alem's death, he wrote to Kestner for a
detailed account of all the circumstances, and he made a careful copy
of the information with which Kestner supplied him. In point of fact,
it was not till after more than a year that _Werther_ came to
fruition, but that he was in labour with the portentous birth all its
lineaments were to show.

[Footnote 127: Goethe had made Jerusalem's acquaintance in Leipzig.
Jerusalem called Goethe a _Geck_, a coxcomb, a description which, as
we have seen, was not inapplicable to him in his Leipzig days.
Jerusalem was a friend of Lessing, who highly esteemed him, and after
his death published his MSS.]

But before _Werther_ came to birth, Goethe went through another
experience which was to form an essential part of its tissue. Merck,
to whom Goethe attributes the chief influence over him during this
Frankfort period, was again the intermediary. Before Goethe left
Wetzlar, Merck had arranged that they should meet at Ehrenbreitstein,
where he would introduce Goethe to a family resident there.[128] The
family was that of Herr von la Roche, a Privy Councillor in the
service of the Elector of Trier, and it consisted of himself, his wife
and two daughters. The head of the house, a matter-of-fact man of the
world, plays no part in Goethe's relations to the family. It was Frau
von la Roche to whom, as a desirable acquaintance, Merck specially
wished to introduce his friend, and the sequel proved that he had
rightly divined their mutual affinities. The cousin of Wieland, with
whom she had had a _liaison_ before her marriage, she was now past
forty, but, according to Goethe's description of her, she possessed
all the charm of youth with the dignity and repose of maturity. What
is evident is, that Goethe saw in her the type of a high-bred woman
such as had not yet crossed his path. In his reminiscence of her, his
words have a warmth which is in notable contrast to the coldness of
his portrait of Lotte Buff. "She was a most wonderful woman," he
writes; "I knew no other to compare with her. Slight and delicately
formed, rather tall than short, she had contrived even in advanced
years to retain a certain elegance both of form and bearing which
pleasingly combined the manner of a Court lady with that of a
dignified burgess's wife."[129] In addition to these graces, Frau von
la Roche had precisely the temperament and the mental qualities that
appealed to Goethe in the emotional phase through which he was n