Now, at the age of 22, he had come to Copenhagen
to copy Palahvi and Sanscrit manuscripts that Rask and Westergaard had
brought to Europe. He knew a great many languages, and was moreover very
many-sided in his acquirements, sang German student songs charmingly,
was introduced and invited everywhere, and with his foreign appearance
and quick intelligence was a great success. He introduced new points of
view, was full of information, and brought with him a breath from the
great world outside. Industrious though he had been before, Copenhagen
social life tempted him to idleness. His means came to an end; he said
that the annual income he was in the habit of receiving by ship from
India had this year, for some inexplicable reason, failed to arrive,
dragged out a miserable existence for some time under great
difficulties, starved, borrowed small sums, and disappeared as suddenly
as he had come.
XV.
Knowing this Armenian made me realise how restricted my own learning
was, and what a very general field of knowledge I had chosen.
I wrote my newspaper articles and my essays, and I worked at my doctor's
thesis on French Aesthetics, which cost me no little pains; it was my
first attempt to construct a consecutive book, and it was only by a
vigorous effort that I completed it at the end of 1869.
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