then issuing from the press, and treating of matters connected with the
occupation which I had chosen, passed through my hands, as well as those
on other subjects. I was especially attracted by some volumes which
contained aphorisms, thoughts, and observations on conduct, selected
from ancient and modern writers and thinkers. My character grew upon and
entwined itself around these aphorisms, which I could easily glance
over, and as easily retain, and, more than all, which I could weave into
my own life and thoughts, and by which I could examine my conduct. I
made extracts of those which were in closest accord with my inner life,
and bore them always about my person.

Amidst these surroundings my life contained many elements of growth.
Although my chief, as well as his family, was a strong Roman Catholic,
he chose a (Protestant) private tutor recommended to him by Professor
Carus. This gentleman had many excellent qualities, so that we soon
became great friends. We had also both of us the pleasure of being
acquainted with some highly-cultured people, the families of the
physician, of the minister, and of the schoolmaster in the neighbouring
Protestant village, which was as yet still a fief of the Empire.[25] My
friend the tutor was a young man quite out of the common, with an
actively inquiring mind; especially fond of making plans for
wide-stretching travel, and comprehensive schemes of education. Our
intercourse and our life together were very confidential and open, for
the subjects he cared for were those dear to me; but we were of
diametrically opposite natures. He was a man of scholastic training, and
I had been deficiently educated. He was a youth who had plunged into
strife with the world and society; my thought was how to live in peace
with myself and all men. Besides, our outward lives bore such different
aspects that a truly intimate friendship could not exist between us.
Nevertheless our very contrasts bound us more closely together than we