Page:The Journal of English and Germanic Philology Volume 18.djvu/278

 272 Goebel REMINISCENCES OF PLATO IN GOETHE'S FAUST I Among the enigmatic portions of the Second Part of Goethe's Faust few passages have given the interpreters greater troubles than the introductory soliloquy of Faust. These troubles have manifested themselves not so much in a variety of explanatory theories as in a certain vagueness concerning the real significance and meaning of the scene. To be sure some of the recent interpreters of the soliloquy speak of its wistful symbolism but they fail to explain unequivocally what the poet wished to convey by it and, what is of equal importance, how he came to employ this mode of representation. For it is from the poet's innermost bent of mind as revealed in the character and purpose of his artistic expressions that the interpretation must start. A mere glance at Goethe's utterances, both poetic and scientific, during the second half of his life will disclose the eminent position which symbolism occupied in his thought, symbolism not only as a means of artistic representation but also as a key to the understanding of the secret of the world. In one of his scientific papers of the year 1823 1 he confesses: " Nach meiner Art zu f orschen, zu wissen und zu geniessen darf ich mich nur an Symbole halten, " adopting as a motto for his own scientific attempts Thomas Campanella's significant words: "Natura infinita est, sed qui symbola animadverterit omnia intelliget licet non omnino. " 2 In view of the importance which Goethe thus attaches to the symbol it is highly instructive to hear his explanation of the process of symbolization whose nature and function he tried to fathom by unceasing observation and reflection. "Das ist die wahre Symbolik," he tells us, "wo das Besondere das Allge- meine reprasentirt, nicht als Traum und Schatten, sondern als augenblickliche Offenbarung des Unerf orschlichen. " 3 How the 1 Die Lepaden, Goethe's Werke XXXIII, 289 (Hempel). 8 Spruche in Prosa No. 273 (H).
 * Werke, XXXIV, 93 (H).