CHAPTER VIII. THE REAL PHILANTHROPIST. A STRANGE phantasmagoria is the life he led at this epoch. His employments are manifold, yet his studies, his drawing, etching and rehearsing are carried on as if they alone were the occupation of the day. His immense activity, and power of varied employment, scatter the energies which might be consecrated to some great work; but in return, they give him the varied store of material of which he stood so much in need. At this time he is writing Wilhelm Meister and Egmont ; Iphigenia is also taking shape in his mind. His office gives him much to do; and Gervinus, who must have known how great were the calls upon his time, should have paused ere he threw out the insinuation of diplomatic rudeness' when Goethe answered one of his brother-in-law's letters through his secretary. Surely with a brother-in-law one may take such latitude? * This man, whose diplomatic coldness and artistocratic haughtiness have formed the theme of so many long ti rades, was of all Germans the most sincerely democratic, until the Reign of Terror in France frightened him, as it * Since the above was written, the correspondence with the Frau v. Stein has appeared; and from it we learn that in Switzerland he even dictated some letters to her! did others, into more modified opinions.) Not only was he always delighted to be with the people, and to share their homely ways, which his own simple tastes made consonant with theirs, but we find him in the confidence of intimacy expressing his sympathy with the people in the heartiest terms. When among the miners he writes to his beloved, 'How strong my love has returned upon me for these lower classes! which one calls the lower, but which in God's eyes are assuredly the highest! Here you meet all the virtues combined: Contentedness, Moderation, Truth, Straightforwardness, Joy in the slightest good, Harmlessness, Patience Patience Constancy in in I will not lose myself in panegyric!' Again, he is writing Iphigenia, but the news of the misery and famine among the stocking-weavers of Apolda paralyzes him. The Drama will not advance a step it is cursed; the King of Tauris must speak as if no stocking-weaver in Apolda felt the pangs of hunger!' In striking contrast stands the expression of his contempt for what was called the 'great world,' as he watched it in his visits to the neighboring Courts. If affection bound him to Karl August, whom he was forming, and to Luise, for whom he had a tender chivalrous regard, his eyes were not blind to the nullity of other princes and their followers. Good society have I seen,' runs one of his epigrams; 6 they call it the "good," although there is not in it the material for the smallest of poems.' Gute Gesellschaft hab' ich gesehen; man nennt sie die Gute Notably was this the case in his journey with the Duke to Berlin, May 1778. He only remained a few days there; saw much, and not without contempt. I have got quite close to old Fritz, having seen his way of life, 6 his gold, his silver, his statues, his apes, his parrots, and heard his own curs twaddle about the great man.' He shut his soul from the Berlin world as if in a castle.' With the men he held no intercourse. I have spoken no word in the Prussian dominions which might not be made public. Therefore I am called haughty and so forth.' Varnhagen intimates that the ill-will he excited by not visiting the literati, and by his reserve, was so great as to make him averse from hearing of his visit in after years.* What, indeed, as Varnhagen asks, had Goethe in common. with Nicolai, Ramler, Engel, Zellner, and the rest? Humboldt he visited at Tegel, but the great traveller was then a youth, and had not taken his place among the notables. Frederick the Great took no notice of him. Indeed, Frederick's admiration lay in other directions. What culture he had was French, and his opinion of German literature had been very explicitly pronounced in a work published this year, in which Götz von Berlichingen was cited as a sample of the reigning bad taste. The passage is too curious to be omitted. Vous y verrez représenter les abominables pièces de Shakspear traduites en notre langue, et tout l'auditoire se pâmer d'aise en entendant ces farces ridicules, et dignes des sauvages de Canada.' That certainly was afflicting to 'le bon goût;' but that was not the worst. Shakespeare might be pardoned for his faults, car la naissance des arts n'est jamais le point de leur maturité. Mais voilà encore un Goetz de Berlichingen qui parait sur la scène, imitation détestable de ces mauvaises pièces anglaises, et le parterre applaudit et demande avec enthousiasme la répétition de ces dégoûtantes platitudes!'† * Vermischte Schriften, iii. p. 62. † De la Littérateur Allemande, p. 46. His opinion of the newlydiscovered Nibelungen Lied was no less characteristically contemptuous: he declared he would not give such rubbish house-room. Thus the two German Emperors, Fritz and Wolfgang, held no spiritual congress; perhaps no good result could have been elicited by their meeting. Yet they were, each in his own sphere, the two most potent men then reigning. Fritz did not directly assist the literature of his country, but his indirect influence has been indicated by Griepenkerl.* He awoke the Germans from their sleep by the rolling of drums; those who least liked the clang of arms or the divisions of a battle field,' were nevertheless awakened to the fact that something important was going on in life, and they rubbed their sleepy eyes, and tried to see a little into that. The roll of drums has this merit, at all events, that it draws men from their library table to the window, and so makes them look out upon the moving, living world of action, wherein the erudite may see a 'considerable sensation' made even by men unable to conjugate a Greek verb in ui.' † On returning to Weimar, Goethe occupied himself with various architectural studies, à propos of the rebuilding of the palace; and commenced those alterations in the park, which resulted in the beautiful distribution formerly described. But I pass over many details of his activity, to narrate an episode which must win the heart of every reader. In these pages it has been evident, I hope, that no compromise with the truth has led me to gloss over faults, or to conceal shortcomings. All that testimony warrants I have reproduced: good and evil, as in the mingled yarn of life. Faults and deficiencies, even griev *Der Kunstgenius der Deutschen Literatur des letzten Jahrhunderts, i. p. 52. Dr. George has become famous (or did become so - for, alas! what is fame?) by his shrewd suspicion that Frederick with all his victories could not accomplish that feat of intellectual vigor. Many men still measure greatness by verbs in μ. ous errors, do not estrange a friend from our hearts; why should they lower a hero? Why should the biographer fear to trust the tolerance of human sympathy? Why labor to prove a hero faultless? The reader is no valet de chambre, incapable of crediting greatness in a robe de chambre. Never should we forget the profound saying of Hegel, in answer to the vulgar aphorism (No man is a hero to his valet de chambre'); namely, 'This is not because the Hero is no Hero, but because the Valet is a Valet.'* Having trusted to the effect which the true man would produce, in spite of all drawbacks, and certain that the true man was loveable as well as admirable, I have made no direct appeal to the reader's sympathy, nor tried to make out a case in favor of extraordinary virtue.' But the tribute of affectionate applause is claimed now we have arrived at a passage in his life so characteristic of the delicacy, generosity and nobility of his nature, that it is scarcely possible for any one not to love him, after reading it. Of generosity, in the more ordinary sense, there are abundant examples in his history. Riemer has instanced several, † but these are acts of kindness, thoughtfulness and courtesy, such as one expects to find in a prosperous poet. That he was kind, gave freely, sympathized freely, acted disinterestedly, and that his kindness showed itself in trifles quite as much as in important actions (a most significant trait ! ), is known to all persons moderately * Nicht aber darum weil dieser kein Held ist, sondern weil jener der Kammerdiener ist.' Philosophie der Geschichte, p. 40. Goethe repeated this as an epigram; and Carlyle has wrought it into the minds of hundreds; but Hegel is the originator. + Mittheilungen, vol. i. 102-5. There is lamentable confusion in our estimation of character on this point of generosity. We often mistake a spasm of sensibility |