The doubt which had possessed him since
boyhood as to whether nature meant him for an artist or a poet
remained still unsettled for him. In one of the best-known passages of
his Autobiography he has related how he sought to resolve his
difficulty. As he wandered down the banks of the Lahn, after he had
torn himself away from Wetzlar, the beauty of the scenery awoke in him
the artist's desire to transfer it worthily to canvas. The whim then
occurred to him to let fate decide whether this was the work for which
he was appointed. He would throw his knife into the river, and, if he
saw it reach the surface, he would take it as a sign that art was his
vocation. Unfortunately the oracle proved dubious. Owing to the
intervening bushes he did not see the knife enter the river, but only
the splash occasioned by its fall. As the result of the uncertainty
of the oracle, he adds, he gave himself less assiduously than hitherto
to the study of art. If this were indeed the case, it was only for a
time, since the contemporary testimony, both of himself and his
friends, shows that during the period that immediately followed his
leaving Wetzlar, art received more of his attention than literature.
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