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;