ally justified in the person of Werther, and was clothed in
such specious hues as to present it in the light of a natural means
of escape from the troubles of life. On the ground of these supposed
sinister implications the sale of _Werther_ was prohibited in Leipzig
under a penalty of ten thalers, a translation of it was forbidden in
Denmark, and the Archbishop of Milan ordered it to be publicly burned
in that town. There was, of course, no thought in Goethe's mind of
recommending suicide by the example of Werther, but he felt the
reproach keenly, and indignantly repudiated it. Yet, when a few years
later, a young woman was found drowned in the Ilm at Weimar with a
copy of _Werther_ in her pocket, he was painfully reminded that the
book might be of dangerous consequence to a certain class of
minds.[159]

[Footnote 159: The judgment of Lessing, who had no sympathy with the
effeminate sentimentality of the time, was severe. "We cannot," he
said, "imagine a Greek or a Roman _Werther_; it was the Christian
ideal that had made such a character possible." Goethe, he thought,
should have added a cynical chapter (the more cynical the better) to
put _Werther's_ character in its true light. As the friend of
Jerusalem, Lessing naturally resented the liberty which Goethe had
taken with him.]

_Werther_ has been described as "the act of a conqueror and a
high-priest of art,"[160] and of the truth of this description we have
interesting proof from Goethe's own hand. In _Werther_ he had not only
given to the world a likeness of himself; in Albert and Charlotte he
had exhibited two figures who were at once identified as Kestner and
Lotte, now Kestner's wife. It was not only that domestic privacy was
thus invaded, but the characters assigned to Albert and Charlotte were
such as could not fail to give just offence to their originals. Yet
in the triumph of the artist it seems never to have occurred to Goethe
that Kestner and Lotte would resent the licence he had taken with
them. On the eve of the publication of _Werther_ he sent a copy of it
to Lotte, informing her at the same time that he had kissed it a
thousand times before sending it, and praying her not to make it
public till it was given to the world at the approaching Leipzig fair.
It came as a surprise to him, therefore, when he received a letter of
reproach from Kestner, protesting against the injurious presentment of
himself and his wife in the book. In a first reply, Goethe f