PREFACE.
"Generally speaking," Goethe has himself said, "the most important period in the life of an individual is that of his development--the period which, in my case, breaks off with the detailed narrative of _Dichtung und Wahrheit_." In reality, as we know, there is no complete breach at any point in the lives of either nations or individuals.

But if in the life of Goethe we are to fix upon a dividing point, it is his departure from Frankfort and his permanent settlement in Weimar in his twenty-seventh year.

Considered externally, that change of his surroundings is the most obvious event in his career, and for the world at large marks its division into two well-defined periods.

In relation to his inner development his removal from Frankfort to Weimar may also be regarded as the most important fact in his life.

From the date of his settlement in Weimar he was subjected to influences which equally affected his character and his genius; had he continued to make his home in Frankfort, it is probable that, both as man and literary artist, he would have developed characteristics essentially different from those by which the world knows him.