them. D.W.] + + + + + +THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF GEORG EBERS + +THE STORY OF MY LIFE FROM CHILDHOOD TO MANHOOD + +Volume 4. + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +THE FOUNDERS OF THE KEILHAU INSTITUTE, AND A GLIMPSE AT +THE HISTORY OF THE SCHOOL. + +I was well acquainted with the three founders of our institute--Fredrich +Froebel, Middendorf, and Langethal--and the two latter were my teachers. +Froebel was decidedly "the master who planned it." + +When we came to Keilhau he was already sixty-six years old, a man of +lofty stature, with a face which seemed to be carved with a dull knife +out of brown wood. + +His long nose, strong chin, and large ears, behind which the long locks, +parted in the middle, were smoothly brushed, would have rendered him +positively ugly, had not his "Come, let us live for our children," beamed +so invitingly in his clear eyes. People did not think whether he was +handsome or not; his features bore the impress of his intellectual power +so distinctly that the first glance revealed the presence of a remarkable +man. + +Yet I must confess--and his portrait agrees with my memory--that his face +by no means suggested the idealist and man of feeling; it seemed rather +expressive of shrewdness, and to have been lined and worn by severe +conflicts concerning the most diverse interests. But his voice and his +glance were unusually winning, and his power over the heart of the child +was limitless. A few words were sufficient to win completely the shyest +boy whom he desired to attract; and thus it happened that, even when he +had been with us only a few weeks, he was never seen crossing the court- +yard without a group of the younger pupils hanging to his coattails and +clasping his hands and arms. + +Usually they were persuading him to tell stories, and when he +condescended to do so, older ones flocked around him too, and they were +never disappointed. What fire, what animation the old man had retained! +We never called him anything but "Oheim." The word "Onkel" he detested +as foreign, because it was derived from "avunculus" and "oncle." With +the high appreciation he had of "Tante"--whom he termed, next to the +mother, the most important factor of education in the family--our "Oheim" +was probably specially agreeable to him. + +He was thoroughly a self-made man. The son of a pastor in Oberweissbach, +in Thuringia, he had had a dreary childhood; for his mother died young, +and he soon had a step-mother, who treated him with the utmost tenderness +until her own children were born. Then an indescribably sad time began +for the neglected boy, whose dreamy temperament vexed even his own +father. Yet in this solitude his love for Nature awoke. He studied +plants, animals, minerals; and while his young heart vainly longed for +love, he would have gladly displayed affection himself, if his timidity +would have permitted him to do so. His family, seeing him prefer to +dissect the bones of some animal rather than to talk with his parents, +probably considered him a very unlovable child when they sent him, in his +tenth year, to school in the city of Ilm. + +He was received into the home of the pastor, his uncle Hoffman, whose +mother-in-law, who kept the house, treated him in the most cordial +manner, and helped him to conquer the diffidence acquired during the +solitude of the first years of his childhood. This excellent woman +first made him familiar with the maternal feminine solicitude, closer +observation of which afterwards led him, as well as Pestalozzi, to a +reform of the system of educating youth. + +In his sixteenth year he went to a forester for instruction, but did not +remain long. Meantime he had gained some mathematical knowledge, and +devoted himself to surveying. By this and similar work he earned a +living, until, at the end of seven years, he went to Frankfort-on-the- +Main to learn the rudiments of building. There Fate brought him into +contact with the pedagogue Gruner, a follower of Pestalozzi's method, +and this experienced man, after their first conversation, exclaimed: +"You must become a schoolmaster!" + +I have often noticed in life that a word at the right time and place has +sufficed to give the destiny of a human being a different turn, and the +remark of the Frankfort educator fell into Froebel's soul like a spark. +He now saw his real profession clearly and distinctly before him. + +The restless years of wandering, during which, unloved and scarcely +heeded, he had been thrust from one place to another, had awakened in his +warm heart a longing to keep others from the same fate. He, who had been +guided by no kind hand and felt miserable and at variance with himself, +had long been ceaselessly troubled by the problem of how the young human +plant could be trained to harmony with itself and to sturdy industry. +Gruner showed him that others were already devoting their best powers to +solve it, and offered him an opportunity to try his ability in his model +school. + +Froebel joyfully accepted this offer, cast aside every other thought, +and, with the enthusiasm peculiar to him, threw himself into the new +calling in a manner which led Gruner to praise the "fire and life" he +understood how to awaken in his pupils. He also left it to Froebel to +arrange the plan of instruction which the Frankfort Senate wanted for the +"model school," and succeeded in keeping him two years in his +institution. + +When a certain Frau von Holzhausen was looking for a man who would have +the ability to lead her spoiled sons into the right path, and Froebel had +been recommended, he separated from Gruner and performed his task with +rare fidelity and a skill bordering upon genius. The children, who were +physically puny, recovered under his care, and the grateful mother made +him their private tutor from 1807 till 1810. He chose Verdun, where +Pestalozzi was then living, as his place of residence, and made himself +thoroughly familiar with his method of education. As a whole, he could +agree with him; but, as has already been mentioned, in some respects he +went further than the Swiss reformer. He himself called these years his +"university course as a pedagogue," but they also furnished him with the +means to continue the studies in natural history which he had commenced +in Jena. He had laid aside for this purpose part of his salary as tutor, +and was permitted, from 1810 to 1812, to complete in Gottingen his +astronomical and mineralogical studies. Yet the wish to try his powers +as a pedagogue never deserted him; and when, in 1812, the position of +teacher in the Plamann Institute in Berlin was offered him, he accepted +it. During his leisure hours he devoted himself to gymnastic exercises, +and even late in life his eyes sparkled when he spoke of his friend, old +Jahn, and the political elevation of Prussia. + +When the summons "To my People" called the German youth to war, Froebel +had already entered his thirty-first year, but this did not prevent his +resigning his office and being one of the first to take up arms. He went +to the field with the Lutzow Jagers, and soon after made the acquaintance +among his comrades of the theological students Langethal and Middendorf. +When, after the Peace of Paris, the young friends parted, they vowed +eternal fidelity, and each solemnly promised to obey the other's summons, +should it ever come. As soon as Froebel took off the dark uniform of the +black Jagers he received a position as curator of the museum of +mineralogy in the Berlin University, which he filled so admirably that +the position of Professor of Mineralogy was offered to him from Sweden. +But he declined, for another vocation summoned him which duty and +inclination forbade him to refuse. + +His brother, a pastor in the Thuringian village of Griesheim on the Ilm, +died, leaving three sons who needed an instructor. The widow wished her +brother-in-law Friedrich to fill this office, and another brother, a +farmer in Osterode, wanted his two boys to join the trio. When Froebel, +in the spring of 1817, resigned his position, his friend Langethal begged +him to take his brother Eduard as another pupil, and thus Pestalozzi's +enthusiastic disciple and comrade found his dearest wish fulfilled. He +was now the head of his own school for boys, and these first six pupils-- +as he hoped with the confidence in the star of success peculiar to so +many men of genius--must soon increase to twenty. Some of these boys +were specially gifted: one became the scholar and politician Julius +Froebel, who belonged to the Frankfort Parliament of 1848, and another +the Jena Professor of Botany, Eduard Langethal. + +The new principal of the school could not teach alone, but he only needed +to remind his old army comrade, Middendorf, of his promise, to induce him +to interrupt his studies in Berlin, which were nearly completed, and join +him. He also had his eye on Langethal, if his hope should be fulfilled. +He knew what a treasure he would possess for his object in this rare man. + +There was great joy in the little Griesheim circle, and the Thuringian +(Froebel) did not regret for a moment that he had resigned his secure +position; but the Westphalian (Middendorf) saw here the realization of +the ideal which Froebel's kindling words had impressed upon his soul +beside many a watch-fire. + +The character of the two men is admirably described in the following +passage from a letter of "the oldest pupil": + +"Both had seen much of the serious side of life, and returned from the +war with the higher inspiration which is hallowed by deep religious +feeling. The idea of devoting their powers with self-denial and +sacrifice to the service of their native land had become a fixed +resolution; the devious paths which so many men entered were far from +their thoughts. The youth, the young generation of their native land, +were alone worthy of their efforts. They meant to train them to a +harmonious development of mind and body; and upon these young people +their pure spirit of patriotism exerted a vast influence. When we recall +the mighty power which Froebel could exercise at pleasure over his +fellowmen, and especially over children, we shall deem it natural that a +child suddenly transported into this circle could forget its past." + +When I entered it, though at that time it was much modified and +established on firm foundations, I met with a similar experience. It was +not only the open air, the forest, the life in Nature which so captivated +new arrivals at Keilhau, but the moral earnestness and the ideal +aspiration which consecrated and ennobled life. Then, too, there was +that "nerve-strengthening" patriotism which pervaded everything, filling +the place of the superficial philanthropy of the Basedow system of +education. + +But Froebel's influence was soon to draw, as if by magnetic power, the +man who had formed an alliance with him amid blood and steel, and who was +destined to lend the right solidity to the newly erected structure of the +institute--I mean Heinrich Langethal, the most beloved and influential of +my teachers, who stood beside Froebel's inspiring genius and Middendorf's +lovable warmth of feeling as the character, and at the same time the +fully developed and trained intellect, whose guidance was so necessary to +the institute. + +The life of this rare teacher can be followed step by step from the first +years of his childhood in his autobiography and many other documents, but +I can only attempt here to sketch in broad outlines the character of the +man whose influence upon my whole inner life has been, up to the present +hour, a decisive one. + +The recollection of him makes me inclined to agree with the opinion to +which a noble lady sought to convert me--namely, that our lives are far +more frequently directed into a certain channel by the influence of an +unusual personality than by events, experiences, or individual +reflections. + +Langethal was my teacher for several years. When I knew him he was +totally blind, and his eyes, which are said to have flashed so brightly +and boldly on the foe in war, and gazed so winningly into the faces of +friends in time of peace, had lost their lustre. But his noble features +seemed transfigured by the cheerful earnestness which is peculiar to the +old man, who, even though only with the eye of the mind, looks back upon +a well-spent, worthy life, and who does not fear death, because he knows +that God who leads all to the goal allotted by Nature destined him also +for no other. His tall figure could vie with Barop's, and his musical +voice was unusually deep. It possessed a resistless power when, excited +himself, he desired to fill our young souls with his own enthusiasm. The +blind old man, who had nothing more to command and direct, moved through +our merry, noisy life like a silent admonition to good and noble things. +Outside of the lessons he never raised his voice for orders or censure, +yet we obediently followed his signs. To be allowed to lead him was an +honor and pleasure. He made us acquainted with Homer, and taught us +ancient and modern history. To this day I rejoice that not one of us +ever thought of using 'pons asinorum,' or copied passage, though he was +perfectly sightless, and we were obliged to translate to him and learn by +heart whole sections of the Iliad. To have done so would have seemed as +shameful as the pillage of an unguarded sanctuary or the abuse of a +wounded hero. + +And he certainly was one! + +We knew this from his comrades in the war and his stories of 1813, which +were at once so vivid and so modest. + +When he explained Homer or taught ancient history a special fervor +animated him; for he was one of the chosen few whose eyes were opened by +destiny to the full beauty and sublimity of ancient Greece. + +I have listened at the university to many a famous interpreter of the +Hellenic and Roman poets, and many a great historian, but not one of them +ever gave me so distinct an impression of living with the ancients as +Heinrich Langethal. There was something akin to them in his pure, lofty +soul, ever thirsting for truth and beauty, and, besides, he had graduated +from the school of a most renowned teacher. + +The outward aspect of the tall old man was eminently aristocratic, yet +his birthplace was the house of a plain though prosperous mechanic. He +was born at Erfurt, in 1792. When very young his father, a man unusually +sensible and well-informed for his station in life, entrusted him with +the education of a younger brother, the one who, as I have mentioned, +afterwards became a professor at Jena, and the boy's progress was so +rapid that other parents had requested to have their sons share the hours +of instruction. + +After completing his studies at the grammar-school he wanted to go to +Berlin, for, though the once famous university still existed in Erfurt, +it had greatly deteriorated. His description of it is half lamentable, +half amusing, for at that time it was attended by thirty students, for +whom seventy professors were employed. Nevertheless, there were many +obstacles to be surmounted ere he could obtain permission to attend the +Berlin University; for the law required every native of Erfurt, who +intended afterwards to aspire to any office, to study at least two years +in his native city--at that time French. But, in defiance of all +hindrances, he found his way to Berlin, and in 1811 was entered in the +university just established there as the first student from Erfurt. He +wished to devote himself to theology, and Neander, De Wette, Marheineke, +Schleiermacher, etc., must have exerted a great power of attraction over +a young man who desired to pursue that study. + +At the latter's lectures he became acquainted with Middendorf. At first +he obtained little from either. Schleiermacher seemed to him too +temporizing and obscure. "He makes veils." He thought the young +Westphalian, at their first meeting, merely "a nice fellow." But in time +he learned to understand the great theologian, and the "favourite +teacher" noticed him and took him into his house. + +But first Fichte, and then Friedrich August Wolf, attracted him far more +powerfully than Schleiermacher. Whenever he spoke of Wolf his calm +features glowed and his blind eyes seemed to sparkle. He owed all that +was best in him to the great investigator, who sharpened his pupil's +appreciation of the exhaustless store of lofty ideas and the magic of +beauty contained in classic antiquity, and had he been allowed to follow +his own inclination, he would have turned his back on theology, to devote +all his energies to the pursuit of philology and archaeology. + +The Homeric question which Wolf had propounded in connection with Goethe, +and which at that time stirred the whole learned world, had also moved +Langethal so deeply that, even when an old man, he enjoyed nothing more +than to speak of it to us and make us familiar with the pros and cons +which rendered him an upholder of his revered teacher. He had been +allowed to attend the lectures on the first four books of the Iliad, and +--I have living witnesses of the fact--he knew them all verse by verse, +and corrected us when we read or recited them as if he had the copy in +his hand. + +True, he refreshed his naturally excellent memory by having them all read +aloud. I shall never forget his joyous mirth as he listened to my +delivery of Wolf's translation of Aristophanes's Acharnians; but I was +pleased that he selected me to supply the dear blind eyes. Whenever he +called me for this purpose he already had the book in the side pocket of +his long coat, and when, beckoning significantly, he cried, "Come, Bear," +I knew what was before me, and would have gladly resigned the most +enjoyable game, though he sometimes had books read which were by no means +easy for me to understand. I was then fourteen or fifteen years old. + +Need I say that it was my intercourse with this man which implanted in my +heart the love of ancient days that has accompanied me throughout my +life? + +The elevation of the Prussian nation led Langethal also from the +university to the war. Rumor first brought to Berlin the tidings of the +destruction of the great army on the icy plains of Russia; then its +remnants, starving, worn, ragged, appeared in the capital; and the +street-boys, who not long before had been forced by the French soldiers +to clean their boots, now with little generosity--they were only "street- +boys"--shouted sneeringly, "Say, mounseer, want your boots blacked?" + +Then came the news of the convention of York, and at last the irresolute +king put an end to the doubts and delays which probably stirred the blood +of every one who is familiar with Droysen's classic "Life of Field- +Marshal York." From Breslau came the summons "To my People," which, like +a warm spring wind, melted the ice and woke in the hearts of the German +youth a matchless budding and blossoming. + +The snow-drops which bloomed during those March days of 1813 ushered in +the long-desired day of freedom, and the call "To arms!" found the +loudest echo in the hearts of the students. It stirred the young, yet +even in those days circumspect Langethal, too, and showed him his duty +But difficulties confronted him; for Pastor Ritschel, a native of Erfurt, +to whom he confided his intention, warned him not to write to his father. +Erfurt, his own birthplace, was still under French rule, and were he to +communicate his plan in writing and the letter should be opened in the +"black room," with other suspicious mail matter, it might cost the life +of the man whose son was preparing to commit high-treason by fighting +against the ruler of his country--Napoleon, the Emperor of France. + +"Where will you get the uniform, if your father won't help you, and you +want to join the black Jagers?" asked the pastor, and received the answer: + +"The cape of my cloak will supply the trousers. I can have a red collar +put on my cloak, my coat can be dyed black and turned into a uniform, and +I have a hanger." + +"That's right!" cried the worthy minister, and gave his young friend ten +thalers. + +Middendorf, too, reported to the Lutzow Jagers at once, and so did the +son of Professor Bellermann, and their mutual friend Bauer, spite of his +delicate health which seemed to unfit him for any exertion. + +They set off on the 11th of April, and while the spring was budding alike +in the outside world and in young breasts, a new flower of friendship +expanded in the hearts of these three champions of the same sacred cause; +for Langethal and Middendorf found their Froebel. This was in Dresden, +and the league formed there was never to be dissolved. They kept their +eyes fixed steadfastly on the ideals of youth, until in old age the sight +of all three failed. Part of the blessings which were promised to the +nation when they set forth to battle they were permitted to see seven +lustra later, in 1848, but they did not live to experience the +realization of their fairest youthful dream, the union of Germany. + +I must deny myself the pleasure of describing the battles and the marches +of the Lutzow corps, which extended to Aachen and Oudenarde; but will +mention here that Langethal rose to the rank of sergeant, and had to +perform the duties of a first lieutenant; and that, towards the end of +the campaign, Middendorf was sent with Lieutenant Reil to induce Blucher +to receive the corps in his vanguard. The old commander gratified their +wish; they had proved their fitness for the post when they won the +victory at the Gohrde, where two thousand Frenchmen were killed and as +many more taken prisoners. The sight of the battlefield had seemed +unendurable to the gentle nature of Middendorf he had formed a poetical +idea of the campaign as an expedition against the hereditary foe. Now +that he had confronted the bloodstained face of war with all its horrors, +he fell into a state of melancholy from which he could scarcely rouse +himself. + +After this battle the three friends were quartered in Castle Gohrde, and +there enjoyed a delightful season of rest after months of severe +hardships. Their corps had been used as the extreme vanguard against +Davoust's force, which was thrice their superior in numbers, and in +consequence they were subjected to great fatigues. They had almost +forgotten how it seemed to sleep in a bed and eat at a table. One night +march had followed another. They had often seized their food from the +kettles and eaten it at the next stopping-place, but all was cheerfully +done; the light-heartedness of youth did not vanish from their +enthusiastic hearts. There was even no lack of intellectual aliment, +for a little field-library had been established by the exchange of books. +Langethal told us of his night's rest in a ditch, which was to entail +disastrous consequences. Utterly exhausted, sleep overpowered him in the +midst of a pouring rain, and when he awoke he discovered that he was up +to his neck in water. His damp bed--the ditch--had gradually filled, but +the sleep was so profound that even the rising moisture had not roused +him. The very next morning he was attacked with a disease of the eyes, +to which he attributed his subsequent blindness. + +On the 26th of August there was a prospect of improvement in the +condition of the corps. Davoust had sent forty wagons of provisions to +Hamburg, and the men were ordered to capture them. The attack was +successful, but at what a price! Theodor Korner, the noble young poet +whose songs will commemorate the deeds of the Lutzow corps so long as +German men and boys sing his "Thou Sword at my Side," or raise their +voices in the refrain of the Lutzow Jagers' song: + +"Do you ask the name of yon reckless band? +'Tis Lutzow's black troopers dashing swift through the land!" + +Langethal first saw the body of the author of "Lyre and Sword" and +"Zriny" under an oak at Wobbelin; but he was to see it once more under +quite different circumstances. He has mentioned it in his autobiography, +and I have heard him describe several times his visit to the corpse of +Theodor Korner. + +He had been quartered in Wobbelin, and shared his room with an Oberjager +von Behrenhorst, son of the postmaster-general in Dessau, who had taken +part in the battle of Jena as a young lieutenant and returned home with a +darkened spirit. + +At the summons "To my People," he had enlisted at once as a private +soldier in the Lutzow corps, where he rose rapidly to the rank of +Oberjager. During the war he had often met Langethal and Middendorf; +but the quiet, reserved man, prematurely grave for his years, attached +himself so closely to Korner that he needed no other friend. + +After the death of the poet on the 26th of August, 1813, he moved +silently about as though completely crushed. On the night which followed +the 27th he invited his room-mate Langethal to go with him to the body of +his friend. Both went first to the village church, where the dead Jagers +lay in two long black rows. A solemn stillness pervaded the little house +of God, which had become during this night the abode of death, and the +nocturnal visitors gazed silently at the pallid, rigid features of one +lifeless young form after another, but without finding him whom they +sought. + +During this mute review of corpses it seemed to Langethal as if Death +were singing a deep, heartrending choral, and he longed to pray for these +young, crushed human blossoms; but his companion led the way into the +guard's little room. There lay the poet, "the radiance of an angel on +his face," though his body bore many traces of the fury of the battle. +Deeply moved, Langethal stood gazing down upon the form of the man who +had died for his native land, while Behrenhorst knelt on the floor beside +him, silently giving himself up to the anguish of his soul. He remained +in this attitude a long time, then suddenly started up, threw his arms +upward, and exclaimed, "Korner, I'll follow you!" + +With these words Behrenhorst darted out of the little room into the +darkness; and a few weeks after he, too, had fallen for the sacred cause +of his native land. + +They had seen another beloved comrade perish in the battle of Gohrde, a +handsome young man of delicate figure and an unusually reserved manner. + +Middendorf, with whom he--his name was Prohaska--had been on more +intimate terms than the others, once asked him, when he timidly avoided +the girls and women who cast kindly glances at him, if his heart never +beat faster, and received the answer, "I have but one love to give, and +that belongs to our native land." + +While the battle was raging, Middendorf was fighting close beside his +comrade. When the enemy fired a volley the others stooped, but Prohaska +stood erect, exclaiming, when he was warned, "No bowing! I'll make no +obeisance to the French!" + +A few minutes after, the brave soldier, stricken by a bullet, fell on the +greensward. His friends bore him off the field, and Prohaska--Eleonore +Prohaska--proved to be a girl! + +While in Castle Gohrde, Froebel talked with his friends about his +favourite plan, which he had already had a view in Gottingen, of +establishing a school for boys, and while developing his educational +ideal to them and at the same time mentioning that he had passed his +thirtieth birthday, and alluding to the postponement of his plan by the +war, he exclaimed, to explain why he had taken up arms: + +"How can I train boys whose devotion I claim, unless I have proved by my +own deeds how a man should show devotion to the general welfare?" + +These words made a deep impression upon the two friends, and increased +Middendorf's enthusiastic reverence for the older comrade, whose +experiences and ideas had opened a new world to him. + +The Peace of Paris, and the enrolment of the Lutzow corps in the line, +brought the trio back to Berlin to civil life. + +There also each frequently sought the others, until, in the spring of +1817, Froebel resigned the permanent position in the Bureau of Mineralogy +in order to establish his institute. + +Middendorf had been bribed by the saying of his admired friend that he +"had found the unity of life." It gave the young philosopher food for +thought, and, because he felt that he had vainly sought this unity and +was dissatisfied, he hoped to secure it through the society of the man +who had become everything to him His wish was fulfilled, for as an +educator he grew as it were into his own motto, "Lucid, genuine, and true +to life." + +Middendorf gave up little when he followed Froebel. + +The case was different with Langethal. He had entered as a tutor the +Bendemann household at Charlottenburg, where he found a second home. He +taught with brilliant success children richly gifted in mind and heart, +whose love he won. It was "a glorious family" which permitted him to +share its rich social life, and in whose highly gifted circle he could be +sure of finding warm sympathy in his intellectual interests. Protected +from all external anxieties, he had under their roof ample leisure for +industrious labour and also for intercourse with his own friends. + +In July, 1817, he passed the last examination with the greatest +distinction, receiving the "very good," rarely bestowed; and a brilliant +career lay before him. + +Directly after this success three pulpits were offered to him, but he +accepted neither, because he longed for rest and quiet occupation. + +The summons from Froebel to devote himself to his infant institute, where +Langethal had placed his younger brother, also reached him. The little +school moved on St. John's Day, 1817, from Griesheim to Keilhau, where +the widow of Pastor Froebel had been offered a larger farm. The place +which she and her children's teacher found was wonderfully adapted to +Froebel's purpose, and seemed to promise great advantages both to the +pupils and to the institute. There was much building and arranging to be +accomplished, but means to do so were obtained, and the first pupil +described very amusingly the entrance into the new home, the furnishing, +the discovery of all the beauties and advantages which we found as an old +possession in Keilhau, and the endeavour, so characteristic of +Middendorf, to adapt even the less attractive points to his own poetic +ideas. + +Only the hours of instruction fared badly, and Froebel felt that he +needed a man of fully developed strength in order to give the proper +foundation to the instruction of the boys who were entrusted to his care. +He knew a man of this stamp in the student F. A. Wolfs, whose talent for +teaching had been admirably proved in the Bendemann family. + +"Langethal," as the first pupil describes him, was at that time a very +handsome man of five-and-twenty years. His brow was grave, but his +features expressed kindness of heart, gentleness, and benevolence. The +dignity of his whole bearing was enhanced by the sonorous tones of his +voice--he retained them until old age--and his whole manner revealed +manly firmness. Middendorf was more pleasing to women, Langethal to men. +Middendorf attracted those who saw, Langethal those who heard him, and +the confidence he inspired was even more lasting than that aroused by +Middendorf. + +What marvel that Froebel made every effort to win this rare power for the +young institute? But Langethal declined, to the great vexation of +Middendorf. Diesterweg called the latter "a St. John," but our dear, +blind teacher added, "And Froebel was his Christus." + +The enthusiastic young Westphalian, who had once believed he saw in this +man every masculine virtue, and whose life appeared emblematical, +patiently accepted everything, and considered every one a "renegade" who +had ever followed Froebel and did not bow implicitly to his will. So he +was angered by Langethal's refusal. The latter had been offered, with +brilliant prospects for the present and still fairer ones for the future, +a position as a tutor in Silesia, a place which secured him the rest he +desired, combined with occupation suited to his tastes. He was to share +the labour of teaching with another instructor, who was to take charge of +the exact sciences, with which he was less familiar, and he was also +permitted to teach his brother with the young Counts Stolberg. + +He accepted, but before going to Silesia he wished to visit his Keilhau +friends and take his brother away with him. He did so, and the +"diplomacy" with which Froebel succeeded in changing the decision of the +resolute young man and gaining him over to his own interests, is really +remarkable. It won for the infant institute in the person of Langethal-- +if the expression is allowable--the backbone. + +Froebel had sent Middendorf to meet his friend, and the latter, on the +way, told him of the happiness which he had found in his new home and +occupation. Then they entered Keilhau, and the splendid landscape which +surrounds it needs no praise. + +Froebel received his former comrade with the utmost cordiality, and the +sight of the robust, healthy, merry boys who were lying on the floor that +evening, building forts and castles with the wooden blocks which Froebel +had had made for them according to his own plan, excited the keenest +interest. He had come to take his brother away; but when he saw him, +among other happy companions of his own age, complete the finest +structure of all--a Gothic cathedral--it seemed almost wrong to tear the +child from this circle. + +He gazed sadly at his brother when he came to bid him "good-night," and +then remained alone with Froebel. The latter was less talkative than +usual, waiting for his friend to tell him of the future which awaited him +in Silesia. When he heard that a second tutor was to relieve Langethal +of half his work, he exclaimed, with the greatest anxiety: + +"You do not know him, and yet intend to finish a work of education with +him? What great chances you are hazarding!" + +The next morning Froebel asked his friend what goal in life he had set +before him, and Langethal replied: + +"Like the apostle, I would fain proclaim the gospel to all men according +to the best of my powers, in order to bring them into close communion +with the Redeemer." + +Froebel answered, thoughtfully: + +"If you desire that, you must, like the apostles, know men. You must be +able to enter into the life of every one--here a peasant, there a +mechanic. If you can not, do not hope for success; your influence will +not extend far." + +How wise and convincing the words sounded! And Froebel touched the +sensitive spot in the young minister, who was thoroughly imbued with the +sacred beauty of his life-task, yet certainly knew the Gospels, his +classic authors, and apostolic fathers much better than he did the world. + +He thoughtfully followed Froebel, who, with Middendorf and the boys, led +him up the Steiger, the mountain whose summit afforded the magnificent +view I have described. It was the hour when the setting sun pours its +most exquisite light over the mountains and valleys. The heart of the +young clergyman, tortured by anxious doubts, swelled at the sight of this +magnificence, and Froebel, seeing what was passing in his mind, +exclaimed: + +"Come, comrade, let us have one of our old war-songs." + +The musical "black Jager" of yore willingly assented; and how clearly and +enthusiastically the chorus of boyish voices chimed in! + +When it died away, the older man passed his arm around his friend's +shoulders, and, pointing to the beautiful region lying before them in the +sunset glow, exclaimed: + +"Why seek so far away what is close at hand? A work is established here +which must be built by the hand of God! Implicit devotion and self- +sacrifice are needed." + +While speaking, he gazed steadfastly into his friend's tearful eyes, as +if he had found his true object in life, and when he held out his hand +Langethal clasped it--he could not help it. + +That very day a letter to the Counts Stolberg informed them that they +must seek another tutor for their sons, and Froebel and Keilhau could +congratulate themselves on having gained their Langethal. + +The management of the school was henceforward in the hands of a man of +character, while the extensive knowledge and the excellent method of a +well-trained scholar had been obtained for the educational department. +The new institute now prospered rapidly. The renown of the fresh, +healthful life and the able tuition of the pupils spread far beyond the +limits of Thuringia. The material difficulties with which the head- +master had had to struggle after the erection of the large new buildings +were also removed when Froebel's prosperous brother in Osterode decided +to take part in the work and move to Keilhau. He understood farming, +and, by purchasing more land and woodlands, transformed the peasant +holding into a considerable estate. + +When Froebel's restless spirit drew him to Switzerland to undertake new +educational enterprises, and some one was needed who could direct the +business management, Barop, the steadfast man of whom I have already +spoken, was secured. Deeply esteemed and sincerely beloved, he managed +the institute during the time that we three brothers were pupils there. +He had found many things within to arrange on a more practical +foundation, many without to correct: for the long locks of most of the +pupils; the circumstance that three Lutzen Jagers, one of whom had +delivered the oration at a students' political meeting, had established +the school; that Barop had been persecuted as a demagogue on account of +his connection with a students' political society; and, finally, +Froebel's relations with Switzerland and the liberal educational methods +of the school, had roused the suspicions of the Berlin demagogue-hunters, +and therefore demagogic tendencies, from which in reality it had always +held aloof, were attributed to the institute. + +Yes, we were free, in so far that everything which could restrict or +retard our physical and mental development was kept away from us, and our +teachers might call themselves so because, with virile energy, they had +understood how to protect the institute from every injurious and +narrowing outside influence. The smallest and the largest pupil was +free, for he was permitted to be wholly and entirely his natural self, +so long as he kept within the limits imposed by the existing laws. But +license was nowhere more sternly prohibited than at Keilhau; and the deep +religious feeling of its head-masters--Barop, Langethal, and Middendorf-- +ought to have taught the suspicious spies in Berlin that the command, +"Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's," would never be +violated here. + +The time I spent in Keilhau was during the period of the worst reaction, +and I now know that our teachers would have sat on the Left in the +Prussian Landtag; yet we never heard a disrespectful word spoken of +Frederick William IV, and we were instructed to show the utmost respect +to the prince of the little country of Rudolstadt to which Keilhau +belonged. Barop, spite of his liberal tendencies, was highly esteemed by +this petty sovereign, decorated with an order, and raised to the rank of +Councillor of Education. From a hundred isolated recollections and words +which have lingered in my memory I have gathered that our teachers were +liberals in a very moderate way, yet they were certainly guilty of +"demagogic aspirations" in so far as that they desired for their native +land only what we, thank Heaven, now possess its unity, and a popular +representation, by a free election of all its states, in a German +Parliament. What enthusiasm for the Emperor William, Bismarck, and Von +Moltke, Langethal, Middendorf, and Barop would have inspired in our +hearts had they been permitted to witness the great events of 1870 and +1871! + +Besides, politics were kept from us, and this had become known in wider +circles when we entered the institute, for most of the pupils belonged to +loyal families. Many were sons of the higher officials, officers, and +landed proprietors; and as long locks had long since become the +exception, and the Keilhau pupils were as well mannered as possible, many +noblemen, among them chamberlains and other court officials, decided to +send their boys to the institute. + +The great manufacturers and merchants who placed their sons in the +institute were also not men favourable to revolution, and many of our +comrades became officers in the German army. Others are able scholars, +clergymen, and members of Parliament; others again government officials, +who fill high positions; and others still are at the head of large +industrial or mercantile enterprises. I have not heard of a single +individual who has gone to ruin, and of very many who have accomplished +things really worthy of note. But wherever I have met an old pupil of +Keilhau, I have found in him the same love for the institute, have seen +his eyes sparkle more brightly when we talked of Langethal, Middendorf, +and Barop. Not one has turned out a sneak or a hypocrite. + +The present institution is said to be an admirable one; but the +"Realschule" of Keilhau, which has been forced to abandon its former +humanistic foundation, can scarcely train to so great a variety of +callings the boys now entrusted to its care. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +The little country of Rudolstadt in which Keilhau lies had had its +revolution, though it was but a small and bloodless one. True, the +insurrection had nothing to do with human beings, but involved the +destruction of living creatures. Greater liberty in hunting was +demanded. + +This might seem a trivial matter, yet it was of the utmost importance to +both disputants. The wide forests of the country had hitherto been the +hunting-grounds of the prince, and not a gun could be fired there without +his permission. To give up these "happy hunting-grounds" was a severe +demand upon the eager sportsman who occupied the Rudolstadt throne, and +the rustic population would gladly have spared him had it been possible. + +But the game in Rudolstadt had become a veritable torment, which +destroyed the husbandmen's hopes of harvests. The peasant, to save his +fields from the stags and does which broke into them in herds at sunset, +tried to keep them out by means of clappers and bad odours. I have seen +and smelled the so-called "Frenchman's oil" with which the posts were +smeared, that its really diabolical odour--I don't know from what horrors +it was compounded--might preserve the crops. The ornament of the forests +had become the object of the keenest hate, and as soon as--shortly before +we entered Keilhau--hunting was freely permitted, the peasants gave full +vent to their rage, set off for the woods with the old muskets they had +kept hidden in the garrets, or other still more primitive weapons, and +shot or struck down all the game they encountered. Roast venison was +cheap for weeks on Rudolstadt tables, and the pupils had many an +unexpected pleasure. + +The hunting exploits of the older scholars were only learned by us +younger ones as secrets, and did not reach the teachers' ears until long +after. + +But the woods furnished other pleasures besides those enjoyed by the +sportsman. Every ramble through the forest enriched our knowledge of +plants and animals, and I soon knew the different varieties of stones +also; yet we did not suspect that this knowledge was imparted according +to a certain system. We were taught as it were by stealth, and how many +pleasant, delicious things attracted us to the class-rooms on the wooded +heights! + +Vegetation was very abundant in the richly watered mountain valley. Our +favourite spring was the Schaalbach at the foot of the Steiger,--[We +pupils bought it of the peasant who owned it and gave it to Barop.]-- +because there was a fowling-floor connected with it, where I spent many a +pleasant evening. It could be used only after breeding-time, and +consisted of a hut built of boughs where the birdcatcher lodged. Flowing +water rippled over the little wooden rods on which the feathered denizens +of the woods alighted to quench their thirst before going to sleep. When +some of them--frequently six at a time--had settled on the perches in the +trough, it was drawn into the but by a rope, a net was spread over the +water and there was nothing more to do except take the captives out. + +The name of the director of this amusement was Merbod. He could imitate +the voices of all the birds, and was a merry, versatile fellow, who knew +how to do a thousand things, and of whom we boys were very fond. + +The peasant Bredernitz often took us to his crow-hut, which was a hole in +the ground covered with boughs and pieces of turf, where the hunters lay +concealed. The owl, which lured the crows and other birds of prey, was +fastened on a perch, and when they flew up, often in large flocks, to +tease the old cross-patch which sat blinking angrily, they were shot down +from loop-holes which had been left in the hut. The hawks which prey +upon doves and hares, the crows and magpies, can thus easily be +decimated. + +We had learned to use our guns in the playground. The utmost caution was +enforced, and although, as I have already remarked, we handled our own +guns when we were only lads of twelve years old, I can not recall a +single accident which occurred. + +Once, during the summer, there was a Schutzenfest, in which a large +wooden eagle was shot from the pole. Whoever brought down the last +splinter became king. This honour once fell to my share, and I was +permitted to choose a queen. I crowned Marie Breimann, a pretty, slender +young girl from Brunswick, whose Greek profile and thick silken hair had +captivated my fancy. She and Adelheid Barop, the head-master's daughter, +were taught in our classes, but Marie attracted me more strongly than the +diligent Keilhau lassies with their beautiful black eyes and the other +two blooming and graceful Westphalian girls who were also schoolmates. +But the girls occupied a very small place in our lives. They could +neither wrestle, shoot, nor climb, so we gave them little thought, and +anything like actual flirtation was unknown--we had so many better things +in our heads. Wrestling and other sports threw everything else into the +shade. Pretty Marie, however, probably suspected which of my school- +mates I liked best, and up to the time of my leaving the institute I +allowed no other goddess to rival her. But there were plenty of +amusements at Keilhau besides bird-shooting. + +I will mention the principal ones which came during the year, for to +describe them in regular order would be impossible. + +Of the longer walks which we took in the spring and summer the most +beautiful was the one leading through Blankenburg to the entrance of the +Schwarzathal, and thence through the lofty, majestically formed group of +cliffs at whose foot the clear, swift Schwarza flows, dashing and +foaming, to Schwarzburg. + +How clearly our songs echoed from the granite walls of the river valley, +and how lively it always was at "The Stag," whose landlord possessed a +certain power of attraction to us boys in his own person; for, as the +stoutest man in Thuringia, he was a feast for the eyes! His jollity +equalled his corpulence, and how merrily he used to jest with us lads! + +Of the shorter expeditions I will mention only the two we took most +frequently, which led us in less than an hour to Blankenburg or +Greifenstein, a large ruin, many parts of which were in tolerable +preservation. It had been the home of Count Gunther von Schwarzburg, who +paid with his life for the honour of wearing the German imperial crown a +few short months. + +We also enjoyed being sent to the little town of Blankenburg on errands, +for it was the home of our drawing-master, the artist Unger, one of those +original characters whom we rarely meet now. When we knew him, the +handsome, broad-shouldered man, with his thick red beard, looked as one +might imagine Odin. Summer and winter his dress was a grey woollen +jacket, into which a short pipe was thrust, and around his hips a broad +leather belt, from which hung a bag containing his drawing materials. He +cared nothing for public opinion, and, as an independent bachelor, +desired nothing except "to be let alone," for he professed the utmost +contempt for the corrupt brood yclept "mankind." He never came to our +entertainments, probably because he would be obliged to wear something in +place of his woollen jacket, and because he avoided women, whom he called +"the roots of all evil." I still remember how once, after emptying the +vials of his wrath upon mankind, he said, in reply to the question +whether he included Barop among the iniquitous brood, "Why, of course +not; he doesn't belong to it!" + +There was no lack of opportunity to visit him, for a great many persons +employed to work for the school lived in Blankenburg, and we were known +to be carefully watched there. + +I remember two memorable expeditions to the little town. Once my brother +burned his arm terribly during a puppet-show by the explosion of some +powder provided for the toy cannon. + +The poor fellow suffered so severely that I could not restrain my tears, +and though it was dark, and snow lay on the mountains, off I went to +Blankenburg to get the old surgeon, calling to some of my school-mates at +the door to tell them of my destination. It was no easy matter to wade +through the snow; but, fortunately, the stars gave me sufficient light to +keep in the right path as I dashed down the mountain to Blankenburg. How +often I plunged into ditches filled with snow and slid down short +descents I don't know; but as I write these lines I can vividly remember +the relief with which I at last trod the pavement of the little town. +Old Wetzel was at home, and a carriage soon conveyed us over the only +road to the institute. I was not punished. Barop only laid his hand on +my head, and said, "I am glad you are back again, Bear." + +Another trip to Blankenburg entailed results far more serious--nay, +almost cost me my life. + +I was then fifteen, and one Sunday afternoon I went with Barop's +permission to visit the Hamburgers, but on condition that I should return +by nine o'clock at latest. + +Time, however, slipped by in pleasant conversation until a later hour, +and as thunder-clouds were rising my host tried to keep me overnight. +But I thought this would not be allowable, and, armed with an umbrella, +I set off along the road, with which I was perfectly familiar. + +But the storm soon burst, and it grew so dark that, except when the +lightning flashed, I could not see my hand before my face. Yet on I +went, though wondering that the path along which I groped my way led +upward, until the lightning showed me that, by mistake, I had taken the +road to Greifenstein. I turned back, and while feeling my way through +the gloom the earth seemed to vanish under my feet, and I plunged +headlong into a viewless gulf--not through empty space, however, but a +wet, tangled mass which beat against my face, until at last there was a +jerk which shook me from head to foot. + +I no longer fell, but I heard above me the sound of something tearing, +and the thought darted through my mind that I was hanging by my trousers. +Groping around, I found vine-leaves, branches, and lattice-work, to which +I clung, and tearing away with my foot the cloth which had caught on the +end of a lath, I again brought my head where it should be, and discovered +that I was hanging on a vine-clad wall. A flash of lightning showed me +the ground not very far below and, by the help of the espalier and the +vines I at last stood in a garden. + +Almost by a miracle I escaped with a few scratches; but when I afterwards +went to look at the scene of this disaster cold chills ran down my back, +for half the distance whence I plunged into the garden would have been +enough to break my neck. + +Our games were similar to those which lads of the same age play now, but +there were some additional ones that could only take place in a wooded +mountain valley like Keilhau; such, for instance, were our Indian games, +which engrossed us at the time when we were pleased with Cooper's +"Leather-Stocking," but I need not describe them. + +When I was one of the older pupils a party of us surprised some "Panzen" +--as we called the younger ones--one hot afternoon engaged in a very +singular game of their own invention. They had undressed to the skin in +the midst of the thickest woods and were performing Paradise and the Fall +of Man, as they had probably just been taught in their religious lesson. +For the expulsion of Adam and our universal mother Eve, the angel--in +this case there were two of them--used, instead of the flaming sword, +stout hazel rods, with which they performed their part of warders so +overzealously that a quarrel followed, which we older ones stopped. + +Thus many bands of pupils invented games of their own, but, thank Heaven, +rarely devised such absurdities. Our later Homeric battles any teacher +would have witnessed with pleasure. Froebel would have greeted them as +signs of creative imagination and "individual life" in the boys. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +SUMMER PLEASURES AND RAMBLES + +Wholly unlike these, genuinely and solely a product of Keilhau, was the +great battle-game which we called Bergwacht, one of my brightest memories +of those years. + +Long preparations were needed, and these, too, were delightful. + +On the wooded plain at the summit of the Kolm, a mountain which belonged +mainly to the institute, war was waged during the summer every Saturday +evening until far into the night, whenever the weather was fine, which +does not happen too often in Thuringia. + +The whole body of pupils was divided into three, afterwards into four +sections, each of which had its own citadel. After two had declared war +against two others, the battle raged until one party captured the +strongholds of the other. This was done as soon as a combatant had set +foot on the hearth of a hostile fortress. + +The battle itself was fought with stakes blunted at the tops. Every one +touched by the weapon of an enemy must declare himself a prisoner. To +admit this, whenever it happened, was a point of honour. + +In order to keep all the combatants in action, a fourth division was +added soon after our arrival, and of course it was necessary to build a +strong hold like the others. This consisted of a hut with a stone roof, +in which fifteen or twenty boys could easily find room and rest, a strong +wall which protected us up to our foreheads, and surrounded the front of +the citadel in a semicircle, as well as a large altar-like hearth which +rose in the midst of the semicircular space surrounded by the wall. + +We built this fortress ourselves, except that our teacher of handicrafts, +the sapper Sabum, sometimes gave us a hint. The first thing was to mark +out the plan, then with the aid of levers pry the rocks out of the +fields, and by means of a two-wheeled cart convey them to the site +chosen, fit them neatly together, stuff the interstices with moss, and +finally put on a roof made of pine logs which we felled ourselves, earth, +moss, and branches. + +How quickly we learned to use the plummet, take levels, hew the stone, +wield the axes! And what a delight it was when the work was finished and +we saw our own building! Perhaps we might not have accomplished it +without the sapper, but every boy believed that if he were cast, like +Robinson Crusoe, on a desert island, he could build a hut of his own. + +As soon as this citadel was completed, preparations for the impending +battle were made. The walls and encircling walls of all were prepared, +and we were drilled in the use of the poles. This, too, afforded us the +utmost pleasure. Touching the head of an enemy was strictly prohibited; +yet many a slight wound was given while fighting in the gloom of the +woods. + +Each of the four Bergwachts had its leader. The captain of the first was +director of the whole game, and instead of a lance wore a rapier. I +considered it a great honour when this dignity was conferred on me. One +of its consequences was that my portrait was sketched by "Old Unger" in +the so-called "Bergwacht Book," which contained the likenesses of all my +predecessors. + +During the summer months all eyes, even as early as Thursday, were +watching the weather. When Saturday evening proved pleasant and Barop +had given his consent, there was great rejoicing in the institute, and +the morning hours must have yielded the teachers little satisfaction. + +Directly after dinner everybody seized his pole and the other "Bergwacht" +equipments. The alliances were formed under the captain's guidance. We +will say that the contest was to begin with the first and third Bergwacht +pitted against the second and fourth, and be followed by another, with +the first and second against the third and fourth. + +We assembled in the court-yard just before sunset. Barop made a little +speech, exhorting us to fight steadily, and especially to observe all the +rules and yield ourselves captives as soon as an enemy's pole touched us. +He never neglected on these occasions to admonish us that, should our +native land ever need the armed aid of her sons, we should march to +battle as joyously as we now did to the Bergwacht, which was to train us +to skill in her defence. + +Then the procession set off in good order, four or six pupils harnessing +themselves voluntarily to the cart in which the kegs of beer were dragged +up the Kolm. Off we went, singing merrily, and at the top the women were +waiting for us with a lunch. Then the warriors scattered, the fire was +lighted on every hearth, the plan of battle was discussed, some were sent +out to reconnoitre, others kept to defend the citadel. + +At last the conflict began. Could I ever forget the scenes in the +forest! No Indian tribe on the war-path ever strained every sense more +keenly to watch, surround, and surprise the foe. And the hand-to-hand +fray! What delight it was to burst from the shelter of the thicket and +touch with our poles two, three, or four of the surprised enemies ere +they thought of defence! And what self-denial it required when--spite of +the most skilful parry--we felt the touch of the pole, to confess it, and +be led off as a prisoner! + +Voices and shouts echoed through the woods, and the glare of five fires +pierced the darkness--five--for flames were also blazing where the women +were cooking the supper. But the light was brightest, the shouts of the +combatants were loudest, in the vicinity of the forts. The effort of the +besiegers was to spy out unguarded places, and occupy the attention of +the garrison so that a comrade might leap over the wall and set his foot +on the hearth. The object of the garrison was to prevent this. + +What was that? An exulting cry rang through the night air. A warrior +had succeeded in penetrating the hostile citadel untouched and setting +his foot on the hearth! + +Two or three times we enjoyed the delight of battle; and when towards +midnight it closed, we threw ourselves-glowing from the strife and +blackened by the smoke of the hearth-fires-down on the greensward around +the women's fire, where boiled eggs and other good things were served, +and meanwhile the mugs of foaming beer were passed around the circle. +One patriotic song after another was sung, and at last each Bergwacht +withdrew to its citadel and lay down on the moss to sleep under the +sheltering roof. Two sentinels marched up and down, relieved every half +hour until the early dawn of the summer Sunday brightened the eastern +sky. + +Then "Huup!"--the Keilhau shout which summoned us back to the institute- +rang out, and a hymn, the march back, a bath in the pond, and finally the +most delicious rest, if good luck permitted, on the heaps of hay which +had not been gathered in. On the Sunday following the Bergwacht we were +not required to attend church, where we should merely have gone to sleep. +Barop, though usually very strict in the observance of religious duties, +never demanded anything for the sake of mere appearances. + +And the bed of my own planning! It consisted of wood and stones, and was +covered with a thick layer of moss, raised at the head in a slanting +direction. It looked like other beds, but the place where it stood +requires some description, for it was a Keilhau specialty, a favour +bestowed by our teachers on the pupils. + +Midway up the slope of the Kolm where our citadels stood, on the side +facing the institute, each boy had a piece of ground where he might +build, dig, or plant, as he chose. They descended from one to another: +Ludo's and mine had come down from Martin and another pupil who left the +school at the same time. But I was not satisfied with what my +predecessors had created. I spared the beautiful vine which twined +around a fir-tree, but in the place of a flower-bed and a bench which I +found there Ludo and I built a hearth, and for myself the bed already +mentioned, which my brother of course was permitted to occupy with me. + +How many hours I have spent on its soft cushions, reading or dreaming or +imagining things! If I could only remember them as they hovered before +me, what epics and tales I could write! + +No doubt we ought to be grateful to God for this as well as for so many +other blessings; but why are we permitted to be young only once in our +lives, only once to be borne aloft on the wings of a tireless power of +imagination, so easily satisfied with ourselves, so full of love, faith, +and hope, so open to every joy and so blind to every care and doubt, and +everything which threatens to cloud and extinguish the sunlight in the +soul? + +Dear bed in my plot of ground at Keilhau, you ought, in accordance with a +remark of Barop, to cause me serious self-examination, for he said, +probably with no thought of my mossy couch, "From the way in which the +pupils use their plots of ground and the things they place in them, I can +form a very correct opinion of their dispositions and tastes." But you, +beloved couch, should have the best place in my garden if you could +restore me but for one half hour the dreams which visited me on your +grey-green pillows, when I was a lad of fourteen or fifteen. + +I have passed over the Rudolstadt Schutzenfest, its music, its merry-go- +round, and the capital sausages cooked in the open air, and have +intentionally omitted many other delightful things. I cannot help +wondering now where we found time for all these summer pleasures. + +True, with the exception of a few days at Whitsuntide, we had no vacation +from Easter until the first of September. But even in August one +thought, one joyous anticipation, filled every heart. The annual autumn +excursion was coming! + +After we were divided into travelling parties and had ascertained which +teacher was to accompany us--a matter that seemed very important--we +diligently practised the most beautiful songs; and on many an evening +Barop or Middendorf told us of the places through which we were to pass, +their history, and the legends which were associated with them. They +were aided in this by one of the sub-teachers, Bagge, a poetically gifted +young clergyman, who possessed great personal beauty and a heart capable +of entering into the intellectual life of the boys who were entrusted to +his care. + +He instructed us in the German language and literature. Possibly because +he thought that he discovered in me a talent for poetic expression, he +showed me unusual favor, even read his own verses aloud to me, and set me +special tasks in verse-writing, which he criticised with me when I had +finished. The first long poem I wrote of my own impulse was a +description of the wonderful forms assumed by the stalactite formations +in the Sophie Cave in Switzerland, which we had visited. Unfortunately, +the book containing it is lost, but I remember the following lines, +referring to the industrious sprites which I imagined as the sculptors of +the wondrous shapes: + + "Priestly robes and a high altar the sprites created here, + And in the rock-hewn cauldron poured the holy water clear, + Within whose depths reflected, by the torches' flickering rays, + Beneath the surface glimmering my own face met my gaze; + And when I thus beheld it, so small it seemed to me, + That yonder stone-carved giant looked on with mocking glee. + Ay, laugh, if that's your pleasure, Goliath huge and old, + I soon shall fare forth singing, you still your place must hold." + +Another sub-teacher was also a favourite travelling-companion. His name +was Schaffner, and he, too, with his thick, black beard, was a handsome +man. To those pupils who, like my brother Ludo, were pursuing the study +of the sciences, he, the mathematician of the institute, must have been +an unusually clear and competent teacher. I was under his charge only a +short time, and his branch of knowledge was unfortunately my weak point. +Shortly before my departure he married a younger sister of Barop's wife, +and established an educational institution very similar to Keilhau at +Gumperda, at Schwarza in Thuringia. + +Herr Vodoz, our French teacher, a cheery, vigorous Swiss, with a perfect +forest of curls on his head, was also one of the most popular guides; and +so was Dr. Budstedt, who gave instruction in the classics. He was not a +handsome man, but he deserved the name of "anima candida." He used to +storm at the slightest occasion, but he was quickly appeased again. As a +teacher I think he did his full duty, but I no longer remember anything +about his methods. + +The travelling party which Barop accompanied were very proud of the +honour. Middendorf's age permitted him to go only with the youngest +pupils, who made the shortest trips. + +These excursions led the little boys into the Thuringian Forest, the +Hartz Mountains, Saxony and Bohemia, Nuremberg and Wurzburg, and the +older ones by way of Baireuth and Regensburg to Ulm. The large boys in +the first travelling party, which was usually headed by Barop himself, +extended their journey as far as Switzerland. + +I visited in after-years nearly all the places to which we went at that +time, and some, with which important events in my life were associated, +I shall mention later. It would not be easy to reproduce from memory the +first impressions received without mingling with them more recent ones. + +Thus, I well remember how Nuremberg affected me and how much it pleased +me. I express this in my description of the journey; but in the author +of Gred, who often sought this delightful city, and made himself familiar +with life there in the days of its mediaval prosperity, these childish +impressions became something wholly new. And yet they are inseparable +from the conception and contents of the Nuremberg novel. + +My mother kept the old books containing the accounts of these excursions, +which occupied from two to three weeks, and they possessed a certain +interest for me, principally because they proved how skilfully our +teachers understood how to carry out Froebel's principles on these +occasions. Our records of travel also explain in detail what this +educator meant by the words "unity with life"; for our attention was +directed not only to beautiful views or magnificent works of art and +architecture, but to noteworthy public institutions or great +manufactories. Our teachers took the utmost care that we should +understand what we saw. + +The cultivation of the fields, the building of the peasants' huts, the +national costumes, were all brought under our notice, thus making us +familiar with life outside of the school, and opening our eyes to things +concerning which the pupil of an ordinary model grammar-school rarely +inquires, yet which are of great importance to the world to which we +belong. + +Our material life was sensibly arranged. During the rest at noon a cold +lunch was served, and an abundant hot meal was not enjoyed until evening. + +In the large cities we dined at good hotels at the table d'hote, and--as +in Dresden, Prague, and Coburg--were taken to the theatre. + +But we often spent the night in the villages, and then chairs were turned +upside down, loose straw was spread on the backs and over the floor, and, +wrapped in the shawl which almost every boy carried buckled to his +knapsack, we slept, only half undressed, as comfortably as in the softest +bed. + +While walking we usually sung songs, among them very nonsensical ones, +if only we could keep step well to their time. Often one of the teachers +told us a story. Schaffner and Bagge could do this best, but we often +met other pedestrians with whom we entered into conversation. How +delightful is the memory of these tramps! Progress on foot is slow, but +not only do we see ten times better than from a carriage or the window of +a car, but we hear and learn something while talking with the mechanics, +citizens, and peasants who are going the same way, or the landlords, +bar-maids, and table companions we meet in the taverns, whose guests live +according to the custom of the country instead of the international +pattern of our great hotels. + +As a young married man, I always anticipated as the greatest future +happiness taking pedestrian tours with my sons like the Keilhau ones; +but Fate ordained otherwise. + +On our return to the institute we were received with great rejoicing; +and how much the different parties, now united, had to tell one another! + +Study recommenced on the first of October, and during the leisure days +before that time the village church festival was celebrated under the +village linden, with plenty of cakes, and a dance of the peasants, in +which we older ones took part. But we were obliged to devote several +hours of every day to describing our journey for our relatives at home. +Each one filled a large book, which was to be neatly written. The +exercise afforded better practice in describing personal experiences than +a dozen essays which had been previously read with the teacher. + + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +AUTUMN, WINTER, EASTER AND DEPARTURE + +Autumn had come, and this season of the year, which afterwards was to be +the most fraught with suffering, at that time seemed perhaps the +pleasantest; for none afforded a better opportunity for wrestling and +playing. It brought delicious fruit, and never was the fire lighted more +frequently on the hearth in the plots of ground assigned to the pupils-- +baking and boiling were pleasant during the cool afternoons. + +No month seemed to us so cheery as October. During its course the apples +and pears were gathered, and an old privilege allowed the pupils "to +glean"--that is, to claim the fruit left on the trees. This tested the +keenness of our young eyes, but it sometimes happened that we confounded +trees still untouched with those which had been harvested. "Nitimur in +vetitum semper cupimusque negata,"--[The forbidden charms, and the +unexpected lures us.]--is an excellent saying of Ovid, whose truth, when +he tested it in person, was the cause of his exile. It sometimes brought +us into conflict with the owners of the trees, and it was only natural +that "Froebel's youngsters" often excited the peasants' ire. + +Gellert, it is true, has sung: + + "Enjoy what the Lord has granted, + Grieve not for aught withheld." + +but the popular saying is, "Forbidden fruit tastes sweetest," and the +proverb was right in regard to us Keilhau boys. + +Whatever fruit is meant in the story related in Genesis of the fall of +man, none could make it clearer to German children than the apple. The +Keilhau ones were kept in a cellar, and through the opening we thrust a +pole to which the blade of a rapier was fastened. This sometimes brought +us up four or five apples at once, which hung on the blade like the flock +of ducks that Baron Munchausen's musket pierced with the ramrod. + +We were all honest boys, yet not one, not even the sons of the heads of +the institute, ever thought of blaming or checking the zest for this +appropriation of other people's property. + +The apple and morality must stand in a very peculiar relation to each +other. + +Scarcely was the last fruit gathered, when other pleasures greeted us. + +The 18th of October, the anniversary of the battle of Leipsic, was +celebrated in Thuringia by kindling bonfires on the highest mountains, +but ours was always the largest and brightest far and wide. While the +flames soared heavenward, we enthusiastically sang patriotic songs. The +old Lutzow Jagers, who had fought for the freedom of Germany, led the +chorus and gazed with tearful eyes at the boys whom they were rearing for +the future supporters and champions of their native land. + +Then winter came. + +Snow and ice usually appeared in our mountain valley in the latter half +of November. We welcomed them, for winter brought coasting parties down +the mountains, skating, snow-balling, the clumsy snow-man, and that most +active of mortals, the dancing-master, who not only instructed us in the +art of Terpsichore, but also gave us rules of decorum which were an +abomination to Uncle Froebel. + +An opportunity to put them into practice was close at hand, for the 29th +of November was Barop's birthday, which was celebrated by a little dance +after the play. + +Those who took part in the performance were excused from study for +several days before, for with the sapper's help we built the stage, and +even painted the scenes. The piece was rehearsed till it was absolutely +faultless. + +I took an active part in all these matters during my entire residence at +the institute, and we three Ebers brothers had the reputation of being +among the best actors, though Martin far surpassed us. We had invented +another variety of theatrical performances which we often enjoyed on +winter evenings after supper, unless one of the teachers read aloud to +us, or we boys performed the classic dramas. While I was one of the +younger pupils, we used the large and complete puppet-show which belonged +to the institute; but afterwards we preferred to act ourselves, and +arranged the performance according to a plan of our own. + +One of us who had seen a play during the vacation at home told the others +the plot. The whole was divided into scenes, and each character was +assigned to some representative who was left to personate it according to +his own conception, choosing the words and gestures which he deemed most +appropriate. + +I enjoyed nothing more than these performances; and my mother, who +witnessed several of them during one of her visits, afterwards said that +it was surprising how well we had managed the affair and acted our parts. + +For a long time I was the moving spirit in this play, and we had no lack +of talented mimes, personators of sentimental heroes, and droll +comedians. The women's parts, of course, were also taken by boys. Ludo +made a wonderfully pretty girl. I was sometimes one thing, sometimes +another, but almost always stage manager. + +These merry improvisations were certainly well fitted to strengthen the +creative power and activity of our intellects. There was no lack of +admirable stage properties, for the large wardrobe of the institute was +at our disposal whenever we wanted to act, which was at least once a week +during the whole winter, except in the Advent season, when everything was +obliged to yield to the demand of the approaching Christmas festival. +Then we were all busy in making presents for our relatives. The younger +ones manufactured various cardboard trifles; the older pupils, as embryo +cabinet-makers, all sorts of pretty and useful things, especially boxes. + +Unluckily, I did not excel as a cabinet-maker, though I managed to finish +tolerable boxes; but my mother had two made by the more skilful hands of +Ludo, which were provided with locks and hinges, so neatly finished, +veneered, and polished that many a trained cabinet-maker's apprentice +could have done no better. It was one of Froebel's principles--as I have +already mentioned--to follow the "German taste for manual labor," and +have us work with spades and pickaxes (in our plots of ground), and with +squares, chisels, and saws (in the pasteboard and carving lessons). + +A clever elderly man, the sapper, or Sabuim, already mentioned--I think +I never heard his real name--instructed us in the trades of the book +binder and cabinet-maker. He was said to have served under Napoleon as a +sapper, and afterwards settled in our neighbourhood, and found occupation +in Keilhau. He was skilful in all kinds of manual labour, and an +excellent teacher. The nearer Christmas came the busier were the +workshops; and while usually there was no noise, they now resounded +with Christmas songs, among which: + + "Up, up, my lads! why do ye sleep so long? + The night has passed, and day begins to dawn"; + +or our Berlin one: + + "Something will happen to-morrow, my children," + +were most frequently heard. + +Christmas thoughts filled our hearts and minds. Christmas at home had +been so delightful that the first year I felt troubled by the idea that +the festival must be celebrated away from my mother and without her. But +after we had shared the Keilhau holiday, and what preceded and followed +it, we could not decide which was the most enjoyable. + +Once our mother was present, though the cause of her coming was not +exactly a joyous one. About a week before the Christmas of my third year +at Keilhau I went to the hayloft at dusk, and while scuffling with a +companion the hay slipped with us and we both fell to the barn-floor. +My school-mate sustained an internal injury, while I escaped with the +fracture of two bones, fortunately only of the left arm. The severe +suffering which has darkened so large a portion of my life has been +attributed to this fracture, but the idea is probably incorrect; +otherwise the consequences would have appeared earlier. + +At first the arm was very painful; yet the thought of having lost the +Christmas pleasures was almost worse. But the experience that the days +from which we expect least often afford us most happiness was again +verified. Barop had thought it his duty to inform my mother of this +serious accident, and two or three days later she arrived. Though I +could not play out of doors with the others, there was enough to enjoy +in the house with her and some of my comrades. + +Every incident of that Christmas has remained in my memory, and, though +Fate should grant me many more years of life, I would never forget them. +First came the suspense and excitement when the wagon from Rudolstadt +filled with boxes drove into the court-yard, and then the watching for +those which might be meant for us. + +On Christmas eve, when at home the bell summoned us to the Christmas-tree +the delight of anticipation reached its climax, and expressed itself in +song, in gayer talk, and now and then some harmless scuffle. + +Then we went to bed, with the firm resolve of waking early; but the sleep +of youth is sounder than any resolution, and suddenly unwonted sounds +roused us, perhaps from the dreams of the manger at Bethlehem and the +radiant Christmas-tree. + +Was it the voice of the angels which appeared to the shepherds? The +melody was a Christmas choral played by the Rudolstadt band, which had +been summoned to waken us thus pleasantly. + +Never did we leave our beds more quickly than in the darkness of that +early morning, illuminated as usual only by a tallow dip. Rarely was the +process of washing more speedily accomplished--in winter we were often +obliged to break a crust of ice which had formed over the water; but this +time haste was useless, for no one was admitted into the great hall +before the signal was given. At last it sounded, and when we had pressed +through the wide-open doors, what splendours greeted our enraptured eyes +and ears! + +The whole room was most elaborately decorated with garlands of pine. +Wherever the light entered the windows we saw transparencies representing +biblical Christmas scenes. Christmas-trees--splendid firs of stately +height and size, which two days before were the ornaments of the forest- +glittered in the light of the candles, which was reflected from the ruddy +cheeks of the apples and the gilded and silvered nuts. Meanwhile the +air, "O night so calm, so holy!" floated from the instruments of the +musicians. + +Scarcely had we taken our places when a chorus of many voices singing the +angel's greeting, "Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth," recalled +to our happy hearts the sacredness of the morning. Violins and horns +blended with the voices; then, before even the most excited could feel +the least emotion of impatience, the music ceased. Barop stepped +forward, and in the deep, earnest tones peculiar to him exclaimed, +"Now see what pleasures the love of your friends has prepared for you!" + +The devout, ennobling feelings which had inspired every heart were +scattered to the four winds; we dispersed like a flock of doves +threatened by a hawk, and the search for the places marked by a label +began. + +One had already seen his name; a near-sighted fellow went searching from +table to table; and here and there one boy called to another to point out +what his sharp eyes had detected. On every table stood a Stolle, the +Saxon Christmas bread called in Keilhau Schuttchen, and a large plate of +nuts and cakes, the gift of the institute. Beside these, either on the +tables or the floor, were the boxes from home. They were already opened, +but the unpacking was left to us--a wise thing; for what pleasure it +afforded us to take out the various gifts, unwrap them, admire, examine, +and show them to others! + +Those were happy days, for we saw only joyous faces, and our own hearts +had room for no other feelings than the heaven-born sisters Love, Joy, +and Gratitude. + +We entered with fresh zeal upon the season of work which followed. It +was the hardest of the twelve months, for it carried us to Easter, the +close of the school year, and was interrupted only by the carnival with +its merry masquerade. + +All sorts of examinations closed the term of instruction. On Palm Sunday +the confirmation services took place, which were attended by the parents +of many of the pupils, and in which the whole institute shared. + +Then came the vacation. It lasted three weeks, and was the only time we +were allowed to return home. And what varied pleasures awaited us there! +Martha, whom we left a young lady of seventeen, remained unaltered in her +charming, gentle grace, but Paula changed every year. One Easter we +found the plump school-girl transformed into a slender young lady. The +next vacation she had been confirmed, wore long dresses, had lost every +trace of boyishness, even rarely showed any touch of her former drollery. + +She did not care to go to the theatre, of which Martha was very fond, +unless serious dramas were performed. We, on the contrary, liked farces. +I still remember a political quip which was frequently repeated at the +Konigstadt Theatre, and whose point was a jeer at the aspirations of the +revolution: "Property is theft, or a Dream of a Red Republican." + +We were in the midst of the reaction and those who had fought at the +barricades on the 18th of March applauded when the couplet was sung, of +which I remember these lines: + + "Ah! what bliss is the aspiration + To dangle from a lamp-post + As a martyr for the nation!" + +During these vacations politics was naturally a matter of utter +indifference to us, and toward their close we usually paid a visit to my +grandmother and aunt in Dresden. + +So the years passed till Easter (1852) came, and with it our confirmation +and my separation from Ludo, who was to follow a different career. We +had double instruction in confirmation, first with the village boys from +the pastor of Eichfeld, and afterwards from Middendorf at the institute. + +Unfortunately, I have entirely forgotten what the Eichfeld clergyman +taught us, but Middendorf's lessons made all the deeper impression. + +He led us through life to God and the Saviour, and thence back again to +life. + +How often, after one of these lessons, silence reigned, and teachers and +pupils rose from their seats with tearful eyes! + +Afterwards I learned from a book which had been kept that what he gave us +had been drawn chiefly from the rich experiences of his own life and the +Gospels, supplemented by the writings of his favourite teacher, +Schleiermacher. By contemplation, the consideration of the universe with +the soul rather than with the mind, we should enter into close relations +with God and become conscious of our dependence upon him, and this +consciousness Middendorf with his teacher Schleiermacher called +"religion." + +But the old Lutzow Jager, who in the year 1813 had taken up arms at the +Berlin University, had also sat at the feet of Fichte, and therefore +crowned his system by declaring, like the latter, that religion was not +feeling but perception. Whoever attained this, arrived at a clear +understanding of his own ego (Middendorf's mental understanding of life), +perfect harmony with himself and the true sanctification of his soul. +This man who, according to our Middendorf, is the really religious human +being, will be in harmony with God and Nature, and find an answer to the +highest of all questions. + +Froebel's declaration that he had found "the unity of life," which had +brought Middendorf to Keilhau, probably referred to Fichte. The phrase +had doubtless frequently been used by them in conversations about this +philosopher, and neither needed an explanation, since Fichte's opinions +were familiar to both. + +We candidates for confirmation at that time knew the Berlin philosopher +only by name, and sentences like "unity with one's self," "to grasp and +fulfil," "inward purity of life," etc., which every one who was taught by +Middendorf must remember, at first seemed perplexing; but our teacher, +who considered it of the utmost importance to be understood, and whose +purpose was not to give us mere words, but to enrich our souls with +possessions that would last all our lives, did not cease his explanations +until even the least gifted understood their real meaning. + +This natural, childlike old man never lectured; he was only a pedagogue +in the sense of the ancients--that is, a guide of boys. Though precepts +tinctured by philosophy mingled with his teachings, they only served as +points of departure for statements which came to him from the soul and +found their way to it. + +He possessed a comprehensive knowledge of the religions of all nations, +and described each with equal love and an endeavour to show us all their +merits. I remember how warmly he praised Confucius's command not to love +our fellow-men but to respect them, and how sensible and beautiful it +seemed to me, too, in those days. He lingered longest on Buddhism; and +it surprises me now to discover how well, with the aids then at his +command, he understood the touching charity of Buddha and the deep +wisdom and grandeur of his doctrine. + +But he showed us the other religions mainly to place Christianity and +its renewing and redeeming power in a brighter light. The former served, +as it were, for a foil to the picture of our Saviour's religion and +character, which he desired to imprint upon the soul. Whether he +succeeded in bringing us into complete "unity" with the personality of +Christ, to which he stood in such close relations, is doubtful, but he +certainly taught us to understand and love him; and this love, though I +have also listened to the views of those who attribute the creation and +life of the world to mechanical causes, and believe the Deity to be a +product of the human intellect, has never grown cold up to the present +day. + +The code of ethics which Middendorf taught was very simple. His motto, +as I have said, was, "True, pure, and upright in life." He might have +added, "and with a heart full of love"; for this was what distinguished +him from so many, what made him a Christian in the most beautiful sense +of the word, and he neglected nothing to render our young hearts an +abiding-place for this love. + +Of course, our mother came to attend our confirmation, which first took +place with the peasant boys--who all wore sprigs of lavender in their +button-holes--in the village church at Eichfeld, and then, with +Middendorf officiating, in the hall of the institute at Keilhau. + +Few boys ever approached the communion-table for the first time in a more +devout mood, or with hearts more open to all good things, than did we two +brothers that day on our mother's right and left hand. + +No matter how much I may have erred, Middendorf's teachings and counsels +have not been wholly lost in any stage of my career. + +After the confirmation I went away with my mother and Ludo for the +vacation, and three weeks later I returned to the institute without my +brother. + +I missed him everywhere. His greater discretion had kept me from many +a folly, and my need of loving some one found satisfaction in him. +Besides, his mere presence was a perpetual reminder of my mother. + +Keilhau was no longer what it had been. New scenes always seem desirable +to young people, and for the first time I longed to go away, though I +knew nothing of my destination except that it would be a gymnasium. + +Yet I loved the institute and its teachers, though I did not realize +until later how great was my debt of gratitude. Here, and by them, the +foundation of my whole future life was laid, and if I sometimes felt it +reel under my feet, the Froebel method was not in fault. + +The institute could not dismiss us as finished men; the desired "unity +with life" can be attained only upon its stage--the world--in the motley +throng of fellow-men, but minds and bodies were carefully trained +according to their individual peculiarities, and I might consider myself +capable of receiving higher lessons. True, my character was not yet +steeled sufficiently to resist every temptation, but I no longer need +fear the danger of crossing the barrier which Froebel set for men +"worthy" in his sense. + +My acquirements were deficient in many respects what the French term +"justesse d'esprit" had to a certain degree become mine, as in the case +of every Keilhau boy, through our system of education. + +Though I could not boast of "being one with Nature," we had formed a +friendly alliance, and I learned by my own experience the truth of +Goethe's words, that it was the only book which offers valuable contents +on every page. + +I was not yet familiar with life, but I had learned to look about with +open eyes. + +I had not become a master in any handicraft, but I had learned with +paste-pot and knife, saw, plane, and chisel--nay, even axe and handspike- +-what manual labour meant and how to use my hands. + +I had by no means attained to union with God, but I had acquired the +ability and desire to recognize his government in Nature as well as in +life; for Middendorf had understood how to lead us into a genuine filial +relation with him and awaken in our young hearts love for him who kindles +in the hearts of men the pure flame of love for their neighbours. + +The Greek words which Langethal wrote in my album, and which mean "Be +truthful in love," were beginning to be as natural to me as abhorrence of +cowardice and falsehood had long been. + +Love for our native land was imprinted indelibly on my soul, and lives +there joyously, ready to sacrifice for the freedom and greatness of +Germany even what I hold dearest. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +A word at the right time and place +Confucius's command not to love our fellow-men but to respect + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STORY OF MY LIFE, BY EBERS, V4 *** + +********** This file should be named 5596.txt or 5596.zip ********* + +This eBook was produced by David Widger + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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