ARTILLERY AND ENGINEERING SCHOOL. 25 



The three years, which from the autumn of 1835 

 to the summer of 1838 I spent at the Berlin Artillery 

 and Engineering School. I reckon to the happiest of 

 my life. The sociable life with young people of the 

 same age and with the same aims, the common study 

 under the guidance of able teachers, of whom I will 

 only name the mathematician Ohm. the physicist 

 Magnus, and the chemist Erdmann. whose instruction 

 opened to me a world new and full of interest, 

 made this time one of extraordinary enjoyment. In 

 addition to that. I found in one of the comrades 

 of my brigade, William Meyer, a real friend, with 

 whom till his death I was united by the bond of 

 the closest and completest friendship. I had before at 

 the Ltibeck grammar-school entered on the first stage 

 of such an intimate friendly alliance, and imagined 

 I had found in a fellow pupil a genuine friend, but 

 on calling upon him one day he gave orders to say he 

 was not at home, although I was perfectly sure that 

 he was in the house and concealing himself from me. 

 That appeared to me such an unpardonable breach of 

 proper friendship, that I severed the tie with intense 

 pain, and could never again bring myself to treat him 

 as a friend. 



William Meyer I got to know when the horse- 

 artillery was stationed at Burg, whither he had been 

 ordered before me. He had a far from imposing 

 figure, was in no respect distinguished or talented, 

 possessed however a clear understanding, and pleased 

 me from the first by his straightforward unaffected 



