whom he has nine. His eldest daughter especially is highly spoken
of. He has invited me to go and see him, and I intend to do so
on the first opportunity. He lives at one of the royal hunting-lodges,
which can be reached from here in an hour and a half by walking,
and which he obtained leave to inhabit after the loss of his wife,
as it is so painful to him to reside in town and at the court.

There have also come in my way a few other originals of a questionable
sort, who are in all respects undesirable, and most intolerable
in their demonstration of friendship. Good-bye. This letter will
please you: it is quite historical.

MAY 22.

That the life of man is but a dream, many a man has surmised
heretofore; and I, too, am everywhere pursued by this feeling.
When I consider the narrow limits within which our active and
inquiring faculties are confined; when I see how all our energies
are wasted in providing for mere necessities, which again have no
further end than to prolong a wretched existence; and then that
all our satisfaction concerning certain subjects of investigation
ends in nothing better than a passive resignation, whilst we amuse
ourselves painting our prison-walls with bright figures and brilliant
landscapes, -- when I consider all this, Wilhelm, I am silent.
I examine my own being, and find there a world, but a world rather
of imagination and dim desires, than of distinctness and living
power. Then everything swims before my senses, and I smile and
dream while pursuing my way through the world.

All learned professors and doctors are agreed that children do not