In what has been said of Goethe's relations to Lotte Buff it is the
emotional side of his nature that has been before us, but from the
hand of the judicious Kestner we have a portrait of the whole man
which leaves nothing to be desired in its completeness and insight.
Kestner's description of his first meeting with his formidable rival
reminds us of the "conquering lord" whose self-assurance evoked
Herder's stinging criticism. Stretched on his back on the grass under
a tree, Goethe was carrying on a conversation with two acquaintances
who stood by. Kestner's first decided impression was that the
stranger was "no ordinary man," and that he had "genius and a lively
imagination." His final and complete impression, after Goethe had left
Wetzlar, he thus records:--
"He has very many gifts, is a real genius, and a man of character; he
has an extraordinarily lively imagination, and so, for the most part,
expresses himself in pictures and similes. He is himself in the habit
of saying that he always expresses himself in general terms, can never
express himself with precision; when he is older, however, he hopes to
think and express the thought as it is.
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