bred imp,--in
a word, everything that went against all effort and doing and work in
the higher life, in which a man raises himself on alert wing above the
stinking morass of his miserable crust-begging life, engendered within
me an inward dissension--an inward strife, which much sooner than any
external commotion around me would have caused me to perish. Every
harsh and undeserved indignity I had to suffer only increased my secret
rancour, and whilst accustoming myself more and more to wine as a
stimulant and so stirring up the fire to make it bum more merrily, I
heeded not that this was the only way by which good could come out of
the ruinous evil. In these few words, in this brief statement, I hope
you will find the key to many things which may have appeared to you
contradictory, if not enigmatical But _transeant cum ceteris._"[22]

Again, it can scarcely be doubted that we have a description of his own
state when he writes in the _Elixiere_ (Part II.), "I am what I appear
to be, and do not appear as what I really am; to myself an unsolvable
riddle, I am at variance with my own self."

The change of residence to Berlin did little to improve Hoffmann's
circumstances. During the first ten months he was, according to the
conditions imposed, labouring to make himself acquainted with the
changes that had taken place in legal procedure, and to fit himself for
entering the service of the state again and resuming his interrupted
career; but he received no compensation for his pains; he had to
support himself as best he could by the fruits of his pen. On July 1,
1815, he was appointed to a clerkship in the department of the Minister
of Justice, which post he exchanged on 1st May, 1816, for that of
Councillor in the Supreme Court, being also restored to all his rights
of seniority as though no break had ever taken place in his official
career. The duties attaching to this office he continued to discharge
with his accustomed diligence and skill until promoted in the autumn of
1821 to be a member of the Senate of Higher Appeal in the same court.
Notwithstanding his sad and disappointing experiences, and the
tempestuous times of his "martyr years" at Bamberg, he was not yet
disgusted with the life of an artist. His hopes were not yet alienated
from the calling that hovered before his mind as an ideal for so many
years. Whilst battling, with somewhat less of reckless high spirits and
humour, against the embarrassments and pecuni