cit._, i. pp. 15, 19. At an earlier
period Goethe was thus described: "Er mag 15 oder 16 Jahr alt sein, im
uebrigen hat er mehr ein gutes Plappermaul als Gruendlichkeit." _Ib._ p.
6.]
Goethe's relations to another member of the circle, who joined it
somewhat later, show him in his most attractive light. This was Johann
Heinrich Jung, better known as Jung Stilling, now about thirty years
of age. Stilling was another of those originals who crossed Goethe's
path at different periods, and to whom he was at all times specially
attracted. Stilling had had a remarkable career; he had been
successively charcoal-burner, tailor, schoolmaster, and private tutor,
and he had come to Strassburg to qualify himself for the practice of
medicine. What attracted Goethe to him was a type of mind and
character at every point dissimilar from his own. With a simple
mystical piety, which led him to believe that he was a special child
of Providence, Stilling combined an intelligence and a zeal for
knowledge which gave his words and his actions an individual stamp. It
is from Stilling that we have the most vivid description of Goethe in
these Strassburg days.
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