d friend and
instructor,' wrote Berthold to Birkner, 'you gave me credit for great
things; but here, when a light should have risen in my soul, I have
learned that that which you termed real artistical genius was nothing
but a sort of _talent_--mere dexterity of hand. Tell my parents that I
shall soon return, and learn some trade that I may get my living,' &c.
Birkner wrote back: 'Oh! would I could be with you, my son, to support
you in your depression. It is your very doubts that prove your calling
as an artist. He who with steady immoveable confidence in his powers
believes that he will always progress, is a blind fool, who only
deceives himself, for he wants the proper spur to endeavour, which only
consists in the thought of deficiency. Persevere and you will soon
gain strength; and then, no longer fettered by the opinion or the
advice of friends, who are, perhaps, unable to appreciate you, you will
quietly pursue the path which your own nature has designed for you. It
will then be left to your own decision whether you become a painter of
landscapes or historical pieces, and you will cease to think of a
hostile separation of the branches of one trunk.'

"It happened that about the time when Berthold received this letter of
consolation from his old friend and instructor, Philip Hackert's fame
became widely extended in Rome. Some of the paintings which he had
exhibited, and which were distinguished by wonderful grace and
clearness, proved the real genius of the artist, and even the
historical painters admitted that there was much greatness and
excellence in this pure imitation of nature. Berthold breathed again;
he no more heard his favourite art treated with contempt, he saw a man
who pursued it honoured and elevated, and, as it were, a spark fell on
his soul that he must travel to Naples and study under Hackert. In
high spirits he wrote to Birkner, and his parents, that he had now,
after a hard struggle, discovered the right way, and hoped to become a
clever artist in his own style. The honest German, Hackert, received
his German pupil with great kindness, and the latter soon made great
efforts to follow his master. Berthold attained great facility in
giving faithful representations of the different kinds of trees and
shrubs, and was not a little successful in those misty effects, which
are to be found in Hackert's pictures. He thus gained great praise,
but it seemed to him as if something was wanting both