SCHOOL -STUDIES. 17 



extremely defective and did not satisfy me ; in this 

 subject I was put into a higher class, although up 

 to that time I had only worked at Mathematics by 

 myself, as neither of my tutors knew anything of 

 it. The ancient languages on the other hand gave me 

 a great deal of trouble, through lack of thorough 

 grounding. Much as the study of the Classics interested 

 and excited me, the acquisition of the grammatical 

 rules, which offered no material for thought and 



o 



positive knowledge, was distasteful to me. In the 

 two following years I conscientiously worked myself 

 up to the highest form, perceived however, that I 

 should never find satisfaction in the study of ancient 

 languages, and resolved to devote myself to architecture, * 

 at that time the only technical branch. Accordingly 

 in the fifth form I dropped the study of Greek, and 

 took instead private lessons in Mathematics and land- 

 surveying, in order to prepare myself for entrance 

 into the Academy of Architecture at Berlin. On further 

 inquiry, however, it unhappily appeared that the course 

 at the Academy was too expensive, (at a time of ever- 

 increasing difficulty for the cultivators of the soil, 

 when the selling price of wheat was a florin per bushel) 

 to allow of my imposing so great a sacrifice upon my 

 parents, having regard to the interests of my younger 

 brothers and sisters. 



- In these straits I found relief in the advice of 

 my preceptor in land-surveying, Freiherr von Billzings- 

 lowen, lieutenant in the Li'ibeck contingent, who had 

 formerly served in the Prussian artillery. He advised 



UNIVERSITY 



