The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-05-10
GOLDEN AGES OF LITERATURE.
XX.-GOETHE AND THE GOLDEN
AGE OF GERMAN LITERATURE.
(Concluded.)
BY ARTHUR H. PALMER, NJ a.


pioneers in the new land of German liz
erature and Rfull sympathy with these
critical surv syors and guides two men
Of surprising genius. more purely Do-
etc, Goethe and Schiller, now entered
to complete the development and by
making Germany united in the things
Of the spirit to lay the necessary foun-
dalton of that united political Germany
which was not fully realized until af-
ter 1871. These two men during the
last ten years of SchilleT's life 0494-
IS05) we've bound together in a friend
ship Of most remarkable intimacy and
beauty. These years are pre-eminently
the period Of the beginning in German
literature of the little city OF Weimar,
the Athens Of Germany. which, indeed,
for about half a century prior to his
own death in 1892 Goethe made the lit
erary capital of Europe. In the union
of these two men are focused all the
previous thought ard literature of Ger
many, and from it Tadate all the in
fiuences that have determined the
| later literature.
DIFFERING for a little our apprecia-
ton of Schiller and his works. let us
briefly review the life works and char
acter of Goethe. This life is simple
in it's external aspects. but in its inner
content GOethe's greatest work of art,
and so rich as to make any summary
treatment utterly inadequate. Very
opposite is the poet Hebbels distich
on this life:
Point it is only at first, that gently
opens as circle.
Which, swift growing, extends finally
over the world"
Johann Wolfgang Goethe was born
in 1l49 at Frenkfort-on Main, and died
in 1892 at Weimar After a DrecOciOus
| boyhoOd in his native city he studied
+ at the universities of LEIPZIG and
! StraSSbuFg, and lived again mostly in
/ Frankfurt until ne began TO reside in
/ Weimar, in November, 1915. From 1856
/ to 17SS Goethe was in Italy. Thereaf-
/ ter his residence in Weimar was I'M
| interrupted save by travel. Early and
| long he had 3 large share in the ad-
/ miniStr3tiOn Of The duchy of Weimar
The starting point of our apprecia-
| ton in outline of GOethe's life and
works we may find in these few mod
I est words which he once uttered to a
/ friend: After all there are honest
/ people up and down the world who
have got light from my books and
whoever reads them and gives himself
/ the trouble to understand me will &C
knowledge that he has acquired thence
a certain inward freedom" How inn
( portant these plain words are Is shown
by the comment Of enc of the first crit
les Of France, who says: Il should
! like to inscribe these words upon the
/ pedestal of GOethe's statue No juster
praise could be found for him, and in
very truth there cannot possibly be for
any man a praise higher or more en-
Viable."
With this Frenchman stands the
noted critic Matthew Arnold. whose
| mature judgment is; TT is by no
/ means as the greatest of poets that
| Goethe deserves the pride and praise
of his cOuntrymen. It is as the clear
est, the largest. the moss helpful think
/ er Of modern times. Goethe is the
greatest poet of modern times, not be
cause he is one OF the half-dozen hu-
man beings who IL the history Of oar
race have shown the most signal gift
for poetry, but because, having a very
considerable gift for poetry, he was at
the same time, in the width, depsh and
richness of his criticism of life, by far
our greatest modern man."
Goethe'S rank as poet or literary
artist in the narrower sense depends
UPON FIVE or six larger works, unlike
one another yet all masterpieces, and
Z upon his lyrics, so rich in number and
( variety These larger works are "Wer-
Their" that unnoVel-like novel, which
gained to literature the heart-life of
modern man; the refined and dignified
pOetiCal dramas 'Iphigenia" and "Tas-
so" whose style possesses uEaqualed
grace and purity, and whose content
abOunds in wisdom; the epic poem in
hexameter, Hermann and DOrothea. -
portraying German middle-class life
H. cal
and charm; the novel of culture, ''Wil-
helm Meister, "a rich manifold life
brought close to our eyes, v hich has
entered into the training of Europe, "
and Faust" that marvellous, unique
work, surely the greatest in ali litera-
ture since Shakespeare, presenting az
il does, with fullest depth, Dower and
beauty. all that GOethe's rare nature
and experience could teach as TO the
spiritual meaning and end of life.
on Goethe's lyrics who shall chaI-
lenge the judgment in which Heine and
Tennyson agree? The former thought
them the best in the world, while
Teunyson is said to have placed
Goethe foremost among the moderns as
a lyric poet and TO have added when
one Of his hearers demUrred and men
toned great lyrics by other writer's:
Yes. but Goethe is consummate in 81
many different styles"
Outside the narrow domain of pure
poetry we must place Goethe among
the foremost scientific investiga tors of
his age, and in the front rank of critics
Of literature and art. He has the
qualities of the best essayists.
Indeed what perhaps above all else
makes him fruitful and precious to SO
many is that he is ever a sage and a
philosopher. teaching and eXemplIfying
the criticism and the conduct Of life,
bodying forth a practical philosophy.
the very essence and spirit of which
arH beautifully epitomized in those Oft
quoted lines from I'm Mezloriam. in
which Tennyspn himself later declared
that he alluded to Goethe alone:
81 hold il truth with him who sings
To one clear harp in divers tones.
That men may rise on stepping stones
OF their dead selves to higher things.