Dedication of the Garden House to the Frau von Stein. - Trans- ferred by the Duke from Bertuch to Goethe. The favorite retreat of Goethe. Goethe's fondness for fresh air and water. His bal- lad of The Fisherman.'- His appearance in the character of a Goethe's useful influence with the Duke, and efforts to improve the people of Weimar. - Popularity of private theatricals. Open air performances. Representation of Minerva's Birth, Life and Deeds.' — Goethe's operetta' Die Fischerin.' Miscellaneous per- Goethe's love and ambition. Letters from sentimental youths.- Composition of Triumph der Empfindsamkeit.' Journey to the Harz mountains in disguise. Interview with Plessing, the mis- anthrope. Suicide of Fräulein von Lassberg. — Goethe's in- creased hatred of Wertherism. — Representation of the 'Triumph Goethe's manifold employments and studies. His love of the people. His contempt for the Prussian Court. Frederic the Great. Goethe's kindness. His delicate benevolence to Kraft His letters to Kraft. Strange charge, that Goethe was cold and heartless. - Menzel's attacks.-Goethe's loveable nature, 405 BOOK THE FIRST. CHAPTER I. PARENTAGE. QUINTUS CURTIUS tells us that, in certain seasons, Bactria was darkened by whirlwinds of dust, which completely covered and concealed the roads. Left thus without their usual landmarks, the wanderers awaited the rising of the stars, To light them on their dim and perilous way.' May we not say the same of Literature? From time to time its pathways are so obscured beneath the rubbish of the age, that many a footsore pilgrim complains of the hidden route. In such times let us imitate the Bactrians ; let us cease to look upon the confusions of the day, and turning our gaze upon the great Immortals who have gone before, seek guidance from their light. In all ages the biographies of great men have been fruitful in lessons. In all ages they have been powerful stimulants to a noble ambition. In all ages they have been regarded as the armories wherein are gathered the weapons with which great battles have been won. There may be some among my readers who will dispute Goethe's claim to greatness. They will admit that he was a great poet, but deny that he was a great man. In denying it, they will set forth the qualities which constitute their ideal of greatness, and finding him deficient in some of these qualities, declare his title null. But in awarding him that title, I do not mean to imply that he was an ideal man; I do not present him as the exemplar of all greatness. No man can be such an exemplar. Humanity reveals itself in fragments. One man is the carrier of one kind of excellence, another of another. Achilles wins the victory, and Homer immortalizes it: we bestow the laurel-crown on both. In virtue of a genius such as modern times have only seen equalled once or twice, Goethe deserves the epithet of great; unless we believe a great genius can belong to a small mind. Nor is it in virtue of genius alone that he deserves the name. Merck said of him, that what he lived was more beautiful than what he wrote; and his Life, amid all its weaknesses and all its errors, presents a picture of a certain grandeur of soul, which cannot be contemplated unmoved. I shall make no attempt to conceal his faults. Let them be dealt with as harshly as severest justice may dictate, they will not eclipse the central light which shines throughout his life. He was great, if only in large-mindedness a magnanimity which admitted no trace of envy, of pettiness, of ignoble feeling to stain or to distort his thoughts. He was great, if only in his lovingness, simplicity, benevolence. He was great, if only in his gigantic activity. He was great, if only in self-mastery, which subdued rebellious impulses into the direct path prescribed by his will and reason. 'This man, we may say, became morally great, by being in his own age what in some other ages many might have been, a genuine man. His grand ex |