He travelled alone and, whenever
it was possible, on foot, in the blouse and peaked cap of a German
workman, and with a light knapsack strapped on his shoulders. He
avoided hotels and lived cheaply, even meanly; but, with his splendid
health, simple tastes, and overflowing interest in all that he saw,
this did not greatly matter.
His classical studies, and an already wide knowledge of European
history, suggested endless interesting associations with the places
through which he passed; and the picture galleries furnished him with
materials for art criticisms which, considering that he had had few
opportunities of seeing paintings, surprise one by their insight and
grasp. At Wittenberg we find him standing by the grave of Luther
in the Castle Church, and reflecting on the connection between his
presence there and the life and work of the man whose body lay below.
"But for him there had neither been a Scotland to send out pilgrim
students of theology, nor a Germany to receive them."
At Halle he has interesting interviews with Tholuck and Julius
Mueller; from Dresden he diverges to Herrnhut, where he witnesses the
ordination of a Moravian missionary and takes part in a love-feast. At
Prague, that wonderful city where the barbaric East begins, he finds
his deepest interest stirred by the Jewish burying-ground and the
hoary old synagogue.
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