was so completely to eclipse him in
the eyes of the world. In his letters from Strassburg he does not even
mention Goethe's name; and, when he subsequently referred to him, it
was in terms he might have applied to any clever and confident youth.
"Goethe," he wrote, "is at bottom a good fellow, only somewhat
superficial and sparrow-like,[77] faults with which I constantly taxed
him." If Herder's moods frequently jarred on Goethe, it is evident
that the experience was mutual. The physical and mental restlessness,
which is suggested by the epithet "sparrow-like," and which was noted
by others as characteristic of Goethe at this period, could not fail
to irritate one like Herder, naturally grave, sobered by hard
experience, and then suffering from a painful and serious ailment.
Equally distasteful to Herder were Goethe's explosive outbursts in
general conversation and his liking for practical jokes at the expense
of his friends. To Herder as to everyone else Goethe aired his
opinions with the "frank confidingness" which he notes as a trait of
his own character, and which gave Herder frequent opportunities for
scathing criticism. Herder gibed at his youthful tastes--at his
collection of seals, at his elegantly-bound volumes which stood unread
on his shelves, at his enthusiasms for Italian art, for the writings
of the Cabbalists, for the poetry of Ovid.[78]

[Footnote 76: Herder thought that Goethe was lacking in enthusiasm.]

[Footnote 77: Elsewhere Herder calls Goethe a _Specht_, a
wood-pecker.]

[Footnote 78: Writing to a correspondent in 1780, Goethe says: "Herder
faehrt fort, sich und andern das Leben sauer zu machen."]

At bottom, as Herder said, Goethe was a "good fellow," slow to take
offence, and as little vindictive as is possible to human nature. This
easy temper doubtless stood him in good stead under the fire of
Herder's sarcasms, but he himself specifies another reason for his
docility which is equally characteristic: he endured all Herder's
satirical spleen because he had learned to attach a high value to
everything that contributed to his own culture. According to his own
account, he owed a double debt to Herder--a determining influence on
his character, and an equally determining influence on his
intellectual development. Till he met Herder he had been treated as a
youthful genius, as a "conquering lord," whose eccentricities were
only a proof of his originality. Very different was the measure he
receiv