... You will be astonished at the man who unites the fury
of the lion with the gentleness of the lamb. I have seen no one at
once firmer in purpose and more easily led.... Goethe is the most
lovable, most affable, most charming of fellows."[227]
[Footnote 227: Biedermann, _op. cit._ i. 59. Goethe made Lavater the
victim of one of the practical jokes which he was in the habit of
playing on his friends. Seeing an unfinished sermon of Lavater on his
desk, he completed it during the absence of Lavater, who, in ignorance
of the addition, preached the whole sermon as his own.--_Ib._ p. 58.]
In Zurich happened what Merck had foreseen. Goethe had grown tired of
his over-exuberant fellow-travellers, whose ways, moreover, did not
commend them to the sensitive Lavater. Goethe himself indeed was
capable of wild enough pranks, but behind his wild humours lay ever
the "serious striving" which was the regulative force of his nature,
and which Lavater had recognised from the beginning of their
intercourse. A lucky accident gave Goethe the opportunity of escaping
from his late comrades without an open breach. In Zurich he found a
friend whom he had looked forward to meeting there.
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