Two Brothers

Or what else could it mean? He was gliding over rolling waves, across the great ocean of time; and he heard the voice of Solon, proclaiming in his foreign tongue, which the boy could still understand, the motto of Denmark - "By law the land is built!"

Then the Genius of the human race stood in that humble room, bent down over the bed, and kissed the boy on his forehead. "Be strong in fame and strong in the battle of life! With truth in your heart fly toward the land of truth!"

The older brother was not yet in bed; he stood at the window, gazing out at mists arising from the meadow. They were not elf maidens dancing out there, as an honest old servant had told him; he knew much more about it. They were vapors, warmer than the air, and that is why they rose. A shooting star lit up the sky, and the boy's thoughts went instantly from the vapors of the earth way up into the regions of the shining meteor.

The stars of heaven twinkled; it was as if long threads of gold were floating from them down on our earth.

"Fly with me!" it sang and rang in the boy's heart. The mighty Genius of mankind carried him up, swifter far than bird or arrow or any flying thing of earth, out into space, where ray after ray from star to star bound all the globes together; the earth was spinning in the thin air and cities seemed to lie close to each other. Through the spheres it sounded: "What is near and what is far, while the mighty genius of thought lifts you on high?"

And again the boy was at the window, gazing out, while the younger brother lay abed; and their mother called them by their names, "Anders and Hans Christian!"

Denmark knows both those two brothers - the world knows them - Oersted!