swallow any longer; eating and drinking become
painful to me; and my chest, which was so nearly concerned, seemed
to suffer. The vexation I had constantly felt since the discovery
made me banish every weakness.

"It seemed to me something frightful that I had sacrificed sleep,
repose, and health for the sake of a girl who was pleased to
consider me a babe, and to imagine herself, with respect to me,
something very like a nurse."

Poor Goethe! but many a man since has fallen in love with a woman older
than himself, and has afterward felt himself fortunate if he has been
treated as Goethe was. The real unfortunates are the ones who have been
for some reason encouraged in their passion, and married by these mature
women while mere boys. Taking into consideration the welfare of both
parties, there is scarcely a more unfortunate occurrence in life than
such a marriage. Soon after this first love episode Goethe went up to
Leipsic to enter the University. He was sixteen years old, well-favored
by nature, even handsome, and full of sensibility and enthusiasm. But he
appeared to the inhabitants of Leipsic like a being from another world,
on account of the grotesqueness of his costume. His father, who was of
an economical turn of mind, always bought his own cloth, and had his
servants make the clothing for the family. He usually bought good but
old-fashioned materials, and trimmings from some forgotten epoch in the
world's history. These trimmings, of the Paleozoic period or some still
remoter date, together with the unprofessional and antiquated cut of the
garments, made up such a grotesque appearance that Goethe was received
with undisguised mirth wherever he went in Leipsic, until he discovered
what was the matter with his dress. He had not been noticed at home on
this account, and he thought himself very well dressed when he first
arrived in the city; but his chagrin and mortification knew no bounds
when he discovered how he had been laughed at. It was not until he had
visited the theatre and seen a favorite actor throw the audience into
convulsions of laughter by appearing in a costume almost identical with
his own, that he begun to suspect that he was ill-dressed. He went out
and sacrificed his entire wardrobe, in the first tumult of his feelings,
remorselessly leaving no vestige of it remaining, and supplying himself
with a complete new outfit, not so ample as the old but much more
sati