From this wide world and free;
How dear is Nature and how good!
A mother unto me!

Rocked by the wavelets speeds our skiff
To the oar's measured beat;
Cloudclapt, the heaven-aspiring hills
Appear our course to meet.

Why sink my eyelids as I gaze?
Ye golden dreams of other days,
Come ye again? Though ne'er so dear,
Begone! Are life and love not here?

The o'erhanging stars are twinkling
In myriads on the mere;
In floating mists enfolded
The far heights disappear.

The morning breeze is coursing
Round the deep-shadowed cove;
And in its depths are imaged
The ripening fruits above.

Looking down on the same lake from its southern ridge, he writes these
lines, the concentrated expression of distracted emotions:--

Wenn ich, liebe Lili, dich nicht liebte,
Welche Wonne gaeb' mir dieser Blick!
Und doch, wenn ich, Lili, dich nicht liebte,
Faend' ich hier und faend' ich dort mein Glueck?

If I, loved Lili, loved thee not,
In this prospect, ah! what bliss;
Yet, Lili, if I loved thee not,
Where should I find my happiness?

In the cloister of the church at Einsiedeln he saw a beautiful gold
crown, and his first thought was how it would become the brows of
Lili. On the night of June 21st the two travellers reached the hospice
in the pass of St. Gothard--the term of their journey. Next morning
they saw the path that led down to Italy, and, according to Goethe's
account, Passavant vehemently urged that they should make the descent
together. For a few moments he was undecided, but the memories of Lili
conquered. Drawing forth a golden heart, her gift, which he wore round
his neck, he kissed it, and his resolution was taken. Hastily turning
from the tempting path, he began his homeward descent, his companion
reluctantly following him.[228]

[Footnote 228: According to a tradition in the Passavant family, it
was Goethe, not Passavant, who was so eager to descend into
Italy.--Biedermann, _op. cit._ i. 58.]

On July 22nd, after a leisurely journey homewards, he was again in
Frankfort, and in a state of mind as undecided as ever regarding his
future course. Fortunately or unfortunately for himself and the world,
circumstances independent of his own will were to decide between the
alternatives that lay before him.

CHAPTER XIV

LAST MONTHS IN FRANKFORT--THE _URF