Preface

XIV

He was highly respected for the activity and skill he demonstrated as the Director A high-ranking administrative head of the Faculty of Law and several other legal colleges. Indeed, due to his knowledge of German constitutional law, he was summoned to Vienna under Emperor Joseph to serve as an Imperial Aulic Councilor original: "Reichshofrath"; a member of one of the two highest courts in the Holy Roman Empire, an honor he declined out of devotion to his fatherland. In my father's house, I was treated kindly and enjoyed good instruction from honest and skilled teachers, but I was always kept in such restriction that I was only very rarely—and never alone—allowed to leave the house. I never saw other young people of my age except perhaps in church. Out of exaggerated concern for me as an only son, I was only permitted to go into the open air in the courtyard and garden attached to the house during very fine weather; I must marvel at how I was able to maintain such lasting health under such circumstances. This restriction was entirely unnecessary, as in my early years, just as in later times, I had no inclination toward disorder or inactivity. I do not credit myself for this, but rather view it as a result of my natural constitution. Instead of breaking my spirit, this treatment actually excited in me a distaste for any unnecessary compulsion imposed on me or others, and a striving to go my own way regarding my manner of living and acting. From my sixth and seventh years onward, when I was supposed to be doing something else, I often occupied myself for several hours at a time with geography books, travelogues, and maps, or even with a terrestrial and celestial globe. I mastered the use of these through my own reflection and a bit of reading without further instruction. I felt such an irresistible urge to travel and subsequently to choose my place of residence at will, that I viewed the apparent destiny of remaining forever in my native city as being just as unnatural as if I had been required to stay in a single room forever. For this reason, it would have been most in accordance with my inclination to become a sailor, or a merchant, or, if I were to study, a physician. If I had not always feared grieving my father and my very good stepmother—who always treated me with benevolence—too much, I would perhaps have carried out my favorite idea of the time, using the money saved for me in a money-box

In accordance with the custom of that time, where scholars liked to give their names a Latin ending, the name was changed to Chladenius The Latinized form of the family name. Since this is no longer the custom, I prefer to use the original name.