Page:The Works of J. W. von Goethe, Volume 1.djvu/24

xiv to a high degree, and to an advanced old age, a calm serenity and imperturbability, a gracious consciousness of his dignity as a man, and a noble humility and freedom from conceit. This is shown in his autobiography, in his letters, and in the reports of those that knew him. He was not free from faults, but, taken all in all, he was as admirable a type of a man as Germany or any other country ever produced. His works have the universal quality that commends them to readers of every nationality. Even when transferred to another language with consequent loss,—as must be the case with the lyric productions especially,—they still preserve the characteristic beauty of thought and flavour of originality which still hold them as the classics of Germany. Even though the sentimentality of "Werther" and the "Elective Affinities" is of a flavour that does not appeal to our day, we recognise it as an interesting phenomenon of an epoch past, and under it we see the genuine heart of humanity beating. In "Prometheus," in "Faust," in "Egmont," in "Tasso," in "Iphigenia," no qualifications are needed. They are built on the eternal rocks, and endowed with all the eternal elements of beauty. This is true of a large part of Goethe's literary remains. We should be much poorer were "Dichtung und Wahrheit" stricken out of existence. It is a unique autobiography; the life history of a poet tinged with the sunny gleams of a tempered imagination. The lyric poems also are wonderful gems of brilliancy, perfect in form and full of undying grace.

Thus it is that there is no danger of Goethe's ever losing his position of supremacy as one of the greatest writers of the world, and each new edition of his works translated into English presents some new phase of his wonderful activity, since from the almost inexhaustible stores of the original the selecting hand has only to take some work hitherto unknown.