Page:The Works of J. W. von Goethe, Volume 5.djvu/108

94 he had been so often called upon to address in public. We testified our satisfaction aloud; trumpets and drums repeatedly sounded; and the dear, hopeful academical plebs then found its way home with hearty satisfaction.

His scholars and companions in study, Koch and Oberlin, were men in close connection with me. My taste for antiquarian remains was passionate. They often let me into the museum, which contained, in many ways, the vouchers to his great work on Alsace. Even this work I had not known intimately until after that journey, when I had found antiquities on the spot; and now, being perfectly advanced, I could, on longer or shorter expeditions, render present to myself the valley of the Rhine as a Roman possession, and finish colouring many a dream of times past.

Scarcely had I made some progress in this, when Oberlin directed me to the monuments of the Middle Ages, and made me acquainted with the ruins and remains, the seals and documents, which those times have left behind them,—nay, sought to inspire me with an inclination for what we called the Minnesingers and heroic poets. To this good man, as well as to Herr Koch, I have been greatly indebted; and, if things had gone according to their wish, I should have had to thank them for the happiness of my life. The matter stood thus:—

Schöpflin, who for his whole lifetime had moved in the higher sphere of political law, and well knew the great influence which such and kindred studies are likely to procure for a sound head, in courts and cabinets, felt an insuperable, nay, unjust, aversion from the situation of a civilian, and had inspired his scholars with the like sentiments. The above-mentioned two men, friends of Salzmann, had taken notice of me in a most friendly manner. My impassioned grasping at external objects, the manner in which I continued to