Edward L. Pierce, Memoir and letters of Charles Sumner: volume 2

[121] particularly of Mittermaier, who awaited with much interest his arrival. With Thibaut, then near his end, he discussed, as with Savigny at Berlin, the codification of the law. Here, as elsewhere in Germany, he studied with great earnestness the language of the country.

Dr. Franz Mittermaier writes:—

I think the letters of Mr. Sumner to my father will be of great interest, as they are not only a testimonial of his eminent mental activity, but also of his warm feelings and sincere friendship for my father. They show that he loved to remember the days he passed at Heidelberg in the company of my father and other eminent jurists; that he understood the works of our great poets and expressed his feelings in their words. The last of the letters written here in Heidelberg in 1857, when taking leave, when he would say with Faust to the moment, ‘Verweile, du bist so schon,’ seems particularly significant.

I remember Mr. Sumner very well, both when he came to Heidelberg for the first time, in the beginning of 1840, and for the second and last time, in the autumn of 1857. The first time I was still a boy: but I remember, even at that time, his earnest and expressive features, and how my father liked to converse with him long evenings in our house. We sat silently around and listened to the discourse. Very often, the eminent Professor of Roman Law, Mr. Thibaut, the head of the philosophical school of jurists, was present, and liked to converse with the eminent American. I remember very well the evening when Mr. Sumner, taking leave of my father and Mr. Thibaut (it must have been a very short time before the death of Thibaut, March 28, 1840), presented to Mr. Thibaut a lithograph portrait of the latter, requesting him as a favor to write under it some words. Thibaut (who had a beautiful head) took the pen and, smiling, wrote the words, ‘Bin ich's’ (Is it myself?)? Mr. Sumner alludes to this in his letter of Nov. 30, 1840.

My elder brother, Martin,¹ a young lawyer, who unfortunately died soon afterwards (Nov. 11, 1840), conversed very often with Mr. Sumner, who much esteemed him, as his letter of June 30, 1841, shows.

He had consumed so much time in his journeys that he was obliged to forego a visit to Dr. Julius at Hamburg, who had followed him with urgent letters of invitation: and from Heidelberg he went to the Rhine, thence to Cologne, Brussels,² and Antwerp, and crossed to London, where he arrived, March 17, after a year's absence from England. His letters from Germany (and the remark is true also of his letters from Italy) are a less