fmann and Hippel, were different, they
necessarily did not see so much of each other as previously; but once a
week during the winter months they devoted a night to mutual
outpourings of the things that were in them--the aspirations, hopes,
dreams, and plans for the future, &c., such as imaginative youths are
wont to cherish and indulge in. These meetings were strictly confined
to their two selves; no third was admitted. Their rules were one bottle
of wine for the whole evening, and the conversation to be carried on in
rhymed verses; and Hoffmann we find looking back upon these hours with
glad remembrance even in the full flush of his manhood and fame: even
on his last sad birthday, a few months before his death, he dwells upon
them with fond delight.

Whilst, however, devoting himself enthusiastically to the pursuit of
art, he did not neglect his more serious studies. He made good and
steady progress in the knowledge of law; and he also gave lessons in
music. It was whilst officiating in this latter capacity that his heart
was stirred by its first serious passion--a passion which left an
indelible impress upon all his future life. He fell in love with a
charming girl, who had a fine taste and true sentiment in art matters,
but who was separated from her admirer by an impassable barrier of
rank; but although her social position was far above Hoffmann's, yet
she returned warmly his pure and ardent affection. Hoffmann, however,
never disguised from himself the hopelessness of his love; and the fact
that it was so hopeless embittered all the rest of his time in
Koenigsberg, until he left it in June, 1796, for a legal appointment at
Great Glogau in Silesia.

As these years seem to have been mainly instrumental in
forming his character and shaping its outlines and giving depth and
strength to its chief features, it is desirable to dwell for a moment
upon the principal currents which at this time poured their influences
upon him. By nature of a genial and gay temperament, gifted with an
acute perception, which he had further trained in sharpness and
accuracy, endowed with no small share of talent and with an ardent love
for art, ambitious, vain in some respects, full of high spirits, and
with a keen sense of humour, and not devoid of originality, he was
daily chafed and galled in the depressing atmosphere of his home
relations. He felt how illogical was the rigid methodicity, how
unreasonable the arbitrary routine, how absu