vagabond period of genius: the Child and the Man are at times scarcely traceable in the Youth. One trait must not be passed over, namely, his impatient susceptibility, which, while it prevented his ever thoroughly mastering the technic of any one subject, lay at the bottom of his multiplied activity in directions so opposed to each other. He was excessively impressionable, caught the impulse from every surrounding influence, and was thus never constant to one thing, because this susceptibility was connected with an impatience which soon made him weary. There are men who learn many languages, and never thoroughly master the grammar of one. Of these was Goethe. Easily excited to throw his energy in a new direction, he had not the patience which begins at the beginning, and rises gradually, slowly into assured mastery. Like an eagle he swooped down upon his prey; he could not watch for it, with cat-like patience. It is to this impatience we must attribute the fact of so many works being left fragments, so many composed by snatches during long intervals. Prometheus, Mahomet, Die Natürliche Tochter, Elpenor, Achilleis, Nausikaa, etc., remain fragments. Faust, Egmont, Tasso, Iphigenia, Meister, etc., were long years in hand. Whatever could be done in a few days-while the impulse lasted was done; longer works were spread over a series of years. - VOL. I. 5 Juce. 56. BOOK THE SECOND. STUDENT DAYS. 1765 to 1771. 'In grossen Städten lernen früh Da er die Mutter nahm.' Eser taught me that the Ideal of Beauty is Simplicity and Repose, and thence it follows that no youth can be a Master.' BOOK THE SECOND. CHAPTER I. THE LEIPSIC STUDENT. IN the month of October 1765, Goethe, aged sixteen, arrived in Leipsic, to commence his collegiate life, and to lay, as he hoped, the solid foundation of a future professorship. He took lodgings in the Feuerkugel, between the Old and New Markets, and was by the rector of the University inscribed on the 19th as student in the Bavarian nation.' At that period, and until quite recently, the University was classed according to four Nations,' viz., the Meissnisch, the Saxon, the Bavarian, and the Polish. Goethe, as a Frankfurter, was placed in the Bavarian.* If the reader has any vivid recollection of the Leipsic chapters in the Autobiography, let me beg him to dismiss it with all haste from his mind; the calm narrative of his Excellency J. W. von Goethe very inaccurately represents the actual condition of the raw, wild student, just escaped from the paternal roof, with money which seems. * Otto Jahn, in the Briefe an Leipziger Freunde, p. 9. |