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love, just and merciful, and are patient with those who have other opinions. Christianity is the best of all religions because its centre is Love. [Chronik, p 322]

6th Apr. Bräker complains that from the newspapers one can learn only half-truths, or the peasant "stands by the roadside in his meadow, leaning on his dung-fork - questions the passer-by - Eh, countryman, what's the news -what's the Turk doing - how are things with the Emperor - what's the Russian woman doing, that Catri?" Some of the Pietists think that the end of the world is near, but Bräker thinks that Nature is going quietly along like a clock, and catastrophes just renew her youth, as bleeding does a human being. [Chronik, p 324]

8th Apr. Bräker includes in his diary the dialogue "Balz and Andres" in which Balz (representing the neighbours) and Andres (Bräker's friend Ambühl) argue about the appearance of Bräker's "Supplement" which Füssli has published in a local newspaper, the "Bürklische Wochenzeitung". Bräker again asserts that this was done without his knowledge. Their opinion of him, already low because of his association with learned people, has gone down even further. The following are typical speeches:

Balz: "... you have long ago heard of that haughty halfwit - who sticks his nose into every book and himself writes journals and all kinds of foolishness - and that he had the arrogance to squeeze himself into the Literary Society - I don't at all hold with the Literary Society - because they take up bad fellows like him - and because they paid him a ducat and then a medal worth a ducat for the foolish things he scribbled - but now he has put his caprices into print - he wants to figure for a man of consequence in the world - it's enough to give you the belly-ache -"

Andres: "...That's the way of the world - whenever someone wants to raise himself from the dust, his comrades and acquaintances lay into him with tooth and claw, to stamp him down again into the muck - but that is not the case here - just you believe it, Balz - you are fond of reading - I will tell you how the affair is going - the man writes a lot - that's true - but first and foremost for himself - with no intentions of self-interest - as something for his posterity - or to show his most familiar friends - apart from that he himself certainly sets no value on his writings - ... "

11th Apr. Bräker continues this theme with a passage titled "Written for my son", in which he complains that even his own family are laughing up their sleeves at him, but he denies vigorously that he is neglecting them:

"...On that account I have not deserted my post as my grumbling neighbours believe - and you too would like to reproach me with it - I neglect very little of my daily work - much less than people think - though indeed my heart is not in it - applying all my forces to earning bread and saving money - as those do whose tongues are wagging at me - who know no other reward - who know no other contentment than money - and what money will buy - yet from time to time I still prate to deaf ears - dear boy - would to God that I could live to see you sitting of your own accord in a corner with a book in your hand - or meet with you - scribbling your own thoughts on paper - or only alone and deep in your own thoughts - but unfortunately - up till now nothing of the kind - I and you, father and son, think - how different are our hobby-horses - that which I have all my days been unable to tolerate - I must see it in you - running from one house to another - where only the coarse and vulgar people live - where stories are told of ghosts and witches - teasing and telling tall stories - neither cold nor hot - for which I indeed know no name - without thinking of curse-words - who greets every foolishness uttered with laughter - O son - think what you are doing -" [Voellmy, v 1, pp 364-365]

14th Apr. At the meeting of the Moral Society (attended by less than ten of the members) an anonymous paper was read as a reply to the proposals made by Joseph Meyer the previous year. It warned against the danger of stirring up political ideas, quoting the case of Holland, in which "every man set himself up as judge and reformer, so that the situation became so critical that an outside power had to intervene",

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