But upon reflection he did not know why Goethe should be held personally responsible for the existence of the woman-and-dog team.

He felt that he might more reasonably attribute to his taste the prevalence of classic profiles which he began to note in the Weimar populace.

This could be a sympathetic effect of that passion for the antique which the poet brought back with him from his sojourn in Italy; though many of the people, especially the children, were bow-legged.

Perhaps the antique had: begun in their faces, and had not yet got down to their legs; in any case they were charming children, and as a test of their culture, he had a mind to ask a little girl if she could tell him where the statue of Herder was, which he thought he might as well take in on his ramble, and so be done with as many statues as he could.

She answered with a pretty regret in her tender voice, "That I truly cannot," and he was more satisfied than if she could, for he thought it better to be a child and honest, than to know where any German statue was.
He easily found it for himself in the place which is called the Herder Platz after it.