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now, therefore get her for me for she pleaseth me well." Later on too in the book there is the same mention of "Linen" and "changes of raiment" with the difference that Goethe has conceived the daughter of the Philistines as possessed of marvelous strength.
It seems questionable however whether this Homeric and patriarchal coloring to a northern Epic is not like sewing new cloth into old garments. An instance can be taken to make this objection a little more concrete. For example Hermann, in the passage which tells of his meeting with the emigrant train is made to say:—
"There fell to my notice a wagon fitted together out of sound trees, drawn by two oxen, the largest and strongest of foreign lands."
Whether the typical Greek on seeing a movers wagon would think at once of the quality of the timber out of which it was made is open to question. Their bards evidently did. But to put such an epithet into the mouth of Hermann is to make his fancy work in a manner foreign to German methods. It is as plump and unbeholfen as if he had exhibited his Apotheker with pipe still in his mouth but clothed in patriarchal or Hellenic vestments, in the Spartan kilt or the Roman toga.
These criticisms would apply rather to the artificial epic in general, than Goethe's Epic in particular, for as a work of art it is very nearly perfect. Containing the "quiet unfolding" "vivid sensuousness," and "clear perspicacity" in the whole as in the particular, which according to Schiller, is the prime requisite of the epic composition.
In the main the naturalness of the poem is genuine. It consists of the essential characteristics and modes of thought of the bourgeois types of which he treats, but he compels no realization that the same heart beats in the peasant as in the prince for here it does not. These sequestered lives are not agitated by like joys and sorrows as those of another estate. Love is here a placid unexciting experience. Romantic ardor is not known. Now while such poetry is natural, it is a mistake to suppose that because it finds its inspiration among such surroundings and people of such a narrow emotional range, it is intrinsically more natural than that which prefers scenes made various and discursive by the motives, attractions and complex relations of a highly developed society. The rudiments to be worked with are the same in either case, but in the former the incidents in which they must be displayed are comparatively uniform and commonplace. To get rid of a superficial and misleading theory we should remember that it is not in provincial conditions, but in full development and intricate relations when tested by many vicissitudes that call into play more completely its energy, faculties, finesse and emotions that human nature offers the richest material to a writer. Bourgeoisie affairs with their apothecaries and inn-keepers may be transiently attractive in turning from an existence of larger outlook and more strenuous effort, but it is a mistake to accept their routine and monotony as better than the restlessness and aspiration that exist elsewhere, or as more suitable to the purposes of art. Verse of this kind is in the main flat, state and unprofitable.
How then shall we explain the degree of interest which this poem has obtained among the German people? There may be various causes, but it can perhaps be set down as one of the principal ones that the homely people of Germany are seldom so pleased with an ideal by which to improve their lot as they are charmed by any poet who is willing to depict them as better off than the educated and well conditioned classes, and to represent their narrow, dull and petty lives as a reproduction of the golden age.
This tendency to prefer subjects essentially plain and even ugly and uncongenial to men's most vivid interests and intense activities, is an effect of the national warping of the German character and misses entirely the American spirit which cherishes incessant activity as the method of individual and social improvement. G.I.SPAUDING
G. L. SPALDING.
It doesn't make any difference whether you are warm or cold your case can be attended to by A. J. GRIFFIN.