To me, for instance, Ploug's _The Fatherland_ was at that time
Denmark's most intellectual organ, whereas Bille's _Daily Paper_
disgusted me, more particularly on account of the superficiality and the
tone of finality which distinguished its literary criticisms. Broechner,
who, with not unmixed benevolence, and without making any special
distinction between the two, looked down on both these papers of the
educated mediocrity, saw in his young pupil's bitterness against the
trivial but useful little daily, only an indication of the quality of
his mind. Broechner's mere manner, as he remarked one day with a smile,
"You do not read _The Daily Paper_ on principle," made me perceive
in a flash the comicality of my indignation over such articles as it
contained. My horizon was still sufficiently circumscribed for me to
suppose that the state of affairs in Copenhagen was, in and of itself,
of importance. I myself regarded my horizon as wide. One day, when
making a mental valuation of myself, I wrote, with the naivete of
nineteen, "My good qualities, those which will constitute my
personality, if I ever become of any account, are a mighty and ardent
enthusiasm, a thorough authority in the service of Truth, _a wide
horizon_ and philosophically trained thinking powers. These must make
up for my lack of humour and facility.
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