Of materials for forming our conclusions there is certainly
no lack. In his Autobiography he has related in detail, even to
tediousness, the events and experiences of his life in Leipzig.
Contemporary testimony, also, we have in abundance. We have the
letters of friends who freely wrote their impressions of him, and from
his own hand we have poems which record the passing feelings of the
hour; we have two plays which reveal moods and experiences more or
less permanent; and above all we have a considerable number of his own
letters addressed to his sister and different friends, all of which,
it may be said, appear to give genuine expression to the promptings of
the moment. The materials for forming our judgment, therefore, are
even superabundant, but in their very multiplicity lies our
difficulty. The narrative in the Autobiography doubtless gives a
correct general outline of his life in Leipzig and of its main results
for his general development, but its cool, detached tone leaves a
totally inadequate impression of the froward youth, torn to
distraction by conflicting passions and conflicting ideals. With the
contemporary testimonies our difficulties are of another kind.
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