d long exerted my whole soul to
favor the world with a new work, it still desired that I should thank it
into the bargain for considering the work endurable. If any one praised
me, I was not allowed, in self-congratulation, to receive it as a
well-merited tribute; but people expected from me some modest
expression, humbly setting forth the total unworthiness of my person and
my work. However, my nature opposed this; and I should have been a
miserable hypocrite, if I had so tried to lie and dissemble. Since I was
strong enough to show myself in my whole truth, just as I felt, I was
deemed proud, and am considered so to the present day.

"In religious, scientific, and political matters, I generally brought
trouble upon myself, because I was no hypocrite, and had the courage to
express what I felt.

"I believed in God and in Nature, and in the triumphs of good over evil;
but this was not enough for pious souls; I was also required to believe
other points, which were opposed to the feeling of my soul for truth;
besides, I did not see that these would be of the slightest service to
me.

"It was also prejudicial to me that I discovered Newton's theory of
light and color to be an error, and that I had the courage to contradict
the universal creed. I discovered light in its purity and truth, and I
considered it my duty to fight for it. The opposite party, however, did
their utmost to darken the light; for they maintained that _shade is a
part of light_. It sounds absurd when I express it; but so it is: for
they said that _colors_, which are shadow and the result of shade, _are
light itself_, or, which amounts to the same thing, _are the beams of
light, broken now in one way, now in another_."

Goethe was silent, whilst an ironical smile spread over his expressive
countenance. He continued--

"And now for political matters. What trouble I have taken, and what I
have suffered, on that account, I cannot tell you. Do you know my
'Aufgeregten?'"[11]

"Yesterday, for the first time," returned I, "I read the piece, in
consequence of the new edition of your works; and I regret from my heart
that it remains unfinished. But, even as it is, every right-thinking
person must coincide with your sentiments."

"I wrote it at the time of the French Revolution," continued Goethe,
"and it may be regarded, in some measure, as my political confession of
faith at that time. I have taken the countess as a type of the nobility;
and, with the