David Friedrich Strauss in His Life and Writings. Authorised Transl (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1874 Excerpt: ... CHAPTER IX. ILLNESS AND DEATH. The presentiment expressed in these concluding words was only too soon to be realised. Strauss had left Darmstadt in October 1872, in order to return to his Swabian home. He had first thought of Stuttgart, where his son, soon after his successful return from the war, had received an appointment as military physician; finally, however, he had preferred his old Ludwigsburg avenues to the noise of the capital, which during the last thirty years had not a little increased. Here he arranged a small abode not far from the railway station. But soon after the beginning of the year 1873 there appeared foretokens of a malady which proclaimed itself in more decided symptoms as the spring advanced. It seemed at first a disorder of the bowels, which it was hoped would be remedied by Karlsbad; but when INCREASING ILLNESS. 147 he returned from thence at the end of May, there was no improvement, and his disorder appeared rather on the increase. Constant pains in the back and limbs impeded his walking, sitting, or lying, and deprived him of sleep. A rapid diminution of strength excited apprehension. While Strauss had hitherto looked younger than he was--his head thickly covered with brown hair, by degrees verging into grey; his face thin, as was its wont, but healthy and fresh in complexion; and his movements quick and vigorous, and only impeded by his shortsightedness--he now rapidly became the old man. I had last seen him in September 1872. When, eleven months afterwards, I visited him in his illness, I was alarmed at the visible traces of his great decline of strength; and I could no longer feel doubtful of his own just estimate of his condition when he, before by letters, and now by word of mouth, expressed the conviction that his ...