put themselves and their families at the mercy of a problematical future;
and when, in advanced years, they undertook the gigantic work of
compiling so large and profound a German dictionary. Jakob looked as if
nothing could bend him;

Wilhelm as if, though equally strong, he might yield out of love.

And what a fascinating, I might almost say childlike, amiability was
united to manliness in both characters! Yes, theirs was indeed that
sublime simplicity which genius has in common with the children whom the
Saviour called to him. It spoke from the eyes whose gaze was so
searching, and echoed in their language which so easily mastered
difficult things, though when they condescended to play with their
children and with us, and jested so naively, we were half tempted to
think ourselves the wiser.

But we knew with what intellectual giants we had to do; no one had needed
to tell us that, at least; and when they called me to them I felt as if
the king himself had honoured me.

Only Wilhelm was married, and his wife had hardly her equal for sunny and
simple kindness of heart. A pleasanter, more motherly, sweeter matron I
never met.

Hermann, who won good rank as a poet, and was one of the very foremost of
our aesthetics, was much older than we. The tall young man, who often
walked as if he were absorbed in thought, seemed to us a peculiar and
unapproachable person. His younger brother, Rudolf, on the other hand,
was a cheery fellow, whose beauty and brightness charmed me unspeakably.
When he came along with elastic tread as if he were challenging life to a