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drawing largely on this rolume : its gems of wisdom and beauty will sparkle in many a future corner of our columns . "We must objept to the title , as misleading . It is not a volume containing " Goethe's Opinions , "—a phrase which , implies something more systematic , complete , and deliberate , than can be understood , in a collection of fragments such as this is , of sentences , sentiments , suggestions and remarks , extracted from " correspondence , " —none of them taken from Goethe's works . The variety of subjects is indicated in the" title ,
but not the nature of the treatment . . As a collection of sayings and suggestions , however , ifc is extremely delightful and companionable . There is more deep and subtle thought , more of the wide-gathered wisdom of a long laborious life , than can be found in many a volume ; and although several of these sentences are such as the pencil would mark , when found in their original place , but seem almost trivial thus isolated , yet the substance of the book is of unmistakable worth . Leaving for our " notes and extracts" some of the shorter sentences , we will give an extract or two , as specimens : —
THE PATHS TO GBEATNESS . " There are but two ways which lead to great aims and achievements—energy and perseverance . Energy is a rare gift , —it provokes opposition , hatred , and reaction . But perseverance lies within the affordings of every one , its power increases with its progress , and it is but rarely that it misses its aim . Where perseverance is out of the question , where I cannot exert a protracted influence , I had better not attempt to exert any influence at all , for I should only disturb the organic development of affairs , and paralyze the natural remedies which they contain , without any guarantee for a more favourable result . "
AGREEMENT AND DIFFERENCE . " Sentiments join man to man , opinions divide them . The former are elementary and concentrate , the latter are composite and scatter . The friendships of youth are founded on sentiment ; the dissensions of age result from opinion . If we could know this at an early age , if , in forming our own mode of thought , we could acquire a liberal view of that of others , and even of those that are opposed to ours ; we should then be more tolerant , and endeavour to reunite by sentiment , what opinion divided and dispersed /'
FINAL CAUSES . " To consider himself the end and aim of creation comes most naturally to man , who is prone to judge all things only with respect to himself , and in as far as they can be serviceable and useful to him . He usurps dominion over the vegetable and the animal kingdom , and while devouring other creatures as the most fitting nourishment , he extols the goodness of his creator , who thus paternally provides for his wants . He takes milk from the cow , honey from the bee . wool from the sheep ; and since he makes use of the good things of this world , he believes that they were expressly created for the use he makes of them . Indeed , it is difficult for him to understand that even the smallest herb should be without its use , and although he may not , just now , know which of his purposes such or such a herb may serve , he devoutly hopes to discover the secret .
" This general opinion is not the lew manifested in special cases ; the general views of life are transplanted into sciences , and in considering the parts , kinds , and appurtenances of organic beings , we inquire what purpose they were intended to serve , and what is their use ? " This sort of thing may do for a time , and , to some extent , a man may get on with it in the sciences . But he must sooner or later meet with phenomena for which his petty theory has no space , and not having the guidance of a higher principle , he is soon lost in contradictions . " Such utilitarians say ' an ox has horns that ifc may defend itself / But , I ask , why do not sheep have horns ? and if they have any , why are they turned about their ears , so as to bo altogether useless ? " But the case is far different , when I say ' an 01 defends itself with its horns ,
because it has them . " Questions as to the why and wherefore are by no means scientific . A little more progress is made by the question : how ? for when I ask < how does an ox have horns ? ' I am led to consider its organization , and I learn afc the same time , that the lion has not , and cannot have horns . " Thus for instance , there are two unfilled , hollow places in the human skull . Why are ' they there ? would be a hopeless question , but the question , how it happens that ' they are there ? reveals these hollow Bpots as remains of the animal skull- they aro much more considerable in lower organizations ; and in spite of tho exalted position of man , the traces remain even in Ins organization intention of them of their Golif
" The utilitarians suspect you of an robbing < , vou object to their adoring Him who gave horns to the ox wherewith to defend itself . But I humbly bog to bo allowed to adore Him , whose creative wealth permitted him to create after many thousand p lants , a plant in winch a 1 tho rest aro cont ained , and to produce , after many thousand . species of animals , » being which contains them all—namely , man . " It is also customary to adore Mm who gives the cattle its food , and meat an . drink to man according to hi * appetite . But I adore Jltm who gave to the world flSao dh , g Powers of production , that thoug h but the millionth part of them be exerted , thALhl is so crowded with beings , that warn and pestilence , deluges and conflagrations , cannot prevail against them . Such is my God .
UlUUTY . . « Hcnutv is inexplicable : it appears to us as a dream , when we contemplate the works of groat artists ; it i . » hovering , floating , and glittering shadow whoso Itlno eludes the . gnup of delation . Mendelssohn and others trie 1 to catch Boa V « h a butterfly , and pin ifc down for inspeetion . They have Huecc . de , , „ tho « ame way us they are likely to succeed with a butterfly . Tho poor nn . uml rem-ZaSruggJs , and it s brightest eolours are gone ; or if you catch . t w , thonj mr iltftho < hSouw , you have at best a Htiff and awkward corpse . But « corpse * not an ^ n ^ . miniai ; it want , that which is essential ia all thing ., namely , hfespirit , which bIumIh beauty on everything . " HirUJKCTH VOH POEMS .
« The world i . «> W »« 1 life bo varied that then , can never be a dearth of * v « . rwmniH All poems ought to be occasional pieces --that w to « ay , ™;" . St ^ ur » W , L occasion and the material . A speciality becomes ™ 1 3 pOoticul in the hands of tho poet . All my poems « o occasional pleces ; they are prompt by and rooted in real life .
* ' Let no one say that reality lacks poetical interest , for a poet , if ho be a real poet , ought to invest commonplace subjects with interest . Reality furnishes the matter , the points , the substance , and it is the poet ' s business to form them into a beautiful and lifelike creation . " There are many of those weighty yva > nai for which Goethe is renowned —the distilled essence of life-long reflection , such , for example as this , with which we close : — " The object of life is life itself—if we do but our duty to our own minds , we shall soon come to do it to the world . "
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ARISTOTLE'S POLITICS . The Politics and Economics of Aristotle . . Translated with Notes Original and Selected ; and an Analysis . To which are prefixed an Introductory JEssay and « Life of Aristotle , by Br . Gillies . By Edward Walford , M . A . ( Bohn ' s Classical XAbrarg . ) H . G . Bonn . Aeistotle was indisputably the greatest mind of all antiquity , uniting 1 to encyclopaedic knowledge a depth and subtlety of thought rarely equalled . His grasp was minute and immense . He surveyed the whole domain of knowledge , and wrote the best special treatises on many subjects . The accuracy of his knowledge is surprising ; and when one considers its extent , the accuracy is little less than marvellous . The History of Animals , which he left behind him , is even now a remarkable work , and the latest researches of zoologists vindicate many strange statements which have long been regarded as errors incident to the zoological ignorance of that time . His Logic remains a monument ; his fragment on Poetics is still the most truthful and instructive work extant on the Greek drama ; his Ethics and Rhetoric are in constant requisition ; while the little treatise on Politics , although merely , as it were , a Handbook to his lost work , Politeia , which gave a detailed account of all the political constitutions known in his time , is to this day one of the best if not the very best treatise on Politics , and cannot be studied without impressing the student with a sense of Aristotle ' s greatness . Plato , Rousseau , and their followers , have received no more satisfactory refutation than in the brief , pregnant sentences of Aristotle ' s early chapters . He looks at the question from the true scientific point of view : whereas they reason abstractedly and deontologically .
Metaphysicianlike , they start from the Idea of society , irom the Jiights ot Man , or from some other irov o-rqvai taken beyond the circle of actual experience ; and , having taken their stand without the circle , they legislate with ease—but they legislate in vacuo ! Aristotle resolutely keeps within the circle . Society must be the product of human nature ; in human nature , as it actually manifests itself , he therefore seeks for a basis—not in human nature as it might be , or as it " ought to be . " He proves man to be a political animal as much as a fish is an aquatic animal . Only in society does the nature of man develop itself ; without it , man is either a beast or a Godaxrre h Bnpiov , rj &eos .
, A translation of this admirable work might fairly tempt the noble ambition of a scholar , for nothing can be less satisfactory than the translations which at present exist . Mr . Walford , who has sent forth the one placed at the head of this article , has bestowed praiseworthy pains in collecting notes , but he does not seem to have anything like a proper idea of the importance of fidelity—and by fidelity we mean somethingmore than the virtue of a " crib . " His translation , he avows , is " based on the well-known version of Ellis , in the revision of which the
translation of Taylor and the polished paraphrase of Gillies has been consulted . ' Ellis ! Taylor ! Gillies ! The translator who could for a moment tolerate the miserable falling off of the one and the ineptitudes of the other , who could consider Gillies as a writer of " polished paraphrase , " tells us at the outset that his standard is one wo cannot accept . A casual inspection of his work assures us that he has taken no pains to render the brief pregnant sentences of Aristotle into sentences winch shall to the English mind suggest thoughts as striking . Many a fine aphorism we find marked in our copy , is scarcely recognisable as more than a
conimonplace in this version . . . For example , Aristotle , speaking of the social instinct implanted in us , declares that perfected by that instinct we become the most excellent ot living beings , whereas without it we should he the worst of all , deprived as wo then should be of the ideas of justice and law . " For nothing is more terrible than armed injustice . 13 ut man is born armed with Prudence and Desire , which lie may employ in opposite directions . " Wo have here replaced aperj ] by epcon , as we find it scribbled on the margin of our copy ; consequently , the word " Desire" may be considered aw incorrect by those who stick to the old reading . Fallowing Mie ordinary text , the phrase should run thus—" armed with prudence and virtue . " JNIovv , lot ua turn to Mr . Watford ' s version : — " For nothing is so savage as injustice
in arms ; but man ia born , with a faculty of gaining himself arms by prudence and virtue ; arms which lie may apply to the most opposite purposes . " Tho meaning of Arwtotle is that JiiiuBtice when armed is terrible ; man is armed—armed with Passions and Desires , which make him , when not obedient to justice aud law , the wildest and fiercest , of animals ; ho that man not in a social state , man without the idea of justice , would bo this Armed Injustice he is sneaking of . Mr . Walrord makes Aristotle say that Injustice when armed is terrible , but man has a faculty of procuring arms by his prudence and virtue ! Nor in the English of tint * translation very elegant or very accurate . Generally cumbrous , it sometimes lapses into phraHes such as " Properly in Jin instrument to living . " Having expressed thin opinion of Mr . Walford 8 translation , tested according to the standard we desire in such matters , lot us in all fairness Hiiv tl »» l , the dillicultvof translating Aristotle is immense , that no English
veiaion of the Politics wo have soon can he called respectable , and that the present version is comparatively a good one . It posseBsoB , moreover certain attractions which will justify the student in purchasing iirviz . / unalyneH , index , and abundant notes . We only caution the English render against the supposition that in reading thi 8 version , of Aristotle ho ib tiblo to appreciate tho power aud tho wisdom or the old Greek .
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May 28 , 1853 . ] THE LEADER . 525
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Leader (1850-1860), May 28, 1853, page 525, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1988/page/21/
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