writers diligently:  Pope, if not his model, was his aim; and, in opposition to that author’s “Essay on Man,” he had written a poem in like form and measure, which was to give the Christian religion the triumph over the deism of the other work.  From the great store of papers which he carried with him, he showed me poetical and prose compositions in all languages, which, as they challenged me to imitation, once more gave me infinite disquietude.  Yet I contrived to get over it immediately by activity.  I wrote German, French, English, and Italian poems, addressed to him, the subject-matter of which I took from our conversations, which were always important and instructive.

Schlosser did not wish to leave Leipzig without having seen face to face the men who had a name.  I willingly took him to those I knew:  with those whom I had not yet visited, I in this way became honorably acquainted; since he was received with distinction as a well-informed man of education, of already established character, and well knew how to pay for the outlay of conversation.  I cannot pass over our visit we paid to Gottsched, as it exemplifies the character and manners of that man.  He lived very respectably in the first story of the Golden Bear, where the elder Breitkopf, on account of the great advantage which Gottsched’s writings, translations, and other aids had brought to the trade, had promised him a lodging for life.

We were announced.  The servant led us into a large chamber, saying his master would come immediately.  Now, whether we misunderstood a gesture which he made, I cannot say:  it is enough, we thought he directed us into an adjoining room.  We entered, to witness a singular scene:  for, on the instant, Gottsched, that tall, broad, gigantic man, came in at the opposite door in a morning-gown of green damask lined with red taffeta; but his monstrous head was bald and uncovered.  This, however, was to be immediately provided for:  the servant rushed in at a side-door with a great full-bottomed wig in his hand (the curls came down to the elbows), and handed the head-ornament to his master with gestures of terror.  Gottsched, without manifesting the least vexation, raised the wig from the servant’s arm with his left hand, and, while he very dexterously swung it up on his head, gave the poor fellow such a box on the ear with his right paw, that the latter, as often happens in a comedy, went spinning out at the door; whereupon the respectable old grandfather invited us quite gravely to be seated, and kept up a pretty long discourse with good grace.

As long as Schlosser remained in Leipzig, I dined daily with him, and became acquainted with a very pleasant set of boarders.  Some Livonians, and the son of Hermann (chief court-preacher in Dresden), afterwards burgomaster in Leipzig, and their tutor, Hofrath Pfeil, author of the “Count von P.,” a continuation of Gellert’s “Swedish Countess;” Zachariae, a brother of the poet; and Krebel, editor