trouble I
had at school with the multitude of numbers; and as to actual
arithmetic, that was even worse! I understood best of all subtraction,
and for this there is a very practical rule: "Four can't be taken from
three, therefore I must borrow one"; but I advise all in such a case to
borrow a few extra groschen, for no one can tell what may happen.

But oh, the Latin! Madame, you can really have no idea of how
complicated it is. The Romans would never have found time to conquer the
world if they had been obliged first to learn Latin. Lucky dogs! they
already knew in their cradles which nouns have their accusative in _im_.
I, on the contrary, had to learn them by heart, in the sweat of my brow,
but still it is well that I know them. For if I, for example, when I
publicly disputed in Latin in the College Hall of Goettingen, on the 20th
of July, 1825--Madame, it was well worth while to hear it--if I on that
occasion had said _sinapem_ instead of _sinapim_, the blunder would have
been evident to the Freshmen, and an endless shame for me. _Vis, buris,
sitis, tussis, cucumis, amussis, cannabis, sinapis_--these words, which
have attracted so much attention in the world, effected this, inasmuch
as they belonged to a distinct class, and yet withal remained an
exception; therefore I highly respect them, and the fact that I have
them ready at my fingers' ends when I perhaps need them in a hurry,
often affords me in life's darkened hours much internal tranquillity and
consolation. But, Madame, the _verba irregularia_--they are
distinguished from the _verbis regularibus_ by the fact that the boys in
learning them got more whippings--are terribly difficult. In the musty
archways of the Franciscan cloister near our schoolroom there hung a
large Christ--crucified of grey wood, a dismal image, that even yet at
times rises in my dreams and gazes sorrowfully on me with fixed bleeding
eyes. Before this image I often stood and prayed, "Oh, Thou poor and
also tormented God, I pray Thee, if it be possible, that I may get by
heart the irregular verbs!"

I will say nothing of Greek, otherwise I should vex myself too much. The
monks of the Middle Ages were not so very much in the wrong when they
asserted that Greek was an invention of the devil. Lord knows what I
suffered through it! It went better with Hebrew, for I always had a
great predilection for the Jews, although they crucify my good name up
to the present hour, and yet I never could