251.]
Goethe's relations with Friederike lasted till the end of June,
1771--a period of some ten months. Of this period the first half would
seem to have been passed by both in idyllic oblivion of consequences;
during the second there came painful awakening to realities on the
part of one of the lovers. As they lived in his memory, those first
months that Goethe spent in intercourse with the Sesenheim circle were
a long dream of happiness; and nowhere in his Autobiography is he so
obviously moved by his recollection of the past.[88] The picture he
has drawn of that time is, indeed, an idyll in every sense. We have
the setting of a primitive home in a country Arcadian in its
bountifulness and beauty; in the centre of this home is the father,
whose simple piety is in perfect keeping with his office and his
surroundings; and the home is brightened by the presence of two
daughters,[89] the one of whom, Friederike, appears as a vision of
rustic grace and modest maidenhood. In the midst of this circle moves
the richly-gifted youth, laying under a spell father, daughters, and
all who come within the magnetism of his presence. In no other
situation, indeed, are the attractive sides of Goethe's character so
strikingly manifest as in his intercourse with the Sesenheim family
and the friendly group attached to them.
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