Page:The Works of J. W. von Goethe, Volume 12.djvu/276

258 again, that I must look out before me; and I have done so with regard to Egyptian matters. The more we look, the more distant becomes the horizon of art; and he who would step surely must step slowly.

I intend to stay here till the Carnival; and, in the first week of Lent, shall set off for Naples, taking Tischbein with me, both because it will be a treat to him, and because, in his society, all my enjoyments are more than doubled. I purpose to return hither before Easter, for the sake of the solemnities of Passion Week. But there Sicily lies—there below. A journey thither requires more preparation, and ought to be taken, too, in the autumn. It must not be merely a ride round it and across it, which is soon done, but from which we bring away with us, in return for our fatigue and money, nothing but a simple, I have seen it: the best way is to take up one's quarters, first of all, in Palermo, and afterward in Catania; and then, from those points, to make fixed and profitable excursions, having previously, however, well studied Riedesel and others on the locality.

If, then, I spend the summer in Rome, I shall set to work to study, and to prepare myself for visiting Sicily. As I cannot very well go there before November, and must stay there till over December, it will be the spring of 1788 before I can hope to get home again. Then, again, I have had before my mind a medius terminus. Giving up the idea of visiting Sicily, I have thought of spending a part of the summer at Rome, and then, after paying a second visit to Florence, getting home by the autumn.

But all these plans have been much perplexed by the news of the duke's misfortune. Since receiving the letters which informed me of this event I have had no rest, and would like most to set off at Easter, laden with the fragments of my conquests, and, passing quickly through Upper Italy, be in Weimar again by June.