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into a condition of sexual excitement." "The testes being in this way thrown into functional activity, there was soon produced the desired increase in the power of the nerve centres.'

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Although I insist on the existence of a close relation between intellectual activity and the sexual function, I do not mean to assert that there have not existed exceptions to the rule.

Now that I have described certain important factors in the genius of Goethe, I shall pass on to a study of his state of mind in the last period of his life, the splendour and harmony of which have been so often admired.

1 Comptes rendus de la Société de Biologie, 1889, p. 420.

III

GOETHE'S OLD AGE

Old age of Goethe-Physical and intellectual vigour of the
old man-Optimistic conception of life-Happiness in life
in his last period

DRINKERS of wine may take the case of Goethe as an argument against temperance. Although he was not healthy in his youth, his large consumption of wine did not prevent him from enjoying an old age full of force and intellectual work. Eckermann, who was his intimate and constant companion in the last ten years of his life, was never weary of expressing his surprise and delight at the physical and moral vigour of the distinguished old man. He found Goethe on his return to Jena, at the age of seventy-four, in a condition "very pleasant to see; he was in good health and robust, so that he could walk for hours" (Sept. 15, 1823). His eyes were "brilliant and clear and his whole expression was that of joy, vigour and youth" (Oct. 29). In walks with Eckermann, Goethe forced the pace and showed strength which filled his companion with delight (March, 1824). His voice was full of character and of force (March 30, 1824), and every word showed his vitality (July 9, 1827).

In a conversation that Eckermann had with Goethe when the latter was seventy-nine years old "the sound of his voice and the fire in his eyes were of such strength as would

have been normal in the full flush of youth" (Mar. 11, 1828). Such characters were preserved until the end of the life of the great man, and a few months before his death. Eckermann jotted in his book that he saw him every day in full vigour and freshness, looking as if his health might be prolonged indefinitely (Dec. 21, 1831). In the beginning of the following spring, Goethe caught a feverish cold, possibly pneumonic, and died, probably from weakness of the heart. His illness lasted a week. If he had not been a drinker of wine he would have been able to withstand this attack and to live still longer.

The intellectual vigour of Goethe was even greater and more remarkable than his physical strength. His interests were extremely wide, and his thirst for knowledge was never appeased. Once, when he was absorbed by the interest of hearing d'Alton describe in detail the skeleton of rodents, Eckermann states his surprise that a man not far short of eighty years old "did not give up seeking for and gaining knowledge." But in these matters he never lost his interest. He wished always to go further and further, always to learn, so showing himself to be a man of eternal and undying youth (April 16, 1825). Goethe's aptitude for understanding and his memory were most unusual. When he was more than eighty, he surprised those who heard him "by the incessant flow of his ideas and by his extraordinary fertility in invention " (Oct. 7, 1828).

"The old age of Goethe is the most striking proof of the extreme force of his constitution," said his medical biographer, Dr. Moebius. Works which were written in his last years are for the most part beyond praise, both because of their finished form, and by their wisdom and feeling. What other man of eighty has written anything of the same character? From the physiological point of view I

am more surprised at his works when he was old than at those of his youthful activity" (Moebius, Goethe, i, 200, 201).

Although Goethe's character, which was fiery and intense in his youth, became much more calm with age, there still came to him moments when he was carried away. He had certain eccentricities of an old man, and in particular was often very despotic, and this trait has been the occasion of many stories. His temper, however, became much more. certain in his old age, and his general conceptions much more optimistic. Apart from certain short crises, he was happy in his life. In 1828, he settled down at Dornburg and there passed a tranquil existence. "I stay out of doors nearly all day and engage in private conversations with the tendrils of the vine which communicate their excellent ideas to me, ideas about which I shall have marvellous things to tell you "-he wrote to Eckermann on June 15, 1828-"I am composing verses which are quite good, and I hope that it will be given to me to live long in this condition. I am quite contented," he said to his collaborator, "at the beginning of spring, when I see the first green leaves, I am pleased to watch how, from week to week, one leaf after another appears on the stem. I am delighted in May, when I see a flower-bud; I feel really happy, when in June the rose offers to me its splendour and its perfume" (Eckermann, April 27, 1825). His delight in life at this epoch is also revealed in many letters. "I wish to whisper this in your ear," he wrote to Zelter on April 29, 1830. "I am delighted to find that even at my great age, ideas come to me the pursuit and development of which would require a second life.”

His conception of life had changed enormously since the epoch of Werther. Goethe himself said: "When one is old, one thinks many things about this world quite different from when one was young" (Eckermann, Dec..

1829). The youthful sensitiveness which had brought him so much suffering was notably dulled. Eckermann was astonished at the way he accepted wounds to his pride. It happened that his design for the new theatre at Weimar was abandoned while it was being constructed, and replaced by another not his own work. Eckermann was much disturbed by this, and went to see Goethe in a state of apprehension. "I was afraid," he said, "that so unexpected a step would profoundly wound Goethe. Well, there was nothing of the sort; I found him in the best of tempers, quite calm, absolutely above all feelings in the matter." When he had reached his eighty-fourth year, Goethe had no weariness of life. In his last illness, he showed not the smallest desire to die. He expected to get better, and thought that the approach of summer would restore his strength. The desire to live was strong in him. None the less, he recognised that his cycle of life was finished, and although he had no weariness of life, he felt a kind of satisfaction that life was over. When, like me, a man has lived eighty years," he said, "he has hardly the right to live, but ought to be ready every day to die, and to think of putting his house in order" (Eckermann, May 15, 1831). None the less, he continued his work, in particular revising the last two chapters of the second part of Faust. When he had finished them, Goethe was extremely pleased. "I can consider," he said, "any days which come to me yet as a real gift, as it is a matter of no moment if I write anything more or what such work should be " (Eckermann, June 1, 1831).

Goethe gave Faust one hundred years of life, and it is probable that he thought of that period as his own span. Although he did not reach it, he approached it, after having lived a most active life, full of most valuable lessons for posterity.

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