interest in all sections of the community,
and during his stay he was besieged by admiring crowds, especially of
women, who insisted even on seeing the bedchamber where the prophet
slept. "The pious souls," was Merck's sardonic comment, "wished to see
where they had laid the Lord"; but even Merck came under the prophet's
spell. The meeting of Lavater and Goethe was characteristic of the
time. "_Bist's?_" was Lavater's first exclamation. "_Ich bin's_," was
the reply; and they fell upon each other's necks. On Lavater's
indicating "by some singular exclamations" that Goethe was not exactly
what he expected, Goethe replied in the tone of banter which he
maintained throughout their personal intercourse, that he was as God
and nature had made him, and they must be content with their work.
"All spirit (_Geist_) and truth,"[178] is Lavater's comment on
Goethe's conversation at the close of their first day's meeting.

[Footnote 178: Biedermann, _op. cit._ i. 33.]

The following days were taken up with excursions and social gatherings
in which Lavater was the central figure, entrancing his hearers by his
social graces and his apostolic unction. In the Fraeulein von
Klettenberg he found a kindred soul, and Goethe listened, as he tells
us, with profit as they discoursed on the high themes in which they
had a common interest. If he derived profit, it was not of a nature
that Lavater and the Fraeulein would have desired. With the religious
opinions of neither was he in sympathy, and when they rejected his
own, he says, he would badger them with paradoxes and exaggerations,
and, if they became impatient, would leave them with a jest. What is
noteworthy in Lavater's record, indeed, is Goethe's communicativeness
and spontaneity in all that concerned himself. "So soon as we enter
society," is one of his remarks recorded by Lavater, "we take the key
out of our hearts and put it in our pockets. Those who allow it to
remain there are blockheads."[179]

[Footnote 179: _Ib._ p. 34.]

During his stay in Frankfort Lavater was so constantly surrounded by
his admirers that Goethe saw comparatively little of him. On June 28th
Lavater left for Ems, and it is a testimony to their mutual attraction
that Goethe accompanied him. The day's journey seems to have left an
abiding impression on Goethe's memory, as he makes special reference
to it in his record of Lavater's visit; and, as it happens, Lavater
noted in his Diary the principal topics of th