Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1852-1859, 1859-09-29

Two BIOGRAPHIES nave just appe1Ieu3 which
We recommend to our readers, as books which
deserve tho rare praise of being suggestive.
One is Goethe in Reimar, little volume which
pretends to be no more than shat it is-a series
Of sketches of the great king of German litera-
ture during the calm years of his later life.
Nothing could be more charming than these
quiet, delicately painted pictures of the quaint
| little German city5of NEeimar, and the simple
home life of the masters of song and philosophy
4 whom the good Duke Karl August assembled
in his court. We lay down the book with the
have partaken of the peaceful yet homely hos:
pitality of the ducal, court have talked with
Wieland in hisivy hung study, rcverently knelt
| in the little church where Herder preached
sermons which all Europe echoed, entered the
theatre in the narrow street, for which the
greatest poet OF Germany wrote plays, where
Goethe himself was manager; read the inscrip-
ton upon the door Of the humble house which
| is now a sort of German Mecca, viz: "Here Schil-
Ter dwelt, and wrote his Song Of JOY" We
finish the description Of the little town and its
inhabitants with the feeling that we have been
among the giants who dwelt in the land, or like
the adventurous Knight in the old Morse Saga,
who entered the quiet house of the gods and saw
them in their home-life, saw the place where
the lightning and thunder was made which was
to tighten or to shock the world.
life of Goethe has long been desideratum
in literature. We saw, lately, asuggestion that
Carlyle should supply it. From that biography
may Providence deliver the land Carlyle,
though perhaps the most profound of English
thinkers, knows but one trait in any character
worthy of being noted.-Force of will. All
othe: characteristics are to him but trifling &C.
cessories. The possession, or the want of that,
makes or unmakes the man in his judgment.
He is blind to all else. a life written by him
of man with character of such infinite de-
velopements us Goethe's would be like n picture
of the rainbow in India ink To write true
life of such a man would require a grasp of
thought as wide and powerful as his own, for
he rises from among the crowd of the inspired
prophets of the world of Thought Saul
among his brethren, the god-giyen crown upon
his forehead. His works are study in them
selves; the study, we may say, of the history Of
humanity in its progress from youth of gro
ping, pain and unrest, to the clear full sunshine
Iof perfection. To write this history was
Gocthe's mission into the world, and to perform
it, he looked into his own nature and saw there
reflected, as in mirror, all human character
and powers: a peculiar nature unique among
men. An Imagination and creative power
which only Shakespeare can rival; logic
al capacity of Titan strength, capability of
love, and hate, and suffering, of an infinite
depth, and over all, 0he point that constitutes
the popularity of the man and his real strength,
certain critical speculative eye of reason, that
looked coolly down into the vast intricate
workings Of his own strength, into the pas
sionatc struggles of his heart, and calmly
noted them down, lesson for all time. In
this, lay the power of the man, when his dis
cipes denominate the "Only one"--thc micro.
cosm among men," Hence, rs we before sad
his works, are, with all their magnificent dis.
play of power, their unestimated variety of sub.
!ject and diction, series of pictures by mas
ter's hand of the history of the common mind
of humanity. They remind US of RaphaeIs
cartoons, where the same face appears in innu-
merable changes of landscape and costumes
We can trace his progress from that dim cry of
suffering uttered in his youth, the embodiment
" GU S'AS Iue vague pas
sionate desires of happiness and love of
young heart to the last grand work of his
calm, full old age, when eternal sunshine had
settled on his head" In that last work, wills
helm Meister, he has solved the enigma of life,
has learned the one lesson taught by its drcami>
est nights of pain and by its days of flashing
sunshine, to work for the Right in profound
calmness of spirit "like star, without haste,
and without rest, each one fulfilling his God.
given tack" zone thing there isl he says,
(which alone can make a man, man-Rcver.
ence; and that the gaining of that three fold rev.
erence is the history of our lives First rev.
erence for what is above US natural to children
and to nations in their earliest stagcs-thc Pa.
gan religion; reverence for what is around Us,
the free frank nature of the man, which draws
proudly to himself, all things above and below,
the Philosophers religion; and last and highest,
the reverence for what is under u.s. to recognize
in poverty and suffering pain and death, tho
divine-and honor then,-thc Christian rei.
gion." In this brief comprehensive resume of