nterest. I love it best in the Latin translation; there it seems to me
nobler, and as if it had returned to its original form."

_Wilhelm Meister_ was often a subject of discourse. "Schiller blamed me
for interweaving tragic elements which do not belong to the novel. Yet
he was wrong, as we all know. In his letters to me, there are most
important views and opinions with respect to _Wilhelm Meister_. But this
work is one of the most incalculable productions; I myself can scarcely
be said to have the key to it. People seek a central point, and that is
hard, and not even right. I should think a rich, manifold life, brought
close to our eyes, would be enough in itself, without any express
tendency, which, after all, is only for the intellect. But if anything
of the sort is insisted upon, it will perhaps be found in the words
which Frederic, at the end, addresses to the hero, when he says--'Thou
seem'st to me like Saul, the son of Kish, who went out to seek his
father's asses, and found a kingdom.' Keep only to this; for, in fact,
the whole work seems to say nothing more than that man, despite all his
follies and errors, being led by a higher hand, reaches some happy goal
at last."

We then talked of the high degree of culture which, during the last
fifty years, had become general among the middle classes of Germany, and
Goethe ascribed the merit of this not so much to Lessing as to Herder
and Wieland. "Lessing," said he, "was of the very highest understanding,
and only one equally great could truly learn of him. To a half faculty
he was dangerous." He mentioned a journalist who had formed himself on
Lessing, and at the end of the last century had played a part indeed,
but far from a noble one, because he was so inferior to his great
predecessor.

"All Upper Germany," said he, "is indebted to Wieland for its style. It
has learned much from him; and the capability of expressing itself
correctly is not the least."

On mentioning the _Xenien_,[15] he especially praised those of
Schiller, which he called sharp and biting, while he called his own
innocent and trivial.

"The _Thierkreis_ (Zodiac), which is by Schiller," said he, "I always
read with admiration. The good effects which the _Xenien_ had upon the
German literature of their time are beyond calculation." Many persons
against whom the _Xenien_ were directed, were mentioned on this
occasion, but their names have escaped my memory.

After we had read and talked over