ught. Besides, I was too
impassioned, and possessed by a constant longing for the beautiful.

"I thought of emigrating to the New World, but what should I do there?
Was it worth while to have borne such varied experiences and struggles
in order to turn a bit of the primeval forest into a cornfield? Still,
one consideration drew me toward America. My father's only brother, the
proprietor of a manufactory of jewelry, lived there, but was quite lost
to us. He had loved my mother's sister, but his suit was somewhat
harshly rejected, and he left Europe for the New World. He cast off all
connection with his home and family, and turned out of his house in New
York a friend of my father's who guardedly mentioned us to him. He
would hear nothing of us, nor even of Europe. I imagined that I could
reconcile my uncle, and you know that a man in desperate circumstances
looks for salvation to the most adventurous undertakings.

"My good father helped me. What he had always recognized as my true
vocation, from which I had turned blinded by the attractions of army
life, I now saw plainly. A thirst for loneliness arose within me; I
felt that I must find some spot of earth where no disturbing tone could
penetrate the inner life, where I could immerse myself in solitude.
This solitude which is inclusive of all true life, study, the world of
letters, now offered to me. My father helped me, while showing me that
my past life was not wasted, but must give me a new direction and a
peculiar success. He brought me a birth-day gift which I had received
in my cradle; the senate of the University; in which he had lectured
before his appointment as tutor of the prince, had bestowed upon me
soon after my birth its certificate of matriculation, as a new-born
prince receives a military commission."

Clodwig laughed heartily, rubbed his eyes, leaned forward with both
hands on his knees, looked kindly at Eric, and begged him to go on.

"I have little more to tell you. I soon schooled myself, or rather my
father schooled me, to live for universal ends, and to put aside all
personal aims as much as possible. I devoted myself to the study of
ancient literature, and every aspiration for the beautiful, which had
idealized the poet's vocation for me, found satisfaction in my
introduction to the classic world. 'Every man may glory in his
industry,' says the poet. I worked faithfully, and felt only in my
father's house the happiness of a child, and in my you