Mit Joseph Green Cogswell

At the end of August Cogswell went for the last time to Weimar to bid farewell to the friend whom he had come to venerate as a father. In order to avoid the public celebration of his seventieth birthday Goethe had gone to Jena, and here he received the young American. He was visibly affected by his visit; he embraced and kissed Cogswell with tears in his eyes, and said: »And will you remember me when you are surrounded by your friends at home? and may I believe that there is a heart [351] in the new world which cares for me?« Cogswell had not expected such a warm feeling on Goethe's part, and was deeply moved. »It almost broke my heart«, he writes, »to say adieu to him.«