32 EAST PRUSSIA TO THE GOLDEN GATE 



run the graves, leaving a walk of about five feet in width 

 between them. The whole offers the thoughtful visitor 

 a fit subject for meditation. The two rows of graves have 

 been converted into beautiful flower-beds, while the cen- 

 ter of this sad, silent spot has been laid out for a lawn. 

 Words cannot describe the impression which this ever 

 sorrow-inspiring place left upon me. Step by step I wan- 

 dered from grave to grave, from cross to cross, every one 

 of which was covered with fresh wreaths. Beautiful ivy 

 bowers, as thickly grown as I had never seen them be- 

 fore, had risen from the graves of those whose noble deeds 

 will ever live in the hearts of freedom-loving men. Be it 

 then said to the honor and credit of the Berlin people 

 that they have set a monument to the memory of those 

 who died for their convictions, which is likewise a tribute 

 to the piety of the living. They cared for these, their 

 dead, so beautifully, that this act alone has reconciled 

 me to a great extent with Berlin-at-large. The evening 

 was very mild. I sat long upon one of those graves and 

 saw the sun slowly disappear from my horizon. Strange 

 were the visions which entranced me. It seemed to me 

 that the departing rays of the sun were only too anxious 

 to hasten away from the mass of cold houses of Berlin, 

 while they hovered gladly over the silent crosses along- 

 side of me in apparent search of a moment's rest. 



My dreams and my feelings of that hour I am unable to 

 describe; they were undefinable. At last I arose. The 

 bluish fog had already commenced to overspread the end- 

 less plain, and the approaching darkness reminded me 

 that it was time to seek my temporary quarters. Of all 

 the beautiful tombstone inscriptions I remember but one: 

 "Peace be to his spirit!" I shall never forget it. How 

 many thousands have visited this spot without reading 

 these inspiring words and how many, reading them, un- 

 derstood their significance ? I shall never wish for a more 

 beautiful, more spiritual, more soulful epitaph!* 



*Consider, that you are reading - the letter of a youth, addressed 

 to his parents and admire with me the purity of a heart and a 



