]
Natur! du ewig keimende,
Schaffst jeden zum Genuss des Lebens,
Hast deine Kinder alle muetterlich
Mit Erbteil ausgestattet, einer Huette.
Nature! eternal engenderer,
Thou bring'st forth thy children for the joy of living,
With care all maternal thou providest
Each with his portion, with his cottage.
In reading this poem we feel the force of the words of the younger
Schlosser in which he records his impression of Goethe at the moment
when both first made the acquaintance of the Darmstadt society. "I
shall be accompanied (to Darmstadt)," he wrote, "by a young friend of
the highest promise who, through his strenuous endeavours to purify
his soul, without unnerving it, is to me worthy of special
honour."[115] The purification had indeed begun, but Goethe had to
pass through many fires before the purification was complete. One such
fire was immediately awaiting him.
[Footnote 115: Biedermann, _op. cit._ i. 19-20.]
CHAPTER VII
WETZLAR AND CHARLOTTE BUFF
MAY--SEPTEMBER, 1772
During the summer and autumn of 1772 Goethe found himself in a society
and surroundings which were in curious contrast to those of Darmstadt;
and the next four months were to supply him with an experience which,
wrought into one book of transcendent literary effect, was to make his
name known, literally, to the ends of the earth,[116] and which may be
regarded as the most remarkable episode in his long life.
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