that paradox, but the still more inexplicable one, of all who knew Goethe, whether they were his peers or his servants, loving him as only loveable natures can be loved. Children, women, clerks, professors, poets, princes all loved him. Even Herder, bitter against every one, spoke of him with a reverence which astonished Schiller, who writes: He is by many besides Herder named with a species of devotion, and still more loved as a man than admired as an author. Herder says he has a clear, universal mind, the truest and deepest feeling, and the greatest purity of heart.'* Men might learn so much from his works had not the notion of his coldness and indifference disturbed their judgment. In no line,' says Carlyle, does he speak with asperity of any man, scarcely of anything. He knows the good and loves it; he knows the bad and hateful and rejects it; but in neither case with violence. His love is calm and active; his rejection implied rather than pronounced.'

But so it is in life: a rumor, originating perhaps in thoughtless ignorance, circulated by relentless malice, gains credence in the face of evidence, which no amount of evidence suffices to dissipate. There is an atmosphere round certain names, a halo of glory or a halo of infamy, and men perceive this halo without seeking to ascertain its origin. Every public man is in some respects mythical; and the fables are believed in spite of all the contradictions of evidence. It is useless to hope that men will pause to inquire into the truth of what they hear said of another, before accepting and repeating it; but with respect to

a spooney too! Here is a godlike intellect, and yet you see he is not an idiot! Not in the least a spooney!'

* Briefw. mit Körner, i. p. 136.

Goethe, who has now been nearly a quarter of a century in his grave, one may hope that evidence so strong as these pages furnish may be held more worthy of credence than anything which gossip or ignorance, misconception or partisanship, has flung upon the wings of Rumor.

APPENDIX.

APPENDIX A.

Latin Dialogue composed by Goethe in his eighth year.

PATER ET FILIUS. JAN. 1757.

F. Licetne tecum ire in cellam vinariam ?

P. Immo licebit: utprimum dixeris, quid illic facturus sis. F. Audio, quod vina replenda sint, cujus rei notionem veram habere cuperem.

P. Astute, latet sub hoc quid monstri: dic verum.

F. Ingenue fatear: volupe est tandem aliquando videre lapidem fundamentalem et clausularem.

P. Sequere me, voluntati tuæ in utroque satis fiet.

F. Lubens sequar. Verum ecce sumus ad scalas. Quæ tenebræ Cimmeriæ, sepulcrum ipsum non potest esse obscurius.

P. Mitte hanc, hac vice, funestam imaginem: descende mi fili provide et mox infra lucem invenies.

F. Rectissime: jamjam omnes res circumjacentes video, ut, ahena, ollas, doliola, orcas, labra e. i. g. a.

P. Exspecta paulisper, plura adhuc eaque clariora hactenus tibi patefient.

F. Profecto, clarum illud perpausillum quod per cellæ spiraculum intrat illuminat omnia.

P. Ubinam igitur opinaris, genio tuo satisfacere.

F. Lapidem quidem, quem dicunt, clausularem super caput meum optime cerno, at lapidem fundamentalem reperire non licet.

P. Ecce in isto angulo in murum inclusus eminet.

F. Video et recordor, illum multis solenitatibus adhibitis a me eo collocatum fuisse.

P. Potesne alia atque alia eodem tempore gesta, tibi revocare in memoriam.

F. Quidni: Me ipsum video scilicet in abisso ut murarium amictum spatulam manu tenentem magnoque murariorum sociorum agmine stipatum, lapicida latus meum claudente.

P. Nihilne amplius tunc eveniebat?

F. Quod sic. Primarius nempe eorum murariorum Ciceronem (ut solent) agere voluit, cui tamen concione vix cœpta vox faucibus hæsit, steteruntque comæ * quas præ pudore sibi evellere non cessavit spectatoribus interim eum deridentibus.

P. Quid boni nunc ad hunc lapidem cogitas, quem intueri

adeo anhelasti?

F. Cogito mecum et opto, ut iste haud prius quam cum mundi ipsius interitu universali de loco suo moveatur.

P. Id soli Deo commitendum esse certe scio. Tu vero progredere mecum ulterius.

F. Papæ, quam commode nobis ex hac in majorem transire licet cellam multa sane opera multoque oleo constiterit usque dum hæc apertura conficeretur.

P. Rem acu tetigisti: adde adhuc periculum, quod operarii iniverunt, inprimis in exstruendis, quas hic vides, scalis primariis, ubi tota fere hæc fornix fulcris innumeris sustinebatur.

F. Et tamen in tantis periculis habitationem ipsi non mutavimus. O salutarem inscitiam! etenim si ego hoc scivissem, non tam secure in utramvis aurem dormivissem:

P. An nescis, quam dulce sit, præteritorum meminisse periculorum.

At, mi fili, respice nunc et alterum scopum, quomodo videlicet implentur dolia.

F. Hem, quid hoc sibi vult, quod tantum vini singulis doliis

* This is a verse from Virgil transposed.