Chapter 11

• “it is with considerable difficulty that I remember the original era of my being: all the events of that period appear confused and indistinct.”
• “a strange multiplicity of sense (...) it was, indeed, a long time before I learned to distinguish between the operations of my various senses”
• the forest near Ingolstadt, and here I lay by the brook
• soon a gentle light stole over the heavens, and gave me a sensation of pleasure. I started up and beheld a radiant form rise from among the trees.
• “I first discovered that a pleasant sound, which often saluted my ears, proceeded from the throats of the little winged animals who often intercepted the light from my eyes”
• “the uncouth and inarticulate sounds which broke from me frightened me into silence again”
• I found that the sparrow uttered none but harsh notes, whilst those of the blackbird and thrush were sweet and enticing.
• my mind received every day additional ideas. [...] I distinguished the insect from the herb, and by degrees, one herb from another.
• “I found a fire [...] was overcome with delight at the warmth I experienced from it”
• thrust my hand into the live embers [...] How strange, I thought, that the same cause should produce such opposite effects!
• “I found some of the offals that the travellers had left had been roasted, and tasted much more savoury than the berries I gathered from the trees”
• “I was enchanted by the hut (...) as exquisite and divine a retreat as Pandemonium appeared to the demons of hell after their sufferings in the lake of fire.”
• “[An old man] turned on hearing a noise; and, perceiving me, shrieked loudly, and, quitting the hut, ran across the fields with a speed of which his debilitated form hardly appeared capable”
• “I greedily devoured the remnants of the Shepard's breakfast, which consisted of bread, cheese, milk, and wine; the latter, however, I did not like.”
• I had hardly placed my foot within the door, before the children shrieked and one of the women fainted. The whole village was roused; some fled, some attacked me
• fearfully took refuge in a low hovel, quite bare, and making a wretched appearance after the palaces I had beheld in the village
• after my late dearly bought experience, I dared not enter it
• from the inclemency of the season, and still more from the barbarity of man.
• The girl was young, and of gentle demeanour, unlike what I have since found cottagers and farm-house servants to be.
• “In one of these was a small and almost imperceptible chink, through which the eye could just penetrate. Through this crevice a small room was visible,”
• “The silver hair and benevolent countenance of the aged cottager won my reverence, while the gentle manners of the girl enticed my love.”
• I felt sensations of a perculiar and overpowering nature: they were a mixture of pain and pleasure, such I had never before experieneced , either from hunger or cold, warmth or food
• I withdrew from the window, unable to bear these emoitions
• produce sounds sweeter than the voice of the thrush or the nightingale
• utter sounds that were monotonous, and neither resembling the harmony of the old man's instrument nor the song of birds
• I since found out that he read aloud, but at that time I knew nothing of the science of words or letters