Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: legislators, and men of letters, cherish a grateful remembrance of their former master. As a legislator, he has himself had tlie satisfaction of seeing many of his views on law adopted practically by entire nations ; and with all the comprehensive and varied activity of his mind, he has preserved up to a venerable old age such purity of soul, such a warm and feeling heart, that any hostile feelings to which the passion of parties may have given rise in the midst of his active career, have long since subsided. I will endeavour to draw a short sketch, of the literary and political life and activity of this distinguished man. K. J. A. Mittermaier was born on the 8th August, 1787, in Munich, where his father was an apothecary. His mother possessed a calm, clear, and acute intellect, and great activity : his father had extensive knowledge in natural history, a quick understanding, and a gentle, pure, almost enthusiastic mind. The son appears to have inherited the qualities of both his parents, but chiefly those of his father. It may be of some interest to mention here that his father's brother in-law was the well-known seaman Zimmermann, who repeatedly sailed round the world as Captain Cook's steersman. The uncle's highly coloured descriptions of distant lands nearly induced his nephew to turn sailor, and certainly aroused in him, at an early age, that constant inclination for travelling which he subsequently lost no opportunity of gratifying. Unfortunately, Mittermaier did not long enjoy the loving guidance of his father, who died at a comparatively early age. His mother married again; but the intercourse between the lively boy and the rather gloomy, severe stepfather was not very intimate. The boy was sent to the school of a clergyman, a hard, narrow-minded man, who, however, p... --This text refers to the Paperback edition.