The examiner. [volume] (Louisville, Ky.) 1847-1849, 1848-07-15
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twas not an age OF peculiar eamestneSs,
this Hume and Walpole age but no one
can be In earnest himself without in some
degree affecting others. d remember pas
sage in the Vicar-of Wakefield said John
son, few years after its authors death,
which Goldsmith was afterwards fool enough
10 expuDge. do mol lore man ichO Is
Jealous for nothing. The words were lit
tie, since the feeling was retained; for the
very basis of the little tale was sincerity
and zeal for many things. This, indeed, it
was, which, while all the world was admir-
ing il for its mirth and sweetness, its bright
and happy pictures, its simultaneous move
ment OF the springs Of laughter and tears,
gave it a rarer value to more select audi
ence, and connected il with not the least
memorable anecdoie Of modern literary his
tory. 1t had been published little more than
four years, when two Germans, whose names
became afterwards world-famous, one a stu
dent, at that time in his twentieth, the other
a graduate, in his twenty-6fth year, met in
the city Of Strasburg. The younger, Johann
Wol(gang Goethe, law-scholar Of the uni
versity, with passion Tor literature, sought
knowledge from the elder, Johann Gott-
fried HeIder, for the course on which he was
moved to enter. Herder, a severe and mas
terly, though somewhat cynical critic, laugh
ed at the llkings Of the young aspirant, and
reused him to other aspirations. Producing
a German translation Of the Vicar of Wake
field, he read it out aloud to Goethe in Q
manner which was peculiar to him; and, as
the incidents OF the little story came forth in
his serious, simple voice, in one unmOved,
unaltering tone, (just as if nothing Of II
was present before him, but all was only
historical; as if the shadows of this poetic
creation did not affect him in a lile-likt
manner, but only glided gently by.0 a new
IDEAL Of letters and Of life arose in thc
mind Of the listener. Years passed on; anc
while that younger student raised up and re
Established the literature Of his country, anC
came at last, in his prime and in his age, Il
be acknowledged for the wisest Of modern
men, he never ceased throughout to confess
what he owed to those old evenings at Stras
burg. The strength which can conquer cir
cumstance; the happy wisdom OF ironl
which elevates itself above every object
above fortune and misfortune, good and evil
death and life, and attains to the possession
of a poetical world, first visited Goethe in tn
tone with which Goldsmith's tale is told
The fiction became to him LIES first reality
in country clergymen Of Drusenheim Their
started up Wears Of Wakefield; for Olivia
and Sophias Of Alsac, first love fluttered a
his heart and at every stage OF his illustTi
Gus after-career its impression still vividl
REQUIRED to him. He remembered it when
at the height Of his worldly honor and sue
cess, he made his written Life C'Wahrei
und Dichtung) record what blessing
had been to him; he had not forgotten il
when, some seventeen years ago, standing
at the age Of eighty-one, on the very brinI
Of the grave, he told friend that in the d.
cisive moment Of mental development tn
Vicar of Wakefield had formed his educs
ton, and that he had lately, with unabate
delight, read the charming book again fror
beginning TO end, not little affected b
the lively recollection how much he ha
been indebted to the author seventy yeaI
before.-ForSter'S Life of Olirsr GOLC
smith.