Section 161 Opinions as to English Education. — II
Goethe (S. 5, N. 2), in one of his conversations with Eckermann at Weimar, once1 observed: “It is very2 strange, and I know not whether3 it lies in race, in climate, in4 soil, or in their healthy5 education, but6 certainly Englishmen seem to have a great advantage over most other men. We see here in Weimar only a7 minimum of them, and8 those, probably, by no means the best specimens, and yet what splendid fellows they are! And although they come here as seventeen-year-old9 youths, yet they by no means feel strange in this strange land; on the contrary, their entrance10 and bearing11 in society is so confident12 and quiet, that one would13 think they were everywhere the masters, and the whole world belonged to them14.”
“I should not like to affirm, for all that15,” replied Eckermann16, “that the English gentlemen in Weimar are cleverer, better educated, and better hearted than our young men.”
“That is not the point17,” said Goethe; “their superiority does not lie in such things; neither18 does it lie in their birth and fortune19; it lies precisely20 in their having21 the courage to be what nature made them. There22 is no halfness about23 them. They are complete24 men. Sometimes complete fools also, that I heartily25 admit, but even that is something, and has its weight.”
Thus (App. § 14), in26 Goethe’s eyes, the Englishmen fulfilled, to a great extent, the injunction27 given by Lessing28 to those who would be men:
“Think wrongly, if you please, but think for yourselves!”—S. Smiles, “Self-Help.”
Notes
1 = one day.
2 ‘Very’ is often rendered by the superlative of the adv. hoch.
3 ‘whether it lies’ may be elegantly translated by omitting the conjunction ‘whether’ and using the inversion.
4 im heimatlichen Boden.
5 heilsam.
6 Say ‘but it seems to be certain that Englishmen possess a great superiority over most other men’.
7 a minimum = very few.
8 = and these (dies) are probably by no means the best, and yet (dennoch aber) they are (sind es) splendid fellows!
9 a thirty-year-old man, ein dreißigjähriger Mann.
10 Auftreten, n.
11 Benehmen, n.
12 sicher.
13 Render ‘would’ by the Impf. Subj. of mögen, since the sentence is equivalent to ‘that one would be inclined to think’. The following verbs must be constructed according to App. §§ 29 and 30.
14 Supply ‘alone’ after ‘them’.
15 for all that, aber doch, to be placed before ‘not’.
16 Johann Peter Eckermann, geboren 1792 zu Winsen in der preußischen Provinz Hannover, gestorben den 3. Dez. 1854 zu Weimar, war viele Jahre als Göthes Privatsekretär thätig und ist der Welt am bekanntesten durch die von ihm nach Göthes Tode veröffentlichten ‘Gespräche mit Göthe’. Er war auch der Herausgeber (editor) von Göthes ‘Nachgelassenen Werken’.
17 Sache, f.
18 auch besteht sie nicht in.
19 = wealth; Comp. S. 10, N. 9.
20 = simply.
21 The English Gerund preceded by a possessive adjective and a preposition, must be translated by a regular subordinate clause with a conjunction and a finite verb; as—
His superiority lies in his having the courage to be what nature made him. Seine Überlegenheit besteht darin (S. 87, N. 6), daß er den Mut hat, das zu sein, was er von Natur aus ist.
22 Es.
23 an.
24 = whole.
25 = willingly; weight = value.
26 = according to the judgment of Göthe.
27 = advice; by, von; to, an; those = all such; who, die da.
28 Gotth. Ephraim Lessing, geboren den 22. Jan. 1729 zu Kamenz (Oberlausitz), gestorben den 15. Febr. 1781 in Braunschweig, hat sich durch seine ästhetisch-kritischen Werke, wie auch durch seine Dramen, deren Form, Sprache, Methode und Inhalt fast unerreichte Muster sind, einen unsterblichen Namen in der deutschen Litteraturgeschichte erworben. Sein Wirken als genialer Kritiker, Forscher und Dichter war von unermeßlichem Einfluß auf die nächste Entwickelung unserer Litteratur, die mit ihm und durch ihn ihrer Glanzperiode entgegenschritt.