In no way disconcerted, Satyros leaves
the throng with flouts at their asinine attachment to their
conventional morality as opposed to the free life inculcated by
nature. Goethe's later comment on this remarkable production is that
it was "a document of the godlike insolence of our youth," and
certainly no document could bring more vividly before us the world in
which Goethe's genius came to fruition.[141]
[Footnote 139: It was published in the autumn of the following year,
1774.]
[Footnote 140: W. Scherer was the first to identify Herder with
Satyros.]
[Footnote 141: _Satyros_ was not published till 1814, after Herder's
death, but he was aware of its existence.]
Still another piece of the "godlike insolence of youth," though less
offensive in its implications, is the farce, _Goetter, Helden, und
Wieland_, written in the autumn of the same year, 1773. At an earlier
period Wieland had been one of the gods of Goethe's idolatry, but
Wieland was now the most distinguished champion of those French models
against which Goethe and the youths associated with him had declared
irreconcilable war. Moreover, in a journal recently started by
Wieland, there had appeared an unfriendly review of _Goetz von
Berlichingen_.
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