Print collector's quarterly (4.1914)

dent in many ways, but it was not until bis first visit
to Dresden, in 1768, that the meaning of the great in
art was revealed to him. At the age of twenty-three,
after his return to bis native city, he seemed so wedded
to art that for several months he devoted all his leisure
hours to drawing, engraving and etching.
In his mature age Goethe cherished no illusions as to
his artistic craftsmanship. He said to Eckermann, in
1829: “I was wise enough in my fortieth year, while in
Italy, to recognize that I hacl no talent for art, and that
my efforts in this direction were futile. In drawing I had
not sufficient power to seize the substance. I feit a cer-
tain clread to approach py object too closely, and re-
straint and feebleness were characteristic of my work.”
But the love of art accompanied Goethe throughout lifc
and was part of his philosophic creed. The words of
Wilhelm Meister expressed both his theory and his
practice: “ Men are so prone to give themselves up to the
commonplace and vulgär, the niincl and the feelings so
easily become callous to the beautiful and the perfect,
that one ought to try in every way possible to retain a
taste for higher things. Such enjoyments no one can
wholly do without. Our lack of familiarity with what is
really excellent is the explanation why so many take
pleasure in what is silly and insipid, merely because it
is new. We ought to form the habit of listening every
day to some pretty song, reading a fine poem, looking
at a beautiful picture and, if possible, talking a few sen-
sible words.”
And to Eckermann he said, in 1825: “I read every
year several plays of Moliere, just as from time to time
I look at engravings after the great Italian masters.
We petty beings are not capable of preserving within

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