From 1875 to 1876, he was educated at the Jesuit school Stella Matutina in Feldkirch, Austria.[1] His family decided that he would spend a year there in order to perfect his German and broaden his academic horizons.[15] He later rejected the Catholic faith and became an agnostic.[16] One source attributed his drift away from religion to the time he spent in the less strict Austrian school.[4] He also later became a spiritualist mystic.[17]