Chronicle of Titeizsche's Life 353school rules state that the boys are forbidden to jump and run when they
leave school, but must walk home quiedy with proper manners.'"
N.'s mother gives him a piano. N. takes lessons with an elderly choir-
master.1853
January: N. contracts scarlet fever. The family expects N. to follow in his
father's footsteps and become a pastor. Friendship with Gustav Krug
and Wilhelm Pinder.
1856
People talk about N. in school. His sister recounts a schoolmate's story
about N.: "He often noticed my brother, who had big wistful eyes, and
he was surprised at how much influence he wielded on his fellow stu-
dents. They never dared to say a nasty word or indecent remark in his
presence....^ cWhat does he do to you?' he asked them. Well, he looks
at you in a way that makes the words stick in your throat'... Fritz always
reminded him of the twelve-year-old Jesus in the temple."
Ν. writes his first philosophical essay, "On the Origin of Evil." He fills
notebooks with poems.1858
Summer: N. prepares for the Pforta school entrance examination, and
begins to write his first autobiography. N. sums up his experience as fol-
lows: "By and large, I am in charge of my own upbringing... I have had
to do without the stria and senior guidance of a male intellect" Over
the next ten years, N. produces eight additional autobiographical essays.
October: Acceptance into the Pforta school, an elite boarding school in
the Saale valley. "It was a Tuesday morning when I rode out of the gates
of the city of Naumburg. The ground was still heavy with the morning
dew.... This gloomy daybreak lay within me as well: the real brightness
of the day had yet to dawn in my heart"