_I._--I can assure you that I have not now been speaking as a philosopher. These are mere matters of experience. _Guest._--Do you call that experience, whereof another can comprehend nothing? _I._--To every experience belongs an organ. _Guest._--Do you mean a separate one? _I._--Not a separate one; but it must have one peculiarity. _Guest._--And what is that? _I._--It must be able to produce. _Guest._--Produce what? _I._--The experience! There is no experience which is not brought forth, produced, created. _Guest._--This is too much! _I._--This is particularly the case with artists. _Guest._--Indeed! How enviable would the portrait painter be, what custom would he not have, if he could reproduce all his customers without troubling people with so many sittings! _I._--I am not deterred by your instance, but rather am convinced no portrait can be worth anything that the painter does not in the strictest sense create. _Guest_ (springing up).--This is maddening! I would you were making game of me, and all this were only in jest. How happy I should be to have the riddle explained in that manner! How gladly would I give my hand to a worthy man like you! _I._--Unfortunately, I am quite in earnest, and cannot come to any other conclusion. _Guest._--Now I did hope that in parting we should take each other’s hand, especially since our good host has departed, who would have held the place of mediator in your dispute. Farewell, Mademoiselle! Farewell, Sir! I shall inquire to-morrow whether I may wait on you again. So he stormed out of the door, and Julia had scarce time to send the maid, who was ready with the lantern, after him. I remained alone with the sweet child, for Caroline had disappeared some time before,--I think about the time that my opponent had declared that mere beauty, without character, must be insipid. You went too far, my friend, said Julia, after a short pause. If he did not seem to me altogether in the right, neither can I give unqualified assent to you; for your last assertion was only made to tease him. The portrait painter must make the likeness a pure creation? Fair Julia, I replied, how much I could wish to make myself clear to you upon this point. Perhaps in time I shall succeed. But you, whose lively spirit is at home in all regions, who not only prize the artist but in some sense anticipate him, and who know how to give form to what your eyes have never seen, as if it stood bodily before you, you should be the last to start when the question is of creation, of production. _Julia._--I see it is your intention to bribe me. That will not be hard, for I like to listen to you.