Dr.Arnold used to say that he knew from his pupils' essays whether they had seen London or the sea, because the sight of either of these objects seemed to suggest a new measure of things.

Frankfort, with its 30,000 inhabitants, with its past memories and its bustling present, was at least on a sufficient scale to suggest the conception of a great society developing its life under modern conditions.

For Goethe, who was to pass most of his days in a town of some 7,000 inhabitants, and to whom no form of human activity was indifferent, it was a fortunate destiny that he did not, like Herder, pass his most receptive years in a petty village remote from the movements of the great world.[4] In these years he was able to accumulate a store of observations and experiences which laid a solid foundation for all his future thinking.
[Footnote 2: In 1792, on the occasion of his being offered the honour of _Rathsherr_ (town-councillor) in Frankfort, he wrote to his mother that "it was an honour, not only in the eyes of Europe, but of the whole world, to have been a citizen of Frankfort." (Goethe to his mother, December 24th, 1792).

So, in 1824, he told Bettina von Arnim that, had he had the choice of his birthplace, he would have chosen Frankfort.

As we shall see, Goethe did not always speak so favourably of Frankfort.] [Footnote 3: Die Abgeschiednen betracht' ich gern, Stuend' ihr Verdienst auch noch so fern; Doch mit den edlen lebendigen Neuen Mag ich wetteifernd mich lieber freuen.] [Footnote 4: In his later years Goethe preferred life in a small town.
"Zwar ist es meiner Natur gemaess, an einem kleinen Orte zu leben." (Goethe to Zelter, December 16th, 1804.)] If Goethe was fortunate in the place of his birth, was he equally fortunate in its date (1749)?
He has himself given the most explicit of answers to the question.