Afterwards, in the bitterness of his quarrel with the Duke of Württemberg, Schiller took an altogether gloomy view of the training he had received at the Military Academy. He saw only the forcing process to which he had been subjected, the narrow life that had kept him from a knowledge of the world, and the petty restrictions that had prevented his love of poetry from developing in a sane and natural manner. However, it is always the poet's fate to grow strong through his own gifts and his own trials; what schools of any kind can do for him or against him is of comparatively little moment. Had Schiller enjoyed in his youth the freedom of a real university, his literary career would no doubt have opened differently, and with another beginning the whole would have been different; but whether it would then have interested the world after a hundred years, as that of the real Schiller does, is a question for omniscience. Speaking humanly one can only say that the misguided paternalism of Karl Eugen in rousing the tiger proved a blessing in disguise. And the schooling itself was by no means so despicable. Schiller left the academy a good Latinist, though with but little Greek. He had learned to read French, if not English. He had dabbled in such philosophy as there was going and acquired an interest in the fundamental problems. He had read not widely but intensely--which is always better. He had made a number of good friends. And not least important for his future career, he had had an excellent opportunity to observe the forms and usages of high life.[17] FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 1: What is known of her has been put together by Ernst Müller, in "Schillers Mutter, ein Lebensbild", Leipzig, 1894.] [Footnote 2: "Unsere Mutter nährt sich gleichsam von beständiger Sorge", wrote her son to his sister in 1784.] [Footnote 3: As quoted by Schiller's sister-in-law, Karoline von Wolzogen, in her 'Life of Schiller', first published in 1830. The Baroness von Wolzogen quoted from a manuscript by Christophine, which was at that time in the family archives and has since been published in the _Archiv für Litteraturgeschichte_, I, 452. Christophine wrote down her recollections in order to counteract the false stories of Schiller's childhood which began to get into print soon after his death. Of this character, for example, is the oft-repeated tale of his climbing a tree during a thunder-storm in order to see where the lightning came from. This is an invention of Oemler, his earliest biographer, who invented much besides.] [Footnote 4: An excellent account of him is to be found in Vol. 15 of "Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie".] [Footnote 5: By Schiller's youthful friend Petersen, _Morgenblatt_, 1807; quoted by Weltrich, "Friedrich Schiller", I, 77, and by other biographers.] [Footnote 6: Wilhelm von Hoven, quoted by Karoline von Wolzogen.] [Footnote 7: As reported by his friend Conz, _Morgenblatt_, 1807. Cf. Weltrich, p. 80, foot-note.]