Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1854-07-22

Of manhood while they conceal the intrinsic worthless
Of their avore characters by every means Of gilt
terng and gaudy show that the deuded reader never
looks upon them as despicabe FOOLS which they really
are but considers them exceedingly interesting nay
even as sainted personages. We know it is Wolfgang
Mcneil who makes this criticism and he always dissects
Goethe with meataxe instead Of scapel; but he has
not erhot the mark in any Of his animadversions on
Goethes wisby-washy sentimenality.
For instance in the Elective Afnites" the central
figures whom Goethe has depicted his chosen ideals
are Edward and otte the Captain and Charlotte
not much more than the make-weghts of the story The
plot Of the tale is simple and might might not be
inferred from its title is intended to illustrate the force
of sentimental attractions by the anaoges of chemistry
and shows how prettily and compulsivey Edward COM
bnes with his wifes niece Ottlie, and how his wife
Charlotte being thus dsengaged from her base husband
forms, by elective affinity, new compound with the
Captain while divorced Count and Baroness illustrate
the same principle of sentimental chemistry in the side
scenes Of the narrative and minor scale. senti-
mental husband who forswears his marriage is the
hero and sentimental damsel who keeps diary and
accepts the addresses of married is the heroine OF
this tale. And yet oil the moral obiquty and es
sental depravity of such denominations is spread an
atmosphere Of paradsean innocence and purity though
the Crcean genius Of the writer sought to conceal the
And it is Of book that Goethe pleased to say
in mockery we think Of his credulous admir-
ers that is homage to the sancty Of the copjuga
tie =; and such it doubtless is much Tom Paines
cage Of Reason is homage" to Christianity; or to
diversity the illustration truly the ethics Of bus-
tersm homage" to the sanctity Of international
law If to represent subordnaton duty and obedience
to moral obligation inconsistent with the full and
healthy development Of mans being is homage" to
- y : - 4 y
Mobilization Of the senses must confess obuse-
is great that cannot discern morality alb
struse and reconcile.
But Werther-what shall be said Of the Young Wer-
ther" Surely the book which is represented to have
MILL book which all Europe dotted on and which
Napoleon it is said carried with him in his campaigns
book which created swarm Of limitations '.thick as
leaves in Valsmbrosa," land worthless too j
book for which, as Dr. Doering says Goethe amost
defe directly after its appearance such book doubt
less must be admitted to be every way admirable And
this wonderful work issued from Goethes teemng brain
with fuency equally wonderful, having been according
to his statement the offspring Of only four weeks
labor and that too without his having any especial plan
before his mind without his having elaborated any Of
its special parts statement which, with estima
ton Of the romance, find every way credible. Our
Leasing, critic quite competent and willing to do full
Justice to his subject but do not think he goes half far
enough in his fidcule and reprobaon of such senmen
al trash and ribald nonsense The Sorrows of Wer-
her. to about natural and admirable in prose
string Of Portuguese Saudddes in verse, and if we
Knew of any thing unnatural and nauseang than
hese we would put it in their place.
great deal has been written about the origin Of this
celebrated fiction. Fortunately not left wholly in
he dark by the writer himself the Of its
piration. Goethe, it seems had been rejecting
What after the manner Of Hamlet the propriety i'm
,ropriety Of committing suicide While in this state of
thought into which he had been precpiatea by the
fortunate issue Of his datory courtshp of Miss
Charlotte Buff who. finding Goethe little disposed to
pass from the play Of tho true lover the dSnoueen Of
the faithful husband had engaged herself another and
matterofact sutton, he heard of friend-it
/" Young jerusalem we'll to all readers of the
Truth and Poetry" he Of the blue frock buff waist
coat buff breaches, and brown-top boots-who, having
fallen into similar predcament by the bad management
of his affairs de cur had resolutely and magnani-
mously shued off his mortal coil rather than any longer
bear the arde Of despised love- The similarity Of his
disappointment with that Of the junior member of the
Jerusalem family very naturally suggested to Goethe the
proprety of seeking similar relief from his nconsoabe
sorrows but whether it that his courage failed him,
though he tells he long kepta rich and highly po
ished dagger close to his bedside onghts for the
summation of his desperate resolution, whether
because, he confesses, he had by this time become
deeply enamored Of Madame La Roches eldest daughter
ho had just been married. certain it is that Goethe did
not initiate the romantic heroism and fidelity of Young
jerusalem" He did worse thing he wrote the Sor-
rows of Werther."
Such the genesis Of this great production, work
which the author tells begoten " in that glow Of
passion which makes no distinction between truth and
fiction " that is please to understand him. Goethe
means that he sought portray in Young
Werther all that truth with regard to his friend
Jerusalem, just faithfully as if it had not been all
fiction, far he really concerned. At any rate
it have been great relief to him to unbosom his
to the world He wept for the press and wiped
his eyes with the public Curran said of Byron. He
did not commit suicide himself but put up it many
German swain Of weaker head but stronger than
himself by showing, in the of Werther, how good
and brave thing it was to blow out ones brains with
powder and ball when crossed in love. The number Of
such suicides is rather triumphanty than otherwise
quoted by Goehes admirers proof Of the Juror with
which the book was received and par CONSEQUENT Of its
writer's wonderful genius and ability.
The sentimental whining Of the weakling hero Of this
story to Of that prurent and eeminate type
which might beseem forlorn DON JUAN who had by
accident bahed in the tabled fountain Of Samacs and
who had quaed it's obscene waters Ovid calls them
until every spark of manlness had been quenched in his
SOUL We are 10th to belief that Goethe, like
Byron his own ideal in the portraiture Of his