y attractive. I felt as if my strength increased
with the magnitude and multiplicity of the tasks imposed, and, full of
joyous excitement, I told Lepsius that I was ready to fulfil his
requirements in every detail.

We now discussed in what sequence and manner I should go to work, and to
this day I admire the composure, penetration, and lucidity with which he
sketched a plan of study that covered years.

I have reason to be grateful to this great scholar for the introduction
to my special science, but still more for the wisdom with which he
pointed out the direction of my studies. Like Jacob Grimm, he compelled
me, as an Egyptologist, to remain in connection with the kindred
departments.

Later my own experience was to teach me the correctness of his assertion
that it would be a mistake to commence by studying so restricted a
science as Egyptology.

My pupils can bear witness that during my long period of teaching I
always strove to urge students who intended to devote themselves to
Egyptology first to strengthen the foundations, without which the special
structure lacks support.

Lepsius's plan of instruction provided that I should follow these
principles from the beginning. The task I had to perform was a great and
difficult one. How infinitely easier it was for those whom I had the
privilege of introducing to this science! The lecture-rooms of famous
teachers stood open to them, while my physical condition kept me for
weeks from the university; and how scanty were the aids to which the
student could turn! Yet the zeal--nay, the enthusiasm--with which I
devoted myself to the study was so great that it conquered every
difficulty.

[I had no dictionary and no grammar for the hieroglyphic language
save Champollion's. No Stern had treated Coptic in a really
scientific manner. I was obliged to learn it according to Tuki,
Peyron, Tattam, and Steinthal-Schwarze. For the hieratic there was
no aid save my own industry and the lists I had myself compiled from
the scanty texts then at the disposal of the student. Lepsius had
never devoted much time to them. Brugsch's demotic grammar had
appeared, but its use was rendered very difficult by the lack of
conformity between the type and the actual signs.]

When I recall the amount of knowledge I mastered in a few terms it seems
incredible; yet my labour was interrupted every summer by a sojourn at
the springs--once three months, and never for a les