6 knows this is not a mere phrase thrown in the air. All his letters speak of the suffering he endured from the sight of so much want in the people. The world is narrow,' he writes, and not every spot of earth bears every tree; mankind suffers, and one is ashamed to see oneself so favored above so many thousands. We hear constantly how poor the land is, and daily becomes poorer; but we partly think this is not true, and partly hurry it away from our minds when once we see the truth with open eyes, see the irremediableness, and see how matters are always bungled and botched!' That he did his utmost to ameliorate the condition of the people in general, and to ameliorate particular sorrows as far as lay in his power, is strikingly evident in the concurrent testimony of all who knew anything of his doings. If then he did not write dithyrambs of Freedom, and was not profoundly enthusiastic for Fatherland, let us attribute it to any cause but want of heart. The stillness and earnestness of his life seem to have somewhat toned down the society of Weimar. He went very rarely to Court; and he not being there to animate it with his inventions, the Duchess Amalia complained that they were all asleep; the Duke also found society insipid: 'the men have lived through their youth, and the women mostly married.' The Duke altered with the rest. The influence of his dear friend was daily turning him into more resolute paths; it had even led him to the study of science, as we learn in a letter of his to Knebel: The natural sciences are so human, so true, that I wish everyone luck who occupies himself with them. . . . They teach us that the greatest, the most mysterious, and the most magical phenomena, take place openly, orderly, simply, unmagically; they must finally quench the thirst of poor ignorant man for the dark Extraordinary, by showing him 6 that the Extraordinary lies so near, so clear, so familiar, and so determinately true. I daily beg my good genius to keep me from all other observation and learning, and guide me always on the calm definite path which the student of Nature has to tread.' And Herder, also, now occupied with his great work, shared these ideas, and enriched himself with Goethe's friendship. Jacobi came to Weimar, and saw his old friend again, quitting him with real sorrow. He was occupied at this time with the dispute about Lessing's Spinozism, and tried to bring Goethe into it, who very characteristically told him, Before I write a syllable μɛta ta quoiza, I must first have clearly settled my quoixa.' All controversy was repugnant to Goethe's nature. If Raphael were to paint it, and Shakespeare dramatize it, I could scarcely find any pleasure in it.' And Jacobi certainly was not the writer to conquer such repugnance. Goethe objected to his tone almost as much as to his opinions. • When self-esteem expresses itself in contempt of another, be it the meanest, it must be repellant. A flipppant, frivolous man may ridicule others, may controvert them, scorn them; but he who has any respect for himself seems to have renounced the right of thinking meanly of others. And what are we all that we can dare to raise ourselves to any height?' He looks upon Jacobi's metaphysical tic as a compensation for all the goods the gods have given him. House, riches, children, sister and friends, and a long etc., etc., etc. On the other hand, God has punished you with metaphysics like a thorn in your flesh; me he has blessed with Science, that I may be happy in the contemplation of his works.' How characteristic is this: When you say we can only believe in God (p. 101), I answer that I lay great stress on seeing (schauen), and when Spinoza, speaking of scientia intuitiva says: Hoc cognoscendi genus procedit ab adequata idea essentia formalis quorundam Dei attributorum ad adequatam cognitionem essentia rerum, these few words give me courage to dedicate my whole life to the observation of things which I can reach, and of whose essentia formalis I can hope to form an adequate idea, without in the least troubling myself how far I can go.' He was at variance, and justly, with those who called. Spinoza an Atheist. He called him the most theistical of theists, and the most Christian of Christians-theissimum et christianissimum. While feeling the separation of opinion between himself and Jacobi, he still retained the bond of sympathy and friendship. It was otherwise with Lavater. Their intimacy had been great; no amount of difference had overshadowed it, until the priestly element of Lavater, formerly in abeyance, now grew into offensive prominence. He clouded his intellect with superstition, and aspired to be a prophet. He had with childish credulity believed in Cagliostro, and his miracles, exclaiming, 'Who would be so great as he, had he but a true sense of the Evangelists?' He called upon that Mystifier, in Strasburg, but was at once sent about his business. When a great man,' writes Goethe of Lavater, in 1782, has a dark corner in him, it is terribly dark.' And the dark corner in Lavater begins to make him uneasy. 'I see the highest power of reason united in Lavater with the most odious superstition, and that by a knot of the finest and most inextricable kind.' To the same effect he says in one of the Xenien Wie verfährt die Natur um Hohes und Niedres im Menschen It was a perception of the hypocritical nature of Lavater which thoroughly disgusted him, and put an end to their friendship; mere difference of opinion never separated him from a friend. 6 Amid the multiform studies, mineralogy, osteology, botany, use of the microscope, and constant dipping' into Spinoza, his poetic studies might seem to have fallen into the background, did we not know that Wilhelm Meister has reached the fifth book, the opera of Scherz, List, und Rache is written, the great religious-scientific poem Die Geheimnisse is planned, Elpenor has two acts completed, and many of the minor poems are written. Among these poems, be it noted, are the two songs in Wilhelm Meister, Kennst du das Land' and 'Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt,' which speak feelingly of his longing for Italy. The preparations for that journey are made in silence. He is studying Italian, and undertakes the revision of his works for a new edition, in which Wieland and Herder are to help him. 6 Seeing him thus happy in love, in friendship, in work; with young Fritz living with him, to give him, as it were, a home; and every year bringing fresh clearness in his purposes, one may be tempted to ask what was the strong impulse which could make him break away from such a circle, and send him lonely over the Alps? Nothing but the egoism of genius. Italy had been the dream of his youth. It was the land where self-culture was to gain rich material and firm basis. That he was born to be a Poet, he now deliberately acknowledged; and nothing but solitude in the Land of Song seemed wanting to him. Thither he yearned to go; thither he would go. He accompanied the Duke, Herder, and the Frau von Stein to Carlsbad in July 1786, taking with him the works to be revised for Göschen's new edition. The very sight of these works must have strengthened his resolution. And when Herder and the Frau von Stein returned to Weimar, leaving him alone with the Duke, the final preparations were made. He had studiously concealed this project from every one except the Duke, whose permission was necessary, and, as I believe, the Frau von Stein. This latter exception is, however, open to doubt. I can scarcely believe that he would conceal from his beloved so important a project, although he may have bound her. to absolute secrecy; and Schöll, who has had the letters to her so long under his hands, also thinks she knew it; the only bit of evidence against it is that Fritz von Stein expected him at Weimar for a long while after he had gone away, and lived in Goethe's house awaiting him, until the protracted solitude made him return home. It seems to me the following passage, written to the Frau von Stein on the 23d August, contains sufficient proof: 'I must remain another week here, and then all will end so softly, and the ripened fruit fall. And then I shall live with thee in the wide world, and be nearer our mother Earth, in happy loneliness, with neither name nor rank.' Now observe, first, that he must indicate a different mode of life by this living with her in the wide world;' secondly, that his resolution to be alone, without even a servant, and his resolution to travel incognito, are very explicitly indicated. And unless the passage alludes to his projected journey, I cannot conceive the meaning of it. 6 If it is true that he did conceal from her the project, the reason must have been his dread of scenes,' and perhaps his fears lest she should wish to retain him. Leave-taking, as we know, was one of those painful emotions he always avoided when possible; he may have doubted the strength of his own resolution if it had to contend against her tears as well as his own sorrow. On the 3d September, 1786, he quitted Carlsbad, alone. |