little by little quite away from the study of languages, and led me
towards the deeper-lying unity of natural objects. My earlier plan
gradually reasserted itself, to study Nature in her first forms and
elements. But the funds which still remained to me were now too small to
permit of the longer residence at the university which that plan
necessitated. As I had nothing at all now to depend upon save my own
unaided powers, I at first thought to gain my object by turning them to
some practical account, such as literary work. I had already begun to
prepare for this, when an unexpected legacy changed my whole position.
Up to now I had had one aunt still living, a sister of my mother's, who
had spent all the best years of her life in my native village, enjoying
excellent health and free from care. By her sudden death I obtained, in
a manner I had little expected, the means of pursuing my much-desired
studies. This occurrence made a very deep impression upon me, because
this lady was the sister of that uncle of mine whose death had enabled
me to travel from Gross Milchow to Frankfurt, and so first set me upon
my career as an educator. And now again the death of a loved one made it
possible for me to attain higher culture in the service of this career.
Both brother and sister had loved with the closest affection my own
mother, dead so far too soon, and this love they had extended to her
children after her. May these two loving and beloved ones who through
their death gave me a higher life and a higher vocation, live for ever
through my work and my career.

My position was now a very pleasant one, and I felt soothing and
cheering influences such as had not visited me before.

In the autumn holidays, too, a friendly home was ready to receive me.
Besides the country-clergyman brother, who so often was a power for good
in my life, I had another brother, also older than I, who had been