snatch even a fearful joy; their very amusements proceeded by the word
of command.

How grievous all this must have been, it is easy to conceive. To
Schiller it was more grievous than to any other. Of an ardent and
impetuous yet delicate nature, whilst his discontentment devoured him
internally, he was too modest and timid to give it the relief of
utterance by deeds or words. Locked up within himself, he suffered
deeply, but without complaining. Some of his letters written during
this period have been preserved: they exhibit the ineffectual
struggles of a fervid and busy mind veiling its many chagrins under a
certain dreary patience, which only shows them more painfully. He
pored over his lexicons and grammars, and insipid tasks, with an
artificial composure; but his spirit pined within him like a
captive's, when he looked forth into the cheerful world, or
recollected the affection of parents, the hopes and frolicsome
enjoyments of past years. The misery he endured in this severe and
lonely mode of existence strengthened or produced in him a habit of
constraint and shyness, which clung to his character through life.

The study of Law, for which he had never felt any predilection,
naturally grew in his mind to be the representative of all these
evils, and his distaste for it went on increasing. On this point he
made no secret of his feelings. One of the exercises, yearly
prescribed to every scholar, was a written delineation of his own
character, according to his own views of it, to be delivered publicly
at an appointed time: Schiller, on the first of these exhibitions,
ventured to state his persuasion, that he was not made to be a jurist,
but called rather by his inclinations and faculties to the clerical
profession. This statement, of course, produced no effect; he was
forced to continue the accustomed course, and his dislike for Law kept
fast approaching to absolute disgust. In 1775, he was fortunate enough
to get it relinquished, though at the expense of adopting another
employment, for which, in different circumstances, he would hardly
have declared himself. The study of Medicine, for which a new
institution was about this time added to the Stuttgard school, had no
attractions for Schiller: he accepted it only as a galling servitude
in exchange for one more galling. His mind was bent on higher
objects; and he still felt all his present vexations aggravated by the
thought, that his fairest expectations from the fu