Arnold's
interpretation of "so bald er reflectirt ist er ein Kind" is not
Goethe's interpretation of Byron. It is to be remembered that Goethe
was not a youth overcome by Mr. Arnold's "vogue" when he read Byron. He
was a singularly self-possessed old man.
Many persons will be inclined to think that Goethe, so far from putting
Byron on a lower level than that usually assigned to him, has over-
praised him, and will question the "burning spiritual vision" which the
great German believed the great Englishman to possess. But if we
consider what Goethe calls the "motivation" of Cain; if we reflect on
what the poet has put into the legend; on the exploration of the
universe with Lucifer as a guide; on its result, on the mode in which
the death of Abel is reached; on the doom of the murderer--the limitless
wilderness henceforth and no rest; on the fidelity of Adah, who, with
the true instinct of love, separates between the man and the crime; on
the majesty of the principal character, who stands before us as the
representative of the insurgence of the human intellect, so that, if we
know him, we know a whole literature; if we meditate hereon, we shall
say that Goethe has not exaggerated.
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