Goethe accepted the invitation

and on Nov. 7, 1775, arrived in Weimar. Shortly before he had made a tour in Switzarland with the brothers Stolberg. In 1776 he was made privy councillor of legation, with a seat and vote in the privy council. In the same year he made a second journey to Switzerland, m this occasion in company with the juke. In 1782 he was made president »f the chamber and ennobled. In 1786 he made a journey to Italy, where he remained two years, visited Sicily, and remained a long time in Rome. This residence in Italy had the effect of still further developing his artistic powers, by the contemplation of the treasures of art in that country, by intercourse with the society he met there, and by practice. In 1790 was published the earliest form of the first part of “ Faust,” with the title ‘Dr. Faust, ein Trauerspiel,” a poem in a dramatic form, which belongs rather to Goethe’s whole life than to my particular period of it. The subject of this work had engaged the attention of Goethe very early, and continued to occupy his mind during his whole life; and the poem, even in its first form, was the result of many years’ intermittent labor. It was made the depository of the author’s most yeneral views on the problems of existence; all that is highest and deepast, most beautiful and most touching in human life is here contained, along with what is tame and commonplace; and it is this universality of content, combined with the never-dying interest belonging to the general conception of the poem, the representation of the perpetual opposition between the demands of materialism and the demands of spiritualism, which makes this drama of Goethe’s a true world poem. If we survey the variety of the productions of this great man, not only in all branches of poetry, but also in natural science, we cannot help admiring the activity and versatility of his yenius—his many sidedne . His genius appears most wonderful if we throw a glance at what German literature was when he found it, and what it is now that he has left it, and how it has been affected by him. Goethe was born at a period when the modern German literature was far from having acquired independence and consistency; and in the different periods of his life it is easy to discover the influence at one time of French literature, at another of cla ic literature, ete.; but these influences, though sufficient to destroy the vigor and energy of many a genius, rather served to develop his powers more fully. It cannot be denied, however, that even he sometimes was led astray, as, for instance, in his polished and cold * Eugenie.” But in what branch has Goethe most excelled? Is it the epic? He enriched German literature with some of the most popular epic productions; but his epic descriptions cannot rival the best descriptive compositions of English literature. Is it the drama? He produced some beautiful dramas, and his “ Iphigenia” will always be considered as a masterpiece; but, generally speaking, his dramas do not give us sketches of great, important, or interesting characters, nor the picture of a great action — the two chief points of dramatic poetry; and he stands in this respect very far below Shakespeare. Is it didactic poetry? He wrote several didactic poems, but he cannot be said to have excelled in this branch. Is it the novel? He presented German literature with some novels which will always rank among the best; but their excellence is not in the plot, nor particularly in the characters described. In short, what is the prominent feature of Goethe’s excellence? We think Goethe must be called, a the poet of pombe. t is the philosophy of life and of individual character pervading his works which places them among the first ever produced. Hence his greatest production is his “ Faust,’? emphatically a philosophical poem, which will long remain unrivaled; for it is the best of Goethe’s etnies in a department for which e seems to have been born. His beautiful songs and_ shorter poems, elegies, distichs, etc., have the same peculiar character; for though many or most of them cannot be called preéminently philosophical, yet they are = ae with the profound reflec: tions of his philosophical mind, and continually remind us of the deep wells from which our griefs and joys, fears and hopes spring. The circumstance that there was in Goethe’s time in Germany no national life, that no zrand ideas affected the whole ma with a common impulse, that there are few historical recollections which are sources of a common pride to the whole nation — all this had a great influence pn Goethe. It was one of the reasons of his universality, and also the reason that his genius directed itself to the delineation of the character of the individual man, considered apart from the influences which act so strongly upon the mind in communities more strongly imbued with a common spirit. In this respect he resembles not a_little the poets and wise men of the Hast, who, under a despotism which crushes freedom of action, concentrate their thoughts on the inward man. In 1806 Goethe married Christ i ane Vulpius, with whom he had lived since 1788, and to whom he was fret: ME Goethe died at Weimar, March 22, 1831, Goffe, William, an English parliamentary soldier, one of the ye of Charles I.; born about 1605. He became a major-general in the Parliamentary army, sat in the House of Commons and in Cromwell’s “ other house,” and was one of the judges who signed Charles I.’s death-warrant. In 1660, with his father-in-law, Edward Whalley, he fled to America; they lay in hiding about New Haven from 1661 to 1664, when they went to Hadley, Ma . There they lived for many years in seclusion. According to tradition, when the townsmen were called from the meeting-house to repel an Indian attack, and were standing ‘tresolute, Goffe put himself at their head and drove off the redskins, and then disappeared as suddenly as he had come. He died in Hadley, Ma ., in 1679.