ABSTRACT
After several months of amateur playing at it, Goethe now finds himself caught up in earnest in the business of government. Karl August’s need for him increases daily. New duties are constantly being entrusted to him, and he never refuses. He even rejoices on one occasion: The pressure of business is very good for the soul; when it is released it has freer play and enjoys life. Nothing is more wretched than the man who lives in comfort without work.’ (Diary entry: January 13, 1779.) He has assumed the Presidency of the War Commission, ‘my mind firm, my senses keen’; to use his own expression, he ‘wallows’ in it.
