avater bear witness,
he proclaimed the conditions of the regeneration of society--the
improved education of youth and the necessity for the rich to open
their purses for its accomplishment. Then, his wanton spirit as usual
getting the better of him, he turned the torrent of his eloquence in
another direction. A thorough-going rationalist, his pet aversion was
the dogma of the Trinity, and on that dogma he now directed his
batteries, with the effect of horrifying his audience, most of whom
had come to be edified by the pious exhortations of Lavater. Lavater
mildly expostulated; Goethe endeavoured by jesting interruptions to
change the subject, and the ladies to break up the company. All their
efforts were in vain, and the apostle of Rousseau had the
satisfaction of completely unbosoming himself and at the same time
forfeiting some contributions to his educational scheme. As they drove
back to Ems, Goethe took a humorous revenge. The heat of a July day
and his recent vocal exertions had made the prophet thirsty, and as
they passed a tavern he ordered the driver to pull up. Goethe
imperiously countermanded the order, to the wrath of Basedow, which
Goethe turned aside, however, with one of his ever-ready quips.

The strangely-assorted trio were not yet tired of each other's
company, for, when on July 18th Lavater left Ems, both Goethe and
Basedow accompanied him. Their way lay down the Lahn and the Rhine,
and on the voyage Basedow and Goethe conducted themselves like German
students on holiday--the former discoursing on grammar and smoking
everlastingly, the latter improvising doggerel verses and the
beautiful lines beginning: _Hoch auf dem alten Turme steht_. On
landing at Coblenz the behaviour of the pair was so outrageous that
all three were apparently taken by the crowd for lunatics. At Coblenz
they dined, and the dinner has its place in literature, for both in
his Autobiography and in some sarcastic lines (_Dine zu Coblenz_)
Goethe has commemorated it. He sat between Lavater and Basedow, and
during the meal the former expounded the Revelation of St. John to a
country pastor, and the latter exerted himself to prove to a stolid
dancing-master that baptism was an anachronism.

On the 20th they continued their voyage down the Rhine as far as
Bonn--Goethe still in the same madcap humour. Lavater gives us a
picture of him at one moment on the voyage--with gray hat, adorned
with a bunch of flowers, with a brown silk necktie