ich 
Kaspar Hauser. 
be accepted without question. He offers as true and irrefutable 
many assertions which over and over again have been proved to 
be false, and concludes by declaring that the mystery can never 
be satisfactorily solved. 
His assumption is that Kaspar Hauser was a peasant boy whg 
ran away from home to better his condition, and it seems to 
trouble Meyer greatly that a romantic halo surrounds the name of 
the unfortunate youth ; however, he consoles himself by pro- 
phesying repeatedly that this nimbus will disappear in time, and 
the world will cease to feel an interest in the Impostor’s fate, 
Meyer's bitterness may be due entirely to the influence under 
which he grew up ; although the eagerness of his malignity gives 
ground for suspicion that he was recompensed for his labour by 
parties interested in keeping back the truth. He must have been 
only a small child, if he was born at all, during Kaspar Hauser's 
residence in Ansbach. His father was a poor man, a schoolmaster 
and sexton, when the foundling was brought to him. Afterwards, 
he was able to send this son to the University ; and when he died 
he was a man of property, owner of several houses in Ansbach. 
Dr. Meyer incorporates with his own work a portion of his 
father’s manuscripts, which are extremely Interesting as a record 
taken at the time and upon the spot, although not at all creditable 
to Meyer in his character of teacher and guide. Among the 
papers there is a long report about Kaspar, written in July, 1833, 
for Lord Stanhope, and afterwards delivered over to the legal 
authorities. 
Meyer describes Kaspar Hauser therein, as a person of only 
moderate ability, capricious as to interest and industry in his 
studies, indifferent to everything which seemed of no particular 
use to himself, better in mathematics than in any other branch, 
but ircapable of prolonged thought, and impatient over every task 
demanding time and reflection. 
He complains that the attention and flattery bestowed upon the 
boy are injurious to his character and a hindrance to his progress 
in education ; he grants, however, that no person could be ex- 
pected to escape the evi] influences of such treatment, and