“You said just now,” said Goethe, “that you could well understand how any one in his twentieth year could write pieces as good as those of Merimee.  I have nothing to oppose to this; and I am, on the whole, quite of your opinion that good productiveness is easier than good judgment in a youthful man.  But, in Germany, one had better not, when so young as Merimee, attempt to produce anything so mature as he has done in his pieces of Clara Gazul.  It is true, Schiller was very young when he wrote his Robbers, his Love and Intrigue, his Fiesco; but, to speak the truth, all three pieces are rather the utterances of an extraordinary talent than signs of mature cultivation in the author.  This, however, is not Schiller’s fault, but rather the result of the state of culture of his nation, and the great difficulty which we all experience in assisting ourselves on our solitary way.

“On the other hand, take up Beranger.  He is the son of poor parents, the descendant of a poor tailor; at one time a poor printer’s apprentice, then placed in some office with a small salary; he has never been to a classical school or university; and yet his songs are so full of mature cultivation, so full of wit and the most refined irony, and there is such artistic perfection and masterly handling of the language that he is the admiration, not only of France, but of all civilized Europe.

“But imagine this same Beranger—­instead of being born in Paris, and brought up in this metropolis of the world—­the son of a poor tailor in Jena or Weimar, and let him commence his career, in an equally miserable manner, in such small places—­then ask yourself what fruit would have been produced by this same tree grown in such a soil and in such an atmosphere.

“Therefore, my good friend, I repeat that, if a talent is to be speedily and happily developed, the great point is that a great deal of intellect and sound culture should be current in a nation.

“We admire the tragedies of the ancient Greeks; but, to take a correct view of the case, we ought rather to admire the period and the nation in which their production was possible than the individual authors; for though each of these pieces differs a little from every other, and though one of these poets appears somewhat greater and more finished than the other, still, taking all things together, only one decided character runs through the whole.

“This is the character of grandeur, fitness, soundness, human perfection, elevated wisdom, sublime thought, pure, strong intuition, and whatever other qualities one might enumerate.  But when we find all these qualities, not only in the dramatic works that have come down to us but also in lyrical and epic works, in the philosophers, the orators, and the historians, and in an equally high degree in the works of plastic art that have come down to us, we must feel convinced that such qualities did not merely belong to individuals, but were the current property of the nation and the whole period.