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'kirch? The good Gretchen, for all her fretting, 'watched over him and hovered round him, as only a true housemother can assiduously she cooked and 'sewed and scoured for him; so that not only his old ' regimental sword and grenadier-cap, but the whole 'habitation and environment, where on pegs of honour they hung, looked ever trim and gay: a roomy painted Cottage, embowered in fruit-trees and forest-trees, evergreens and honeysuckles; rising many-coloured from ' amid shaven grass-plots, flowers struggling in through 'the very windows; under its long projecting eaves 'nothing but garden-tools in methodic piles (to screen 'them from rain), and seats, where, especially on sum'mer nights, a King might have wished to sit and 'smoke, and call it his. Such a Bauergut (Copyhold) 'had Gretchen given her veteran; whose sinewy arms, ' and long-disused gardening talent, had made it what 'you saw.

'Into this umbrageous Man's-nest, one meek yellow ' evening or dusk, when the Sun, hidden indeed from 'terrestrial Entepfuhl, did nevertheless journey visible ' and radiant along the celestial Balance (Libra), it was 'that a Stranger of reverend aspect entered; and, with grave salutation, stood before the two rather astonished 'housemates. He was close-muffled in a wide mantle; 'which without farther parley unfolding, he deposited 'therefrom what seemed some Basket, overhung with green Persian silk; saying only: Ihr lieben Leute, hier bringe ein unschätzbares Verleihen; nehmt es in 'aller Acht, sorgfältigst benützt es: mit hohem Lohn, oder wohl mit schwerem Zinsen, wird's einst zurück'gefordert, "Good Christian people, here lies for you

an invaluable Loan; take all heed thereof, in all 'carefulness employ it: with high recompense, or else ' with heavy penalty, will it one day be required back." Uttering which singular words, in a clear, bell-like, ' for ever memorable tone, the Stranger gracefully with'drew; and before Andreas or his wife gazing in expectant wonder, had time to fashion either question or answer, was clean gone. Neither out of doors could aught of him be seen or heard; he had vanished in the thickets, in the dusk; the Orchard-gate stood quietly closed the Stranger was gone once and always. So 'sudden had the whole transaction been, in the autumn 'stillness and twilight, so gentle, noiseless, that the Fut'terals could have fancied it all a trick of Imagination, or some visit from an authentic Spirit. Only that the green silk Basket, such as neither Imagination nor 'authentic Spirits are wont to carry, still stood visible and tangible on their little parlour-table. Towards 'this the astonished couple, now with lit candle, hastily ' turned their attention. Lifting the green veil, to see 'what invaluable it hid, they descried there, amid down ' and rich white wrappages, no Pitt Diamond or Haps'burg Regalia, but in the softest sleep, a little red'coloured Infant! Beside it, lay a roll of gold Fried'richs, the exact amount of which was never publicly known; also a Taufschein (baptismal certificate), wherein unfortunately nothing but the Name was 'decipherable; other document or indication none whatever.

To wonder and conjecture was unavailing, then and 'always thenceforth. Nowhere in Entepfuhl, on the morrow or next day, did tidings transpire of any such

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figure as the Stranger; nor could the Traveller, who ' had passed through the neighbouring Town in coachand-four, be connected with this Apparition, except in 'the way of gratuitous surmise. Meanwhile, for An'dreas and his wife, the grand practical problem was : 'What to do with this little sleeping red-coloured In'fant? Amid amazements and curiosities, which had 'to die away without external satisfying, they resolved, as in such circumstances charitable prudent people 'needs must, on nursing it, though with spoon-meat, into whiteness, and if possible into manhood. The 'Heavens smiled on their endeavour thus has that same mysterious Individual ever since had a status for him'self, in this visible Universe, some modicum of victual and lodging and parade-ground; and now expanded ' in bulk, faculty, and knowledge of good and evil, he, 'as HERR DIOGENES TEUFELSDRÖCKн, professes or is 'ready to profess, perhaps not altogether without effect, in the new University of Weissnichtwo, the 'Science of Things in General.'

Our Philosopher declares here, as indeed we should think he well might, that these facts, first communicated, by the good Gretchen Futteral, in his twelfth year, ' produced on the boyish heart and fancy a quite inde'lible impression. Who this reverend Personage,' he says, that glided into the Orchard Cottage when the 'Sun was in Libra, and then, as on spirit's wings, 'glided out again, might be? An inexpressible desire, 'full of love and of sadness, has often since struggled 'within me to shape an answer. Ever, in my distresses and my loneliness, has Fantasy turned, full of longing '(sehnsuchtsvoll), to that unknown Father, who per

'haps far from me, perhaps near, either way invisible, 'might have taken me to his paternal bosom, there to lie 'screened from many a woe. Thou beloved Father, 'dost thou still, shut out from me only by thin penetrable 'curtains of earthly Space, wend to and fro among the 'crowd of the living? Or art thou hidden by those far 'thicker curtains of the Everlasting Night, or rather of 'the Everlasting Day, through which my mortal eye ' and outstretched arms need not strive to reach ? 'Alas! I know not, and in vain vex myself to know. 'More than once, heart-deluded, have I taken for thee this and the other noble-looking Stranger; and ap'proached him wistfully, with infinite regard: but he 'too must repel me, he too was not thou.

'And yet, O Man born of Woman,' cries the Autobiographer, with one of his sudden whirls, wherein is my case peculiar? Hadst thou, any more than I, a Father whom thou knowest ? The Andreas and Gretchen, or the Adam and Eve, who led thee into Life, and for a time suckled and pap-fed thee there, 'whom thou namest Father and Mother; these were, ' like mine, but thy nursing-father and nursing-mother:

thy true Beginning and Father is in Heaven, whom 'with the bodily eye thou shalt never behold, but only ' with the spiritual.'

'The little green veil,' adds he, among much similar moralising, and embroiled discoursing, I yet keep; 'still more inseparably the Name, Diogenes Teufels'dröckh. From the veil can nothing be inferred a 'piece of now quite faded Persian silk, like thousands ' of others. On the Name I have many times medi'tated and conjectured; but neither in this lay there

any clue. That it was my unknown Father's name I 'must hesitate to believe. To no purpose have I 'searched through all the Herald's Books, in and without the German Empire, and through all manner of 'Subscriber-Lists (Pränumeranten), Militia-Rolls, and other Name-catalogues; extraordinary names as we ' have in Germany, the name Teufelsdröckh, except as appended to my own person, nowhere occurs. Again, 'what may the unchristian rather than Christian "Dio'genes" mean? Did that reverend Basket-bearer intend, by such designation, to shadow forth my future destiny, or his own present malign humour? Perhaps the latter, perhaps both. Thou ill-starred 'Parent, who like an Ostrich must leave thy ill-starred offspring to be hatched into self-support by the mere sky-influences of Chance, can thy pilgrimage have 'been a smooth one? Beset by Misfortune thou doubt'less hast been; or indeed by the worst figure of Misfor'tune, by Misconduct. Often have I fancied how, in thy hard life-battle, thou wert shot at and slung at, ' wounded, hand-fettered, hamstrung, browbeaten and bedevilled, by the Time-Spirit (Zeitgeist) in thyself ' and others, till the good soul first given thee was seared into grim rage; and thou hadst nothing for it but to leave in me an indignant appeal to the Future, and living speaking Protest against the Devil, as that same Spirit not of the Time only, but of Time itself, is well ' named ! Which Appeal and Protest, may I now mo

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'destly add, was not perhaps quite lost in air.

'For indeed as Walter Shandy often insisted, there 'is much, nay almost all, in Names. The name is the ' earliest Garment you wrap round the Earth-visiting