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    of which the import is but imperfectly expressed in the title , ' Intimations of Immortality from the Recollections of Early Childhood . ' We invite the speculative reader to a comparison . What we have yet quoted may serve to confirm the general impression that even Goethe , like the professed German metaphysicians , cannot write otherwise than mystically on religion and morals . We wish to correct this misconception , and add an extract , the length of which will be excused for the sake of its

    importance . * Every individual has , in virtue of his natural tendencies , a right to principles which do not destroy his individuality . Here , or nowhere , is to be sought the origin of all philosophies . Zeno and the Stoics existed in Rome long before their writings were known there . That same stern character of the Romans , which fitted them to be heroes and warriors ,

    and taught them to scorn every suffering , and to be capable of every sacrifice , necessarily secured a prompt and favourable hearing to principles which made similar demands on the nature of man . Every system , even Cynicism , may succeed in getting through with the world , as soon as the right hero for the attempt does but present himself . Only the acquired and artificial in man is what is most apt to founder on contradictions ; the innate can always make its way somehow or other , and

    frequently obtains a complete and triumphant conquest over all that ie opposed to it It is , therefore , no wonder that the refined , tender nature of Wieland inclined to the Aristippic philosophy ; while , on the other hand , his decided aversion to Diogenes , and to all Cynicism , may be very satisfactorily traced to the same cause . A mind in which the sense of all grace of form was instinctive , as in Wieland , cannot accommodate itself to a system which is a continuous offence against thai grace . We must first be in unison with ourselves , before we are in a situation , if

    not wholly to resolve , at least in some degree to soften the dissonances which press upon us from v \ ithout . " " I maintain that some are even born Eclectics in philosophy ; and where Eclecticism proceeds from the inward nature of the man , that too is good , and I will never make it a reproach to him . How often do we find men who are , from natural disposition , half Stoics and half Epicureans ! It would not astonish me at all if such men adopted the principles of both systems ,

    and tried , as far as possible , to reconcile them Very different is that vacuity of mind which , from want of all independent inward bent , like a magpie , carries to its own nest everything that may chance to come in its way from any q uarter , and thus places itself , like one essentially lifeless , out of all connexion with the life-abounding whole . AH such philosophies arc utterly dead and worthless ; for , as they proceed out ot no results , so neither do they lead to any results . " ... " Of popular philosophy 1 am just as little an admirer . There are mysteries in

    philosophy , us well as in religion . The people ought to be spared all discussions on such points ; at least , they ought by no means to be forcibly du j h \\ into them . Epicurus somewhere says , 'This is right , precisely because the people are displeased at it . ' It is difficult to foresee the end of those unprofitable and unpleasing mental vagaries which have ariben among us since the Re formation ; from the time that the mysteries of religion were handed over to the people to be pulled about

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    Characteristics of Goethe . 181

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  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1834, page 181, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2631/page/21/