d lady, was cheerful,
witty, and full of pleasant gaiety; she was the only one who understood
and appreciated her clever nephew; indeed she was so fond of him, and
humoured him to such an extent, that she is said to have spoiled him.
It was to her he poured out all his childish troubles and all his
boyish confidences and weaknesses. Her love he repaid with faithful
affection, and he has memorialised it in a touching way in the
character of "Tante Fuesschen" in _Kater Murr_ (Pt. I.), where also
other biographical details of this period may be read. Of his poor
mother, feeble in body and in mind alike, Hoffmann only spoke
unwillingly, but always with deep respect mingled with sadness.

Two other persons must be mentioned as having exercised a lasting
influence upon his early life. One of these was an old great-uncle,
Justizrath Voethoery, brother of both his grandmothers, and a gentleman
of Hungarian origin. This excellent man was retired from all business,
with the exception that he continued to act as justiciary for the
estates of certain well-tried friends. He used to visit the various
properties at stated seasons of the year, and was always a welcome
guest; for this "hero of olden times in dressing-gown and slippers," as
Wilibald Alexis called him, was the V---- who figures so genially
in _Das Majorat_ ("The Entail"). The old gentleman once took his
great-nephew with him on one of these trips, and to it we are indebted
for this master-piece of Hoffmann. The other person who gave a bent to
young Ernst's mind was Dr. Wannowski, the head of the German Reformed
School in Koenigsberg, where the boy was sent in his sixth or seventh
year. Wannowski, who possessed the faculty of awakening slumbering
talent in his pupils, and attracting them to himself, enjoyed the
friendship and intercourse of Kant, Hippel (the elder), Scheffner,
Hamann, and others, and might perhaps lay claim to be called a Prussian
Dr. Arnold, owing to the many illustrious pupils he turned out.

During the first seven years of his school-days, young Hoffmann was in
nowise distinguished above his school-fellows either for industry or
for quickness of parts. But when he reached his thirteenth or
fourteenth year, his taste for both music and painting was awakened.
His liking for these two arts was so genuine and sincere, and
consequently his progress in them so rapid, that he came to be looked
upon as a child-wonder. He would sit down at a piano and play
imp