ars."

"Your feeling of the position is very correct," said Goethe; "indeed, I
have doubted whether I ought not to put some verses into the mouth of
Mephistopheles as he goes to Wagner, and the Homunculus is still in a
state of formation, so that his cooperation may be expressed and
rendered plain to the reader.

"It would do no harm," said I. "Yet this is intimated by the words with
which Mephistopheles closes the scene--

Am Ende hangen wir doch ab
Von Creaturen die wir machten.

We are dependent after all,
On creatures that we make."

"True," said Goethe, "that would be almost enough for the attentive; but
I will think about some additional verses."

"But," said I, "those concluding words are very great, and will not
easily be penetrated to their full extent."

"I think," said Goethe, "I have given them a bone to pick. A father who
has six sons is a lost man, let him do what he may. Kings and
ministers, too, who have raised many persons to high places, may have
something to think about from their own experience."

Faust's dream about Leda again came into my head, and I regarded this as
a most important feature in the composition.

"It is wonderful to me," said I, "how the several parts of such a work
bear upon, perfect, and sustain one another! By this dream of Leda,
_Helena_ gains its proper foundation. There we have a constant allusion
to swans and the child of a swan; but here we have the act itself, and
when we come afterwards to Helena, with the sensible impression of such
a situation, how much more clear and perfect does all appear!"

Goethe said I was right, and was pleased that I remarked this.

"Thus you will see," said he, "that in these earlier acts the chords of
the classic and romantic are constantly struck, so that, as on a rising
ground, where both forms of poetry are brought out, and in some sort
balance each other, we may ascend to 'Helena.'

"The French," continued Goethe, "now begin to think justly of these
matters. Both classic and romantic, say they, are equally good. The only
point is to use these forms with judgment, and to be capable of
excellence. You can be absurd in both, and then one is as worthless as
the other. This, I think, is rational enough, and may content us for a
while."

* * * * *

1830.

_Sunday, March 14._--This evening at Goethe's. He showed me all the
treasures, now put in order, from the chest which he had received f