As it was, he was
led from the first to direct his thoughts to the consideration of
these principles; and the result is a body of reflections, marking
every stage of his own development, on life, literature, and art,
which, in the opinion of critics like Edmond Scherer and Matthew
Arnold, gave him his highest claim to the consideration of posterity.
As human lot goes, Goethe was fortunate in his home and his home
relations, though in the case of both there were disadvantages which
left their mark on him throughout his later life. He was born in the
middle-class, the position which, according to Schiller, is most
favourable for viewing mankind as a whole, and, therefore,
advantageous for a poet who, like Goethe, was open to universal
impressions. Though his maternal grandfather was chief magistrate of
Frankfort, and his father was an Imperial Councillor, the family did
not belong to the _elite_ of the city; Goethe, brilliant youth of
genius though he was, was not regarded as an eligible match for the
daughter of a Frankfort banker. It was the father who was the
dominating figure in the home life of the family; and the relations
between father and son emphasise the fact that the early influences
under which the son grew up left something to be desired.
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