I was able to protect myself, therefore, against many small
reprimands, which fell tolerably frequently on those who had thought
this or that instruction might be lightly passed over as too trivial to
be attended to. It came about in this way, when we were continually
drilling, after the cessation of the armistice, that the military
exercises we performed gave me genuine pleasure on account of their
regularity, their clearness, and the precision of their execution. In
probing into their nature I could see freedom beneath their recognised
necessity.
During the long sojourn of our corps in Havelberg previously alluded to,
I strengthened my inner life, so far as the military service permitted,
by spending all the time I could in the open air, in communion with
Nature, to a perception of whose loveliness a perusal of G. Forster's
"Travels in Rhineland" had newly unlocked my senses.[82]
We friends took all opportunities of meeting one another. By-and-by we
set to work to make this easier by three of us applying to be quartered
together.
In the rough, frank life of war, men presented themselves to me under
various aspects, and so became a special object of my thoughts as
regards their conduct, and their active work, and most of all as to
their higher vocation.
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