Page:The Works of J. W. von Goethe, Volume 5.djvu/25

Rh cation between the two parts, — all which cannot be done or attained, if an incision is not first made externally in that place.

Herder was now separated from the prince, had moved into lodgings of his own, and resolved to have himself operated upon by Lobstein. Here those exercises by which I had sought to blunt my sensibility did me good service: I was able to be present at the operation, and to be serviceable and helpful in many ways to so worthy a man. I found here every reason to admire his great firmness and endurance: for neither during the numerous surgical operations, nor at the oft-repeated painful dressings, did he show himself in any degree irritable; and of all of us he seemed to be the one who suffered least. But in the intervals, indeed, we had to endure the change of his temper in many ways. I say we; for, besides myself, a pleasant Russian named Peglow was mostly with him. This man had been an early acquaintance of Herder's in Riga, and, though no longer a youth, was trying to perfect himself in surgery under Lobstein's guidance. Herder could be charmingly prepossessing and brilliant, but he could just as easily turn an ill-humoured side foremost. All men, indeed, have this attraction and repulsion, according to their natures, some more, some less, some in longer, some in shorter, pulsations: few can really control their peculiarities in this respect, many in appearance. As for Herder, the preponderance of his contradictory, bitter, biting humour was certainly derived from his disease and the sufferings arising from it. This case often occurs in life: one does not sufficiently take into consideration the moral effect of sickly conditions; and one therefore judges many characters very unjustly, because it is assumed that all men are healthy, and required of them that they shall conduct themselves accordingly.

During the whole time of this cure I visited Herder