The room all tidied up for a Sunday, the sand strewn, cozy, clean and warm. The woman had not been able to go to church and she is holding service at home, the window is open, she sits facing it and it is as if the village bells were drifting over the wide flat landscape into the window and the singing of the nearby congregation were echoing forth from the church, and the woman is following the text. — He continued on in this fashion, people listened attentively, many points were being made, he had grown flush from all the talking, now all smiles, now serious, he tossed his curls of blond hair. He had completely forgotten himself. After the meal Kaufmann drew him aside. He had received letters from Lenz’s father, his son was to return, provide assistance. Kaufmann told him he was throwing away his life here, squandering it to no purpose, he should set himself a goal and so on and so forth. Lenz retorted: Away from here? Away? Back home? Go crazy there? You know, this is the only place I can bear; if I couldn’t now and then go up into the mountains and look over the countryside and then come back down to the house and walk through the garden and look in through the window, I’d go crazy!! Crazy!! Leave me in peace! Just a little peace, now that I am feeling a bit better! Back home? This makes no sense, these two words ruin everything. Everybody needs something; if you find peace, what more could you have! To be always scrambling upwards, struggling, and thus throwing away everything granted by the moment; to go always hungry in the hope of satiety; to go thirsty while clear springs leap over your path. Things are now tolerable, and this is where I want to stay put; why? Why? Because I am feeling well; what does my father want? What can he give me? Out of the question! Leave me in peace. He was furious, Kaufmann left, Lenz was in a foul mood.

The next day Kaufmann wanted to leave, he talked Oberlin into going to Switzerland with him. The desire to meet Lavater in person, whom he had long known through letters, determined him. He agreed. The preparations delayed their departure by a day. This perturbed Lenz, to rid himself of his constant torment he had been anxiously clinging to everything; at certain moments he became deeply aware he was fabricating it all to his own advantage; he dealt with himself like a sick child, he rid himself of certain thoughts, overpowering emotions only with great anguish, then was again driven back onto them with even greater violence, he shivered, his hair nearly stood on end, until he finally emerged victorious after the most extraordinary exertions. He took refuge in a figure who always hovered before his eyes, and in Oberlin; his words, his face did him an immense amount of good. So it was with anxiety that he contemplated his departure.

Lenz was uneasy about remaining in the house on his own. The weather had turned mild and he decided to accompany Oberlin into the mountains. On the other side, where the valleys meet the plain, they parted. He returned back alone. He wandered through the mountains this way and that, broad planes inclined into the valleys, little woodland, nothing but powerful lines and in the distance the wide smoky plain, a brisk breeze in the air, nowhere a trace of man other than here and there an abandoned hut where shepherds spent the summer, aslant on a slope. He grew still, perhaps even dreamy, everything blended into a single line like a wave rising and falling between heaven and earth, he felt as if he were lying beside an endless ocean that was gently rocking up and down. Sometimes he just sat there, then he began walking again, but slowly, dreamily. He was following no path. It was pitch dark when he came to an inhabited hut, on the slope down to Steintal. The door was locked, he went to the window through which a gleam of light was shimmering. A lamp illuminated little more than a single spot, its light fell on the pale face of a girl who was resting behind it, eyes half-open, quietly moving her lips. Further back in the dark sat an old woman who was singing out of a hymnal in a raspy voice. After much knocking she opened; she was half-deaf, she brought Lenz some food and showed him a place to sleep, continuing her singing all the while. The girl had not moved.