of forms the most modest, and objects the most insignificant, as well as by the importance attributed to details—­ combated aristocratic prejudices, and developed in men’s minds the sentiment of equality.  And having by their artistic excellence exhausted both forms of the poetry of individuality, they have completed the cycle cf its poets; thereby reducing all followers in the same sphere to the subaltern position of imitators, and creating the necessity of a new order of poetry; teaching us to recognize a want where before we felt only a desire.  Together they have laid an era in the tomb; covering it with a pall that none may lift; and, as if to proclaim its death to the young generation, the poetry of Goethe has written its history, while that of Byron has graven its epitaph.

And now farewell to Goethe; farewell to Byron! farewell to the sorrows that crush but sanctify not—­to the poetic flame that illumines but warms not—­to the ironical philosophy that dissects without reconstructing—­to all poetry which, in an age where there is so much to do, teaches us inactive contemplation; or which, in a world where there is so much need of devotedness, would instil despair.  Farewell to all types of power without an aim; to all personifications of the solitary individuality which seeks an aim to find it not, and knows not how to apply the life stirring within it; to all egotistic joys and griefs: 

    “Bastards of the soul;
     O’erweening slips of idleness:  weeds—­no more-
     Self-springing here and there from the rank soil;
     O’erflowings of the lust of that same mind
     Whose proper issue and determinate end,
     When wedded to the love of things divine,
     Is peace, complacency, and happiness.”

Farewell, a long farewell to the past!  The dawn of the future is announced to such as can read its signs, and we owe ourselves wholly to it.

The duality of the Middle Ages, after having struggled for centuries under the banners of emperor and pope; after having left its trace and borne its fruit in every branch of intellectual development; has reascended to heaven—­its mission accomplished—­in the twin flames of poesy called Goethe and Byron.  Two hitherto distinct formulae of life became incarnate in these two men.  Byron is isolated man, representing only the internal aspect of life; Goethe isolated man, representing only the external.

Higher than these two incomplete existences; at the point of intersection between the two aspirations towards a heaven they were unable to reach, will be revealed the poetry of the future; of humanity; potent in new harmony, unity, and life.