Page:The Journal of English and Germanic Philology Volume 18.djvu/280

 274 Goebel It is, however, in the realm of art and literature and especially of poetry, the real homeland of the symbol, where the full significance of Goethe's symbolism comes to view. To him art and science, poetry and philosophy were not separate domains, but he believed in their ultimate union of which he himself was one of the foremost representatives. Speaking of the disfavor with which his early morphological studies were received, he says: 8 "Nirgends wollte man zugeben, dass Wis- senschaft und Poesie vereinbar seien. Man vergass, dass Wissenschaft sich aus Poesie entwickelt habe; man bedachte nicht, dass nach einem Umschwung von Zeiten beide sich wieder freundlich, zu beiderseitigem Vorteil, auf hoherer Stelle gar wol wieder begegnen konnen." There is no question that the "higher place" where both activities of the human mind would meet as on common ground was, according to Goethe's opinion, truth. To dive as a scientist into th,e secrets of nature concealed in the visible phenomena, was to him identical with the maturest efforts of the artist and poet: "so ruht der Stil auf den tiefsten Grundfesten der Erkenntniss, auf dem Wesen der Dinge, insofern uns erlaubt ist, es in sichtbaren und grei- flichen Gestalten zu erkennen. " 9 In both activities the poet makes use of the symbol as the means of presenting the insight gained into the essence of things. Or, in Schiller's words: "Selbst die erhabenste 'Philosophic des Lebens' wiirde ein solcher (Volks) Dichter in die einfachen Gefuhle der Natur auflosen, die Resultate des muhsamsten Forschens der Ein- bildungskraft iiberliefern und die Geheimnisse des Denkers in leicht zu entziffernder Bildersprache dem Kindersinn zu erraten geben." 10 Both Goethe and Schiller seem to be aware that symbolism, the synthesis of the subjective and the objective, the spiritual and the material in the poetic image, constitutes in the last analysis the rudimentary vital element of all poetry, as it lies at the root also of speech, mythology and metaphysics. Goethe's conception of the nature and function of the aesthetic symbol finds its best expression in one of his Spruche in Prosa: 11 Geschichte meines botanischen Studiums. Werke, XXXIII, 80. (H). Werke XXIV, 527 (H). 10 Ueber Burgers Gedichtc. No. 743 (H).