He was indeed filled with sleeping learning, as it were, and I often conceived that he needed only fitting instruction and a fair start to wake it up.

For even he did not attain his learning without pains, and they who deem that it flew into his mouth agape are sorely mistaken.

Many a time have I sat by his side while he pored over his books, and I could see how he set to work in right earnest when once he had cast away sports and pastime.

Thus with three mighty blows he would smite the nail home, which a weaker hand could not do with twenty.
For whole weeks he might be idle and about divers matters which had no concern with schooling; and then, of a sudden, set to work; and it would so wholly possess his soul that he would not have seen a stone drop close at his feet.
My second brother, Kunz, was not at all on this wise.

Not that he was soft-witted; far from it.