those who can do many things, nay, much, that they trust everything to themselves; and youth must indeed be in this position, if anything is to be made of it. A survey of the science of jurisprudence and all its framework I had pretty well acquired; single subjects of law sufficiently interested me; and, as I had the good Leyser for my model, I thought I should get tolerably through with my own little common sense. Great movements were showing themselves in jurisprudence; judgments were to be more according to equity; all rights by usage were daily seen to be compromised; and, in the criminal department especially, a great change was impending. As for myself, I felt well enough that I lacked an infinite deal to fill up the legal commonplace which I had proposed. The proper knowledge was wanting, and no inner tendency urged me to such subjects. Neither was there any impulse from without,—nay, quite another faculty[1] had completely carried me away. In general, if I was to take any interest in a thing, it was necessary for me to gain something from it, to perceive in it something that appeared fertile to me, and gave me prospects. Thus I had once more noted down some materials, had afterward made collections, had taken my books of extracts in hand, had considered the point which I wished to maintain, the scheme according to which I wished to arrange the single elements; but I was sharp enough soon to perceive that I could not get on, and that, to treat a special matter, a special and long-pursuing industry was requisite,—nay, that such a special task cannot be successfully accomplished unless, upon the whole, one is at any rate an old hand, if not a master.
The friends to whom I communicated my embarrassment thought me ridiculous, because one can dispute upon theses us well as, nay, even better than, upon a treatise; and in Strasburg this was not uncommon. I
- ↑ Medicine. — Trans.
