Autobiography of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe | Page 8

struggles forward towards his world of Art
through these curiously complected influences, all this unites itself into
a multifarious, yet so harmonious Whole; as into a clear poetic mirror,
where man's life and business in this age, his passions and purposes, the
highest equally with the lowest, are imaged back to us in beautiful
significance. Poetry and Prose are no longer at variance; for the poet's
eyes are opened; he sees the changes of many-colored existence, and
sees the loveliness and deep purport which lies hidden under the very
meanest of them; hidden to the vulgar sight, but clear to the poet's;
because the 'open secret' is no longer a secret to him, and he knows that
the Universe is /full/ of goodness; that whatever has being has beauty.
Apart from its literary merits or demerits, such is the temper of mind
we trace in Goethe's /Meister/, and, more or less expressly exhibited, in
all his later works. We reckon it a rare phenomenon, this temper; and
worthy, in our times, if it do exist, of best study from all inquiring men.
How has such a temper been attained in this so lofty and impetuous
mind, once too, dark, desolate and full of doubt, more than any other?
How may we, each of us in his several sphere, attain it, or strengthen it,
for ourselves? These are questions, this last is a question, in which no
one is unconcerned.
To answer these questions, to begin the answer of them, would lead us
very far beyond our present limits. It is not, as we believe, without long,
sedulous study, without learning much and unlearning much, that, for
any man, the answer of such questions is even to be hoped. Meanwhile,
as regards Goethe, there is one feature of the business, which, to us,
throws considerable light on his moral persuasions, and will not, in
investigating the secret of them, be overlooked. We allude to the spirit
in which he cultivates his Art; the noble, disinterested, almost religious
love with which he looks on Art in general, and strives towards it as
towards the sure, highest, nay only good.
For a man of Goethe's talent to write many such pieces of rhetoric,
setting forth the dignity of poets, and their innate independence on
external circumstances, could be no very hard task; accordingly, we

find such sentiments again and again expressed, sometimes with still
more gracefulness, still clearer emphasis, in his various writings. But to
adopt these sentiments into his sober practical persuasion; in any
measure to feel and believe that such was still, and must always be, the
high vocation of the poet; on this ground of universal humanity, of
ancient and now almost forgotten nobleness, to take his stand, even in
these trivial, jeering, withered, unbelieving days; and through all their
complex, dispiriting, mean, yet tumultuous influences, to 'make his
light shine before them,' that it might beautify even our 'rag- gathering
age' with some beams of that mild, divine splendour, which had long
left us, the very possibility of which was denied; heartily and in earnest
to meditate all this, was no common proceeding; to bring it into
practice, especially in such a life as his has been, was among the
highest and hardest enterprises which any man whatever could engage
in. We reckon this a greater novelty, than all the novelties which as a
mere writer he ever put forth, whether for praise or censure. We have
taken it upon us to say that if such is, in any sense, the state of the case
with regard to Goethe, he deserves not mere approval as a pleasing poet
and sweet singer; but deep, grateful study, observance, imitation, as a
Moralist and Philosopher. If there be any /probability/ that such is the
state of the case, we cannot but reckon it a matter well worthy of being
inquired into. And it is for this only that we are here pleading and
arguing. Meister is the mature product of the first genius of our times;
and must, one would think, be different, in various respects, from the
immature products of geniuses who are far from the first, and whose
works spring from the brain in as many weeks as Goethe's cost him
years.
It may deserve to be mentioned here that Meister, at its first appearance
in Germany, was received very much as it has been in England.
Goethe's known character, indeed, precluded indifference there; but
otherwise it was much the same. The whole guild of criticism was
thrown into perplexity, into sorrow; everywhere was dissatisfaction
open or concealed. Official duty impelling them to speak, some said
one thing, some another; all felt in secret that they knew not what to
say. Till the appearance of Schlegel's /Character/, no word, that we