AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE.
WHEN, in the year 1832, at Kalkhorst, a village in Mecklenburg-Schwerin, at the age of ten, I presented my father, as a Christmas gift, with a badly written Latin essay upon the principal events of the Trojan war and the adventures of Ulysses and Agamemnon, little did I think that, six-and-thirty years later, I should offer the public a work on the same subject, after having had the good fortune to see with my own eyes the scene of that war, and the country of the heroes whose names have been immortalized by Homer.
As soon as I had learnt to speak, my father related to me the great deeds of the Homeric heroes. I loved these stories; they enchanted me and transported me with the highest enthusiasm. The first impressions which a child receives abide with him during his whole life; and, though it was my lot, at the age of fourteen, to be apprenticed in the warehouse of E. Ludwig Holtz in the small town of Fürstenberg, in Mecklenburg, instead of following the scientific career for which I felt an extraordinary predisposition, I always retained the same love for the famous men of antiquity which I had conceived for them in my first childhood.
In the small shop where I was employed for five years and a half, first by Mr. Holtz and then by his successor, the excellent Mr. Th. Huckstädt, my occupation consisted in retailing herrings, butter, brandy, milk and salt, grinding potatoes for the still, sweeping the shop, and so forth. I only came into contact with the lower classes of society.
From five in the morning to eleven at night I was engaged in this work, and had not a moment free for study. Moreover I rapidly forgot the little that I had learnt in my childhood, but I did not lose the love of learning; indeed I never lost it, and, as long as I live, I shall never forget the evening when a drunken miller came into the shop. He was the son of a Protestant clergyman in a village near Teterow, and had almost concluded his studies at the Gymnasium when he was expelled on account of his bad conduct. To punish him for this, his father made him learn the trade of a miller. Dissatisfied with his lot, the young man gave himself up to drink, which however had not made him forget his Homer; for he recited to us about one hundred lines of the poet, observing the rhythmic cadence. Although I did not understand a word, the melodious speech made a deep impression upon me, and I wept bitter tears for my unhappy fate. Thrice I got him to repeat to me those god-like verses, paying him with three glasses of brandy, which I bought with the few pence that made up my whole fortune. From that moment I never ceased to pray God that by His grace I might yet have the happiness to learn Greek.
There seemed, however, no hope of my escaping from the sad and low position in which I found myself. And yet I was released from it as if by a miracle. In lifting a cask too heavy for me, I hurt my chest; I spat blood and was no longer able to work. In despair I went to Hamburg, where I succeeded in obtaining a situation as cabin-boy on board of a ship bound for La Guayra in Venezuela.[31]
On the 28th of November, 1841, we left Hamburg, but on the 12th of December we were shipwrecked in a fearful storm off the island of Texel. After innumerable dangers, the crew were saved. I regarded it as my destiny to remain in Holland, and resolved to go to Amsterdam and enlist as a soldier. But this could not be done as quickly as I had imagined, and the few florins, which I had collected as alms on the island of Texel and in Enkhuyzen, were soon spent in Amsterdam. As my means of living were entirely exhausted, I feigned illness and was taken into the hospital. From this terrible situation I was released by the kind ship-broker J. F. Wendt of Hamburg, who heard of my misfortune and sent me the proceeds of a small subscription which had been raised for me. He at the same time recommended me to the excellent Consul-General of the North German Confederation in Amsterdam, Mr. W. Hepner, who procured me a situation in the office of Mr. F. C. Quien.
In my new situation my work consisted in stamping bills of exchange and getting them cashed in the town, and in carrying letters to and from the post-office. This mechanical occupation suited me, for it left me time to think of my neglected education.
First of all I took pains to learn to write legibly, and then, in order to improve my position, I went on to the study of the modern languages. My annual salary amounted only to 800 francs (32l.), half of which I spent upon my studies; on the other half I lived, miserably enough to be sure. My lodging, which cost 8 francs a month, was a wretched garret without a fire, where I shivered with cold in winter and was scorched with the heat in summer; my breakfast consisted of rye-meal porridge, and my dinner never cost more than a penny farthing. But nothing spurs one on more to study than misery and the certain prospect of being able to release oneself from it by unremitting work. I applied myself with extraordinary diligence to the study of English. Necessity showed me a method which greatly facilitates the study of a language. This method consists in reading a great deal aloud, without making a translation; devoting one hour every day to writing essays upon subjects that interest one, correcting these under a teacher’s supervision, learning them by heart, and repeating in the next lesson what was corrected on the previous day. My memory was bad, since from my childhood it had not been exercised upon any object; but I made use of every moment, and even stole time for study. I never went on my errands, even in the rain, without having my book in my hand and learning something by heart; and I never waited at the post-office without reading. By such means I gradually strengthened my memory, and in half a year I had succeeded in acquiring a thorough knowledge of the English language. I then applied the same method to the study of French, the difficulties of which I overcame likewise in another six months. These persevering and excessive studies had in the course of one year strengthened my memory to such a degree that the study of Dutch, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese appeared very easy, and it did not take me more than six weeks to write each of these languages and to speak them fluently. But my passion for study caused me to neglect my mechanical occupation in the office, especially when I began to consider it beneath me. My principals would give me no promotion; they probably thought that a person who shows his incapacity for the business of a servant in an office is therefore quite worthless for any higher duties.
At last, through the intercession of my worthy friends, L. Stoll of Mannheim and Ballauff of Bremen, I had the good fortune to obtain a situation as correspondent and bookkeeper in the office of Messrs. B. H. Schröder and Co. in Amsterdam, who engaged me at a salary of 1200 francs (48l.); but when they saw my zeal, they paid me 2000 francs as an encouragement. This generosity, for which I shall ever be grateful to them, was in fact the foundation of my prosperity; for, as I thought that I could make myself still more useful by a knowledge of Russian, I set to work to learn that language also. But the only Russian books that I could procure were an old grammar, a lexicon, and a bad translation of Telemachus. In spite of all my inquiries I could not find a teacher of Russian, for no one in Amsterdam understood a word of the language: so I betook myself to study without a master, and, with the help of the grammar, I learnt the Russian letters and their pronunciation in a few days. Then, following my old method, I began to write short stories of my own composition and to learn them off by heart. As I had no one to correct my work, it was, no doubt, very bad indeed, but I tried at the same time to correct my faults by the practical exercise of learning Telemachus by heart. It occurred to me that I should make more progress if I had some one to whom I could relate the adventures of Telemachus; so I hired a poor Jew for 4 francs a week, who had to come every evening for two hours to listen to my Russian recitations, of which he did not understand a syllable.