Delphi Collected Works of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe \(Illustrated\) pdfdrive com

AUGUST 21.

My  sensations  are  constantly  changing.  Sometimes  a  happy  prospect  opens

before me; but alas! it is only for a moment; and then, when I am lost in reverie,

I  cannot  help  saying  to  myself,  “If  Albert  were  to  die?    —    Yes,  she  would

become — and I should be” — and so I pursue a chimera, till it leads me to

the edge of a precipice at which I shudder.

When I pass through the same gate, and walk along the same road which first

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conducted me to Charlotte, my heart sinks within me at the change that has since

taken  place.  All,  all,  is  altered!  No  sentiment,  no  pulsation  of  my  heart,  is  the

same.  My  sensations  are  such  as  would  occur  to  some  departed  prince  whose

spirit should return to visit the superb palace which he had built in happy times,

adorned with costly magnificence, and left to a beloved son, but whose glory he

should find departed, and its halls deserted and in ruins.