creative power allows us no rest till we have produced that ideal
form in one or the other way, either without us in finished works or in
our own life."

Here we already have in germ Schiller's idea that life ought to be a
work of art. But how do we achieve this task, continually impeded as we
are by circumstances and by our fellow-creatures, who will not always
leave us in peace to develop our individual characters in perfect
conformity with nature? In our relations with our neighbor, Goethe--like
Lessing and Wieland, Kant and Herder, and all the great men of his and
the preceding age, in England and France as well as in Germany--recommended
absolute toleration, not only of opinions, but also of individualities,
particularly those in which Nature manifests herself "undefiled." As
to circumstances, which is only another name for fate, he preached
and practised resignation. At every turn of our life, in fact, we
meet with limits; our intelligence has its frontiers which bar its
way; our senses are limited and can only embrace an infinitely small
part of nature; few of our wishes can be fulfilled; privation and
sufferings await us at every moment. "Privation is thy lot, privation!
That is the eternal song which resounds at every moment, which, our
whole life through, each hour sings hoarsely to our ears!" laments
Faust. What remains, then, for man? "Everything cries to us that we must
_resign_ ourselves." "There are few men, however, who, conscious of the
privations and sufferings in store for them in life, and desirous to
avoid the necessity of resigning themselves anew in each particular
case, have the courage to perform the act of resignation once for all;"
who say to themselves that there are eternal and necessary laws to which
we must submit, and that we had better do it without grumbling; who
"endeavor to form principles which are not liable to be destroyed, but
are rather confirmed by contact with reality." In other words, when man
has discovered the laws of nature, both moral and physical, he must
accept them as the limits of his actions and desires; he must not wish
for eternity of life or inexhaustible capacities of enjoyment,
understanding, and acting, any more than he wishes for the moon. For
rebellion against these laws must needs be an act of impotency as well
as of deceptive folly. By resignation, on the contrary, serene
resignation, the human soul is purified; for thereby it becomes free of
selfish passion