Collected Works of A. I. Herzen, Volume 4

...like mere vegetation; it is the strangest, most diverse of all his stories; or rather, within it lies the germ of all his fantastic writings.

Hoffmann was raised in solitude in the prim, stiff house of his uncle. Loneliness exerts a strange influence on the infant soul; it forever plants the seed of a certain timidity and self-confidence, of wildness and love, and, most of all, of dreaminess. Look at such a child: pale, thin, barely alive, he is so much like a plant grown in a greenhouse, so tender, so shy, he presses so closely to his father, blushes at every word, and is so concentrated within himself at every word that, if he is not devoid of ability, he will inevitably turn into a man who does not belong to the crowd; for he was not raised in it, for he was not subjected to the remodeling of the crowd of some boarding school, which would have taught him to envy the successes of others, would have humiliated his feelings, and corrupted his imagination. Such a child was Hoffmann ¹). The main distinguishing feature of children raised in this manner is that, being surrounded by adults, they mature early in feeling and mind, only to never fully mature; they lose almost everything childish ahead of time, only to remain children for the rest of their lives. The child Hoffmann is a great person, a dreamer, a passionate friend of Hippel, and a determined musician; but he studies poorly, and this is a consequence of an upbringing in which a person must develop from within themselves: one must absolutely visit a public institution to acquire the duck-like ability to devour ten different sciences equally, without liking any of them, out of mere noble competition. Hoffmann found Cicero boring and did not read him; his calling was purely artistic; it was not the forum, but the conservatory he needed. In the same house where Hoffmann was raised lived a mad woman, who in her frenzy prophesied a high destiny for her son, Zacharias Werner! What strange impressions she must have made upon the infant soul of her neighbor!

The young Hoffmann was sent to the university um die Rechte zu studiren to study law, destined for a legal career. But the university with its pandects and Brandenburg law, with its Latin and professors, is burdensome to him; his fiery soul begins to develop, his imagination thirsts for ecstasies and life; and what could be further from everything fantastic and everything alive than school exercises!

¹) And he knew very well the enormous influence of his upbringing between four walls, as can be seen from his letters to Hippel.