as to see how many eminent men had undeservedly given
me their affection, among them being Dr. Hermann Groening, Horn, and,
above all, Langer, afterwards librarian at Wolfenbuettel, whose
conversation so far blinded me to the miserable state I was in that I
actually forgot it.

The confidence of new friends develops itself by degrees. The religious
sentiments, the affairs of the heart which relate to the imperishable,
are the things which both establish the foundation and adorn the summit
of friendship. The Christian religion was wavering between its own
historically positive base and a pure deism, which, grounded on
morality, was in its turn to lay the foundation of ethics. Langer was of
the class who, though learned, yet give the Bible a peculiar preeminence
over other writings. He belongs to those who cannot conceive an
immediate connection with the great God of the universe; a mediation,
therefore, was necessary for him, an analogy to which he thought he
could find everywhere, in earthly and heavenly things. Grounded as I was
in the Bible, all that I wanted was merely the faith to explain as
divine that which I had hitherto esteemed in human fashion. To a
sufferer, delicate and weak, the Gospel was therefore welcome.

I left Leipzig in September, 1768, for my native city and my home, where
my delicate appearance elicited loving sympathy. Again sickness ensued,
and my life was once more in peril, chiefly through a disturbed, I might
even say, for certain moments, destroyed digestion. But a skillful
physician helped me to convalescence. In the spring I felt so much
stronger that I longed to wander forth again from the chambers and spots
where I had suffered so much. I journeyed to beautiful Alsace and took
up lodgings on the summer-side of the fish-market in Strasburg, where I
designed to continue my studies in law. Most of my fellow-boarders were
medical students, and at table I heard nothing but medical
conversations.

I was thus easily borne along the stream, and at the beginning of the
second half-year I attended lectures on chemistry and anatomy. Yet this
dissipation and dismemberment of my studies were not enough, for a
remarkable political event secured for us a succession of holidays.
Marie Antoinette was to pass through Strasburg on her way to Paris, and
the solemnities were abundantly prepared. In the grand saloon erected on
an island in the Rhine I saw a specimen of the tapestries worked after
Raffaele's