14.] The "_nisus_ forwards," of which he speaks, had no connection with the worldly ambition for success in his profession.

What was consuming him was the double desire of mastering himself and at the same time of giving expression to the seething ideas and emotions which rendered that self-mastery so hard of attainment.

From the moment of his return to Frankfort we see all the seeds fructifying which had taken root in him during his residence in Strassburg.

He sends to Herder the ballads he had collected in Alsace, and sends him, also, translations from what he considered the original of the adored Ossian.

But the overmastering influence in him at this time was the genius of Shakespeare, as it had been interpreted for him by Herder.