The Press.
London, England, 1853-09-10 00:00:00

Life. By Edgar Alfred Bow•ring.
John W. Parker and Son.

(;orthe's Opinioss,(te._

By Otto Weneksteni

London John W. Parker and Son.
The New Pmitominte. By Ed. Kenealy, Esq.,

Banister at- I .aw.

YE.I.L think of me now and then," exelaints
Cuddle Heathigg, with heart-rending pathos,
to Jenny. as we read in the bewitching sto►y
of " Oltt ortal ity " Whiles.—at brose•ti►ne.'
is the answer.
It is chiefly at " brose•time" that Goethe
represents the most transcendental of all his
heroes—Jerusalem himself, as musing over
the charms of his beloved. " 1 will endeavour,"
writes the distracted Werther, "to describe

SATURDAY,

" her to you while I eat my bread and butter
When I first beheld this angel, she wore
" a white gown, with a red rose stuck in it, and
" held in her hand a brown loaf" The " colour-
ing " here is skilfully managed—white, red,
and brown—while the allusion to the loaf im-
parts a strong human interest to a " bright
" and thinslunary " vision.
For sixty-seven consecutive years Goethe
continued to tell an attentive world what he
knew, thought, imagined, doubted, and felt
concerning every subject that can interest
serious, or amuse frivolous, minds. There
have been not a few authors whose writings
have produced on the destinies of society am
great an effect as the writings of Goethe ; but
only a comparatively small number can be
named who so long guided in person, or were
allowed so fully to witness, their own wide-
spread and prodigious influence. Dining
nearly three quarters of a century of successful
labours, progressive fame, and indirect but
real authority, Goethe enjoyed those blessings of
uninterrupted tranquillity and perfect health,
the want of which has broken many a greater
heart, and extinguished many a more shining
intelligence. But, with a mind' so astonish-
ingly comprehensive in its powers. so inquisi-
tive, anti so fond of occupation, he needed
only patience and time : by temperament and
constitution he was blessed with the first, and
the dispensation of Providence granted him
length of days. When, in 1832, eighty-
three years old, he ceased to study and to
write, merely because he then breathed his
last, he left behind him a mass of publi-
cations equal to that of one of the most
voluminous ecclesiastical authors of the middle
ages, together with a national popularity
and a foreign fame as great as those of Walter
Scott. We will endeavour, with impartiality,
to state the apparent causes of the influence
which he obtained and still exercises—offering
as fair an estimate as we can of his labours,
his mind, and his career.
Three causes, quite independent ofhis merits
or demerits as an author, contributed to his suc-
cess. The first he owed to the peculiar social dis-
tribution of Germany; the second is a singu-
larity in the German character itself ; the
third is found in the movements of the
epoch in which his lot was cast. Goethe has
himself stated with fairness the nature of the
first of the conditions to which we would call
attention. Germany was full of principalities,
all of which, in their internal administration.
were independent, and many of which were
extremely ancient : they possessed their own
histories and traditions, of which they were
proud , and, like llogberry, " had had losses,"
which argued their stability and importance.
The principal town in each of these principali-
ties was a jealous little capital, with all a
capital's institutions and means of instruction :
its prince or chief magistrate was a potentate
who attempted to vie as he best could
with the splendour, progress, or influence
of his neighbours. Had all these places been
dependent on, or affiliated to, sonic great cen-
tral metropolis, with which rivalry in liberal
achievements was impossible, they might have
been content to remain much longer in the
condition of barbarous villages. But the com-
petition which would have been hopeless
against one gigantic centre was feasible against
each other : the great efforts which would not
have been undertaken by those from whom
little was expected were quickly aroused and
stimulated by the responsibility- of indepen-
, deuce, as well as by the emulation of fairly-
balanced chances and average equality. it
was the glory, the interest, and the effort of
each of these separate constituents of a
co-ordinate system to be well furnished in all
the appliances of civilisation, in the advan-
tages of science, and in attractions ofliterature
and art. There is always a great deal of edu-
cation. and of every degree and species of
education, in a metropolis. A much larger
proportion of its inhabitants than uf the in-
habitants of places less supplied with ad-
vantages belong to the class of readers and
inquirers. But while in England, for example.
or in France, but one such centre of compara-
tive enlightenment existed, there were twenty
iu Germany. The resources of each of these
were indeed more limited, but their require-

/1°