t to last he was
in search of adequate literary forms and of worthy subjects; and, as
he himself admits, he not unfrequently went astray in the quest. On
his own word, therefore, we may take it that under other conditions he
might have produced more perfect works than he has actually given us.
Yet the world has had its compensations from those hampering
conditions under which his creative powers were exercised. In the very
attempt to grope his way to the most expressive forms of artistic
presentation all the resources of his mind found their fullest play.
It is in the variety of his literary product, unparalleled in the case
of any other poet, that lies its inexhaustible interest; between _Goetz
von Berlichingen_ and the Second Part of _Faust_ what a range of
themes and forms does he present for his readers' appreciation! And to
the anarchy of taste and judgment that prevailed when Goethe began his
literary career we in great measure owe another product of his
manifold activities. He has been denied a place in the very first rank
of poets, but by the best judges he is regarded as the greatest master
of literary and artistic criticism. But, had he found fixed and
acknowledged standards in German national literature and art, there
would have been less occasion for his searching scrutiny of the
principles which determine all art and literature. As it was, he was
led from the first to direct his thoughts to the consideration of
these principles; and the result is a body of reflections, marking
every stage of his own development, on life, literature, and art,
which, in the opinion of critics like Edmond Scherer and Matthew
Arnold, gave him his highest claim to the consideration of posterity.

As human lot goes, Goethe was fortunate in his home and his home
relations, though in the case of both there were disadvantages which
left their mark on him throughout his later life. He was born in the
middle-class, the position which, according to Schiller, is most
favourable for viewing mankind as a whole, and, therefore,
advantageous for a poet who, like Goethe, was open to universal
impressions. Though his maternal grandfather was chief magistrate of
Frankfort, and his father was an Imperial Councillor, the family did
not belong to the _elite_ of the city; Goethe, brilliant youth of
genius though he was, was not regarded as an eligible match for the
daughter of a Frankfort banker. It was the father who was the
dominating figure in