"[183]
[Footnote 183: _Werke, Briefe_, ii. 180.]
Fritz Jacobi possessed a combination of qualities that were expressly
fitted to impress Goethe at the period when they met. Handsome in
person, and with the polished manners of a man of the world, he
conjoined a practical talent for business with a passionate interest
in all questions touching human destiny. About six years Goethe's
senior, he was, on Goethe's own testimony, far ahead of him in the
domain of philosophical thought. After Herder, Jacobi was indeed the
most stimulating personality Goethe had met. While his intercourse
with Lavater and Basedow had been only a source of entertainment, from
Jacobi he received a stimulus which opened up new depths of thought
and feeling.
Both Goethe and Jacobi have left records of their intercourse, and
both are equally enthusiastic regarding the profit they derived from
it. From the first moment of their meeting there was a spontaneous
interchange of their deepest thoughts and feelings, unique in the
experience of both. In Jacobi's company Goethe became another man from
what he had been in the company of Lavater and Basedow. "I was weary,"
he says, "of my previous follies and wantonness, which, in truth, only
concealed my dissatisfaction that this journey had brought so little
profit to my mind and heart.
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