He continued his teaching in Switzerland at Berne and at Neuenstadt, spending thirty hours a week in the classroom; then he did some journalistic work at Basel. In 1883 he married and soon after published _Extramundana_, in which he told, in verse, cosmic myths of the history of creation. A collection of his lyrics, _Butterflies_ (_Schmetterlinge_), excel in rhythm and love of nature. In 1891, he inherited a small fortune; from that time he was relieved from routine teaching and writing; he went to Lucerne where the scenic beauty increased his literary inspiration. He experimented in various forms--a series of essays known as _Laughing Truth_ (_Lachende Wahrheiten_), with irony and earnestness mingled, a prose idyl, _Gustav_, and a juvenile _Mädchenfeinde_, translated by Mme. la Vicomtesse Le Roquette-Buisson as _Two Little Misogynists_ (New York, 1922). There are clever illustrations by A. Helene Carter. This is an amusing tale, perhaps more appealing to adults than to children readers by its subtle wit and modern educational problems; but it is entertaining and lively. Two boys, aged ten and nine, Gerold and Hänsli, “fine, healthy boys,” are returning to a military school after a vacation. If only some great event might save them--a flood or earthquake or epidemic among the teachers, or “a declaration of war.” Their feelings towards the girls, Theresa and Marianelli, are natural and amusing. There is irony in the warning given to Gerold lest “he should think for himself,” a process that is both popular and unpatriotic, as many people consider. After the publication of some poems as _Balladen_ in 1905, Carl Spitteler wrote _Imago_, which he declared was “an explanation of Prometheus and Epimetheus--what really happened.” “Prometheus shows what a poet made of it.”[122] Autobiography, as in many of his books, reappears in the young man, Victor, the poet in _Imago_; in the discussion or analysis of Frau Doktor and German womanhood, the author has shown the _provincial_ attitude, in many conditions of life outside Germany as well as within. _Der olympische Frühling_, which is known by translation as _Olympian Spring_, was the mature expression of Spitteler as poet. It appeared from the press at intervals from 1900 to 1905. It has five parts, with more than thirty cantos, written in iambic couplets. Four lines, describing Apollo, from _Olympian Spring_, have been freely translated by Thekla E. Hodge: Threefold is thy royal crown of fame: Thou hast conceived it: that shows thy lofty aim. Thou hast dared it: that tells the hero’s valor. Thou hast achieved it: from thousands thou art chosen.