Goethe's Literary Essays. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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СКАЧАТЬ art, appoint the understanding, which takes cognizance of the characteristic, as the judge.

      Guest. — To be sure I do. What I cannot seize with my understanding does not exist for me.

      I. — Yet man is not only a being of thought, but also of feeling. He is a whole; a union of various, closely connected powers; and to this whole of man the work of art is to address itself. It must speak to this rich unity, this simple variety in him.

      Guest. — Don't carry me with you into these labyrinths, for who could ever help us out again?

      I. — It will then be best for us to give up the dispute and each retain his position.

      Guest. — I shall at least hold fast to mine.

      I. — Perhaps a means may still be found whereby, if one does not take the other's position, he can at least observe him in it.

      Guest. — Propose it then.

      I. — We will for a moment contemplate art in its origin.

      Guest. — Good.

      I. — Let us accompany the work of art on its road to perfection.

      Guest. — But only by the way of experience, if you expect me to follow. I will have nothing to do with the steep paths of speculation.

      I. — You allow me to begin at the beginning.?

      Guest. — With all my heart.

      I. — A man feels an inclination for some object; let us suppose a single living being.

      Guest. — As, for instance, this pretty lap-dog.

      Julia. — Come, Bello! It is no small honor to serve as example in such a discussion.

      I. — Truly, the dog is pretty enough, and if the man we are speaking of had the gift of imitation, he would try in some way to make a likeness of it. But let him prosper never so well in his imitation, we are still not advanced, for we have at best only two Bellos instead of one.

      Guest. — I will not interrupt, but wait and see what is to become of this.

      I. — Suppose that this man, to whom for the sake of his talent we will give the name of Artist, has by no means satisfied himself as yet; that his desire seems to him too narrow, too limited; that he busies himself about more individuals, varieties, kinds, species, in such wise that at last not the creature itself, but the Idea of the creature stands before him, and he is able to express this by means of his art.

      Guest. — Bravo! That is just my man, and his work must be characteristic.

      I. — No doubt.

      Guest. — And there I would stop and go no farther.

      I. — But we go beyond this.

      Guest. — I stop here.

      Uncle. — I will go along for the sake of experiment.

      I. — By this operation we may arrive at a canon useful indeed, and scientifically valuable, but not satisfactory to the soul of man.

      Guest. — How then are you going to satisfy the fantastic demands of this dear soul?

      I. — Not fantastic; it is only not satisfied in its just claims. An old tradition informs us that the Elohim once took counsel together, saying, let us make man after our own image; and man says therefore, with good cause, let us make gods and they shall be in our image.

      Guest. — We are getting into a dark region.

      I. — There is only one light that can aid us here.

      Guest. — And that is?

      I. — Reason.

      Guest. — How far it be a guide or a will-o'-wisp is hard to say.

      I. — We need not give it a name; but let us ask ourselves what are the demands the soul makes of a work of art. It is not enough that it fulfils a limited desire, that it satisfies our curiosity, or gives order and stability to our knowledge; that which is Higher in us must be awakened; we must be inspired with reverence, and feel ourselves worthy of reverence.

      Guest. — I begin to be at a loss to comprehend you.

      Uncle. — But I think I am able to follow in some measure; — how far, I shall try to make clear by an example. We will suppose our artist had made an eagle in bronze which perfectly expressed the idea of the species, but now he would place him on the scepter of Jupiter. Do you think it would be perfectly suitable there?

      Guest. — It would depend.

      Uncle. — I say, No! The artist must first impart to him something beyond all this.

      Guest.— What then?

      Uncle. — It is hard to express.

      Guest. — So I should think.

      I. — And yet something may be done by approximation.

      Guest. — To it then.

      I. — He must give to the eagle what he gave to Jupiter, in order to make him into a God.

      Guest. — And this is —

      I. — The Godlike, — which in truth we should never become acquainted with, did not man feel and himself reproduce it.

      Guest. — I continue to hold my ground, and let you ascend into the clouds. I see that you mean to indicate the high style of the Greeks, which I prize only so far as it is characteristic.

      I. — It is something more to us, however; it answers to a high demand, but still not the highest.

      Guest. — You seem to be very hard to satisfy.

      I. — It beseems him to demand much for whom much is in store. Let me be brief. The human soul is in an exalted position when it reverences, when it adores; when it elevates an object and is elevated by it again. But it cannot remain long in this state. The general concept of genus leaves it cold; the Ideal raises it above itself; but now it must return again into itself; and it would gladly enjoy once more that affection which it then felt for the Individual, without coming back to the same limited view, and will not forego the significant, the spirit-moving. What would become of it now, if Beauty did not step in and happily solve the riddle? She first gives life and warmth to the Scientific, and breathing her softening influence and heavenly charm over even the Significant and the High, brings it back to us again. A beautiful work of art has gone through the entire circle; it becomes again an Individual that we can embrace with affection, that we can make our own.

      Guest. — Have you done? СКАЧАТЬ