translation of Sophocles has just arrived. It reads well, and
seems to be excellent; I will compare it with Solgar. Now, what
say you to Carlyle?' I told him what I had been reading upon
Fonque. 'Is not that very good?' said Goethe. 'Aye, there are
clever people over the sea, who know us and can appreciate
us?... We are weakest in the aesthetic department, and may wait
long before we meet such a man as Carlyle. It is pleasant to
see that intercourse is now so close between the French,
English, and Germans, that we shall be able to correct one
another. This is the greatest use of a world-literature, which
will show itself more and more. Carlyle has written a life of
Schiller, and judged him as it would be difficult for a German
to judge him. On the other hand, we are clear about Shakspeare
and Byron, and can, perhaps, appreciate their merits better
than the English themselves."

Carlyle is frequently referred to, and always thus. The clear-sighted,
great old man, already perceives how much his fame will owe to such an
apostle and preacher of his faith--for he sees also what Carlyle himself
will become. The mention of Lockhart is also very interesting.

"I asked about Lockhart, and whether he still recollected him.
'Perfectly well!' returned Goethe. 'His personal appearance
makes so decided an impression that one cannot easily forget
him. From all I hear from Englishmen, and from my
daughter-in-law, he must be a young man from whom great things
in literature are to be expected. I almost wonder that Walter
Scott does not say a word about Carlyle, who has so decided a
German tendency that he must certainly be known to him. It is
admirable in Carlyle that, in his judgment of our German
authors, he has especially in view the mental and moral core
as that which is really influential. Carlyle is a moral force
of great importance. There is in him much for the future, and
we cannot foresee what he will produce and effect.'"

Again:

"'It is pleasant to see,' said Goethe, 'how the earlier
pedantry of the Scotch has changed into earnestness and
profundity. When I recollect how the 'Edinburgh Reviewers'
treated my works not many years since, and when I now consider
Carlyle's merits with respect to German literature, I am
astonished at the important step for the