Transcriber's Note:
1. Page scan source:1. Page scan source:
http://books.google.com/books?id=VsALAAAAIAAJ&pg=PP5&dq=Collection+of+German+Authors.+Vol.+27.
Authorized Edition.
I had only intended to spend one day up in the mountains, and this oneday grew into two weeks, which I found pass more rapidly in thathigh-perched ruinous nest on the confines of the Albano and Sabinerange--the name I will not give--than was often the case in the whirlof great cities. What I actually did with myself during the sweet longdays I hardly know how to tell. But in Rome a mighty hunger aftersolitude had fallen on me. I could satisfy it here to the full. It wasearly spring-time, the leaves of the chestnut trees shone in luxuriantfreshness; the ravines were filled by the song of birds, and the murmurof brooks; and as of late a large body of banditti who had renderedthis wild district insecure, had been in part captured, and in partdriven into the Abruzzi, it ensued that a lonely wanderer might withoutany apprehension climb the remotest crags, and there give himself upundisturbed to profoundest meditations.
From the first I declined all intercourse with the German artists, agood number of whom had taken possession of both miserable inns thevillage possessed, and as to the desire of every now and then hearingone's own voice, which impels hermits to converse with their domesticanimals, I could gratify it quite sufficiently within my own walls. Foras it happened I lodged with the apothecary, and he had the utmostindulgence for my very defective Italian. True he indemnified himselffor his outlay in patience by not unfrequently taking advantage ofmine, for as soon as the first shyness had worn off, he showered awhole cornucopia of his own verses on me, confessing that despite hisfifty and five years he was still unable entirely to shake off thischildish malady. "What would you