]
"What happened to me in Wetzlar," Goethe writes in his Autobiography,
"is of no great significance." But posterity has thought differently,
and, if we are to judge by the consequences of what, happened to him
in Wetzlar, both for himself and for the world, posterity is
right.[123] Be it said also, that contemporary testimony at first
hand leaves us in no doubt that, but for his Wetzlar experience, one
of the most remarkable phases in Goethe's development would not have
found expression, and one resounding note in European literature would
have been unheard.
[Footnote 123: An exhaustive account of Goethe's sojourn in Wetzlar
will be found in W. Herbst's _Goethe in Wetzlar_, 1772. _Vier Monate
aus des Dichters Jugendleben_, Gotha, 1881.]
In Leipzig and Strassburg Goethe had found objects to engage his
affections, and he was not to be without a similar experience in
Wetzlar. During his first weeks there he had seen no maiden to
interest him, and the fact may explain his dissatisfaction during that
period. After leaving in succession the circles of Sesenheim,
Frankfort, and Darmstadt, he tells us, he felt a void in his heart
which he could not fill.
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