English verse which may be produced here as exhibiting the
state of his feelings and the extent of his acquaintance with the
English language:--

What pleasure, God! of like a flame to born,
A virteous fire, that ne'er to vice kan turn.
What volupty! when trembling in my arms,
The bosom of my maid my bosom warmeth!
Perpetual kisses of her lips o'erflow,
In holy embrace mighty virtue show.

[Footnote 24: _Ib._ pp. 61-2.]

In letters written to his sister Cornelia about the same date,
however, we see another side of his life in Leipzig. He has been
excluded from the society in which he was formerly received, and he
assigns as reasons that he is following the counsels of his father in
refusing to engage in play, and that he cannot avoid showing a sense
of his superiority in taste which gives offence. But, as we learn that
Behrisch was also excluded from the same society, and that he was
dismissed from the charge of his pupils on the ground of his loose
life, we may infer that Goethe does not state all the reasons for his
own social ostracism.[25]

[Footnote 25: _Ib._ pp. 81-2.]

So things stood with him in October, 1766, and it is not till the
following May that we hear of him again through his correspondence. In
a letter to Cornelia written in that month he excuses himself for his
long neglect of her. He has been busy, he has been ill, and the spring
has come late. In this letter he writes of Kaethchen as follows: "Among
my acquaintances who are alive (he has just mentioned the death of
Frau Boehme) the little Schoenkopf does not deserve to be forgotten. She
is a very good girl, with an uprightness of heart joined to agreeable
_naivete_, though her education has been more severe than good. She
looks after my linen and other things when it is necessary, for she
knows all about these matters, and is pleased to give me the benefit
of her knowledge; and I like her well for that. Am I not a bit of a
scamp, seeing I am in love with all these girls? Who could resist them
when they are good; for as for beauty, that does not touch me; and,
indeed, all my acquaintances are more good than beautiful."[26] This
is not the tone of an ardent lover speaking of his mistress, and it is
evident that Cornelia was not the confidant of his real relations to
Kaethchen, which, indeed, would have been as distasteful to her as to
their father. In another letter, addressed to her in the following
August, he is