f
poor parents, he had had to fight his way at every step to the
distinction which he had already attained. He had studied under Kant
at Koenigsberg, had been successively assistant teacher, assistant
pastor, and private tutor. In this last capacity he had travelled in
France, and visited Paris, where he had made the acquaintance, among
others, of Diderot and D'Alembert. In Hamburg he had for several weeks
been in intercourse with Lessing, whom Goethe in a moment of caprice
had neglected to visit in Leipzig. Already, moreover, he had produced
work in literary criticism which by its suggestiveness and originality
had attracted much attention, and notably among the youth of Germany.
In hard-won experience, in extent of knowledge and range of ideas,
therefore, Herder, as Goethe himself speedily saw and acknowledged,
was far ahead of him along those very paths where he himself was
ambitious of distinction.

The association of Herder and Goethe in these Strassburg days is one
of the interesting chapters in European literary history. Goethe
himself bears emphatic testimony to Herder's determining influence at
once on his mind and character. "The most significant event of that
time, he tells us, "and one which was to have the weightiest
consequences for me, was my acquaintance with Herder and the closer
bond that resulted from it." Bond there was between them, but it was
not the bond of genuine friendship. No two men, indeed, could be more
essentially antipathetic by nature than Herder and Goethe. Their
antagonism was clearly apparent during their intercourse in
Strassburg, and in the end, after many years of uneasy relations,
their alienation became complete. Be it said that the traits in Herder
which estranged Goethe from him were equally recognised and felt by
others. Naturally querulous, splenetic, and inconsiderate of others'
feelings, the adverse circumstances of his early life had made him
something of a Timon among his fellows.[74] His favourite author was
Swift, and from this preference and from the peculiarities of his own
temper he was known among his acquaintances as the "Dean." But there
were sides to his nature which certainly did not exist in the
"terrible" Dean. Herder was an enthusiast for his own ideas, and these
ideas were of a quality and range that marked him as one of the
pioneers of his time. Religion as a primary instinct in man and the
principal factor in his development was Herder's lifelong and
pre