Johann Wolfgang von Goethe had neither a happy nor harmonious nature, but one in the highest degree enigmatic, that he was neither a Don Juan nor a sycophant of princes, that as an observer and sage, he was no less great than as a poet. This book displays a slow-moving panorama of the landscapes of his soul. The reader will see with admiration how, for that strenuous nature, work was never the aim of life, but only one of the means whereby to keep one's self alive. This book shows his slow spontaneous evolution as the reward of his active patience.