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Early and Miscellaneous Letters of J. W. Goethe
Early and Miscellaneous Letters of J W Goethe Author:Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: me, that I know; I have not forgotten you, as you know, in spite of a silence the length of which I cannot account for. I have never so vividly experienced what ... more »it is to be contented without the heart having any inclination as now,—as here in Strasbourg. An extensive acquaintance amongst pleasant people, a lively, merry social circle, chases away one day after the other, leaves me little time to think and no repose for feeling; and when one does not feel, one certainly does not think of one's friends. Enough, my present life is exactly like a sleigh-drive, showy and tinkling, but affording just as little for the heart as it offers much to eyes and ears. You would hardly guess how the idea of writing to you so unexpectedly comes to me, and, as the reason is a nice one, 1 must tell it to you. I have been spending a few days in the country with some pleasant people. The society of the amiable daughters of the house, the beautiful neighbourhood, and the most favouring weather, have awakened in my heart every slumbering feeling, every remembrance of all that I love; so that I have scarcely returned than here I am sitting already and writing to you. And thereby you can see how far one can forget one's friends when one is happy. It is only immoderate, unenviable good fortune that makes us forget ourselves, that even clouds the thoughts of a loved one : but when one feels one's self completely, and quietly enjoys the pure pleasures of love and friendship, then, by a peculiar sympathy, every interrupted friendship, every half-severed tenderness, at once comes to life again. And you, my dear friend, whom, amongst many, I can so name especially, Letter No. 44, below, is possibly wiitten to the same person or to her sister, for the drafts of both nre on the fame sheet Scholl (Brie...« less