During this French occupation I made great progress with the French language.  But the chief profit was that which I derived from the theatre, for which my grandfather had given me a free ticket.  I saw many French comedies acted, and became friendly with some of the young people connected with the stage.  From the first day of the military occupation there was no lack of diversion; plays and balls, parades and marches constantly attracted our attention.

II.—­A Romantic Episode

After the French occupation we children could not fail to feel as if the house were deserted.  But new lodgers came in, Chancery-Director Moritz and his family being received in this capacity.  They were quiet and gentle, and peace and stillness reigned.  About this time a long-debated project for giving us lessons in music was carried into effect.  It was settled that we should learn the harpsichord.  And as we also received lessons from a drawing-master, the way to two arts was thus early enough opened to me.

English was also added to my studies; and as on my own account I soon felt that I ought to know Hebrew, my father allowed the rector of our gymnasium to give me private lessons.  I studied the Old Testament no longer in Luther’s translation, but in the literal version of Schmid.  I also paid great attention to sermons at church, and wrote out many that I heard, doing this in a style that greatly gratified my father.

At this time my first romantic experience occurred.  I fell under the enchantment of Gretchen, a beautiful girl who waited on me and some comrades at a restaurant.  The form of that girl followed me from that moment on every path.  At church, during the long Protestant service, I gazed my fill at her.  I wrote her love-letters, which she did not resent.  The first propensities to love in an uncorrupted youth take altogether a spiritual direction.  Nature seems to desire that one sex may by the senses perceive goodness and beauty in the other.  And thus to me, by the sight of this girl, a new world of the beautiful and excellent had arisen.  But my friendship for this maiden being discovered by my father, a family disturbance ensued which plunged me into illness.  I had been ordered to have nothing to do with anyone but the family.

My sorrow was deepened as I slowly recovered by the addition of a certain secret chagrin, for I plainly perceived that I was watched.  It was not long before my family gave me a special overseer.  Fortunately, it was a man whom I loved and valued.  He had held the place of tutor in the family of one of our friends, and his former pupil had gone to the university.  This friend, in skillful conversations, began to make me acquainted with the secrets of philosophy.  He had studied at Jena under Daries, and had acutely seized the relations of that doctrine, which he now sought to impart to me.

After a time I took to wandering about the mountain range, and thus visited Homburg, Kronenburg, Wiesbaden, Schwalbach, and reached the Rhine.  But the time was approaching when I was to go to the university.  My mind was quite as much excited about my life as about my learning.  I grew more and more conscious of an aversion from my native city.  I never again went into Gretchen’s quarter of it, and even my old walls and towers had become disagreeable.