Of this consciousness, no external power could
deprive him, and it is this consciousness that is the governing idea
of the fragment, and not the Titanism of the Prometheus of AEschylus.
It was, moreover, an idea which permanently accompanied Goethe
throughout life, and to which he frequently gave expression in his
later correspondence.[143]
[Footnote 143: The following passage from an article in the _Hibbert
Journal_, by M. Bergson (October, 1911, pp. 42-3), is an interesting
commentary on Goethe's conception: "If, then, in every province the
triumph of life is expressed by creation, might we not think that the
ultimate reason of human life is a creation which, in distinction from
that of the artist or man of science, can be pursued at every moment
and by all men alike; I mean the creation of self by self, the
continual enrichment of personality, by elements which it does not
draw from outside, but causes to spring forth from itself?"]
As, apart from its intrinsic power, _Prometheus_ has an incidental
interest in the history of philosophic thought, it may be worth while
to sketch briefly the development it attained. When Prometheus is
introduced to us, he is a rebel against Zeus and the other gods.
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