ked in the course of the day. In the prospect of their near parting
all three were disposed to confidential self-revelations, and the
conversation ran on themes regarding which they had all thought and
felt much--on poetry, religion, and philosophy. As usual with him when
he was in congenial company, Goethe freely declaimed such pieces of
verse as happened at the time to be interesting him--the verses on
this occasion being Scottish ballads and two poems of his own, _Der
Koenig von Thule_, and _Der untreue Knabe_. In philosophy the talk
turned mainly on Spinoza, of whom Goethe spoke "unforgettably."[185]
"What hours! what days," wrote Fritz immediately after their parting,
"thou soughtest me about midnight in the darkness; it was as if a new
soul were born within me. From that moment I could not let thee
go."[186] Neither, in the ecstasy of these moments, dreamt that at a
later day Spinoza, who was now their strongest bond of union, was to
be the main cause of their estrangement. For Jacobi Spinoza became the
"atheist," to be reprobated as one of the world's false prophets;
while for Goethe he remained to the end the man to whom God had been
nearest and to whom He had been most fully revealed.

[Footnote 185: As Goethe at this time knew little of Spinoza's
philosophy, it was probably on Spinoza's personal character that he
enlarged. On this theme, we have seen, he had discoursed with
Lavater.]

[Footnote 186: Biedermann, _op. cit._ i. 45.]

Shortly after parting with Goethe, Fritz Jacobi communicated his
impression of him to Wieland in the following words: "The more I think
of it, the more intensely I realise the impossibility of conveying to
one who has not seen or heard Goethe any intelligible notion of this
extraordinary creation of God. As Heinse[187] expressed it, 'Goethe is
a genius from the crown of his head to the sole of his foot,' one
possessed, I may add, for whom it is impossible to act from mere
caprice. One has only to be with him for an hour to feel the utter
absurdity of desiring him to think and act otherwise than he thinks
and acts. By this I don't mean to suggest that he cannot grow in
beauty and goodness, but that in his case such growth must be that of
the unfolding flower, of the ripening seed, of the tree soaring aloft
and crowning itself with foliage."[188]

[Footnote 187: Johann J.W. Heinse, a minor poet of the time, and one
of Goethe's most fervent admirers.]

[Footnote 188: Biedermann, _