uch, for the last hundred-and-fifty years.

But at present, such is the general state of knowledge about Goethe,
it were worse than useless to attempt speaking of him in this case.
Speak as I might, Goethe, to the great majority of you would remain
problematic, vague; no impression but a false one could be realised.
Him we must leave to future times. Johnson, Burns, Rousseau, three
great figures from a prior time, from a far inferior state of
circumstances, will suit us better here. Three men of the Eighteenth
Century; the conditions of their life far more resemble what those of
ours still are in England, than what Goethe's in Germany were. Alas,
these men did not conquer like him; they fought bravely, and fell.
They were not heroic bringers of the light, but heroic seekers of it.
They lived under galling conditions; struggling as under mountains of
impediment, and could not unfold themselves into clearness, or
victorious interpretation of that 'Divine Idea.' It is rather the
_Tombs_ of three Literary Heroes that I have to show you. There are
the monumental heaps, under which three spiritual giants lie buried.
Very mournful, but also great and full of interest for us. We will
linger by them for a while.

Complaint is often made, in these times, of what we call the
disorganised condition of society: how ill many arranged forces of
society fulfil their work; how many powerful forces are seen working
in a wasteful, chaotic, altogether unarranged manner. It is too just a
complaint, as we all know. But perhaps if we look at this of Books and
the Writers of Books, we shall find here, as it were, the summary of
all other disorganisation;--a sort of _heart_, from which, and to
which, all other confusion circulates in the world! Considering what
Book-writers do in the world, and what the world does with
Book-writers, I should say, It is the most anomalous thing the world
at present has to show.--We should get into a sea far beyond sounding,
did we attempt to give account of this: but we must glance at it for
the sake of our subject. The worst element in the life of these three
Literary Heroes was, that they found their business and position such
a chaos. On the beaten road there is tolerable travelling; but it is
sore work, and many have to perish, fashioning a path through the
impassable!

Our pious Fathers, feeling well what importance lay in the speaking of
man to men, founded churches, made endowments, regulations; everyw