The Plymouth weekly Democrat. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1860-1869, 1869-05-20
THE THREE SOULS.

coat up to the chin, set your hat on one
side, and go to listen calmly for half an
hour to the illustrious Professor Hasen-
kopf. Every one is free to do as he choos-
es-to go TO sleep if he likes. The lecture
over, you betake yourself to the tavern of
Gambrinus, where the pretty servant
maids, in black silk bodices, bring you
plates of sausages, with slices of ham, and
glasses of strong beer You whistle an air
from the Robbers" of Schiller; one calls
his deg Hector; another seiZes Charlotte
or Gredale by the waist; or, sometimes a
quarrel begins, when in comes the watch
man, and you are carried off to pass the
night in durance vile.
In this way the days, months and years
passed by.
was then thirty-two years old, and the
bottle, the pipe, and saur- -kraut had begun
TO fall in my estimation. l felt the need
Of change. Often did l say to myself,
"Kasper Zaan, it is not good to know too
much nature has no more illusions for
theep
Such was my melancholy state of mind
when, toward the close of the spring of
1S45, a terrible event happened which
taught me that | was far from knowing
everything, and that the path of the philOs-
Opher is not always strewn with roses.
Among my old comrades was certain
WOlfgang Schart, the most infexible logi-
clan had ever met with. Figure to your
self little dried-up man, with white eye
lids, and eyes sunken in his head, with
bushy red hair, and hollow cheeks adorned
with coarse beard wearing, moreover,
tattered cloak over his broad shoulders.
and you have him before you. Wolfgang
thought only of metaphysics. For five
or six years he had lived on bread and
water, in garrett of the old meat market
so that the poor fellow was frightful to
look at. This strange being, in his volun-
tary isolation, seemed to feel for me alone
little sympathy. He came to see me
from time to time, and gravely seated in
my armchair, he would impart to me his
wild meditations
"Kasper," said he to me one day--"Kas.
per, what is the soul? ?"
Proud of displaying my learning to his
eyes, replied, with pedantic air, "Ac.
cOrding to Thales, it is a kind of magnet
according to Asclepiades, an excitation
of the senses Anaximander said"
"Yesl Yes! but what think you of the
substance of the soul
"Me, Wolfgang? Iknow nothing about
it. All judgment must come of the
senses; and, since the soul does not fall
under my senses, | can make no judg-
ment concerning it."
Nevertheless, Kasper, see how many
animals, such as insects, fishes, etc, want
ing one or more of the senses. How do
we know whether we have them 81 our
selves? May there not exist some of
which we have not even an idea?"
Quite possible: but, in the doubt, l
hesitate TO say"
"Do you think, Kasper, that we can
know anything without having learned
it?"
"No; al science proceeds either from
experience from study"
"But, thou, cOmrade, how happens it
that the little chickens, when they break
the shell, start off to run and take their
food of themselves. How is it that they
discover the hawk far up in the clouds,
and run to take refuge under the mother s
wings? Did they learn to know their
enemy while they were in the egg?"
"Ali that is the result of instinct, Wolf
gang; all animals are Obedient to instinct.
"Then it seems that instinct consists in
knowing what has never been learned?"
"OhP said |, "you ask me too much.
How can tellr'
He smiled disdainfully, threw the cor
ner of his cloak over his shoulder, and
went out without aiding another word. l
looked upon him as a lunatic, but of the
most harmless kind. Who would have
could be dangerouss
Things stood thus when the old cake
woman, Catharine WOgel, suddenly disap-
rod har
custom, came to the beer-hOuse of Gambri-
nus at about eleven o'clock. The students
jOked with her about the freaks of her
youthful days, at the remembrance of
which she seemed much amused, and
laughed heartily. Her disappearance came
to be remarked the third day alter this.
"What can have become of Catharine ?
Can she be i'll E? She seemed so merry the
last time we saw her!"
My opinion was that the old woman,
having drank little too much kirsch-
water, had fallen into the river during the
night.
On the morrow, coming out from Hasen-
kOpt' 8 lecture, met Wolfgang. As soon
as he perceived me he fastened toward
me, his eye sparkling, and said, "Kasper,
I've been looking for you man, the hour
His look, his pallor, his very motion be-
trayed agitation and, as he seized me by
the arm, leading me toward the quarter
of the tanners, | could not keep down
the feeling of underlined fear that crept
over me. The street through which We
proceeded at a sharp walk led behind the
minister into collection of houses old as
Heidelberg itself The square roofs, the
wooden balconies, the exterior crooked
stairways; the many wan and curious
faces peering with eager air down on the
strangers from the garret windows; the
long poles stretched from house to house,
loaded with dripping skins; the dense
smoke escaping from the rude chimneys-
sll this scene passed before nv eyes like a
vision of the middle ages and the few
bright rays of light which found their
way through these many distractions,
gliding the dlapidated walls where they
touched, only added to my emotion by the
strange contrast they produced.
There are moments when q man loses
all presence of mind. 1t never occurred
to me to ask Wolfgang where we were
going. Soon we reached the deserted
quarter of the old meat market. All of q
sudden, Wolfgang, whose dry, cold hand
seemed riveted To my wrist, led me into q
hovel, between the hay-loft of the Land
wehr and the cattle-pen OF the slaughter
house.
go on a head" said he TO me.
followed along wall of dry earth, a
the end OF which was broken staircase
We climbed through the rubbish; and
although my companion kept all the time
repeating, in an impatient voice, Go OD
higher yeti" ] stopped several timea
seized with fear, under the pretext of re