The translation of Goethe's "Prose Maxims" now offered to the public is the first attempt that has yet been made to present the greater part of these incomparable sayings in English. In the complete collection they are over a thousand in number, and not more perhaps than a hundred and fifty have already found their way into our language, whether as contributions to magazines here and in America, or in volumes of miscellaneous extract from... more...

ACT THE FIRST. SCENE I. A Grove before the Temple of Diana. IPHIGENIA. Beneath your leafy gloom, ye waving boughsOf this old, shady, consecrated grove,As in the goddess' silent sanctuary,With the same shudd'ring feeling forth I step,As when I trod it first, nor ever hereDoth my unquiet spirit feel at home.Long as the mighty will, to which I bow,Hath kept me here conceal'd, still, as at first,I feel myself a stranger. For the seaDoth sever me,... more...

I Here's where I've planted my garden and here I shall care for love's blossoms—As I am taught by my muse, carefully sort them in plots:Fertile branches, whose product is golden fruit of my lifetime,Set here in happier years, tended with pleasure today.You, stand here at my side, good Priapus—albeit from thieves I'veNothing to fear. Freely pluck, whosoever would eat.—Hypocrites, those are the ones! If weakened with shame and... more...

ACT I SCENE I.—Soldiers and Citizens (with cross-bows) Jetter (steps forward, and bends his cross-bow). Soest, Buyck, Ruysum Soest. Come, shoot away, and have done with it! You won't beat me! Three black rings, you never made such a shot in all your life. And so I'm master for this year. Jetter. Master and king to boot; who envies you? You'll have to pay double reckoning; 'tis only fair you should pay for your dexterity. Buyck. Jetter,... more...

It would appear that for inquirers into Foreign Literature, for all men anxious to see and understand the European world as it lies around them, a great problem is presented in this Goethe; a singular, highly significant phenomenon, and now also means more or less complete for ascertaining its significance. A man of wonderful, nay, unexampled reputation and intellectual influence among forty millions of reflective, serious and cultivated men,... more...