THE CONGRESS OF WOMEN.

195

a butterfly flutter above every flower of pleasure which grew in the garden of his experience. Providentially there came to Weimar at this period the noble, gifted Herder, who became Goethe’s friend, and gave to the young poet a better knowledge of his wonderful possibilities.

Herder’s influence upon Goethe was manifold, but mainly in the direction of poetry. He taught him that the Bible best illustrates the truth that “ poetry is the product of a national spirit and not the privilege of a cultivated few.” From Hebrew poetry they turned to the study of Homer and Ossian. The latter poet, then making the tour of Europe, so aroused the enthusiasm of Goethe that he made a transla­tion of “Selma,” and introduced into his own sentimental novel “ The Sorrows of Werther.”

There is a great diversity of opinion concerning Goethe’s philosophical romance, “Wilhelm Meister.” The author says: “ I cannot give the key to its solution.” Its leading idea is renunciation; the power to sacrifice the temporary for the permanent.

While studying law at Strasburg, Goethe became interested also in theology, but he was more particularly interested in alchemy and the study of mysticism. It was then that he conceived the idea of writing his dramatic poem of “ Faust,” which he did not complete, however, until sixty years after. It embodies the varied experiences and the ripe scholarship of a lifetime. This drama reveals the triumph of Repent­ance over sin for not only is the soul of Marguerite redeemed, but that of her lover also.

In another dramatic poem, “Iphigenia of Taurus” the powers of evil are disarmed by the truth, fidelity and purity of Iphegenia of Taurus. One must make an exhaust­ive study of Goethe’s writings to form any adequate idea of the manysidedness of his genius.

His mind was like a prism, owing to its great powers of refraction. Eckermann, who knew the poet well, says that “ Goethe was most valuable in balancing the judg­ment and in suggesting thought. He cared more for the perfecting of the few than the improvement of the many. He believed more in man, than men; in thought, than action; in effort, than success; in Nature, than Providence. Goethe has been called “ The Prince of German Poets,” a title which he well deserves if we consider only his wonderful ability to assimilate all knowledge in the service of poetry. He is an excellent dramatist and a fine lyric poet, and the best writer of the German lan­guage, which he greatly improved by his own felicitous style and method of expres­sion. As a critic of art and literature he is fearlessly independent, although it may not be true that he taught Pantheism by his deification of Nature. In him the intel­lectual dominated the spiritual. He has said, however: “ I doubt not the immortality of the soul, for Nature cannot dispense with our continual activity, and she is pledged to give me a better form of being when the present no longer sustains my spirit.” He solved the enigma of life after his own fashion, independent of creed or dogma.

Perhaps, when the world has grown older, a remoter historical standpoint may afford the coming critic a better post of observation and a riper judgment of the great man, who Bayard Taylor said was “ Universal in the range of his intellectual capacities and in his culture.” A marked contrast exists between Goethe and Schiller.

The younger poet belongs not to Germany alone, the literature of the world claims him. The influence of his genius is too great to be restricted to one country. Unlike Goethe he was not a favorite of fortune. His boyhood and youth were full of trials. Wishing to become a minister, he began the study of Latin with the village pastor. The lad’s aptitude attracted the attention of Duke Carl Eugene, and he deter­mined upon a military career for Schiller. The slavery of a life in a military acad­emy was soon exchanged for service in the garrison as an army surgeon. The duties of his position were so irksome to him that the burden became insupportable, and he fled from his country, and for a time became a homeless wanderer. In spite of pov­erty, ill health and debts, which pursued him like cruel arrows sped from the bow of adverse fate, he managed somehow to complete his education. We find him in his