their own oxen and swine. Nothing fills me with a more pure and
genuine sense of happiness than those traits of patriarchal life
which, thank Heaven! I can imitate without affectation. Happy is
it, indeed, for me that my heart is capable of feeling the same
simple and innocent pleasure as the peasant whose table is covered
with food of his own rearing, and who not only enjoys his meal, but
remembers with delight the happy days and sunny mornings when he
planted it, the soft evenings when he watered it, and the pleasure
he experienced in watching its daily growth.

JUNE 29.

The day before yesterday, the physician came from the town to pay
a visit to the judge. He found me on the floor playing with
Charlotte's children. Some of them were scrambling over me, and
others romped with me; and, as I caught and tickled them, they
made a great noise. The doctor is a formal sort of personage: he
adjusts the plaits of his ruffles, and continually settles his
frill whilst he is talking to you; and he thought my conduct beneath
the dignity of a sensible man. I could perceive this by his
countenance. But I did not suffer myself to be disturbed. I
allowed him to continue his wise conversation, whilst I rebuilt
the children's card houses for them as fast as they threw them
down. He went about the town afterward, complaining that the
judge's children were spoiled enough before, but that now Werther
was completely ruining them.

Yes, my dear Wilhelm, nothing on this earth affects my heart so
much as children. When I look on at their doings; when I mark in
the little creatures the seeds of all those virtues and qualities