Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - I. On the Way to the Front
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
26 WITH THE GERMAN ARMIES IN THE WEST
be met with in Germany, and on certain days of national
rejoicing huge bonfires are Ut on their summits.
We cannot drive through Weimar without visiting the house
where Goethe lived for forty years, and which stands in the
square now bearing his great name. It is with a feehng of
reverence that one sets foot on the steps and thresholds
and in apartments where Germany’s, perhaps the Avorld’s,
greatest poet and thinker lived his life. As far as possible the
furniture has been reinstated and restored to its former state.
One admires Goethe’s discrimination as a collector and the
quick intelligence he brought to bear on all departments of
the natural sciences. These traits are evidenced by his large
and magnificent geological and mineralogical collections, his
zoological and botanical finds, and his physical laboratory.
I stop, however, longest before the cabinets containing in large
portfolios his pen-and-ink and water-colour sketches. I am
touched as I look at them. Every stroke of the brush in these
landscapes, portraits and groups has been made by his own
hand. Their execution is masterly, and the perspective and
general effect superb. Yet this was but a trifling detail in his
wonderful endowment. Equally fascinating almost are the
busts which render his glorious head and the oil paintings
for which he sat. What wonderful eyes, full of life and energy
and geniality ! They reveal an intellect to which everything
is as clear as crystal. With a feeling of awe and without daring
to speak to the courteous Dr. Hans Kroeber, who showed
us over one of the greatest national treasures of Germany,
we entered Goethe’s study on the ground floor with its windows
looking out on to the little garden. How simple and modest
everything is ; it occurs to one that one of the lighter rooms
upstairs would have been a good deal pleasanter to work in.
Behind the study we see his little bedroom, rigidly simple,
where, with the words " More light," he ended the saga of his
wonderful life.
When the mind has tarried for a little while in this world
of great and precious memories, and is suddenly confronted
on issuing into the square with a detachment of Landsturm
soldiers marching off to their shooting range, when one leaves
Goethe’s home behind and is once more surrounded by the
modern world and thinks of Germany’s gigantic struggle
against half the world—then, indeed, one has to rub one’s
eyes and steady oneself mentally so as not to lose one’s balance.
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
