On
his own word, therefore, we may take it that under other conditions he
might have produced more perfect works than he has actually given us.
Yet the world has had its compensations from those hampering
conditions under which his creative powers were exercised. In the very
attempt to grope his way to the most expressive forms of artistic
presentation all the resources of his mind found their fullest play.
It is in the variety of his literary product, unparalleled in the case
of any other poet, that lies its inexhaustible interest; between _Goetz
von Berlichingen_ and the Second Part of _Faust_ what a range of
themes and forms does he present for his readers' appreciation! And to
the anarchy of taste and judgment that prevailed when Goethe began his
literary career we in great measure owe another product of his
manifold activities. He has been denied a place in the very first rank
of poets, but by the best judges he is regarded as the greatest master
of literary and artistic criticism. But, had he found fixed and
acknowledged standards in German national literature and art, there
would have been less occasion for his searching scrutiny of the
principles which determine all art and literature.
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