PROFESSOR AT KONIGSBERG 127 



ever sacrificed her health and energies to her dear ones. We 

 can only take comfort in remembering that she spent the 

 last years of her life in a comparatively peaceful if not too 

 happy state, and was taken from us to her reward by a quick 

 and painless death/ 



The aged father, bereaved of his faithful companion, was left 

 with two daughters and a son. 



His eldest daughter, Marie, born on July 16, 1823, who was 

 the more attractive, and intellectually the more gifted of the 

 two sisters, gave promise of being a clever artist, but had to 

 forgo the exercise of her undoubted talent on account of 

 her eyesight. Her wish to make use of her talents led her 

 at a later time to seek an independent sphere. She went 

 to Russia with the family of Count Bareschnikow, and never 

 returned to her own country. She died at Federowska in 

 Smolensk, of a nervous fever, on December 17, 1867. The 

 sunny charm of her personality was a sacred memory to her 

 famous brother. 



The younger daughter, Julie, born September 2, 1827, re- 

 mained at Potsdam to take care of her father. In spite of much 

 ill health she devoted her whole life to others with fidelity 

 and self-sacrifice. The happiest times she knew, though they 

 occurred at long intervals, of years sometimes, were spent 

 in the house of her brother Hermann, sharing in the develop- 

 ment of his richly gifted life. She died after much suffering 

 from an attack of apoplexy on July 21, 1894. 



The second son, Otto, born on January 27, 1834, was at the 

 time of his mother's death attending the Industrial Institute 

 in Berlin, where he had been since he left the Gymnasium 

 at Potsdam, with the intention of becoming an engineer (sorely 

 against the wish of his father and teachers, whose prejudices 

 were very generally shared in those days, but with the full 

 approval of his brother Hermann). His brother writes to him : 

 'As to the dispute about " trade" and "not trade", it is obvious 

 from your accounts that you do not see the thing in such a 

 light that I need enroll myself on the side of R. and his learned 

 contempt for these low employments. The value of work 

 depends not upon the material handled, whether in inorganic 

 things or in mental products, but upon the amount of intel- 

 lectual energy that is put into it ; and on whether the work 



