We free ourselves from our
passions
as soon
as we think.
as we think.
Warner - World's Best Literature - v10 - Emp to Fro
At the same time he
would have paid little attention to the naïveté of the eye and the gravity of
the heart. The beauty of women which Firenzuola admires and analyzes is
exterior, plastic, and material. . . Many of Firenzuola's remarks may
seem perhaps a little vague and general, but they become less so when we
read them in connection with the monuments of plastic art contemporaneous
with the life of the writer. In the figures of the frescoes of Ghirlandajo, of
Piero della Francesca, of Antonio Bazzi, and more particularly in the marvel-
ous women that we admire in the frescoes and pictures of the Florentine
Botticelli, we recognize those refinements of bearing and expression of which
Firenzuola speaks; we divine an ideal of feminine beauty corresponding with
his; and we realize the charm of those high and pure foreheads shining
almost like a mirror. >>
IN THE GARDEN
From Of the Beauty of Women›
ELSO SELVAGGIO is a great friend of mine, and so much at
my service that I make bold to say he is in truth as my
second self. Hence, when I now set forth these his dis-
courses, albeit indeed he hath forbidden it, he will have patience
with me, inasmuch as that the love he bears me constrains him
to make my will his own, and all the more, since that which
constraineth him constraineth me. Now he, besides being a man
skilled in learning, is of no small judgment, and great courtesy
and highly accommodating to the desires of his friends; and for
all these reasons, being assured that he will make no difficulties,
I have set them forth as you see.
He found himself last summer in the garden of the Abbey of
Grignano, kept at that time by Vanazzo de Rochi, whither sev-
eral youths and maidens had betaken themselves for air, ladies
distinguished no less for their beauty and high degree than for
their many virtues; among them Madonna Lampiada, Madonnas
Amororrisca, Selvaggia, and Verdespina. They had withdrawn
to the summit of the hillock in the midst of that garden, over-
grown with cypress and laurel, where they tarried, disputing of
Madonna Amelia della Torrenuova, who likewise was in the
## p. 5758 (#342) ###########################################
• 5758
AGNOLO FIRENZUOLA
pleasaunce; and this one would have it that she was of the
greatest beauty, and that other that she was not even well fa-
vored, when Celso came up the mount with certain other youths
of Prato, the kindred of these ladies. And they, being thus
taken by surprise, were silent on a sudden. Then Celso making
excuse for having done them such discourtesy, the ladies gra-
ciously replied that their coming hither was most pleasing to
them, and they bid these gentlemen be seated on a bank over
against them; yet were they again silent.
Whereupon Celso spoke, saying:- "Fair ladies, either proceed
in your discourse, or dismiss us from your company, to the end
that we may not disturb your sport, but hit the ball as it
bounds. "
Then said Madonna Lampiada:-"Messer Celso, our discourse
was of women, wherefore it did not appear to us to be seemly
to continue it in your presence. This one said that Amelia was
not comely; I say that she is: thus we were disputing, after the
manner of ladies. "
To whom Celso replied:-"Madonna Selvaggia is in error, but
indeed she loves her not. In truth, that lady must ever be
accounted fair by all, nay, and most beautiful; and if she is not
to be deemed beautiful, I cannot see one in Prato who may be
called fair. ”
On this Selvaggia, somewhat wroth
replied: "Small judgment is needed in
each is of a different mind, and a brown skin is pleasing to one
and a white skin to another; and it is with us women as in a
draper's shop, where cloth from the Romagnuola finds a pur-
chaser no less than satin from Banello. "
-
as
rather
rather than pleased,
such a matter, since
"Well and good," quoth Celso; "but when we speak of a
beautiful woman we mean one whom all alike admire, and not
this one or that one only: thus Nora, so ill-favored as she is,
appears most pleasing in the sight of her Tomaso, albeit she is
uncomely as she possibly can be; and my gossip, who was
passing fair, her husband could not suffer. Peradventure it is
that certain complexions suit or suit not: but a lady fair in all
points, like yourself, must necessarily be pleasing to all, as you
are; albeit few are pleasing to you, as I know full well. It is
indeed the truth, that to be of perfect beauty many things are
needed, so that one is rarely found who possesseth the half of
them. "
## p. 5759 (#343) ###########################################
AGNOLO FIRENZUOLA
5759
Selvaggia then said: There are some among you men
whom the world itself would not satisfy. And I once heard it
said that one Momus, unable to find any fault in the beauty of
Venus, blamed some trifle in the fashion of her sandals. ”
Then said Verdespina: "Thus you see how he beheld her. "
And Celso, laughing, went on:-"Again, Stesichoros, a most
noble poet of Sicily, spoke evil of that Helen who by her
exceeding great beauty moved a thousand Greek ships to go
forth against the great kingdom of Troy. "
Then said Madonna Lampiada in haste:-"Ay, truly; but you
know that he thereupon lost his sight, and had it not again till
he denied his words. "
-
<<
-
"And so had his desert," added Celso, "inasmuch as that
beauty and fair women, and fair women and beauty, ought to be
lauded and held precious by all; seeing that a fair woman is the
fairest object that may be seen, and beauty the highest gift
bestowed by God on mankind; since its virtue is to invite the
soul to contemplation, and through contemplation to the desire
of heavenly things. Hence it hath been given us as a foretaste
and as an earnest; and it is of such power and worth that it
hath been accounted by sages as the first and most excellent of
all things to be loved; nay, they have called it the very seat, the
nest, the abode of love; of love, I say, which is the source and
fount of all human joys. For it we see a man forget himself;
and on beholding a face graced with this celestial gift, his limbs
will quake, his hair stand on end, and he will sweat and shiver
at the same time; just as one who, seeing on a sudden some
heavenly vision, is possessed by the divine frenzy; and when he
is come to himself worships it in his heart, and acknowledging it
as it were god, gives himself up as a victim and a sacrifice on
the altar of that fair lady's heart. "
Whereupon said Madonna Lampiada:-"Ah, Messer Celso, if
it will not weary you, do us a pleasure: tell us somewhat of this
beauty, and what should be the form of such a fair woman;
whereas these damsels have for some time urged me to entreat
this of you, and I have delayed to do it. But since you of your
own motion have begun to discourse of it, having increased my
desire you likewise have raised my courage; all the more since it
hath been told me that during the evening assembly held by my
sister last Carnival season, you spoke of the matter with those
ladies at such length that Madonna Agnoletta could talk of
## p. 5760 (#344) ###########################################
5760
AGNOLO FIRENZUOLA
nothing else for many days. So we pray you do us this favor,
for we have naught else to be busy about; and in this light
wind the heat of the day will be more delightfully spent by us
than by those below who are sporting or walking in the pleas-
aunce. "
Then answered Celso:-"Ay! To the end that Selvaggia, if
she hear aught said which is not to her mind, or if I omit
aught, may cry out that I am speaking ill of women; in which
I never take so great pleasure as I do in praising them, as she
has often known by experience, and yet hath never thanked me
for it. "
Translation of Clara Bell.
OF THE FOREHEAD AND TEMPLES
From Of the Beauty of Women'
C
ELSO-To return to the person of our image, I say that you,
Madonna Amororrisca, have a shape between lean and fat,
round and juicy and of the right proportions, wherein
we see suppleness and dexterity, with somewhat that is right
queenly. Your hue is not of that whiteness which verges on
pallor, but tinted with blood, after the fashion which the ancients.
prized. The person of a lady of high degree should move with
gravity and after a certain gentle manner which keeps it upright,
yet not stiff, so that we find in it that majesty whereof I lately
spoke. And inasmuch as you have most of all these things, we
are bound to give you Verdespina's hair; and now will seek a
forehead.
The forehead must be spacious; that is, wide and high, fair
and serene. The height, which is understood to be from where
the hair ends down to the confines of the eyebrows and the
nose, according to many writers should be the third part of the
face; the second part being measured to the upper lip, and
the third part all the rest, including the chin; -the height, then,
I say, must be equal to half the width, and it will be twice as
wide as the height; so that from the width we estimate the
height, and the height from the width. And we have said it
must be fair, since it must not be of an over-dull whiteness
without any lustre, but should shine after the manner of a mir-
ror; not by wetness, or by painting, or by foul washes like that
## p. 5761 (#345) ###########################################
AGNOLO FIRENZUOLA
5761
of Bovinetta, which, an it were fish to fry, might be worth a
farthing a pound more as not needing to be floured; howbeit, it
is not to be sold nor fried.
The line of the brow should not be all flat, but curved like
an arch toward the crown of the head, so gently that it is scarce
to be perceived; but from the boss of the temples it should
descend more straightly. Our poets speak of it as serene, and
with reason; since as the sky is serene when we see on it no
cloud nor any manner of spot, so the front, when it is clear and
open, without furrows or wrinkles or powders, is calm and tran-
quil, and may be rightly called serene; and whereas the sky
when it is serene engenders a certain contentment in the mind
of those who behold it, so the forehead which we call serene,
gives, through the eye, peace to the soul of those who gaze upon
it. As it is now with me, gazing on that of Madonna Lampiada,
which, having all the qualities I have enumerated, will do well.
to place beneath Verdespina's hair. And that serenity of which
I speak is the greater for the lustre of the eyes, they being
without the confines of the forehead indeed, and yet appearing.
as the two chief luminaries in the sky; and we will first speak of
the eyebrows.
Now, to speak of these, we will take as an example those of
Verdespina, who hath them in color like ebony; fine, and of
short, soft hairs, as though they were of the finest silk; and
from the middle to the ends they gently diminish, on one side.
towards the hollow or socket of the eye, by the nose, and on the
other toward that part which is near the ear, and where they end.
Next we come to the eye, which in every part of the visible
globe, or eyeball, excepting the pupil, must be white, slightly
tinged with the hue of flax, but so little as to be scarce per-
ceptible. The pupil, save only the circle which lies in the centre,
should not be perfectly black, albeit all the Greek and Latin
poets, and our own likewise, praise black eyes as with one
voice, and all are agreed that the goddess of beauty had them.
Nevertheless, those are not wanting who praise eyes which are
of the color of the sky, and that Venus had them so is to be
found written in certain trustworthy authors.
Among you there is a lady, reputed exceeding fair by me and
by many others, who, having such eyes, gains in grace thereby.
Nevertheless, common custom seems to have obtained that dark
tan or nut-brown eyes hold the first place among eyes of other
colors. Deep black is not much to be commended, since it tends
X-361
## p. 5762 (#346) ###########################################
5762
AGNOLO FIRENZUOLA
to a somewhat gloomy and cruel gaze; and nut brown, if dark,
gives a soft, bright, clear, and kindly gaze; and it lends to the
movement of the eyes I know not what alluring charm,- frank,
attractive, and keen, which I cannot better explain than by
pointing to those of Madonna Lampiada, to whom none of these
qualities are lacking. And besides this that has been said, and
again like Madonna Lampiada, the eyes must be large and full,
not concave nor hollow, for hollowness makes the gaze over-
proud, and fullness makes it sweet and modest. So Homer, de-
siring to praise the eyes of Juno, tells us that they were like
those of an ox, meaning thereby that they were round and full
and large. Many have said that they should be long, and others.
that they should be oval, which pleases me very well.
The eyelids, when they are white, with certain delicate rosy
veins, hardly to be seen, are a great aid to the general beauty of
the eye; and the lashes should be thin and not over-long and
not white, since, besides being ill-favored, they impair the sight.
Nor would I have them very black, which makes the gaze fierce.
The socket which surrounds the eye is not to be very deep, nor
too large, nor different in color from the cheek; and let ladies
who paint be on their guard, those, I would say, who are
brown,- since this part is very often unapt to take the paint or
the plastering by reason of its hollow shape, or to retain it by
reason of the motion of the eyelashes, and thus makes a division
which looks very ill. Madonna Theofila's neighbor often falls
into this error.
The ears, which should be tinted rather of the hue of pale
rubies than of red ones, and which we will paint like the balcony
rose, and not the damask, I will borrow from you, Selvaggia.
For their perfect beauty, as we see in yours, a middle size is to
be desired, with the shell finely turned, and of a livelier hue than
the flat part; and the roll which borders them all round must be
transparent and of a brilliant hue like the seed of a pomegranate.
Above all, if they be soft and thin their beauty is spoiled; hence,
as they are seen in her, they should be firm and well set on.
Of the temples there is little to be said save that they must
be white and flat, not hollow; not over-full and moist, nor so
narrow as to seem to press on the brain, which would signify a
weakness of the brain. And they are beautiful when they re-
semble those of Madonna Amororrisca. And the manner of lay-
ing the hair over them, higher or lower, curled or drawn smooth.
thicker or thinner, enlarges or diminishes the temples and makes
## p. 5763 (#347) ###########################################
AGNOLO FIRENZUOLA
5763
them wider or narrower, longer or shorter, as we may desire, or
as a little flower shall confine it.
Madonna Lampiada-When I was a girl we did not love to
dress our heads as many of our maidens do nowadays, putting
so many flowers and leaves that they often resemble a jar full
of gilliflowers or marjoram; nay, some might be a quarter of kid
on the spit, since they will even wear rosemary, which to me
seems the most graceless thing in the world. And you, Messer
Celso, how seems it to you?
Celso I like it not, if I am to tell the truth; and this mis-
take arises from their not knowing for what reason the ancients
would wear a flower above the ear. I speak of gentlewomen,
since the peasant women, having no other jewels nor pearls, load
themselves, as you know, with flowers, without order, fashion, or
number; and in them this excess becomes beauty.
Madonna Lampiada-Meseems that even gentle ladies may
have worn flowers for their more homely adornment, instead of
pearls and gold; inasmuch as not all our peers have wherewithal
to attire themselves with the gems of the Orient or the sands of
Tagus, and so it was needful to use the riches of the gardens of
our own land. But each one having tried to outdo the others,
they seem sometimes as if they had a garland or quintain about
the face. And waters and powders were in those days invented,
to remove pimples and moles and other such stains, but to-day
they are used to paint and whiten the whole face, just as lime
and plaster cover the face of a wall; and peradventure those
foolish maids believe that men, whom they seek to please, do not
discern this foulness, which I would have them to know wears
them out and makes them grow old before their time, and de-
stroys their teeth, while they seem to be wearing a mask all the
year through. Look now at Mona Bettola Gagliani; what do you
think of her? The more she paints and the more she dresses up
the older she seems; nay, she is like a gold ducat that hath lain
in aquafortis. And it would not be thus if she had not used
washes so much when she was young. I, for my part, if I am
still well preserved (which indeed I know not, but it shall suffice
that others say so) it is from no cause but that water from the
well has ever been my wash, and shall be that of my daughter
so long as she tarries with me; afterwards, it must be her hus-
band's care.
Translation of Clara Bell.
## p. 5764 (#348) ###########################################
5764
AGNOLO FIRENZUOLA
OF THE HAND
From Of the Beauty of Women'
HE hand, which all declare to be perfect in you (to you I say
it, Selvaggia, so hide it not), must likewise be white chiefly
on the outer side, large enough and somewhat fat, the palm
hollow and tinted with rose; the lines must be clear, few, distinct,
firmly drawn, not crossing nor entangled, the mounts of Jupiter,
Venus, and Mercury plainly to be seen, yet not over-high; the
line of the intellect and wit should be deep and clear and crossed
by no other. The hollow that lies between the thumb and mid-
dle finger must be shapely, without wrinkles, and brightly tinted.
The fingers are beautiful when they are long, fine, and slender,
tapering somewhat towards the tip, yet so little as to be scarce
perceptible. The nails transparent, like pale rubies among pink
roses and the leaves of the pomegranate flower; not long, not
round nor altogether square, but of a fair shape and with a very
little boss, uncovered, clean and well kept, so that at the base the
little white crescent is visible. Above, beyond the flesh of the
finger, an edge should be seen, as wide as a small knife is thick,
without the smallest suspicion of a rim of black at the tip. And
the whole hand must be of a tender, firm surface, as though it
were of fine silk or the softest cotton. And this is all it occurs
to me to say of the arms and hands. Now this image will no
longer be like that in the piazza; but behold the thing she was
compared with! You are indeed one of those sharp thorns which
get in between the nail and the flesh, and if green, of the harder
heart; and it is well for me that I have a good needle to with-
draw it withal.
Selvaggia-Now, meseems, your picture is like those which
are wrought by the hands of a good master; and to tell the truth,
it is a most beautiful thing, so that if I were a man, whereas I
am a woman, I should be constrained like a second Pygmalion to
fall in love with her. And do not think that I call her beautiful
only to signify that the parts which we have given her are the
occasion of it, seeing that the adornments and graces you have
bestowed on her might have made even the wife of Jacopo Caval-
laccio seem fair. Since I (to speak only of myself), if I had so
fair a bosom as you have described, should not yield to Helen
nor Venus for beauty.
## p. 5765 (#349) ###########################################
AGNOLO FIRENZUOLA
5765
Celso -You have it indeed, and you know it; there is no need
to make so many words about it. Good luck to you, and to him
who may some day be worthy to behold it. And of a truth when
that friend of mine composed a fine Elegy in its praise, having
so fine a thread, it was no great marvel that he filled so fair a
cloth. But to give our chimera the crowning perfection, that
nothing may be lacking to her, you, Madonna Lampiada, will give
her that witchery that sparkles in your eyes and that fine air
which pervades the perfect proportion of your person; you, Ma-
donna Amororrisca, will give her the queenly majesty of your
person and the cheerfulness of your honest and modest gaze, that
serious gait, that dignified countenance, and that gentle gracious-
ness which delight all who behold them. Selvaggia will lend her
a calm seemliness, an inviting charm, an honest yet bewitching,
a severe yet sweet attractiveness, with that pitying cruelty which
all are constrained to praise albeit none desire it. You, Verdes-
pina, shall bestow the grace which makes you so dear; that readi-
ness and sweetness of gay speech, subtle, honest, and gracious.
Wit and the other gifts and virtues of the mind we do not need,
inasmuch as we have described only the beauties of the body and
not those of the spirit, for which a better painter than I am is
needed, better colors and a better brush than those of my poor
wit, albeit your example is no less sufficient for that kind of
beauty than for the other.
And thus without more words their discourse ended, and each
one returned to his own home.
Translation of Clara Bell.
## p. 5766 (#350) ###########################################
5766
KUNO FISCHER
(1824-)
BY RICHARD JONES
UNO FISCHER of Heidelberg, one of the most brilliant and
stimulating of living university professors, the great his-
torian and interpreter of modern philosophy, is distinguished
likewise as an expositor and interpreter of some of the greater liter-
ature of the modern world. Indeed, his first published work, 'Dio-
tima, oder die Idee des Schönen,' was an excursion into the realm of
æsthetics; and his poetic sympathies, oratorical fervor and eloquence,
and the literary charm of his interpretations, have contributed no less
than his profound philosophic insight toward
drawing to him university students from all
parts of the world, from the beginning of his
distinguished university career.
KUNO FISCHER
The son of a country pastor, he was born
July 23d, 1824, at Sandewalde in the province
of Silesia. He attended the Gymnasium of
Posen, and began in 1844 his university stud-
ies, philology, theology, and philosophy; first
at Leipsic, then at Halle, where he received
the degree of doctor of philosophy in 1847. In
the Michaelmas semester of 1850 he began his
instruction in philosophy as privatdocent in the
University of Heidelberg. His lectures were
from the first exceptionally successful, but in 1853 he was forbidden
by a ministerial edict from continuing his university instruction. No
reason was assigned for this arbitrary act, which aroused deep indig-
nation in university circles throughout Germany as a serious infringe-
ment of the "Lehrfreiheit," the unrestricted freedom of thought and
of teaching so dear to the German university professor's heart. He
remained amid the beautiful surroundings of Heidelberg, enjoying the
friendship of Strauss and of Gervinus, improving his enforced leisure
by working on his history of philosophy, -the volume which appeared
in 1856, and which serves as an Introduction to the history proper;
viz. , Francis Bacon und seine Nachfolger' (Francis Bacon and his
Successors), receiving the compliment of an immediate translation
## p. 5767 (#351) ###########################################
KUNO FISCHER
5767
into English.
In the autumn of 1855 Fischer requested permission to
lecture in the University of Berlin, but on account of the Heidelberg
proscription this request was refused by the Prussian Minister of Edu-
cation. However, in response to a petition of the faculty of the Uni-
versity of Berlin, an order was issued by the King in September 1856,
granting their request that Fischer be permitted to lecture. But in
the mean time he had received a call to the chair of philosophy at
Jena, made famous by Fichte and Schelling and Hegel. This call he
accepted. Here his lectures were again extraordinarily successful.
Students flocked to Jena as they had not done since the days of
Schiller, Schelling, and Fichte. He was made Privy Councilor of the
Duke, and was the recipient of many honors. In 1870 he declined a
call to the University of Vienna, but in 1872 he accepted a call to
the University of Heidelberg as Zeller's successor, where he has since
remained, the brightest ornament of the oldest university within the
present limits of Germany.
His literary work has been done in the two fields of philosophic
and literary exposition and interpretation. His 'Geschichte der Neu-
ern Philosophie' (History of Modern Philosophy) is now become, after
successive enlargements in several editions, a monumental work,
famous for the clearness and beauty of its literary style no less than
for its philosophic insight and sympathetic interpretation. Kuno
Fischer's method is not to give in brief the essence of a philosophic
system, the substance of Kant, for example. He gives, on the con-
trary, Kant amplified, interpreted, illustrated. He states lucidly that
which Kant himself stated obscurely, and illumines the Cimmerian
darkness of the Critique of Pure Reason' by a remarkably clear and
successful interpretation, which has influenced profoundly philosophic
thought during the closing decades of the nineteenth century.
His treatment of philosophic systems is colored with life by sympa-
thetic recitals of the lives and characters of the men who founded
these systems. As an introduction, for example, to the philosophy
of Leibnitz, there is given a full account of the life and times of
Leibnitz, closing with a description of his death, alone and friend-
less. This great many-sided genius, until Kant came the greatest
mind since Aristotle, world-renowned, who had served his king for
forty years, died neglected and solitary, practically imprisoned, set to
a task, yearning for the green fields, a change of scene, and liberty,
and no one knows to this day the spot where he lies buried,- a
striking theme for a philosopher-poet, who is by nature an orator,
"musical as is Apollo's lute. " To hearers or readers who have
learned thus to know the man Leibnitz, the system of thought of the
philosopher Leibnitz can never be thereafter a mere lifeless ab-
straction.
## p. 5768 (#352) ###########################################
5768
KUNO FISCHER
Even the distinctively philosophical works of Kuno Fischer are full
of literary charm. They are clear and lucid statements of moment-
ous truths, warm with emotion and glowing with life through his
vivid appreciation of the greatness of the theme. Since, as Disraeli
has said, "Philosophy becomes poetry, and science imagination, in
the enthusiasm of genius," so Kuno Fischer's readers, and especially
his hearers, yield ready assent to Milton's lines:-
"How charming is divine philosophy!
Not harsh and crabbed, as dull fools suppose,
But musical as is Apollo's lute,
And a perpetual feast of nectar'd sweets,
Where no crude surfeit reigns. »
Kuno Fischer's expositions and interpretations of literature relate
largely to the works of Shakespeare, Lessing, Goethe, and Schiller.
His method has been described in detail by Hugo Falkenheim in his
volume 'Kuno Fischer und die Litterarhistorische Methode. ' As an
interpreter of literature, Fischer does not evolve his interpretations.
out of his inner consciousness; but as a philosopher and a historian
of thought, he is able to distinguish from unessential details the
ruling idea which is at the basis of a poem, and to illustrate the use
which has been made of this idea by other poets, elsewhere and in
other times.
The first volume of his Goethe's Faust' (Vol. i. , Faust Litera-
ture before Goethe'; Vol. ii. , Goethe's Faust, its Origin, Idea, and
Composition') has been translated into English by Harry Riggs Wol-
cott, of the University of Heidelberg. 'Die Erklärungsarten des
Goetheschen Faust' (Goethe's Faust; Methods of Exposition) has been
translated by Professor Richard Jones, of the University of the State
of New York, for the publications of the English Goethe Society. His
commentary on Kant's Critique of Pure Reason' was translated and
edited by Professor J. P. Mahaffy, of the University of Dublin, in 1866.
His 'Critique of Kant' has been translated by Professor W. S. Hough
for the Journal of Speculative Philosophy, edited by Dr. William T.
Harris. Professor J. P. Gordy of Ohio University has translated the
first two volumes of the History of Modern Philosophy,' including
Descartes and his school, and also the Introduction, which gives an
outline of Grecian philosophy and of the philosophy of the Middle
Ages, of the Renaissance, and of the Reformation. 'Francis Bacon
and his Successors' is a translation of his work on Bacon by John
Oxenford (London, 1857). Other translations are in preparation.
Richard Jones
## p. 5769 (#353) ###########################################
KUNO FISCHER
5769
THE MOTIVE TO PHILOSOPHY
From the History of Modern Philosophy'
P
HILOSOPHY is a love for wisdom, a striving after truth.
this striving is philosophy. A progressive culture-process
can be comprehended only by a progressive knowledge-
process. The human spirit is this progressive culture-process; phi-
losophy is this progressive knowledge-process, the self-knowledge
of the human spirit. This self-knowledge of the human spirit
is the fundamental theme of all systems of philosophy. The
problem of philosophy is to see the meaning of the forms of
culture, to grasp their inner motives, and to make clear what
they are and what is their aim. The problem is the more diffi-
cult, the richer and more manifold the world of culture becomes.
The animating principles of men are so various that conflicting
systems of philosophy arise, each of which expresses one phase
of these animating principles. This phase must be co-ordinated,
in order to solve the philosophical problem of the age. But
there are ruling tendencies of the time; so there arise in philos-
ophy ruling systems.
Moreover, this explanation of the spirit of history, which is
the province of philosophy, is always more than a mere exposi-
tion.
Philosophy bears the same relation to the history of the
human spirit as does our self-knowledge to our life. In what
consists the act of self-observation? We withdraw from the outer
world which has occupied us, and busy ourselves with ourselves.
We make our own life a subject of observation, just as the artist
views the work arising under his hand. He lays down his tools
and steps back from his work, and from a suitable point of view
surveys the whole.
The eye of the critical artist sees otherwise
than the eye of the artist lost in his work. He now discovers
faults which were before unseen. He sees want of proportion in
the parts; there a limb is too prominent for a symmetrical whole.
By this opportune examination he sees now wherein one har-
monizes with all, and what destroys the harmony. What shall
the artist do? Abandon the work because many faults appear?
Shall he not rather again grasp the tools, and in accordance
with the right idea which he in a moment of criticism conceived,
now correctly and better labor?
Let us apply the illustration: The artists are ourselves; the
artistic work is our lives; the critical look which judges the work
Even
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is the self-observation which interrupts the process of living. We
withdraw from the life which we have until that moment lived;
and as the artist makes his work, we make our lives our subject
of observation and win thereby a better knowledge of ourselves.
We thereby separate ourselves from our past life-conditions, and
shall never again return to the same. So self-observation deter-
mines the moment when one life-period closes and a new one
begins. It makes a crisis in our development, a turning-point or
epoch in our lives.
We free ourselves from our passions as soon
as we think. We cease to feel them so soon as we begin to ob-
serve them. In this lies the whole importance of self-knowledge,
the crisis which it works in our lives. We are no more ruled by
our previous life-conditions; we are no more what we were. So
an earnest observation of self is always a fundamental freeing
and renewal of our lives, a crisis which separates the present
from the past and prepares for the future. The act of self-
observation is in our own life what the monologue is in the
drama. The action withdraws from the confusing stage of the
outer world into the innermost soul, and here in silence, in delib-
eration with self, the problem is considered and solved.
Such moments are wanting in the life of no spiritually active
being, and every one finds them in his own experience. It is
impossible that we shall always continue in the conditions of life
and culture which have hitherto ruled us; our interest in them
ceases to satisfy us. A feeling of satiety, of dissatisfaction, makes
itself always more actively and painfully felt, and at last we re-
main alone with ourselves. We are estranged from our previous
life-conditions; we begin to reflect concerning ourselves, concern-
ing the problem of our being, concerning the problem of the
world; we begin to philosophize,- so far as we are able, so far
as our culture permits.
I have portrayed out of the experience and development of
a single life, the soul-condition in which the will is inclined to
reflection and self-observation, and which germinates the first
motive to philosophy. It is the moment when, in fervid souls, a
passionate longing awakens to know philosophy and to receive
from her the satisfaction which life, mere activity, no more pro-
vides.
To that important part which, in the development of the
individual, self-observation plays, there correspond in the life of
the race the dominant systems of philosophy. They not merely
## p. 5771 (#355) ###########################################
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5771
accompany the progress of the human spirit, they influence this
progress by making subjects of observation out of hitherto ruling
life-conditions. They free the world from this rule. They per-
fect the present form of culture and prepare for the new. They
work as world-historical factors, through which the great systems
of culture live out their life and great culture crises are brought
about.
We see the history of philosophy in its true light, when we
recognize in it the course of development in which the necessary
problems of humanity are with all distinctness defined, and so
solved that out of every solution there arise in progressive order
ever new and deeper problems.
Translated for 'A Library of the World's Best Literature,' by Professor
Richard Jones
FROM GOETHE'S FAUST: THE METHODS OF EXPOSITION>
I. THE AGE WHEN THE POEM WAS WRITTEN
IN
N 1813 Goethe, wishing to express anew and more compre-
hensively than ever before, his appreciation of the poet to
whom his highest admiration was ever devoted, took for his
theme the words "Shakespeare without end. " "So much has
already been said concerning Shakespeare that it might appear
as though there were nothing more to say, and yet it is the
nature of his mind that he always arouses mental activity in
others. " The same is also true of Goethe himself and of his
'Faust. ' The world will never cease to read Dante's world-poem,
for the subject of which it treats is a theme of eternal moment,—
the guilt, the purification, and the salvation of man.
The same
is true of the importance and abiding influence of Goethe's
'Faust. ' It would betray an ignorance of world-literature and of
its worth should one in a tone of irritation exclaim, "Goethe's
'Faust' without end. "
This poem roots itself deep in the past, and is not of less
worth because it grew out of the 'Volksbücher' and popular
plays; for in the realm of poetry the worth of a popular origin
is fully recognized. The age in which it was written, the stamp
of which the poem bears, was one of the richest in ideas and in
deeds which man has ever seen; and never before has such an
## p. 5772 (#356) ###########################################
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5772
age developed in so short a time. When the 'Fragment' of our
'Faust' appeared, the French Revolution had just begun; it had
run its course and had given birth to a Cæsar, who was already
the ruler of the world when the First Part of 'Faust' saw the
light of day. In the same year Napoleon appeared in Erfurt,
where he called to him the author of 'Werther' and advised him
to compose a Cæsar,' since the destiny of the world now lay in
politics.
When Goethe was asked which one among modern philoso-
phers he considered the greatest, he answered, "Kant, unquestion-
ably; for he is the one whose doctrine proves permanent and has
penetrated most deeply into our German culture. " Contempora-
neous with the origin of Kant's 'Critique of Pure Reason' was
the origin of Goethe's 'Faust. ' Contemporaneous with the 'Cri-
tique of the Judgment,' Kant's last great work, appeared the
'Fragment. ' The Königsberg philosopher stood at that time at
the summit of his mental activity. The philosophers Fichte,
Schelling, and Hegel had followed him and had filled the world
with their ideas, when Goethe published in 1808 the First Part
of his 'Faust. ' Some seventy poems have dared to vie with it,
but in the light of the great star have quickly paled. No one
of these had the power so to express and reveal the spiritual
fullness of this age, rich in thought and events, as did Goethe's
'Faust. ' All influential thinkers of the time compared their
ideas with this work, and endeavored to show their spiritual re-
lationship with the same, in order thereby to establish their own
worth and import.
•
It is impossible that a poem which rules so great a past and
present, and which has so great a following, should be so short-
lived that scarcely two generations after its completion it has
lived out its life, its fundamental thought exhausted. Indeed,
the vast and always growing number of expositions of Goethe's
'Faust' proves to us that the world desires an interpretation of
this work, and that the attempts hitherto made have either failed
in their purpose or have not solved the problem completely and
fundamentally enough. It may, I trust, be permitted me in the
present discourse, so far as the time permits, to examine into
the nature of these attempts and to pass judgment upon them.
## p. 5773 (#357) ###########################################
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5773
II. THE PHILOSOPHICAL METHOD OF INTERPRETATION
THE kernel of all Faust literature is a religious fable. A
nobly striving and highly gifted man, impelled by thirst for
truth and also for the pleasures of the world, becomes untrue to
the service of God, strives after the powers of magic, calls up
the Devil and subscribes to him his soul, which shall remain
forever in hell after he has enjoyed a proud and wanton world-
career. This fable contains, even in its rudest form, momentous
thoughts concerning the struggle between good and evil in the
heart of man, concerning the motives to guilt and destruction,-
clearly the profoundest themes both of religion and of philos-
ophy.
In the course of the sixteenth century, the age of the German
new birth of Christianity and of ancient art, there arose under
the influence of the religious and philosophical ideas of that time
the myth of Doctor Faust, whose religious tendency stamped it-
self clearly in the 'Volksbücher. ' In the years from 1771-1831,-
an age deeply moved by religious and philosophical ideas, the
greatest age of German philosophy, reaching from the beginning
of the epoch of Kant to the death of Hegel,-there arose, de-
veloped, and was completed, Goethe's 'Faust. ' The old fable of
the German magician of the sixteenth century, and the new ideas
of German philosophy which stirred the last generation of the
eighteenth century and the first generation of the nineteenth,—
these are the elements our poem must needs take up and unite;
for it could deny neither its inheritance nor its birth. Therefore
this work is by virtue of its origin a religious and philosophical
poem, which cannot be thoroughly comprehended without a
knowledge of the ideas contained therein. The meaning of this
poem was and still is, therefore, a philosophical problem.
Therefore the first attempts at interpretation, which followed
immediately upon the publication of the poem, took this direc-
tion. Their problem was to explain the fable of our 'Faust'
and to find its moral. This was considered as the fundamental
idea, which was intended to be allegorically portrayed in the
persons and events of the poem. So the philosophical interpre-
tation became allegorical interpretation, and then forced and
absurd interpretations. The entire poem appeared at last like a
magic sphere, wherein one could no more trust his senses, but
must look upon the most natural things as something entirely
## p. 5774 (#358) ###########################################
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5774
different from what they seemed to be. One was taught the
recondite signification of the pedestrians before the gate, of the
dance under the linden tree, of the rat which gnawed the penta-
gram, of the revelers in Auerbach's cellar, of the wine which
flowed from the table, of the jewel casket in Gretchen's press, of
the bunch of keys and the night lamp with which Faust entered
Gretchen's prison, and of various other similar riddles.
It was
even asked, What is the meaning of Gretchen?
The fundamental error of all these interpretations was that
they assumed as the basis of the poem a wholly invented, en-
tirely original, not partly inherited, fundamental idea; in accord-
ance with which, it was said, the poem grew,-i. e. , the fable
grew out of the moral. However, concerning this fundamental
idea the interpreters were by no means agreed. But they inter-
preted the poem as though Goethe had himself wholly invented.
his Faust legend, and had then completed the poem in accord-
ance with the requirements of the invented legend, according to
one plan and in a white heat of composition; whereas in truth
the Faust legend was already two centuries old when Goethe
appropriated it, and Goethe's 'Faust' was two generations old
when it was brought to completion.
The problem could not be solved by these methods of inter-
pretation, because of the underlying false conceptions of the
origin and production of the poem.
IV. THE EXTREME POSITIONS TAKEN BY BOTH SCHOOLS
OVER against the earlier philosophical — i. e. , allegorical — in-
terpretations I have placed the historical investigations of to-day,
and shown how widely the latter method has extended its ques-
tions and subdivided into so many individual investigations.
Opposed as are their tendencies, so also are the byways into
which both methods of interpretation get astray. If the allego-
rists consult tradition not at all, or too little at least, and prefer
to ascribe everything to the assumed inventions of the poet, so
on the other hand, many of the historical expositors of to-day
are inclined to exaggerate tradition to such an extent that they
would leave nothing to the ideas and power of invention of the
poet. The former would, if possible, make everything invented;
the latter make everything borrowed. We find that the former
ascribed to the poet of Faust' ideas,- the latter borrowings,-
of which he never thought. Here extremes meet.
## p. 5775 (#359) ###########################################
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5775
VIII. THE RELIGIOUS IDEA OF THE POEM
I HAVE attempted to show the directions which the expositions
of Goethe's 'Faust' have taken, by the philosophic methods of
exposition as well as by the historical and the philological. The
poem needs an explanation of the entire circumference of its
ideas, as well as of its origin, which can succeed only when
both methods of exposition-the philosophical as well as the
historical, which includes also the philological-are united. Sep-
arated from each other, neither takes the right way. The philo-
sophical consideration which to-day deserves this name is itself
of a historical nature. It must recognize, through the course of
development of the poet, the ideas which have in truth inspired
and filled his work. Where the poem itself takes the form of
allegory, the philosophical interpretation must proceed allegori-
cally. It must ask, for example, What means the Witches'
Kitchen, the Witches' Sabbath, the Mothers, the Homunculus, the
classical Walpurgis Night?
The legend of Faust was a religious fable, and its theme was
the guilt and condemnation of a nobly striving man entangled
in the pleasures of the world. Goethe's 'Faust' is a religious
poem, and its theme is the guilt and purification of a high-
minded man, whom the pleasures of the world entice and sweep
along but never satisfy. Were this non-satisfaction the final
theme of the 'Faust,' as is commonly held, I should not call the
poem a religious poem. It would then be merely pessimistic, as
are the poems of Byron. There is a religious view of the mis-
ery in the world and a pessimistic view; the latter finds the
world evil because it is not rich enough in enjoyment. This
pessimism, which in our day is the fashion, is at bottom nothing
but unsatisfied pleasure-seeking.
This was not the view of Goethe, not that of his 'Faust. ' In
his second monologue he portrays the wretchedness of human
existence in a manner which can be compared only with the
famous monologue of Hamlet. To Faust also, death appears to
be a goal to be desired most fervently. He wishes to shuffle off
the mortal coil of life as a burden. Then the Easter song
moves him with admonition. Life is no burden; it is a test,-a
painful but a wholesome one!
"Christ is ascended!
Bliss hath invested him,-
## p. 5776 (#360) ###########################################
5776
KUNO FISCHER
more.
Woes that molested him,
Trials that tested him,
Gloriously ended! "
Life has the importance of a trial which is to be endured by
continued purification: this is the fundamental religious thought
which Goethe introduces into his 'Faust' tragedy in the 'Prologue
in Heaven,' and makes it the theme of the same. He permits
his Faust' to strive upward, and reach a height where the
enjoyments of the world and the evil of the world touch him no
Upon this height he answers the tempter who places before
his eyes the glories and enjoyments of the world:-"Base and
modern Sardanapalus! Enjoyment makes common! "
From this height he says to Care, who paints to him again.
the misery of the world, "I will not recognize you. " The energy
of endeavor and striving is not to be dispirited by the misery of
life's cares. There is a genuine and real non-satisfaction; it
springs not from the misery of the world, but from the wants
and weakness of one's own powers:
"Firm let him stand, and look around him well!
This World means something to the Capable.
In marching onwards, bliss and torment find,
Though every moment with unsated mind! »
However, it is not the province of this address to go into the
course of development of the poem itself, since I only wished to
present and to criticize the methods of exposition. The work
progressed with the poet and with his views of life, and it was
two generations of men in coming into being.
In order to appre-
ciate it correctly, and to apprehend the ideas which this world-
poem presents, let us take as a prototype that view of the
world, full of love, which the Lord in the Prologue commends
to his own:-
"But ye, God's sons in love and duty,
Enjoy the rich, the ever-living Beauty!
Creative Power, that works eternal schemes,
Clasp you in bonds of love, relaxing never,
And what in wavering apparition gleams
Fix in its place with thoughts that stand forever! "
Translated for A Library of the World's Best Literature,' by Professor
Richard Jones
## p. 5777 (#361) ###########################################
5777
JOHN FISKE
(1842-)
OHN FISKE was born in Hartford, Connecticut, March 30th,
1842, the son of Edmund Brewster Green, of Smyrna, Dela-
ware. The son's name was originally Edmund Fiske Green;
but in 1855 he took the name of his maternal great-grandfather John
Fiske. His father had died, and his mother had been married to
Edwin W. Stoughton, a distinguished lawyer, since known as United
States Minister to Russia. An authentic account shows him to have
been a boy of extraordinary industry and
acquisition. Thus, at thirteen, he had read
a great deal of the best Latin literature.
He could read Plato and Herodotus at sight
when fifteen years old. A little later he
took up in rapid succession French, Italian,
Portuguese, Hebrew, and Sanskrit. His
studies in science and mathematics were as
extensive as in the languages. During his
college course the young man is said to
have averaged throughout the year fifteen
hours of study daily. He was graduated at
Harvard in 1863, and at the Harvard Law
School in 1865. Mr. Fiske has never prac-
ticed law, however, his preferences for
literary life having declared themselves early. He had married
while in the law school, and was even then using his pen for the
support of his family.
JOHN FISKE
John Fiske's career as an author began with the publication, when
he was nineteen years of age, of an article on Buckle, in which he
made an exposition of the fallacies of that writer; which is as good
to-day as at the time it was written. For two years, from 1869 to
1871, he was a lecturer on philosophy at Harvard. He was after-
wards assistant librarian of that university, and has since served as
a member of the board of overseers. The most serious work of his
earlier years was his 'Outlines of Cosmic Philosophy,' in which he
appeared as an expounder of the philosophy of Herbert Spencer.
was written with that attractive lucidity which characterizes all his
books. Darwin wrote him, "I never in my life read so lucid an
expositor (and therefore thinker) as you are. " This work claims only
X-362
## p. 5778 (#362) ###########################################
5778
JOHN FISKE
to be a representation of Spencer; but in the course of it Mr. Fiske
made one original contribution in support of the Darwinian theory,
which is now recognized to be of high importance. This concerns
the subject of infancy. The idea is that actions which in the case of
the simpler animals are matured before birth, must in the higher and
more complex animals be acquired after birth. Hence the necessity
of a period of infancy, to be prolonged in proportion to the degree
of elevation of the animal in the scale of existence.
-
Since the publication of his 'Cosmic Philosophy,' Mr. Fiske's la-
bors have been given almost entirely to history. That his attention
has been turned to American history seems to have been due to
chance. If it had been left to him to select a subject, he would
probably have chosen the conflicts of Christianity and Mohammedan-
ism on the shores of the Mediterranean- a theme that has always had
a special attraction for him. But this was not to be. In the late
seventies an effort, which proved to be successful, was made to save
the Old South Meeting-House in Boston. Had the attempt been made
earlier it would probably have failed. But the fate of John Hancock's
house had served as an example, and by 1879 people were begin-
ning to feel that this country had a history that deserved attention.
Mr. Fiske was invited to deliver a course of lectures on American
political ideas at the Old South Meeting-House. Since that time he
has been writing American history. He has written The Beginnings
of New England,' 'The American Revolution,' 'The Critical Period
of the American Revolution,' etc. The book which perhaps has had
the widest attention is 'The Discovery of America. ' The first part
of this work is taken up with a description of the aboriginal society
which Columbus and his successors found on this continent. This
subject is closely connected with that of prehistoric society in Europe,
which attracted the writer very early in his career.
In 1869 he had sketched out a work on the early Aryans, when he
was turned aside for five years to write his 'Cosmic Philosophy. '
During that period he also wrote Myths and Myth-Makers,' as a side
work to his projected book on the Aryans. He again took up his
task in 1874, but laid it aside after he had reached the conclusion
that the subject could not be rightly treated without widening the
field of study. It was necessary to know more of the barbaric world.
With this view he set about the study of aboriginal American society,
with which, he contends, no other field can be compared for fruitful-
ness. The part of the 'Discovery of America' which treats of this
subject has great interest; but it is less generally attractive than his
narration of the romantic incidents and characters of the period of
discovery. Here we have at its best the writer's talent for clear
exposition and attractive narration. There is no better example of
## p. 5779 (#363) ###########################################
JOHN FISKE
5779
his literary powers than his account of the first voyage of Columbus.
It is worthy of the possibilities of the story. Of all stories with a
good ending, that, to an American mind at any rate, is perhaps the
best. If there is a piece of American literature which has taken a
strong hold of the popular mind, it is that chapter on the voyage of
Columbus in 'Peter Parley' now known to have been written by
Nathaniel Hawthorne. It is high praise of Mr. Fiske, to say that his
more elaborate version of the ever-delightful story is worthy of the
ideal of dramatic interest left by that youthful reading.
Besides his investigations upon history and politics, science and phi-
losophy, Mr. Fiske has also been an inquirer upon religious themes.
Perhaps none of his writings have attracted more attention or been
read with a livelier interest than two little books which set forth his
views on this subject. They were first delivered as addresses before
the Concord School of Philosophy. The aim of The Destiny of Man'
is to show that the theory of natural selection consists perfectly with
the highest conception that can be formed of the dignity of human
nature. It is true that the Darwinian theory made some such altera-
tion in the position of man in the creation as had been done by the
Copernican theory. With the establishment of the Copernican theory,
man ceased to be the center of the universe. Darwin's theory taught
him that even on this planet he had not a separate origin from the
rest of animal existence. This view was at first regarded as a great
derogation from human dignity. But Mr. Fiske claims that it accords
with the highest conception of man's position in the universe. Man,
and especially his spiritual part, is by this view made the goal to
which nature has been all the while tending. The origin of man is
fixed at that moment when psychical variations become of more use
than physical ones. With this period is connected consciousness, the
great increase of brain surface, and the necessity of a period of in-
fancy. To the length of infancy of the human being Mr. Fiske attrib-
utes the rise of the family. Then comes the rise of the clan. Then
comes the period when during some time of peace, the clan learns
to obtain food by agriculture instead of by hunting; and we have the
beginnings of the State.
Again, the gentler sentiments which we recognize in men, the altru-
istic feelings, are due to the existence of infancy. These sentiments
can have, however, only a very feeble and narrow existence during
the period when man is a nomad and hunter, and when the strife
for life is necessarily ferocious. Agriculture, on the other hand, has
been a great educator of the milder qualities of mankind. So long
as strife raged over food already in existence, such as game, the
supply of which was limited, the battle must necessarily be to the
uttermost. But from the soil mankind could get food without strife.
## p. 5780 (#364) ###########################################
5780
JOHN FISKE
War, however, still does not cease. The strife which formerly raged
among families and clans continues between nations. But strife is
nevertheless on the wane. This sentence of Mr. Fiske, written twelve
years ago, is of especial interest in view of recent discussions:-
"Sooner or later it [strife] must come to an end, and the pacific prin-
ciple of federacy, whereby the questions between States are settled
like questions between individuals, by due process of law, must reign
supreme over all the earth. " Original sin is, according to Mr.
would have paid little attention to the naïveté of the eye and the gravity of
the heart. The beauty of women which Firenzuola admires and analyzes is
exterior, plastic, and material. . . Many of Firenzuola's remarks may
seem perhaps a little vague and general, but they become less so when we
read them in connection with the monuments of plastic art contemporaneous
with the life of the writer. In the figures of the frescoes of Ghirlandajo, of
Piero della Francesca, of Antonio Bazzi, and more particularly in the marvel-
ous women that we admire in the frescoes and pictures of the Florentine
Botticelli, we recognize those refinements of bearing and expression of which
Firenzuola speaks; we divine an ideal of feminine beauty corresponding with
his; and we realize the charm of those high and pure foreheads shining
almost like a mirror. >>
IN THE GARDEN
From Of the Beauty of Women›
ELSO SELVAGGIO is a great friend of mine, and so much at
my service that I make bold to say he is in truth as my
second self. Hence, when I now set forth these his dis-
courses, albeit indeed he hath forbidden it, he will have patience
with me, inasmuch as that the love he bears me constrains him
to make my will his own, and all the more, since that which
constraineth him constraineth me. Now he, besides being a man
skilled in learning, is of no small judgment, and great courtesy
and highly accommodating to the desires of his friends; and for
all these reasons, being assured that he will make no difficulties,
I have set them forth as you see.
He found himself last summer in the garden of the Abbey of
Grignano, kept at that time by Vanazzo de Rochi, whither sev-
eral youths and maidens had betaken themselves for air, ladies
distinguished no less for their beauty and high degree than for
their many virtues; among them Madonna Lampiada, Madonnas
Amororrisca, Selvaggia, and Verdespina. They had withdrawn
to the summit of the hillock in the midst of that garden, over-
grown with cypress and laurel, where they tarried, disputing of
Madonna Amelia della Torrenuova, who likewise was in the
## p. 5758 (#342) ###########################################
• 5758
AGNOLO FIRENZUOLA
pleasaunce; and this one would have it that she was of the
greatest beauty, and that other that she was not even well fa-
vored, when Celso came up the mount with certain other youths
of Prato, the kindred of these ladies. And they, being thus
taken by surprise, were silent on a sudden. Then Celso making
excuse for having done them such discourtesy, the ladies gra-
ciously replied that their coming hither was most pleasing to
them, and they bid these gentlemen be seated on a bank over
against them; yet were they again silent.
Whereupon Celso spoke, saying:- "Fair ladies, either proceed
in your discourse, or dismiss us from your company, to the end
that we may not disturb your sport, but hit the ball as it
bounds. "
Then said Madonna Lampiada:-"Messer Celso, our discourse
was of women, wherefore it did not appear to us to be seemly
to continue it in your presence. This one said that Amelia was
not comely; I say that she is: thus we were disputing, after the
manner of ladies. "
To whom Celso replied:-"Madonna Selvaggia is in error, but
indeed she loves her not. In truth, that lady must ever be
accounted fair by all, nay, and most beautiful; and if she is not
to be deemed beautiful, I cannot see one in Prato who may be
called fair. ”
On this Selvaggia, somewhat wroth
replied: "Small judgment is needed in
each is of a different mind, and a brown skin is pleasing to one
and a white skin to another; and it is with us women as in a
draper's shop, where cloth from the Romagnuola finds a pur-
chaser no less than satin from Banello. "
-
as
rather
rather than pleased,
such a matter, since
"Well and good," quoth Celso; "but when we speak of a
beautiful woman we mean one whom all alike admire, and not
this one or that one only: thus Nora, so ill-favored as she is,
appears most pleasing in the sight of her Tomaso, albeit she is
uncomely as she possibly can be; and my gossip, who was
passing fair, her husband could not suffer. Peradventure it is
that certain complexions suit or suit not: but a lady fair in all
points, like yourself, must necessarily be pleasing to all, as you
are; albeit few are pleasing to you, as I know full well. It is
indeed the truth, that to be of perfect beauty many things are
needed, so that one is rarely found who possesseth the half of
them. "
## p. 5759 (#343) ###########################################
AGNOLO FIRENZUOLA
5759
Selvaggia then said: There are some among you men
whom the world itself would not satisfy. And I once heard it
said that one Momus, unable to find any fault in the beauty of
Venus, blamed some trifle in the fashion of her sandals. ”
Then said Verdespina: "Thus you see how he beheld her. "
And Celso, laughing, went on:-"Again, Stesichoros, a most
noble poet of Sicily, spoke evil of that Helen who by her
exceeding great beauty moved a thousand Greek ships to go
forth against the great kingdom of Troy. "
Then said Madonna Lampiada in haste:-"Ay, truly; but you
know that he thereupon lost his sight, and had it not again till
he denied his words. "
-
<<
-
"And so had his desert," added Celso, "inasmuch as that
beauty and fair women, and fair women and beauty, ought to be
lauded and held precious by all; seeing that a fair woman is the
fairest object that may be seen, and beauty the highest gift
bestowed by God on mankind; since its virtue is to invite the
soul to contemplation, and through contemplation to the desire
of heavenly things. Hence it hath been given us as a foretaste
and as an earnest; and it is of such power and worth that it
hath been accounted by sages as the first and most excellent of
all things to be loved; nay, they have called it the very seat, the
nest, the abode of love; of love, I say, which is the source and
fount of all human joys. For it we see a man forget himself;
and on beholding a face graced with this celestial gift, his limbs
will quake, his hair stand on end, and he will sweat and shiver
at the same time; just as one who, seeing on a sudden some
heavenly vision, is possessed by the divine frenzy; and when he
is come to himself worships it in his heart, and acknowledging it
as it were god, gives himself up as a victim and a sacrifice on
the altar of that fair lady's heart. "
Whereupon said Madonna Lampiada:-"Ah, Messer Celso, if
it will not weary you, do us a pleasure: tell us somewhat of this
beauty, and what should be the form of such a fair woman;
whereas these damsels have for some time urged me to entreat
this of you, and I have delayed to do it. But since you of your
own motion have begun to discourse of it, having increased my
desire you likewise have raised my courage; all the more since it
hath been told me that during the evening assembly held by my
sister last Carnival season, you spoke of the matter with those
ladies at such length that Madonna Agnoletta could talk of
## p. 5760 (#344) ###########################################
5760
AGNOLO FIRENZUOLA
nothing else for many days. So we pray you do us this favor,
for we have naught else to be busy about; and in this light
wind the heat of the day will be more delightfully spent by us
than by those below who are sporting or walking in the pleas-
aunce. "
Then answered Celso:-"Ay! To the end that Selvaggia, if
she hear aught said which is not to her mind, or if I omit
aught, may cry out that I am speaking ill of women; in which
I never take so great pleasure as I do in praising them, as she
has often known by experience, and yet hath never thanked me
for it. "
Translation of Clara Bell.
OF THE FOREHEAD AND TEMPLES
From Of the Beauty of Women'
C
ELSO-To return to the person of our image, I say that you,
Madonna Amororrisca, have a shape between lean and fat,
round and juicy and of the right proportions, wherein
we see suppleness and dexterity, with somewhat that is right
queenly. Your hue is not of that whiteness which verges on
pallor, but tinted with blood, after the fashion which the ancients.
prized. The person of a lady of high degree should move with
gravity and after a certain gentle manner which keeps it upright,
yet not stiff, so that we find in it that majesty whereof I lately
spoke. And inasmuch as you have most of all these things, we
are bound to give you Verdespina's hair; and now will seek a
forehead.
The forehead must be spacious; that is, wide and high, fair
and serene. The height, which is understood to be from where
the hair ends down to the confines of the eyebrows and the
nose, according to many writers should be the third part of the
face; the second part being measured to the upper lip, and
the third part all the rest, including the chin; -the height, then,
I say, must be equal to half the width, and it will be twice as
wide as the height; so that from the width we estimate the
height, and the height from the width. And we have said it
must be fair, since it must not be of an over-dull whiteness
without any lustre, but should shine after the manner of a mir-
ror; not by wetness, or by painting, or by foul washes like that
## p. 5761 (#345) ###########################################
AGNOLO FIRENZUOLA
5761
of Bovinetta, which, an it were fish to fry, might be worth a
farthing a pound more as not needing to be floured; howbeit, it
is not to be sold nor fried.
The line of the brow should not be all flat, but curved like
an arch toward the crown of the head, so gently that it is scarce
to be perceived; but from the boss of the temples it should
descend more straightly. Our poets speak of it as serene, and
with reason; since as the sky is serene when we see on it no
cloud nor any manner of spot, so the front, when it is clear and
open, without furrows or wrinkles or powders, is calm and tran-
quil, and may be rightly called serene; and whereas the sky
when it is serene engenders a certain contentment in the mind
of those who behold it, so the forehead which we call serene,
gives, through the eye, peace to the soul of those who gaze upon
it. As it is now with me, gazing on that of Madonna Lampiada,
which, having all the qualities I have enumerated, will do well.
to place beneath Verdespina's hair. And that serenity of which
I speak is the greater for the lustre of the eyes, they being
without the confines of the forehead indeed, and yet appearing.
as the two chief luminaries in the sky; and we will first speak of
the eyebrows.
Now, to speak of these, we will take as an example those of
Verdespina, who hath them in color like ebony; fine, and of
short, soft hairs, as though they were of the finest silk; and
from the middle to the ends they gently diminish, on one side.
towards the hollow or socket of the eye, by the nose, and on the
other toward that part which is near the ear, and where they end.
Next we come to the eye, which in every part of the visible
globe, or eyeball, excepting the pupil, must be white, slightly
tinged with the hue of flax, but so little as to be scarce per-
ceptible. The pupil, save only the circle which lies in the centre,
should not be perfectly black, albeit all the Greek and Latin
poets, and our own likewise, praise black eyes as with one
voice, and all are agreed that the goddess of beauty had them.
Nevertheless, those are not wanting who praise eyes which are
of the color of the sky, and that Venus had them so is to be
found written in certain trustworthy authors.
Among you there is a lady, reputed exceeding fair by me and
by many others, who, having such eyes, gains in grace thereby.
Nevertheless, common custom seems to have obtained that dark
tan or nut-brown eyes hold the first place among eyes of other
colors. Deep black is not much to be commended, since it tends
X-361
## p. 5762 (#346) ###########################################
5762
AGNOLO FIRENZUOLA
to a somewhat gloomy and cruel gaze; and nut brown, if dark,
gives a soft, bright, clear, and kindly gaze; and it lends to the
movement of the eyes I know not what alluring charm,- frank,
attractive, and keen, which I cannot better explain than by
pointing to those of Madonna Lampiada, to whom none of these
qualities are lacking. And besides this that has been said, and
again like Madonna Lampiada, the eyes must be large and full,
not concave nor hollow, for hollowness makes the gaze over-
proud, and fullness makes it sweet and modest. So Homer, de-
siring to praise the eyes of Juno, tells us that they were like
those of an ox, meaning thereby that they were round and full
and large. Many have said that they should be long, and others.
that they should be oval, which pleases me very well.
The eyelids, when they are white, with certain delicate rosy
veins, hardly to be seen, are a great aid to the general beauty of
the eye; and the lashes should be thin and not over-long and
not white, since, besides being ill-favored, they impair the sight.
Nor would I have them very black, which makes the gaze fierce.
The socket which surrounds the eye is not to be very deep, nor
too large, nor different in color from the cheek; and let ladies
who paint be on their guard, those, I would say, who are
brown,- since this part is very often unapt to take the paint or
the plastering by reason of its hollow shape, or to retain it by
reason of the motion of the eyelashes, and thus makes a division
which looks very ill. Madonna Theofila's neighbor often falls
into this error.
The ears, which should be tinted rather of the hue of pale
rubies than of red ones, and which we will paint like the balcony
rose, and not the damask, I will borrow from you, Selvaggia.
For their perfect beauty, as we see in yours, a middle size is to
be desired, with the shell finely turned, and of a livelier hue than
the flat part; and the roll which borders them all round must be
transparent and of a brilliant hue like the seed of a pomegranate.
Above all, if they be soft and thin their beauty is spoiled; hence,
as they are seen in her, they should be firm and well set on.
Of the temples there is little to be said save that they must
be white and flat, not hollow; not over-full and moist, nor so
narrow as to seem to press on the brain, which would signify a
weakness of the brain. And they are beautiful when they re-
semble those of Madonna Amororrisca. And the manner of lay-
ing the hair over them, higher or lower, curled or drawn smooth.
thicker or thinner, enlarges or diminishes the temples and makes
## p. 5763 (#347) ###########################################
AGNOLO FIRENZUOLA
5763
them wider or narrower, longer or shorter, as we may desire, or
as a little flower shall confine it.
Madonna Lampiada-When I was a girl we did not love to
dress our heads as many of our maidens do nowadays, putting
so many flowers and leaves that they often resemble a jar full
of gilliflowers or marjoram; nay, some might be a quarter of kid
on the spit, since they will even wear rosemary, which to me
seems the most graceless thing in the world. And you, Messer
Celso, how seems it to you?
Celso I like it not, if I am to tell the truth; and this mis-
take arises from their not knowing for what reason the ancients
would wear a flower above the ear. I speak of gentlewomen,
since the peasant women, having no other jewels nor pearls, load
themselves, as you know, with flowers, without order, fashion, or
number; and in them this excess becomes beauty.
Madonna Lampiada-Meseems that even gentle ladies may
have worn flowers for their more homely adornment, instead of
pearls and gold; inasmuch as not all our peers have wherewithal
to attire themselves with the gems of the Orient or the sands of
Tagus, and so it was needful to use the riches of the gardens of
our own land. But each one having tried to outdo the others,
they seem sometimes as if they had a garland or quintain about
the face. And waters and powders were in those days invented,
to remove pimples and moles and other such stains, but to-day
they are used to paint and whiten the whole face, just as lime
and plaster cover the face of a wall; and peradventure those
foolish maids believe that men, whom they seek to please, do not
discern this foulness, which I would have them to know wears
them out and makes them grow old before their time, and de-
stroys their teeth, while they seem to be wearing a mask all the
year through. Look now at Mona Bettola Gagliani; what do you
think of her? The more she paints and the more she dresses up
the older she seems; nay, she is like a gold ducat that hath lain
in aquafortis. And it would not be thus if she had not used
washes so much when she was young. I, for my part, if I am
still well preserved (which indeed I know not, but it shall suffice
that others say so) it is from no cause but that water from the
well has ever been my wash, and shall be that of my daughter
so long as she tarries with me; afterwards, it must be her hus-
band's care.
Translation of Clara Bell.
## p. 5764 (#348) ###########################################
5764
AGNOLO FIRENZUOLA
OF THE HAND
From Of the Beauty of Women'
HE hand, which all declare to be perfect in you (to you I say
it, Selvaggia, so hide it not), must likewise be white chiefly
on the outer side, large enough and somewhat fat, the palm
hollow and tinted with rose; the lines must be clear, few, distinct,
firmly drawn, not crossing nor entangled, the mounts of Jupiter,
Venus, and Mercury plainly to be seen, yet not over-high; the
line of the intellect and wit should be deep and clear and crossed
by no other. The hollow that lies between the thumb and mid-
dle finger must be shapely, without wrinkles, and brightly tinted.
The fingers are beautiful when they are long, fine, and slender,
tapering somewhat towards the tip, yet so little as to be scarce
perceptible. The nails transparent, like pale rubies among pink
roses and the leaves of the pomegranate flower; not long, not
round nor altogether square, but of a fair shape and with a very
little boss, uncovered, clean and well kept, so that at the base the
little white crescent is visible. Above, beyond the flesh of the
finger, an edge should be seen, as wide as a small knife is thick,
without the smallest suspicion of a rim of black at the tip. And
the whole hand must be of a tender, firm surface, as though it
were of fine silk or the softest cotton. And this is all it occurs
to me to say of the arms and hands. Now this image will no
longer be like that in the piazza; but behold the thing she was
compared with! You are indeed one of those sharp thorns which
get in between the nail and the flesh, and if green, of the harder
heart; and it is well for me that I have a good needle to with-
draw it withal.
Selvaggia-Now, meseems, your picture is like those which
are wrought by the hands of a good master; and to tell the truth,
it is a most beautiful thing, so that if I were a man, whereas I
am a woman, I should be constrained like a second Pygmalion to
fall in love with her. And do not think that I call her beautiful
only to signify that the parts which we have given her are the
occasion of it, seeing that the adornments and graces you have
bestowed on her might have made even the wife of Jacopo Caval-
laccio seem fair. Since I (to speak only of myself), if I had so
fair a bosom as you have described, should not yield to Helen
nor Venus for beauty.
## p. 5765 (#349) ###########################################
AGNOLO FIRENZUOLA
5765
Celso -You have it indeed, and you know it; there is no need
to make so many words about it. Good luck to you, and to him
who may some day be worthy to behold it. And of a truth when
that friend of mine composed a fine Elegy in its praise, having
so fine a thread, it was no great marvel that he filled so fair a
cloth. But to give our chimera the crowning perfection, that
nothing may be lacking to her, you, Madonna Lampiada, will give
her that witchery that sparkles in your eyes and that fine air
which pervades the perfect proportion of your person; you, Ma-
donna Amororrisca, will give her the queenly majesty of your
person and the cheerfulness of your honest and modest gaze, that
serious gait, that dignified countenance, and that gentle gracious-
ness which delight all who behold them. Selvaggia will lend her
a calm seemliness, an inviting charm, an honest yet bewitching,
a severe yet sweet attractiveness, with that pitying cruelty which
all are constrained to praise albeit none desire it. You, Verdes-
pina, shall bestow the grace which makes you so dear; that readi-
ness and sweetness of gay speech, subtle, honest, and gracious.
Wit and the other gifts and virtues of the mind we do not need,
inasmuch as we have described only the beauties of the body and
not those of the spirit, for which a better painter than I am is
needed, better colors and a better brush than those of my poor
wit, albeit your example is no less sufficient for that kind of
beauty than for the other.
And thus without more words their discourse ended, and each
one returned to his own home.
Translation of Clara Bell.
## p. 5766 (#350) ###########################################
5766
KUNO FISCHER
(1824-)
BY RICHARD JONES
UNO FISCHER of Heidelberg, one of the most brilliant and
stimulating of living university professors, the great his-
torian and interpreter of modern philosophy, is distinguished
likewise as an expositor and interpreter of some of the greater liter-
ature of the modern world. Indeed, his first published work, 'Dio-
tima, oder die Idee des Schönen,' was an excursion into the realm of
æsthetics; and his poetic sympathies, oratorical fervor and eloquence,
and the literary charm of his interpretations, have contributed no less
than his profound philosophic insight toward
drawing to him university students from all
parts of the world, from the beginning of his
distinguished university career.
KUNO FISCHER
The son of a country pastor, he was born
July 23d, 1824, at Sandewalde in the province
of Silesia. He attended the Gymnasium of
Posen, and began in 1844 his university stud-
ies, philology, theology, and philosophy; first
at Leipsic, then at Halle, where he received
the degree of doctor of philosophy in 1847. In
the Michaelmas semester of 1850 he began his
instruction in philosophy as privatdocent in the
University of Heidelberg. His lectures were
from the first exceptionally successful, but in 1853 he was forbidden
by a ministerial edict from continuing his university instruction. No
reason was assigned for this arbitrary act, which aroused deep indig-
nation in university circles throughout Germany as a serious infringe-
ment of the "Lehrfreiheit," the unrestricted freedom of thought and
of teaching so dear to the German university professor's heart. He
remained amid the beautiful surroundings of Heidelberg, enjoying the
friendship of Strauss and of Gervinus, improving his enforced leisure
by working on his history of philosophy, -the volume which appeared
in 1856, and which serves as an Introduction to the history proper;
viz. , Francis Bacon und seine Nachfolger' (Francis Bacon and his
Successors), receiving the compliment of an immediate translation
## p. 5767 (#351) ###########################################
KUNO FISCHER
5767
into English.
In the autumn of 1855 Fischer requested permission to
lecture in the University of Berlin, but on account of the Heidelberg
proscription this request was refused by the Prussian Minister of Edu-
cation. However, in response to a petition of the faculty of the Uni-
versity of Berlin, an order was issued by the King in September 1856,
granting their request that Fischer be permitted to lecture. But in
the mean time he had received a call to the chair of philosophy at
Jena, made famous by Fichte and Schelling and Hegel. This call he
accepted. Here his lectures were again extraordinarily successful.
Students flocked to Jena as they had not done since the days of
Schiller, Schelling, and Fichte. He was made Privy Councilor of the
Duke, and was the recipient of many honors. In 1870 he declined a
call to the University of Vienna, but in 1872 he accepted a call to
the University of Heidelberg as Zeller's successor, where he has since
remained, the brightest ornament of the oldest university within the
present limits of Germany.
His literary work has been done in the two fields of philosophic
and literary exposition and interpretation. His 'Geschichte der Neu-
ern Philosophie' (History of Modern Philosophy) is now become, after
successive enlargements in several editions, a monumental work,
famous for the clearness and beauty of its literary style no less than
for its philosophic insight and sympathetic interpretation. Kuno
Fischer's method is not to give in brief the essence of a philosophic
system, the substance of Kant, for example. He gives, on the con-
trary, Kant amplified, interpreted, illustrated. He states lucidly that
which Kant himself stated obscurely, and illumines the Cimmerian
darkness of the Critique of Pure Reason' by a remarkably clear and
successful interpretation, which has influenced profoundly philosophic
thought during the closing decades of the nineteenth century.
His treatment of philosophic systems is colored with life by sympa-
thetic recitals of the lives and characters of the men who founded
these systems. As an introduction, for example, to the philosophy
of Leibnitz, there is given a full account of the life and times of
Leibnitz, closing with a description of his death, alone and friend-
less. This great many-sided genius, until Kant came the greatest
mind since Aristotle, world-renowned, who had served his king for
forty years, died neglected and solitary, practically imprisoned, set to
a task, yearning for the green fields, a change of scene, and liberty,
and no one knows to this day the spot where he lies buried,- a
striking theme for a philosopher-poet, who is by nature an orator,
"musical as is Apollo's lute. " To hearers or readers who have
learned thus to know the man Leibnitz, the system of thought of the
philosopher Leibnitz can never be thereafter a mere lifeless ab-
straction.
## p. 5768 (#352) ###########################################
5768
KUNO FISCHER
Even the distinctively philosophical works of Kuno Fischer are full
of literary charm. They are clear and lucid statements of moment-
ous truths, warm with emotion and glowing with life through his
vivid appreciation of the greatness of the theme. Since, as Disraeli
has said, "Philosophy becomes poetry, and science imagination, in
the enthusiasm of genius," so Kuno Fischer's readers, and especially
his hearers, yield ready assent to Milton's lines:-
"How charming is divine philosophy!
Not harsh and crabbed, as dull fools suppose,
But musical as is Apollo's lute,
And a perpetual feast of nectar'd sweets,
Where no crude surfeit reigns. »
Kuno Fischer's expositions and interpretations of literature relate
largely to the works of Shakespeare, Lessing, Goethe, and Schiller.
His method has been described in detail by Hugo Falkenheim in his
volume 'Kuno Fischer und die Litterarhistorische Methode. ' As an
interpreter of literature, Fischer does not evolve his interpretations.
out of his inner consciousness; but as a philosopher and a historian
of thought, he is able to distinguish from unessential details the
ruling idea which is at the basis of a poem, and to illustrate the use
which has been made of this idea by other poets, elsewhere and in
other times.
The first volume of his Goethe's Faust' (Vol. i. , Faust Litera-
ture before Goethe'; Vol. ii. , Goethe's Faust, its Origin, Idea, and
Composition') has been translated into English by Harry Riggs Wol-
cott, of the University of Heidelberg. 'Die Erklärungsarten des
Goetheschen Faust' (Goethe's Faust; Methods of Exposition) has been
translated by Professor Richard Jones, of the University of the State
of New York, for the publications of the English Goethe Society. His
commentary on Kant's Critique of Pure Reason' was translated and
edited by Professor J. P. Mahaffy, of the University of Dublin, in 1866.
His 'Critique of Kant' has been translated by Professor W. S. Hough
for the Journal of Speculative Philosophy, edited by Dr. William T.
Harris. Professor J. P. Gordy of Ohio University has translated the
first two volumes of the History of Modern Philosophy,' including
Descartes and his school, and also the Introduction, which gives an
outline of Grecian philosophy and of the philosophy of the Middle
Ages, of the Renaissance, and of the Reformation. 'Francis Bacon
and his Successors' is a translation of his work on Bacon by John
Oxenford (London, 1857). Other translations are in preparation.
Richard Jones
## p. 5769 (#353) ###########################################
KUNO FISCHER
5769
THE MOTIVE TO PHILOSOPHY
From the History of Modern Philosophy'
P
HILOSOPHY is a love for wisdom, a striving after truth.
this striving is philosophy. A progressive culture-process
can be comprehended only by a progressive knowledge-
process. The human spirit is this progressive culture-process; phi-
losophy is this progressive knowledge-process, the self-knowledge
of the human spirit. This self-knowledge of the human spirit
is the fundamental theme of all systems of philosophy. The
problem of philosophy is to see the meaning of the forms of
culture, to grasp their inner motives, and to make clear what
they are and what is their aim. The problem is the more diffi-
cult, the richer and more manifold the world of culture becomes.
The animating principles of men are so various that conflicting
systems of philosophy arise, each of which expresses one phase
of these animating principles. This phase must be co-ordinated,
in order to solve the philosophical problem of the age. But
there are ruling tendencies of the time; so there arise in philos-
ophy ruling systems.
Moreover, this explanation of the spirit of history, which is
the province of philosophy, is always more than a mere exposi-
tion.
Philosophy bears the same relation to the history of the
human spirit as does our self-knowledge to our life. In what
consists the act of self-observation? We withdraw from the outer
world which has occupied us, and busy ourselves with ourselves.
We make our own life a subject of observation, just as the artist
views the work arising under his hand. He lays down his tools
and steps back from his work, and from a suitable point of view
surveys the whole.
The eye of the critical artist sees otherwise
than the eye of the artist lost in his work. He now discovers
faults which were before unseen. He sees want of proportion in
the parts; there a limb is too prominent for a symmetrical whole.
By this opportune examination he sees now wherein one har-
monizes with all, and what destroys the harmony. What shall
the artist do? Abandon the work because many faults appear?
Shall he not rather again grasp the tools, and in accordance
with the right idea which he in a moment of criticism conceived,
now correctly and better labor?
Let us apply the illustration: The artists are ourselves; the
artistic work is our lives; the critical look which judges the work
Even
## p. 5770 (#354) ###########################################
KUNO FISCHER
5770
is the self-observation which interrupts the process of living. We
withdraw from the life which we have until that moment lived;
and as the artist makes his work, we make our lives our subject
of observation and win thereby a better knowledge of ourselves.
We thereby separate ourselves from our past life-conditions, and
shall never again return to the same. So self-observation deter-
mines the moment when one life-period closes and a new one
begins. It makes a crisis in our development, a turning-point or
epoch in our lives.
We free ourselves from our passions as soon
as we think. We cease to feel them so soon as we begin to ob-
serve them. In this lies the whole importance of self-knowledge,
the crisis which it works in our lives. We are no more ruled by
our previous life-conditions; we are no more what we were. So
an earnest observation of self is always a fundamental freeing
and renewal of our lives, a crisis which separates the present
from the past and prepares for the future. The act of self-
observation is in our own life what the monologue is in the
drama. The action withdraws from the confusing stage of the
outer world into the innermost soul, and here in silence, in delib-
eration with self, the problem is considered and solved.
Such moments are wanting in the life of no spiritually active
being, and every one finds them in his own experience. It is
impossible that we shall always continue in the conditions of life
and culture which have hitherto ruled us; our interest in them
ceases to satisfy us. A feeling of satiety, of dissatisfaction, makes
itself always more actively and painfully felt, and at last we re-
main alone with ourselves. We are estranged from our previous
life-conditions; we begin to reflect concerning ourselves, concern-
ing the problem of our being, concerning the problem of the
world; we begin to philosophize,- so far as we are able, so far
as our culture permits.
I have portrayed out of the experience and development of
a single life, the soul-condition in which the will is inclined to
reflection and self-observation, and which germinates the first
motive to philosophy. It is the moment when, in fervid souls, a
passionate longing awakens to know philosophy and to receive
from her the satisfaction which life, mere activity, no more pro-
vides.
To that important part which, in the development of the
individual, self-observation plays, there correspond in the life of
the race the dominant systems of philosophy. They not merely
## p. 5771 (#355) ###########################################
KUNO FISCHER
5771
accompany the progress of the human spirit, they influence this
progress by making subjects of observation out of hitherto ruling
life-conditions. They free the world from this rule. They per-
fect the present form of culture and prepare for the new. They
work as world-historical factors, through which the great systems
of culture live out their life and great culture crises are brought
about.
We see the history of philosophy in its true light, when we
recognize in it the course of development in which the necessary
problems of humanity are with all distinctness defined, and so
solved that out of every solution there arise in progressive order
ever new and deeper problems.
Translated for 'A Library of the World's Best Literature,' by Professor
Richard Jones
FROM GOETHE'S FAUST: THE METHODS OF EXPOSITION>
I. THE AGE WHEN THE POEM WAS WRITTEN
IN
N 1813 Goethe, wishing to express anew and more compre-
hensively than ever before, his appreciation of the poet to
whom his highest admiration was ever devoted, took for his
theme the words "Shakespeare without end. " "So much has
already been said concerning Shakespeare that it might appear
as though there were nothing more to say, and yet it is the
nature of his mind that he always arouses mental activity in
others. " The same is also true of Goethe himself and of his
'Faust. ' The world will never cease to read Dante's world-poem,
for the subject of which it treats is a theme of eternal moment,—
the guilt, the purification, and the salvation of man.
The same
is true of the importance and abiding influence of Goethe's
'Faust. ' It would betray an ignorance of world-literature and of
its worth should one in a tone of irritation exclaim, "Goethe's
'Faust' without end. "
This poem roots itself deep in the past, and is not of less
worth because it grew out of the 'Volksbücher' and popular
plays; for in the realm of poetry the worth of a popular origin
is fully recognized. The age in which it was written, the stamp
of which the poem bears, was one of the richest in ideas and in
deeds which man has ever seen; and never before has such an
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age developed in so short a time. When the 'Fragment' of our
'Faust' appeared, the French Revolution had just begun; it had
run its course and had given birth to a Cæsar, who was already
the ruler of the world when the First Part of 'Faust' saw the
light of day. In the same year Napoleon appeared in Erfurt,
where he called to him the author of 'Werther' and advised him
to compose a Cæsar,' since the destiny of the world now lay in
politics.
When Goethe was asked which one among modern philoso-
phers he considered the greatest, he answered, "Kant, unquestion-
ably; for he is the one whose doctrine proves permanent and has
penetrated most deeply into our German culture. " Contempora-
neous with the origin of Kant's 'Critique of Pure Reason' was
the origin of Goethe's 'Faust. ' Contemporaneous with the 'Cri-
tique of the Judgment,' Kant's last great work, appeared the
'Fragment. ' The Königsberg philosopher stood at that time at
the summit of his mental activity. The philosophers Fichte,
Schelling, and Hegel had followed him and had filled the world
with their ideas, when Goethe published in 1808 the First Part
of his 'Faust. ' Some seventy poems have dared to vie with it,
but in the light of the great star have quickly paled. No one
of these had the power so to express and reveal the spiritual
fullness of this age, rich in thought and events, as did Goethe's
'Faust. ' All influential thinkers of the time compared their
ideas with this work, and endeavored to show their spiritual re-
lationship with the same, in order thereby to establish their own
worth and import.
•
It is impossible that a poem which rules so great a past and
present, and which has so great a following, should be so short-
lived that scarcely two generations after its completion it has
lived out its life, its fundamental thought exhausted. Indeed,
the vast and always growing number of expositions of Goethe's
'Faust' proves to us that the world desires an interpretation of
this work, and that the attempts hitherto made have either failed
in their purpose or have not solved the problem completely and
fundamentally enough. It may, I trust, be permitted me in the
present discourse, so far as the time permits, to examine into
the nature of these attempts and to pass judgment upon them.
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II. THE PHILOSOPHICAL METHOD OF INTERPRETATION
THE kernel of all Faust literature is a religious fable. A
nobly striving and highly gifted man, impelled by thirst for
truth and also for the pleasures of the world, becomes untrue to
the service of God, strives after the powers of magic, calls up
the Devil and subscribes to him his soul, which shall remain
forever in hell after he has enjoyed a proud and wanton world-
career. This fable contains, even in its rudest form, momentous
thoughts concerning the struggle between good and evil in the
heart of man, concerning the motives to guilt and destruction,-
clearly the profoundest themes both of religion and of philos-
ophy.
In the course of the sixteenth century, the age of the German
new birth of Christianity and of ancient art, there arose under
the influence of the religious and philosophical ideas of that time
the myth of Doctor Faust, whose religious tendency stamped it-
self clearly in the 'Volksbücher. ' In the years from 1771-1831,-
an age deeply moved by religious and philosophical ideas, the
greatest age of German philosophy, reaching from the beginning
of the epoch of Kant to the death of Hegel,-there arose, de-
veloped, and was completed, Goethe's 'Faust. ' The old fable of
the German magician of the sixteenth century, and the new ideas
of German philosophy which stirred the last generation of the
eighteenth century and the first generation of the nineteenth,—
these are the elements our poem must needs take up and unite;
for it could deny neither its inheritance nor its birth. Therefore
this work is by virtue of its origin a religious and philosophical
poem, which cannot be thoroughly comprehended without a
knowledge of the ideas contained therein. The meaning of this
poem was and still is, therefore, a philosophical problem.
Therefore the first attempts at interpretation, which followed
immediately upon the publication of the poem, took this direc-
tion. Their problem was to explain the fable of our 'Faust'
and to find its moral. This was considered as the fundamental
idea, which was intended to be allegorically portrayed in the
persons and events of the poem. So the philosophical interpre-
tation became allegorical interpretation, and then forced and
absurd interpretations. The entire poem appeared at last like a
magic sphere, wherein one could no more trust his senses, but
must look upon the most natural things as something entirely
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different from what they seemed to be. One was taught the
recondite signification of the pedestrians before the gate, of the
dance under the linden tree, of the rat which gnawed the penta-
gram, of the revelers in Auerbach's cellar, of the wine which
flowed from the table, of the jewel casket in Gretchen's press, of
the bunch of keys and the night lamp with which Faust entered
Gretchen's prison, and of various other similar riddles.
It was
even asked, What is the meaning of Gretchen?
The fundamental error of all these interpretations was that
they assumed as the basis of the poem a wholly invented, en-
tirely original, not partly inherited, fundamental idea; in accord-
ance with which, it was said, the poem grew,-i. e. , the fable
grew out of the moral. However, concerning this fundamental
idea the interpreters were by no means agreed. But they inter-
preted the poem as though Goethe had himself wholly invented.
his Faust legend, and had then completed the poem in accord-
ance with the requirements of the invented legend, according to
one plan and in a white heat of composition; whereas in truth
the Faust legend was already two centuries old when Goethe
appropriated it, and Goethe's 'Faust' was two generations old
when it was brought to completion.
The problem could not be solved by these methods of inter-
pretation, because of the underlying false conceptions of the
origin and production of the poem.
IV. THE EXTREME POSITIONS TAKEN BY BOTH SCHOOLS
OVER against the earlier philosophical — i. e. , allegorical — in-
terpretations I have placed the historical investigations of to-day,
and shown how widely the latter method has extended its ques-
tions and subdivided into so many individual investigations.
Opposed as are their tendencies, so also are the byways into
which both methods of interpretation get astray. If the allego-
rists consult tradition not at all, or too little at least, and prefer
to ascribe everything to the assumed inventions of the poet, so
on the other hand, many of the historical expositors of to-day
are inclined to exaggerate tradition to such an extent that they
would leave nothing to the ideas and power of invention of the
poet. The former would, if possible, make everything invented;
the latter make everything borrowed. We find that the former
ascribed to the poet of Faust' ideas,- the latter borrowings,-
of which he never thought. Here extremes meet.
## p. 5775 (#359) ###########################################
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VIII. THE RELIGIOUS IDEA OF THE POEM
I HAVE attempted to show the directions which the expositions
of Goethe's 'Faust' have taken, by the philosophic methods of
exposition as well as by the historical and the philological. The
poem needs an explanation of the entire circumference of its
ideas, as well as of its origin, which can succeed only when
both methods of exposition-the philosophical as well as the
historical, which includes also the philological-are united. Sep-
arated from each other, neither takes the right way. The philo-
sophical consideration which to-day deserves this name is itself
of a historical nature. It must recognize, through the course of
development of the poet, the ideas which have in truth inspired
and filled his work. Where the poem itself takes the form of
allegory, the philosophical interpretation must proceed allegori-
cally. It must ask, for example, What means the Witches'
Kitchen, the Witches' Sabbath, the Mothers, the Homunculus, the
classical Walpurgis Night?
The legend of Faust was a religious fable, and its theme was
the guilt and condemnation of a nobly striving man entangled
in the pleasures of the world. Goethe's 'Faust' is a religious
poem, and its theme is the guilt and purification of a high-
minded man, whom the pleasures of the world entice and sweep
along but never satisfy. Were this non-satisfaction the final
theme of the 'Faust,' as is commonly held, I should not call the
poem a religious poem. It would then be merely pessimistic, as
are the poems of Byron. There is a religious view of the mis-
ery in the world and a pessimistic view; the latter finds the
world evil because it is not rich enough in enjoyment. This
pessimism, which in our day is the fashion, is at bottom nothing
but unsatisfied pleasure-seeking.
This was not the view of Goethe, not that of his 'Faust. ' In
his second monologue he portrays the wretchedness of human
existence in a manner which can be compared only with the
famous monologue of Hamlet. To Faust also, death appears to
be a goal to be desired most fervently. He wishes to shuffle off
the mortal coil of life as a burden. Then the Easter song
moves him with admonition. Life is no burden; it is a test,-a
painful but a wholesome one!
"Christ is ascended!
Bliss hath invested him,-
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KUNO FISCHER
more.
Woes that molested him,
Trials that tested him,
Gloriously ended! "
Life has the importance of a trial which is to be endured by
continued purification: this is the fundamental religious thought
which Goethe introduces into his 'Faust' tragedy in the 'Prologue
in Heaven,' and makes it the theme of the same. He permits
his Faust' to strive upward, and reach a height where the
enjoyments of the world and the evil of the world touch him no
Upon this height he answers the tempter who places before
his eyes the glories and enjoyments of the world:-"Base and
modern Sardanapalus! Enjoyment makes common! "
From this height he says to Care, who paints to him again.
the misery of the world, "I will not recognize you. " The energy
of endeavor and striving is not to be dispirited by the misery of
life's cares. There is a genuine and real non-satisfaction; it
springs not from the misery of the world, but from the wants
and weakness of one's own powers:
"Firm let him stand, and look around him well!
This World means something to the Capable.
In marching onwards, bliss and torment find,
Though every moment with unsated mind! »
However, it is not the province of this address to go into the
course of development of the poem itself, since I only wished to
present and to criticize the methods of exposition. The work
progressed with the poet and with his views of life, and it was
two generations of men in coming into being.
In order to appre-
ciate it correctly, and to apprehend the ideas which this world-
poem presents, let us take as a prototype that view of the
world, full of love, which the Lord in the Prologue commends
to his own:-
"But ye, God's sons in love and duty,
Enjoy the rich, the ever-living Beauty!
Creative Power, that works eternal schemes,
Clasp you in bonds of love, relaxing never,
And what in wavering apparition gleams
Fix in its place with thoughts that stand forever! "
Translated for A Library of the World's Best Literature,' by Professor
Richard Jones
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JOHN FISKE
(1842-)
OHN FISKE was born in Hartford, Connecticut, March 30th,
1842, the son of Edmund Brewster Green, of Smyrna, Dela-
ware. The son's name was originally Edmund Fiske Green;
but in 1855 he took the name of his maternal great-grandfather John
Fiske. His father had died, and his mother had been married to
Edwin W. Stoughton, a distinguished lawyer, since known as United
States Minister to Russia. An authentic account shows him to have
been a boy of extraordinary industry and
acquisition. Thus, at thirteen, he had read
a great deal of the best Latin literature.
He could read Plato and Herodotus at sight
when fifteen years old. A little later he
took up in rapid succession French, Italian,
Portuguese, Hebrew, and Sanskrit. His
studies in science and mathematics were as
extensive as in the languages. During his
college course the young man is said to
have averaged throughout the year fifteen
hours of study daily. He was graduated at
Harvard in 1863, and at the Harvard Law
School in 1865. Mr. Fiske has never prac-
ticed law, however, his preferences for
literary life having declared themselves early. He had married
while in the law school, and was even then using his pen for the
support of his family.
JOHN FISKE
John Fiske's career as an author began with the publication, when
he was nineteen years of age, of an article on Buckle, in which he
made an exposition of the fallacies of that writer; which is as good
to-day as at the time it was written. For two years, from 1869 to
1871, he was a lecturer on philosophy at Harvard. He was after-
wards assistant librarian of that university, and has since served as
a member of the board of overseers. The most serious work of his
earlier years was his 'Outlines of Cosmic Philosophy,' in which he
appeared as an expounder of the philosophy of Herbert Spencer.
was written with that attractive lucidity which characterizes all his
books. Darwin wrote him, "I never in my life read so lucid an
expositor (and therefore thinker) as you are. " This work claims only
X-362
## p. 5778 (#362) ###########################################
5778
JOHN FISKE
to be a representation of Spencer; but in the course of it Mr. Fiske
made one original contribution in support of the Darwinian theory,
which is now recognized to be of high importance. This concerns
the subject of infancy. The idea is that actions which in the case of
the simpler animals are matured before birth, must in the higher and
more complex animals be acquired after birth. Hence the necessity
of a period of infancy, to be prolonged in proportion to the degree
of elevation of the animal in the scale of existence.
-
Since the publication of his 'Cosmic Philosophy,' Mr. Fiske's la-
bors have been given almost entirely to history. That his attention
has been turned to American history seems to have been due to
chance. If it had been left to him to select a subject, he would
probably have chosen the conflicts of Christianity and Mohammedan-
ism on the shores of the Mediterranean- a theme that has always had
a special attraction for him. But this was not to be. In the late
seventies an effort, which proved to be successful, was made to save
the Old South Meeting-House in Boston. Had the attempt been made
earlier it would probably have failed. But the fate of John Hancock's
house had served as an example, and by 1879 people were begin-
ning to feel that this country had a history that deserved attention.
Mr. Fiske was invited to deliver a course of lectures on American
political ideas at the Old South Meeting-House. Since that time he
has been writing American history. He has written The Beginnings
of New England,' 'The American Revolution,' 'The Critical Period
of the American Revolution,' etc. The book which perhaps has had
the widest attention is 'The Discovery of America. ' The first part
of this work is taken up with a description of the aboriginal society
which Columbus and his successors found on this continent. This
subject is closely connected with that of prehistoric society in Europe,
which attracted the writer very early in his career.
In 1869 he had sketched out a work on the early Aryans, when he
was turned aside for five years to write his 'Cosmic Philosophy. '
During that period he also wrote Myths and Myth-Makers,' as a side
work to his projected book on the Aryans. He again took up his
task in 1874, but laid it aside after he had reached the conclusion
that the subject could not be rightly treated without widening the
field of study. It was necessary to know more of the barbaric world.
With this view he set about the study of aboriginal American society,
with which, he contends, no other field can be compared for fruitful-
ness. The part of the 'Discovery of America' which treats of this
subject has great interest; but it is less generally attractive than his
narration of the romantic incidents and characters of the period of
discovery. Here we have at its best the writer's talent for clear
exposition and attractive narration. There is no better example of
## p. 5779 (#363) ###########################################
JOHN FISKE
5779
his literary powers than his account of the first voyage of Columbus.
It is worthy of the possibilities of the story. Of all stories with a
good ending, that, to an American mind at any rate, is perhaps the
best. If there is a piece of American literature which has taken a
strong hold of the popular mind, it is that chapter on the voyage of
Columbus in 'Peter Parley' now known to have been written by
Nathaniel Hawthorne. It is high praise of Mr. Fiske, to say that his
more elaborate version of the ever-delightful story is worthy of the
ideal of dramatic interest left by that youthful reading.
Besides his investigations upon history and politics, science and phi-
losophy, Mr. Fiske has also been an inquirer upon religious themes.
Perhaps none of his writings have attracted more attention or been
read with a livelier interest than two little books which set forth his
views on this subject. They were first delivered as addresses before
the Concord School of Philosophy. The aim of The Destiny of Man'
is to show that the theory of natural selection consists perfectly with
the highest conception that can be formed of the dignity of human
nature. It is true that the Darwinian theory made some such altera-
tion in the position of man in the creation as had been done by the
Copernican theory. With the establishment of the Copernican theory,
man ceased to be the center of the universe. Darwin's theory taught
him that even on this planet he had not a separate origin from the
rest of animal existence. This view was at first regarded as a great
derogation from human dignity. But Mr. Fiske claims that it accords
with the highest conception of man's position in the universe. Man,
and especially his spiritual part, is by this view made the goal to
which nature has been all the while tending. The origin of man is
fixed at that moment when psychical variations become of more use
than physical ones. With this period is connected consciousness, the
great increase of brain surface, and the necessity of a period of in-
fancy. To the length of infancy of the human being Mr. Fiske attrib-
utes the rise of the family. Then comes the rise of the clan. Then
comes the period when during some time of peace, the clan learns
to obtain food by agriculture instead of by hunting; and we have the
beginnings of the State.
Again, the gentler sentiments which we recognize in men, the altru-
istic feelings, are due to the existence of infancy. These sentiments
can have, however, only a very feeble and narrow existence during
the period when man is a nomad and hunter, and when the strife
for life is necessarily ferocious. Agriculture, on the other hand, has
been a great educator of the milder qualities of mankind. So long
as strife raged over food already in existence, such as game, the
supply of which was limited, the battle must necessarily be to the
uttermost. But from the soil mankind could get food without strife.
## p. 5780 (#364) ###########################################
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JOHN FISKE
War, however, still does not cease. The strife which formerly raged
among families and clans continues between nations. But strife is
nevertheless on the wane. This sentence of Mr. Fiske, written twelve
years ago, is of especial interest in view of recent discussions:-
"Sooner or later it [strife] must come to an end, and the pacific prin-
ciple of federacy, whereby the questions between States are settled
like questions between individuals, by due process of law, must reign
supreme over all the earth. " Original sin is, according to Mr.
