Excerpt from Goethe's Letters to Leipzig Friends As the twig is bent the tree's inclined, is an aphorism no less trite than true in its usual applica tion to the human subject; hence we study with the deepest interest all those circumstances in the early youth of a man distinguished later as a genius, which may possibly have directed the current of his thoughts and actions into a channel destined to swell into a mighty torrent, bearing all before it by its innate strength of character. Amongst the great minds which have arisen in modern times few have been productive of more powerful effect on their age than the prince of German writers, Goethe, who, by the force of his intellect and the breadth of his Views, initiated a new era in the literature of his own land, and at the same time operated with considerable effect upon reflecting minds in other countries. It is beyond my province to refer more particularly to the mode in' which the influence he thus - exercised made itself felt the fact is sufficiently attested by the crowd of authors who have striven to follow where he so nobly led. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.