ll-being threatened by his non-performances
and financial confusions.

'With the repose and peace which the news of her Son's appointment to
Jena, and intended marriage, had restored to his Family, there
appeared also (beginning of 1790) an improvement to be taking place in
the Mother's health. Learning this by a Letter from his Father,
Schiller wrote back with lightened heart: "How welcome, dearest
Father, was your last Letter to me, and how necessary! I had, the very
day before, got from Christophine the sad news that my dearest
Mother's state had grown so much worse; and what a blessed turn now
has this weary sickness taken! If in the future _regimen vitae_ (diet
arrangements) of my dearest Mother, there is strict care taken, her
long and many sufferings, with the source of them, may be removed.
Thanks to a merciful Providence, which saves and preserves for us the
dear Mother of our youth. My soul is moved with tenderness and
gratitude. I had to think of her as lost to us forever; and she has
now been given back." In reference to his approaching marriage with
Lottchen von Lengefeld, he adds, "How did it lacerate my heart to
think that my dearest Mother might not live to see the happiness of
her Son! Heaven bless you with thousandfold blessings, best Father,
and grant to my dear Mother a cheerful and painless life!"

'Soon, however, his Mother again fell sick, and lay in great danger.
Not till August following could the Father announce that she was
saved, and from day to day growing stronger. The annexed history of
the disorder seemed so remarkable to Schiller, that he thought of
preparing it for the public; unless the Physician, Court-Doctor
Consbruch, liked better to send it out in print himself. "On this
point," says Schiller, "I will write to him by the first post; and
give him my warmest thanks for the inestimable service he has done us
all, by his masterly cure of our dear Mamma; and for his generous and
friendly behaviour throughout." "How heartily, my dearest Parents,"
writes he farther, "did it rejoice us both" (this Letter is of 29th
December; on the 20th February of that year he had been wedded to his
Lotte), "this good news of the still-continuing improvement of our
dearest Mother! With full soul we both of us join in the thanks which
you give to gracious Heaven for this recovery; and our heart now gives
way to the fairest hopes that Providence, which herein overtops our
expectations, will surely yet pre