s on earth? Your life is the answer to my question, and your
greatest happiness lies in the fact that you have no false part to
perform, nothing which is opposed to your judgment and convictions.

"I now see my error in regarding your mode of thought as the philosophy
of solitude. You hold fast to the harmony of life. But I have not yet
rid myself of a fear lest that which is real should, as it were, become
volatilized, causing the living forms of the vast human multitude to
disappear. In that case, the spirit alone would remain, or, if I
understand aright, would lose itself in matter, when all individuality
and all participation in actual life would cease.

"I cannot help interesting myself in individual inmates of these
institutions. I can help the cause as a whole, but I can only love
individuals.

"I am greatly comforted by one piece of information you give me:--that,
in all history, there is no age that was satisfied with itself. We
fondly dream of a golden age, but the golden age is to-day or never.

"But now as to matters that concern us more nearly. You ask me to tell
you of my little Woldemar. I do so with pleasure, but must be careful
not to weary you with a thousand and one of his little sayings and
traits. I follow your advice and endeavor to interest myself in his
questions, instead of teaching him that which he does not care to know.
He is quite decided, both in his likes and dislikes. I think that this
is well, and let him have his own way. His disposition, is, to a marked
degree, that of the king; he is quite fond of music. I think it good
for him that he was, literally speaking, sung to while in his cradle,
although the songs were from the lips of such hypocritical specimens of
culture and simplicity. Ah, my dear friend, that one sad memory still
casts its dark shadow over all my thoughts and all that I behold."

"_April 7th_.

"And now this tiresome letter is nearly at an end. We are coming to
you, my dear friend. Woldemar and I, I and Woldemar.

"I told Woldemar, and he at once added in a decided tone:

"'But Schnipp and Schnapp' (his two ponies) 'must go, too.'

"To be brief--the king has granted my request. For the benefit of my
health, I may pay you a visit of four weeks during midsummer and take
Woldemar with me. Orders have already been given, and Minister von
Bronnen has, I understand, made all the necessary arrangements to have
the