IN MEMORIAM. 



PEOF. PETER ENTtELMAN:^. 



ZY E. E. LELAND, ESQ., OF EAU GLAISE. 



Peter Engelmann was born on the 24th of January, 1823, and on the 17th of May, 

 1874, lie died, before he had completed his fifty-second year. The object of tliis 

 memoir is to give a slight sketcli of this existence which was so suddenly cut slxort 

 at the moment of bearing its best fruit. 



It is due to his memory that I sliould disclaim my fitne.ss for this task, whiclx 

 was only undertaken upon the as-surance that else it would remain undone. With- 

 out other quali.fjcation than the admiration and resp33t resulting from a rather lim- 

 ited acquaintance — with but meagre details of his life at my command, J shall at- 

 tempt no adequate biographical sketch, but simply try to declaie what the man was. 



His birthplace was the village of Argenthal, in Rhenish-Prus.sia. Ilis parents 

 were farmers, as were his elder brothers, and of him they desired to make a farmer 

 also; but in farm life he felt little interest even in boyhood, while, as soon as he 

 could read, he was hungry for books, and eager in his search of knowledge. But 

 social lines are drawn with rigor in Germany, and distinctions of caste observed al- 

 most as scrupuously as they are in India, and it was only through the intervention 

 of a fortunate circumstance that he was enabled to escape from the irksome pursuit 

 •of the plow and follow his natural bent for learning. The Protestant clergyman of 

 the village, and the superintendent, interested in the boy, on account of his rapid 

 progress under inferior instruction, pursuaded his parents to send him to a better 

 school. To this they finally consented, in the hope to see their son gain the pulpit — 

 than which they had for him no higher ambition — and he was sent to the '"Hochere 

 Buergenscliule" at Simmern. He went there from his ninth to his fifteenth year, 

 walking a distance of four miles each way every day. When he reached home 

 after his four-mile walk he had his " chores " to do, and then to get his lessons. 

 But he had energy and dilligence enough to overcome tliese disadvantages, and he 

 received the highest certificates as to his proficiency. 



At this time he had no other aim than to gratify the pious ambition of his parents; 



but this was not to remain the case very long. In J838 he was — thanks to the aid 



of his teachers at Simmer, of whom he always spoke with tenderness and gratitude 



— fitted to be received in the secunda of the gymnasium, at Kreuznach. It was 



vwhile here, although all his surroundings were calculated to impress his mind with 



