Goethe remained a while absorbed in silent thought; then he began as follows:  “When one is old one thinks of worldly matters otherwise than when one is young.  Thus I cannot but think that the demons, to teaze and make sport with men, have placed among them single figures, which are so alluring that every one strives after them, and so great that nobody reaches them.  Thus they set up Raffael, with whom thought and act were equally perfect; some distinguished followers have approached him, but none have equalled him.  Thus, too, they set up Mozart as something unattainable in music; and thus Shakespeare in poetry.  I know what you can say against this thought; but I only mean natural character, the great innate qualities.  Thus, too, Napoleon is unattainable.  That the Russians were so moderate as not to go to Constantinople is indeed very great; but we find a similar trait in Napoleon, for he had the moderation not to go to Rome.”

Much was associated with this copious theme; I thought to myself in silence that the demons had intended something of the kind with Goethe, inasmuch as he is a form too alluring not to be striven after, and too great to be reached.

Wednesday, December 16.—­Today, after dinner, Goethe read me the second scene of the second act of “Faust,” where Mephistopheles visits Wagner, who is on the point of making a human being by chemical means.  The work succeeds; the Homunculus appears in the phial, as a shining being, and is at once active.  He repels Wagner’s questions upon incomprehensible subjects; reasoning is not his business; he wishes to act, and begins with our hero, Faust, who, in his paralyzed condition, needs a higher aid.  As a being to whom the present is perfectly clear and transparent, the Homunculus sees into the soul of the sleeping Faust, who, enraptured by a lovely dream, beholds Leda visited by swans, while she is bathing in a pleasant spot.  The Homunculus, by describing this dream, brings a most charming picture before our eyes.  Mephistopheles sees nothing of it, and the Homunculus taunts him with his northern nature.

“Generally,” said Goethe, “you will perceive that Mephistopheles appears to disadvantage beside the Homunculus, who is like him in clearness of intellect, and so much superior to him in his tendency to the beautiful and to a useful activity.  He styles him cousin; for such spiritual beings as this Homunculus, not yet saddened and limited by a thorough assumption of humanity, were classed with the demons, and thus there is a sort of relationship between the two.”

“Certainly,” said I, “Mephistopheles appears here in a subordinate situation; yet I cannot help thinking that he has had a secret influence on the production of the Homunculus.  We have known him in this way before; and, indeed, in the ‘Helena’ he always appears as a being secretly working.  Thus he again elevates himself with regard to the whole, and in his lofty repose he can well afford to put up with a little in particulars.”