A strong nature boldly hurls his inkstand at the Devil’s head; goes to battle with his opponents with words both written and spoken; and keeps his own individuality free from the perplexities with which opponents disturb all that has been previously done, and make the soul unsteadfast and unnerved for what is to come. Gellert’s was no battling, defiant nature, which relies upon itself; he did not hurl his opponents down and go his way; he would convince them, and so they were always ready to encounter him. And as the applause of his friends rejoiced him, so the opposition of his enemies could sink him in deep dejection. Besides, he had always been weakly; he had, as he himself complained, in addition to frequent coughs and a pain in his loins, a continual gnawing and pressure in the centre of his chest, which accompanied him from his first rising in the morning until he slept at night. Thus he sat for a while, in deep dejection: and, as often before, his only wish was, that God would give him grace whereby when his hour was come, he might die piously and tranquilly. It was past midnight when he sought his bed and extinguished his light. And the buckets at the well go up and go down. About the same hour, in Duben Forest, the rustic Christopher was rising from his bed. As with steel and flint he scattered sparks upon the tinder, in kindling himself a light, his wife, awakening, cried: “Why that heavy sigh?” “Ah! life is a burden: I’m the most harassed mortal in the world. The pettiest office-clerk may now be abed in peace, and needn’t break off his sleep, while I must go out and brave wind and weather.” “Be content,” replied his wife: “why, I dreamt you had actually been made magistrate, and wore something on your head like a king’s crown.” “Oh! you women; as though what you see isn’t enough, you like to chatter about what you dream.” “Light the lamp, too,” said his wife, “and I’ll get up and make you a nice porridge.” The peasant, putting a candle in his lantern, went to the stable; and after he had given some fodder to the horses, he seated himself upon the manger. With his hands squeezed between his knees and his head bent down, he reflected over and over again what a wretched existence he had of it. “Why,” thought he, “are so many men so well-off, so comfortable, whilst you must be always toiling? What care I if envy be not a virtue?—and yet I’m not envious, I don’t grudge others being well-off, only I should like to be well-off too; oh, for a quiet, easy life! Am I not worse off than a horse? He gets his fodder at the proper time, and takes no care about it. Why did my father make my brother a minister? He gets his salary without any trouble, sits in a warm room, has no care in the world; and I must slave and torment myself.” Strange to say, his very next thought, that he would like to be made local magistrate, he would in no wise confess to himself.