enge, the daughter of an officer. The question of a career now
crowded out his interest in study; in August, 1800, as a step toward
the solution of this problem, Kleist returned to Berlin and secured a
modest appointment in the customs department. He found no more
satisfaction in the civil than in his former military service, and all
manner of vague plans, artistic, literary and academic, occupied his
mind. Intensive study of Kant's philosophy brought on an intellectual
crisis, in which the ardent student found himself bereft of his fond
hope of attaining to absolute truth. Meanwhile the romantic appeal of
Nature, first heeded on a trip to Wuerzburg, and the romantic lure of
travel, drew the dreamer irresistibly away from his desk. His sister
Ulrica accompanied him on a journey that began in April, 1801, and
brought them, by a devious route, to Paris in July. By this time
Kleist had become clearly conscious of his vocation; the strong
creative impulse that had hitherto bewildered him now found its proper
vent in poetic expression, and he felt himself dedicated to a literary
career. With characteristic secretiveness he kept hidden, even from
his sister, the drama at which he was quietly working.

Absorbed in his new ambition, Kleist found little in Paris to interest
him. He felt the need of solitude for the maturing of his plans, and
with the double object of seeking in idyllic pursuits the inspiration
of Nature and of earning leisure for writing, he proposed to his
betrothed that she join him secretly in establishing a home upon a
small farm in Switzerland. When Wilhelmina found it impossible to
accept this plan, Kleist coldly severed all relations with her. He
journeyed to Switzerland in December, 1801, and in Bern became
acquainted with a group of young authors, the novelist Heinrich
Zschokke, the publisher Heinrich Gessner, and Ludwig Wieland, son of
the famous author of _Oberon_. To these sympathetic friends he read
his first tragedy, which, in its earlier draft, had a Spanish setting,
as _The Thierrez Family_ or _The Ghonorez Family_, but which, on their
advice, was given a German background. This drama Gessner published
for Kleist, under the title _The Schroffenstein Family_, in the winter
of 1802-03. It had no sooner appeared than the author felt himself to
have outgrown its youthful weaknesses of imitation and exaggeration.
Another dramatic production grew directly out of the discussions of
this little circle. T