The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1907-06-23
vi.

Promising that even the most fertile
mind experiences years Of drought, the
b~iographer comedies that the writings In
which Goethe deals with the French Revo-
luton are for the most part the product
of such a relatively barren season. For
the most part he merely followed the events
Of the time with ~admonitions to the German
nation, expressed now in plain, outspoken
language. now in symbols. Even In the
play entitled The Natural Daughter he
failed to embody the true spirit Of the times.
Where In that drama, asks the biographer,
do we find any evidences Of the far reaching
violent conflict which overthrow the old
regime' Where do we hear anything Of
the awful, deep seated diseases from which
the French body polite bad long suhered9
What is there in the play TO recall the an
tagonisn between king and people, between
the privileged and the oppressed GLASSES,
between wealth and poverty, between stu
pid eo~clesiasticism and atheistic material
ism, between the overeducation Of the few
and the stolid ignorance Of the many?
Where in The Natural Daughter do we
see the frivolity and the prodigality Of the
Court Of Versailles, the venality of officials,
the financial distress Of the State, the sys-
tenn Of extortionate taxation, the disregard
Of the Constitution, the burdens Of 1.-THE
and soccage, the rulnous mortmain, the
severity Of serfdom, the devastations oom-
mitted by aristocratio lovers Of the chase,
and hundreds Of other Heaven crying
grievances which caused the Revolution TO
break out as a natural inevitable reactioni
Where in Goethe's drama are any traces
Of the fermentation which was soon to
result in violence? Where are the a~gitators
Of the type Of Mirabeau and Sleyes? Where
the clever salons in which the radical and
nihilistic slogans were invented? In short,
where IN there ever a CLEAN OF the mighty
intellectual upheaval which France ex-
perienced before the Revolutionf To be
sure, some drdndtis persona talks To- and
then about a violent fermentation" but
we see nothing of 1t. We see rather the
opposite. How a revolution can come
out Of such a milieu as Goethe exhibits in
this play lie an enigma, The Natural
Daughter Is, in a word, q failure. IL con-
sidered as the introduction TO q great poem
mirroring the Revolution.
Goethe's admirers must indeed face the
truth that every attempt which he made TO
embody in artistic form the most important
historical event Of. his lifetime. and in
deed OF modern times, miscarried. He
gave expression TO his own conviction OF the
truthfulness OF this statement in 1877:
when ] look back over the many years l
see clearly how my attraction to this In
comprehensive subject consumed my poetic
power for 30 long a time and almost TO nc
purpose He never did arrive at a clear
understanding OF the causes Of his failure.
He asoribed II nov to this. now to that
accidental circumstance. The chief cause
really lay In the fact that he was antagonis-
tic toward the Revolution. An attempt
has been made 20 explain this a~ntagonism
as a result Of his conservative aristocratlsm.
This. however, the biographer pronounces
a superficial and one sided Interpretation.
To the doctrines embodied In the French
Revolution he was opposed by conviction.
A q practical statesman he had learned 70
recognize that Pc!it!et structures capable
Of enduring flourish and develop only upon