I90 DISORDERED EYES. 



years of age. Hitherto I had only refigned myfeif 

 periodically to my thirft of ftudy, at times fitting over 

 my books for fourteen days, and almoft as many nights 

 together, without any other employment ; and then 

 again hardly looking in a book for as long a fpace, ex- 

 cepting that I obferved the academical hours of ftudy, 

 and afterwards attended the lectures; but the reft of 

 my time I devoted entirely to company. In that year, 

 I had an opportunity of gratifying thefe different hu- 

 mours at pleafure. If I was ftruck with a fancy for 

 ftudy, various libraries ftood open to my ufe ; if I 

 fought merely my amufement, I had free accefs to 

 feveral eftimable families. By this ingenious divifion of 

 my time, my eyes were kept in excellent order. 

 But, nine years ago, being placed at Ellrich, a fmall 

 town in the foreft of Hartz, at a diftance from my 

 friends, amidft people for the moft part entire ftran- 

 gers to me, without a library, without bookfellers' 

 Ihops, without literary correfpondence, at firft I 

 knew not what to do. For, through the diiagreeable- 

 nefs of my fituation, I almoft forgot to take refuge in 

 ftudy. The diffractions which my perambulations 

 about this delightful country procured me came to an 

 end with the fummer. The winter came on earlier and 

 lafted longer than ufual ; and the weather was incom- 

 parably more cold and uncomfortable in the Hartz than 

 in the adjacent country. Always in my chamber alone, 

 it was no longer inclination, but neceffity that im- 

 pelled me to ftudy ; an J every hour in which I was not 

 bulled in the duties of my office, was devoted to books. 

 After the expiration of a month I got fuch a tafte for 

 this mode of life, that I entirely abandoned all comr 



panics, 



