Autobiography of Heinrich Zschokke Author:Heinrich Zschokke Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: school I frequented; he asked how old I was, and I told him that I was in my thirteenth year. He then clapped me on the shoulder with a friendly smile, and said:... more » " Go, my boy, things shall be managed better for you." After a few days I was taken from my sister's house and sent to board with an old man, a teacher at the Altstadter school, and on his death, which took place not long after, I was sent to the rector of the same school. Aladdin's magical lump could hardly have more completely fulfilled my wishes than my turnip lamp had done. These little occurrences, which in my boyish journal were more important than the greatest revolutions and natural or moral earthquakes, will, perhaps, hardly be thought worth mentioning. Yet they exercised a deep influence on the whole tendency of my after life. The hard finger of destiny impressed ineffaceable marks upon the tender and plastic germ, which the plant has never entirely lost in its fullest maturity. PIOUS ENTHUSIASM AND SCEPTICISM. In the progress of time I was declared old enough to be initiated into the mysteries of the Christian faith, and sanctified by my first participation in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper. Whether I was fit for the holy ceremony was never asked at all. The Christianity of our enlightened Europe is for the most part mere matter of memory and habit, and the present representatives of the Apostles among our Christian congregations trouble themselves often about little else than their own emoluments and dignities, while professing to be called to their holy office by a divine spirit. I was sent for preparatory instruction to the pastor of St. Catherine's church, named Weise. He was an excellent and pious man, a little inclined to devout fanaticism. The warmth of his devotion in prayer, and the fer...« less