indifferent; the moon alone, just full, exerted the power of her
reflection all the more, as she had then reached her planetary hour. She
opposed herself, therefore, to my birth, which could not be accomplished
until this hour was passed.

These good aspects, which the astrologers managed subsequently to reckon
very auspicious for me, may have been the causes of my preservation;
for, through the unskilfulness of the midwife, I came into the world as
dead; and only after various efforts was I enabled to see the light.
This event, which had put our household into sore straits, turned to the
advantage of my fellow-citizens, inasmuch as my grandfather, the
/Schultheiss/ [Footnote: A chief judge or magistrate of the town.],
John Wolfgang Textor, took occasion from it to have an /accoucheur/
appointed, and to introduce, or revive, the tuition of midwives, which
may have done some good to those who were born after me.

When we desire to recall what happened to us in the earliest period of
youth, it often happens that we confound what we have heard from others
with that which we really possess from our own direct experience.
Without, therefore, instituting a very close investigation into the
point, which, after all, could lead to nothing, I am conscious that we
lived in an old house, which, in fact, consisted of two adjoining
houses, that had been opened into each other. A winding staircase led to
rooms on different levels, and the unevenness of the stories was
remedied by steps. For us children,--a younger sister and myself,--the
favorite resort was a spacious floor below, near the door of which was a
large wooden lattice that allowed us direct communication with the
street and open air. A bird-cage of this sort, with which many houses
were provided, was called a frame (/Geraems/). The women sat in it
to sew and knit; the cook picked her salad there; female neighbors