schoolfellows and on my own family. My mother devoutly folded her
hands in thankfulness, and in my own mind my vocation seemed
quite a settled thing. It was clear, beyond the possibility of a
doubt, that I was destined to be a poet. Professor Sillig wished
me to compose a grand epic, and suggested as a subject 'The
Battle of Parnassus,' as described by Pausanias. His reasons for
this choice were based upon the legend related by Pausanias,
viz., that in the second century B.C. the Muses from Parnassus
aided the combined Greek armies against the destructive invasion
of the Gauls by provoking a panic among the latter. I actually
began my heroic poem in hexameter verse, but could not get
through the first canto.

Not being far enough advanced in the language to understand the
Greek tragedies thoroughly in the original, my own attempts to
construct a tragedy in the Greek form were greatly influenced by
the fact that quite by accident I came across August Apel's
clever imitation of this style in his striking poems 'Polyidos'
and 'Aitolier.' For my theme I selected the death of Ulysses,
from a fable of Hyginus, according to which the aged hero is
killed by his son, the offspring of his union with Calypso. But I
did not get very far with this work either, before I gave it up.

My mind became so bent upon this sort of thing, that duller
studies naturally ceased to interest me. The mythology, legends,
and, at last, the history of Greece alone attracted me.

I was fond of life, merry with my companions, and always ready
for a joke or an adventure. Moreover, I was constantly forming
friendships, almost passionate in their ardour, with one or the