86 <THE EETROSPECT OF THE YEAR. 



bis mother was well educated, and from her he inherited 

 all his finer qiialities, while from his father was due the less 

 desirable side of his character. He touched lipon his 

 school life at a convent, telling several anecdotes of his 

 difficulty with irregulär verbs and other boyish perplexities. 



His early life was much inflnenced by the power of Na- 

 poleon, then at its height. His whole life was greatly 

 dominated by the French point of view, and in this con- 

 nection he touched upon his song "The Two Grenadiers," 

 so beautifully set to music by Schumann. At this point 

 he dwelt at length on the inadequacy of translators to do 

 him justice, and the general bad piece of work they made 

 of it, but added that after all even a poor translation is bet- 

 ter than none. 



On leaving school at sixteen he went into a banker's 

 Office, but through the kindness of a wealthy uncle was 

 sent to College to become a lawyer. He attended the 

 universities of Bonn, Gottingen and Berlin, doing but little 

 real study, although in 1825 he took his degree and at the 

 sametime was baptized a Christianas a necessary meansfor 

 his practising his profession ; this act subjected him to 

 severe criticism by both Jew and Christian, his friends and 

 his enemies, and placed him in a most unfortunate Situation. 

 During his residence in Berlin he occupied a strong posi- 

 tion socially both among the Jewsandthe others as a liter- 

 ary genius. One of the phases of his life was his engagement 

 to a Cousin who, during his university career, married 

 another man and in so doing deeply affected his sensitive 

 nature. 



His keen wit was shown in several illustrations, one 

 of the best being his description of his old coUege town 

 of Gottingen, which was a satire of phariseeism and lit- 

 tleness, and another his handling of a certain College pro- 

 fessor who railed at Napoleon. 



