us that she
gains it all so easily! Every want is a benefit, soon satisfied, soon
growing again. If she gives more, it is a new source of desire; but the
balance quickly rights itself.

She lets every child work at her, every fool judge of her, and thousands
pass her by and see nothing; and she has her joy in them all, and in
them all finds her account.

Man obeys her laws even in opposing them; he works with her even when he
wants to work against her.

Speech or language she has none; but she creates tongues and hearts
through which she feels and speaks.

Her crown is Love. Only through Love can we come near her. She puts
gulfs between all things, and all things strive to be interfused. She
isolates everything, that she may draw everything together. With a few
draughts from the cup of Love she repays for a life full of trouble.

She is all things. She rewards herself and punishes herself; and in
herself rejoices and is distressed. She is rough and gentle, loving and
terrible, powerless and almighty. In her everything is always present.
Past or Future she knows not. The present is her Eternity. She is kind.
I praise her with all her works. She is wise and still. No one can force
her to explain herself, or frighten her into a gift that she does not
give willingly. She is crafty, but for a good end; and it is best not to
notice her cunning.

She is whole, and yet never finished. As she works now, so can she work
forever.

She has placed me in this world; she will also lead me out of it. I
trust myself to her. She may do with me as she pleases. She will not
hate her work. I did not speak of her. No! what is true and what is
false, she has spoken it all. Everything is her fault, everything is her
merit.

ECKERMANN'S CONVERSATIONS WITH GOETHE[6]

(Extracts from the Author's Preface.) TRANSLATED BY JOHN OXENFORD

This collection of Conversations with Goethe took its rise chiefly from
an impulse, natural to my mind, to appropriate to myself by writing any
part of my experience which strikes me as valuable or remarkable.

Moreover, I felt constantly the need of instruction, not only when I
first met with that extraordinary man, but also after I had lived with
him for years; and I loved to seize on the import of his words, and to
note it down, that I might possess them for the rest of my life.

When I think how rich and full were the communications by which he made
me so happy for a period of nine years, and n