At last, though very loath, I returned to Leipzig, and found my friends, who were not used to such digressions in me, in great astonishment, busied with all sorts of conjectures as to what might be the import of my mysterious journey.  When, upon this, I told them my story quite in order, they declared it was only a made-up tale, and sagaciously tried to get at the bottom of the riddle which I had been waggish enough to conceal under my shoemaker-lodgings.

But, could they have looked into my heart, they would have discovered no waggery there; for the truth of that old proverb, “He that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow,” had struck me with all its force:  and the more I struggled to arrange and appropriate to myself what I had seen, the less I succeeded.  I had at last to content myself with a silent after-operation.  Ordinary life carried me away again; and I at last felt myself quite comfortable when a friendly intercourse, improvement in branches of knowledge which were suitable for me, and a certain practice of the hand, engaged me in a manner less important, but more in accordance with my strength.

Very pleasant and wholesome for me was the connection I formed with the Breitkopf family.  Bernhard Christoph Breitkopf, the proper founder of the family, who had come to Leipzig as a poor journeyman printer, was yet living, and occupied the Golden Bear, a respectable house in the new Newmarket, with Gottsched as an inmate.  The son, Johann Gottlob Immanuel, had already been long married, and was the father of many children.  They thought they could not spend a part of their considerable wealth better than in putting up, opposite the first house, a large new one, the Silver Bear, which they built higher and more extensive than the original house itself.  Just at the time of the building I became acquainted with the family.  The eldest son, who might have been some years older than I, was a well-formed young man, devoted to music, and practised to play skilfully on both the piano and the violin.  The second, a true, good soul, likewise musical, enlivened the concerts which were often got up, no less than his elder brother.  They were both kindly disposed towards me, as well as their parents and sisters.  I lent them a helping hand during the building up and the finishing, the furnishing and the moving in, and thus formed a conception of much that belongs to such an affair:  I also had an opportunity of seeing Oeser’s instructions put in practice.  In the new house, which I had thus seen erected, I was often a visitor.  We had many pursuits in common; and the eldest son set some of my songs to music, which, when printed, bore his name, but not mine, and have been little known.  I have selected the best, and inserted them among my other little poems.  The father had invented or perfected musical type.  He granted me the use of a fine library, which related principally to the origin and progress of printing; and thus I gained