erfect work. Give
separately the single parts to which you are equal, and you make sure of
something good.

"I especially warn you against great inventions of your own; for then
you would try to give a view of things, and for that purpose youth is
seldom ripe. Further, character and views detach themselves as sides
from the poet's mind, and deprive him of the fulness requisite for
future productions. And, finally, how much time is lost in invention,
internal arrangement, and combination, for which nobody thanks us, even
supposing our work is happily accomplished.

"With a _given_ material, on the other hand, all goes easier and better.
Facts and characters being provided, the poet has only the task of
animating the whole. He preserves his own fulness, for he needs to part
with but little of himself, and there is much less loss of time and
power, since he has only the trouble of execution. Indeed, I would
advise the choice of subjects which have been worked before. How many
Iphigenias have been written! yet they are all different, for each
writer considers and arranges the subject differently; namely, after his
own fashion.

"But, for the present, you had better lay aside all great undertakings.
You have striven long enough; it is time that you should enter into the
cheerful period of life, and for the attainment of this, the working out
of small subjects is the best expedient."

_Sunday, October_ 19.--Today, I dined for the first time with Goethe. No
one was present except Frau von Goethe, Fraeulein Ulrica, and little
Walter, and thus we were all very comfortable. Goethe appeared now
solely as father of a family, helping to all the dishes, carving the
roast fowls with great dexterity, and not forgetting between whiles to
fill the glasses. We had much lively chat about the theatre, young
English people, and other topics of the day; Fraeulein Ulrica was
especially lively and entertaining. Goethe was generally silent, coming
out only now and then with some pertinent remark. From time to time he
glanced at the newspaper, now and then reading us some passages,
especially about the progress of the Greeks.

They then talked about the necessity of my learning English, and Goethe
earnestly advised me to do so, particularly on account of Lord Byron;
saying, that a character of such eminence had never existed before, and
probably would never come again. They discussed the merits of the
different teachers here, but found none