Salzmann was approaching fifty and a man of the stamp we have seen,
yet in Goethe's letters to him there is no trace of the modest
diffidence with which a youth usually addresses his seniors. A forward
self-confidence, which some found objectionable, was in fact a
characteristic of his youth and early manhood which is noticed by more
than one observer. He entered a room, we are told, with a bold and
confident air; and we have it from another witness that he was _d'une
suffisance insupportable_.[71] Be it remarked, however, that there is
equal testimony to the overpowering charm of his bearing and
conversation--a charm due, as we learn, to a spontaneity of feeling
and exuberance of youthful spirits which broke through all conventions
and gave the tone to every company in which he found himself.

[Footnote 70: Jung Stilling.]

[Footnote 71: Biedermann, _op. cit._, i. pp. 15, 19. At an earlier
period Goethe was thus described: "Er mag 15 oder 16 Jahr alt sein, im
uebrigen hat er mehr ein gutes Plappermaul als Gruendlichkeit." _Ib._ p.
6.]

Goethe's relations to another member of the circle, who joined it
somewhat later, show him in his most attractive light. This was Johann
Heinrich Jung, better known as Jung Stilling, now about thirty years
of age. Stilling was another of those originals who crossed Goethe's
path at different periods, and to whom he was at all times specially
attracted. Stilling had had a remarkable career; he had been
successively charcoal-burner, tailor, schoolmaster, and private tutor,
and he had come to Strassburg to qualify himself for the practice of
medicine. What attracted Goethe to him was a type of mind and
character at every point dissimilar from his own. With a simple
mystical piety, which led him to believe that he was a special child
of Providence, Stilling combined an intelligence and a zeal for
knowledge which gave his words and his actions an individual stamp. It
is from Stilling that we have the most vivid description of Goethe in
these Strassburg days. As he sat with a friend at the common table for
the first time, they saw a youth enter who, by his "large bright eyes,
magnificent forehead, handsome person, and confident air," arrested
their attention.[72] "That must be a fine fellow," remarked
Stilling's friend, but both agreed that they might look for trouble
with him, as he seemed _ein wilder Kamerad_. They were mistaken, and
Goethe was to prove one of Stilling's warmest friends