a succession of works which mark
a new departure in German literature. In 1766 Herder, who was
subsequently to exercise such a profound influence over Goethe,
published his _Fragments on Modern German Literature_; in the same
year appeared Lessing's _Laokoon_, which, in Goethe's own words,
transported himself and his contemporaries "out of the region of
pitifully contracted views into the domain of emancipated thought";
and in 1767 Lessing's _Minna von Barnhelm_, Germany's "first national
drama." Greatly as Goethe was impressed by both of these works of
Lessing, however, he was not mature enough to profit by them[40]; and,
in point of fact, all the work, poems and plays, which he produced
during his Leipzig period, is solely inspired by the French models
which had so long dominated German literature.

[Footnote 37: _Werke, Briefe_, Band i. 67.]

[Footnote 38: _Ib._ p. 88.]

[Footnote 39: Notably in his paper, entitled _Literarischer
Sansculottismus_. See above, p. 4. Regarding Lessing he made this
remark to Eckermann (February 7th, 1827): "Bedauert doch den
ausserordentlichen Menschen, dass er in einer so erbaermlichen Zeit
leben musste, die ihm keine bessern Stoffe gab, als in seinen Stuecken
verarbeitet sind!"]

[Footnote 40: "Lessing war der hoechste Verstand, und nur ein ebenso
grosser konnte von ihm wahrhaft lernen. Dem Halbvermoegen war er
gefaehrlich." (To Eckermann, January 18th, 1825.)]

Considering his other manifold preoccupations, the amount of Goethe's
literary output during his three years in Leipzig is sufficient
evidence that his poetic instincts remained the dominant impulses of
his nature. He sprinkled his letters to his friends with poems in
German, French, and English, and he composed twenty lyrics which were
subsequently published in the autumn of 1769 under the title of _Neue
Lieder_[41]; and two plays, entitled _Die Laune des Verliebten_ and
_Die Mitschuldigen_. The biographic interest of all these productions
is the light which they throw on the transformation which Goethe had
undergone during his residence in Leipzig. In the poems he had written
in Frankfort religion had been the predominant theme; in his Leipzig
effusions it was love, and love in a sufficiently Anacreontic sense.
Regarding the poetic merit of the _Neue Lieder_ German critics are for
the most part at one. With hardly an exception the love lyrics are
mere imitations of French models; their style is as artificial as
their f