Sept. 24, 1837.—­I have been profoundly interested in the character of Goethe, from reading Mrs. Austin’s “Characteristics” of him.  Certainly, very few men have ever lived of equally wonderful powers.  A thing most remarkable in him is what the Germans call Vielseitigkeit, many-sidedness.  There was no department of science or art of which he was wholly ignorant, while in very many of both classes his knowledge was accurate and profound.  Most men who have attained to distinguished excellence, have done so by confining themselves to a single department—­frequently being led to the choice by a strong, original bias.  Even when this is not the case, there is some class of objects or pursuits, towards which a particular inclination is manifested; one loves facts, and devotes himself to observations and experiments; another loves principles and seeks everywhere to discover a law.  One cherishes the Ideal, and neglects and despises the Real, while another reverses his judgment.  We have become so accustomed to this one-sidedness that it occasions no wonder, and is regarded as the natural state of the mind.  Thus we are struck with astonishment on finding a mind like Goethe’s equally at home in the Ideal and the Real; equally interested in the laws of poetical criticism, and the theory of colors, equally attentive to a drawing of a new species of plants, and to the plan of a railroad or canal.  In short, with the most delicate sense of the Beautiful, the most accurate conception of the mode of its representation, and the most intense longing for it (which alone would have sufficed to make him an Idealist) he united a fondness for observation, a love of the actual in nature, and a susceptibility to deep impressions from and interest in the objects of sense, which would have seemed to mark him out for a Realist.  But is not this the true stale of the mind, instead of being; one which should excite astonishment?  Is it not one-sidedness rather than many-sidedness that should be regarded as strange?  Is it not as much an evidence of disease as the preponderance of one element or function in the physical constitution?

26th.—­I have been thinking more about this many-sidedness of Goethe.  It is by no means that versatility which distinguishes so many second-rate geniuses, which inclines to the selection of many pursuits, but seldom permits the attainment of distinguished excellence in one.  It was one and the same principle acting throughout, the striving after unity.  It was this which made him seek to idealise the actual, and to actualise the Ideal.  The former he attempted by searching in each outward object for the law which governed its existence and of which its outward development was but an imperfect symbol, the latter by giving form and consistency to the creations of his own fancy.  Thus the one was ever-present to him, and he sought it not in one path, among the objects of one science alone, but everywhere in nature and out.