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● Friedrich Georg Goethe (1657-1730)
● Cornelia Walter (1668-1754)
● Johann Wolfgang Textor (1693-1771)
● Anna Margarethe Lindheimer (1711-1773)
He came into existence, in his own words, as such: “on August 28, 1749, on the stroke of noon, I saw the light of day at Frankfurt-on-the-Main” (albeit as a blue baby: he almost dereacted [died] in child birth), at the Goethe house, Frankfurt; where he resided along with his sister Cornelia until 1765, aged 16, when he moved to Leipzig to study law, returning sporadically thereafter.
Goethe and his sister are given, by their grandmother, a puppet theater for Christmas:
The earthquake of Lissabon, Portugal, occurs, killing more than 30,000 people; the news is disturbing to the young Goethe.
At age 7, to sugar the pill of grammar, he invented a novel in which the members of a family in various parts of the world wrote letters to each other in six different languages and styles.
At the age 9 (shown below age 13), built his own alter to nature out of his father’s natural history collection, surmounting it with a candle, which he lit when making his devotions.
Starts to feel "attraction" to various girls; later collectively referred to as "Gretchen" in his autobiography, Poetry and Truth.
Goethe, shown below age 15, completes his first landscape drawings of the Frankfurt area; studies the works of Plato, Aristotle, Plotin, and the Stoics.
Goethe, shown below age 16, enters the University of Leipzig: starts to read law; further lessons on drawing with Adam Friedrich Oeser.
First reading of Shakespeare; falls in love with Kathchen Schonkopf (1746-1810):
latter dedicates a collection of poems to her, entitled Annette.
During his convalescent year at home in bed (1768-69) he began his studies in chemistry, particularly the work of Paracelsus (1493-1541) and Susanne Klettenberg (1723-1744); and was conducting chemical experiments in his attic using a draught 
“I perceived something in nature (whether living or lifeless, animate or inanimate) that manifested itself only in contradictions and therefore could not be expressed in any concept, much less any word. It was not divine, for it seemed irrational; not human, for it had no intelligence; not diabolical, for it was beneficent; and not angelic, for it often betrayed malice. It was like chance, for it laced continuity, and like providence, for it suggested context. Everything that limits us seemed penetrable by it, and it appeared to dispose at will over the elements necessary to our existence, to contract time and expand space. It seemed only to accept the impossible and scornfully to reject the possible.”Here, Goethe, in his Goethe’s daimonic, tells in retrospect from book 20 of his Poetry and Truth (1811-1814), how in his pre 1775 youth years he was searching for a universal rule to explain the happenings of existence. The drawing is Goethe studying in Frankfurt in the years circa 1769 to 1772.
“Chemistry is still my secret love.”
In letter to German religious writer Susanne Klettenberg (1723-1744), a friend of his mother's, who previously had helped Goethe during his Leipzig disease spell (1768). [7]
At the University of Strasbourg, he attended the chemistry courses of French chemist Jacob Spielmann (1722-1783), his first chemistry teacher.Completing a liberal arts curriculum with courses in political science, history, anatomy, surgery,
Published his first volume of poems and had studied enough medicine to qualify to as a physician.
With aims to complete a doctorate in law, he wrote a dissertation on “The Legislature, On the Power of the Magistrate to Determine Religion and Culture”, containing a number of controversial assertions, such as “Jesus Christ was not the author of our religion, but that a number of other wise men composed it in his name. The Christian religion is merely a rational, political institution”; being an attack on orthodoxy, of course, it was rejected—as a result, he only achieved the “licentiate” to practice law. Following dissertation rejection, to show contempt for university authorities he offered a series of 56 theses for disputation, e.g. “natural law is what nature has taught all creatures” (thesis 1), “should the woman who kills here newly born child suffer the death penalty? (thesis 55), a moral issue reoccurs in Faust, etc., all themed on his distaste for learned authority, and casting for a new way of looking at the relationship between humans to nature, society, and tradition. After successfully defending his theses, he received his law degree: Positions of Rights (shown below), and began practicing.
During this year, Goethe, shown below, skating in the Winter of 1773, in a noted anecdote, recounted and depicted, as shown below, by Wilhelm von Kaulbach, where he skates about like a dart in his mother’s crimson fur cloak
After arriving in Weimar, in 1774 (or November 1775) (check), In 1774, Goethe meets Charlotte von Stein (1742-1827): it was the beginning of a deep friendship which lasted for twelve years the character Charlotte; whose affections, for more than ten years he attempted to win over, despite her being now married (via economic-social arrangement, to a baron Gottlob von Stein (1735-1793)), seven years his elder, and the mother of seven children:
Charlotte von Stein was his constant companion, for at least a decade, and by her bright and genial nature and friendship she stimulated his efforts and assuaged his cares.
After arriving in Weimar, he was received with the most flattering attention by all the principle personages—the Duke Karl August, eight years his younger, in particular attached to him like a brother, and four years later, on Goethe’s thirtieth birthday, in 1779, recognizing his official duties, the raised him to the place of Geheimerath, or privy councilor—
the confirmation of which is shown adjacent, as drawn by Wilhelm von Kaulbach, wherein Goethe is crowned by the Duke—on the left sits the dowager, Duchess Amalia (whom Charlotte von Stein was a lady in waiting for, from 1758 to 1807), addressing the old poet Christoph Wieland (see: burning letter attack, 16 Jul 1810). Goethe commented on this: “It is strange and dream-like, that I in my thirtieth year enter the highest place which a German citizen can reach.”
Worked out the basics of plant evolution, or "metamorphosis" (see: morphology), as he called it; as depicted on the following 2009 book Metamorphosis: Evolution in Action, by Andreas Suchantke:
Discovers the human intermaxillary bone, as depicted in the adjacent 1920 painting by Russian artist Dmitrievich Ezuchevsky (1880-1928), as he tells in a night missive to German philosopher Johann Herder (1744-1803), from Jena, at night: “I have found neither gold nor silver, but something that unspeakably delights me—the human Os intermaxillary! I was comparing human and animal skulls with Loder, hit up the right track, and behold—Eureka! Only, I beg of you, not a word—for this must be a great secret for the present. You ought to be very much delighted too, for it is like the keystone to anthropology—and it’s there, no mistake! But how?”
A bone thought by anatomist to be absent from humans, and only found in lower animals, thus proving that humans and animals have evolved or metamorphosized common ancestor.
Italy campaign:
In 1786, during the dark of night, without telling his love of ten years Charlotte von Stein (similar to as occurs in the novel), Goethe left unplanned on a two year trip to Italy, as depicted below in a 1787 painting by Johann Tischbein (1751-1828), who met Goethe in Italy, and these two also became good friends, traveling together, sketching and painting the Roman ruins:
In 1786, during the dark of night, without telling his love of ten years Charlotte von Stein (similar to as occurs in the novel), Goethe left unplanned on a two year trip to Italy, as depicted below in a 1787 painting by Johann Tischbein (1751-1828), who met Goethe in Italy, and these two also became good friends, traveling together, sketching and painting the Roman ruins: 
A depiction of Goethe in Rome upon his arrival in October 1786, where he sees, for the first time, the Juno Ludovisi bust, of the Greek goddess Juno:
Meets Christiane Vulpius (1765-1816), a girl from a local flower shop sixteen years his junior:
he moves in with her, and she bears hims five children; only one of whom August von Goethe (1789-1830), reaches adulthood.Supports German author Friedrich Schiller (1759-1805)'s appointment as professor of history at Jena.
It is to Schiller to whom (1898) Goethe begins to confide in his newly-forming theories and ideas on human chemistry; their mutual friendship begins in 1794.
From 1791 to 1797, Goethe attended the weekly Friday Society meetings chemistry lectures of German physician-chemist Wilhelm Buchholz (1734-1798), at Wiemar, who presented the latest findings in chemistry; it has been surmised that Buchholz was the model for the Captain (see: Geothe's human affinity table); as embodied in the response of the Captain, in chapter four, when queried by Charlotte about what elective affinities are:“As well as I can from what I learned from reading about [affinities] some ten years ago. Whether the scientific world still thinks of it in the same way, or whether it agrees with the latest theories, I cannot say.”
Meaning the statement embodies what Goethe had learned from Buchholz about the affinities in 1797.
Goethe's 4-7 Oct 1793 notebook diagrammatic representation of the "double elective affinity" reaction experiments with Berlin-blue liquor.
The reaction existence of Baron Gottlob von Stein (1735-1793) (Ѻ) ends, thus freeing Charlotte von Stein (1742-1827), then age 51, from her 29-year arranged marriage of necessity, and thus giving opportunity for Goethe's previous decade-long quest to wed or acquire Charlotte as his own.This turning point seems to give way to the "what might have been" scenario that plays out in Elective Affinities, in regards to the marriage formed between the characters Eduard and Charlotte.
“To facilitate our comprehension of the concept of organic existence, let us first take a look at mineral structures. Minerals, whose varied components are so solid and unchanging, do not seem to hold to any limits or order when then combine, although laws do determine these conditions. Different components can be easily separated and recombined into new combinations. These combinations can again be taken apart, and the mineral we thought destroyed can soon be restored to its original perfection.The main characteristic of minerals that concerns us here is the indifference their components show toward the form of their combination, that is, their coordination or subordination. There are, by nature, stronger or weaker bonds between these components, and when they evidence themselves, they resemble attractions between human beings. This is why chemists speak of elective affinities, even though the forces that move mineral components [or humans] one way or another and create mineral structures are often purely external in origin, which by no means implies that we deny them the delicate portion of nature’s vital inspiration that is their due.”
This outline takes it cue from Scottish chemist William Cullen (1757): “the dart → between them expresses the elective attraction (force); when I put a dart with the tail to one substance and the point to another, I mean that the substance to which the tail is directed unites with the one to which the point is directed more strongly than it does with the one united to it in the crotchet {” ; which, using the depicted Bergman-style example reaction (above), equates to the reaction: AB + C → AC + B (in modern terms), where AB and AC, technically called "dihumanide molecules", are held by human chemical bonds, A≡B and A≡C, and the "force", symbolized by the dart (→), is the electromagnetic force, acting "external" to the reactants (people or chemicals), in the form of an exchange force.
In the period 1798 to 1801, Goethe’s entered into his historiography of science, which began with a brief but rich exchange of letters with his
intellectual friend German author Friedrich Schiller (1759-1805) and ended with an equally brief and stimulating contact with the Gottingen school of history (university professors); in Schiller, according to Karl Fink (2009), he found an irreplaceable friend, whose “reflective power” quickly focused his project; and in the Gottingen school “nowhere was I advanced so quickly as in Gottingen where I was with great generosity and active support permitted use of the invaluable collection of books”. The exchange is said to have begun with his 13 Jan 1798 letter to Schiller, wherein he comments that he had been studying “various writings in physics”, learning how Newton turned optics into a geometry, how mechanists turned light into particles, how chemists attributed everything to ‘caloric’ (warmestoff), along with new theories on oxygen. 
Criticized realism:In comment on the work of French author Prosper Crebillon (1674-1762):
“Crebillon … treats the passions like playing cards, that one can shuffle, play, reshuffle, and play again, without their changing at all. There is no trace of the delicate, chemical affinity, through which they attract and repel each other, reunite, neutralize [each other], separate again and recover.”
In a letter to his intellectual friend German author Friedrich Schiller (1759-1805), to the effect that Crebillion's writing is not realistic in the sense that it is not based on the way that people "react" to each other, according to the principles and outcomes of chemistry.
Comment: here, Goethe, in his "without their changing at all" comments, seems to be digging around at what would eventually come to be known as the "irreversibility" of nature.
A vivid depiction of Weimar, Germany, in 1803, drawn by German painter Otto Knille (1884), giving a well-imaged viewing of Goethe's erudite intellectual circle: Johann Schlosser (1780-1851), Georg Hegel (1770-1831) (IQ=165), Johann Fichte (1762-1814) (IQ=170), Jean Paul (1763-1825), Ludwig Tieck (1773-1853) (IQ=165), Wilhelm Humboldt (1767-1835) (IQ=175), Alexander Humboldt (1769-1859) (IQ=185), Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768-1834) (IQ=160), Carl Gauss (1777-1855) (IQ=195), who knew all of Goethe's poetry works, August Schlegel (1767-1845), Friedrich Klinger (KUnger) (1752-1831), Peter Cornelius (1784-1867), Heinrich Kleist (1777-1811), Johann Pestalozzi (1746-1827), seated left red jacket hunched over, who affixed Goethe with the title "prince of the mind", Barthold Niebuhr (1776-1831) (IQ=185), Johann Herder (1744-1803) (IQ=175), in whom in 1784 Goethe first confided his discovery of evidence for human evolution from lower animals, Johann Gleim (1719-1803), Lorenz Oken (1779-1851), Johann Voss (1751-1826), Johann Blumenbach (1752-1840), Friedrich Klopstock (1724-1803)— and Goethe (1749-1832) (IQ=230)—the big dog, at center—followed by Christoph Wieland (1733-1813) (IQ=170), seated right front, who in 1810 called Goethe's self-defined greatest theory "childish nonsense and fooling around", August Iffland (1759-1814)—and last but not least Friedrich Schiller (1759-1805) (IQ=175)—Goethe’s closest intellectual friend—in whom, in 1796, he first confided his newly-forming human elective affinities theory—and a bench mark for the launching of the science of human chemistry and in effect the seeds to the newly-forming overly-complex 21st century science of human chemical thermodynamics (see: human free energy theorists).
Employs German writer-librarian Friedrich Riemer (1774-1845) as his secretary and private tutor for his then aged-fourteen son August (1789-1830); it was to Riemer that Goethe eventually dictated Elective Affinities; commenting to him about it, in regards to ideas, on 28 Aug 1808 (“my new idea”) and 24 Jul 1809 (“moral symbols”). Goethe’s closest intellectual friend Friedrich Schiller terminates (dies); and, according to German philosopher Herman Grimm (1875), Schiller's last unfinished drama "Demetrius", which was left lying on his table unfinished at the time of this reaction end, was in
some way a vicarious impetus or collisional momentum to the eventual start of Elective Affinities, in some way or another, so to speak. [9] On 6 August news reached Goethe of the formal dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire; by October war had come to Jena. During the chaos, on 14 October, drunken French troops, bent on looting, force their way into Goethe’s
house, whereupon Christiane Vulpius (1765-1816) boldly confronted them and declared that “a friend of Napoleon” lived here—the house was spared, and five days later, on 19 October Goethe made Christiane his wife; their sixteen year old son August present as one of the witnesses. Goethe makes reference to Elective Affinities; he comments the follow in his autobiographical sketches dated the year 1807:
“The little stories already repeatedly referred to occupied me in the happy hours, and the Elective Affinities were also in this way to be briefly treated. They, however, soon extended themselves. The material was altogether too important, and had struck too deep a root for me to be able to dismiss it in so light a fashion.
Pandora and Elective Affinities both express the painful feeling of resignation, and could therefore very well advance side by side. The first part of Pandora arrived at the right time toward the end of the year in Vienna. The plan of the Elective Affinities had advanced far, and many preliminary labors were in part completed.”
In the winter (Nov/Dec) of 1807 to 1808, Goethe fell in love with 18-year-old Minna Herzlieb (1765-1839), the "foster daughter" of the printer and publisher Karl Frommann (1765-1837); the product of this was the cycle of seventeen sonnets written as a dual with Minna's other admirer, the 
romantic poet Zacharias Werner (1768-1823); who seems to have been the character behind the architect character of the novella, who attempts to win the affections of Ottilie in competition with Eduard.
The following comments by Goethe:“My idea in the new novel The Elective Affinities is to show forth social relationships and the conflicts between them symbolically” (28 Aug 1808) and “the moral symbols in the natural sciences, that of the elective affinities invented and used by the great Bergman, are more meaningful and permit themselves to be connected better with poetry and society (24 Jul 1809).”
give way to the reasoned conclusion, as has been argued by scholars (Adler, 1977; Kim, 2003; Thims, 2007), that Goethe, at about this time (in his mind or on paper), would have made a "human affinity table", a reconstructed version of which is shown adjacent (see: Goethe's affinity table), modeled or scaled on Swedish chemist Torbern Bergman’s famous 1775 affinity table, and accompanying textbook with its sixty-four affinity reaction diagrams.
Mention of Elective Affinities, by Goethe, occurres in a diary entry.
On a coach journey between Jena and Weimar, before dictation, to Riemer (who took down the dictation for the novel), his secretary, began, Goethe recounted a large part of the (then) novella to his friend
Swiss painter and art critic Heinrich Meyer (1760-1832), and did so almost as though it were already complete in his mind.Note: Reginald Hollingdale seems to think that Elective Affinities was begun on May 29th.
In the middle of the year, a few months before he met Napoleon (Oct 2), he had started writing a story called “The Renouncers”, which, according to one of Goethe’s assistants, was about a hero simultaneously in love with four women (see: love thought experiment); the synopsis of which, in Goethe’s view, was that “each in her own way is lovable; whichever one he is drawn to in the mood of the moment, she alone is lovable”; Goethe took it up again early the next year, after which the tale ballooned into a novel, progressed quickly, and before the end of the year (Oct 3, 1809) it was in print under the enigmatic title Elective Affinities. The end of July he had completed a version, supposedly, with 18 chapters; this, however, remained untouched until April of next year.
To his assistant Friedrich Riemer (1774-1845), on his birthday, he talked about the modern novel, especially his own, and said that:“My idea in the new novel The Elective Affinities is to show forth social relationships and the conflicts between them in symbolic concentration.”
This seems to have been a precursor to his 24 July 1809 comment about the "moral symbols" discovered by Bergman.
Meeting with Napoleon:
Goethe famously met Napoleon, who had read his Werther six time during battle; Napoleon, famously commented, upon seeing Goethe, “voilà un homme!” or “now here’s a real man!”
The Duchess (Louise Auguste?) held the first of a series of Friday evening gatherings, at which Goethe read aloud the beginning of Die Wahlverwandtschaften, along with a tale called Die neue Melusine, and parts of Dichtung und Wahrheit, which were received with ardent pleasure; the particular interest in Elective Affinities inspirited him to resume work on it.
“To come, now, to the poetical labors, the Elective Affinities, the first conception of which engaged my mind a long time ago [1796?], had not again been out of my thoughts since the end of May.
No one fails to see in this novel a wound of deep passion which nurses itself and shuns healing, a heart which dreads recovery to soundness. Some years ago the main thought was seized, but the execution evermore extended and developed in many directions, threatening to transgress the limit of art. At last, after so many preparations, the resolution was taken, the printing should now begin, many a doubt would be put an end to, the one point held fast, the other at last determined.
In the swift progress which now ensued I was, however, all at once disturbed. The news of the powerful advance of the French into Austria having been heard with dread, the King of Westphalia began a march toward Bohemia, so that on the 13th of June I returned to Weimar. The intelligence as to this strange expedition was very uncertain when two diplomatic friends following the head-quarters, Von Reinhard and Wangenheim, unexpectedly visited me, puzzling me with the announcement of an inexplicable retreat. On the 15th of July the King comes to Weimar. The retreat appears to degenerate into fight, and on the 20th the roving Oels corps inspire us and the neighborhood with anxiety. This thundercloud, too, however, soon draws off in a northwest direction, and on the 23rd of July I go back go Jena.
Immediately thereafter the Elective Affinities gradually gets printed. This impelling me to diligence, the manuscript soon definitely shapes and rounds itself, and the 3rd of October relieves me from the work, thought I did not feel completely freed from the personal interest in the contents.”
“I hear from Knebel, dearest friend, that we’ll see you here on Thursday. Nevertheless I don’t want the messenger to leave today without a long overdue word to you. There is, alas, not much to be said about me. I make no great demands on the physical side of existence, but if I can’t even be creatively active when I go out into the wilderness, a certain impatience in me would seem pardonable. Yet, as of old, I have prevailed by sheer patience and have within the last few days made some progress on The Elective Affinities. I was, of course, encouraged by the reception of the first half. …”
To Charlotte von Stein (1742-1827).“Do your very best to let nothing annoy me during the coming week. I am at work on The Elective Affinities in a way I have not been able to be for a year. If I were to be disturbed now, everything would be lost of what I see straight before me and can achieve in a short time. Let me repeat, my child, let nothing even approach me for a week. All our affairs are in order. As a reward we will think of you and send you, from time to time, a fish or good piece of venison, that you may enjoy it in peace and let nothing trouble you.”
“As it was not yet advisable for me to go to Carlsbad, I have come to Jena, where I am trying to finish a novel [The Elective Affinities], which I sketched and began a year ago, among the Bohemian mountains. It will probably come out this year, and I am all the more anxious to hurry on with the work, as it will be a means of thoroughly re-establishing an intercourse with my friends at a distance. I hope you will think it is in my old way and manner. I have stored away much in it, hidden many things in it; may this open secret give you pleasure!”
Wrote to his friend, composer Carl Zelter (1758-1832), that he placed numerous different hidden elements within the novel.Goethe indicated in a letter to one his friends, he had borrowed its title from Bergman’s physical chemistry treatise, published in Latin in 1775, De attractionibus electivis, and translated into German from 1782 under the title Die Wahlverwandtschaften, which is the original German title of Goethe’s novel.
“The moral symbols in the natural sciences, that of the elective affinities invented and used by the great Bergman, are more meaningful and permit themselves to be connected better with poetry and society.”
To:
German writer-librarian Friedrich Riemer (1774-1845).
He sent the opening chapters to the printer, supposedly, so that he would be compelled to proceed with the rest at a brisk pace.
“It seems that the author’s continued work in the physical sciences caused him to arrive at this strange title. He might have noticed that in the natural sciences very often ethical parables, far removed from the circle of human knowledge, are employed in order to bring about a closer match of the two—and in this sense, in the case of morality, he likely sought to drive the nature the chemical parable back to its mental origins—being that there is, after all, only one nature—and also since, within serene realm of rational freedom, the cloudy tracks of passionate necessity move inexorably through their course, only to be wiped out by a higher hand, and perhaps not completely wiped out in this life.”
The famous, controversial, and anonymously (by Goethe) book announcement "advertisement" for Elective Affinities, in Morning Paper for the Educated Professional.
“There are many things put into it, with which I hope to invite the reader back for repeated viewing.”
To his publisher Johann Cotta (1761-1837);
meaning that there is much hidden within the novel and hoped that this aspect would spur readers to read and reread it.
Finished in the format of 2 parts; 18 chapters.
“No one can fail to recognize in it a deep passionate would which shrinks from being closed by healing, a heart which dreads to be cured … In it, as in a burial urn, I have deposited with deep emotion many a sad experience. The 3rd of October 1809 (when the publication was completed) set me free from the work: but the feelings it embodies can never quite depart from me.”
Note: Reginald Hollingdale seems to think, for some reason, that the novel was completed on Oct 4th.
“The title of your novel because a special feeling, even among friends. There are some who cannot cross this barrier; it looks like we cut them the power to judge. (...) This is especially the title he must explain how? What for ? and where does he? and what is it for?”
Letter from Carl Zelter.
The persons whose "affinity" was already consistent with their names (each of which the forward and backward read identical names contain Otto) is indicated, in the words of
German playwright Johann Rochlitz (1769-1842) in his letter to Goethe dated 5 November 1809 "... very artfully contrasted with each other in groups," which occur in polar relationships. "To be understood properly, it must be read three times."
To German poet-writer Christoph Wieland (1733-1813), the
so-called grandfather of the German romantic movement.
In a scene reported by German writer Heinrich Laube (1806-1884):“A women friend of mine said to Goethe at that time: ‘I cannot approve of Elective Affinities, Herr von Goethe; it really is an immoral book!’ According to her report Goethe was silent for a while and had then said with great earnestness:
But you wrong me and the book. The principle illustrated in the book is true and not immoral.
But you must regard it from a broader point of view and understand that the conventional moral norms can turn into sheer immorality when applied to situations of this character.”
“How I look forward to the effect that this novel will have in a few years on many people upon rereading it.”
To:
Karl Reinhard (1761-1837), German-born French diplomat, statesman and writer.
German archaeologist and drama critique Karl Bottiger published a review article entitled “About Goethe’s Elective Affinities” in the German periodical Newspaper for the Elegant World (Zeitung für die Elegan), wherein he pointed out the fact that it was obvious to the educated reader of the time that Goethe’s novel was clearly linked to well-known chemical theories of the late eighteenth century and that concepts from the field of chemistry permeated the novel. 
When he Goethe asked German poet Karl Knebel (1744-1834) what he thought of the book, he replied that “he could not stomach it”; to which Goethe retorted, somewhat curiously, that:“I did not write the book for you but for young girls”.
Goethe begins work on his color theory, his 1810 color wheel shown below, rival to Newton's theory of colors, to explain light and perception; he published the results in the book Theory of Colors:
During this period, he hires German chemist Johann Dobereiner to be his personal chemist; to do chemical research for his color theory.
German poet-writer Christoph Wieland (1733-1813), neighbor of Goethe, who sent a letter (which he suggested should be burned after it is read) in 1810 to German philologist and archeologist Karl Böttiger, stating:
“To all rational readers, the use of the chemical theory is nonsense and childish fooling around.”
Wieland further called it a "truly horrible work", supposedly, objecting to the radicalness of its Christianity.
“With respect to the copyright of authors, it could not but deemed remarkable that Minister Portalis should ask me whether I could give my consent to a Cologne bookseller’s reprinting the Elective Affinities. I answered, ‘with all my heart, as far as myself is concerned’, but referred the matter to the lawful publisher.
So much higher even then stood the French in their views of intellectual possession, and the equal rights of the higher and lower classes, a height to which the good Germans will not so soon elevate themselves.”
“I was not so happy in respect of music. I became sensible that my house-chorus, as I had ventured to call it, was inwardly in danger of breaking up. No one else perceived any change, but certain elective affinities had begun to operate in it which at once gave me apprehension, though it was out of my power to provide a remedy.”
See:
● Analysis
● Debonding
“As to persons who this year called on me in Weimar, I find the following mentioned: Engelhard, architect from Cassel, on his way to Italy. It was asserted that he had been the prototype of my artist in the Elective Affinities.”
In his three-volume From My Life: Poetry and Truth (1811, 1812, 1814), an autobiographical retelling of his childhood days to 1775, age 26, when he was about to leave for Weimar, he recalls a circa October 1772 event as follows:
“At the house of the Privy Councillor von la Roche I was warmly welcomed by this admirable family and was soon regarded as a member of it. I was drawn to the mother though my literary and spiritual aims, to the father by a gay sense of reality, to the daughters by my youth. Here I lived in a space in a wonderfully pleasant environment, until Merck and his family arrived. Now new elective affinities developed; the two women felt drawn to each other; Merck, a man of the world and of business, traveled and well informed, came to a good understanding with Herr von la Roche. The Mercks’ boys took to the boys. The daughters, of whom the oldest soon attracted me especially, fell to my portion. It is a most agreeable sensation to feel a new passion stir within us before the echo of the old has fallen silent. Thus one beholds at sunset the moon arising in the opposite heaven and delights in the double radiance of the two luminaries.”
In mid-July, Goethe spent four days visiting with Beethoven (age 42), a great fan of the work Goethe (age 63):
In the years to follow, supposedly, both Beethoven and Elective Affinities, were frequent conversation topics exchanged between Goethe and his friend, German composer Carl Zelter (1758-1832).
“What you say about Beethoven is certainly true. I, too, admire him with terror. His worn works seem to cause him secret horror—a perception that is dismissed all too lightly in our contemporary culture. His works seem to me like children whose father is a woman or mother is a man. The most recent work of his I have come to know (Christ on the Mount of Olives, 1811) seems to me like an impurity whose very foundation and goal are eternal death. Music critics, who seem better able to grasp and agree upon almost anything but singularity and the natural, have gushed over this composer in the most curious manner, in both praise and reproach. I know musical persons who used to find themselves alarmed, even indignant, upon hearing his works, but who are now gripped with enthusiasm for them like the partisans of Greek love. The attraction of this is not difficult to understand, and yet what can come of it you have demonstrated clearly enough in your Elective Affinities.”From Carl Zelter (1758-1832)
“When the play is frequently repeated, it is quite a different manner. Without bellows and flames, without art and intention, there arise the most delicate elective affinities, which, in the pleasantest way, unite those seemingly isolated members into a whole; on the actors’ side, more certainly and pliability, acquired by practice, strengthened by applause, supported by an animated insight into, and a general survey of the whole; on the spectators’ side, acquaintance, custom, favor, prejudice, enthusiasm, and whatever may be the names of all the good spirits, without which, even
the Iliad and Odyssey would remain to us but a lifeless framework.”To friend, composer Carl Zelter (1758-1832).
Wrote has been reading Linnaeus, and that, "excepting Shakespeare and Spinoza", no human being not then alive ever had such an effect upon him.
To friend, composer Carl Zelter (1758-1832).
In 1806, the Schopenhauer family had newly moved to Weimar, and the first public place that Goethe and his new scandalous bride, Christiane Vulpius (1765-1816), were seen together in public was at the house of Johanna Schopenhauer (1766-1838), mother of a then aged-eighteen year old thinker by the name of Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860); in May 1816, Goethe (age 66) begins conversations with Arthur (aged 28); who eventually absorbes Goethe’s chemical theory of will, which he summarized as follows:“As the title indicates [Elective Affinities], though Goethe was unaware of this, [it] has as its foundation the idea that the will, which constitutes the basis of our inner being, is the same will that manifests itself in the lowest, inorganic phenomena.”
and would go on to infuse Goethe’s theory of chemical will into his theory of a “will to power” in his monumental two-volume The World as Will and Representation (1818, 1844), explaining, therein, how chemical phenomena and reactions scale up to the human-human interaction level.
The newly emerging philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) visits Goethe, who in the same year reads his newly-published 1818 Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung (The World as Will and Representation), in which, in
§21, Schopenhauer explains “will” in terms of “elective affinities” of matter as “repulsion and attraction, separation and union”, in relation to the “deliberate conduct of man”. By the time of the publication of the second volume (1844), Goethe and his chemical theory is mentioned and utilized ten-fold. “We then talked of the Elective Affinities; and Goethe told me of a traveling Englishman, who meant to be separated from his wife when he returned to England. He laughed at such follow, and gave me several examples of persons who had been separated, and afterward could not let each other alone.”
Conversation with Johann Eckermann (1792-1854), German poet and Goethe's literary assistant, 1823-forward. He was working out a law to explain the blue color of the sky (see: blue sky problem):
A phenomenon not fully explained until 1899 by English physicist John Strutt (1842-1919), aka Lord Rayleigh.
“For decades I have been struggling with Berthollet in the matter of affinities.”
a comment on the paradoxical issue of French chemist Claude Berthollet’s 1789 to 1803 theory of split affinities (see: Berthollet's affinity theory); which, according to Goethean human chemistry scholar Jeremy Adler, shows through in the character of the Captain and his comment:“Whether it still fits the newer doctrines, I am unable to say."
concerning his present [1808] knowledge of affinity chemistry.
“These remarks were written as early as 1809. I should then have been much cheered to hear so kind a word about the Wahlverwandtschaften; for at that time, and afterwards, not many pleasant remarks were vouchsafed be about that novel.”
Comment to Johann Eckermann (1792-1854) on letter from Solger to Tieck in which kind words about his Elective Affinities were spoken on the fine nature of the Architect’s character.Eckermann reports Goethe as speaking of Edward in these words:
"I can't stand him myself, but I had to make him like that ... There is in any case much truth in his figure, for one finds enough people in the upper classes in whom, as in him, wilfulness takes the place of character."
“The only production of greater extent, in which I am conscious of having labored to set forth a pervading idea, is probably my Elective Affinities.”
Comment to Johann Eckermann (1792-1854).In a conversation with Eckermann, the same year published his gleanings to Aristotle's Poetics, he speaks of the tragic emotions of "fear", which was in Elective Affinties for "dread" in the face of "moral evil" that we approach move "on the people involved and spread over them to see." “Customers, no doubt, sometimes allow the tailor to choose a particular stuff, but they insist upon having the coat fitted to their own bodies, and are highly indignant, if it proves too tight, or too loose; they are most comfortable, when wearing the loose dressing-gowns of the day and hour, in which they can feel as
easy as they like; you may perhaps remember, that they treated my Elective Affinities as though it had been the garment of Nessus.”The “garment of Nessus”, as depicted, showing Lichas bringing the garment of Nessus to Hercules, woodcut by Hans Beham, circa 1542-1548, refers to the poisoned shirt that killed
Heracles; the phrase also frames the title of Alfred Steer’s 1990 book Goethe’s Elective Affinities: the Robe of Nessus.To friend, composer Carl Zelter (1758-1832).
“Following on what went before, let me tell you in fun, that in my Elective Affinities, I took care to round off the inward, true catharsis, with as much purity and finish as possible, but I do not therefore imagine that any handsome fellow could thereby be purged from the lust of looking after the wife of another [See: Matthew 5:27-28 (Ѻ)(Ѻ)] . The sixth commandment, which seemed to the Elohim-Jehovab to be so necessary, even in the wilderness, that he engraved it on granite tables with his own finger,—this it will still be necessary to uphold in our blotting-paper catechisms.” To his friend, composer Carl Zelter (1758-1832); hence the "double mental adultery" that takes place in the novel explained through the language of a "double elective affinity reaction" (double displacement reaction) in physical chemistry (affinity chemistry) terms.
See: Bible vs. physical science conflicts; Ten Commandments
“I lived every word of my Elective Affinities.”
as reported by David Constantine (1994), who also tells that Eckermann reported:
“He said there was nothing in his Elective Affinities which had not been really lived, but nothing was there in the form in which it had been lived.”
or as reported by Julie Reahard (1997):
“There is not a line in Elective Affinities that I have not lived, but none exactly as I have lived.”
Or as reported by Astrida Tantillo (2001):
“[Goethe] repeatedly asserted that there was not one line within the novel that he had not personally experienced.”
Comment to Johann Eckermann (1792-1854).In this context, one can summarized that the novel was retelling of the six decades of his remembered existence using a mixture of verbal language, emotion, events, etc., coded over the language of physical-chemical reactions.
“What man, what society dare express such sentiments? seeing that we cannot easily known anyone from his youth up, nor criticize the rise of his activity. How else does character finally prove itself, if it is not formed by the activity of the day, by reflective agencies which counteract each other? Who would venture to determine the value of contingencies, impulses, after-effects?
Who dare to estimate the influence of elective affinities?
At all events, he who would presume to estimate what man is, must take into consideration what he was, and how he became so. But such barefaced pretension are common, and we have often enough met with them; indeed they are always recurring, and they must be tolerated.”
To his letter to friend, composer Carl Zelter (1758-1832); here we see Goethe giving query to what eventually would become embodied in the concept of human free energies of formation.
"After dinner, a short half hour with Goethe, whom I found in a very cheerful, mild humor. He spoke of various things, at last of Carlsbad; and he joked about the various love affairs which he had experienced there. "A little passion," said he, "is the only thing which can render a watering place supportable; without it, one dies of ennui. I was almost always lucky enough to find there some little ‘elective affinity’ (Wahlverwandtschaft), which entertained me during the few weeks. I recollect one circumstance in particular, which even now gives me pleasure.
I one day visited Frau von Reck. After a commonplace chat, I had taken my leave, and met, as I went out, a lady with two very pretty young girls. ‘Who was that gentleman who just now left you?’ asked the lady. ‘It was Goethe,’ answered Frau von Reck. 'O, how I regret,' returned the lady, 'that he did not stay, and that I have not had the happiness of making his acquaintance!' 'You have lost nothing by it, my dear,' said Frau von Reck. 'He is very dull among ladies, unless they are pretty enough to inspire him with some interest. Ladies of our age must not be expected to make him talkative or amiable.'
When the two young ladies left the house with their mother, they thought of Frau von Reek's words. 'We are young, we are pretty,' said they, 'let us see if we cannot succeed in captivating and taming this renowned savage. The next morning, on the promenade by the Sprudel, they made me, in passing, the most graceful and amiable salutations, and I could not forbear taking the opportunity of approaching and accosting them. They were charming! I spoke to them again and again, they led me to their mother, and so I was caught. From that time we saw each other daily, nay, we spent whole days together. In order to make our connection more intimate, it happened that the betrothed of the one arrived, when I devoted myself more exclusively to the other. I was also very amiable to the mother, as may be imagined; in fact, we were all
thoroughly pleased with one another, and I spent so many happy days with this family, that the recollection of them is even now highly agreeable. The two girls soon related to me the conversation between their mother and Frau von Reck, describing the conspiracy which they had contrived for my conquest, and brought to a fortunate issue."Conversations with Johann Eckermann.
Shortly after finishing the final additions to Faust, the story of a man who is striving to learn everything that can be known and who sells his soul to the devil so to obtain the ultimate in knowledge possession, his reaction end came; during which point his famous last words were, supposedly:
Eckermann closes his famous work, Conversations with Goethe, with this passage:
“The morning after Goethe's death, a deep desire seized me to look once again upon his earthly garment. His faithful servant, Frederick, opened for me the chamber in which he was laid out. Stretched upon his back, he reposed as if asleep; profound peace and security reigned in the features of his sublimely noble countenance. The mighty brow seemed yet to harbor thoughts. I wished for a lock of his hair; but reverence prevented me from cutting it off. The body lay naked, only wrapped in a white sheet; large pieces of ice had been placed near it, to keep it fresh as long as possible.Frederickdrew aside the sheet, and I was astonished at the divine magnificence of the limbs. The breast was powerful, broad, and arched; the arms and thighs were elegant, and of the most perfect shape; nowhere, on the whole body, was there a trace of either fat or of leanness and decay. A perfect man lay in great beauty before me; and the rapture the sight caused me made me forget for a moment that the immortal spirit had left such an abode. I laid my hand on his heart – there was a deep silence – and I turned away to give free vent to my suppressed tears.”
Goethe is buried with Schiller at the Ducal Vault in Weimar. [15]
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