TO MAINTAIN the mind and spirit of man within the framework of
nature--this is what Goethe managed to do more consistently than
any other poet of his time, and with more circumstance and plaus-
ibility. And this because of the objective and sensuous character
of his imagination, supported as it was throughout his career by
scientific studies. His naturalism was more steady and constant than
either Wordsworth's or Shelley's, and with him it was a growing
and not a waning element of his philosophy. It may not be possible
to demonstrate any very great specific effect of his view of nature
upon English writers. But the general quality of his mind made
itself felt in a thousand subtle ways. And entirely irrespective of
his influence, he seems to insist on being included in any study of
the poetic concept of nature. The subtlety and force of his mind,
the boldness and range of his imagination, give peculiar weight to
whatever he has to say on this subject; and he takes his place with
our own Wordsworth and Meredith among the most important of
nature-poets in the modern world.

Goethe is no simple worshiper of nature. As a poet personify-
ing her in her ever-varied aspects, and as a realist in his regard for
plain truth, he has many references to nature as a power hostile to
man or indifferent to his spiritual aims. These are, however, more
frequent, I believe, in his earlier writings. In "Werther" ( 1774),
the hero is divided between a view of universal nature (à la Shaftes-
bury) as a blessed harmony of all animate and inanimate things,
and the opposed view of her as everywhere struggle, pain and de-

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