of our boyhood that Alexander von Humboldt, going once with the king to
church, in Potsdam, in answer to the sneering question how he, who passed
for a freethinker at court, could go to the house of God, made the apt
reply, "In order to get on, your Excellency."

When Strauss met us in the street and called to us with a certain unction
in his melodious voice, "Good-morning, my dear children in Christ!" our
hearts went out to him, and it seemed as if we had received a blessing.
He and his son Otto used to call me "Marcus Aurelius," on account of my
curly blond head; and how often did he put his strong hand into my thick
locks to draw me toward him!

Strauss was in the counsels of the king, Frederick William IV, and at
important moments exercised an influence on his political decisions. Yet
that somewhat eccentric prince could not resist his inclination to make
cheap jokes at Strauss's expense. After creating him court-chaplain, he
said to Alexander von Humboldt: "A trick in natural history which you
cannot copy! I have turned an ostrich (Strauss) into a bullfinch
(Dompfaffer)"--in allusion to Strauss's being a preacher at the cathedral
(Dom).

Fritz, the worthy man's eldest son, came to see me in Leipsic. Our
studies in the department of biblical geography had led us to different
conclusions, but our scientific views were constantly intermingled with
recollections of the Lennestrasse.

But better than he, who was much older, do I remember his brother Otto,
then a bright, amiable young man, and his mother, who was from the Rhine
country, a warm-hearted, kindly woman of aristocratic bearing.

Our mother had a very high opinion of the court chaplain, who had
christened us all and afterward confirmed my sisters, and officiated at
Martha's marriage. But, much as she appreciated him as a friend and
counsellor, she could not accept his strict theology. Though she received
the communion at his hands, with my sisters, she preferred the sermons of
the regimental chaplain, Bollert, and later those of the excellent Sydow.
I well remember her grief when Bollert, whose free interpretation of
Scripture had aroused displeasure at court, was sent to Potsdam.

I find an amusing echo of the effect of this measure in Paula's journal,
and it would have been almost impossible for a growing girl of active
mind to take no note of opinions which she heard everywhere expressed.

Our entire circle was loyal; especially Privy-Councillor Sei