“I have now proposed to him to make songs for the different crafts of working-men, particularly a weaver’s song, and I am sure he will do it well, for he has lived among such people from his youth; he understands the subject thoroughly, and is therefore master of his material.  That is exactly the advantage of small works; you need only choose those subjects of which you are master.  With a great poem, this cannot be:  no part can be evaded; all which belongs to the animation of the whole, and is interwoven into the plan, must be represented with precision.  In youth, however, the knowledge of things is only one-sided.  A great work requires many-sidedness, and on that rock the young author splits.”

[Illustration:  THE GARDEN AT GOETHE’S CITY HOUSE WEIMAR After a Water Color by PETER WOLTZE]

I told Goethe that I had contemplated writing a great poem upon the seasons, in which I might interweave the employments and amusements of all classes.  “Here is the very case in point,” replied Goethe; “you may succeed in many parts, but fail in others which refer to what you have not duly investigated.  Perhaps you would do the fisherman well, and the huntsman ill; and if you fail anywhere, the whole is a failure, however good single parts may be, and you have not produced a perfect work.  Give separately the single parts to which you are equal, and you make sure of something good.

“I especially warn you against great inventions of your own; for then you would try to give a view of things, and for that purpose youth is seldom ripe.  Further, character and views detach themselves as sides from the poet’s mind, and deprive him of the fulness requisite for future productions.  And, finally, how much time is lost in invention, internal arrangement, and combination, for which nobody thanks us, even supposing our work is happily accomplished.

“With a given material, on the other hand, all goes easier and better.  Facts and characters being provided, the poet has only the task of animating the whole.  He preserves his own fulness, for he needs to part with but little of himself, and there is much less loss of time and power, since he has only the trouble of execution.  Indeed, I would advise the choice of subjects which have been worked before.  How many Iphigenias have been written! yet they are all different, for each writer considers and arranges the subject differently; namely, after his own fashion.

“But, for the present, you had better lay aside all great undertakings.  You have striven long enough; it is time that you should enter into the cheerful period of life, and for the attainment of this, the working out of small subjects is the best expedient.”