THE STORY OF MY LIFE FROM CHILDHOOD TO MANHOOD

THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF GEORG EBERS, Complete



Volume 1.



Translated from the German by Mary J. Safford



TO MY SONS.

When I began the incidents of yore,
Still in my soul's depths treasured, to record,
A voice within said: Soon, life's journey o'er,
Thy portrait sole remembrance will afford.

And, ere the last hour also strikes for thee,
Search thou the harvest of the vanished years.
Not futile was thy toil, if thou canst see
That for thy sons fruit from one seed appears.

Upon the course of thine own life look back,
Follow thy struggles upwards to the light;
Methinks thy errors will not seem so black,
If they thy loved ones serve to guide aright.