PAGE -11. Mignon (Kennst du das Land?) 12. Mignon (Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt) 13. Mignon (So laßt mich scheinen) 14. Harfenspieler (Wer sich der Einsamkeit) VII. Alter F INTRODUCTION IT has been said that Homer gave to the Greeks their gods. The great German poets, above all Goethe, have impressed upon the soul of man the image of a new, higher humanity. And for almost a century the best men of other nations have been travelling as pilgrims toward this ideal. Why is it that hundreds of thousands in England, France and America read and study to-day the works of the German poets, and above all the works of Goethe? Because something in them appeals to us like the revelation of a new life; because in them one feels the life-breath of German idealism, triumphant over the world and fate; because they impart to us the spirit of German freedom. For if one asks in what does the influence consist which Goethe exercises upon us and the cultured of other races I answer: above all in the freedom of spirit (Geistesfreiheit) which emanates from his works and his person. Not long ago our poet was still reproached as being a thrall of princes, little concerned with freedom. In fact there are still many to-day in whose eyes Goethe does not equal the poet of freedom-Schiller. Those who speak thus have caught but little of the spirit of our poet. Certainly Goethe was not concerned with that political freedom which as a cheap catch-word ix |