: VIEW INTO THE SAALE VALLEY NEAR JENA Drawing by GOETHE]

LETTERS TO WILHELM VON HUMBOLDT AND HIS WIFE

TRANSLATED BY LOUIS H. GRAY, PH.D. GOETHE TO KAROLINE VON HUMBOLDT

January 25, 1804.

How many an hour have I thought of you with genuine and lively interest;
and nearly every time I have marveled at the outrageous intention which
correspondents can express, that, when far apart, they will write to
each other once a month. Distance absolutely precludes interest in
trifles that are close to us; how can we tell each other our daily joys
and sorrows, when the voice which speaks must wait so long for the sound
of the answering voice; and then those unexpected chances happen which
in an instant destroy our careful plans so that, when we would continue,
we know not where we should begin.

This time, in remembrance of so much that has passed, and in
anticipation of so much that is to be, I intend to write you a long
letter that the stream may run once more.

Meanwhile you have suffered a bitter loss, of which I shall not speak. I
trust that all the agencies which nature has contrived for man to
alleviate such woes may have been and may in the future be at your
behest; for they alone can repair the evil they have wrought.

Fernow has come to us; he bears himself gallantly and well, though an
unfortunate fever has given him a deal of trouble. Since he is in
earnest about what he does, and is essentially of an honest disposition,
we are having a good, profitable, and pleasant time together.

Riemer is staying with my August, and I hope they will get along right
well together.

Schiller is continually advancing with great strides, as usual; his
_Tell_ is magnificently planned and, so far as I have seen it, executed
in masterly fashion.

I myself have been placed, by the swindling spirit which has come over
the gentlemen of Jena, and especially over the proprietors of the
_Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung_, under the lamentable necessity of again
laboring in person on behalf of this antiquated body of municipal
teachers, wherein I have lost nearly four months of my own time--not
precisely because I did much, but because, notwithstanding, everything
had to be done, and everything that must be done takes time; and thus
for the last three months I have been unable to present you with even a
single little poem.

Meanwhile life has brought us much of interest. Professor Wolf of Halle
spent two weeks with us; Johannes vo