CASPAR HAUSER. AN ACCOUNT OF AN INDIVIDUAL KEPT IN A DUNGEON, SEPARATED AGE OF SEVENTEEN. DRAWN UP FROM LEGAL DOCUMENTS. BY ANSELM VON FEUERBACH, TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN. BOSTON: ALLEN AND TICKNOR. Her 10261.1 1855 July 14 2 Righteous Heaven, who hast permitted Of my hapless birth, committed. SIGISMUND. In Calderon's Life, a Dream. Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1832, BY ALLEN AND TICKNOr, In the Clerk's office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. DEDICATION. TO HIS LORDSHIP, THE EARL OF STANHOPE, Peer of Great Britain, &c. To no one could this dedication have been addressed with greater propriety than to your Lordship; in whose person, providence has appointed to the youth, without childhood and boyhood, a paternal friend and powerful protector. Beyond the sea, in fair old England, you have prepared for him a secure retreat, until the rising sun of truth shall have dispersed the darkness which still hangs over his mysterious fate; perhaps, in the remainder of his half murdered life, he may yet hope for days, for the sake of which, he will no longer regret his having seen the light of this world. For such a deed, none but the genius of humanity can recompense you. In the vast desert of the present times, when the hearts of individuals are more and more shrivelled and parched by the fires of selfish passions, to have met once more with a real man, is one of the most pleasing and indelibly impressive occurrences which have adorned the evening scenery of my life. With inmost veneration and love, I am, your Lordship's most obedient servant. VON FEUERBACH. PREFACE. IN offering the following pages to the public, it will be necessary to say but a very few words on the subject of them, or of their distinguished German author and the American translator, in order to show the peculiar claims, which they have to the attention of the reader. As to the first it will be sufficient to state that Caspar Hauser is the individual of whom many persons will recollect to have seen, some years ago, an account in the papers of the day. He was then represented as having been found in Nuremberg in a state, which threw the greatest mystery over his previous life. Hauser was at that time, about sixteen or seventeen years old, had never learned to speak, and soon showed that he had been shut out during his whole life from all communication with the world. A narrow, dark dungeon, in which he was always |