The feature which struck all who met him for the first time was the eyes, which were brown in colour, large, and widely-opened, with the white conspicuous, and piercingly bright .-- An exhaustive study of the portraits and busts of Goethe will be found in _Goethes Kopf und Gestalt von Karl Bauer_, Berlin, 1908.] [Footnote 73: Stilling elsewhere says: "Schade, dass so wenige diesen vortrefflichen Menschen seinem Herzen nach kennen!" Others used similar expressions regarding Goethe's mind and heart.] Neither in Frankfort, nor in Leipzig, nor in Strassburg had Goethe as yet met the man in whom he could recognise his intellectual peer.

In the beginning of September, 1770, however, there came to Strassburg one who, for the first time, impressed him with a sense of inferiority.

This was Johann Gottfried Herder, who, some five years Goethe's senior, had a career behind him widely different from that of the fortunate son of the Imperial Councillor of Frankfort.

Born of poor parents, he had had to fight his way at every step to the distinction which he had already attained.

He had studied under Kant at Koenigsberg, had been successively assistant teacher, assistant pastor, and private tutor.