hich made Wieland speak of him as "a veritable ruler of
spirits." He humours the good father by drawing a plan for a new
parsonage and painting his coach, he charms the daughters by his
various accomplishments, and the neighbours who came about the
parsonage are carried away by his frolicsome humour. "When Goethe
came among us girls when we were at work in the barn," related one who
had seen him, "his jests and droll stories almost made work
impossible."[90]

[Footnote 88: It is recorded that his voice trembled as he dictated
the passages referring to Sesenheim and Friederike.]

[Footnote 89: In reality, there were four daughters, but Goethe omits
mention of the other two in order to make more striking the
resemblance between the family of the Vicar of Wakefield and that of
Sesenheim.]

[Footnote 90: Biedermann, _op. cit._ i. pp. 16-17.]

The beginning of disillusion came on the occasion of a visit made by
the two sisters to Strassburg. In a world that was alien to her
Friederike lost something of the charm which was derived from her
perfect fitness to her native surroundings, and it was brought home to
Goethe that there must be a rude awakening from the dream of the last
few months. In May, 1771, he paid a visit to Sesenheim which lasted
several weeks, and the picture we have of his state of mind during his
visit shows that he felt that the time of reckoning had come. His mind
was already clear that he and Friederike must separate, but he was
fully conscious that he was playing a sorry part. Exaggerated language
was such an inveterate habit with him at this period of his life that
it is difficult to know with what exactness his words express his real
feelings.[91] That he was unhappy, however, we cannot doubt, make what
reserves we may for rhetorical excesses of style. Here are a few
passages from letters addressed to his friend Salzmann during his stay
at Sesenheim: "It rains without and within, and the hateful evening
winds rustle among the vine leaves before my window, and my _animula
vagula_ is like yonder weather-cock on the church tower." "For the
honour of God I am not leaving this place just at present.... I am now
certainly in tolerably good health; my cough, as the result of
treatment and exercise, is pretty nearly gone, and I hope it will soon
go altogether. Things about me, however, are not very bright; the
little one [Friederike] continues sadly ill, and that makes everything
look out of joint--not to