How we met in Wildbad my never-to-be-forgotten friend the Stuttgart publisher, Eduard von Hallberger; how he laid hands upon my Egyptian Princess; and how the fate of this book and its author led through joy and sorrow, pleasure and pain, I hope, ere my last hour strikes, to communicate to my family and the friends my life and writings have gained.
When I left Berlin, so far recovered that I could again move freely, I was a mature man. The period of development lay behind me. Though the education of an aspiring man ends only with his last breath, the commencement of my labours as a teacher outwardly closed mine, and an important goal in life lay before me. A cruel period of probation, rich in suffering and deprivations, had made the once careless youth familiar with the serious side of existence, and taught him to control himself.
After once recognizing that progress in the department of investigation in which I intended to guide others demanded the devotion of all my powers, I succeeded in silencing the ceaseless longing for fresh creations of romance. The completion of a second long novel would have imperilled the unity with myself which I was striving to attain, and which had been represented to me by the noblest of my instructors as my highest goal in life. So I remained steadfast, although the great success of my first work rendered it very difficult. Temptations of every kind, even in the form of brilliant offers from the most prominent German publishers, assailed me, but I resisted, until at the end of half a lifetime I could venture to say that I was approaching my goal, and that it was now time to grant the muse what I had so long denied. Thus, that portion of my nature which was probably originally the stronger was permitted to have its life. During long days of suffering romance was again a kind and powerful comforter.
Severe suffering had not succeeded in stifling the cheerful spirit of the boy and the youth; it did not desert me in manhood. When the sky of my life was darkened by the blackest clouds it appeared amid the gloom like a radiant star announcing brighter days; and if I were to name the powers by whose aid I have again and again dispelled even the heaviest clouds which threatened to overshadow my happiness in existence, they must be called gratitude, earnest work, and the motto of blind old Langethal, “Love united with the strife for truth.”
THE END.
ETEXT EDITOR’S BOOKMARKS FOR THE ENTIRE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF EBERS:
A word at the right time and place
Appreciation of trifles
Carpe diem
Child is naturally egotistical
Child cannot distinguish between what is amusing and what is sad
Coach moved by electricity
Confucius’s command not to love our fellow-men but to respect
Deserve the gratitude of my people, though it should be denied
Do thoroughly whatever they do at all
Full as an egg
Half-comprehended catchwords serve as a banner
Hanging the last king with the guts of the last priest
Hollow of the hand, Diogenes’s drinking-cup
How effective a consolation man possesses in gratitude
I approve of such foolhardiness
I plead with voice and pen in behalf of fairy tales
Life is valued so much less by the young
Life is the fairest fairy tale (Anderson)
Loved himself too much to give his whole affection to any one
Men studying for their own benefit, not the teacher’s
Nobody was allowed to be perfectly idle
Phrase and idea “philosophy of religion” as an absurdity
Readers often like best what is most incredible
Required courage to be cowardly
Scorned the censure of the people, he never lost sight of it
Smell most powerful of all the senses in awakening memory
The carp served on Christmas eve in every Berlin family
To be happy, one must forget what cannot be altered
Unjust to injure and rob the child for the benefit of the man
What father does not find something to admire in his child
When you want to strike me again, mother, please take off