o social
position, and is often spoken of as his servant. Although never really
occupying that position, her standing was not much above that plane. She
fascinated Goethe as so many young faces had done before, and it seemed
to be a thraldom of the mind as well as of the senses. There are few
poems in any language which approach the passionate gratitude of those
in which he recalls the happiness she gave him.

George Henry Lewes in his life of the poet has this passage, which will
be read with peculiar interest, considering his own relations with the
highest genius of her day, George Eliot. He says:--

"Why did he not marry her at once? His dread of marriage has
already been shown; and to this abstract dread must be added the
great disparity of station,--a disparity so great that it not only
made the liaison scandalous, but made Christine herself reject the
offer of marriage. There are persons now living who have heard her
declare that it was her own fault that the marriage was so long
delayed. And certain it is that when she bore him a child, he took
her, with her mother and sister, to live in his house, and always
regarded the connection as marriage. But, however he may have
regarded it, public opinion has not forgiven this defiance of its
social laws. The world blamed him loudly; even his admirers cannot
think of the connection without pain. But let us be just. While no
one can refrain from deploring that Goethe, so eminently needing a
pure domestic life, should not have found a wife whom he could
avow, no one who knows the circumstances can refrain from
confessing that there is also a bright light to this dark episode."

He goes on to say:--

"The judgments of men are curious. No action in Goethe's life has
excited more scandal than his final marriage with Christine. It is
thought disgraceful enough for him to have taken her into his home,
but for the great poet to actually complete such an enormity as to
crown his connection with her by marriage was, indeed, more than
society could tolerate. I have already expressed my opinion of this
unfortunate connection, but I most emphatically declare my belief
that the redeeming point in it is precisely this which caused the
scandal. Better far had there been no connection at all; but if it
was to be, the nearer it approached real marriage, and