184 SHADOWS IN THE PICTURE.

of the Ashdell Academy.” It was concise and modest,
but it contained, in very conspicuous capitals, the name
of “Mr. Carl Adler, Assistant, and Instructor in the
French and German Languages.” There are moments
when trifles like this weigh as much in the scale as
legacies, or prizes in lotteries. Carl had the comfort of
reflecting that this honourable advancement, which was
certainly considerable in the case of a youth, had been
unsought by him: and he was earnestly desirous to
inake it contribute to the good of his fellow-creatures.
And what situation is there in life, I desire to ask, in
which this hope may be more reasonably entertained,
than that of an instructor of youth 2

Every one of Carl’s scholars at the octagon was
present as a pupil at the opening of the academy.
This had been matter of special arrangement by Mr.
Mill But these nine had now increased to thirty-
five! As they sat at their separate desks, on the cast-
iron rotary seats, which had then just come into use,
they appeared to Carl like a little army, of which he
was in some sort the commander. And he wrote to
his elder sister Charlotte a letter, of which the following
is an extract :—

“You must not think me exalted, dear Lotte; my
illness has done something to prevent this ; but still
more, I trust, am I kept humble by a sense of my daily
and hourly shortcomings. Yet there is something not

unlike elation, when I find myself admitted to such