may be
said, does not strike us as a happy introduction to the relations that
were to follow; it would not have been written had Friederike been the
daughter of a house of the same social standing as his own. All
through his relations to the Sesenheim family, indeed, there is an
unpleasant suggestion that it is the son of the Imperial Councillor
who is indulging a passion which he is fully aware must one day end in
a more or less bitter parting. "Dear new Friend," he begins, "Such I
do not hesitate to call you, for, if in other circumstances I have not
much insight into the language of the eyes, at the first glance I saw
in yours the hope of this friendship; and for our hearts I would
swear. How should you, tender and good as I know you to be, not be a
little partial to me in return?"[87] In this strain the letter
continues, and with a skill of approach that reminds us of his boast
to his former confidant Behrisch.

[Footnote 87: _Ib._ p. 251.]

Goethe's relations with Friederike lasted till the end of June,
1771--a period of some ten months. Of this period the first half would
seem to have been passed by both in idyllic oblivion of consequences;
during the second there came painful awakening to realities on the
part of one of the lovers. As they lived in his memory, those first
months that Goethe spent in intercourse with the Sesenheim circle were
a long dream of happiness; and nowhere in his Autobiography is he so
obviously moved by his recollection of the past.[88] The picture he
has drawn of that time is, indeed, an idyll in every sense. We have
the setting of a primitive home in a country Arcadian in its
bountifulness and beauty; in the centre of this home is the father,
whose simple piety is in perfect keeping with his office and his
surroundings; and the home is brightened by the presence of two
daughters,[89] the one of whom, Friederike, appears as a vision of
rustic grace and modest maidenhood. In the midst of this circle moves
the richly-gifted youth, laying under a spell father, daughters, and
all who come within the magnetism of his presence. In no other
situation, indeed, are the attractive sides of Goethe's character so
strikingly manifest as in his intercourse with the Sesenheim family
and the friendly group attached to them. It is without a touch of
egotism that he brings himself before us in all the buoyant spirits,
the quickness of sympathy, the diversity of interests, the splendour
of his gifts, w