construct their house, which was laid out with design and finished with
much care. If he pushed his cane into the hill, there forthwith arose a
great revolution. The inhabitants rushed out upon him, nipped him with
their pincers, and showed the greatest rage against the invader of
their kingdom, while others with great celerity placed the eggs in
safety. He observed that the ants gave no quarter, and considered every
one a mortal enemy who disturbed their state.

The young man sat on a stone and examined a snail that crawled slowly
from the wet grass. It carried a gray house on its back, and beslimed
the way as it went, and stretched out its horns to discover the best
direction. Its delicate touch astonished Frank. When obstacles came in
its way which it did not see nor touch, it would perceive them by means
of a wonderful sensibility.

How stupid did Richard appear to himself, beside a horned, blind snail.
How many men only discover obstacles in their way when they have run
their heads against them, and how many wish to run their heads through
walls without any reason! He arose and looked toward Angela's home. He
was dejected, and heaved a sigh.

"All is of no avail. The activity of the animal world affords no
diversion, the benumbing strokes of materialism lose their effect. The
rare becomes common, and does not attract attention. There walks an
angel in the splendor of superior excellence, and I endeavor in vain to
distract my mind from her by studying the animals. I follow willingly
the professors' exact investigations, into the labyrinth of their
studied arguments to make it appear that I am only an animal, that all
our sentiment is only imagination and fallacy. It is all in vain. Can
these gentlemen teach me how we can cease to have admiration for the
noble and exalted? Here man forcibly breaks through. Here self,
irresistible and disgusted with error, brings the nobility of human
nature to consciousness, and all the wisdom of boasted materialism
becomes idle nonsense."

"Thank God! I see you again, my dear neighbor," said Siegwart
cordially. "Where have you kept yourself this last week? Why do you no
longer visit us? My whole house is excited about you. Henry is angry
because he cannot show you the horses he bought lately. My wife bothers
her head with all kinds of forebodings, and Angela urged me to send and
see if you were ill."

A new life permeated Frank's whole being at these last words; his
cheeks fl