Nor did he by any means forget grammar, but in explaining the classics he always laid most stress upon the contents, and every lesson of his was a clever archaeological, aesthetic, and historical lecture.  I listened to none more instructive at the university.  Philological and linguistic details which were not suited for the senior pupils who were being fitted for other callings than those of the philologist were omitted.  But he insisted upon grammatical correctness, and never lost sight of his maxim, “The school should teach its pupils to do thoroughly whatever they do at all.”

He urged us especially to think for ourselves, and to express our ideas clearly and attractively, not only in writing but verbally.

It seemed as though a spring breeze had melted the snow from the land, such bourgeoning and blossoming appeared throughout the school.

Creative work was done by fits and starts.  If the demon seized upon me, I raved about for a time as before, but I did my duty for the principal.  I not only honoured but loved him, and censure from his lips would have been unbearable.

The poem which I was to read on the king’s birthday has been preserved, and as I glanced over it recently I could not help smiling.

It was to describe the life of Henry the Fowler, and refer to the reigning king, Frederick William IV.

The praise of my hero had come from my heart, so the poem found favour, and in circles so wide that the most prominent man in the neighbourhood, Prince Puckler-Muskau, sent for my verses.

I was perfectly aware that they did not represent my best work, but what father does not find something to admire in his child?  So I copied them neatly, and gave them to Billy, the dwarf, the prince’s factotum.  A short time after, while I was walking with some friends in Branitz Park, the prince summoned me, and greeted me with the exclamation, “You are a poet!”

These four words haunted me a long while; nay, at times they even echo in my memory now.  I had heard a hundred anecdotes of this prince, which could not fail to charm a youth of my disposition.  When a young officer of the Garde-du-Corps in Dresden, after having been intentionally omitted from the invitations to a court-ball, he hired all the public conveyances in the city, thus compelling most of the gentlemen and ladies who were invited either to wade through the snow or forego the dance.

When the war of 1813 began he entered the service of “the liberators,” as the Russians were then called, and at the head of his regiment challenged the colonel of a French one to a duel, and seriously wounded him.

It was apparently natural to Prince Puckler to live according to his own pleasure, undisturbed by the opinions of his fellow-men, and this pleasure urged him to pursue a different course in almost every phase of life.  I said “apparently,” because, although he scorned the censure of the people, he never lost sight of it.  From a child his intense vanity was almost a passion, and unfortunately this constant looking about him, the necessity of being seen, prevented him from properly developing an intellect capable of far higher things; yet there was nothing petty in his character.