He speaks as an unconcerned spectator,
whose object is faithfully to describe what he sees, and that,
for the most part, in the order in which he sees it.
Even his
reflections do not interfere with his descriptions. In one place
he speaks of himself as giving so glowing and truthful a
description of an old tower to the peasants who had gathered
around him, that they who had been born and brought up in the
neighborhood must needs look over their shoulders, "that," to use
his own words, "they might behold with their eyes, what I had
praised to their ears," - "and I added nothing, not even the ivy
which for centuries had decorated the walls." It would thus be
possible for inferior minds to produce invaluable books, if this
very moderation were not the evidence of superiority; for the
wise are not so much wiser than others as respecters of their own
wisdom. Some, poor in spirit, record plaintively only what has
happened to them; but others how they have happened to the
universe, and the judgment which they have awarded to
circumstances. Above all, he possessed a hearty good-will to all
men, and never wrote a cross or even careless word. On one
occasion the post-boy snivelling, "Signor perdonate, questa e` la
mia patria," he confesses that "to me poor northerner came
something tear-like into the eyes."
Goethe's whole education and life were those of the artist.
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