a celebrated man, and is hoping for
the return of his master. He is, we hear, at this moment deeply occupied
in his laboratory, seeking to produce a Homunculus. The servant retires,
and the bachelor enters--the same whom we knew some years before as a
shy young student, when Mephistopheles (in Faust's gown) made game of
him. He is now become a man, and is so full of conceit that even
Mephistopheles can do nothing with him, but moves his chair further and
further, and at last addresses the pit.

Goethe read the scene quite to the end. I was pleased with his youthful
productive strength, and with the closeness of the whole. "As the
conception," said Goethe, "is so old--for I have had it in my mind for
fifty years--the materials have accumulated to such a degree, that the
difficult operation is to separate and reject. The invention of the
whole second part is really as old as I say; but it may be an advantage
that I have not written it down till now, when my knowledge of the world
is so much clearer. I am like one who in his youth has a great deal of
small silver and copper money, which in the course of his life he
constantly changes for the better, so that at last the property of his
youth stands before him in pieces of pure gold."

We spoke about the character of the Bachelor. "Is he not meant," said I,
"to represent a certain class of ideal philosophers?"

"No," said Goethe, "the arrogance which is peculiar to youth, and of
which we had such striking examples after our war for freedom, is
personified in him. Indeed, every one believes in his youth that the
world really began with him, and that all merely exists for his sake.

"Thus, in the East, there was actually a man who every morning collected
his people about him, and would not go to work till he had commanded the
sun to rise. But he was wise enough not to speak his command till the
sun of its own accord was really on the point of appearing."

Goethe remained a while absorbed in silent thought; then he began as
follows: "When one is old one thinks of worldly matters otherwise than
when one is young. Thus I cannot but think that the demons, to teaze and
make sport with men, have placed among them single figures, which are so
alluring that every one strives after them, and so great that nobody
reaches them. Thus they set up Raffael, with whom thought and act were
equally perfect; some distinguished followers have approached him, but
none have equalled him. Thus,