50 HAECKEL 



combine philosophy with botany. Then he would 

 try to roam over the world as a practical botanist 

 and visit the far-off zones where Mother Earth 

 poured out her cornucopia of forms so generously. 



While still in the higher form at school he made 

 a preliminary visit to Jena. Everything seemed 

 so pleasant and charming. He made the journey 

 on foot. These long walks have always been his 

 pride — to start out like a travelling scholar, with 

 hardly anything in his pocket, to live on bread and 

 water, and sleep in the hay at night ; but to enjoy 

 to the full all the incomparable delights that the 

 great magician, nature, provides for the faithful 

 novice — scenery, beautiful orchids, thoughts of God, 

 Goethe, and the world. It was in 1849 that he 

 visited Jena. He has described it himself : '* After 

 I had reverently admired the Goethe-room in the 

 castle of Dornburg, I wandered, on a hot July day, 

 over the shady meadows to Jena, singing lustily 

 with my gay comrades. As I entered the venerable 

 old market-place I found a troop of lively students 

 in front of the Burgkeller, with coloured caps and 

 long pipes, singing, and drinking the famous Lich- 

 tenhain beer from wooden tankards. It made a 

 great impression on me, and as I took a tankard 

 with them I made up my mind that I would some 

 day be one of them." 



