d
likely that some at least were worthy of being preserved, if only to
illustrate Goethe's theories. I therefore sought the best advice; and
here again I have to tender my thanks for assistance second to none in
skill and authority,--that of Sir Frederick Leighton, kindly given under
circumstances which much increase my obligation. For it is my duty to
say that Sir Frederick Leighton had no desire, but rather reluctance, to
make a selection from maxims on Art which he was often not prepared to
endorse, or to regard as in any way commensurate with Goethe's genius;
and nevertheless he did me the honour to point out a few which I might
insert, as being of interest partly for their own sake, partly also for
the name of their author.

The maxims on Science and Art are, however, when taken together, hardly
a fifth of this volume. The others I have selected on the simple and I
hope blameless principle of omitting only what is clearly unimportant,
antiquated, of past or passing interest, of purely personal reference,
or of a nature too abstruse to stand without notes of explanation, which
I should be sorry to place at the foot of any of these pages. I have
also omitted eleven maxims drawn from Hippocrates _On Diet_; fifteen
containing an appreciation of Sterne, together with some twenty more
which Goethe himself translated from a curious work wrongly attributed
to that writer. It will be convenient if I state that I have thus
omitted some hundred and twenty out of the six hundred and fifty-five
which make up the section styled in the original _Ethisches_, which I
translate by _Life and Character_, the section which also contains the
maxims on _Literature_, now collected and placed in a separate section
with those on _Art_. Sir Frederick Leighton chose thirty-five out of a
hundred and eighteen on Art, and Professor Huxley seventy-six out of two
hundred and eighty on Science.

II

Having thus acknowledged but in no way discharged a triple debt of
gratitude, it will be next in order if I briefly state the history of
the work which now appears in an English dress, before attempting to
speak of its nature and value.

The publication of the maxims belongs to the later, that is to say, the
last thirty, years of Goethe's life; and the greater number of them
appeared only in the last ten, while some are posthumous.

It is impossible to say with certainty at what period he began the
observations which were afterwards to com