rcourse with Merck was a
mixed pleasure. But, as we have seen, it was an abiding principle of
Goethe to be repelled by no one who had something to give him, and
Merck possessed qualities and accomplishments which were of the first
importance to him in the phase through which he was now passing. Merck
was keenly interested in literature, especially in English literature,
and had all Goethe's enthusiasm for Shakespeare. Though his own
original productions were of mediocre quality, he had an insight into
the character and genius of others which Goethe fully recognised and
to which he acknowledges his special obligation. His general attitude
in criticism was "negative and destructive," but this attitude was
entirely wholesome for Goethe at a period when instinct and passion
tended to overbear his judgment. With admirable penetration he saw how
Goethe during these Frankfort years occasionally wasted his powers in
attempts which were unworthy of his gifts and alien to his real
nature. It was in reference to these futile tendencies that Merck gave
him counsel in words which subsequent critics have recognised as the
most adequate definition of the essential characteristic of Goethe's
genius as a poet. "Your endeavour, your unswerving aim," he wrote, "is
to give poetic form to the real. Others seek to realise the so-called
poetic, the imaginative; and the result is nothing but stupid
nonsense." Like subsequent critics, also, Merck saw the superiority of
the first draft of _Goetz_ to the second, but when the latter was
completed, he played a friend's part. "It is rubbish and of no
account," was his characteristic remark; "however, let the thing be
printed";[108] and published it was, Merck bearing the cost of
printing and Goethe supplying the paper.

[Footnote 108: Eckermann, _Gespraeche mit Goethe_, November 9th, 1824.]

It was towards the close of 1771 that Goethe had made Merck's
acquaintance[109] on the occasion of a visit Merck had paid to
Frankfort; and in March of the following year, in company with the
younger Schlosser, they renewed their intercourse in Darmstadt, where
Merck was settled. The visit lasted a few days, and was of some
importance, as it introduced Goethe to a society of which he was to
see much during the remainder of his stay in Frankfort, and which,
according to his own testimony, "invigorated and widened his powers."
It was a society in which we are surprised to find the Mephistophelian
Merck the leadi