The name of Klopstock had already produced a great effect upon us, even at a distance.  In the outset, people wondered how so excellent a man could be so strangely named; but they soon got accustomed to this, and thought no more of the meaning of the syllables.  In my father’s library I had hitherto found only the earlier poets, especially those who in his day had gradually appeared and acquired fame.  All these had written in rhyme, and my father held rhyme as indispensable in poetical works.  Canitz, Hagedorn, Drollinger, Gellert Creuz, Haller, stood in a row, in handsome calf bindings:  to these were added Neukirch’s “Telemachus,” Koppen’s “Jerusalem Delivered,” and other translations.  I had from my childhood diligently perused the whole of these works, and committed portions of them to memory, whence I was often called upon to amuse the company.  A vexatious era on the other hand opened upon my father, when, through Klopstock’s “Messiah,” verses, which seemed to him no verses, became an object of public admiration.[Footnote:  The Messiah is written in hexameter verse.—­Trans.] He had taken good care not to buy this book; but the friend of the family, Councillor Schneider, smuggled it in, and slipped it into the hands of my mother and her children.

On this man of business, who read but little, “The Messiah,” as soon as it appeared, made a powerful impression.  Those pious feelings, so naturally expressed, and yet so beautifully elevated; that pleasant diction, even if considered merely as harmonious prose,—­had so won the otherwise dry man of business, that he regarded the first ten cantos, of which alone we are properly speaking, as the finest book of devotion, and once every year in Passion Week, when he managed to escape from business, read it quietly through by himself, and thus refreshed himself for the entire year.  In the beginning he thought to communicate his emotions to his old friend; but he was much shocked when forced to perceive an incurable dislike cherished against a book of such valuable substance, merely because of what appeared to him an indifferent external form.  It may readily be supposed that their conversation often reverted to this topic; but both parties diverged more and more widely from each other, there were violent scenes:  and the compliant man was at last pleased to be silent on his favorite work, that he might not lose, at the same time, a friend of his youth, and a good Sunday meal.

It is the most natural wish of every man to make proselytes; and how much did our friend find himself rewarded in secret, when he discovered in the rest of the family hearts so openly disposed for his saint.  The copy which he used only one week during the year was given over to our edification all the remaining time.  My mother kept it secret; and we children took possession of it when we could, that in leisure hours, hidden in some nook, we might learn the most striking passages by heart, and particularly might impress the most tender as well as the most violent parts on our memory as quickly as possible.