tened with closed eyes; the
Professorin was sitting near him, while Eric, holding Roland by the
hand, was upon the piazza.

At the conclusion of the Overture, Clodwig informed them that he had
been so fortunate as to know Goethe personally, and related a variety
of pleasing anecdotes.

The Mother expressed her regret at never having heard the voice of the
exalted genius, nor looked him in the eye, although she was old enough,
at the time he died, to know what he was, even if she could not fully
comprehend him. She recounted the fact of a man's coming to her
father's house, as they were sitting down to dinner, and informing them
that news of Goethe's death had just been brought. An elderly lady was
so affected by it, that she could not sit down with them to dinner.

In the qualified view he then expressed, she had gained an acquaintance
for the first time with her husband's mind; for while he held Goethe in
the highest veneration, he had asserted that the Master had made poetic
art too effeminate, in placing woman too directly as the central point
of living interests, and giving the impression to men, that poesy and
an acquaintance with it, were the province of woman, just as so many
Free-thinkers, as they were styled, regarded religion as belonging
peculiarly to her.

Clodwig opposed this view of Goethe; he dwelt with special emphasis
upon the difficulty experienced in our modern life, which does not
admit of the worship of genius, as it is termed; for this worship could
be possible only where a pure manifestation of God, a theophany, was
granted. When limitations were placed to this, worship was no longer
possible.

It was scarcely noticed that Bella, Claudine and Herr Sonnenkamp had
left the saloon, for Bella had requested Herr Sonnenkamp that he would
give her some advice about the new arrangements of her conservatory.

And thus Clodwig and the Mother were now left alone in the saloon,
while Eric and Roland were sitting in silence upon the piazza, and
listening to Clodwig as he added, that the future would no longer,
perhaps, have any formal cultus, when there was the true consecration
of the spirit in actual life.

Eric and Roland listened with bated breath, as Clodwig and the Mother
acknowledged to each other the influence which the Master had exerted
upon the development of their life and the training of their minds.
They thoroughly discussed that work too little known, "Goethe's
Conversations with Eckerm