Page:The Works of J. W. von Goethe, Volume 12.djvu/147

Rh else around, the thought occurs, that it is just the same with everything else; for we receive but little thanks from men, when we would elevate their inner aspirations, give them a great idea of themselves, and make them feel the grandeur of a really noble existence. But when one cajoles them, tells them tales, and, helping them on from day to day, makes them worse, then one is just the man they like; and hence it is that modern times take delight in so many absurdities. I do not say this to lower my friends: I only say that they are so, and that people must not be astonished to find everything just as it is.

How the Basilica of Palladio looks by the side of an old castellated kind of a building, dotted all over with windows of different sizes (whose removal, tower and all, the artist evidently contemplated), it is impossible to describe: and besides, I must now, by a strange effort, compress my own feelings; for I, too, alas! find here side by side both what I seek and what I flee from.

. 20.

Yesterday we had the opera, which lasted till midnight; and I was glad to get some rest. The "Three Sultanesses" and the "Rape of the Seraglio" have afforded several tatters, out of which the piece has been patched up, with very little skill. The music is agreeable to the ear, but is probably by an amateur; for not a single thought struck me as being new. The ballets, on the other hand, were charming. The principal pair of dancers executed an Allemande to perfection.

The theatre is new, pleasant, beautiful, modestly magnificent, uniform throughout, just as it ought to be in a provincial town. Every box has hangings of the same colour; and the one belonging to the Capitan Grande is only distinguished from the rest by the fact that the hangings are somewhat longer.