agerness when his Father read passages from the
Bible, or vocally uttered them in prayer. "It was a touching sight,"
says his eldest Sister, "the expression of devotion on the dear little
Child's countenance. With its blue eyes directed towards Heaven, its
high-blond hair about the clear brow, and its fast-clasped little
hands. It was like an angel's head to look upon."

'With Father's return, the happy Mother conscientiously shared with
him the difficult and important business of bringing up their Son; and
both in union worked highly beneficially for his spiritual
development. The practical and rigorous Father directed his chief aim
to developing the Boy's intellect and character; the mild, pious,
poetic-minded Mother, on the other hand, strove for the ennobling
nurture of his temper and his imagination. It was almost exclusively
owing to her that his religious feeling, his tender sense of all that
was good and beautiful, his love of mankind, tolerance, and capability
of self-sacrifice, in the circle of his Sisters and playmates,
distinguished the Boy.

'On Sunday afternoons, when she went to walk with both the Children,
she was wont to explain to them the Church-Gospel of the day. "Once,"
so stands it in Christophine's Memorials, "when we two, as children,
had set out walking with dear Mamma to see our Grandparents, she took
the way from Ludwigsburg to Marbach, which leads straight over the
Hill, a walk of some four miles. It was a beautiful Easter Monday,
and our Mother related to us the history of the two Disciples to
whom, on their journey to Emmaus, Jesus had joined himself. Her speech
and narrative grew ever more inspired; and when we got upon the Hill,
we were all so much affected that we knelt down and prayed. This Hill
became a Tabor to us."

'At other times she entertained the children with fairy-tales and
magic histories. Already while in Lorch she had likewise led the Boy,
so far as his power of comprehension and her own knowledge permitted,
into the domains of German Poetry. Klopstock's _Messias_, Opitz's
Poems, Paul Gerhard's and Gellert's pious Songs, were made known to
him in this tender age, through his Mother; and were, for that reason,
doubly dear. At one time also the artless Mother made an attempt on
him with Hofmannswaldau;[59] but the sugary and windy tone of him hurt
the tender poet-feeling of the Boy. With smiling dislike he pushed the
Book away; and afterwards was wont to remark, when, at t