Studiously avoiding all reference to his
own productions, he turned the conversation on subjects of public
interest, on which he spoke with a fulness of knowledge that convinced
his hearers that the author of _Werther_ was not an effeminate
sentimentalist. So favourable was the impression he made on the
princes that they expressed a wish that he would follow them to Mainz
and spend a few days with them there. The proposal was highly
acceptable to Goethe, but there was a difficulty in the way. The Herr
Rath was a sturdy republican, and had an ingrained aversion to the
nobility as a class. In his opinion, for a commoner to seek
intercourse with that class was to compromise his self-respect and to
invite humiliation, and he roundly maintained that in seeking his
son's acquaintance the princes were only laying a train to pay him
back for his treatment of Wieland. When the Goethe household was
divided on important questions, it was their custom to refer to the
Fraeulein von Klettenberg as arbiter. That sainted lady was now on a
sick-bed, but through the Frau Rath she conveyed her opinion that the
invitation of the princes should be accepted.
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