Page:The Works of J. W. von Goethe, Volume 14.djvu/35

19 LIFE AND WORKS OF GOETHE 19

not for poetical enthusiasm, we must open the "Ita- lianische Eeise." There is no eloquence in the hook ; no, not even when, at Venice, he first stands in pres- ence of the sea. Think of the feelings which the first sight of the sea must call up in the mind of a poet, and then marvel at this reserve. But if the " Italianische Eeise " does not flash out in eloquence, it is everywhere warm with the intense happiness of the writer. In Venice, for example, his enjoyment seems to have been great, as every hour the place ceased to be a name and became a 'picture. The canals, lagoons, narrow streets, splendid architec- ture, and animated crowds, were inexhaustible de- lights. From Venice he passed rapidly through Ferrara, Bologna, Florence, Arezzo, Perugia, Foligno, and Spoleto, reaching Eome on the 28th October.

In Eome, where he stayed four months, enjoyment and education went hand in hand. " AU the dreams of my youth I now see living before me. Everywhere I go I find an old familiar face ; everything is just what I thought it, and yet everything is new. It is the same with ideas. I have gained no new idea, but the old ones have become so definite, living, and con- nected one with another, that they may pass as new." The riches of Eome are at first bewildering; a long residence is necessary for each object to make its due impression. Goethe lived there among some German artists : Angehca Kauf mann, for whom he had great regard, Tischbein, Moritz, and others. They respected his incognito as well as they could, although the fact of his being in Eome could not long be entirely con- cealed. He gained, however, the main object of his incognito, and avoided being honised. He had not come to Italy to have his vanity tickled by the appro- bation of society ; he came for self-culture, and reso- lutely pursued his purpose.

Living amid such glories of the past, treading each