Page:The Works of J. W. von Goethe, Volume 5.djvu/152

134 of the time, called "Toleration," which prevailed among the better order of brains and minds.

Such things, which were produced by degrees, I had printed at my own cost in the following year, to try myself with the public; made presents of them, or sent them to Eichenberg's shop, in order to get rid of them as fast as possible without deriving any profit myself. Here and there a review mentions them, now favourably, now unfavourably; but they soon passed away. My father kept them carefully in his archives, otherwise I should not have possessed a copy of them. I shall add these, as well as some things of the kind which I have found, to the new edition of my works.

Since I had really been seduced into the sybilline style of such papers, as well as into the publication of them, by Hamann, this seems to me a proper place to make mention of this worthy and influential man, who was then as great a mystery to us as he has always remained to his native country. His "Socratic Memorabilia" was more especially liked by those persons who could not adapt themselves to the dazzling spirit of the time. It was suspected that he was a profound, well-grounded man, who, accurately acquainted with the public world and with literature, allowed of something mysterious and unfathomable, and expressed himself on this subject in a manner quite his own. By those who then ruled the literature of the day, he was indeed considered an abstruse mystic; but an aspiring youth suffered themselves to be attracted by him. Even the "Quiet-in-the-lands," as they were called,—half in jest, half in earnest,—those pious souls, who, without professing themselves members of any society, formed an invisible church, — turned their attention to him; while to my friend Fräulein von Klettenberg, and no less to her friend Moser, the "Magus from the North" was a welcome apparition. People put themselves the more in con-