After a brief visit to Nuremburg with my Mother and Fraulein Elise, 

 we started for London, there to take ship for New York. To both of 

 us, the bidding farewell to Heidelberg was a severe wrench, especially 

 to my Mother, who felt, only too prophetically, that she could never 

 return. Though rejoicing in the prospect of getting home again after 

 two years' absence and though feeling assured that I should soon be 

 back in Germany, I hated to leave, for such experiences as I had had 

 could never be renewed or repeated. We left Heidelberg on September 

 8 and sailed from London a week later on the S. S. Canada of the Na- 

 tional Line, a most uncomfortable ship, and we had a long, slow, rough 

 voyage, for she was very light and rolled hke an empty cask. The 

 passengers were of the usual mixed sort, a few delightful people and 

 a lot of the kind that makes one wonder where they keep themselves 

 when ashore; one never meets them except at sea. The redeeming 

 feature of that dreary voyage was Captain Healey, the master of the 

 ship, though we seldom saw him, except at table. He was a hearty, 

 genial soul and a magnificent body, fitly topped by a fine bearded head, 

 worthy of Olympian Zeus. 



Before taking up the tale of my professional career, it will be con- 

 venient to give a summary of the impressions made on me by my first 

 year in Germany. That residence was not very long, only about a year 

 and a quarter, but it counted for more than so short a period ordi- 

 narily would, for I associated almost exclusively with Germans, steeped 

 myself in the language, devoting my scanty leisure to reading German 

 newspapers, periodicals and books and attending the theatre, whenever 

 I got a chance. My experiences brought me into contact with all sorts 

 of people, from the nobility to the poorest labourers. Letters and diaries 

 enable me to avoid mixing later experiences and dislikes with those of 

 1 879-1 880. 



It was the fame of the universities that took me to Germany. In 

 those days, not to have studied in Germany was to confess oneself un- 

 prepared for the higher kinds of work in one's own field. Few in this 

 country then understood the advantages which England had to offer, 

 while, in the natural sciences, there was little to be got in France. 

 Germany, on the other hand, was at the zenith of her intellectual glory 

 and the lamentable decline, which set in later, had not yet begun to 

 manifest itself, a decline which the Germans themselves admitted. 



Dean Fine, who had been a pupil of Klein's in Gottingen, told me 

 of an enlightening experience. One evening in the Seminar, no one felt 

 inclined to work and general conversation took the place of mathe- 



C 126 ] 



