JOURNAL. 194/J
125
Read and reread much Goethe lately: some poems, the fine
introduction to
The Theory of Color,
and, impelled by Ecker–
mann's admiration of it, the
Novelle,
an incredibly silly per–
formance. Goethe could not have written it in our day; to be sure,
in the sphere of art one cannot speak of progress, but he would
have understood that only the specific particularity of notations
can maintain interest in this kind of story, where everything is
invented, contrived "as you like it," and to prove-what? That
gentleness gets further than violence? That the wildest forces of
nature become servants when tamed? That poetry and music pre–
vail over the most intractable instincts? That a child's trustful
naivete triumphs where brutality fails? Obviously; but the
greatest triumph here is that of artifice. A work of art is not
brought into being by the mere application of sound rules; further,
the ones Goethe puts to work in this little tale are highly ques–
tionable. Today Goethe would blush, too, for many of his refiec·
tions on painting, as transmitted by Eckermann. The arts have
evolved in a manner he could not foresee, and there have been very
great painters whose whole work goes to refute his theories.
It is amusing to note that in several other spheres too the most
profitable trails have been blazed in directions where he presaged
nothing but blind alleys. A further point, a vital one: all his
intelligence, though so spontaneously investigative, did not pre–
vent him from thinking that he ought to avert his curiosity from
what he considered human intelligence would never be able to
reach (Heavens! what a complicated sentence! but no more so
than the thought) and what it there£ore seemed to him vain to
inquire into: astronomy, prehistory, all problems concerning
origins, first formations.... Several of the high questions he
refused to put to himself, in fear, and dread of disappointment,
are among those in which the mind has since risked its boldest
ventures and reaped the most prodigious reward.
Will it be said that France had ceased to be the great nation
whose part she was still playing? Even so, I see no other nation
on earth that could take over that part today. This is what we
must convince her of, convince ourselves of.
If, as is to be feared, freedom of thought, or at least freedom
