he had some things to forgive God for not having given better assistance to his
infinite good-will. Under all this influence he turned to cabalism and became
interested in crystals and the microcosm and macrocosm, and fell into the habit
of despair over what he had been and believed just before. He conceived a kind
of hermetical or neoplatonic godhead creating in more and more eccentric
circles, until the last, which rose in contradiction, was Lucifer to whom creation
was committed. He first of all imagined in detail an angelic host, and finally a
whole theology was wrought out in petto. He used a gilt ornamented music-stand
as a kind of altar with fumigating pastils for incense, where each morning God
was approached by offerings until one day a conflagration put a sudden end to
these celebrations.
Hans Anderson,[48] the son of a poor shoemaker, taught in a charity school at
the dawn of puberty; vividly animated Bible stories from pictures painted on the
wall; was dreamy and absent-minded; told continued stories to his mates; at
confirmation vowed he would be famous and finally, at fourteen, left home for
Copenhagen, where he was violently stage-struck and worked his way from
friendship with the bill-poster to the stage as page, shepherd, etc.; called on a
famous dancer, who scorned him, and then, feeling that he had no one but God
to depend on, prayed earnestly and often. For nearly a year, until his voice broke,
he was a fine singer. He wet with his tears the eyes of a portrait of a heartless
man that he might feel for him. He played with a puppet theater and took a
childish delight in decking the characters with gay remnants that he begged from
shops; wrote several plays which no one would accept; stole into an empty
theater one New Year's day to pray aloud on the middle of the stage; shouted
with joy; hugged and kissed a beech-tree till people thought him insane;
abhorred the thought of apprenticeship to Latin as he did to that of a trade, which
was a constant danger; and was one of the most dreamy and sentimental, and by
spells religious and prayerful, of youth.
George Ebers[49] remembered as a boy of eleven the revolution of '48 in Berlin,
soon after which he was placed in Froebel's school at Keilhau. This great teacher
with his noble associates, Middendorf, Barop, and Langekhal, lived with the
boys; told the stirring stories of their own lives as soldiers in the war of
liberation; led their pupils on long excursions in vacation, often lasting for
months, and gave much liberty to the boys, who were allowed to haze not only
their new mates, but new teachers. This transfer from the city to the country
roused a veritable passion in the boy, who remained here till he was fifteen.
Trees and cliffs were climbed, collections made, the Saale by moonlight and the