Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1869-05-21
9elefteo Mltsfellanp.
THE THREE SOULS.

In 1915 | finished my sixth year of
transcendental philosophy at Heidelberg.
You know of what lorldly sort the uni
yersity life is. You get up at mid day
smoke your old pipe, drink glass or two
of schnapps, and then you button your
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
Gambrnus, 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 dog Hector; another seizes Charlotte
or Greda,e by the waist; or, sometimes
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. felt the need
of change. Often did / say to myself,
"Kasper Zaan, it is not good to know too
much nature has no more illusions for
theep 4v{#
Such was my melancholy state Of mind,
when, toward the close of the spring of
1916, 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,a certain,
Wolfrang Schart, the most in6exible logi-
clan had ever met with. Figure to your
self a little dried up man, with white eye
lids, and eyes sunken in his head, with
bushy red hair, and hollow cheeks adorned
with a coarse beard wearing, moreover,
a 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 garret of the old meat market !;
80 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
"Kssper," said he to me one day -"Kas-.
per, what is the soul ?"
Proud of displaying my learning to his
eyes, L replied, with pedantie air, Ac-
cording to Thales, it is kind of magnet
according to Asclepiades, an excitation
OF the senses Anaximander said--"
"Yes! Yesl but what think you of the
substance of the soul!
"Me, Wolfgang? know nothing about
it. All judgment must come of the
senses; and, since the soul does not fall
under my senses, l can make no judg-
ment concerning it." assu
Nevertheless, Kasper, see how many
animals, such as insects, fishes, etc, want.
ing one or more of the senses How dc
we know whether we have them all our.
selves? May there not exist some Of
which we have not even an idea?"
"Quite possible: but, in the doubt,
hesit tie to say"
"Do you think, Kssper, that we can
know anything without having learned
it?"
"No; all science proceeds either from
experience or from study" ea7 s.it
49," b 1t, then, comrade, how happens il
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 nawk far up in the clouds,
and run TO take refuge unoer the mothers
wings. Did they learn to know their
enemy while they were in the egg?" ~.
"All that is the result of instinct, Wolf
gang; all animals are obedient TO instinct
1s"Then it seems that instinct consists In
knowing what has never been learned?"
"Ohp said |, "you ask me too much
How can tellp Eh4 IEF
- He smiled disdainfully, threw the cor
ner of his cloak over his shoulder, ant
went out without adding another WORD :
looked upon him as lunatic, but of th
most harmless kind. Who would hav
thought that the passion for metaphysics
coulo be dangerouss
Things stood thus when the old cake
woman, Catharine Wogel, suddenly disap
peared. This good woman, as was he
custom, came to the beer-house of Gambri
nus at about eleven o'clock. The student
ioked with her about the freaks of hel
youthful days, at the remembrance o
which she seemed much amused, ant