se years he was able
to accumulate a store of observations and experiences which laid a
solid foundation for all his future thinking.

[Footnote 2: In 1792, on the occasion of his being offered the honour
of _Rathsherr_ (town-councillor) in Frankfort, he wrote to his mother
that "it was an honour, not only in the eyes of Europe, but of the
whole world, to have been a citizen of Frankfort." (Goethe to his
mother, December 24th, 1792). So, in 1824, he told Bettina von Arnim
that, had he had the choice of his birthplace, he would have chosen
Frankfort. As we shall see, Goethe did not always speak so favourably
of Frankfort.]

[Footnote 3:

Die Abgeschiednen betracht' ich gern,
Stuend' ihr Verdienst auch noch so fern;
Doch mit den edlen lebendigen Neuen
Mag ich wetteifernd mich lieber freuen.]

[Footnote 4: In his later years Goethe preferred life in a small town.
"Zwar ist es meiner Natur gemaess, an einem kleinen Orte zu leben."
(Goethe to Zelter, December 16th, 1804.)]

If Goethe was fortunate in the place of his birth, was he equally
fortunate in its date (1749)? He has himself given the most explicit
of answers to the question. In a remarkable paper, written at the age
of forty-six, he has described the conditions under which he and his
contemporaries produced their works in the different departments of
literature. The paper had been called forth by a violent and coarse
attack, which he described as _literarischer Sansculottismus_, on the
writers of the period, and with a testiness unusual with him he took
up their defence. Under what conditions, he asks, do classical writers
appear? Only, he answers, when they are members of a great nation and
when great events are moving that nation at a period in its history
when a high state of culture has been reached by the body of its
people. Only then can the writer be adequately inspired and find to
his hand the materials requisite to the production of works of
permanent value. But, at the epoch when he and his contemporaries
entered on their career, none of these conditions existed. There was
no German nation, there was no standard of taste, no educated public
opinion, no recognised models for imitation; and in these
circumstances Goethe finds the explanation of the shortcomings of the
generation of writers to which he belonged.

On the truth of these conclusions Goethe's adventures as a literary
artist are the all-sufficient commentary. From firs