On one of the steamers on the Lake of Lucerne, I caught, for the first
time, a glimpse of Berthold Auerbach, who was very much admired by my
comrades in Copenhagen and by myself.
At the hotel table at Lucerne I made the acquaintance of a Dutch captain
from Batavia, an acquaintance productive of much pleasure to me. Before
the soup was brought round I had pulled out a letter I had just
received, opened it and begun to read it. A voice by my side said in
French:
"Happy man! You are reading a letter in a woman's writing!" With that
our acquaintance was made.
The captain was a man of forty, who in the course of an active life had
had many and varied experiences and met with prosperity, but was
suffering from a feeling of great void. His society was exceedingly
attractive to me, and he related to me the main events of his life; but
after one day's association only, we were obliged to part. All through
my trip I had a curious feeling of every farewell on the journey being
in all human probability a farewell for life, but had not realised it
painfully before. But when next day the brave captain, whose home was
far away in another quarter of the globe, held his hand out to say good-
bye, I was much affected. "Till we meet again" said the captain.
"And where?"
"Till we meet again all and everywhere, for we live an eternal life;
till we meet again in time and space, or outside time and space!"
I reflected sadly that I should never again see this man, who, the last
twenty-four hours had shown me, was in extraordinary sympathy and
agreement with me.
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