find alike sufficing centre around which their orbit is
drawn.

Observe, however, that we have here no piece of system-making. Goethe
does not attempt a final scientific theory of existence. He _pictures_
life from this point of view. If you can feel the verity in this
picture, you may then feel the same verity in that picture which Another
has painted, namely, in life itself.

Observe, once more, that even here life is depicted only from _one_ of
its two poles, and that, perhaps, the lesser. The theme is Growth, and
this growth is considered as proceeding from definite elements contained
in man's being, and proceeding to definite results still contained in
his being. "Faust" assumes the opposite pole. Its theme is Destiny. It
regards man's life as sweeping down upon him from heights above his
thought, and proceeding to ends beyond his imagination. His existence
appears as fashioned in essence and end by predestinating power, and the
Eternal "takes the responsibility."

The artist must choose his point of view. It is impossible to paint the
house at once from the inside and from the outside. "Faust" is properly
an epic poem; "Wilhelm Meister" is a prose epic,--and prose, not from
lack of metre, but precisely from its point of view. It treats life, not
as proceeding from the bosom and moving to the ends of benign Destiny,
but as contained in thought, will, character, aspiration, love, and as
contingent, rather than eternally predestined, in its result. Much of
religious grandeur, therefore,--to the great disgust of Novalis,--it
loses; much of economic value it gains. A prose picture: yet even here
we read through all else to man, and through all else in man himself to
the upbuilding of his spirit. As Goethe reads life, let us see if we can
read his book.

We assume, then, his point of view. Growth,--our eyes are given us that
we may see this as the end, all else as material and means. Prices and
kingdoms may rise or fall; we are not indifferent; but the immortal
architectures of man's spirit are priceless, and here the sceptres are
indeed held by divine right.

What, now,--every one will hasten to question,--what are the chief
forces that induce or regulate growth? What is their typical order in
appearance and combination? What is the complete result? To these
questions _Wilhelm Meister_ is Goethe's answer.

The first place in the list of producing forces is given by him to
Imagination. He makes Wilhelm describe,