.. Goethe lives in a state of constant inward
war and tumult, since on every subject he feels with the extreme of
vehemence. It is a need of his spirit to make enemies with whom he can
contend; moreover, it is not the most contemptible adversaries he will
single out. He has spoken to me of all those whom he has attacked with
special and genuinely felt esteem. But the fellow delights in battle;
he has the spirit of an athlete. As he is probably the most singular
being who ever existed, he began as follows one evening in Mainz in
quite melancholy tones: 'I am now good friends again with
everybody--with the Jacobis, with Wieland; and this is not as it
should be with me. It is the condition of my being that, as I must
have something which for the time being is for me the ideal of the
excellent, so also I must have an ideal against which I can direct my
wrath.'"[195]
[Footnote 195: Max Morris, _op. cit._ iv. 370-1. About the same date
as Knebel's letter, Goethe wrote to Sophie von la Roche: "Das ist was
Verfluchtes dass ich anfange mich mit niemand mehr misszuverstehen."
In his 49th year Goethe said of himself: "Opposition ist mir immer
noetig.
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