The Youth of Goethe

by P. Hume Brown

"Es ist die ganze Kirchengeschichte Mischmasch von Irrthum und von Gewalt."

[53] Yet at a later date he would seem to have regarded his mystical studies as among the errors of his youth. In his Tagebuch, under date August 7th, 1779, he writes as follows, and the passage may be taken as a commentary on the whole period of his life with which we are dealing: "Stiller Rückblick auf's Leben auf die Verworrenheit Betriebsamkeit, Wissbegierde der Jugend, wie sie überall herumschweift, um etwas Befriedigendes zu finden. Wie ich besonders in Geheimnissen, dunklen imaginativen Verhältissen eine Wollust gefunden habe."

[54] Werke, Briefe, Band i. 179, November 7th, 1768.

[55] Ib. p. 173.

[56] Ib. p. 217.

[57] Ib. p. 211.

[58] Ib. p. 224.

[59] Goethe saw Käthchen as a married woman in Leipzig in 1776, when he wrote to the lady who then held his affections (Frau von Stein): "Mais ce n'est plus Julie."

[60] Werke, Briefe, Band i. 205.

[61] Ib. p. 230.