"O that I could recall the last two years and
a half,"[49] he wrote to Kaethchen Schoenkopf, and he warns a male
correspondent in Leipzig to "beware of dissoluteness."[50] And the
state of his health during the greater part of this time in Frankfort
was such as to strengthen this mood. Immediately after his return from
Leipzig he was threatened with pulmonary disease, and the state of his
digestion became such as to alarm himself and his friends. On December
7th he was attacked by a violent internal pain, and for some days
there were the gravest fears for his life. After two months'
confinement to his room there was a partial recovery, but it was not
till the spring of 1770 that his health was completely restored.
[Footnote 49: _Werke, Briefe_, Band i. 215.]
[Footnote 50: _Ib._ p. 217.]
But the truth is that Goethe's temporary preoccupation with religion
is only another illustration of his "chameleon" temperament. In gay
Leipzig he had promptly taken on the ways of a man about town; now in
Frankfort he found himself in a very different society, and he as
promptly entered into the spirit of it. The circle of which he now
became a member was a company of religious persons, mostly women,
friends or acquaintances of his mother.
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