salary I had, was little enough to keep house upon. At first, however, I did not find that I had any reason to despair. My intimacy with Reinhard was well known, and I believe that mainly to this excellent man's good opinion was I indebted for the reputation which in a manner anticipated me at the commencement of my academical career. At the same time I think that my probationary thesis (De pace inter philosophos, utrum speranda et optanda) on the question—"whether peace was to be looked for, or was desirable, among the different sects of philosophers," and the manner in which I defended it, by no means discredited the favourable opinion that had been conceived of me. My introductory lecture also was hailed with an applause which might have set me perfectly at ease with regard to my future prospects.
But while I was thus, as I thought, on the fair road to fame and fortune, a storm was brewing which I had not foreseen, and which was about to descend on my defenceless head. It had by degrees transpired that I was the author of the Letters on the Perfectibility of Religion. This discovery gave rise to much discussion; the orthodoxy of my work was called into question and an academical commission was appointed to enquire into the soundness of its tenets. The result was, that my opinions were pronounced heterodox, my book was forbidden to be sold, and I myself was interdicted from delivering lectures on any theological subject. This sentence injured me in every possible way: my character as an instructor of youth was blasted, and my hopes of obtaining a regular professorship were for the present utterly destroyed. My only consolation was, that I had laboured conscientiously after the attainment of the truth; and my opinions only became the more dear to me in consequence of the persecution which I underwent on their account.
These vexations, combined with the great literary exertions I was now compelled to make in order to procure my daily bread, threw me into a nervous fever, in the course of which I was in great danger of losing the sight of my eyes. When I recovered and was again fit for work, Reinhard, with his usual friendliness, exerted himself in every way he could think of to procure for me some academical situation, but without success. I accordingly resolved to enter upon a new scene of action, and, leaving Wittenberg, to try my fortune at Berlin. Here I made the acquaintance of several distinguished men, Teller, Gedike, Nicolai, and others, by whose recommendation, after seven long years of academical hunger, I was at last appointed assistant, with a salary of 160 dollars a-year, to Professor Steinhart, who, by reason of the infirmities of old age, had been forced to retire from the more active duties of the chair of philosophy and theology in the university of Frankfurt on the Oder.
Stage the fifth. My Professorship in Prussia—1801, 1809. I arrived in Frankfurt during the time of the fair. Trade was at that time very brisk, and the spectacle was extremely imposing; and, as I had not as yet witnessed the still greater fair at Leipsic; it was to me a perfectly novel sight. The stir and bustle incident to such an occasion, together with the introductions I had to go through to my colleagues and other people of importance in the town, served to divert my mind from the unpleasing forebodings with which, if left to my own reflections, I should have contemplated my new situation.
Professor Steinhart, indeed, my principal, welcomed me to Frankfurt with great cordiality. He offered me a lodging in his house, and board at his table—on the condition, however. that I would give up all claim to the salary of 160 dollars, which I was to receive out of his pension in consideration of the services I rendered him. But my good genius whispered me to decline these terms, which would have bridged my independence, and placed me far too much at the mercy of a capricious old man. I therefore told him that I preferred having the money down; and that I would look out for board and lodgings for myself. I afterwards learned that he had a. poor female relation living in the house with him, whom he was very anxious to get a husband for; and no doubt he had fixed it all in his own mind that his assistant was just the very man. But though I will not be so unpolite as to say that any woman can be ugly—the lady in question had certainly very
