valued so highly, awaited his appearance, to be heaped upon him. And in
this sense we may count him happy, that from the summit of human
existence he ascended to the blessed, that a momentary shock, a sudden,
quick pain removed him from the living. The infirmities of old age, the
diminution of mental power, he did not experience; the dispersal of the
treasures of art, which he had foretold, although in another sense, did
not occur before his eyes. He lived as a man and departed hence as a
complete man. Now he enjoys in the memory of posterity the advantage of
appearing only as one eternally vigorous and powerful; for in the image
in which a man leaves the earth he wanders among the shadows, and so
Achilles remains for us an ever-striving youth. That Winckelmann
departed so early, works also to our advantage. From his grave the
breath of his power strengthens us, and awakens in us the intense desire
always to continue with zeal and love the work that he has begun.

[Illustration: GOETHE AND HIS SECRETARY J. J. Schmeller ]

MAXIMS AND REFLECTIONS OF GOETHE[5]

TRANSLATED BY BAILEY SAUNDERS

There is nothing worth thinking but it has been thought before; we must
only try to think it again.

How can a man come to know himself? Never by thinking, but by doing. Try
to do your duty, and you will know at once what you are worth. But what
is your duty? The claims of the day.

The longer I live, the more it grieves me to see man, who occupies his
supreme place for the very purpose of imposing his will upon nature, and
freeing himself and his from an outrageous necessity--to see him taken
up with some false notion, and doing just the opposite of what he wants
to do; and then, because the whole bent of his mind is spoilt, bungling
miserably over everything.

In the works of mankind, as in those of nature, it is really the motive
which is chiefly worth attention.

In Botany there is a species of plants called Incompletae; and just in
the same way it can be said there are men who are incomplete and
imperfect. They are those whose desires and struggles are out of
proportion to their actions and achievements.

It is a great error to take oneself for more than one is, or for less
than one is worth.

From time to time I meet with a youth in whom I can wish for no
alteration or improvement, only I am sorry to see how often his nature
makes him quite ready to swim with the stream of the time; and it is on
this that I