s found
out at last, and I was punished, yet I remained the same. For before I was
ten years old I repeatedly took of the government money which was
intrusted to my father, and which he had to make up; till one day, as he
had repeatedly missed money, he detected my theft, by depositing a counted
sum in the room where I was, and leaving me to myself for a while. Being
thus left alone, I took some of the money, and hid it under my foot in my
shoe. When my father, after his return, had counted and missed the money,
I was searched and my theft detected.

Though I was punished on this and other occasions, yet I do not remember
that at any time, when my sins were found out, it made any other
impression upon me than to make me think how I might do the thing the next
time more cleverly, so as not to be detected. Hence it came, that this was
not the last time that I was guilty of stealing.

When I was between ten and eleven years of age, I was sent to
Halberstadt, to the cathedral classical school, there to be prepared for
the university; for my father's desire was, that I should become a
clergyman: not, indeed, that thus I might serve God, but that I might have
a comfortable living. My time was now spent in studying, reading novels,
and indulging, though so young, in sinful practices. Thus it continued
till I was fourteen years old, when my mother was suddenly removed. The
night she was dying, I, not knowing of her illness, was playing at cards
till two in the morning, and on the next day, being the Lord's day, I went
with some of my companions in sin to a tavern, and then we went about the
streets, half intoxicated.

The following day I attended, for the first time, the religious
instruction, which I was to receive previous to my confirmation. This
likewise was attended to in a careless manner; and when I returned to my
lodgings, my father had arrived to fetch my brother and me home to our
mother's funeral. This bereavement made no lasting impression on my mind.
I grew worse and worse. Three or four days before I was confirmed, (and
thus admitted to partake of the Lord's supper,) I was guilty of gross
immorality; and the very day before my confirmation, when I was in the
vestry with the clergyman to confess my sins, (according to the usual
practice,) after a formal manner, I defrauded him; for I handed over to
him only the twelfth part of the fee which my father had given me for him.

In this state of heart, without prayer,