toleration of a
poet-philosopher, believed in the possibility of harmoniously combining
styles, Classic, Romantic, and Christian. His views may be judged from
the following:

_The Father's Monition to study the Classics._

With joy I see you constant in the study of the ancients. To the Greeks
and old Romans was it given to stand as the everlasting lawgivers of the
beautiful. Well for you that you read the classics: above all, acquaint
yourself with the glorious forerunner, Homer, of whom almost every line
is a picture. Homer in the right chamber of the heart, and the Bible in
the left--or _vice-versa_--in this way, it seems to me, you cannot go
far astray.

_Creed for a Purist Painter._

The artist's and poet's mind should be as a spotless mirror: his heart
must be pure and pious, at one with God and all mankind. The path to the
holy Temple of Art lies apart from the world, and the painter will go on
his way all the more unassailed if he stand aloof from the temptations
of the senses. And if the artist's mind be a temple, then should find
place therein only the figures of saints and the semblances of holy
things; and even in profane representations a heavenly spirit should
reign. The mind is raised by the contemplation of the master-works of
genius, thus art reaches the highest summit.

It is not to be supposed that the youth while in Lubeck reached the
father's ideal; but within a stone's throw of the house lay a Gymnasium,
including a Drawing School of which the great uncle, Dr. Johann Daniel
Overbeck, had been head master. Here, on the spot, I am told the nephew
received from a certain Professor Federau instruction in art, and I have
before me a drawing, the earliest that has come to my knowledge, which
proves that the pupil was at least painstaking. The subject, in
accordance with the father's precept, is Homeric, the well-known meeting
of Ulysses and Telemachus.[6] After the prevailing manner of the period,
the style is classic, according to the French school of David, and a
Greek portico appropriately finds a place in the background. Young
Overbeck discovered in the sequel how much he had to learn, and to
unlearn; he closed Homer to open his Bible.

The time came for a change in the scene of action, the art resources of
a small provincial town were exhausted, and the necessity arose for
thorough academic training elsewhere. The choice in those days was not
extended, and