IV1

JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE TO CARL FRIEDRICH FROMMANN

Ew Wohlgeb.

Sendung begrüsst mich freundlich beÿ meiner Ankunft, ich wünsche nunmeher bald meinen Besuch in Jena abstatten zu können. Anbeÿ übersende den Schluss des Römischen Aufenthaltes, welcher freylich auch vielleicht nur drei Bogen betragen kann.

Leider ist das Nächste was hierauf folgt, der Weg nach Neapel und der erste Aufenthalt daselbst, noch nicht in Ordnung, sonst hätt ich davon auch noch soviel als nöthig gesendet. Ich bin jetzt nicht im Stande die Redaction vorzunehmen. Ich hatte von hinten hervor gearbeitet um mir mehr Lust zur Vollendung zu machen. Es wird nun also nichts übrig bleiben, als diesen Band etwas schwächer zu lassen als die übrigen, weshalb ich denn mit Herrn Cotta zu conferiren bitte.

Ich lege den Brief von Moor und Winter beÿ, vielleicht könnte man Herrn Vogel in Leipzig an den Auftrag erinnern. Manches andere verspare zu mündlicher Unterhaltung.

Mich Ihnen und den lieben Ihrigen angelegentlichst empfehlend

Wiemar d. 14 Sptbr 1816.

GOETHE

1 Printed in Goethe-Jahrbuch, vol. 8, pp. 146-47. Reprinted with several minor errors in transcription in vol. 27 (p. 404) of the Weimar edition of Goethe's works. The text of this letter is in the handwriting of Goethe's secretary, Friedrich Theodor Kräuter.

Ich lege den Brief von Wern und Winter Legevielleicht könnte man Heren Regel in Linzig

の

an der Auftrag erinnern. Wanches undern
ünespres zu mündlicher Unterhaltung.
Mich Ihnen und der liebensseigen ange-

Legentlichst emplehlend.

Weiner de 14 Sotto 1816.

d.

JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE TO CARL FRIEDRICH FROMMANN

old proven and tell

of the new mines.

the periment on the

R. W. EMERSON TO CHARLES STEARNS WHEELER

V1

RALPH WALDO EMERSON TO CHARLES STEARNS WHEELER

MY DEAR WHeeler,

Concord. 30 April.1843.

It is very late for me to begin to thank you by letter for your abundant care & supply of my wants, and, to point the reproach, here has come this day as I am putting pen to paper to send by Mr. Mann tomorrow, a pair of books from Mr Weiss, brought from your own hands. Two full letters I have received, & printed the substance of the same, & had the reading of a part of two more addressed to Robert Bartlett, since I wrote you. But, all winter, from 1 January to 10 March, I was absent from home, at Washington, Baltimore, Phila. & N. Y., & would not write letters to Germany, on the road. What shall I tell you. Our Dial, enriched by your manifold Intelligence, yet languishes somewhat in the scantiness of purchasing patrons, so that Miss Peabody wrote me at N. Y. that its subscription list did not now pay its expenses. I hoped that was a hint not to be mistaken, that I might drop it. But many persons expressed so much regret at the tho't of its dying, that it is to live one year more. Ellery Channing has written lately some good poems for it, one, especially, called "Death," & a copy of verses addressed by him to Elizabeth Hoar. Channing has just rented the little red house next below mine, on the Turnpike, and is coming to live here next week. His friend, S. G. Ward, is editing a volume (about the size of one of your Tennyson's,) of C's poetry, which will appear in a week or two. Thoreau goes next week to New York: My brother William at Staten Island has invited him to take charge of the education of his son, for a year or more, & the neighborhood to the city offers many advantages to H. T.-Hawthorn[e] remains in his seat,

A transcript of this letter appeared in Anglia, vol. 12, pp. 454-459. Reprinted (with facsimile) in Wülker's Englische Literaturgeschichte, vol. 2, pp. 482-83.

& writes very actively for all the magazines. Alcott & Lane remain also in their cottage. Wright has withdrawn from them, & joins the Fourierists, who are beginning to buy & settle land. These are all our village news of any import: Only, next week, they begin to build a railroad, which may unseat us all, & drive us into new solitudes. I do not notice any very valuable signs about us in the literary & spiritual realm. Yet I found at Washington, & at N. Y. some friends whom I greatly cherish. I think our wide community with its abundant reading, & a culture not dependant on one city, but taking place everywhere in detached nervous centres, promises to yield, & already yields a great deal of private original unviolated thought & character. Nature is resolved to make a stand against the Market, which has grown so usurping & omnipotent. Everything shall not go to market; so she makes shy men, cloistered maids, & angels in lone places. Brook Farm is an experiment of another kind, where a hotbed culture is applied, and everything private is published, & carried to its extreme. I learn from all quarters that a great deal of action & courage has been shown there, & my friend Hawthorn[e] almost regrets that he had not remained there, to see the unfolding & issue of so much bold life. He should have staid to be its historian. My friend Mr Bradford writes me from B. F. that he has formed several new friendships with old friends, such new grounds of character have been disclosed. They number in all about 85 souls. You will have heard of Carlyle's new work, "Past & Present." I am just now printing it in Boston (from Ms. partly) braving the chances of piracy from New York. It is certain to be popular from the fear of one class & the hope of another: and is preliminary, Carlyle seems to think, to Cromwell. It is full of brilliant points & is excellent history, true history of England in 1843.-You will have heard of Robert Bartlett's illness, & the great anxiety of his friends respecting him. He went away, I heard, in good spirits, & somewhat amended: but his health is in a most critical condition. It is a great grief to me, who was every year learning to value him more, though there has been something curious,