86
Kaspar Hauser.
but no trace of the journal was to be found; and when he was
again commanded to deliver the manuscript, he said he had
burned it. Whether this statement was true, or whether the
journal was discovered after Kaspar’s death and given to Lord
Stanhope, is not known : nothing more was said about it, and the
incident is chiefly important as showing the disposition of these
three men—Stanhope, Meyer, and Hickel—towards Kaspar
Hauser, now that he was entirely in their power. Stanhope’s
manner towards Kaspar, as well as towards Feuerbach, changed
considerably during those few weeks in Ansbach ; still he made a
great show of affection in taking his final leave (January 28, 1832),
and sent from different places on his route letters full of maudlin
sentimentality, mingled with notes of travel and remarks upon
general subjects, altogether a compound so heterogeneous and in-
appropriate as to suggest that the writer’s brain was addled ; or,
what was the fact, that his heart was not in the epistle, and that
his thoughts were busy with far different matters.
It is impossible to tell precisely what were the motives which
influenced Meyer and Hickel in their treatment of Kaspar Hauser;
but, judging from their conduct, and from the ordinary develop:
ment of human nature, it would seem that they did not know him
to be the Prince of Baden, and did not believe him to be in his
origin a person of social importance. And without such know-
ledge and belief there was little in Kaspar Hauser’s personality to
call forth respect and sympathy in common souls. His friends in
Nuremberg had ever before them the contrast between his first
condition of helpless ignorance and the later state of comparative
development to which their affectionate care had been able to
bring him ; but to people who had never known him before, and
who were predisposed to judge him harshly, he appeared childish,
silly, and utterly insignificant. ‘There is no doubt also that Meyer
and Hickel were instructed by Stanhope in such a manner as to
check whatever degree of natural tenderness they might have been
likely to exhibit.
They were told that Kaspar had been petted and spoiled in
Nuremberg, and that thev were to take the nonsense out of him;