tain advantage over the professional people,
because I was superior to them in intention."

We talked of Zelter.

"I have a letter from him," said Goethe, "in which he complains that the
performance of the oratorio of the Messiah was spoiled for him by one of
his female scholars, who sang an aria too weakly and sentimentally.
Weakness is a characteristic of our age. My hypothesis is, that it is a
consequence of the efforts made in Germany to get rid of the French.
Painters, natural philosophers, sculptors, musicians, poets, with but
few exceptions, all are weak, and the general mass is no better."

"Yet I do not give up the hope," said I, "of seeing suitable music
composed for _Faust_."

"Quite impossible!" said Goethe. "The awful and repulsive passages
which must occasionally occur, are not in the style of the time. The
music should be like that of Don Juan. Mozart should have composed for
_Faust_. Meyerbeer would, perhaps, be capable; but he would not touch
anything of the kind;[21] he is too much engaged with the Italian
theatres."

Afterwards--I do not recollect in connection to what--Goethe made the
following important remark:

"All that is great and skilful exists with the minority. There have been
ministers who have had both king and people against them, and have
carried out their great plans alone. It is not to be imagined that
reason can ever be popular. Passions and feelings may become popular;
but reason always remains the sole property of a few eminent
individuals."

_Sunday, December_ 6.--Today, after dinner, Goethe read me the first
scene of the second act of _Faust_.[22] The effect was great, and gave
me a high satisfaction. We are once more transported into Faust's study,
where Mephistopheles finds all just as he had left it. He takes from the
hook Faust's old study-gown, and a thousand moths and insects flutter
out from it. By the directions of Mephistopheles as to where these are
to settle down, the locality is brought very clearly before our eyes. He
puts on the gown, while Faust lies behind a curtain in a state of
paralysis, intending to play the doctor's part once more. He pulls the
bell, which gives such an awful tone among the old solitary convent
halls, that the doors spring open and the walls tremble. The servant
rushes in, and finds in Faust's seat Mephistopheles, whom he does not
recognize, but for whom he has respect. In answer to inquiries he gives
news of Wagner, who has now become