books, such as Rousseau's _Confessions_ and Wiegleb's _Natuerliche
Magie_;[4] and these in turn were forced to yield to such pastimes as
music, drawing, mummeries, boyish games, masquerades, and even more
pretentious adventures out in the garden, such as mimic chivalric
contests, construction of underground passages, &c. The boys also
discovered common ground in their desire to cultivate their minds by
poetry and other reading. The last two years at school were most
beneficial and productive in shaping Hoffmann's mind; he acquired a
taste for classics and excited the attention of his teachers by his
artistic talents, his graphic powers of representation being noticeable
even at this early age. During this time also he cultivated the
acquaintance of the painter Matuszewski, whom he introduces by name in
his tale _Der Artushof_ ("Arthur's Hall").

When sixteen or seventeen years old Hoffmann conceived his first boyish
affection, which only deserves mention as giving occasion to a frequent
utterance of his at this time, that illustrates one of the most
striking sides of his character. It appears that the young lady who was
the object of his fancied passion either refused to notice his homage
or else laughed it to scorn, for he remarked to his friend with great
warmth of feeling, "Since I can't interest her with a pleasing
exterior, I wish I were a perfect image of ugliness, so that I might
strike her attention, and so make her at least look at me."

The beginning of Hoffmann's university career--he matriculated at
Koenigsberg on 27th March, 1792--offers nothing of special interest. He
decided to study jurisprudence. In making this decision he was
doubtless influenced by the family connections and the traditional
calling of the male members of the family. As already remarked, his
father, his uncle, and his great-uncle had all followed the profession
of law, and he had another uncle Doerffer in the same profession, who
occupied a position of some influence at Glogau in Silesia. But it is
also certain that he was determined to this decision--it cannot be
called choice--from the desire to make himself independent of the
family in Koenigsberg as soon as he could contrive to do so, in order
that he might free himself from the shackles and galling unpleasantness
of the untoward relations in life to which he was there subject. But he
was devoted heart and soul to art--to music and painting. As the
studies of the two friends, Hof