by a family addicted
to learning and piety, to poetry and art, was the tranquil spirit of the
young painter led into meditative paths; and as I took my evening walk
at the setting of the sun by the side of the wooded river, under shadow
of the old gateways and churches, it was not very hard to realize how
the love of nature and of art grew up in the mind of the young student,
and how this city of the past proved a fitting prelude to a noble
life-work which set as its goal the revival of what was best and most
beautiful in the olden times.

The family of Overbeck had been for generations preeminent for learning
and piety, and biographers have scarcely sufficiently taken into account
either the Classic or the Christian inheritance of the painter.
Religious teaching and living came by long lineal descent (see Family
Chart on page xvi.): the great, great, great grandfather, Caspar
Overbeck, was a religious refugee; the next in succession, Christoph,
was a Protestant pastor; and to the same sacred calling belonged his
son, Caspar Nikolas, who lived into the middle of the last century.
After comes the grandfather, George Christian, Doctor of Laws; and among
collaterals signally shines the great-uncle, Johann Daniel Overbeck
(died 1802, aged 88);[2] this memorable man was Doctor of Theology,
Rector of the Lubeck Gymnasium, and a voluminous writer; he published
thirty or more treatises; among the number are 'The Spirit of Religion,'
'Grounds of Agreement in Religion through the Reason and the
Understanding;' also discourses on St. Peter, St. Paul, and Luther.
Facility of pen runs through the family. Two other great-uncles, Johann
Adolph and Levin Conrad Overbeck, brothers of the Doctor of Theology,
were Pastors: furthermore must not be forgotten the uncle, Johann George
(brother of the Burgomaster), who lived till 1819, and is described as a
faithful untiring pastor to an evangelical congregation, who offered his
life a willing sacrifice. "Duty" might be the watch-word of all who bear
the name of Overbeck. Lastly, and not least, appears the pious, learned,
and aesthetic father, Christian Adolph. Though not in holy orders, he
concerned himself variously with religion in the wide and vital sense of
the word, holding it a divine presence, the rule of life, and the
inspirer of all noble work. I should judge he was not dogmatic in creed,
nor rigid in ceremonial. He was philosophic, but had too much heart to
be a rationalist; too muc