Dresden, introduced me to a comrade from Erfurt as a Thueringer, and therefore a fellow-countryman.  This was Langethal; and casually as our acquaintance thus began, it proved to be a lasting friendship.  Our first day’s march was to Meissen, where we halted.  We had enjoyed lovely spring weather during our march, and our repose was gladdened by a still lovelier evening.  I found all the university students of the corps, driven by a like impulse, collected together in an open place by the shores of Elbe and near a public restaurant; and some old Meissen wine soon served us as a bond of union.  We sat about twenty strong in a jolly group at a long table, and began by welcoming and pledging one another to friendship.  It was here that Langethal introduced me to a university friend of his at Berlin, the young Middendorff, a divinity student from the Mark.[80] Keeping together in a merry little society till the middle of the lovely spring night, we united again next morning in a visit to the splendid cathedral of Meissen.  Thus from the very first did we three join fast in a common struggle towards and on behalf of the higher life, and even if we have not always remained in the like close outward bonds of union, we have from that time to this, now near upon fifteen years, never lost our comradeship in the inner life and our common endeavour after self-education.  Both Langethal and Middendorff had a third friend, named Bauer, amongst our comrades of the camp.  With him also, as I think, I made acquaintance as early as at Meissen, but it was more particularly at Havelberg, later on, that Bauer and I struck up a friendship together, which has ever since endured.  Even when we have not been together in outward life, we have always remained one in our endeavours after the highest and best.  Bauer closed the narrow circle of my friends amongst our companions in arms.[81]

I remained true to my previous way of life and thought in the manner in which I viewed my new soldier life.  My main care was always to educate myself for the actual calling which at the moment I was following; thus, amongst the first things I took in hand was an attempt at finding the inner necessity and connection of the various parts of the drill and the military services, in which, without any previous acquaintance with military affairs, I managed, in consequence of my mathematical and physical knowledge, to succeed very fairly and without any great difficulty.  I was able to protect myself, therefore, against many small reprimands, which fell tolerably frequently on those who had thought this or that instruction might be lightly passed over as too trivial to be attended to.  It came about in this way, when we were continually drilling, after the cessation of the armistice, that the military exercises we performed gave me genuine pleasure on account of their regularity, their clearness, and the precision of their execution.  In probing into their nature I could see freedom beneath their recognised necessity.