[82] Herder himself says of his influence on Goethe: "Ich glaube ihm, ohne Lobrednerei, einige gute Eindrücke gegeben zu haben, die einmal wirksam werden können."—Haym, op. cit. i. 392.
[83] Ib. Band ii. p. 18.
[84] Schiller, in a letter to C.G. Körner, the father of the poet, writes (July, 1787): "He [Herder] said that Goethe had greatly influenced his intellectual development."
[85] Ib. Band i. p. 250.
[86] Subsequent investigation has proved that Goethe has committed several errors of fact in his narrative. For example, he relates that on his first visit to the Sesenheim family he was vividly reminded of the family of the Vicar of Wakefield. In point of fact, he was introduced to Goldsmith's work by Herder, who came to Strassburg subsequent to Goethe's first visit to Sesenheim.
[87] Ib. p. 251.
[88] It is recorded that his voice trembled as he dictated the passages referring to Sesenheim and Friederike.
[89] In reality, there were four daughters, but Goethe omits mention of the other two in order to make more striking the resemblance between the family of the Vicar of Wakefield and that of Sesenheim.
[90] Biedermann, op. cit. i. pp. 16-17.
[91] In the recently discovered manuscript of Wilhelm Meisters Theatralische Sendung occurs this passage, evidently self-descriptive: "Als Knabe hatte er zu grossen prächtigen Worten und Sprüchen eine ausserordentliche Liebe, er schmückte seine Seele damit aus wie mit einem köstlichen Kleide, und freute sich darüber, als wenn sie zu ihm selbst gehörten kindlisch über diesen äussern Schmuck."