omplete breach with his past, and to seek deliverance in a new set of
conditions under which he might attain the self-control after which he
had hitherto vainly striven. This prolonged conflict with himself was
doubtless primarily due to his own inherited temperament, but it was
also in large measure owing to the character of the society and of the
time in which the period of his youth was passed. Had he been born
half a century earlier--that is to say, in a time when the current
speculation was bound up with a mechanical philosophy, and when the
limits of emotion were conditioned by strict conventional
standards--he might have been a youth of eccentric humours, but the
morbid fancies and wandering affections that consumed him could not
have come within his experience. But by the time when he began to
think and feel, Rousseau had written and opened the flood-gates of the
emotions, and Sterne had shown how accepted conventions might appear
in the light of a capricious wit and fancy which probed the surface of
things. In Goethe's letters, which are the most direct revelation of
his mental and moral condition during the period, the influence of
Rousseau and Sterne is visible on every page, and the fact has to be
remembered in drawing any conclusions as to the real state of his
mind from his language to his various correspondents. The fashion of
giving exaggerated expression to every emotion was, in fact, the
convention of the day, and we find it in all the correspondence, both
of the men and women of the time. That it was in large degree forced
and artificial and must be interpreted with due reserves, will appear
in the case of Goethe himself.

There are three critical epochs during these Frankfort years, each
marked by a central event which resulted in new developments of
Goethe's character and genius. In the period between his return to
Frankfort in August, 1771, and May, 1772, was written the first draft
of _Goetz von Berlichingen_, the eventual publication of which made him
the most famous author in Germany. During these months the memories of
Strassburg are fresh in his mind, and the recollection of Friederike
and the teaching of Herder are his chief sources of inspiration. In
May, 1772, he went to Wetzlar, where, during a residence of three
months, he passed through another emotional experience which, two
years later, found expression in _Werther_, of still more resounding
notoriety than _Goetz_. The opening of 1775