WEEDS AND WILDFLOWERS.

THE GERMAN STUDENT.

Know thyself.-DELPHIC ORAcle.

FREDERICK HERMAN was the son and only child of

a merchant in the Lower Rhine, who was in

easy circumstances, and considered in a fair way of accumulating a fortune. From his earliest years, little Fred displayed such uncommon propensities and precocious intellect, that he was the delight of his fond father, and the admiration of his doating mother. In the nursery, at an age when other children obtain sweetmeats, either by coaxing or crying, Fred was perusing a fairy tale, or standing on a stool at the window, admiring the various phenomena of nature. Not only did the fair and beautiful in grove or garden afford him pleasure, but the awful and sublime seemed to inspire his infant heart with rapturous emotions. In his fifth year, he would wander out, listen to the howling of the tem

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pest, or the roaring of the torrent; the thunder which seemed to shake the house over his head, filled him with delight; and his eyes sparkled with brighter lustre as he gazed on the forky lightning darting from the dark cloud, or the sheeted flame, as it flashed on the distant hills.

In Frederick's seventh year, his father determined to take a tutor into the family, for the cultivation of the boy's mind; and, being in correspondence with his wife's brother in Gottingen, he wrote to him, requesting him to find a young man among the students at the University, properly qualified for the important charge.

In a few weeks after, Mr Herman was waited on by Augustus Wolman. The young man brought a letter of introduction from Mr Westermann, Mr Herman's brother-in-law; and, in consequence of recommendations from the different professors in the University, all of whom agreed in bestowing the warmest encomiums on his acquirements in learning, and moral worth, he was immediately received into the family on the most liberal terms, as the preceptor of little Frederick, to whose improvement, he was informed, it was expected he would devote his whole attention.

Wolman was a young man who merited the ample character he had received; his moral conduct was exemplary in every respect; and he had cultivated good natural talents with assiduity, and success seldom equalled: in addition to the sciences, he was master of

the Greek, Latin, French, Italian, and English languages, all of which he could write with elegance, and speak fluently. In a word, he was possessed of general knowledge, far exceeding what could have been expected at his years. But Wolman had such an insatiable appetite for acquiring more, that, like Napoleon, then in the zenith of his glory, his ambition was never satisfied while any thing remained to be overcome. But while thus pursuing a career which promised to make him a most useful and distinguished member of society, his parents were plunged in misfortune, so deeply, as to be reduced, not only to poverty, but indigence; and Wolman was compelled to leave the University before he had completed his studies, opening a private school for their support. From this precarious situation he was providentially relieved, by his employment in Herman's family.

While acquiring useful knowledge, he had not neglected the visionary philosophy peculiar to his country; for he had studied the mysticism of some, and the transcendental metaphysics of others; and was a sincere admirer of the wild romantic traditions and legends which have been so luxuriantly indulged in by German writers. Without believing in the diablerie which some of them inculcated, he persuaded himself that there was a possibility of obtaining a knowledge in natural philosophy which would enable man to per

form operations not less wonderful than those attributed to magic art; and, for this purpose, he considered temperance, the mortification of every sensual appetite, and the subjugation of the passions, as indispensably Although most of this was doubtless the result of Wolman's heated imagination; yet he plodded so deeply in occult mysteries, that he performed experiments, the result of which astonished even himself.

necessary.

Thus, both tutor and pupil might be considered uncommon characters, with minds in many points nearly allied to each other. For, although Frederick was yet but a child, his curiosity was unbounded; and his father spared no expense, when he believed it could be the means of obtaining information. At the suggestion of Wolman, a chemical laboratory had been erected, in which he and his pupil employed themselves, as a relaxation from other studies. Wolman had interested Frederick by the performance of common, but striking, experiments; and, while other boys of his age were trundling hoops or flying kites, Frederick was enjoying himself in the laboratory, where Wolman was prosecuting new discoveries with unremitted ardour; and, at the same time, initiating his pupil in the mysteries of nature. When walking in the fields for exercise, Frederick was not only taught botany as a science, but made acquainted with the secret virtues of many plants, of which the most skilful botanists were ignorant; and