He displayed in his early years a remarkable capacity for the study of languages, and at the same time a passionate fondness for music and poetry.
Music continued to be the favorite occupation of his leisure hours, and he pursued the study of it under the direction of Joseph Marx.
[1] In the spring of 1838 he passed to the University of Halle, and there began to apply himself to comparative philology under August Pott.
He took his degree in 1842, and, after spending his year of probation at the French Gymnasium of Berlin, he resumed with great earnestness his language studies.
[1] The most important work of Ebel in the field of Celtic philology is his revised edition of the Grammatica Celtica of Professor Johann Zeuss, completed in 1871.