Exempli Gratia

(This image shows the King's Palace in Berlin, 1858.)

I have learned a Latin phrase by reading Poul Anderson's Time Patrol series. Time Patrolman Herbert Ganz, based in Berlin in 1858, says:

"'...before Western civilization begins self-destruction in earnest, I must needs have aged my appearance, until I simulate my death.... What next? Who knows? I will inquire. Perhaps I should simply start over elsewhere: exempli gratia, post-Napoleonic Bonn or Heidelberg.'" (Time Patrol, p. 400)

We already know from MGM that "Ars Gratia Artis" means "Art for the sake of art." Thus, "exempli gratia" means "for the sake of an example" and is abbreviated "e.g." I have never wondered what the letters, "e.g.," stood for and would not have found out if I had not googled "exempli gratia" after rereading it in "The Sorrow of Odin The Goth."

"...post-Napoleonic..." would mean post-1815? Thus, Ganz would perhaps live through much of the nineteenth century a second time while avoiding contact with his younger self? Where/when after that? Patrollers do not die of disease or old age and Ganz avoids violent eras such as:

"...the early Germanic milieus which were his field of research." (ibid.)

"'They are unsuitable for a peaceful old scholar...,'" he says. (ibid.) 

So how is he going to die?

Staying in character, he continues to use spectacles but presumably will let Patrol medics fix his eyes when he moves elsewhen and changes his identity.