But a leading conviction, which was continually revived within me, was that of the importance of the ancient tongues; since from amidst this literary hurly-burly, thus much continually forced itself upon me, that in them were preserved all the models of oratory, and at the same time every thing else of worth that the world has ever possessed.  Hebrew, together with biblical studies, had retired into the background, and Greek likewise, since my acquaintance with it did not extend beyond the New Testament.  I therefore the more zealously kept to Latin, the masterpieces in which lie nearer to us, and which, besides its splendid original productions, offers us the other wealth of all ages in translations, and the works of the greatest scholars.  I consequently read much in this language, with great ease, and was bold enough to believe I understood the authors, because I missed nothing of the literal sense.  Indeed, I was very indignant when I heard that Grotius had insolently declared, “he did not read Terence as boys do.”  Happy narrow-mindedness of youth!—­nay, of men in general, that they can, at every moment of their existence, fancy themselves finished, and inquire after neither the true nor the false, after neither the high nor the deep, but merely after that which is suited to them.

I had thus learned Latin, like German, French, and English, merely by practice, without rules, and without comprehension.  Whoever knows the then condition of scholastic instruction will not think it strange that I skipped grammar as well as rhetoric; all seemed to me to come together naturally:  I retained the words, their forms and inflexions, in my ear and mind, and used the language with ease in writing and in chattering.

Michaelmas, the time fixed for my going to the university, was approaching; and my mind was excited quite as much about my life as about my learning.  I grew more and more clearly conscious of an aversion to my native city.  By Gretchen’s removal, the heart had been broken out of the boyish and youthful plant:  it needed time to bud forth again from its sides, and surmount the first injury by a new growth.  My ramblings through the streets had ceased:  I now, like others, only went such ways as were necessary.  I never went again into Gretchen’s quarter of the city, not even into its vicinity:  and as my old walls and towers became gradually disagreeable to me, so also was I displeased at the constitution of the city; all that hitherto seemed so worthy of honor now appeared to me in distorted shapes.  As grandson of the Schultheiss I had not remained unacquainted with the secret defects of such a republic; the less so, as children feel quite a peculiar surprise, and are excited to busy researches, as soon as something which they have hitherto implicitly revered becomes in any degree suspicious to them.  The fruitless indignation of upright men, in opposition to those who are to be gained and even bribed by factions,