If the opinion of his contemporaries become the judgment of posterity,
the name of Goethe is destined to occupy, in future ages, that
pre-eminent station in the literary history of Germany which is now
undisputedly held in their respective nations, by Shakspeare, Dante, and
Cervantes. Until this judgment be pronounced by the final tribunal, we
may characterize him as the happiest of great poets. He attained a
length of years granted to few; and his long life was spent in
successful literary labour, not imposed by necessity, but prompted by
the suggestions of his own genius and love of art. Nature had endowed
him with the much-prized gifts of bodily strength and personal beauty.
He indulged freely in the pleasures of society; associated with his
superiors in station as their equal; lived in ease and affluence; and,
finally, in exception to the general rule, enjoyed, during his life,
“The estate that wits inherit after death.”
The founders of the new theory of poetics in Germany, the Schlegels,
have characterized his genius as universal. Its productions, including
posthumous writings, will occupy fifty-five volumes of works of
imagination and science, and cannot be even named by us individually. A
few of these works, which have occasioned volumes of criticism, we shall
be constrained to designate in brief sentences, and we shall as briefly
advert to the main incidents of the author’s life.
[Illustration:
_Engraved by J. Posselwhite._