bbish of my early writings, and what I
regret most, I threw away his letters, not thinking how interesting
they would become in time.

With all my work, however, I found time to attend some lectures at the
College de France, and to make the acquaintance of some distinguished
French _savants_ of the _Institut_. I went there with Burnouf, or
Stanislas Julien, or Reinaud, little dreaming that I should some day
belong to the same august body. Many of my young French friends, who
afterwards became _Membres de l'Institut_, rose to that dignity much
later. I was made not only a corresponding, but a real member of the
Academie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres in 1869, before my
friends, such as G. Perrot 1874, Michel Breal 1875, Gaston Paris 1876,
and Jules Oppert 1881, occupied their well-merited academical
_fauteuils_. The struggle when I was elected in 1869 was a serious
one; it was between Mommsen and myself, between classical and Oriental
scholarship, and for once Oriental scholarship carried the day.
Mommsen, however, was elected in 1895, and there can be little doubt
that his strong and outspoken political antipathies had something to
do with the late date of his election.

I am sorry to say that one result of my seeing so little of French
life was that my French did not make such progress as I expected.
Though I was able to express myself _tant bien que mal_, I have always
felt hampered in a long conversation. Of course, the French themselves
have always been polite enough to say that they could not have
detected that I was a German, but I knew better than that, and never
have I, even in later years, gained a perfect conversational command
of that difficult language.

CHAPTER VI

ARRIVAL IN ENGLAND

While working in Paris I constantly felt the want of some essential
MSS. which were at the Library of the East India Company in London,
and my desire to visit England consequently grew stronger and
stronger; but I had not the wherewithal to pay for the journey, much
less for a stay of even a fortnight in London. At last (June, 1846) I
thought that I had scraped together enough to warrant my starting. At
that time I had never seen the sea, and I was very desirous of doing
so. I well remember my unbounded rapture at my first sight of the
silver stream, and like Xenophon's Greeks I could have shouted,
[Greek: thalatta, thalatta]. Once on board my rapture soon collapsed
and was succeeded by that well-known feeli