this evening he purpost
to disclose a secret to him and ask his advice. The timid, shy Emilius
found so many difficulties, such insurmountable hinderances, in every
affair he was engaged in, and in every event that befell him, that it
almost seemed as if his destiny had been in an ironical mood when it
threw him and Roderick together, Roderick being in all things the
reverse of his friend. Fickle, flighty, always determined and fixt by
the first impression, he attempted everything, had a plan for every
emergency; no undertaking was too arduous for him, no obstacles could
deter him. But in the midst of the pursuit he wearied and broke down
just as suddenly as at first he had kindled and sprung forward:
whatever then opposed him did not act as a spur to urge him more
eagerly onward, but only made him abandon and despise what he had so
hotly rusht into; and thus Roderick was evermore thoughtlessly
beginning something new, and with no better reason relinquishing and
carelessly forgetting what he had begun just before. Hence no day ever
passed but the friends got into a quarrel, which threatened to be a
death blow to their friendship: and yet what to all appearance thus
divided them, was perhaps the very thing that bound them most closely
together: each loved the other heartily; but each found passing
satisfaction in being able to discharge the most justly deserved
reproaches upon his friend.

Emilius, a rich young man of a sensitive and melancholy temperament,
had become master of his fortune on his father's death, and had set
out on his travels for the sake of cultivating his mind: he had
already been spending several months however in a large town, to enjoy
the pleasures of the carnival, about which he never gave himself the
slightest trouble, and to make certain important arrangements
concerning his fortune with some relations, whom he had scarcely yet
visited. On his journey he had fallen in with the restless,
ever-shifting and veering Roderick, who was living at variance with
his guardians, and who, to get rid altogether of them and their
troublesome admonitions, had caught eagerly at his new friend's offer
to take him with him on his travels.

On their road they had already been often on the point of separating;
but after every dispute both had only felt the more forcibly that
neither could live without the other. Scarcely had they got out of
their carriage in any town, when Roderick had already seen everything
rem