point, the fountain head, whither my search was leading
me; and at once I began upon them with Hebrew and Arabic. I had a dim
idea of opening up a path through them to other Asiatic tongues,
particularly those of India[72] and Persia. I was powerfully stimulated
and attracted by what I had heard about the study of these languages,
then in its early youth--namely, the acknowledgment of a relationship
between Persian and German. Greek also attracted me in quite a special
way on account of its inner fulness, organisation, and regularity. My
whole time and energy were devoted to the two languages I have
named.[73] But I did not get far with Hebrew in spite of my genuine zeal
and my strict way with myself, because between the manner of looking at
a language congenial to my mind and the manner in which the elementary
lesson book presented it to me, lay a vast chasm which I could find no
means to bridge over. In the form in which language was offered to me, I
could find and see no means of making it a living study; and yet,
nevertheless, nothing would have drawn me from my linguistic studies had
I not been assured by educated men that these studies, especially my
work on Indian and Persian tongues, were in reality quite beside the
mark at which I aimed. Hebrew also was abandoned; but, on the other
hand, Greek irresistibly enthralled me, and nearly all my time and
energy were finally given to its study, with the help of the best books.

I was now free, happy, in good mental and bodily health and vigour, and
I gained peace within myself and without, through hard work, interrupted
only by an indisposition which kept me to my room for a few weeks. After
working all day alone, I used to walk out late in the evening, so that
at least I might receive a greeting from the friendly beams of the
setting sun. To invigorate my spirit as well as my bodily frame I would
walk on till near midnight in the beautiful neighbourhood which
surrounds Goettingen. The glittering starry sky harmonised well with my
thoughts, and a new object which appeared in the heavens at this time,
aroused my wonder in an especial degree. I knew but little of astronomy,
and the expected arrival of a large comet[74] was, therefore, quite
unknown to me; so that I found out the comet for myself, and that was a
source of special attraction. This object absorbed my contemplation in
those silent nights, and the thought of the all-embracing,
wide-spreading sphere of law and