as the author of "The Israelites on Mount Horeb," a
didactic poem in English, and on his trip to the East he kept a Hebrew
journal, which can still be seen. His younger brother Gottschalk was a
distinguished physician, and occupied a position of high dignity in the
Jewish congregations in the duchies of Juelich and Berg. It is said that
he provided for the welfare of his brethren in faith "as a father
provides for his children." His only daughter Betty (Peierche) van
Geldern, urged by her family and in obedience to the promptings of her
own heart, married Samson Heine, and became the mother of the poet.
Heine himself has written much about his family,[95] particularly about
his mother's brother. Of his paternal grandfather, he knew only what
his father had told him, that he was "a little Jew with a great beard."
On the whole, his education was strictly religious, but it was tainted
with the deplorable inconsistency so frequently found in Jewish homes.
Themselves heedless of religious ceremonies, parents exact from their
children punctilious observance of minute regulations. Samson Heine was
one of the Jews often met with in the beginning of this century who,
lacking true culture, caught up some of the encyclopaedist phrases with
which the atmosphere of the period was heavy. Heine describes his
father's extraordinary buoyancy: "Always azure serenity and fanfares of
good humor." The reproach is characteristic which he addressed to his
son, when the latter was charged with atheism: "Dear son! Your mother is
having you instructed in philosophy by Rector Schallmeier--that is her
affair. As for me, I have no love for philosophy; it is nothing but
superstition. I am a merchant, and need all my faculties for my
business. You may philosophize as much as you please, only, I beg of
you, don't tell any one what you think. It would harm my business, were
people to discover that my son does not believe in God. Particularly the
Jews would stop buying velvets from me, and they are honest folk, and
pay promptly. And they are right in clinging to religion. Being your
father, therefore older than you, I am more experienced, and you may
take my word for it, atheism is a great sin."

Two instances related by Joseph Neunzig, one of his playmates, show how
rigorously Harry was compelled to observe religious forms in his
paternal home. On a Saturday the children were out walking, when
suddenly a fire broke out. The fire extinguishers came clatt