“As Richter from every walk returned to the little household apartment where his mother carried on her never-ceasing female labours, where half of every day he sat at his desk, he became acquainted with all the thoughts, all the conversation, the whole circle of the relations of the humble society in Hof. He saw the value and significance of the smallest things. The joys, the sorrows, the loves and aversions, the whole of life, in this Teniers’ picture passed before him. He himself was a principal figure in this limited circle. He sat with Plato in his hand, while his mother scattered fresh sand on the floor for Sunday, or added some small luxury to the table on days of festival. His hardly-earned groschen went to purchase the goose for Martinmas, while he dreamed of his future glory among distinguished men. Long years he was one of this humble society. He did not approach it as other poets have done, from time to time, to study for purposes of art the humbler classes; he felt himself one of them, and in this school he learned that sympathy with humanity which has made him emphatically in Germany the ‘poet of the poor.’” One of the most instructive traits of Richter’s character is, his great attention to personal purity of heart and self-control. It was a main point with him, as with Quintilian, the sound old rhetorician, that to write or speak well, one must first of all be a good man. In imitation of many excellent and pious persons, Paul kept a diary of the sins that most easily beset him, and a register of moral victories by God’s grace to be won. From this “_Andachts buchlein_,” or “little book of devotion,” the following admirable extracts are given:-- “OF PAIN. “Every evil is an occasion and a teacher of resolution. Every disagreeable emotion is a proof that I have been faithless to my resolutions. “An evil vanishes, if I do not ask after it. Think of a worse situation than that in which thou art. “Not to the evil, but to myself, do I owe my pain. Epictetus was not unhappy! “Vanity, insensibility, and custom, make one steadfast. Wherefore not virtue still more? “Never say, if you had not _these_ sorrows, that you would bear others better. “What is sixty years’ pain to eternity? “Necessity, if it cannot be altered, becomes resignation. “OF GLORY. “Most men judge so miserably; why would you be praised by a child? “No one would praise you in a beggar’s frock; be not proud of the esteem that is given to your coat. “Do not expect more esteem from others because you deserve more, but reflect that they will expect still more merit in yourself. “Do not seek to justify all thy actions. Value nothing merely because it is thy own, and look not always upon thyself.