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The Sorrows of Werter

By Johann Wolfgang Goethe


LETTER LI.

May 25.

I HAD a scheme in my head, which I intended to conceal from you till it was accomplished; -- now that it has failed I may as well tell it to you. I had a mind to go into the army; I had long been desirous of it, and it was my chief reason for coming here with the Prince. He is a general in the service of the ---- As we were walking just now, I communicated my design to him: he did not approve it; and it would have been madness not to have yielded to his reasons.