ile bathing with two of my friends in a part of the river
which was safe, they swam along and asked me to follow them. Having
complete confidence in them I jumped in from the shore, but very soon
began to sink. My shouts brought my friends back, and they rescued me,
not without some difficulty, from drowning.

In an English school the influence of the master is, of course, more
constant, because one of the masters is always within call, while in
Germany he is visible during school-hours only. If a master is fond of
his pupils, and takes an interest in them individually, he can do them
more good than parents at home, or the teacher at a day school. The
boys at a German school are, no doubt, a very mixed crew, but that
cannot be helped. This mixture of classes may be a drawback in some
respects, but from an educational point of view the sons of very rich
parents are by no means more valuable than the poor boys. Far from it.
Many of the evils of schoolboy life come from the sons of the rich,
while the sons of poor parents are generally well behaved. But for all
that, there was a rough and rude tone among some of the boys at
school, arising from defects in the education at home, and this
sometimes embittered what ought to be the happiest time of life,
particularly in the case of delicate boys. The son of a Minister has
often to sit by the side of the son of a wealthy butcher, and the very
fact that he is the son of a gentleman often exposes the more refined
boy to the bullying of his muscular neighbour. I was fortunate at
school. I could hold my own with the boys, and as to the masters,
several of them had known my father or had been his pupils, and they
took a personal interest in me.

I remember more particularly one young master who was very kind to me,
and took me home for private lessons and for giving me some good
advice. There was something sad and very attractive about him, and I
found out afterwards that he knew that he was dying of consumption,
and that besides that he was liable to be prosecuted for political
liberalism, which at that time was almost like high treason. I believe
he was actually condemned and sent to prison like many others, and he
died soon after I had left Dessau. His name was Dr. Hoenicke, and he
was the first to try to impress on me that I ought to show myself
worthy of my father, an idea which had never entered my mind before,
nay, which at first I could hardly understand, but which,
nevert