Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-01-01
NEW PUBLICATIONS.

THE LIFE AND TINES OF GOETHE. By Herman
Grimm. Translated by Sarah holland Adams.
! Boston: Little, Brown CO. vol; musli !;
| large Svo pp., $50
This is a very welcome volume. Grimm
writes as a disciple would of e master, but
his essays embraced in this bool, are none the
less critical for being ardent He describes
an intellectual era and names il Goethe-as
he puts it. From Goethe's advent in Wei.
mar, ninety-nine years AGO, "the century
moved on, stamped with the name of
Goethe" He looks upon the lofty genius as
| having worked in the intellectual life of
Germany as some great physical phenomenon
might work in the realm of nature AS coal
! formations tell of times of tropic warmth
and explored caverns speak Of ice periods, SO
! Goethe's life tells Of a peculiar period in tie
intellectual atmosphere of Germany, which
| Grimm says he affected much like some
teluric event, which raised the average eli
mate warmth a certain number of degrees.
He says: " Gosthe has created our language
aud literature. Before him both of them were
valueless in the world market of the European
nations. Such statements must be received
as referring not to the exceptions but to the
avarage product. When Goethe began
to write the German language was as limited
in its general influence as the German ma
tional interest in our politics The nation
existed had silent consciousness Gifts worth,
and presentiment of It's future course hut
that was all. Any influence beyond cur
own borders seemed to US impossible. The
| English, French and Italian critics noticed
German literary productions only SO far as
our authors tby way of addition to foreign
literature) allowed their works to appear as
part of the same. Attempts had often
been made before Goethe so far to perfect the
| German language that expression might be
found in it for the finer shades of thought :;
but beyond n personal circle these efforts
were unsuccessful. Goethe's prose has
become by degrees, in all departments of in
telectual life, the standard form of express
sion. Through Schelling it has penetrated
into philosophy =; through Savigny into juris-
prudence through Alexander Won Humboldt
into natural science, and through Wilhelm
Won Humboldt into philology. We are even
indebted to Goethe for our present style of
letter writing. Innumerable expressions
which we now use without questioning their
source, because they seem to stand so ma
turally at our command, would without
Goethe have been sealed TO US. Out of this
unity of the language arose among us the true
fellowship Ill higher intellectual en-
joymert to which we are solely
indebted for our political unity"
He claims that no poet or thinker since the
time of Luther has worked in so many differ
ent directions at once, and permeated with
his influence four successive generations as
Goethe has done, and that while the writings
of Voltaire more instantaneously, deeply and
widely penetrated among the people during
his life, he was not so INCREASINGLY be-
lieved in, and did not stand upon the same
moral hight with Goethe-the former de-
stroyed, the latter built up. Grimm admits
that almost too much appears TO have been
said about Goethe, and refers to the libraries
of publications concerning him. but, he adds,
these labcrs dedicated to him are but the
faint beginnings Of a work which must stretch
on to b0uudless future. His name, he holds,
Gesigna les not person alone, but the circum-
ference of whole domain. While the time
would appear to approach in which the Ger
man people, after having gone too far, says
our author, in their alteration Of Gosthe, and
will incline, in some degree, to withdraw their
homage but this is only an appearance.
: Some have tried to represent him as a dis
carded aristocrat, but to-day, more than
ever, it is important that atten-
|
another standpoint must be accepted
This changed standpoint, he holds, is
the natural result of the different position
occupied in Germany to-day towards all his
torical inquiry 1--WE possess present far
exceeding our expectations It's benefits are
no longer something to be struggled after or
hoped for. but to be held fast, developed and
utilized. With the light of this freshly dawn
ing day, the times which lie behind us take
. u 81,
the weapons which might avail rs in obtain
ing freedom, but we seek after those which,
the struggle for liberty being successfully
ended, viii strengthen US in the position won,
and render permanent the possession of the
blessings gained" These extracts and COM
ments must suffice to indicate the current Of
Grimm's volume, and will give the inquirer a
glimpse of the keynote of the work.
ENDYNIoS By the Earl OF Beaconsield New York ::
d. Appleton Co. VOL $40, muslin, PIP. Az.
Disraeli (Lord Beaconsfeld) has, under the
title of Endymion, given to the world new
romance. It is in all respects a political ro-
nance. Purposely it is made a strange mix
awry, its personages figure in an era when
they did not have that political Importance
they afterward attained Il is quite certain
that one of the chief characters is Beacons-
field himself, and he is introduced, as youth,
in the political sgitations which Immediately
preceded and accompanied the call Of the
Iron Duke to the Premiership. The charac-
tiers are wrapped in disguises SO skinfully de-
signed, that while the purpose is apparent
and the real person discernible, yet
no man can point directly to any
ore of them and say that ore. is I, or
that other one is such a person, without
at the same tine admitting that be cannot
command the proof to sustain that of which
be may be morally certain. So evident is it
that characters of very recent history are
thus introduced that "Endymion " has be-
come the subject of critical analysis By shrewd
political writers and journalists. To give one
Of the keys of Identification is to quote from
Mr.. Jennings London correspondent of the
New York Ford. He finds in Endymion
er rars Lord Beaconsfeld himself, while