Poetry produced as here described may certainly be regarded as part of the poet's "confession," but in the circumstances of its origin it is a world apart from the poetry composed in the fashion described in the passage preceding. The poet here does not coolly say to himself: "Go to, I will make a poem to relieve my feelings"; he sings, to quote Goethe's own expression, "as the bird sings," out of the sheer fulness of his heart, which insists on immediate expression.[46] True it is that Goethe, like all other poets, frequently wrote under no immediate pressure of inspiration, but to affirm this of the highest efforts of his genius is at once to contradict his own testimony and to misinterpret the conditions under which genius produces its results. [Footnote 46: In a letter to W. von Rumohr (September 28th, 1807), Goethe calls "unaufhaltsame Natur, unueberwindliche Neigung, draengende Leidenschaft" the "Haupterfordernisse der wahren Poesie." In two of his _Zahme Xenien_ Goethe has expressed his opinion on the necessity of inspiration in poetic production:-- Ja das ist das rechte Gleis, Dass man nicht weiss, Was man denkt, Wenn man denkt: Alles ist als wie geschenkt. All unser redlichstes Bemuehn Glueckt nur im unbewussten Momente. Wie moechte denn die Rose bluehn, Wenn sie der Sonne Herrlichkeit erkennte!] CHAPTER III AT HOME IN FRANKFORT SEPTEMBER, 1768--APRIL, 1770 On August 28th, 1768, Goethe left Leipzig after a residence of nearly three years. He had gone to Leipzig in the spirit of a prisoner released from his gaol; he left it in the spirit of one returning to durance. In his Autobiography he has described the depressing conditions under which he re-entered his father's house. In body and mind he had found that in "accursed Leipzig one burns out as quickly as a bad torch." In body he was a broken man. One night in the beginning of August he had been seized with a violent hemorrhage, and for some weeks his life hung by a thread. In his Autobiography he assigns various reasons for his illness. As the result of an accident on his journey from Frankfort to Leipzig he had strained the ligaments of his chest, and the mischief was aggravated by a subsequent fall from his horse; he had suffered from the fumes of the acids he had inhaled in the process of etching; he had ruined his digestion by drinking coffee and heavy beer; and, in accordance with the precepts of Rousseau, he had adopted a _regime_ which proved too severe for his enfeebled constitution. So he wrote in his old age, but his contemporary letters leave us in little doubt regarding the cause of his breakdown. He had, in fact, during the latter part of his sojourn in Leipzig lived the life of the average German student of his day. He had fought a duel, and had been wounded in the arm; he had drunk more than was good for him, and we have seen that he had followed other courses not conducive to his bodily health.