against the abuse of his position: his liberty may become license, and his translation instead of being faithful may be phantastic. The translator's first and last duty is, then, to efface himself. His first duty is to stand entirely at the point of view of his author's thought; his last, to find the clearest and nearest expression in his own language both for that thought and for whatever is characteristic in the way of conveying it; neither adding anything of his own nor taking away anything from his author. The best translation is thus a re-embodiment of the author's spirit, a real metempsychosis. Nothing can be done without ideals, and this is the ideal at which the present translation aims. That it fails of its aim and has many defects, no one knows better than the translator himself; and he can only cherish the hope that where he falls short he is sometimes close to the confines of what cannot be translated. December 2, 1892. [1] _Goethe's Sprüche in Prosa_: zum ersten Mal erläutert und auf ihre Quellen zurückgeführt von G. v. Loeper, Berlin, 1870. This forms the text of the translation. [2] _Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre_, Bk. I. ch. 10. [3] _Gespräche mit Eckermann_, III. 4 January, 1824. LIFE AND CHARACTER I 1 There is nothing worth thinking but it has been thought before; we must only try to think it again. 2 How can a man come to know himself? Never by thinking, but by doing. Try to do your duty, and you will know at once what you are worth. 3 But what is your duty? The claims of the day. 4 The world of reason is to be regarded as a great and immortal being, who ceaselessly works out what is necessary, and so makes himself lord also over what is accidental. 5 The longer I live, the more it grieves me to see man, who occupies his supreme place for the very purpose of imposing his will upon nature, and freeing himself and his from an outrageous necessity,--to see him taken up with some false notion, and doing just the opposite of what he wants to do; and then, because the whole bent of his mind is spoilt, bungling miserably over everything. 6 Be genuine and strenuous; earn for yourself, and look for, grace from those in high places; from the powerful, favour; from the active and the good, advancement; from the many, affection; from the individual, love. 7 Tell me with whom you associate, and I will tell you who you are. If I know what your business is, I know what can be made of you. 8 Every man must think after his own fashion; for on his own path he finds a truth, or a kind of truth, which helps him through life. But he must not give himself the rein; he must control himself; mere naked instinct does not become him. 9 Unqualified activity, of whatever kind, leads at last to bankruptcy. 10 In the works of mankind, as in those of nature, it is really the motive which is chiefly worth attention. 11