edagogue, with all his
deficiencies, did not do ill by us. The soul, also, was not unattended
to. Feddersen's 'Life of Jesus' was our favourite reading. Feder's
'Compendium' was used for our religious instruction, a book which is
still highly estimated. Our feeling for the beautiful was also awakened
and trained in another way. Weiss's Operettes, set to Hiller's music,
then made a great sensation. Kretzschmar played the harpsichord well,
and the violin still better. My sister Jettchen played very tolerably
at sight. Thus by degrees all Weiss's operas were played and sung, and
we young ones joined in the lighter airs by ear. My father listened,
and sometimes joined, with pleasure.

"Thus did many autumn and winter evenings pass. Dear scenes of home,
what have become of you in most families? You are superseded by trashy
reading, casino, and play!

"The poetry we learnt we recited in the evening, before our father and
_Muhme_,--nay, in case of need before the maid. Passages which had been
explained to us, we then explained again. All this suggested to me the
first idea and wish to consecrate my studies to religion and become a
preacher.

"We had many playfellows. It was a common custom for children to visit
one another on Sundays. We were allowed to remain to dinner, and
accustomed to be well-behaved with grown-up persons. I, as being the
least, was usually placed by the side of the father and mother of
the family. Everywhere there was hearty friendliness. This custom,
also,--at least in this form,--has almost passed away. We might not
sometimes, perhaps, be quite agreeable to the elders, but this was
rare. My father was much pleased when children, even as many as six or
eight, came to us. The old people gladly gave a supper to the merry
little folk, and they also played with them. Then on Monday we looked
forward with pleasure to the following Sunday. Is it surprising that we
still look back with pleasure to those happy days, the remembrance of
which is wafted to me like the perfume of living flowers?

"With all my youthful gaiety I was still very earnest-minded. Our
mother, who had been dead only three years, was often spoken of; we had
learnt a quantity of funeral hymns, and at six years old I certainly
thought more frequently of death and immortality than many youths, or
even men. What was to become of animals after death, I had not thought
of till I was five years old. Then I happened to see a dead dog in the
cit