soon
became great friends. We had also both of us the pleasure of being
acquainted with some highly-cultured people, the families of the
physician, of the minister, and of the schoolmaster in the neighbouring
Protestant village, which was as yet still a fief of the Empire.[25] My
friend the tutor was a young man quite out of the common, with an
actively inquiring mind; especially fond of making plans for
wide-stretching travel, and comprehensive schemes of education. Our
intercourse and our life together were very confidential and open, for
the subjects he cared for were those dear to me; but we were of
diametrically opposite natures. He was a man of scholastic training, and
I had been deficiently educated. He was a youth who had plunged into
strife with the world and society; my thought was how to live in peace
with myself and all men. Besides, our outward lives bore such different
aspects that a truly intimate friendship could not exist between us.
Nevertheless our very contrasts bound us more closely together than we
deemed.

Practical land surveying at this time chiefly interested me, for it at
once satisfied my love for out-of-doors life, and fully occupied my
intelligence. But the everlasting scribbling which now fell to my share
I could not long endure, in spite of my otherwise pleasant life.

Early in the spring of 1803 I left my situation and went to Bamberg,
feeling sure that the political changes by which Bamberg had been
transferred to Bavaria, and the general survey of the district which was
therefore in contemplation, would immediately provide me with a sphere
of work suited to my capabilities. My expectations were not falsified.
In pursuance of my plan I introduced myself to the land-surveyors in
Bamberg, and at once received employment from one of them. He had had
considerable surveys in hand, and was still engaged upon them. As I
showed some proficiency in mapping, he entrusted me with the preparation
of the necessary maps which accompanied the surveys. This kept me
employed for some time on work sufficiently remunerative for my needs.

Of course the question in hand with the new Government was the
appointment of land-surveyors, and those who were resident in the town
were invited to send in maps of Bamberg as specimens of their work.
Through the instruction I had enjoyed in my youth I was not unacquainted
with such work. I therefore took pleasure in drawing a map, which I sent
in. My work was appro