er der vergoetterte Waldteufel_, it was the
extravagancies of the followers of Rousseau in their idealisation of
the natural man. According to Kestner, as we have seen, Goethe himself
greatly admired Rousseau, but was not one of his blind worshippers,
and _Satyros_ is a sufficiently cogent proof of the fact. What is
astounding is the means he chose to give point to his ridicule. Herder
is Satyros, the Waldteufel,[140] who is represented as being humanely
received by a hermit (Merck) while suffering from a wounded leg.
Satyros requites his host with coarse abuse of himself and his
religion, flings his crucifix into the neighbouring stream, and steals
a valuable piece of linen cloth. Next by an enchanting melody he
cajoles two maidens, Arsinoe and Psyche (Caroline Flachsland), into
the belief that he is a superhuman being, and Psyche is so overcome
that she submits to his embraces. The people of the neighbourhood
flock to him, see in him a new god, and on his persuasion take to
eating chestnuts, as the natural food of man--the priest of the
community, Hermes, joining in their worship. The hermit appears on the
scene, and on his abusing Satyros for the theft of his crucifix, the
people decide to offer him as a sacrifice to their insulted divinity.
By a stratagem of the wife of Hermes, the hermit is rescued and the
bestiality of Satyros exposed. In no way disconcerted, Satyros leaves
the throng with flouts at their asinine attachment to their
conventional morality as opposed to the free life inculcated by
nature. Goethe's later comment on this remarkable production is that
it was "a document of the godlike insolence of our youth," and
certainly no document could bring more vividly before us the world in
which Goethe's genius came to fruition.[141]

[Footnote 139: It was published in the autumn of the following year,
1774.]

[Footnote 140: W. Scherer was the first to identify Herder with
Satyros.]

[Footnote 141: _Satyros_ was not published till 1814, after Herder's
death, but he was aware of its existence.]

Still another piece of the "godlike insolence of youth," though less
offensive in its implications, is the farce, _Goetter, Helden, und
Wieland_, written in the autumn of the same year, 1773. At an earlier
period Wieland had been one of the gods of Goethe's idolatry, but
Wieland was now the most distinguished champion of those French models
against which Goethe and the youths associated with him had declared
irrec