50 HAECKEL 



combine philosophy with botany. Then he would 

 try to roam over the world as a practical botanist 

 and visit the far-off zones where Mother Earth 

 poured out her cornucopia of forms so generously. 



While still in the higher form at school he made 

 a preliminary visit to Jena. Everything seemed 

 so pleasant and charming. He made the journey 

 on foot. These long walks have always been his 

 pride to start out like a travelling scholar, with 

 hardly anything in his pocket, to live on bread and 

 water, and sleep in the hay at night ; but to enjoy 

 to the full all the incomparable delights that the 

 great magician, nature, provides for the faithful 

 novice scenery, beautiful orchids, thoughts of God, 

 Goethe, and the world. It was in 1849 that he 

 visited Jena. He has described it himself : " After 

 I had reverently admired the Goethe-room in the 

 castle of Dornburg, I wandered, on a hot July day, 

 over the shady meadows to Jena, singing lustily 

 with my gay comrades. As I entered the venerable 

 old market-place I found a troop of lively students 

 in front of the Burgkeller, with coloured caps and 

 long pipes, singing, and drinking the famous Lich- 

 tenhain beer from wooden tankards. It made a 

 great impression on me, and as I took a tankard 

 with them I made up my mind that I would some 

 day be one of them." 



