It
is with evident irony that Goethe relates how in his own case the
efficacy of these occult powers was tried. Among the members of the
religious community was a mysterious physician who was credited with
possessing certain medicines of peculiar virtue. He was believed to
have in store one drug--a powerful salt--which he reserved only for
the most dangerous cases, and regarding which, though they had never
seen the result of its operation, the community spoke with bated
breath. At the vehement request of his mother the mysterious medicine
was administered to Goethe at the crisis of his malady, at the hour of
midnight, and with all due solemnity. From that moment his illness
took a favourable turn, and he steadily progressed towards recovery.
"I need not say," is his comment, "how greatly this result
strengthened and heightened our faith in our physician and our efforts
to share such a treasure." Partly, therefore, out of his own
insatiable curiosity and partly out of sympathy with his new friends,
Goethe now betook himself to occult studies, and, in imitation of the
Fraeulein von Klettenberg, had a room fitted up with the necessary
chemical apparatus.
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