14. The Development of the German Soul

"Is this the Goethe about whom Lewes has written two volumes? I would have thought we knew him differently. The Goethe of Mr. Lewes is a worthy English gentleman who happened to be born in Frankfurt in 1749 and to whom Goethe's destiny has been attributed, insofar as it has been received from first, second, third, fifth hand, and who is also supposed to have written Goethe's works. The book is a diligent piece of work, but there is little in it about the German Goethe. The English are Teutons like us, but they are not Germans, and what Goethe was to us, we alone feel."