It was his express wish that Wolfgang, after
completing his studies in Strassburg, should travel in France and
spend some time in Paris.
CHAPTER IV
GOETHE IN STRASSBURG
APRIL, 1770--AUGUST, 1771
Goethe was in his twenty-first year when he entered Strassburg in the
beginning of April, 1770. From his maturer age and the chastening
experience of the preceding eighteen months, therefore, it was to be
expected that his management of his life in his new home would be more
in accordance with his father's wishes than his wild ways in Leipzig.
In sending his son to Strassburg it was the father's intention that he
should complete those legal studies of which he had made a jest in
Leipzig, and qualify himself for the profession by which he was to
make his future living. During his residence of some sixteen months in
Strassburg Goethe did actually fulfil his father's wish, and returned
to Frankfort as a full-fledged Licenciate of Laws, but as little as at
Leipzig did the interests which engrossed him suggest future eminence
in his profession.
What again strikes us is the rapidity with which he caught the tone of
his new surroundings.
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