suitable
successor. Fate was propitious to me once more. I found a young private
tutor with whom I had long been in friendly correspondence, and who had
all those qualities which were lacking in me. He was not only thoroughly
proficient in the grammar of his mother tongue (German), but also in the
grammar of the classical tongues; and, if I am not mistaken, in French
also. He had a knowledge of geography far beyond anything I could boast,
was acquainted with history, knew arithmetic, possessed some familiarity
with botany,--much greater, indeed, than I suspected. And what was worth
more than all this, he was full of vigour in mind, heart, and life.
Therefore the school was every way the gainer by my departure, so
greatly the gainer indeed, that from that time no further change has
been necessary. That same teacher still lives and works in that same
post.[58]

Before I begin a new chapter of my career, there are yet a few things
which need mention.

To know French was at that time the order of the day, and not to know it
stamped a man at once as of a very low degree of culture. To acquire a
knowledge of French, therefore, became one of my chief aims at the
moment. It was my good fortune to obtain instruction from an unrivalled
teacher of French, M. Perrault, a Frenchman by birth, who still, even
though an old man, diligently worked at the study of his mother tongue,
and who at the same time wrote and spoke German with elegance. I pursued
the study with ardour, taking two lessons a day, because I desired to
reach a certain proficiency by a given time. Slow, however, were my
steps, for I was far from having a sufficient knowledge of my own tongue
whereon to build a bridge that might carry me into French. I never could
properly acquire what I did not fully understand in such a way that it
had a living meaning for me; and so from all the genuine zeal and
considerable cost which I spent over this study I gained by no means a
corresponding result; but I did learn a good deal, much more even than I
then knew how to turn to account. My teacher cast on one side all the
usual grammatical difficulties of French study, he aimed at imparting
the language as a living thing. But I with my ignorance of language
could not completely follow this free method of teaching; and yet,
nevertheless, I felt that the teacher had fully grasped the meaning and
the method of his work, and I always enjoyed the lessons on this
account. He was especi