GOETHE'S OPINIONS ON THE WORLD, MANKIND, LITERATURE, TRANSLATED BY OTTO WENCKSTERN. LONDON: JOHN W. PARKER AND SON, WEST STRAND. MDCCCLIII. TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. THE following collection of Goethe's senti ments and opinions has been extracted from his published correspondence with Schiller, Zelter, Stolberg, Reinhard, the Frau von Stein, Oeser, Reich, Rochlitz, Woltman, Mayer, Riemer, and Schuckman; and from his volumes of conversations published by Eckerman, Riemer, and Luden. None are taken from the poet's works; for although these would have yielded a rich harvest of sentiments and opinions, it has been thought advisable to confine the present publication to those opinions only which Goethe wrote or pronounced as his own, which can be guaranteed as expressing his own views, and which are unbiassed by the fictitious characters into whose mouths other opinions are put in his |