My craving for knowledge, always strong, became inordinate, probably
because the acquisition of it was made so fascinating that I learned
without real exertion. I began to find limits even to my father’s
erudition, and chafed under them. He reviewed his Greek that he might
impart it to us, as he had long before taught us Latin, and together we
all three studied Spanish and Italian. I was not satisfied, for my
desire for the one thing my father was unable to teach was not appeased
by the twenty which he could. I begged for regular tuition, and,
indulgent as he always was, he took us to Heidelberg, where I was
enrolled in the gymnasium. Yet the long hours of separation that this
entailed made little difference in our relations, since except for
these we were inseparable. Whenever my school-work left us time to quit
Heidelberg we made walking tours, and we availed ourselves of the
summer holiday to see far-away lands. The great libraries were our
chief goals, but everything interested us, from the archaic plough we
saw in the field to the masterpiece of the gallery. I do not know
whether I was dull for my years, but I do know that you were precocious
and had no difficulty in keeping up with me in my studies. Indeed,
thanks to your own brightness and to the long hours spent with my
father while I was reciting, you went ahead of me in many respects. It
makes me very happy now to think of what you two were to each other,
and to know that you are so largely indebted to him for the depth and
brilliance of mind that I hear so often commented upon. And I love you
all the better because you made those years so happy to him by your
love and companionship.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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