listener to his theological views. Under
Langer's influence he resumed his youthful study of the Bible--not in
the Old Testament, however, but in the New, which he read, he tells
us, with "emotion and enthusiasm." It was the beginning of a new phase
in his life which was to last for about a year and a half, a phase in
which religion, if we are to accept the testimony of his
Autobiography, held the uppermost place in his thoughts.

[Footnote 47: When approaching his eightieth year, Goethe remarked to
Chancellor von Mueller (March 6th, 1828): "Wer mit mir umgehen will,
muss zuweilen auch meine Grobianslaune zugeben, ertragen, wie eines
andern Schwachheit oder Steckenpferd."]

It was with the feelings of "a shipwrecked seaman," he tells us, that
he found himself again under his father's roof, though he
characteristically adds that "he had nothing specially to reproach
himself with." The atmosphere he found at home was not such as to put
him in better spirits. Father, mother and daughter had been living in
mutual misunderstanding during the whole period of the son's absence
in Leipzig. Cornelia had been made the sole victim of her father's
pedagogic discipline which had been partially alleviated when it was
shared with her brother, and she had come to regard her over-anxious
parent with a hardness which Goethe describes as having something
dreadful (_fuerchterliches_) in it. The arrival of Goethe could not
improve the existing relations in the household. As in the time before
his going to Leipzig, Cornelia drew to him as the only member of the
family who sympathetically understood her, and she remained as
obdurate as ever in her sullen attitude towards her father. Between
Goethe himself and his father their former estrangement continued, and
we are given to understand that during the year and a half he now
spent under the paternal roof there was no cordial understanding
regarding the son's pursuits and his future career.[48] Dissatisfied
with his son, as from his point of view he had every reason to be,
Herr Goethe nevertheless cherished a secret pride in his genius. With
a paternal pride, which is even touching in the circumstances, he
carefully framed the drawings executed by his son, and collected and
stitched together his letters from Leipzig.

[Footnote 48: Referring to the time he now spent in Frankfort, Goethe
says in _Dichtung und Wahrheit_: "Mit dem Vater selbst konnte sich
kein angenehmes Verhaeltniss knuepfen.