At the laying of the corner stone, on the eighteenth of October, 1854, Lepsius made an admirable speech, from which we shall give some extracts later on. This was of course the occasion of a festal celebration, and friend Abeken composed the following sonnet for it: “Within the ground all life doth first have birth, Richly the tree unfolds its leafy pride, Yet in the earth’s dark night its germ must hide, And downward still the root strikes into earth. And that this house may reach its highest worth, The master now, with wisdom for his guide, In the firm soil lays the foundations wide, That he may bind it firmly with the earth. Yet is there _one_ firm ground where build we must, On which our house’s peace we gladly found, That still its sacred hearth with joy be filled; This is fixed faith in God and happy trust, With which forever love and hope are bound, And thus a temple with the house we build.” Lepsius had intentionally caused the corner stone to be laid where the living room of the mistress of the house was afterwards to be raised, and in his dedicatory speech he explained his motives for this in beautiful words. The house when finished had a fine and stately appearance, with its Gothic arches over doors and windows, its battlements on tower and roof, its handsome entrance, its covered piazza on the ground floor, and open balcony on the upper story, and its inscriptions in carved stone. When it was ready for habitation, Abeken, the former divine, added the following second sonnet to the first: That here the temple with the house should blend On the foundation stone we wrote, and lo! Sank it far underfoot, that even so The darkling earth its strength to us might lend. Yet must from Heaven the mighty power descend That upward bids the earthly germ to grow, And Life and Love must still from Heaven flow, The sacred fire on the hearth to tend. Therefore we lift our hands and hearts to Heaven, And humbly here its blessing we await, Praying for peace and safety as is due, That Love and Light and Spirit may be given Our handiwork henceforth to consecrate, That this the home may be a temple true! On the twelfth of July, 1856, Lepsius with his own hand wrote the following maxims in a new diary of his wife’s. God’s peace from Heaven To this house be given. Unless God’s grace we gain Our building is in vain. Within this little book be you To these, our house’s mottoes, true.