too, they set up Mozart as something
unattainable in music; and thus Shakespeare in poetry. I know what you
can say against this thought; but I only mean natural character, the
great innate qualities. Thus, too, Napoleon is unattainable. That the
Russians were so moderate as not to go to Constantinople is indeed very
great; but we find a similar trait in Napoleon, for he had the
moderation not to go to Rome."

Much was associated with this copious theme; I thought to myself in
silence that the demons had intended something of the kind with Goethe,
inasmuch as he is a form too alluring not to be striven after, and too
great to be reached.

_Wednesday, December 16._--Today, after dinner, Goethe read me the
second scene of the second act of "Faust," where Mephistopheles visits
Wagner, who is on the point of making a human being by chemical means.
The work succeeds; the Homunculus appears in the phial, as a shining
being, and is at once active. He repels Wagner's questions upon
incomprehensible subjects; reasoning is not his business; he wishes to
act, and begins with our hero, Faust, who, in his paralyzed condition,
needs a higher aid. As a being to whom the present is perfectly clear
and transparent, the Homunculus sees into the soul of the sleeping
Faust, who, enraptured by a lovely dream, beholds Leda visited by swans,
while she is bathing in a pleasant spot. The Homunculus, by describing
this dream, brings a most charming picture before our eyes.
Mephistopheles sees nothing of it, and the Homunculus taunts him with
his northern nature.

"Generally," said Goethe, "you will perceive that Mephistopheles
appears to disadvantage beside the Homunculus, who is like him in
clearness of intellect, and so much superior to him in his tendency to
the beautiful and to a useful activity. He styles him cousin; for such
spiritual beings as this Homunculus, not yet saddened and limited by a
thorough assumption of humanity, were classed with the demons, and thus
there is a sort of relationship between the two."

"Certainly," said I, "Mephistopheles appears here in a subordinate
situation; yet I cannot help thinking that he has had a secret influence
on the production of the Homunculus. We have known him in this way
before; and, indeed, in the 'Helena' he always appears as a being
secretly working. Thus he again elevates himself with regard to the
whole, and in his lofty repose he can well afford to put up with a
little in particul