"[57] When this passage was written (June, 1769) he
had received the news that Kaethchen was betrothed to another. In a
final letter addressed to her (January 23rd, 1770) occur these
characteristic words: "You are still the same loveable girl, and you
will also be a loveable wife. And I, I shall remain Goethe. You know
what that means. When I mention my name, I mention all; and you know
that, as long as I have known you, I have lived only as part of
you."[58] So closed a relation of which it is difficult to say how
much there was in it of genuine passion, how much of artificial
sentiment. Serious intention in it there was none; from the first
Goethe perfectly realised the fact that he could never make Kaethchen
his wife.[59]
[Footnote 57: _Ib._ p. 211.]
[Footnote 58: _Ib._ p. 224.]
[Footnote 59: Goethe saw Kaethchen as a married woman in Leipzig in
1776, when he wrote to the lady who then held his affections (Frau von
Stein): "Mais ce n'est plus Julie."]
As at Leipzig, his other distractions did not divert him from his
interests in art and literature. When the state of his health
permitted, he assiduously practised drawing and etching.
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