domestic wishes.

'In my new establishment at Leipzig, I purpose to avoid one error,
which has plagued me a great deal here in Mannheim. It is this: No
longer to conduct my own housekeeping, and also no longer to live
alone. The former is not by any means a business I excel in. It costs
me less to execute a whole conspiracy, in five acts, than to settle my
domestic arrangements for a week; and poetry, you yourself know, is
but a dangerous assistant in calculations of economy. My mind is drawn
different ways; I fall headlong out of my ideal world, if a holed
stocking remind me of the real world.

'As to the other point, I require for my private happiness to have a
true warm friend that would be ever at my hand, like my better angel;
to whom I could communicate my nascent ideas in the very act of
conceiving them, not needing to transmit them, as at present, by
letters or long visits. Nay, when this friend of mine lives beyond the
four corners of my house, the trifling circumstance, that in order to
reach him I must cross the street, dress myself, and so forth, will of
itself destroy the enjoyment of the moment, and the train of my
thoughts is torn in pieces before I see him.

'Observe you, my good fellow, these are petty matters; but petty
matters often bear the weightiest result in the management of life. I
know myself better than perhaps a thousand mothers' sons know
themselves; I understand how much, and frequently how little, I
require to be completely happy. The question therefore is: Can I get
this wish of my heart fulfilled in Leipzig?

'If it were possible that I could make a lodgment with you, all my
cares on that head would be removed. I am no bad neighbour, as perhaps
you imagine; I have pliancy enough to suit myself to another, and here
and there withal a certain knack, as Yorick says, at helping to make
him merrier and better. Failing this, if you could find me any person
that would undertake my small economy, everything would still be well.

'I want nothing but a bedroom, which might also be my working room;
and another chamber for receiving visits. The house-gear necessary for
me are a good chest of drawers, a desk, a bed and sofa, a table, and a
few chairs. With these conveniences, my accommodation were
sufficiently provided for.

'I cannot live on the ground-floor, nor close by the ridge-tile; also
my windows positively must not look into the churchyard. I love men,
and therefore like their bustle.