Poetic  genius,  as  possessed  by  Goethe,  was  nature.  His
inspiration  visited  him,  and  for  certain  seasons  dwelt  with
him,  just  as  the  thoughts  and  feelings  inspired  by  nature
dwell  in  the  heart  of  a  child.  When  eighty  years  old,  he
received  from  certain  friends  a  present  consisting  mostly  of


302  GERMAN    CULTURE   AND   CHRISTIANITY.
artistic  bijouterie.  "  They  treat  me  very  kindly  " — said  he,
while  arranging  on  a  table  the  several  <l  gems  "  or  trinkets
— "  they  know  what  I  like." — "  They  know  what  you  are —
a  child,"  said  his  daughter-in-law,  then  acting  as  his  house-
keeper. Her  words  expressed  a  truth  beyond  the  range  of
her  own  intention.  The  old  man  was  not  a  child  because  he
loved  works  of  art.  Still,  however,  he  remained  a  child  to
whom  art  was  nature,  and  nature  was  art.  Of  his  poetry
hardly  anything  has  been  said  better  than  these  few  words
written  by  Falk — one  of  his  personal  friends — "  His  poetry
was  identified  with  himself.  In  dream-like  contemplation,
his  mind  was  transmuted  into  a  perfect  likeness  to  the
object  contemplated."  "  Of  modern  poets  Goethe  is  at
once  the  most  subjective  and  the  most  objective."  This
saying — often  repeated — may  be  objectionable  as  regards  its
paradoxical  form;  but  at  the  same  time  it  is  true.  The
poet,  in  receiving  impressions  from  nature,  imbues  them
with  his  own  feelings.  Hence  the  result  is  subjective,  and
some  elements  merely  accidental  or  individual  are  mingled
with  the  poetry.  These  are  cleared  away,  and  now  the
result  is  objective — poetry  that  awakens  common  sympathy.
