ld write something of this kind neatly, I should be
very glad of thus being able to give you a contribution for next
year's opening number. Farewell. May we long enjoy having around us
those who are nearest and dearest to us. Toward New Year's I hope
again to spend some time with you.

* * * * *

SCHILLER to GOETHE

Jena, July 2, 1796.

I have now run through all the eight Books of your novel, very
hurriedly, it is true, but the subject-matter alone is so large that I
could scarcely get through it in two days' reading. Properly speaking,
therefore, I ought not to say anything about it even today, for the
surprising and unparalleled variety which is therein _concealed_--in
the strictest sense of the word--is overpowering. I confess that what
I have as yet grasped correctly is but the _continuity_, not the
_unity_, although I do not for a moment doubt that I shall become
perfectly clear on this point also, if, as I think, in works of this
kind, the continuity is more than half the unity.

As, under the circumstances, you cannot exactly expect to receive from
me anything thoroughly satisfactory and yet wish to hear something,
you must be content with a few remarks; these, however, are not
altogether without value, inasmuch as they will tell of direct
impressions. To make up for this, I promise you that our discussions
about your novel shall continue throughout the month. To give an
adequate and truly esthetic estimate of a whole work, as a work of
art, is a serious undertaking. I shall devote the whole of the next
four months to it, and that with pleasure. Besides this, it is one of
the greatest blessings of my existence that I have lived to see this
work of yours completed, that it has been written while my faculties
are still in a state of growth, and that I may draw inspiration from
this pure source; further, the beautiful relation that exists between
us makes it seem to me a kind of religious duty to call your cause my
own, and to develop all that is real in my nature so fully that my
mind may become the clearest mirror of what exists beneath this
covering, and that I may deserve the name of being your friend in the
higher sense of the word. How vividly have I felt, at this time, that
excellence is a power, that it can influence selfish natures only as a
power, and that, as contrasted with excellence, there is no freedom
but love!

I cannot say how much I have been moved by the tr