When I was but a little child, I had already a strong desire to see
the world. Whenever I met a travelling-carriage, I would stop
involuntarily, and gaze after it until it had disappeared; I used
even to envy the postilion, for I thought he also must have
accomplished the whole long journey.

As I grew to the age of from ten to twelve years, nothing gave me so
much pleasure as the perusal of voyages and travels. I ceased,
indeed, to envy the postilions, but envied the more every navigator
and naturalist.

Frequently my eyes would fill with tears when, having ascended a
mountain, I saw others towering before me, and could not gain the
summit.

I made several journeys with my parents, and, after my marriage,
with my husband; and only settled down when it became necessary that
my two boys should visit particular schools. My husband's affairs
demanded his entire attention, partly in Lemberg, partly in Vienna.
He therefore confided the education and culture of the two boys
entirely to my care; for he knew my firmness and perseverance in all
I undertook, and doubted not that I would be both father and mother
to his children.

When my sons' education had been completed, and I was living in
peaceful retirement, the dreams and aspirations of my youth
gradually awoke once more. I thought of strange manners and
customs, of distant regions, where a new sky would be above me, and
new ground beneath my feet. I pictured to myself the supreme
happiness of treading the land once hallowed by the presence of our