heim Schiller's financial position, in spite of his earnest
purpose to manage wisely, grew by degrees worse rather than better.
Owing to the many little expenses laid upon him by his connections in
society, his income would not suffice; and the cash-box was not seldom
run so low that he had not wherewithal to support himself next day. Of
assistance from home, with the rigorous income of his Father, which
scarcely amounted to 40_l._ a year, there could nothing be expected;
and over and above, the Father himself had, in this respect, very
clearly spoken his mind. "Parents and Sisters," said Schiller Senior,
"have as just a right as they have a confidence, in cases of
necessity, to expect help and support from a Son." To fill to
overflowing the measure of the Poet's economical distress, there now
stept forth suddenly some secret creditors of his in Stuttgart,
demanding immediate payment. Whereupon, in quick succession, there
came to Captain Schiller, to his great terror, two drafts from the
Son, requiring of him, the one 10_l._, the other 5_l._ The Captain,
after stern reflection, determined at last to be good for both
demands; but wrote to the Son that he only did so in order that his,
the Son's, labour might not be disturbed; and in the confident
anticipation that the Son, regardful of his poor Sisters and their bit
of portion, would not leave him in the lurch.

'But Schiller, whom still other debts in Stuttgart, unknown to his
Father, were pressing hard, could only repay the smaller of these
drafts; and thus the worthy Father saw himself compelled to pay the
larger, the 10_l._, out of the savings he had made for outfit of his
Daughters. Whereupon, as was not undeserved, he took his Son tightly
to task, and wrote to him: "As long as thou, my Son, shalt make thy
reckoning on resources that are still to come, and therefore are still
subject to chance and mischance, so long wilt thou continue in thy
mess of embarrassments. Furthermore, as long as thou thinkest, This
gulden or batzen (shilling or farthing) can't help me to get over it;
so long will thy debts become never the smaller: and, what were a
sorrow to me, thou wilt not be able, after a heavy labour of head got
done, to recreate thyself in the society of other good men. But,
withal, to make recreation-days of that kind more numerous than
work-days, that surely will not turn out well. Best Son, thy abode in
Bauerbach has been of that latter kind. _Hinc illae lacrymae!