In the Old Testament, and specially in the Book of Genesis, with its picture of patriarchal life, he found a world which by engaging his feelings and imagination worked with tranquilising effect (_stille Wirkung_) on his spirit, distracted by his miscellaneous studies and his varied interests.

Of all the elements that entered into his early culture, indeed, Goethe gives the first place to the Bible.

"To it, almost alone," he expressly says, "did I owe my moral education." To the Bible as an incomparable presentment of the national life and development of a people, and the most precious of possessions for human culture, Goethe bore undeviating testimony at every period of his life.

It need hardly be said that his attitude towards the Bible was divided by an impassable gulf from the attitude of traditional Christianity.

For Goethe it was a purely human production, the fortunate birth of a time and a race which in the nature of things can never be paralleled.