for the most part to Leipzig. On this march Jahn made me acquainted
before we reached Meissen with another Berlin student, Heinrich
Langethal, of Erfurt, as a fellow-countryman of mine; and Langethal
introduced me to his friend and fellow-student in theology, Middendorff,
of Brechten, near Dortmund.[108]

A wonderfully lovely spring evening spent together by the friendly
shores of Elbe, and a visit to the magnificent Cathedral of Meissen,
brought me nearer to these and other comrades; but it was the pleasant
banks of Havel at Havelberg, the charming situation of the grand
cathedral, the "Rhine Travels" of Georg Forster, a common love for
nature, and above all a common eager yearning for higher culture that
bound us three for ever together.[109]

The war in all its exhilaration and depression, its privation and
pleasure, its transient and its permanent aspects, flowed on; sometimes
nearer to us, sometimes further away. In August 1814 I was released from
service, and returned to Berlin, there to enter upon the post[110] at
the University Museum, which I have already mentioned.

Soon after, quite unexpectedly, I ran against my friends again, who had
come back to Berlin to finish their studies. After being somewhat
separated by the nature of our work, they as eagerly studying theology
as I did natural science, our common need and inner aspiration brought
us once more together. They had taken some private teaching, and were
frequently driven to seek my counsel and instruction by the difficulties
of their new position. When the war broke out afresh in 1815,
Middendorff had been living for several months previously with me as
room companion. Thus had life thrown us closely together, so that I
could see each one exactly as he was, in all his individuality, with his