And her own character made this relation a
natural one. An overflowing vitality, a lively and never-failing
interest in all the details of daily life, and a temperament
responsive to every call, kept her perennially young, and fitted her
to be the companion of her children rather than the sober helpmate of
such a husband as Herr Goethe.[7] How, by her faculty of
story-telling, she ministered to the side of her son's nature which he
had inherited from herself Goethe has related with grateful
appreciation. But he owed her a larger debt. It was her spirit
pervading the household that brought such happiness into his early
home life as fell to his lot. A commonplace mother and a prosaic
father would have created an atmosphere which, in the case of a child
with Goethe's impressionable nature, would permanently have affected
his outlook on life. For the future poet, the mother was the admirable
nurse; she fed his fancy with her own; she taught him the art of
making the most of life--a lesson which he never forgot; and she gave
him her own sane and cheerful view of the uncontrollable element in
human destiny. For the future man, however, we may doubt whether she
was the best of mothers.
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