it not Condillac's statue, to which the philosopher lent ideas as he gave the use of a sense! When Gaspar Hauser was confided to Mr. Daumer's care, he was at first more like a brute than a human being; but through Mr. Daumer's judicious management, he soon made rapid progress, and was enabled to derive the advantage of a well directed education. It is worthy of remark, that as the exercise of his faculties were regulated, he lost some of his most striking privileges; his memory was less powerful, his feelings less acute. He now began to enjoy life; he had not yet been made to go through the routine of Latin and Greek, which was to confine his mind in a narrow circle, as his body had been confined in a cage. But Gaspar Hauser had acquired the most important parts of education; he had learnt to read and write; he could even put down his own recollections; and it is not the least interesting part of his life, to learn from his own pen, what had passed at his arrival at Nuremburg. But previous to that arrival, according to the narration of Anselm von Feuerbach, President of one of the Baravian Courts of Appeal;-"It was only at Nuremburg that he came into the world.* Here he first learnt that, besides himself and 'the • An expression which he often uses to designate his exposure in Nuremburg, and his first awakening to the consciousness of mental life. man with whom he had always been,' there existed other men and other creatures. As long as he can recollect, he had always lived in a hole (a small low apartment, which he sometimes calls a cage,) where he had always sat upon the ground, with bare feet, and clothed only with a shirt and a pair of breeches. In his apartment he never heard a sound, whether produced by a man, by an animal, or by any thing else. He never saw the heavens, nor did there ever appear a brightening (daylight) such as at Nuremburg. He never perceived any difference between day and night, and much less did he ever get a sight of the beautiful lights in the heavens. Whenever he awoke from sleep, he found a loaf of bread and a pitcher of water by him. Sometimes this water had a bad taste; whenever this was the case he could no longer keep his eyes open, but was compelled to fall asleep; and when afterwards he awoke, he found that he had a clean shirt on, and that his nails had been cut. He never saw the face of the man who brought him his meat and drink. In his hole, he had two wooden horses and several ribbons. With these horses he had always amused himself as long as he was awake; and his only occupation was, to make them run by his side, and to fix or tie the ribbons about them in different positions. Thus, one day had passed as the other; but he had never felt the want of anything, had never been sick, and -once only excepted-had never felt the sens ation of pain. Upon the whole he had been much happier there than in the world, where he was obliged to suffer so much. How long he had continued to live in this situation he knew not; for he had no knowledge of time. He knew not when, or how he came hither. Nor had he any recollection of ever having been in a different situation, or in any other than in that place. The man with whom he had always been,' never did him any harm. Yet one day, shortly before he was taken away-when he had been running his horse too hard, and had made too much noise, the man came and struck him upon his arm with a stick, or with a piece of wood; this caused the wound which he brought with him to Nuremburg. "Pretty nearly about the same time, the man once came into his prison, placed a small table over his feet, and spread something white upon it, which he now knows to have been paper; he then came behind him, so as not to be seen by him, took hold of his hand, and moved it backwards and forwards on the paper, with a thing (a lead pencil) which he had stuck between his fingers. He (Hauser) was then ignorant of what it was; but he was mightily pleased when he saw the black figures which began to appear upon the white paper. When he felt that his hand was free, and the man was gone from him, he was so much pleased with his new discovery, that he could never grow tired of drawing these figures repeatedly upon the paper. This occupation made him almost neglect his horses, although he did not know what those characters signified. The man repeated his visits in the same manner several times.* "Another time the man came again, lifted him from the place where he lay, placed him on his • Of the fact that Gaspar really had had instruction, and, indeed, regular elementary instruction in writing, he gave evident proofs immediately on the first morning after his arrival in Nuremburg. When the prison-keeper, Hiltel, came to him that morning in the prison, he gave him, in order to employ or to amuse him, a sheet of paper with a lead pencil. Gaspar seized eagerly on both, placed the paper upon the bench, and began and continued to write, without intermission, and without ever looking up, or suffering himself to be disturbed by anything that passed, until he had filled the whole folio sheet, on all four sides, with his writing. The appearance of this sheet, which has been preserved and affixed to the documents furnished by the police, is much the same as if Gaspar, who nevertheless wrote from memory, had a copy lying before him, such as are commonly set before children when they are first taught to write. For the writing upon this sheet consisted of rows of letters, or rows of syllables, so that almost everywhere, the same letter or the same syllable is constantly repeated. At the bottom of each page, all the letters of the alphabet are also placed together, in the same order in which they actually succeed each other, as is commonly the case in copies given to children: and, in another line, the numerical cyphers are placed, from 1 to 0, in their proper order. On one page of this sheet the name of " Kaspar Hauser" is constantly repeated; and on the same sheet, the word reider (Renter, rider) frequently occurs, yet this sheet also proves that Gaspar had not advanced beyond the first elements of writing. feet, and endeavoured to teach him to stand. This he repeated at several different times. The manner in which he effected this was the following he seized him firmly around the breast from behind; placed his feet behind Gaspar's feet, and lifted them, as in stepping forward. 66 : Finally, the man appeared once again, placed Gaspar's hands over his shoulders, tied them fast, and thus carried him on his back out of the prison. He was carried up (or down) a hill. He knows not how he felt: all became night, and he was laid upon his back." This " becoming night," as appeared on many different occasions at Nuremburg, signified in Gaspar's language, "to faint away." The account given of the continuation of his journey, is principally confined to the following particulars: " that he had often lain with his face to the ground, in which cases it became night; that he had several times eaten bread and drunk water; that the man with whom he had always been,' had often taken pains to teach him to walk, which always * It is evident, and other circumstances prove it to be a fact, that Gaspar could not at that time yet distinguish the motion of ascending from that of descending, or height from depth, even as to the impressions made upon his own feelings; and that he was consequently still less able to designate this difference correctly by means of words. What Gaspar calls a hill, must, in all probability, have been a flight of stairs. Gaspar also thinks he can recollect that, in being carried, he brushed against something by his side. |