ndo. Yet all
the while he was completely master of his own genius. Throughout all
his alternating raptures and despairs he was assiduously practising
the arts to which his genius called him. He diligently contributed
both text and drawings to Lavater's _Physiognomy_; he worked at art on
his own account, making a special study of Rembrandt; and, as we shall
see, even at the time when his relations to Lili were at the
breaking-point he was producing poetical work which he never surpassed
at any period of his life. From two distinguished contemporaries, both
men of mature age, who visited him during this time of his intensest
preoccupation with Lili, we have interesting characterisations of him
which complement the impressions we receive from his own
self-portraiture. The one is from J.G. Sulzer, an author of repute on
matters of art. "This young scholar," Sulzer writes, "is a real
original genius, untrammelled in his manner of thinking, equally in
the sphere of politics and learning.... In intercourse I found him
pleasant and amiable.... I am greatly mistaken if this young man in
his ripe years will not turn out a man of integrity. At present he has
not as yet regarded man and human life from many sides. But his
insight is keen."[235] The other writer is J.G. Zimmermann, one of the
remarkable men of his time, whose book on _Solitude_, published in
1755, had brought him a European reputation. "I have been staying in
Frankfort with Monsieur Goethe," he writes, "one of the most
extraordinary and most powerful geniuses who has ever appeared in this
world.... Ah! my friend, if you had seen him in his paternal home, if
you had seen how this great man in the presence of his father and
mother is the best conducted and most amiable of sons, you would have
found it difficult not to regard him through the medium of love."[236]

[Footnote 235: Biedermann, _op. cit._ i. p. 60.]

[Footnote 236: Max Morris, _op. cit._ v. 470.]

On October 12th, 1775, happened an event which was to be the decisive
turning-point in Goethe's life. On that day the young Duke of Weimar
and his bride arrived in Frankfort on their way home from Carlsruhe,
where they had just celebrated their marriage, and again both warmly
urged him to visit them at Weimar.[237] We have it on Goethe's own
word that he had decided on a second flight from Frankfort as the only
escape from his unendurable situation, but the invitation of the ducal
pair brought his decision to