aim, that of becoming an architect. But I could at all events recognise
the new eager life which had seized me, and to mark this change to
myself, I now began to use as a Christian name the last instead of the
first of my baptismal names.[33] Other circumstances also impelled me to
make this change; and, further, it freed me from the memory of the many
disagreeable impressions of my boyhood which clustered round the name I
was then called.

The time had come when I could no longer remain satisfied with my
present occupation; and I therefore sent in my resignation. The
immediate outward circumstance which decided me was this. I had kept up
a correspondence with the young man whom I had known as a private tutor
when I held a Government clerkship in Bamberg, and who left his
situation to go to Frankfurt, and then on into France.[34] He had
afterwards lived some time in Frankfurt, occupying himself with
teaching, and now was again a private tutor in a merchant's house in the
Netherlands. I imparted to him my desire to leave my present post, and
to seek a situation with an architect; and asked his opinion whether I
should not be most likely to effect my object at Frankfurt, where so
many streams of diverse life and of men intermingle. And as my friend
was accurately acquainted with the ins and outs of Frankfurt life, I
asked him to give me such indications as he could of the best road to
take towards the fulfilment of my designs. My friend entered heartily
into my project, and wrote to me that he intended himself to spend some
time in Frankfurt again in the early summer; and he suggested that if I
could manage to be there at the same time, a mutual consideration of the
whole matter on the spot would be the best way of going to work. In
consequence of this I at once firmly decided to leave my situation in
the following spring, and to join my friend at Frankfurt. But where was
I to find the money necessary for such a journey? I had required the