grounds as means increased. Father and mother both
exerted themselves, sons and daughters grew up to assist; one son
studied at German universities, and became a physician. The institution
has to thank him for its rapid prosperity.

"This was the place where I was presented in the church as
schoolmaster, not without the opposition of some pious parties.

"All the powers of resistance were roused to the utmost by the
ultramontane party; publicly by the press, privately by every
possible means. A heretic to be the only teacher in a Roman Catholic
school--that was unheard of! The government, the common council, and I
myself, were overwhelmed with abuse; the ecclesiastics in Grenchen were
severely blamed for having allowed a wolf to break into the fold, and
it was set before them as a duty (not only by the newspapers) to use
their utmost efforts to stifle the devil's brood in the germ.

"The pastor of the place was a stately, fine man,--a favourite of the
ladies, which gave him influence. But he was not fond of controversy;
he loved repose and playing on the violin, and would therefore rather
not have taken a part. As far as his influence went he hindered the
boys from going to school, and never set his foot in it, so that no
religious instruction was given, and the hours appointed for it were
filled up with instruction on other subjects. Personally I was on a
tolerably good footing with him. It would have given him pleasure if I
would have allowed him to baptise my little daughter, who was born two
months before at the Grenchen baths, and he would have taken the
opportunity of making a quiet effort to convert me, by giving me a book
to read, pretending to be written by a Protestant, for the
glorification of the Roman Catholic church. Still less than the pastor
could his chaplain be used as a battering-ram against the school. He
had become a theologian at Wuerzburg, and knew that Leipzig was a nest
of books. He was a good husbandman and rearers of bees, and had about
the same amount of education as the people; they, however, did not
remain stationary. He did not always succeed in preserving his clerical
dignity and avoiding blame from the authorities. He had never felt it
necessary to extend his theological knowledge beyond what was
absolutely necessary, and I was sometimes astonished at the chaos in
his memory; as when, for example, he related how St. Louis had defended
Rome against the Huns. If the conversation fell up