182 MARRIAGE AND HEREDITY 



soon after. It was at this period, when he was thirty- 

 seven, that the poet met his fate. Christiane Vulpius 

 has been described as a domestic servant. She was 

 in reality a flower-girl, the daughter of a drunkard, 

 whose vice she inherited, and had little or no educa- 

 tion. But she exercised an infinitely greater influ- 

 ence over Goethe than any other woman, and it lasted 

 for twenty -eight years, and till her death. Her 

 charm, according to Lewes, consisted in "a quick 

 mother-wit, a lively spirit, a loving heart, and great 

 aptitude for domestic duties," qualities which in her 

 youth were combined with "golden locks, laughing 

 eyes, ruddy cheeks, kiss-provoking lips, and a small 

 and gracefully rounded figure." In short, Christiane 

 Vulpius was a " free, healthy specimen of nature, un- 

 distorted by artifice." ^ So far well. But the single 

 son whom she bore to Goethe proved to be less than 

 a mediocrity. By the poet's friends he was con- 

 temptuously spoken of as "Der Sohn der Magd." 

 Nature in this case would seem to have availed her- 

 self of the elective affinities in order to produce that 

 levelling effect for which she so constantly strives. 



It is probable that the elective affinities spring 

 from an harmonious contrast of qualities, and not 

 ^ Lewes's Life of Goethe. 



