88 



which at such a distance can be said." (Manuscript 

 letters which the King very lately bought in Prussia.) 



My family comes from Eastern Pomerania. My 

 brother and I were for a long time the last of our 

 name. My mother was a Colomb, cousin of Princess 

 Bliicher, and consequently niece to the old President 

 in Aurich (East Friesland). Her first husband was 

 a Baron Holwede. By this marriage she had my 

 half-brother Holwede, late of the Gensdarmes regi- 

 ment. My mother had the credit of having, at the 

 instigation of old Privy Councillor Kunth, given 

 us an extremely careful education. Wilhelm, in his 

 earliest years, was brought up under Campe,* then our 

 private tutor. The foundation for his profound know- 

 ledge of Greek was laid by Loffler, the liberal-minded 

 author of a work on the Neo-Platonism of the early 

 Church Fathers, then Chaplain to the Regiment 

 of Gensdarmes, and afterwards Chief Consistorial 

 Chancellor at Gotha. After Loffler, Fischer of the 

 Grey Friarsf taught Wilhelm Greek for some years, 

 a man who, although it was not generally known, 

 besides mathematics had a considerable knowledge 

 of Greek. That Engel, Eeitemeier, Dohm, and Klein 

 for a long time delivered to us lectures on philo- 

 sophy, jurisprudence, and politics you already know. 

 Whilst at the University in Frankfort, j for six months, 

 we lived with Loffler, who was a Professor there. In 

 Gottingen we both for a year frequented Heyne's 

 philological lectures. 



My father was the proprietor of Tegel (formerly a 



* The well-known pedagogue, afterwards a bookseller at Braunschweig. 

 TR. 



t The oldest of the six colleges in Berlin. TR. 



I On the Oder. Tit. 



