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.