great enough to believe them.

"Till lately, I was always pleased with a great fact in the thirteenth
century, when the Emperor Frederic the Second was at variance with the
Pope, and the north of Germany was open to all sorts of hostile attacks.
Asiatic hordes had actually penetrated as far as Silesia, when the Duke
of Liegnitz terrified them by one great defeat. They then turned to
Moravia, but were here defeated by Count Sternberg. These valiant men
had on this account been living in my heart as the great saviors of the
German nation. But now comes historical criticism, and says that these
heroes sacrificed themselves quite uselessly, as the Asiatic army was
already recalled, and would have returned of its own accord. Thus is a
great national fact crippled and destroyed, which seems to me most
abominable."

After these remarks on historical critics, Goethe spoke of another class
of seekers and literary men.

"I could never," said he, "have known so well how paltry men are, and
how little they care for really high aims, if I had not tested them by
my scientific researches. Thus I saw that most men care for science only
so far as they get a living by it, and that they worship even error when
it affords them a subsistence.

"In _belles lettres_ it is no better. There, too, high aims and genuine
love for the true and sound, and for their diffusion, are very rare
phenomena. One man cherishes and tolerates another, because he is by him
cherished and tolerated in return. True greatness is hateful to them;
they would fain drive it from the world, so that only such as they might
be of importance in it. Such are the masses; and the prominent
individuals are not better.

"---- 's great talents and world-embracing learning might have done much
for his country. But his want of character has deprived the world of
such great results, and himself of the esteem of the country.

"We want a man like Lessing. For how was he great, except in
character--in firmness? There are many men as clever and as cultivated,
but where is such character?

"Many are full of _esprit_ and knowledge, but they are also full of
vanity; and that they may shine as wits before the short-sighted
multitude, they have no shame or delicacy--nothing is sacred to them.

"Madame de Genlis was therefore perfectly right when she declaimed
against the freedoms and profanities of Voltaire. Clever as they all may
be, the world has derived no profit from them; the