one his father would have chosen—­was that of a plodding jurist in a country where forensic pleading was unknown, and where the lawyer’s profession offered no scope for any of the higher talents with which Goethe was endowed.  On the whole, it was a happy chance that called him to the little capital of the little Grand-Duchy of Saxe-Weimar.  If the State was one of petty dimensions (a kind of pocket-kingdom, like so many of the principalities of Germany), it nevertheless included some of the fairest localities, and one at least of the most memorable in Europe,—­the Wartburg, where Luther translated the Bible, where Saint Elizabeth dispensed the blessings of her life, where the Minnesingers are said to have held their poetic tournament,—­

     “Heinrich von Ofterdingen,
      Wolfram von Eschenbach.”

It included also the University of Jena, which at that time numbered some of the foremost men of Germany among its professors.  It was a miniature State and a miniature town; one wonders that Goethe, who would have shone the foremost star in Berlin or Vienna, could content himself with so narrow a field.  But Vienna and Berlin did not call him until it was too late,—­until patronage was needless; and Weimar did.  A miniature State,—­but so much the greater his power and freedom and the opportunity of beneficent action.

No prince was ever more concerned to promote in every way the welfare of his subjects than Karl August; and in all his works undertaken for this purpose, Goethe was his foremost counsellor and aid.  The most important were either suggested by him or executed under his direction.  Had he never written a poem, or given to the world a single literary composition, he would still have led, as a Weimar official, a useful and beneficent life.  But the knowledge of the world and of business, the social and other experience gained in this way, was precisely the training which he needed,—­and which every poet needs,—­for the broadening and deepening and perfection of his art.  Friedrich von Mueller, in his valuable treatise of “Goethe as a Man of Affairs,” tells us how he traversed every portion of the country to learn what advantage might be taken of topographical peculiarities, what provision made for local necessities.  “Everywhere—­on hilltops crowned with primeval forests, in the depths of gorges and shafts—­Nature met her favorite with friendly advances, and revealed to him many a desired secret.”  Whatever was privately gained in this way was applied to public uses.  He endeavored to infuse new life into the mining business, and to make himself familiar with all its technical requirements.  For that end he revived his chemical experiments.  New roads were built, hydraulic operations were conducted on more scientific principles, fertile meadows were won from the river Saale by systematic drainage, and in many a struggle with Nature an intelligently persistent will obtained the victory.