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

THE AUNT TO HERSILIA.

“I should also have enclosed your last little note for Lenardo, if I had actually

kept  to  the  purpose  which  my  incorrigible  partiality,  my  illness,  and

considerations of convenience had suggested. Your letters are not gone.”

WILHELM TO NATALIA.

“Man  is  a  sociable,  communicative  creature;  his  enjoyment  is  great  when  he

exercises the faculties that have been given to him, even if nothing further were

the outcome of it. How often is the complaint made in society, that one does not

allow  the  other  to  have  his  say;  and  one  can  just  as  well  say  that  one  did  not

allow  another  to  write,  if  writing  were  not  usually  a  sort  of  business  that  one

must  discharge  in  solitude  and  alone.  Of  how  much  people  write  we  have  no

idea at all. I do not wish to speak about so much of it as is printed, although it is

quite enough. But of the amount in letters, news, stories, anecdotes, descriptions

of  the  present  condition  of  individual  people,  quietly  circulating  in  letters  and

longer compositions — of this one may gain an idea by living for a time, as I do

now, in a family of culture. In the sphere in which I find myself at present, one

almost  spends  as  much  time  in  imparting  information  to  relations  and  friends

about  what  one  is  occupied  with  as  one  has  for  occupation  itself.  This

observation,  which  has  forced  itself  on  my  notice  during  the  last  few  days,  I

make all the more gladly, since my new friends’ facility in writing gives me the

opportunity of learning to know their mutual relations quickly and from all sides.

They  confide  in  me,  give  me  a  packet  of  letters,  a  few  travelling  journals,  the

confessions  of  a  mind  not  yet  at  one  with  itself,  and  thus  in  a  short  time  I  am

everywhere  in  the  house.  I  know  the  neighboring  society;  I  know  the  persons

whose acquaintance I am going to make, and know almost more about them than

they do themselves, since they are entangled in their own circumstances, whilst I

flit past them, always at your hand, discussing everything with you. It is my first

condition,  too,  before  I  accept  a  confidence,  that  I  shall  be  allowed  to  impart

everything to you. Here accordingly are a few letters, which will introduce you

to the circle within which I am at present moving, without breaking or evading

my vows.”

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