So he wrote in his old age, but his
contemporary letters leave us in little doubt regarding the cause of
his breakdown. He had, in fact, during the latter part of his sojourn
in Leipzig lived the life of the average German student of his day. He
had fought a duel, and had been wounded in the arm; he had drunk more
than was good for him, and we have seen that he had followed other
courses not conducive to his bodily health.
His mental condition was equally unsatisfactory. There was not a
friend, he tells us, whom at one time or another he had not annoyed by
his caprice, or offended by his "morbid spirit of contradiction" and
sullen avoidance of intercourse. All through his life Goethe seems to
have tried his friends by his variable humours,[47] but it was seldom
that he completely alienated them, and he gratefully records how in
his present stricken condition they rallied to his side, and put him
to shame by their assiduous attentions. One of these friends, Langer
by name, who had succeeded Behrisch as tutor to the young Count, he
specially mentions as helping to give a new turn to his thoughts.
Langer was religiously disposed, and found in Goethe, now in a mood to
receive them, a sympathetic listener to his theological views.
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