The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1911-04-25

Wilhelm Mcister'' is reckOned one
.r The masterpieces of Goethe. He
wrote it in the period when his genius
va. brightest. the period which gave
90 the world Faust and ..Hernlann
and Dorothea." But to many the sig
n 6cancc of 'Wilhelm Meister'' will
aInayS remain uncOmprehended, its
beauties unseen. The book is full Of
HAT half-mystic intrOspectiOn so COM
mon To the German of intellect
another race to entirely comprehend.
Carlyle could. perhaps, fully Ompr
Glend wilhelm Meister." But Carlyle
Wa more or less of q ''freak'' among
his own people. At any a the dys-
DeDtic historian and eSSay:St pretended
to reyel in this work of Goethe and
made a careful translation of 1t.
Wilhelm Meister was on his travels.
He was young and badly stage-struck.
He was at hat 6 when every calloW
youth considers falling in love to be a
made a speciality of falling in love
with actresses-Which complicated
matters. His inclination for the stage
had had it's beginning in a puppet
show which his father, a staid, re-
spectacle merchant, had bought him
when Wilhelm vas a boy. He grew
up to his majority with the firm be-
lief tina he was q great genius in
the actor, author, poet line. and nat
urally despised trade, into which call
ing his father sought to Introduce him.
The father thought the boy a young
ass and Wilhelm's fr end. Werner,
whose father was a of the
iirrn of Meister & Werner, in vain
sought to induce him to do as he did
and seek his life work in the carrying
on OF the great mercantile house
which the two We're ultimately to in
heTit.
OF course Wilhelm had an affair
" th an actress as soon as the OPP
~portunity presented itself. She was
called Mariana, and really liked the
boy. AS for Wilhelm, he considered
The actress as the embodiment Of all
shat the poetic imagination of his
head and heart had seen III his youth
ful visions-oh. she was perfect be-
yond compare! It was a pretty, il
immoral, while it lasted. But
one day Wilhelm's gorgeous palace OF
pleasure fell into heaps of sOrdid ruins
about him. He learned that Mariana
had d "protector' OF great wealth..
during whose absence from town alone
the boy had been allowed to visit
his beloved. He was quite ready now
10 set out upon that bill-collecting
tour through Germany upon which
his father had so ong urged him to
proceed. think ms that experience OF
the world would regulate the xagaries
Of youth. So Wilhelm Meister was
On his travels.
His lost love Of Mariana gave In
recollection just that tinge of delicious
and romantic melancholy which was
needed to complete the poetic egotisnl
Of young Meister. What man of deli
cate sens bility does not know Of what
| speak? What man is there Of us
who does not. now and then. recall
his puppy love- with a smile. to be
GlIrG h,f with n emilia u-hson lraC In
II something Of sadness, while through
his heart vibrates a chord of not
unpleasant melancholy sounding from
The days that are no more? And
how we did enjoy the delicious sor-
row Of the thing for a few years af-
Ter We had q scovered that lit was
not at all what the lady meant"
Such was the condition Of Wilhelm
helster when. having really collected
some bills in one town, he was
~Journeyins to another and, getting
down into the level country from the
travelling, he looked u into a fertile
and beautiful plain intersected by
4 moving river to see a cheerful little
!"Wn lying upon it's banks all glitter
.hS in the sunshine Wilhelm had no
BUSINESS III that town and he knew it.
but 1T caught his fancy and fkncy
Vas his presiding deity just then.
80 he did what everybody does when
,hey resolve to do something they
hhoW they ought not to do. and
pfought before himself most excellent
[easons Why he should tarry a while
~ the place his inclination pointed
"Qt. On ~aliShting in the market place
% the town he found everything most
NdFrlng and joyous. A of
,ope dancers. jugglers and leapers
had arrived and. with their wives and
rhldfen. were preparing to give q per-
- nance on a stage the carpenters
We're erecting in the square.
lie bought a bouquet of flowers
tIom a Hover girl who was plying her
'I1de IN the market place and. as he
."lhed around from doing so, he saw
" "lhaoW IN an inn on the opposite
side of the SQUARE open ana ont Of II
t[ooheo a handsome young lady. Her
'@ce was animated by a pleasant
,he~effuiness; her fair hair fell care
iSSSly streaming about her neck: she