Page:The Works of J. W. von Goethe, Volume 14.djvu/28

12 12 LIFE AND WORKS OF GOETHE

versy was repugnant to Goethe's nature : he said, " If Eaphael were to paint it, and Shakespeare dramatise it, I could scarcely find any pleasure in it," Jacobi certainly was not the writer to conquer such repug- nance. Goethe objected to his tone almost as much as to his opinions. " When self-esteem expresses itself in contempt of another, be he the meanest, it must be repellant. A flippant, frivolous man may ridicule others, may controvert them, scorn them ; but he who has any respect for himself seems to have renounced the right of thinking meanly of others. And what are we all that we can dare to raise ourselves to any height ? " He looks upon Jacobi's metaphysical tic as a compensation for all the goods the gods have given him — " house, riches, children, sister and friends, and a long etc. On the other hand, God has punished you with metaphysics like a thorn in your flesh ; me he has blessed with science, that I may be happy in the contemplation of his works." How characteristic is this : " When you say we can only believe in God (p. 101), I answer that I lay great stress on seeing (schauen), and when Spinoza, speaking of scientia intuitiva, says : Hoc cognoscendi genus procedit ah adequata idea essentice formalis quorundam Dei attri- hutorum ad adequatam cognitionem essentice rerum, these few words give me courage to dedicate my whole life to the observation of things which I can reach, and of whose essentice formalis I can hope to form an adequate idea, without in the least troubling myself how far I can go." He was at variance, and justly, with those who called Spinoza an atheist. He called him the most theistical of theists, and the most Chris- tian of Christians — theissirmim et christianissimum.

While feeling the separation of opinion between himself and Jacobi, he still felt the sympathy of old friendship. It was otherwise with Lavater. Their intimacy had been great ; no amount of difference had