[From the entry dated “June 29” in THE SORROWS OF YOUNG WERTHER by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe; translated by Elizabeth Mayer and Louise Bogan.]
Yes, dear Wilhelm, children are nearer my heart than anything else on earth. When I watch them and see in these little creatures the seeds of all the virtues, all the forces they will need one day so badly; when I see in their obstinacy the future perseverance and firmness of character, in their mischievousness the happy temper and the facility needed to evade the world’s dangers, all so natural and innocent!—always, always I keep repeating the golden words of the Teacher of mankind: Unless ye become even as one of these! And yet, dearest friend, we treat them, who are our equals, whom we should look upon as our models, as our subjects. We don’t want them to have a will of their own! —Do we not have one? And in what lies our privilege? Because we are older and wiser! —Good Lord, from your Heaven you look down on nothing but old children and young children; and your Son has already long ago proclaimed in which age you find greater joy. That people believe in Him and yet do not listen to His words—this also is an old story—and model their children upon themselves, and—farewell, Wilhelm! I do not wish to rave any longer.