But as when the concert of our souls is most spiritually attuned, the rude, shrieking tones of the world usually break in most violently and boisterously, and the contrast which has gone on exercising a secret control affects us so much the more sensibly when it comes forward all at once:  thus was I not to be dismissed from the peripatetic school of my Langer without having first witnessed an event, strange at least for Leipzig; namely, a tumult which the students excited, and that on the following pretence.  Some young people had quarrelled with the city soldiers, and the affair had not gone off without violence.  Many of the students combined to revenge the injuries inflicted.  The soldiers resisted stubbornly, and the advantage was not on the side of the very discontented academical citizens.  It was now said that respectable persons had commended and rewarded the conquerors for their valiant resistance; and, by this, the youthful feeling of honor and revenge was mightily excited.  It was publicly said, that, on the next evening, windows would be broken in:  and some friends who brought me word that this was actually taking place, were obliged to carry me there; for youth and the multitude are always attracted by danger and tumult.  There really began a strange spectacle.  The otherwise open street was lined on one side with men who, quite quiet, without noise or movement, were waiting to see what would happen.  About a dozen young fellows were walking singly up and down the empty sidewalk, with the greatest apparent composure; but, as soon as they came opposite the marked house, they threw stones at the windows as they passed by, and this repeatedly as they returned backwards and forwards, as long as the panes would rattle.  Just as quietly as this was done, all at last dispersed; and the affair had no further consequences.

With such a ringing echo of university exploits, I left Leipzig in the September of 1768, in a comfortable hired coach, and in the company of some respectable persons of my acquaintance.  In the neighborhood of Auerstaedt I thought of that previous accident; but I could not forebode that which many years afterwards would threaten me from thence with still greater danger, just as little as in Gotha, where we had the castle shown to us, I could think in the great hall adorned with stucco figures, that so much favor and affection would befall me on that very spot.

The nearer I approached my native city, the more I recalled to myself doubtingly the circumstances, prospects, and hopes with which I had left home; and it was with a very disheartening feeling that I now returned, as it were, like one shipwrecked.  Yet, since I had not very much with which to reproach myself, I contrived to compose myself tolerably well:  however, the welcome was not without emotion.  The great vivacity of my nature, excited and heightened by sickness, caused an impassioned scene.  I might have looked worse than I myself knew, since for a long time I had not consulted a looking-glass; and who does not become used to himself?  Suffice it to say, they silently resolved to communicate many things to me only by degrees, and before all things to let me have some repose, both bodily and mental.