t led up to meeting, and meeting to parting.

The occurrences I have named had little result upon my outward life,
which for the time ran its peaceful course. I pass over many
circumstances important to the uplifting and development of my character
and my moral life, and come at once to the close of my stay in Bamberg.

I had now once more earnestly to turn my attention to procuring certain
and settled employment. In truth, as regarded my future, I stood quite
alone. I had no one to lend me a helping hand, so I made up my mind to
go forward, trusting only in God and destiny. I determined to seek for a
situation by means of the _Allgemeine Anzeiger der Deutschen_,[27] a
paper then very much read, and I thought it would be good to send in to
the editor, as a proof of my assertions of competency, an architectural
design, and also a specimen of my work in practical surveying, together
with explanations of both of them. As soon as my plan was fully
conceived I set to work at it. For the architectural sketch I chose a
design of a nobleman's country mansion, with the surrounding
outbuildings. When I had finished it, with very few professional
appliances to help me, it contained a complete working out of all the
various necessary plans, and as a critical test of its accuracy and
suitability to the proposed scale of dimensions, I added a statement of
all the particulars and conditions involved in it. For the
land-surveying I chose a table of measurements compiled from the map I
had previously drawn, which I carried through under certain arbitrary
assumptions. These works, together with my advertisement, I sent in 1803
to the office of the paper I have mentioned, with the request that the
editor, after reading my testimonials and inspecting my work, would add
a few confirmatory words as to my qualifications. Work and testimonials
alike were to the satisfaction of the editor, and my request for an
editorial comment was granted. I received several offers, each one
containing something tempting about it. It was difficult to make a
choice, but at last I decided to accept a position offered me as private
secretary to the President and Privy-Councillor Von Dewitz, of
Mecklenburg-Strelitz, at this time resident on one of his estates,
Gross-Milchow.

Amongst the other offers was one from Privy-Councillor Von Voldersdorf,
who was looking out for an accountant for his estates in the
Oberpfalz.[28] This situation did not suit me so well a