solid foundation in my knowledge of Latin; therefore I now tried to
supply deficiencies to the extent of my ability, and with the help of a
friend. It was extremely hard to me, this working my way through the
dead and fragmentary teaching of an elementary grammar. It always seemed
to me as if the mere outer acquisition of a language could but little
help forward my true inner desire for knowledge, which was deeply in
earnest, and was the result of my own free choice. But wherever the
knowledge of language linked itself to definite external impressions,
and I was able to perceive its connection with facts, as, for instance,
in the scientific nomenclature of botany, I could quickly make myself
master of it. This peculiarity of mind passed by me unnoticed at the
time; I knew and understood too little, nay, indeed, almost nothing of
myself as yet, even as regards the actions of my every-day life.

A second occupation of this prison period was the preparation of an
exercise (or academical thesis) in geometry, which I undertook that I
might the sooner obtain an independent position in some profession.

Thirdly, I studied Winckelmann's "Letters on Art." Through them some
germs of higher artistic feeling may have been awakened within me; for I
examined the engravings which the work contains with intense delight. I
could quite perceive the glow of pleasure that they aroused, but at the
time I took little account of this influence, and indeed the feeling
for art altogether was late in developing itself in me. When I now
glance over the earlier and later, the greater and smaller, artistic
emotions which have swayed me, and observe their source and direction, I
see that it was with arts (sculpture as well as music) as it was with
languages--I never succeeded in accomplishing the outward acquisition of
them: yet I now feel vividly that I, too, might have been capable of
something in art had I had an artistic education.