one to undertake his next book, _Selections from the Papers of the
Devil_. A love affair with the daughter of a minor official which she,
at least, took seriously, interrupted his studies at Leipzig even
before the insistence of creditors compelled him to a clandestine
flight. This was in 1784. Then he shared for a time his mother's
poverty at Hof and from 1786 to 1789 was tutor in the house of
Oerthel, a parvenu Commercial-Counsellor in Töpen. This experience he
was to turn to good account in _Levana_ and in his first novel, _The
Invisible Lodge_, in which the unsympathetic figure of Röper is
undoubtedly meant to present the not very gracious personality of the
Kommerzienrat.

To this period belongs a collection of _Aphorisms_ whose bright wit
reveals deep reflection. They show a maturing mind, keen insight,
livelier and wider sympathies. The _Devil's Papers_, published in
1789, when Richter, after a few months at Hof, was about to become
tutor to the children of three friendly families in Schwarzenbach,
confirm the impression of progress. In his new field Richter had great
freedom to develop his ideas of education as distinct from
inculcation. Rousseau was in the main his guide, and his success in
stimulating childish initiative through varied and ingenious
pedagogical experiments seems to have been really remarkable.

Quite as remarkable and much more disquieting were the ideas about
friendship and love which Richter now began to develop under the
stimulating influence of a group of young ladies at Hof. In a note
book of this time he writes: "Prize question for the Erotic Academy:
How far may friendship toward women go and what is the difference
between it and love?" That Richter called this circle his "erotic
academy" is significant. He was ever, in such relations, as alert to