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 deemed.

Practical land surveying at this time chiefly interested me, for it at once satisfied my love for out-of-doors life, and fully occupied my intelligence.  But the everlasting scribbling which now fell to my share I could not long endure, in spite of my otherwise pleasant life.

Early in the spring of 1803 I left my situation and went to Bamberg, feeling sure that the political changes by which Bamberg had been transferred to Bavaria, and the general survey of the district which was therefore in contemplation, would immediately provide me with a sphere of work suited to my capabilities.  My expectations were not falsified.  In pursuance of my plan I introduced myself to the land-surveyors in Bamberg, and at once received employment from one of them.  He had had considerable surveys in hand, and was still engaged upon them.  As I showed some proficiency in mapping, he entrusted me with the preparation of the necessary maps which accompanied the surveys.  This kept me employed for some time on work sufficiently remunerative for my needs.

Of course the question in hand with the new Government was the appointment of land-surveyors, and those who were resident in the town were invited to send in maps of Bamberg as specimens of their work.  Through the instruction I had enjoyed in my youth I was not unacquainted with such work.  I therefore took pleasure in drawing a map, which I sent in.  My work was approved, and I received something for it; but being a stranger, inexperienced, and young, and having hardly taken the best way towards my purposed aim, I obtained no appointment.