Every other day, on the
other hand, Louise was trembling and ill, and I dreaded the moment of
separation.
VII.
I had not left off my daily work in Paris, but had read industriously at
the Imperial Library. I had also attended many lectures, some
occasionally, others regularly, such as those of Janet, Caro, Leveque
and Taine.
Of all contemporary French writers, I was fondest of Taine. I had begun
studying this historian and thinker in Copenhagen. The first book of his
that I read was _The French Philosophers of the Nineteenth
Century_, in a copy that had been lent to me by Gabriel Sibbern. The
book entranced me, and I determined to read every word that I could get
hold of by the same author. In the Imperial Library in Paris I read
first of all _The History of English Literature_, of which I had
hitherto only been acquainted with a few fragments, which had appeared
in the _Revue des Deux Mondes_. Taine was to me an antidote to
German abstraction and German pedantry. Through him I found the way to
my own inmost nature, which my Dano-German University education had
covered over.
Shortly after my arrival in Paris, therefore, I had written to Taine and
begged for an interview. By a singular piece of ill-luck his reply to me
was lost, and it was only at the very end of my stay that I received a
second invitation to go to him.
Pages:
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277