cross-streams. My light garment was soon wet through; it was already rent, and I did not delay to tear it entirely off my body. I cast away my slippers, and so one covering after another. Nay, at last I found it very agreeable in the warm daylight to let such a flood of rays pass freely over me. And now, being quite naked, I walked quietly along between these pleasant waters, and fancied that I should be able long to enjoy them. My anger cooled itself, and I wished for nothing so much as a reconciliation with my opponent. But, in an instant, the water stopped, and so I stood drenched upon the soaked ground. The presence of the old man, who unexpectedly appeared before me, was by no means welcome. I could have wished, if not to hide, yet to clothe myself. The shame, the shivering, the effort in some degree to cover myself, made me cut a most piteous figure. The old man employed the moment to vent on me the greatest reproaches. "What prevents me," he exclaimed, "from taking one of the green cords, and fitting it, if not to your neck, yet to your back?"-This threat I received very ill. "Refrain," I cried, "from such words, even from such thoughts, for otherwise you and your mistresses will be lost.""Who then are you," he asked defyingly, "who dare to speak thus ?"-" A favourite of the gods," I said; "one on whom it depends whether those women shall find worthy mates, or be left to pine and wither in their magic cell." The old man stepped some paces back. "Who has revealed that to you?" he enquired, with wonder and concern. "Three apples," I said "three jewels.” “And what reward do you ask?" he exclaimed." Before all things, the little creature," I replied, "who has brought me into this miserable state." The old man cast himself down before me, without shrinking from the wet and miry soil. Then he stood up, unstained by it, took me kindly by the hand, led me into that room, clad me again quickly, and I had soon my Sunday finery on, with my hair dressed as before. The gate-keeper did not speak a word more; but before he let me pass the entrance, he stopped me, and showed me some objects on the wall over the way, while, at the same time, he pointed backwards to

NO. CCLXXXIX, VOL. XLVI.

the door. I understood him well; for he wished to impress the objects on me, that I might the more certainly find the door again, which unexpectedly closed behind me. I now took good notice of what was opposite me. Above a high wall rose up the branches of extremely old nut-trees, and partly covered the cornice at the top. The boughs hung down to a stone tablet, of which I could perfectly recognise the ornamented border, but could not read the inscription. It rested on the corbel of a niche, in which a finely wrought fountain poured from cup to cup into a great basin of water, which formed, as it were, a little pond, and lost itself in the earth. Fountain, inscription, nut-trees, all stood perpendicularly one above another. I could paint it as I then saw it.

I

A

Now, it may well be conceived how passed this evening and many following days, and how often I repeated to myself this story, which even I could hardly believe. As soon as it was at all possible, I went again to the Bad Wall, in order at least to refresh my remembrance of these signs, and to look at the precious door. But, to my great amazement, I found it all changed. Nut-trees, indeed, overtopped the wall, but they did not stand close together. tablet also was built in, but far to the right of the trees, without ornament, and with a legible inscription. A niche with a fountain is seen far to the left, but with no resemblance to that which I had seen. Thus I could hardly believe but that the second adventure was, like the first, a dream; for of the door itself there is not the slightest trace. The only thing which consoles me is the remark, that those three objects seem always to change their places. For, in repeated visits to the place, I think I have noticed that the nut-trees have drawn a little nearer, and that the tablet and the fountain seem likewise to approach each other. Probably, when all is again combined, the door, too, will once more be visible; and I shall do my best to renew the old adventure. Whether I shall be able to tell you what further happens, or whether it will be expressly forbidden me, I cannot say.

2Q

This tale, which my companions vehemently strove to persuade themselves was true, received great approbation. Each alone, without impart ing it to me or to the others, visited the described place, and found the nut-trees, the tablet, and the fountain, but always far from each other. All this they at last acknowledged, because at those years it is not easy to conceal a secret. But now first began the dispute. The one maintained that the objects did not stir from the place, and continued always at the same distance. The second asserted that they moved, but away from each other. With him the third agreed as to the first point of the motions; but nut-trees, tablet, and fountain, in his opinion, rather drew together. The fourth announced something still more wonderful; namely, that the nut-trees were in the middle, but the tablet and fountain on opposite sides to those which I had stated. They differed also as to the traces of the door. And thus they gave me an early instance, how people can have and maintain the most contradictory views as to a thing that is quite simple and easy of decision. As I obstinately refused the continuation of my tale, this first part was often asked for again. I took care not to change much in the circumstances; and by the uniformity of my narrative, I changed, in the minds of my hearers, the fable into truth.

Nevertheless, I was averse to lies and dissimulation; and, on the whole, by no means frivolous. Rather, indeed, the inward earnestness with which I considered myself and the world, showed itself even in my exterior; and I was often kindly, often too, mockingly, charged with the assumption of a certain dignity. For, although I had certainly no want of good and chosen friends, yet were we always the minority against those who found pleasure in attacking us with rough petulance; and indeed often awoke us very ungently from those legendary self-complacent dreams, in which I with my invention, and my companions with their sympathy we lost ourselves but too willingly. Thus did we learn once more, that, instead of yielding to softness and fantastic delights, we had occasion enough to harden ourselves, that we

might either bear the inevitable evils or work against them.

Among the exercises of stoicism, which I therefore practised in myself as seriously as was possible for a boy, was also the bearing of bodily pains. Our teachers treated us often very severely and unskilfully with blows and cuffs, against which we hardened ourselves the more, because refractoriness or resistance was made extremely penal. Very many sports of youth depend upon rivalry in such endurances. For example, when, with two fingers, or the whole hand, they alternately strike each other even to the numbing of the limbs; or when they bear, with more or less composure, the blows which, in certain games, have been incurred as a penalty; when, in wrestling and struggling, one does not let one's-self be distracted by the pinches of the half-subdued opponent; when one suppresses the pain inflicted as a means of teasing us, and even treats, as something indifferent, the nips and ticklings with which young people are so busy against each other. Thus one gains for one's-self a great advantage, which others cannot soon deprive us of.

In

But as I made, as it were, profession of thus defying pain, the attacks of the others increased; and as a coarse barbarity knows no bounds, they were able at last to drive me beyond the bounds which I had set myself. I will relate one case instead of many. one lesson-hour the master had not come. As long as we children were all together, we amused ourselves very nicely. But as my well-wishers, after they had waited long enough, went away, and I was left alone with three ill-wishers of mine, these devised to torment me, to shame me, and to drive me away. They had left me a moment in the room, and came back with rods, which they had made quickly by cutting up a broom. I perceived their design, and because I thought the end of the hour near, I determined, on the moment, not to defend myself till the clock struck. They began, therefore, pitilessly to scourge my legs and calves in the cruelest way. I did not move, but soon felt that I had made a bad calculation, and that such pain greatly lengthened the minutes. With the endurance my rage increased, and at the first stroke of the hour I seized one

who did not at all expect it, by the hair behind, and threw him instantly to the ground, and pressed my knee upon his back. The other, a younger and weaker one, who attacked me in the rear, I drew by the head under my arm, and nearly throttled him with the squeeze. The last, and not the weakest, was now remaining, and I had only my left hand to defend myself; but I caught him by the dress, and by a ready twist of mine, and a hasty one of his, I brought him down, his face against the ground. They tried their worst at biting, scratching, and kicking; but I had only my rage in my heart and in my limbs. With the advantage I had over them, I knocked their heads together repeatedly. last they raised a horrid cry of murder, and we were soon surrounded by all the inmates of the house. The rods scattered about, and my legs, which I had bared of the stockings, soon bore witness for me. They put off the punishment, and let me leave the house; but I declared that, for the future, on the least injury I would scratch the eyes of one or other, and tear off his ears, if not even throttle him.

At

This incident, although, as is usual with childish matters, soon forgotten again, or even laughed at, was yet the cause that these joint private lessons became rarer, and at last entirely ceased. I was therefore again, as previously, more confined to the house, where, in my sister Cornelia, only a year younger than myself, I found a companion daily more and more delightful to me.

I will, however, not quit this subject without relating some more sto ries of the many annoyances which I met with from my playfellows. For this, in fact, is what is most instructive in such moral disclosures, that a man learns how it has gone with others, and what he too must look for in life; and that whatever happens, he may know this to betide him as man, and not as one specially lucky or luckless. If such knowledge is not of much importance for avoiding evils, yet is it very useful for learning to understand our position, to bear it, nay, to triumph over it.

There is still one general remark which will be apposite here. As life goes on with children of the cultivated classes, a great contradiction displays itself. I mean this, that they are ex

horted and trained by their parents and teachers to conduct themselves moderately, intelligently, even reasonably; to give no one pain out of petulance or arrogance, and to subdue all malignant impulses which may happen to arise in them; and yet, on the contrary, while the young creatures are exercised in this discipline, they have to bear that from others which in them is blamed and severely punished. Thus the poor sufferers are brought into a pitiable strait between nature and civilisation, and according to their diversity of character break out either cunningly or violently, after having for a time restrained themselves.

Force ought rather to be resisted by force. But a well-disposed child, inclined to affection and sympathy, has little to oppose to insult and malice. If I was pretty well able to stop the active assaults of my companions, yet I was by no means on a level with them as to taunts and abuse; for in these he who only defends himself must always lose. Therefore attacks of this kind, when they excited anger, were also repelled by physical force, or awoke strange reflections in me, which could not but produce after-results. Among other advantages, my ill-wishers grudged me also my enjoyment of a dignity which accrued to the family from my grandfather's chief magistracy; for while he was first among his fellows, this had no small influence on all belonging to him. Thus, one day after the holding of the Pipers' Courts, I appeared to set some store by the importance of seeing my grandfather in the midst of the Council, a step higher than the others, and as it were enthroned under the picture of the Emperor. But one of the boys said disdainfully-that I ought at least, like the peacock looking at his feet, to cast a glance beyond my grandfather on his father's side, who had been landlord of the Willow-Tree Inn, and would have laid no claim to thrones and crowns. To this I answered, that I was not at all ashamed of it, as the very glory and excellence of our native city consisted in this, that all citizens were bound to hold each other equal, and that every one might derive profit and honour from his endeavours in his own line. I grieved only that the old man had been so long dead; for I had often longed that I also could have known him personally, had

frequently looked at his portrait, nay, had visited his grave, and drawn pleasure, at least, from the inscription on the simple monument of that past existence to which I was indebted for mine. Another ill-wisher, the spitefulest of all, took the first aside, and whispered something into his ear, while they continued to look tauntingly at me. Already had my gall begun to rise, and I challenged them to speak out. "Now then, as to the rest," said the former speaker, " my friend here thinks that you might seek about far and wide without finding your grandfather."-I now threatened worse violence if they would not explain themselves more clearly. Then they repeated a tale which they pretended to have overheard from their parents. My father was the son of some considerable man, and that honest citizen had given his consent to take outwardly the paternal office. They had the impudence to bring forward all sorts of arguments; for instance, that our property came only from my grandmother, that the other side-relations, in Friedberg and elsewhere, were equally without fortune, and the like arguments, which could derive no weight except from malice. I listened to them more quietly than they expected; for they were already on the watch to escape, if I made as if I would seize their hair. But I answered quite tranquilly, that this also was no evil to me. Life is such a blessing, that one might well hold it quite indifferent to whom one was indebted for it, as, at last, it must be derived from God, in whose sight we are all equal. Thus, as they could gain nothing, they let for this time the matter rest, and we went on to play together, which among children is a tried means of reconciliation.

These spiteful words, however, had implanted in me a kind of moral disease, which crept on in secret. I could not feel at all displeased at being the grandson of a man of distinction, even if it were not in the most lawful way. My ingenuity hunted in this track; my imagination was excited, and my acuteness developed. I now began to examine the allegation of those discoverers, and found and invented new grounds of probability. I had heard little said of my grandfather, except that his portrait had hung with that of my grandmother in

a parlour of the old house, and that both, after the building of the new one, were preserved in an upper room. My grandmother must have been a very beautiful woman, and of the same age as her husband. I also remembered to have seen in their parlour the miniature of a handsome gentleman in uniform, with a star and order, which after her death had disappeared, together with many other small articles, in the all-confusing work of the new structure. These, and many other things, I put together in my childish head, and exercised early enough that modern kind of poetic talent, which, by a surprising combination of the important facts of human life, is able to obtain the sympathy of the whole cultivated world.

Now, as I could not venture to confide such a matter to any one, or even to enquire about it from a distance, I did not relax the diligence of my secret efforts to come, if possible, somewhat nearer to the matter; for I had heard it maintained explicitly, that the sons have often a positive resemblance to the fathers or grandfathers. Several of our friends, and particularly the Councillor Schneider, an intimate of the family, were connected by business with all the princes and noblemen of the neighbourhood. No small number of these, whether of the ruling or of the younger branches, had their possessions on the Rhine, and Maine, and in the space between; and sometimes, out of special favour, presented their faithful agents with their portraits. These, which from my childhood I had often seen upon the walls, I now studied with double attention, looking whether I could not discover some likeness to my father, or even to myself. This, however, was so often the case, that it could not lead me to any certainty. First it was the eyes of one, then the nose of another, which seemed to me to indicate a relationship; so these marks led me deceptively up and down. And although I was ultimately compelled to regard the allegation as an utterly groundless tale; yet the impression remained with me, and I could not cease, from time to time, silently to call up and inspect all the noblemen whose likenesses had remained very clear in my fancy. So true is it, that all which inwardly strengthens a man in his self-conceit,

and flatters his secret vanity, is an object of such extreme desire to him, that he asks no further whether, in any other way, it may turn to his honour or disgrace.

But, instead of introducing serious and even reproachful considerations into those happy times, I will rather turn away my eyes from them. For who can have the power to speak worthily of the fulness of childhood? We cannot see the little creatures that move about before us but with pleasure, nay, with admiration; for they generally promise more than they fulfil; and it seems as if nature, among other roguish tricks which she plays us, in this also particularly designs to take advantage of us. The first organs which she gives to children in the world, are suitable to the nearest immediate state of the creature, which uses them, without art or assumption, in the readiest way, for the nearest ends. The child, regard ed in and by itself with its equals, and in relations fitted to its powers, appears with so much understanding, so much reason, that nothing can exceed it, and at the same time so easy, cheerful, nimble, that one could not wish it any farther culture. If children grew up as they promise, we should have nothing but geniuses; but the growth is not a mere development. The different organic systems which make up one spring out of each other, follow each other, change into each other, supplant each other, yea, devour each other. Thus, of many capacities, many tendencies, after a certain time there is hardly a trace to be discovered. Even if the individuality of a man, on the whole, has one distinct direction, yet will it be hard for the greatest and most experienced master to announce it beforehand with any confidence. But afterwards one can well discern what it was which pointed towards a future now realized.

man

I have, therefore, nothing like an intention of entirely including the story of my childhood in these first books. On the contrary, I shall hereafter take up and continue many a thread which ran unnoticed through my first years. But I must in this place remark, what an increasing influence the events of the war gradually exerted on our dispositions and mode of life. The quiet citizen stands

in a wonderful relation to the great events of the world. Even from afar they excite and disquiet him ; and even if they do not touch him, he cannot abstain from an opinion and a sympathy. He soon takes a side, according as his character or outward circumstances determine him. If such great fatalities, such important changes, approach nearer to him, then, along with many outward inconveniences, he has still that inward discomfort, which, for the most part, doubles and sharpens the evil, and destroys what happiness was still within his power. Then must he practically suffer both from friends and enemies, often more from those than these; and he knows not how to take thought for and secure either his inclination or his interest.

The year 1757, which we still passed in entire civic quiet, kept us nevertheless in great mental disturbance. No other, perhaps, was richer in events than this. Victories, exploits, misfortunes, restorations, succeeded by turns, and seemed to devour and destroy each other. But always the form of Frederick, his name, his glory, soon floated again high over all. The enthusiasm of his admirers became always greater and more animated, the hatred of his friends bitterer; and the different views which divided even families, helped not a little to isolate from each other the citizens, who were, at all events, in many ways separated. For in a city like Frankfort, where three religions distinguish the inhabitants into three unequal masses, where only a few even of the ruling faith can arrive at political authority, there must needs be many wealthy and instructed persons who draw towards each other, and by their individual studies and tastes form for themselves an exclusive existence. Of such men it will be necessary, now and hereafter, to speak, if we would bring before us the peculiarities of a Frankfort citizen of those days.

My father, as soon as he returned from his travels, had, according to his peculiar turn of mind, adopted the design, that in order to qualify himself for the service of the state, he would undertake one of the subordinate employments, and perform its duties without emolument, if he could obtain it without a ballot. According to his way of thinking, with the conception which he had of himself, and in the