Chapter 4:
- Residence in Gottingen till the end of 1815. -- University life. -- his own studies. -- Bencke, Eichhorn, Blumenbach, Schultze, Michaelis, Kastner. -- Wolf. -- excursion to Hanover.
On arriving at Gottingen, which was to be Mr. Ticknor's home for twenty months, he felt like the pilgrim who had reached the shrine of his faith; here he found the means and instruments of knowledge in an abundance and excellence such as he had never before even imagined. Gottingen was at that time the seat of the leading university in Germany, occupying much the same comparative position as that of Berlin does now. Founded by George II., it owed its rank and eminence, in a great measure, to the fostering care of the king's enlightened Hanoverian minister, Baron Munchausen, who watched over its interests with a vigilance and constancy which had something of the warmth of personal affection. Another of its benefactors, in a different way, was the illustrious Heyne, who had died in 1812, after having been connected with it, in various capacities, for half a century. He was not only a scholar of eminence and varied attainments, and an unrivalled teacher in the department of philology, but also a man of sound practical wisdom and tact in the conduct of life, and had, for many years before his death, been the leading spirit in the government and administration of the University. His high and wide reputation had brought to it a great number of pupils. At the time of Mr. Ticknor's residence in Gottingen, there were many distinguished teachers and scholars connected with its University, such as Dissen, Benecke, Schultze, Eichhorn, and others, and especially two men of world-wide fame,—Gauss in mathematics, and Blumenbach in natural history. The latter
