the pencils of accomplished workmen.  This multiplicity, to which there was no end, amused me vastly.  The occupation of so many men, from the commonest labor to that in which a certain artistic worth could not be denied, was to me extremely attractive.  I made the acquaintance of this multitude of younger and older men, working in several rooms one behind the other, and occasionally lent a hand myself.  The sale of these commodities was extraordinarily brisk.  Whoever at that time was building or furnishing a house, wished to provide for his lifetime; and this oil-cloth carpeting was certainly quite indestructible.  Nothnagel had enough to do in managing the whole, and sat in his office surrounded by factors and clerks.  The remainder of his time he employed in his collection of works of art, consisting chiefly of engravings, in which, as well as in the pictures he possessed, he traded occasionally.  At the same time he had acquired a taste for etching:  he etched a variety of plates, and prosecuted this branch of art even into his latest years.

As his dwelling lay near the Eschenheim gate, my way when I had visited him led me out of the city to some pieces of ground which my father owned beyond the gates.  One was a large orchard, the soil of which was used as a meadow, and in which my father carefully attended the transplanting of trees, and whatever else pertained to their preservation; though the ground itself was leased.  Still more occupation was furnished by a very well-preserved vineyard beyond the Friedberg gate, where, between the rows of vines, rows of asparagus were planted and tended with great care.  Scarcely a day passed in the fine season in which my father did not go there; and as on these occasions we might generally accompany him, we were provided with joy and delight from the earliest productions of spring to the last of autumn.  We now also acquired a knowledge of gardening matters, which, as they were repeated every year, became in the end perfectly known and familiar to us.  But, after the manifold fruits of summer and autumn, the vintage at last was the most lively and the most desirable; nay, there is no question, that as wine gives a freer character to the very places and districts where it is grown and drunk, so also do these vintage-days, while they close summer and at the same time open the winter, diffuse an incredible cheerfulness.  Joy and jubilation pervade a whole district.  In the daytime, huzzas and shoutings are heard from every end and corner; and at night rockets and fire-balls, now here, now there, announce that the people, everywhere awake and lively, would willingly make this festival last as long as possible.  The subsequent labor at the wine-press, and during the fermentation in the cellar, gave us also a cheerful employment at home; and thus we ordinarily reached winter without being properly aware of it.

These rural possessions delighted us so much the more in the spring of 1763, as the 15th of February in that year was celebrated as a festival day, on account of the conclusion of the Hubertsberg peace, under the happy results of which the greater part of my life was to flow away.  But, before I go farther, I think I am bound to mention some men who exerted an important influence on my youth.