The Sleepwalkers (108 page)

"One
should
not
imitate
those
asses
who
ask
the
Latin
language
how
German
should
be
spoken;
but
should
ask
the
mother
in
her
home,
the
children
in
the
gutters,
the
common
man
at
the
fair,
and
watch
their
big
mouths
as
they
speak,
and
do
accordingly."

When
he
had
passed
the
Elementary
Latin
school,
Johannes'
good
brains,
bad
health
and
interest
in
religion
made
the
career
of
a
clergyman
the
obvious
choice.
The
theological
seminary
which
he
attended
from
his
thirteenth
to
his
seventeenth
year,
was
divided
into
a
lower
(Adelberg)
and
a
higher
course
(Maulbronn).
The
curriculum
was
broad
and
rounded,
adding
Greek
to
Latin,
and
embracing,
besides
theology,
the
study
of
the
pagan
classics,
rhetorics
and
dialectics,
mathematics
and
music.
Discipline
was
strict:
classes
started
in
summer
at
four,
in
winter
at
five
o'clock
in
the
morning;
the
seminarists
had
to
wear
a
sleeveless,
shapeless
cloak
reaching
below
their
knees,
and
were
hardly
ever
allowed
out
on
leave.
Young
Kepler
recorded
two
of
his
most
daring
and
paradoxical
utterances
from
his
seminarist
days:
that
the
study
of
philosophy
was
a
symptom
of
Germany's
decline;
and
that
the
French
language
was
worthier
of
study
than
the
Greek.
No
wonder
his
fellows
regarded
him
as
an
intolerable
egghead
and
beat
him
up
at
every
opportunity.

He
was,
indeed,
as
unpopular
among
his
schoolmates
as
he
was
beloved
by
his
friends
in
later
years.
In
his
horoscope
record,
the
entries
relating
his
physical
afflictions
alternate
with
others
which
reveal
his
moral
misery
and
loneliness:

"
February,
1586.
I
suffered
dreadfully
and
nearly
died
of
my
troubles.
The
cause
was
my
dishonour
and
the
hatred
of
my
school
fellows
whom
I
was
driven
by
fear
to
denounce...
1587.
On
April
4
I
was
attacked
by
a
fever
from
which
I
recovered
in
time,
but
I
was
still
suffering
from
the
anger
of
my
schoolmates
with
one
of
whom
I
had
come
to
blows
a
month
before.
Koellin
became
my
friend;
I
was
beaten
in
a
drunken
quarrel
by
Rebstock;
various
quarrels
with
Koellin...
1580.
I
was
promoted
to
the
rank
of
Bachelor.
I
had
a
most
iniquitous
witness,
Mueller,
and
many
enemies
among
my
comrades..."

The
narrative
of
the
horoscope
was
continued
in
the
same
year
(his
twenty-sixth)
in
another
remarkable
document,
a
selfanalysis
more
unsparing
than
Rousseau's.
⁸
Written
in
the
year
when
his
first
book
was
published,
when
he
had
undergone
a
kind
of
orphic
purge
and
found
his
final
vocation,
it
is
perhaps
the
most
introspective
piece
of
writing
of
the
Renaissance.
Several
pages
of
it
describe
his
relations
with
colleagues
and
teachers
at
the
seminary,
and
later
at
the
University
of
Tuebingen.
Referring
to
himself
in
the
third
person,
as
he
mostly
does
in
this
document,
the
passage
begins:
"From
the
time
of
his
arrival
[at
the
seminary]
some
men
were
his
adversaries".
He
lists
five
of
them,
then
continues:
"I
record
the
most
lasting
enemies".

He
lists another seventeen, "and many other such". He explains
their hostility mainly on the grounds that "they were always
rivals in worth, honours and success". There follows a
monotonous and depressing record of these enmities and quarrels. Here
are samples:

"
Kolinus
did
not
hate
me,
rather
I
hated
him.
He
started
a
friendship
with
me,
but
continually
opposed
me...
My
love
of
pleasure
and
other
habits
turned
Braunbaum
from
being
a
friend
into
an
equally
great
enemy...
I
willingly
incurred
the
hatred
of
Seiffer
because
the
rest
hated
him
too,
and
I
provoked
him
although
he
had
not
harmed
me.
Ortholphus
hated
me
as
I
hated
Kolinus,
although
I,
on
the
contrary,
liked
Ortholphus,
but
the
rivalry
between
us
was
many-sided...
I
have
often
incensed
everyone
against
me
through
my
own
fault:
at
Adelberg
it
was
my
treachery
[in
denouncing
his
schoolmates];
at
Maulbronn,
my
offence
of
Graeter;
at
Tuebingen,
my
violent
request
for
silence.
Lendlinus
I
alienated
by
foolish
writings,
Spangenburg,
by
my
temerity
in
correcting
him
when
he
was
my
teacher;
Kleberus
hated
me
as
a
rival...
The
reputation
of
my
talent
annoyed
Rebstock
and
also
my
frivolousness...
Husalius
opposed
my
progress...
With
Dauber
there
was
a
secret
rivalry
and
jealousy...
My
friend
Jaeger
betrayed
my
trust:
he
lied
to
me
and
squandered
much
of
my
money.
I
turned
to
hatred
and
exercised
it
in
angry
letters
during
the
course
of
two
years."