Therefore the school was every way the gainer by my departure, so
greatly the gainer indeed, that from that time no further change has
been necessary. That same teacher still lives and works in that same
post.[58]
Before I begin a new chapter of my career, there are yet a few things
which need mention.
To know French was at that time the order of the day, and not to know it
stamped a man at once as of a very low degree of culture. To acquire a
knowledge of French, therefore, became one of my chief aims at the
moment. It was my good fortune to obtain instruction from an unrivalled
teacher of French, M. Perrault, a Frenchman by birth, who still, even
though an old man, diligently worked at the study of his mother tongue,
and who at the same time wrote and spoke German with elegance. I pursued
the study with ardour, taking two lessons a day, because I desired to
reach a certain proficiency by a given time. Slow, however, were my
steps, for I was far from having a sufficient knowledge of my own tongue
whereon to build a bridge that might carry me into French. I never could
properly acquire what I did not fully understand in such a way that it
had a living meaning for me; and so from all the genuine zeal and
considerable cost which I spent over this study I gained by no means a
corresponding result; but I did learn a good deal, much more even than I
then knew how to turn to account.
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