GOETHE AT TEGEL. 9 



Or tliej threw aside their books, and ran off by them- 

 selves, like the children they were, and romped and 

 played to their hearts' content. This kept the roses of 

 health in their cheeks (Alexander's as yet were delicate 

 buds), and enabled them to 



"bear their weiofht 

 Of learning lightly, like a flower." 



But for this it might have been a nightshade of deadly 

 power. Besides, their life was diversified by the coming 

 and going of visitors : for their father was hospitable, 

 and the castle was always open to his friends. Retiring 

 from the world with honor, the world sought him, in 

 the shape of its princes, statesmen, and scholars, to say 

 nothing of generals, colonels, and the like, his old com- 

 panions in arms. Among other celebrities who enjoyed 

 the hospitalities of Tegel was Goethe, who accompanying 

 Duke Karl August to Berlin in May 1778, to see a grand 

 review, strolled over Schonhausen one morning and 

 dined at the castle, with the Major and his family. 

 Little did the man of thirty know that he saw in the 

 boy of nine, one who was destined to accomplish as 

 much in Science, as he himself in Literature. But the 

 time came when he knew him, and admired him, none 

 more warmly. 



Among the most frequent of the visitors at the castle 

 was Dr. Ernst Ludwig Heim, of Spandau, who, having 

 attended the now officially-defunct head-ranger. Von 

 Burgsdorf, continued his visits, medical and friendly, to 

 nis sucjsessor, Major Yon Humboldt. And the major 

 stood in need of his services, for his health, which had 



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