one disparage the arts because they imitate nature, let him
note that nature also imitates much besides; and, further, that the arts
do not precisely imitate what we see but go back to that rational
element of which nature consists, and according to which she acts.

_Carlsbad, June 22_, 1808. It is an extraordinary fact that man in
himself, so far as he avails himself of his sound mind, is the greatest
and most precise physical apparatus that can be. And it is in fact the
greatest evil of the newer physics that experiments are, as it were,
separated from man himself, so that nature is recognised only in what is
ascertained by artificial instruments. It is exactly so with
calculation. Much is true which cannot be computed, just as much can
never be experimentally demonstrated.

Man, however, stands so high that that which otherwise admits of no
representation is represented in him. What, then, is a string and all
its mechanical division compared with the ear of the musician? Indeed,
it may be said what are the elementary phenomena of nature compared with
man, who must first master and modify them all in order to assimilate
them to himself?

_II.--Music and Musicians_

_Weimar, November_ 16, 1816. I send you a few words with reference to
your proposal to write a cantata for the Reformation Jubilee. It might
best be contrived after the method of Handel's "Messiah," into which you
have so deeply penetrated.

As the main idea of Lutheranism rests on a very excellent foundation, it
affords a fine opportunity both for poetical and also for musical
treatment. Now, this basis rests on the decided contrast between the law
and the Gospel, and secondly on the accommodation of these two extremes.
And now, if in order to attain a higher standpoint we substitute for
those two words the terms "necessity" and "freedom," with their
synonyms, their remoteness and proximity, you see clearly that
everything interesting to mankind is contained in this circle.

And thus Luther perceives in the Old and New Testaments the symbol of
the great and ever-recurring world-order. On the one hand, the law,
striving after love; on the other, love, striving back towards the law,
and fulfilling it, though not of its own power and strength, but through
faith; and that, too, by exclusive faith in the all-powerful Messiah
proclaimed to all.

Thus, briefly, are we convinced that Lutheranism can never be united
with the Papacy, but that it does not