guages, and encyclopaedias of
science and art. Through all these the boy searched for himself, and
took what was suited to his taste, astonishing the slow father very
much by his readiness, and soon becoming famous in the neighborhood for
his acquirements. Of course he wrote poetry from the earliest age, and
of course many people predicted his future greatness. Most of all, his
mother believed in him, and watched him with adoring solicitude. His
love for art showed itself very early, and he made friends with artists,
and visited their studios frequently when a mere boy. His father had a
fondness for pictures, and had some good views of Italian scenery and
art in his own house; and it was probably from him that the boy derived
his earliest liking for such things. His passion for the theatre also
made itself known at the earliest age, and gave him his most intense
youthful pleasures.

His taste for natural science was also very strong in early childhood,
and he analyzed flowers, to see how the leaves were inserted into the
calyx, and plucked birds to see how the feathers were inserted in the
wings, when a mere infant, as it appeared to his mother. Indeed, all the
strong tastes of the man showed themselves in a decided manner in this
precocious child, and his hap-hazard training allowed his genius to
develop along its own natural lines in a healthy manner.

He even exhibited at a very youthful period his fatal facility for
falling in love, and naturally enough, with a girl older than himself,
named Gretchen. He was cured of his first passion only by finding out
that the girl regarded him as a child, which filled him with great
indignation. He says:--

"My judgment was convinced, and I thought I must cast her away; but
her image!--her image gave me the lie as often as it again hovered
before me, which indeed happened often enough.

"Nevertheless, this arrow with its barbed hooks was torn out of my
heart; and the question then was, how the inward sanative power of
youth could be brought to one's aid. I really put on the man; and
the first thing instantly laid aside was the weeping and raving,
which I now regarded as childish in the highest degree. A great
stride for the better! For I had often, half the night through,
given myself up to this grief with the greatest violence; so that
at last, from my tears and sobbing, I came to such a point that I
could scarcely