THE 
120 
at Prankfort. 
my perseverance. This stimulated me only 
the more. I went on the next day and the 
third ; hope increased with the daily com- 
munications, and everything, step by step, 
gained more life as I became thoroughly 
master of the subject. Thus I kept myself 
uninterruptedly at the work, which I pursued 
straight onward, looking neither backward 
nor to the right or the left, and in about 
six weeks I had the pleasure of seeing the 
manuscript stitched.” 
Cornelia’s memory is still further asso- 
ciated with her brother’s first success by 
the discovery of her portrait sketched by 
Goethe in pencil on the margin of a proof- 
sheet of “ Goetz.” A copy of it is given 
by Professor Otto Jahn in his collection of 
‘‘ Goethe’s Letters to his Leipsic Friends.” ‘ 
The resemblance to Goethe is strongly 
marked in the prominent nose, and, above 
all, in the large eyes, of which he wrote : 
Her eyes are not the finest I have ever 
seen, but the deepest, behind which you 
expected the most ; and when they expressed 
any affection, any love, their brilliancy was 
unequaled.” The face is interesting, but 
one that would be ordinarily classed among 
the very plain. Cornelia became early con- 
scious of this, and tormented herself with 
the conviction that no woman without per- 
sonal beauty could expect to inspire any 
man with love. It does not seem to have 
occurred to her that mental accomplishments 
might make up for the lack of beauty. 
Probably she had liftle idea of her own 
mental qualities, the state of isolation in 
which she was brought up having deprived 
her of the means of comparing herself with 
other girls of her own age, and kept her in 
ignorance of her superiority — a superiority 
due, first, to her own mental powers, and, 
secondly, to her father’s unflagging instruc- 
tions. In her diary, which is given in Pro- 
fessor Jahn’s book, she indulges at ^eat 
length in these self-tormenting reflections. 
Hapless Cornelia! the world reads this diary, 
which was her one secret from her brother, 
and which she wrote in French, perhaps 
with the idea that, should it be mislaid, the 
foreign tongue would keep it secret from 
many. It is addressed to one of her female 
friends. She has been reading “ Sir Charles 
Grandison,” and thus gives utterance to her 
feelings in school-girl French : 
“ Je donnerais tout au monde pour pouvoir 
parvenir dans plusieurs annees k imiter tant 
soit peu I’excellente Miss Byron. L’imiter? 
Folle que je suis ; le puis-je ? Je m’estimerais 
assez heureuse d’avoir la vingtieme partie de 
r esprit et de la beaute de cette admirable 
dame, car alors je serais une aimable fille ; 
c’est ce souhait que me tient au coeur jour 
et nuit. Je serais k blame si je desirais 
d’etre une grande beaute ; seulement un peu 
de finesse dans les traits, un teint uni, et 
puis cette grace douce qui enchante au pre- 
mier coup de vue ; voilk tout. Cependant 
ga n’est pas et ne sera jamais, quoique je 
puisse faire et souhaiter; ainsi il vaudra mieux 
de cultiver I’esprit et tdcher d’ ^tre support- 
able du moins de ce c6te-la.” 
Further on : 
‘‘Vous aurez dej^ entendue que je fais 
grand cas des charmes exterieures, mais peut- 
etre que vous ne savez pas encore que je 
les tiens pour absolument necessaires au 
bonheur de la vie et que je crois pour cela 
que je ne serai jamais heureuse. * * * 
Epouserai-je un mari que je n’aime pas ? 
Cette pensee me fait honeur et cependant ce 
sera le seul parti qui me reste, car oil trouver 
un homme aimable qui pensdt k moi ? Ne 
croyez pas, ma chere, que ce soit grimace : 
Vous connaissez les replis de mon coeur, je 
ne vous cache rien, et pourquoi le ferais-je ? ” 
These words show by what sentiments 
she was actuated in accepting the hand of 
John George Schlosser. Her brother’s ab- 
sence at Strasburg had brought back again 
to her the wearisomeness of her home life. 
Goethe had now returned from Strasburg 
a Doctor-at-Law, but was soon to leave again 
for Wetzlar in continuation of his juristical 
studies, as marked out years before by his 
father. Cornelia saw the world opening to 
her brother, and felt that her only happiness 
was slipping from her grasp. Her life at 
home without Wolfgang was intolerable to 
her, and to escape from it she accepted the 
offer of marriage. 
J ohn George Schlosser was an early friend 
of her brother. He was ten years older 
than Goethe, and when he visited Leipsic 
during Goethe’s stay there, the difference in 
age caused the latter to look up to Schlosser 
as in many respects his superior. Schlosser 
afterward edited a literary journal at Frank- 
fort, to which Goethe contributed, and the 
intimate relations with the brother led to the 
acquaintance with the sister. 
The bride^oom had been promised an 
appointment in the Grand Duchy of Baden, 
and expected to be placed at Carlsruhe, 
the capital. But hardly had the newly mar- 
ried pair reached Carlsruhe, when they 
learned that they were to reside in Emmen- 
dingen, a little village on the borders of the 
Black Forest, where Schlosser was to fill the 
