The further relations of Goethe and Schiller, so far as they have any important bearing upon the works of the latter, will be touched on in subsequent chapters. Here let it be remarked in passing that their friendship was not, as it has sometimes been represented, a mere relation of master and disciple. It was rather a spiritual copartnership of equals, each recognizing the other's strength, respecting the other's individuality and eager to profit by discussion. In the beginning, it is true, Schiller looked up to Goethe as to a great and wise teacher who was to give everything and receive little or nothing in return. Every one will recall his saying that he was a mere poetic scalawag in comparison with Goethe. But it is worth remembering that this remark was made after the reading of 'Wilhelm Meister',--a work which, notwithstanding his admiration, he criticised very sharply. And the justice of his criticism was admitted by Goethe; whereupon Schiller drily observed in a letter to Körner that Goethe was a man who could be told a great deal of truth. As time passed, Schiller dropped the tone of humble docility and became more and more independent. If he deferred to the superior wisdom of Goethe in dealing with the plastic arts and natural science, there were other matters,--philosophy, poetic theory and the dramatic art,--upon which he felt that he could speak as one having authority. And his authority was respected by Goethe, especially after the completion of 'Wallenstein'. Goethe saw that Schiller, along with his poetic gift, possessed a practical dramatic talent,--an eye for effect and a power of appealing to the general heart,--such as he, Goethe, could by no means claim for himself. And so the nominal director of the Weimar theater leaned heavily upon his friend and looked to him as the best hope of the German drama. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 98: "Goethe", einundzwanzigste Vorlesung.] [Footnote 99: All the extant Xenia, nine hundred and twenty-six in number,--many of them previously unknown,--were published in 1893 by Erich Schmidt and Bernhard Suphan, with copious introduction and notes, as Volume 8 of the "Schriften der Goethe-Gesellschaft" in Weimar.] [Footnote 100: Lasz doch die Frauen in Ruhe mit ihrer Würde, und sorge Für die deine, mein Freund. Ihre bewahren sie schon.] [Footnote 101: Nun, was denkt ihr vom Reiche der Schatten? Es schattet und schattet Dasz man vor Schatten umher nichts von den Schatten erkennt.] [Footnote 102: In Weimar und in Jena macht man Hexameter wie der; Aber die Pentameter sind doch noch excellenter.] CHAPTER XV Later Poems So führt zu seiner Jugend Hütten, Zu seiner Unschuld reinem Glück, Vom fernen Ausland fremder Sitten Den Flüchtling der Gesang zurück, In der Natur getreuen Armen Von kalten Regeln zu erwarmen. _'The Power of Song'_.