LETTER TO HIS FATHER. 67 



the greatest service to our people, and it is on 

 this account that I desire farther details that 

 I may think it over carefully. Tell me, also, 

 in what way you propose to distribute your 

 libraries at small expense, and how large they 

 are to be. . . . 



I could not be more satisfied than I am with 

 my stay here. I lead a monotonous but an 

 exceedingly pleasant life, withdrawn from the 

 crowd of students and seeing them but little. 

 When our lectures are over we meet in the 

 evening at Braun's room or mine, with three 

 or four intimate acquaintances, and talk of 

 scientific matters, each one in his turn present- 

 ing a subject which is first developed by him, 

 and then discussed by all. These exercises 

 are very instructive. As my share, I have 

 begun to give a course of natural history, or 

 rather of pure zoology. Braun talks to us of 

 botany, and another of our company, Mahir, 

 who is an excellent fellow, teaches us mathe- 

 matics and physics in his turn. In two 

 months our friend Schimper, whom we left at 

 Heidelberg, will join us, and he will then be 

 our professor of philosophy. Thus we shall 

 form a little university, instructing each other 

 and at the same time learning what we teach 

 more thoroughly because we shall be obliged 



