CHAPTER   XII. — GOETHE.  313

could  lead  him — in  the  palmy  days  of  rationalism  and
optimism — to  accept  as  true  anything  like  orthodox  teaching
respecting  man's  fall  and  recovery.  He  had  not  such  a
sense  of  man's  misery  as  could  lead  him  to  accept  any  such
notions  as  already  (in  1814)  were  entertained  by  his  friend
Schopenhauer — notions  that  soon  led  the  latter  to  accept  as
true  the  chief  tenet  of  primitive  Buddhism.  In  matters  of
faith,  the  height  and  security  of  the  superstructure  must  be
proportionate  with  the  depth  and  strength  of  the  founda-
tion. There  is  a  faith  that  arises  out  of  despair.  Now
Goethe  was  a  man  capable  of  deep  thoughts  ;  but  he  did  not
always  follow  in  the  way  toward  which  they  were  leading
him.  He  loved  chiefly  all  that  was  gentle,  beautiful  and
refined  in  the  Gospels ;  and  was  never  tired  of  praising  the
parables.  There  are  passages  in  his  poetry  where  his
meaning  may  be  accepted  by  certain  readers  as  pantheistic  ;
and  by  others  as  Christian.  That  nature — as  seen  all
around  us — was  created  good  and  holy ;  and  was  intended
to  reflect  the  Creator's  likeness ;  that  the  same  may  be  said
of  human  nature  ;  and  that  traces  of  the  original  idea  may
still  be  seen  in  the  world  we  live  in,  and  in  our  own  life — in
the  innocence  and  docility  of  childhood,  the  amiability  of
youth,  and  the  quietude  of  domestic  life — all  these  were
tenets  cheerfully  accepted  in  his  naturalistic  and  poetical
religion.  He  liked  to  view  everything  moral  or  religious,
just  as  he  would  view  a  flower,  or  any  other  beautiful
production  of  nature;  and  he  found  in  Christian  history  and
doctrine  not  a  little  that  he  could  accept  as  divinely  human.
