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"I can hardly describe to you the effect of these books. They

produced in me an infinity of new images and feelings, that

sometimes raised me to ecstasy, but more frequently sunk me into

the lowest dejection. In the Sorrows of Werter, besides the

interest of its simple and affecting story, so many opinions are

canvassed and so many lights thrown upon what had hitherto been

to me obscure subjects that I found in it a never-ending source

of speculation and astonishment. The gentle and domestic manners

it described, combined with lofty sentiments and feelings, which

had for their object something out of self, accorded well with my

experience among my protectors and with the wants which were for

ever alive in my own bosom. But I thought Werter himself a more

divine being than I had ever beheld or imagined; his character

contained no pretension, but it sank deep. The disquisitions upon

death and suicide were calculated to fill me with wonder.