“ ‘I could not have done more,’ said I; ‘if the king thought I requited an addition to my income, he would give it of his own free will.’
“And I was right; in the following year the king increased my annual stipend, so that with this and my writings I can live honorably and free from care.
“The 5th of September was to me a festival day. Even the German visitors at the baths honored me by drinking my health in the pump-room.
“So many flattering circumstances, some people argue, may spoil a man and make him vain. But no, they do not spoil him, they make him, on the contrary, better; they purify his mind, and he thereby feels an impulse, a wish to deserve all that he enjoys.”
Such are truly the feelings of a pure and noble nature. Andersen has stood the test through every trial, of poverty and adversity; the harder trial that of a sun-bright prosperity, is now proving him, and so far, thank God, the sterling nature of the man has remained unspoiled.
