In human chemistry, Christoph Wieland (1733-1813) was a German poet and writer, a neighbor of German polymath Johann Goethe, who sent a letter (which he suggested should be burned after it is read) in 1910 to his close friend German philologist and archeologist Karl Böttiger, in commentary on Goethe’s new 1809 novella Elective Affinities, stating that: [1]

"To all rational readers, the use of the chemical theory [in Elective Affinities] is nonsense and childish fooling around."

Wieland seemed to consider Goethe's novella to be a sort of anathema, calling it a "truly horrible work", supposedly objecting to the radicalness of its Christianity. [2] It was to Wieland that Goethe famously commented that, to be understood properly, it must be read three times. [3]

References
1. (a) Wieland, Christoph Martin. (1810). "Letter to Karl August Böttiger" July 16. Weimar. Quoted from Tantillo 2001, pg. 9-10.
(b) Tantillo, Astrida O. (2001). Goethe's Elective Affinities and the Critics. New York: Camden House.
2. Goethe, Johann and Lange, Victor. (1990). The Sufferings of Young Werther; and Elective Affinities, Vol. 19 of the German Library. (pg. 125). Continuum.
3. Winkelman, John. (1987). Goethe’s Elective Affinities: an Interpretation (pg. 30). P. Lang.

External links
● Christoph Wieland – Wikipedia.