Moral Tendency of Goethe's Writings [pp. 180-188]

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MORAL TENDENCY OF GOETHE'S WRITINGS.*
BY THOMAS B. HOLCOMBE.
worship God, to be patriotic and/devoted to your country, to be chas te and
temperate in your habits, to regard the
institution of marriage as the cement of
civil society and the school of the affections, were ideas not inculcated by Goethe.
Their absence was the more remarkable,
as his English worshippers, with Carlyle
at their head, proclaimed that "he was
by Heaven's pre-appointment in very
deed, the Redeemer of his time," "that
he was the Writer and Reconciler of the
clashing elements, of the most distracted
age since the introduction of the Christian religion." A glorious character, but
is it a true one?
The English public are under many
obligations to Mr. Lewes. His work is
a valuable contribution to the literature
the age; and, though he is not free from
the laudatory and partisan spirit which
so often distinguishes biographers, yet he
exhibits more candor in telling hometruths of his hero than could have been
expected from an admirer so zealous.
The reasons for his admiration he expresses in rational and intelligible language, presenting a very striking contrast to the misty jargon used by Carlyle
in several essays on the great poet. A
reader, anxious to understand Goethe's
position in the republic of letters, got
little satisfaction from being told that he
had discovered the "Open Secret" of the
Universe, or that he was the author of a
new Revelation to man. Mr. Lewes' explanations are more comprehensible.
We are altogether incompetent to sit
in judgment on the Colossus of Germany,
and shall confine ourselves to a few suggestions on the moral bearing of some of
his miost celebrated works.
We found in our limited reading Oof
them much exquisite poetry, musical as
Apollo's lute, much deep insight into the
human heart and character, large experience and observation of men and nature, and a genius which coulld mould at
will into bright reality thougfhts and feelings w hich, in other less gifted minds,
were but dim forms of uncireumscribed
shade. But the theology and morality,
isinsinu ated rather than taught, sewsed,
to our old-fashioned notions, of a very
dubious description. The general i?,npression left by his writings (and what so
strong in its effect as the spirit of an author, the subtle essence which constitutes
his inner vitality?) was unfavorable to
religion and virtue, as these words were
understood by Milton or Burke, Addison
or Johnson. To believe the Bible and
We have been w arne d th at "the voices
for Goethe, compared with those against
~himl, are in the proportion of one hundred to one, both in number and value."
Notwithstanding this formidable disparity, we wish to edge in a word in favor of
the Christian religion and well established English principles of morality and
taste, which some of his works have a tendency to underm-,ine.
Our charges -against him are two: 1. The poison of pantheistic infidelity
is diffused through his works, dissolved
in a menstruum of intoxicating poetry
and attractive fiction.
2. tIls views of life are material and
sensuous. Professing to study Humanity
as an artist, he excludes from the realms
of Art tile highest attributes, Conscience,
.Raeligion, Immortality. lie leaves indeed
the natural affections, intellectual culture
and the sense of she beautiful; but presents a narrow and stinted idea of the
-nature and destiny of man.
The education le received, the age in
-which he lived, the society which surrounded him and his own natural proclivities all concurred in rendering his
writings liable to these objections. A
TEx LIFE AND WOR:S or GoErI HE: [Tit7 Sk/etches of his Age a?,zd Conzemporaries. By
G. H. LEWES. In two Volumes. Beslon: Ticknor and Fields.
180