The Sun.
London, England, 1856-08-05 00:00:00

EWES' GOETHE.
The Life and Works of a 7ethe ; With Sketches of
his Age and Contemporar, ies. By G. H. Lewes.
2 vols. David Nutt.
It is curious that, while t he most appreciative
of all the commentators on Sh akspere was (A. W.
Schlegel) a German—incompar. %bly the most gifted
and intelligent of all the biograi lhers of Goethe is
(G. H. Lewes) an Englishman. These two re-

markable volumes, commemorativ eof the greatest
literary genius of the Teutonic race—volumes
only given to the world at last aft. 3r two years of
assiduous preparation—constitute b .enceforth, par
excellence, we do conscientiously believe, TEE

"Life of Goethe," and, as such, assui `ne at Once a

high and unassailable position amoni our great
classic masterpieces. Cordially—noi r that his
labour of love is at length accompli shed—now
that we have the fruition of it in our bands thus

substantially and satisfactorily—cordi: illy do we
offer to Mr. Lewes our unaffected and most ear-

nest congratulations. Thus far, at let tst, he has
fulfilled his ambition. Again and mor a triumph-
antly than hitherto he has passed anot ;her of the
golden goals towards which his steps 1 have been
reverently and ardently directed. In this last
and worthiest of his various literary pro Auctions
he has acquitted himself, we must protest at once,
hardly less to our surprise than to our admiration.
His brilliant imaginative sketch of the Young
Author, " Ranthorpe," his charming historiette
of " Rose, Blanche, •and Tiolev," his fiery
and daring apostrophe to the shade of "Robe-
spierre," his luminous and comprehensive " Bio-
grapbical History of l'hilosophy" shall we
acknowledge it ?—had hardly prepared us for
the mellowed and perfected excellence of this
really masterly memorial of Goethe and his Contem-

poraries. A biography not unmoor thy, in its way, of
taking rank among the more admirable examples
produceable through any age, or ill any tongue, in
that, to us, we had nearly said, the' most fascinat-

ing of all the numerous departments of literature.
The work—it is interesting.to remark' at once—is
thus gracefully inscribed to Thomas (Jarlyle, the
translator of " Wilhelm Meister," and LLS such the
one " who first taught England to nPpreciate
Goethe"—" As a memorial," writes Mx: Lewes,
" Of gratitude for Intellectual Guidance), and of
esteem for rare and noble qualities." Conspicu-
ous among the various honours conferred upon the
anther of " Sartor Resartus "—we take
dedi-
cation to be about the one the most eminewtly well
calculated to afford him a genuine and lasting
sense of gratification. The motto selected by
Mr. Lewes for his title-page.--resembling sottle;
what the motto we ourselves should have chueOo
for the title-page of a crowning biography of tha
Great Napoleon (namely, the opinion uttered la
regard to that extraordinary man by the Right
Hon. Charles James Fox, to wit: "Ibelieve him ,
be one of the best, as I am sure he is the
greatest of mankind")—is sententiously as
follows :—" Goethe's heart, which few knew,'
was as great as his intellect, which all know."
Avroc ft7r£ll Jung Stilling ! And truthfully---
judging from these dispassionate records, the
_.•
data of which, as the title-page again intimate ;=;
have been industriously collected by our author,;:,,
from sources both " published and unpublished."
The former, namely, the published sources of in-
formation in regard to the life of Goethe, noi of
course be readily enough enumerated. Foremost
among them the brief biographical notices by-
Doring and by Schutz—succeeded, as those mini-
ature mementoes were ultimately, by the ampler
narratives of Viehoff and of Schafer—Tiehoff's
Goethe's Leben extending to four, and Schafer's
to two volumes : volumes as substantial in ap-
pearance, but by no means as meritorious in
character, as these two tomes from the hand of
G. H. Lewes. Besides the " Lives" of Goethe,
penned by Daring, and Schutz, and Viehoff, and
Schafer, there were—affording materials and
hints to our author—Herr Falk's "Reminiscences
of Goethe," and Mrs. Austin's "Goethe and his •
Contemporaries," and Mr. Oxenforers translation
of " Enckermanu's Conversations," and Goethe's
own Letters, letters addressed now to the
Countess Von Stotberg, now to Kestner, now to
Charlotte—not forgetting various other Epistles,
Memoirs, and Recollections, or (what Mr..
Lewes quite comprehensibly designates " as much
of a stumbling-block as of a stepping-stone"), the
renowned Wahrhfit and Dichtung, Goethe's - own ,
famous fragment of Autobiography I All these: f-
published sources of information in regard to his
subject Mr. Lewes has wisely brought under con-
tribution, has fairly sifted and ransacked. But
with these he has scrutinised no less searchingly
various unpublished sources of intelligence—
sources imparting to his volumes very agreeably
an air of undoubted novelty and originality.
Speaking of this in his Preface he observes—
" Besides the mass of printed testimony, I have
endeavoured to get at the i;ruth by consulting- -
those who lived under the same roof with him, -
those who lived in friendly infiercourse with him,
and those who have made his life and works a.
special study." A Life, rumember, extending
over the ample " span" comprised between
1749 and 1832—a life c onsequently embrac.
ing eighty-two years a ltogether Johanns
Wolfgang Goethe having been born in 1749,L
about noonday on the 28th of August, and hav-r:
ing expired at length full of! years and honours/hi
in 1832, at about the sam4ihour of the day on
the 22d of March. Wort es including among'
their number—his maiden phantasy " Gotz von
Berlichingen," his morbid t; ale of love and suicide
" Werther," " Clavigo," " Egmont," "Stella,4,
"Die Fischerin," "Trim eph der Empfindsam.i
keit," " Iphigenia," "Ile ienau," " Tasso," hie
" Theory of Colour," his " Treatise on the Metal
morphoses of Plants ;" al Jove all, his wonderful.,
" Wilhelm Meister," his astonishing " Faust,"
and his exquisite " =an and Dorothea."
What a genius ! W hat fecundity ! What
depth ! What imag inatiou ! Remember-
ing these works, do a we not surround
our ideal of Goethe with the graceful and angelic
forms of Charlotte, and Dorothea, and Mignon,
and Marguerite ? Do-w e not marvel over the me- ,A
mory of this giant intell Rd under the glamour of
the Walpurgis Night, tt- ► the eltridch strain of the
Erl King,"-to the Ivic rid glimmer of the sar-
donic and evil eye of that mocking phantom
yonder in the dark br Lekground, the wily and
diabolic Mephistopheles f Such is the memorable
"Life," such are the.; marvellous " Works," re-
counted and analysed by Mr. G. H. Lewes' pen
of sagacity and fascin; xtion. A masterpiece not
unworthy of its theme —this noble biography-will •
henceforth be regarde( 1, we rest assured, hardly
less in Germany than in England, as the dorsi()
authority commemora dve of all most worthy of
commemoration in r egard- to Goethd and his
contemporaries.

THE LARGES: r STEAMER IN THE
1 WORLD.

The American ste• smer Vanderbilt, the largest
steamer in the world, has had trial trip at New
York. Her paddle .wheels made 16 revolutions a
minute, and it was considered that 18 revolutions
c,uuld be pt out of her. Twelve of her revolutions
were equivalent to 14 knots an hour, and with 13
miles an hour onl3 r she could cross the Atlantic in
ten days. Her ler igth is 335 feet, breadth of bean'
46 feet, depth of 1 cold 32i feet. She is 5,000 tons
burden. She will . draw 20 feet when loaded. She
will carry 1,000 tons of freight, 1,500 tons of coal,
and 800 tons of water. Her crew consists of 150
persons. Amol igst them for the engine depart-
ment will be 4 engineers, 18 coal heavers, 24 fire-
men, and 3wa ter tenders. Her stewards depart-
ments will conf 'ist of 1 steward, 8 cooks, 24 waiters,
and 3 porters. Sho has five decks and 16 water-
tight compart ,inents. Her engines consist of two
overhead be: Lin engines with a power of 5,000
horses.• The boilers are tubular, each 30 feet long,
and weighin! 60 tons. The cylinders are 90 nob
in diameter and 12 feet stroke. The wheels are 4
feet in dian ieter, and the boiler surface is 20turi,
superficial 1 :eet. She has 32 furnaces, and she lII'
consume 1( )0 tons of coals in 24 hours. Her 11°"24
are fastene d through her keel with copper:"bolts )
the bolts weigh 50 tons. She is iron strapped
throughoi it with 350 diagonal straps, weighing 'n
the aggre gate 96 tons. She has been built by dll al
work and , not by contract, and her cost "
nearly 1, 000,000 dollars.