Page:Addresses in Memory of Carl Schurz.pdf/26



temperament was buoyant, ardent, and hopeful. He was an enthusiast; but his enthusiastic faith carried him straight into fitting deeds. He was a philosopher; but he seized every opportunity to apply his philosophy in action. This noble temperament characterized his whole life, from youth to age. His formal or systematic education was short, but effective. He was only seventeen years old when he entered the University of Bonn to study philosophy and history—two subjects which, according to present educational views, require a good deal of mental maturity. At twenty he was an adjutant in a considerable body of revolutionary troops. At twenty-one he had rescued his friend and teacher Kinkel from the prison of Spandau and brought him safely to England—an achievement which required courage, ingenuity, patience, and good judgment. He was already possessed of two means of winning an independent livelihood—good proof of his capacity and of the effectiveness of his education. One was giving music lessons, and the other was writing letters from abroad for German newspapers. While he was earning $36 a month as a newspaper correspondent in Paris he learned to write and speak French with ease and delicacy, thus giving a striking illustration of his remarkable powers in language. At twenty-three he came with his wife of eighteen to the United States, seeking freedom in a land where political freedom had been a natural growth. Switzerland had been his first refuge, England his second, and republican France—soon to become imperial France—his third; America was henceforth his country, and what led him thither was the passion for liberty. Neither he nor his wife could understand spoken English when