Die Götter - Das Schicksal von Ji: Die Götter 4 - Roman (Die Götter-Serie) (German Edition)

His grandmother3 who made a great pet of him, was the confidant of all his ideas as to how the story would turn out, and as she repeated these to me, and I turned the story according to these hints, there'was a little diplomatic secrecy between us which we never disclosed. I had the pleasure of continuing my story to the delight and astonishment of my hearers, and Wolfgang saw with glowing eyes the fulfilment of his own conceptions, and listened with enthusiastic applause.

The grandmother here spoken of lived in the same' house, and when lessons were finished, away the children hurried to her room, to play. The dear old lady, proud as a grandmother,'spoiled' them of course, and gave. But of all her gifts nothing was comparable to the puppet-show with which she surprised them on the Christmas eve of , and which Goethe says' created. There was also the grandfather Textor, whose house the children gladly visited, and whose grave personality produced an impression on the boy, all the deeper because a certain mysterious awe surrounded the monosyllabic dream-interpreting old gentleman.

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His portrait prespnts him in a perruque d huit etages, with the heavy golden chain round his neck, suspending a medal given him by the Empress Maria Theresa; but Goethe remembered him more vividly in his dressing gown and slippers moving amid the flowers of his garden, weeding, training, watering; or seated at the dinner table where on Sundays he received his guests.

The mother's admirable method of cultivating the inventive activity of the boy, finds its pendant in the father's method of cultivating his receptive faculties. He speaks with less approbation than it deserved of his father's idea of education; probably because late in life he felt keenly the deficiencies of systematic training. But the principle upon which the father proceeded was an excellent one, namely, that of exercising the intellect rather than the memory.

An anecdote was dictated, generally something from every day life, or, perhaps, a trait from the life of Frederick the Great; sometimes he selected a topic for himself. On such subjects he wrote dialogues and moral reflections in Latin and'German. Many have been preserved; and the reader will find one in the Appendix,. Wisemann, of Frankfurt, to whom we are indebted for these exercises and compositions, written during Goethe's sixth, seventh, and eighth years, thinks there can be no doubt of their being the unassisted productions of the boy. In one of the dialogues there is a pun which proves that the dialogue was written in Latin first and then translated into German.

The word used is nuces, which, meaning trivialities in a metaphorical sense, is by the boy wilfully interpreted in its ordinary sense, as nuts —' cera nunc ludo non nucibus'I play with wax, not with nuts. The German word niisse means nuts simply, and has no metaphorical meaning. One of these dialoguest is amusingly humorous and characteristic. Maximilian, a playfellow, asks Wolfgang why his parents would not have him with other guests at the feast. He proposes to occupy the time, till the master appears, with Comenius or some other book; but Maximilian rejects all such propositions.

Well then, say what you propose. I hate all seriousness, and leave it to the dull dogs. You are very long in saying what you want.. Look here; we will knock our heads together. Let us leave that game to the goats: We shall by such practice get hard heads. That would be no such honor! I prefer keeping mine soft. How do you mean? I don't want to be pig-headed.. There you're right; but I prize toughness in my limbs. If nothing but that, then knock your head boldly against the wall, as often as you like, you will see the most wonderful effects P!

Beside this let us place one of his moral reflections. Moreover, many Heathens have surpassed Christians in virtue. Who was truer in friendship than Damon? They give us a notion of the boy being somewhat' od-fashioned, and they show great progress in culture. His progress in Greek was remarkable, as may be seen from the sample given elsewhere.: He pretended to be occupied with his own lesson, and caught up all that was said. French, too, he learned, as the exercises testify; and thus before he is eight, we find him writing German, French, Italian, Latin, and Greek.

He was in fact a precocious child. This will probably startle many readers, especially if they have adopted the current notion that precocity is a sign of disease, and that marvellous children are necessarily evanescent fruits which never ripen, early blossoms which wither early. Observatum fere est celerius occidere festinatam maturitatem, says Quintilian, in the mournful passage which records the loss of his darling son; and many a proud parent has seen his hopes frustrated by early death, or by matured mediocrity following the brilliant promise.

It may help to do away with some confusion on this subject, if we bear in mind that men distinguish themselves by receptive capacity and by productive capacity: In men of the highest class these two qualities are united. Shakespeare and Goethe are not less remarkable for the variety of their knowledge than for the potency of their invention. But as we call both the child'clever' who learns his lessons rapidly, and the child'clever' who shows wit, sagacity, and invention, this ambiguity of phrase has led to surprise when the child who was' so clever' at school, turns out a mediocre man; or, inversely, when the child who was a' dunce' at school, turns out a genius in art.

Goethe's precocity was nothing abnormal. It was the activity of a mind at once greatly receptive and greatly productive. Through life he manifested the same eager desire for knowledge, not in the least alarmed by that bugbear of' knowledge stifling originality,' which alarms the ignorance of many questionable geniuses. He knew that if abundant fuel stifles miserable fires, it makes the great fire blaze. The quick, observant boy found much in this rebuilding of the paternal house to interest him; he chatted with the workmen, learning their domestic circumstances, and learning something of the builder's art, which in after years so greatly occupied him.

This event, moreover, led to his being sent to a friend during the restoration of the upper part of the house - for the family inhabited the house during its reconstruction, which was made story by story from the ground upwards - and the event also led to his being sent to school. Viehoff thinks that Germany would have had a quite other Goethe had the child been kept at a public school till he went to the university; and quotes Gervinus to the effect that Goethe's home education prevented his ever thoroughly appreciating history, and the struggles of the masses.

Not accepting the doctrine that Character is formed by Circumstance, I cannot accept the notion of school life affecting the poet to this extent. We have only to reflect how many men are educated at public schools An exquisite epigram, which may be rendered thus: A Quidnunc boasting said: The Quidnunc is- a Fool in his own Right! That source lay in his character. One thing, however, he did learn at school, and that was disgust at schools. The boy carefully trained at home, morally as well as physically, had to mingle with schoolboys who were what most schoolboys are, -dirty, rebellious, cruel, low in their tastes and habits.

The contrast was very painful to him, and he was glad when the completion of his father's house once more enabled him to receive instruction at home. One school anecdote he relates, well illustrates his power of self-command. Fighting during school time was always severely punished. One day the teacher did not arrive at the appointed time. The boys played together till the hour was nearly over, and then three of them, left alone with Wolfgang, resolved to drive him away. They cut up a broom, and re-appeared with the switches.

They began pitilessly lashing my legs. I did not stir, although the pain made the minutes terribly long. My wrath deepened with my endurance, and on the first stroke of the hour I grasped one of my assailants by the hair and hurled him to the ground, pressing my knee on his back; I drew the head of the second, who attacked me behind, under my arm and nearly throttled him; with a dexterous twist I threw the third flat on the ground.

They bit, scratched and kicked. But my soul was swelling with one feeling of revenge, and I knocked their heads together without mercy. A shout of murder brought the household round us. But the scattered switches and my bleeding legs bore witness to my story. IT is profoundly false to say that' Character is formed by Circumstance,' unless the phrase, with unphilosophic equivocation, include the whole complexity of Circumstances, from the creation downwards.

Character is to outward Circumstance what the Organism is to the outward world: A wondrous variety of'vegetable and animal organisms live and flourish under circumstances which furnish the means of living, but do not determine the specific forms of each organism. In the same way various Characters live under identical Circumstances, excited by them, not formed by them. Each Character assimilates, from surrounding Circumstance, that which is by it assimilable, rejecting the rest; just as from the earth and air the plant draws those elements which will serve it as food, rejecting the rest.

Every Biologist knows that Circumstance has a modifying influence; but he also knows that these modifications are only possible within certain limits. Abundance of food and peculiar treatment will modify the ferocity of a wild beast; but it will not make the lion a lamb. Instead, therefore, of saying that Man is the creature of Circumstance, it would be nearer the mark to say that Man is the architect of Circumstance.

It is Character which builds an existence out of Circumstance. Our strength is measured by our plastic power. From the same materials one man builds palaces, another hovels, one warehouses, another villas; bricks and mortar are mortar and bricks, until the architect can make them something else. Thus it is that in the same family, in the same circumstances, one man rears a stately edifice, while his brother, vacillating and incompetent, lives forever amid ruins: If the reader agrees with this conception of the influence of circumstances, he will see that I was justified in laying some stress on Goethe's social position, though I controverted Viehoff and Gervinus on the point of school education.

The well-fed lion loses his ferocity. But the temporary and incidental effect of school education, and other circumstances of minor importance, can never be said to modify a character; they only more or less facilitate its development. Goethe furnishes us with a striking illustration of the degree in which outward circumstances affect character. He became early the favorite of several eminent painters, was constantly in their ateliers, playing with them, and making them explain their works to him.

He was, moreover, a frequent visitor at picture. Indeed, his imagination was so stimulated by familiarity with these works, that in his tenth or eleventh year he wrote a description of twelve possible pictures on the history of Joseph, and some of his conceptions were thought worthy of being executed by artists of renown.

It may be further added, in anticipation, that during the whole of his life he was thrown much with painters and pictures, and was for many years tormented with the desire of becoming an artist. If, therefore, Circumstance had the power of forming Character, we ought to find him a painter. What is the fact? The fact is, that he had not the Character which makes a painter; he had no faculty, properly speaking, for plastic art, and years of labor, aided by the instruction and counsel of the best masters, were powerless to give him even a respectable facility.

All, therefore, that Circumstance did in. Circumstance can create no faculty: Other boys, besides Goethe, heard the Lisbon earthquake eagerly discussed; but they had not their religious doubts awakened by it, as his were awakened in his sixth year. This catastrophe, which, in , spread consternation over Europe, he has described as having greatly perturbed him.

In vain my young mind strove to resist these impressions. It was impossible; the more so as the wise and religious themselves could not agree upon the view to be taken of the event. Dieu s'est' veng6, leur mort est le prix de leur crimes? Quel crime, quelle faute ont commis ces enfans Sur le sein maternel 6crasts et sanglans? Lisbonne qui n'est plus, eat-elle plus de vices Que Londres, que Paris, plong6s dans les d6lices?

Lisbonne est abim6e; et l'on danse' Paris. He debated it in his own mind as he heard it debated around him. Bettina records that on his coming one day from church, where he had listened to a sermon on the subject, in which God's goodness was justified, his father asked him what impression the sermon had made. This was strengthened by the foolish conduct of those around him, who, on the occasion of a terrible thunderstorm which shattered the windows, dragged him and his sister into a dark passage,'where the whole'household, distracted with fear, tried to conciliate the angry Deity by frightful groans and prayers.

The doubts which troubled Wolfgang gradually subsided. In his family circle he was the silent reflective listener to constant theological debates. The various sects separating from the established church all seemed to be animated by the one desire of approaching the Deity, especially through Christ, more nearly than seemed possible through the ancient forms. It occurred to him that he, also, might make such an approach, and in a more direct way. Unable to ascribe a form to the Deity, he' resolved to seek Him in His works, and in the good old Bible fashion, to build an altar to Him.

Sunrise was awaited with impatience. The glittering of the house tops gave signal; he applied a burning-glass to the pastille, and thus was the worship consummated by a priest of seven years old, alone in his bedroom! It will serve to set us right as to the childishness. See Les Illumines, par Gerard de Nerval. The little fellow replied,'I begin with this. Later on in life I shall distinguish myself in far other ways. He had just attained his seventh year when the Seven Years' War broke out. His grandfather espoused the cause of Austria, his father that of Frederick.

This difference of opinion brought with it contentions, and finally separation between the families. The exploits of the Prussian army were enthusiastically cited on the one side and depreciated on the other. It was an all-absorbing topic, awakening passionate partisanship. Men looked with strange feelings on the struggle which the greatest captain of his age was maintaining against Russia, Austria and France. The ruler of not more than five millions of men was fighting unaided against the rulers of more than a hundred millions; and, in spite of his alleged violation of honor, it was difficult to hear without enthusiasm of his brilliant exploits.

Courage and genius in desperate circumstances always awaken sympathy; and men paused not to ask what justification there was for the seizure of Silesia, nor why the Saxon standards drooped heavily in the churches of Berlin. The roar of victorious cannon stunned the judgment; the intrepid general was blindly worshipped.

Archenholtz wrote its history; and this work, translated into Latin, was read in schools, in company with Tacitus and Caesar. He received from it precisely that which was food to his character. He caught the grand enthusiasm, but, as he says, it was the personality of the hero, rather than the greatness of his cause, which made him rejoice in every victory, copy the songs of triumph and the lampoons directed against Austria.

He learnt now the effects of party spirit. At the table of his grandfather he had to endure galling sarcasms, and vehement declamations showered on his hero. He heard Frederick'shamefully slandered. The poetic faculty early manifested itself. We have seen him inventing conclusions for his mother's stories; and as he grew older he began to invent stories for the amusement of his playfellows, after he had filled his mind with images -'Lone sitting on the shores of old Romance.

He also read and learned by heart most of the poets of that day: Not only did he tell stories, he wrote them also, as we gather from a touching little anecdote preserved by Bettina. The small-pox had carried off his little brother Jacob. To the surprise of his mother, Wolfgang shed no tears, believing Jacob to be with God in heaven. He was then nine years old. Shortly after the death of his brother he was startled by the sound of the warder's trumpet from the chief tower, announcing the approach of troops.

This was in January , It seemed as if the warder never would cease blowing his sounding horn. On came the troops in continuous masses, and the rolling tumult of their drums called all the women to the windows, all the boys in admiring crowds into the streets. The troops were French. They seized the guard-house, and in a little while the city was a camp.

To make matters worse, these troops were at war with Frederick, whom Wolfgang and his father worshipped. They were soon billeted through the town, and things relapsed into their usual routine, varied by a military occupation. In the Goethe-house an important person was quartered, —Count de Thorane, the King's lieutenant, a man of taste and munificence, who assembled round him artists and celebrities, and won the affectionate. This occupation of Frankfurt brought with it many advantages to Goethe. It relaxed the severity of paternal book education, and began another kind of tuition - that of life and manners.

The perpetual'marching through the. The French nation always carries its' civilization' with it - i. In Frankfurt both were immediately opened, and Goethe was presented with a' free admission' to the theatre, a privilege he used daily, not always understanding but always enjoying what he saw. In tragedy the measured rhythm, slow utterance, and abstract language enabled him to understand the scenes, better than he understood comedy, wherein the language, besides moving amid the details of private life, was also more rapidly spoken.

But at the theatre boys are not critical, and do not need to understand a play to enjoy it. Nay, so great was this delight, that although we regarded the French custom of opening theatres on Sunday, with the profoundest sense of its' wickedness,' the attraction became irresistible: To this day I see the actors gesticulating, and hear the audience cry bis!

Goethe's ignorance of the language, then, I am sure was no obstacle to his enjoyment. This Derones was acquainted with the actors, and introduced him behind the'scenes. We shall see hereafter how early he was introduced behind the scenes of life. For the present let it be noted that he was a frequenter of the green-room, and admitted into the dressing-room, where the actors and actresses dressed and undressed with philosophic disregard to appearances, which, from repeated visits, he also learned to regard as quite natural. Derones excelled as he affirmed in' affairs of honor.

One day he pretended that Wolfgang had insulted him: Imagine Wolfgang, aged twelve, arrayed in shoes and silver buckles, fine woollen stockings, dark serge breeches, green coat, with gold facings, a waistcoat of gold cloth, cut out of his father's bridegroom-waistcoat, his hair curled and powdered, his hat under his arm, and little sword with silk sabretash. This little mannikin stands opposite his antagonist with theatrical formality; swords clash, thrusts come quick upon each other, the combat grows hot, when the point of Derones' rapier lodges in the hilt of Wolfgang's: The two embrace, and retire to a cafe to refresh themselves with a glass of almond milk.

When the play was completed he submitted it to Derones, who, pointing out several grammatical blunders, promised to examine it more critically, and talked of giving it his support with the manager. Wolfgang saw, in his mind's eye, the name of his play already placarded at the corners of the streets! Unhappily Derones in his critical capacity was merciless. He picked the play to pieces, and stunned the poor author with the critical jargon of that day; proclaimed the absolute integrity of the Three Unities, abused the English, laughed at the Germans, and maintained the sovereignty of French taste in so confident a style, that his listener was without a reply.

If silenced, however, he was not convinced. It set him thinking on those critical canons. He studied the treatise on the Unities by Corneille, and the prefaces of Racine. The result of these studies was profound contempt for that system; and it is, perhaps, to Derones that we owe something of the daring defiance of all' rule,' which startled Germany in Gdtz von Berlichingen.

AT length, June , the French quitted Frankfurt; and studies were seriously resumed. Mathematics, music, and drawing were commenced under paternal superintendence. For-mathematics Wolfgang had no aptitude; for music little: Drawing continued through life a pleasant exercise. Left now to the calm of uninterrupted studies he made gigantic strides. Even the hours of recreation were filled with some useful occupation. He added English to his polyglott store; and to keep up his'several languages, determined, like the late Ducrow,'to ride six horses at once.

The eldest describes in good German all the incidents of his travels; his sister answers in womanly style with short sharp sentences, and nothing but full stops, much as Siegwart was afterwards written. Another brother studies theology, and therefore writes in Latin, with postscripts in Greek. A third and a fourth, clerks at Hamburgh and Marseilles, take English and French; Italian is given to a musician; while the youngest, who remains at home, writes in Jew-Geruian. Having placed his characters in various parts of the globe, he was not satisfied till he had a distinct idea of these localities, so that the objects and events should be consonant with probability.

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While trying to master the strange dialect — Jew-German - he was led to the study of Hebrew. As the original language of the Old Testament, this seemed to him an indispensable acquisition. His father consented to give him a Hebrew master; and although he attainedno scholarship in that difficult language, yet the reading, translating, and committing to memory of various parts of the Bible, brought out the meaning more vividly before him; as every one will understand who compares the lasting effect produced by the laborious school reading of Sallust and Livy, with the facile reading of Robertson and Hume.

The Bible made a profound impression upon him. To a boy of his constitutional reflectiveness, the severe study of this book could not fail to exercise a deep and' permeating influence; nor, at the same time, in one so accustomed to think for himself, could it fail to awaken certain doubts. I often posed my tutors with the sun standing still on Gibeon, and the moon in the valley of Ajalon; not to mention other incogruities and impossibilities. All my doubts were now awakened, as in order to master the Hebrew I studied the literal version by Schmidt; printed under the text.

Hebrew studies was a biblical poem on Joseph and his Brethren; which he dictated to a poor half idiot who lived in his father's house, and who had a mania for copying or writing under dictation. All his best thoughts and expressions, he says, came to him while walking; he could do nothing seated. Connected with his biblical studies, and his Confirmation which took place in , we catch a glimpse of Friulein von Klettenberg, whose letters aird conversations subsequently furnished him with the' Confessions of a Fair Saint' in Wilhelm Meister.

It was not so much the effect of religious discussion, as the experience it gave him of a deeply religious nature. She was neither bigot nor prude. Her faith was an inner light which shed mild radiance around her. Moved by her influence, he wrote a series of Religious Odes, after the fashion of that day, and greatly pleased his father by presenting them copied neatly in a quarto volume. His father begged that every year he would present him with such a volume. A very different sort of female influence has now to be touched on. His heart began to flutter with the emotions of love. He was not quite fifteen, when Gretchen, the sister of one of his disreputable companions, first agitated his imagination with her charms.

The story is told in a rambling way in the Autobiography, and may here be very briefly dismissed. He had often turned his poetical talents to practical purposes, namely, writing wedding and funeral verses, the produce of which went in joyous feastings. I cannot pass this reference to my oldest German friend without a word of acknowledgment for the unwearying kindness he has ever shown me, and the many ways in which he has assisted me in this biography. A merry life they led, in picnics and pleasure bouts; and the coronation of the Kaiser Joseph II. One night, after the fatigues of a sight-seeing day, the hours rolled unheeded over these thoughtless, merry heads, and the stroke of midnight startled them.

To his dismay, Wolfgang found he had forgotten the door-key with which hitherto he had been able to evade paternal knowledge of his late hours. Gretchen proposed they should all remain together, and pass the night in conversation. This was agreed on. But, as in all such cases, the effort was vain. Fatigue weighed down their eyelids; conversation became feebler and feebler; two strangers already slumbered in corners of the room; one friend sat in a corner with his betrothed, her head reposing on his shoulder; another crossing his arms upon the table, rested his head upon them - and snored.

The noisy room had become silent. Gretchen and her lover sat by the window talking in undertones. Fatigue at length conquered her also, and drooping her head upon his shoulder she too slept. With tender pride he supported that delicious burden, till, like the rest, he gave way and slept.

It was'broad day when he awoke. Gretchen was standing before a mirror arranging her cap. She smiled on him more amiably than ever she had smiled before; and pressed his hand tenderly as he departed. But now, while he seemed drawing nearer to her, the denouement was at hand. Some of the joyous companions had been guilty of nefarious practices, such as forgeries of documents. His friend and Gretchen were involved in the accusation, though falsely. Wolfgang had to undergo a severe investigation, which, as he was perfectly innocent, did not much afflict him; but an affliction came out of the.

A boy aspiring to the dignity of manhood knows few things more galling than to be treated as a boy by the girl whom he has honored with his homage. He suffered greatly at this destruction of his romance; nightly was his pillow wet with tears; food became repugnant to him; life had no more an object.

But pride came to his aid; pride and that volatility of youth which compensates for extra sensitiveness by extra facility- in forgetting. He threw himself into study, especially of philosophy, under guidance of a tutor, a sort of Wagner to the young Faust. This tutor, who preferred dusty quartos to all the landscapes in the world, used to banter him upon being a true German, such as Tacitus describes, avid of the emotions excited by solitude and scenery. Laughter weaned him not from the enjoyment. He was enjoying his first sorrow: He made frequent walking excursions.

Those mountains which from earliest childhood had stood so distant,' haunt. These filled his mind with lovely images, and became poems. Severer studies were not neglected. To please his father he was diligent in application to jurisprudence; to. Herein, as indeed throughout his career, we see the strange impressionability of his nature, which, like the fabled chameleon, takes its color from every tree it lies under.

The melancholy fit did not last long. A circle of lively friends, among them Horn, of whom we shall hear more anon, drew him into gayety again. Their opinion of his talents appears to have been enormous; their love for him and interest in all he did, was like that which followed him through life. No matter what his mood - in the wildest student-period, in the startling genius-period, and in the diplomatic-period; whatever offence his manner created was soon forgotten in the irresistible fascination of his nature.

The secret of that fascination was his own overflowing lovingness, and his genuine interest in every individuality, however opposite to his own. With these imperfect' glances at his early career we close this Book, on his departure from home for the University of Leipsic. Before finally quitting this period, we may take a survey of the characteristics it exhibits, as some guide in our future inquiries. As in the soft round lineaments of childhood we trace features which after years will develope into decisive forms, so in the moral lineaments of the Child may be traced the characteristics of the Man.

But I have often thought that an apparent'solution of continuity' takes place in the transition period, so that the youth is in many respects unlike what he has been in childhood, and what he will be in maturity. In youth, when the passions begin to stir, the character is made to swerve from the orbit previously traced. Passion, more than Character, rules the hour. Thus we often see the prudent child turn out an extravagant youth; but lie crystallizes once more into prudence, as he hardens into age.

This was certainly the case with Goethe, who, if he had died young, like Shelley or Keats, would have left a name among the most genial, not to say enthusiastic, of poets; but who, living to the age of eighty-two, had fifty years of crystallization to form a character which perplexes critics. In his childhood, scanty as the details are which enable us to reconstruct it, we see the main features of the man. Let us glance rapidly at them.

And first of his manysidcqness. Seldom has a boy exhibited such completeness of human faculties. The multiplied activity of his life is prefigured in the varied. We see him as an orderly, somewhat formal, inquisitive, reasoning, deliberative child, a precocious learner, an omnivorous reader, and a vigovous logician who thinks for himself - so independent that at six years of age he doubts the beneficence of the Creator; at seven, doubts the competence and justice of the world's jud gment.

He is inventive, poetical, proud, loving, volatile, with a mind open to all influences, swayed by every gust, and yet, while thus swayed as to the direction of his activity, master over himself. The most diverse characters, the most antagonistic opinions interest him. He is very studious, no bookworm more so: He is also troubled by a melancholy, dreamy mood, forcing him ever and anon into solitude. Among the dominant characteristics, however, are seriousness, formality, rationality. He is by no means a naughty boy. He gives his parents no tremulous anxiety as to' what will become of him.

It is this which in later years perplexed his judges, who could not reconcile this appearance of self-mastery, this absence of enthusiasm, with their conceptions of a poet. Assuredly he had enthusiasm, if ever man had it: He had little of the other kind of enthusiasm - the insurrection of the Feelings carrying away upon their triumphant shoulders the Reason which has no longer power to guide them; for his intellect did not derive its main momentum from his feelings; And hence it is that whereas the quality which first strikes us in most poets is sensibility, with its caprices, infirmities,.

I say provoking, for we all gladly overlook the errors of enthusiasm; some, because these errors appeal to our compassion, and some, because these errors establish a community of impulse between the sinner and ourselves, forming, as it were, broken edges which show us where to look for support —scars which tell of wounds we have escaped. Whereas, we are pitiless to the successes of reason, the cold prudences which shame our weakness and ask no alms from our charity. Why do we all preach Prudence and dislike it? Perhaps, because we dimly feel that life without its generous errors might want its lasting enjoyments; and thus the very mistakes which arise from an imprudent, unreflecting career, are absolved by that instinct which suggests other aims for existence beyond prudential aims.

This is one reason why the erring lives of Genius command such deathless sympathy. Having indicated so much, 1 may now ask those who are distressed by the calm, self-sustaining superiority of Goethe in old age, whether, on deeper reflection, they cannot reconcile it with their conceptions of the poet's nature? We preach Reason, but we sympathize with Sensibility. Our dislike of the one arises from its supposed incompatibility with the other. But if a man unites the mastery of Will and Intellect to the profoundest sensibility of Emotion, shall we not say of him that he has in living synthesis vindicated both what we preach and what we love?

That Goethe united these will be abundantly shown in this Biography. In the chapters about to follow we shall see him wild, restless, aimless, erring, and extravagant enough to satisfy the rmost ardent admirer of the. One trait must not be passed over, namely, his impatient susceptibility, which, while it prevented his ever thoroughly mastering the technic of any one subject, lay at the bottom of his multiplied activity in directions so opposed to each other. He was excessively impressionable, caught the impulse from every surrounding influence, and was thus never constant to one thing, because this susceptibility was connected with an impatience which soon made him weary.

There are men who learn many languages, and never thoroughly master the grammar of one. Of these was Goethe. Easily excited to throw his energy in a new direction, he had not the patience which begins at the beginning, and rises gradually, slowly into assured mastery. Like an eagle he swooped down upon his prey; he could not watch for it, with cat-like patience.

It is to this impatience we must attribute the fact of so many works being left fragments, so many composed by snatches during long intervals. Faust, Egmont, Tasso, Iphigenia, Meister, etc. Whatever could be done in a few days —while the impulse lasted- was done; longer works were spread over a series of years. IN the month of October , Goethe, aged sixteen, arrived in Leipsic, to commence his collegiate life, and to lay, as he hoped, the solid foundation of a future professorship.

He took lodgings in the Feuerkugel, between the Old and New Markets, and was by the rector of the University inscribed on the 19th as student'in the Bavarian nation. Goethe, as a Frankfurter, was placed in the Bavarian. His own letters, and the letters of his friends, enable us' to read between the lines' of fhe Autobiography, and to read there a very different account. He first presented himself to Hofrath BShme, a genuine German professor, shut within the narrow circle of his speciality.

To him Literature and the Fine Arts were trivialities; and when the confiding youth confessed his secret ambition of studying belles lettres, in lieu of the jurisprudence commanded by his father, he met with every discouragement. Yet it was not difficult to persuade this impressionable student that to rival Otto and Heineccius was the true ambition of a vigorous mind. He set to work in earnest, at first, as students usually do on arriving at seats of learning.

His attendance at the lectures on philosophy, history of law, and jurisprudence, was assiduous enough to have pleased even his father. But this flush of eagerness quickly subsided. Logic was invincibly repugnant to him. He hungered for realities, and could not be satisfied with definitions. To see operations of his mind which, from childhood upwards, had been conducted with perfect ease and unconsciousness, suddenly pulled to pieces, in order that he might gain the superfluous knowledge of what they were, and what they were called, was to him tiresome and frivolous.

Jurisprudence soon became almost equally tiresome. He already knew as much law as the professor thought proper to communicate; and what with the tedium of the lectures,. Volatile he was, wild, and somewhat rough, both in appearance and in speech. He had brought with him a wild, uneasy spirit struggling towards the light.

He had also brought with him the rough manners of Frankfurt, the strong provincial accent, and provincial colloquialisms, rendered still more unfit for the Leipsic salon by a mixture of proverbs and biblical allusions. Nay, even his costume was in unpleasant contrast with that of the society in which he moved. He had an ample wardrobe, but unhappily it was doubly provincial; it had been manufactured at home by one of his father's servants, and thus was not only in the Frankfurt style, but grotesquely made in that style.

To complete his discomfiture, he saw a favorite low comedian throw an audience into fits of laughter by coming on the stage dressed precisely in that costume, which he had hitherto worn as the latest novelty! All who can remember the early humiliations of being far behind their companions in matters of costume, will sympathize with this youth. From one of his'letters, written shortly after his arrival, we may catch a glimpse of him. Bohme on law, and Ernesti on Cicero's Orator. Next week we have collegium, philosophicum et mathematicum.

I haven't seen Gottsched yet. He is married again. She is nineteen and he sixty-five. She is four feet high, and he seven feet. She is as thin as a herring, and he as broad as a feathersack. I make a great figure here! But as yet I am no dandy. I never shall become one. I need'some skill to be industrious. In society, concerts, theatre, feastings, promenades, the time flies. There go two louis d'or.

Pence are here as farthings are with you. Nevertheless one can live cheaply here. So I hope to get off with two hundred thalers —what do I say? Not including what has already gone to the devil. At the table where he dined daily, kept by Hofrath Ludwig the rector, he met several medical students. He heard little talked of but medicine and botany, and the names of Haller, Linnmus and Buffon, were incessantly cited with respect. His ready quickness to interest himself in all that interested those around him, threw him at once into these studies, which hereafter he was to pursue with passionate ardor, but which at present he only lightly touched.

Another source of instruction awaited him, one which through life he ever gratefully acknowledged, the society of women. He had got rid of his absurd wardrobe at one fell swoop, without a murmur at the expense. He now had also to cast away the poetic wardrobe brought from home with so much pride. He saw that it was poetic frippery —saw that his own poems were lifeless; accordingly, a holocaust was made of all his writings, prose and verse, and the kitchen fire wafted them into space.

But society became vapid to him at last. He was not at his ease. Cards never amused him, and poetical discussion became painful. Ask not after the cause! It was not occupation, at all events. You live contented in Marburg; 1 live so here. Solitary, solitary, quite solitary.

Pierre Grimbert

Dear Riese, this solitude has awakened a certain sadness in my soul: It is my only pleasure, Away from all the world, To lie beside the streamlet, And think of those I love. But contented as I am, I still feel the want of old companions. I sigh for my friends and my maiden, and when I feel that my sighs are vain, - Then fills my heart with sorrow, - My eye is dim; The stream which softly passed me, Roars now in storm.

No bird sings in the bushes, The zephyr which refreshed me Now storms from the north, And whirls off the blossoms. With tremor I fly from the spot, - I fly, and seek in deserted streets Sad solitude. Yet how happy I am, quite happy! Horn has drawn me. He wonders why I am so changed. He seeks to find the explanation, Smiling thinks o'er it, looks me in the face; But how can he find out my cause of grief?

I know it not myself. But I must tell you something of myself: Quite other wishes rise within me now, Dear friend, from those you have been wont to hear. And you know How fondly I alas! My Lyre sounded many a lofty song, But not the Muses, nor Apollo sent them. True, it is my pride made me believe The Gods descended to me, and no Master Produced more perfect works than mine! No sooner came I here, than from my eyes Fell off the scales, as I first learned to prize Fame, and the mighty efforts fame required.

Then seemed to me my own ambitious flight But as the agitation of a worm, Who in the dust beholds the eagle soar, And strives to reach him; strains every nerve, Yet only agitates the dust he lies in. Sudden the wind doth rise, and whirls the dust In clouds, the worm is also raised with it: Then the poor worm believes he has the wings Of eagles, raising him too in the air! But in another moment lulls the wind, The cloud of dust drops gently on the ground, And with the dust the worm, who crawls once more! Don't be angry with my galimathias.

Horn will finish this letter. The confession uttered in the final verses, clearly owes its origin to Frau Bdhme's criticisms; but it is not every young poet who can be so easily discouraged. Even his discouragement could not last long. Schlosser, afterwards his brother-in-law, came to Leipsic, and by his preaching and example once more roused the productive activity which showed itself in German, French, English and Italian attempts.

Schlosser, who was ten years his senior, not only awakened emulation by his own superior knowledge and facility, but further aided him by introducing him to a set of literary friends, where poetic discussions formed the staple of conversation. To translate these words into English equivalents would only mislead the reader. Sch6nkopf kept neither an hotel, nor a public house, but what in Germany is a substitute for both. He sold wine, and kept a table d'hote; occasionally also let bedrooms to travellers.

His wife, a lively, cultivated woman, belonging to a noble family in Frankfurt, drew Frankfurt visitors to the house; and with her Goethe soon became on terms of intimacy, which would seem surprising to the English reader who only heard of her as an innkeeper's wife. He became'one of the family,' and fell in love with the daughter. I must further beg the reader to understand that in Germany, to this day, there is a wide difference between the dining customs and our own. The English student, clerk or bachelor, who dines at an eating house,.

Of the other diners he knows nothing, cares little. It is rare that a word is interchanged between him and his neighbor.

Quite otherwise in Germany. There the same society is generally to be found at the same table. The table d'h6te is composed of a circle of habitues, varied by occasional visitors, who in time become, perhaps, members of the circle. Even with strangers conversation is freely interchanged; and in a little while friendships are formed over these dinner tables, according as natural tastes and likings assimilate, which, extending beyond the mere hour of dinner, are carried into the current of life.

Germans do not rise so hastily from the table as we; for time with them is not so precious; life is not so crowded; time can be found for quiet after-dinner talk. The cigars and coffee, which appear before the cloth is removed, keep the company together; and in that state of suffused comfort which quiet digestion creates, they hear without anger the opinions of antagonists.

In such a society must we imagine Goethe in the Sch6nkopf establishment, among students and men of letters, all eager in advancing their own opinions, and combating the'false taste' which was not their own. To complete this picture, and to separate it still more from our English customs, you must imagine host and hostess dining at the table, while their charming daughter, who had cooked or helped to cook the dinner, brought them the wine.

This daughter was the Anna Katharina, by intimates called Kathchen, and by Goethe, in the Autobiography, designated as Annchen and Annette. Her portrait, still extant, is very pleasing. She was then nineteen, lively, and loving; how could she be insensible to. They saw each other daily, not only at dinner, but in the evenings, when he accompanied the piano of her brother by a feeble per.

They also got up private theatricals, in which Goethe and Kathchen played the lovers. Minna von Barnhelm, then a novelty, was among the pieces performed. That these performances were of a strictly amateur order, may be gathered from the fact that in one of them the part of a nightingale, which is important, was represented by a handkerchief, rolled up into such ornithological resemblance as art could reach.

Two letters, quite recently discovered, have fallen into my hands; they give us a curious glimpse of him at this time, such as one may look for in vain in his own account of himself, or in the accounts of any other writer. They are from his friend Horn, whose arrival he mentioned in the letter previously quoted, and who was one of his daily companions in Frankfurt.

The first is dated 12th of August, , and is addressed to one Moors, a Frankfurt companion. He is still the same proud, fantastic personage as when I came hither. If you only saw him you would either be mad with anger, or you would burst with laughter. I cannot at all understand how a man can so quickly transform himself. His manners and his whole bearing, at present, are as different as possible from his former behavior. Over and above his pride, he is a dandy; and all his clothes, handsome as they are, are in so odd a taste, that they make him conspicuous among all the students.

But this is indifferent to him; one may remonstrate with him for his folly as much as one likes - VOL. In every circle he makes himself more ridiculous than agreeable. Merely because the lady admires it, he has put on tricks and gestures that one cannot possibly refrain from laughing at. He has adopted a walk which is quite insufferable. If you only saw it! I am too plain a man for him to walk across the street with me.

What would the' king of Holland' say if he saw him in this guise? Do write again to him soon and tell him your opinion; else he and his lady-love will remain as silly as ever. Heaven only preserve me, as long as I am here, from any sweetheart, for the women here are the very devil. Goethe is not the first who has made a fool of himself to please his Dulcinea. I only wish you could see her just for once; she is the most absurd creature in the world. Her mine coquette avec un air-hautain is all with which she has bewitched Goethe. How glad should I be if Goethe were still what he was in Frankfurt!

Good friends as we were formerly, we can now scarcely endure each other for a quarter of an hour. Yet with time I still hope to convert him, though it is a hard matter to make a coxcomb wise. But I will venture everything for the sake of it. I shall be delighted if you will do so. I care neither for his anger nor for that of his lady-love.

• De musica disserenda.
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For, after all, he is not easily offended with me; even when we have quarrelled he sends for me the next day. So much of him; more another time. Live and forget not thy' HORN. In October of the same year, he received from Horn the following explanation: How glad you will be to learn that we have lost no friend in our Goethe, as we falsely supposed. He had so travestied himself as to deceive not only me but a great many others, and we should never have discovered the real truth of the matter, if your letter had not threatened him with the loss of a friend.

I must tell you the whole story as he himself told it to me, for he has commissioned me to do so in order to save him the trouble. He is in love, it is true - he has confessed it to me, and will confess it to you; but his love, though its circumstances are sad, is not culpable, as I formerly supposed. But not that young lady whom I suspected him of loving.

He loves a girl beneath him in rank, but a girl whom - I think I do not say too much - you would love yourself if you saw her. Imagine to yourself a woman well-grown, though not very tall; a round, agreeable, though not extraordinarily beautiful face; open, gentle, engaging manners; a very pretty understanding, without having had any great education. He loves her very tenderly, with the perfect, honest intentions of a virtuous man, though he knows that she can never be his. Whether she loves him in return I know not. You know, dear Moors, that is a point about which one cannot well ask; but this much I can say to you, that they seem to be born for each other.

Alexander Fidora University of Barcelona , Prof. Stefano Rapisarda University of Catania , Dr. Miller Hope University, Liverpool , Dr. Anne Regourd University of Copenhagen , Prof.

Daniel de Smet Centre national de la recherche scientifique, Paris , Prof. At the same time, this is also a great opportunity to adopt a fresh approach. An idea borrowed from 1. General developments in prognostication across the the field of Religious Studies may be helpful for the approach medieval centuries envisioned here: The ways in which the different civilizations influenced one under this topic see Renaat Devisch, Perspectives on divination another during the Middle Ages regarding prognostication in contemporary sub-Saharan Africa, in: Theoretical explorations in African religion, ed.

The different functions of prognostic practices, such as: An interpretation of functions and structures, analyzing the c. For each of the key cultural as coherent systems or the literal meaning of matters dealt with areas of the Medieval World, nine forms of prognostic practices within prognostication, etc. Following the predetermined common structure of the significance through the daily context of the clients.

The and written sources, the particular phenomenon of prognosti- chapters on Ancient and Medieval Pagan Traditions are self-con- cation, the historical development and cultural context of the tained, covering both the — so to speak — prehistory of the medi- respective applied forms, and contemporary verdicts on and eval traditions of prognostication and those medieval cultures classification of these practices. Adam Yuet Chau Anthropology of Modern China, University of Cambridge Our understanding of religion in China divination-poem slip in a separate space that is severely hindered by the fact that the housed the hundred oracle slips.

Most impor- academics who study it, be they from the tantly, they would then generally seek the help field of Religious Studies or Chinese Stud- of one of the interpreters at hand, who would ies, tend to focus on texts and a frame- explain the meaning and make the connection work of positing distinct religious tradi- between the text and their specific question tions that have little or nothing to do with or situation. While successful interpretation actual religious practices on the ground.

At times, the meaning of the tional , which, by no means mutually ex- set phrase and the text seemed apparent, but clusive, can be used to characterize and at others the interpreter would ignore the text understand religious practices in China Festival-goers consulting divination sticks; entirely and supply his own moralizing inter- Photo: Adam Chau without resorting to conceptual fetishes pretation of the situation in which the clients e.

The talk found themselves. What makes the example of this temple oracle so in- teresting is the fact that it shows how ordinary peasants, who were often illiterate or minimally literate, would engage in the discursive modality.

Worshippers seeking an answer to their question would have a numbered lot drawn from a box of bamboo slips in the main Attendants inside a divination consultation room; Photo: TV dramas would provide enter- conceptual resources to serve the needs of individual worship- tainment during less busy times, whose plots were sometimes pers as well as the local community at large. While the set of oracle texts and the cultural references con- More of Dr. From Divination to Cartography: Divination under Mongol Rule 13thth centuries: Sovereignty Lies in Heaven: Taming the Future in the European Middle Ages?

Fate, fortuna, providentia Dei, resicum: Coping with the Future in the Ottonian Age 10th to early 11th centuries: High up in the Air: During the semester, the IKGF holds a lecture series at which the visiting fellows are given the opportunity to present re- sults of their research and invited guests lecture on the topic of the consortium from the perspective of their respective expertise.

In the following the presenters of the past summer semester summarize their contributions. Peter Forshaw Center for History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents, University of Amsterdam Astrology is curiously absent from famous utopian visions such southern Italy and creating a republic there, he was tortured as those created by Thomas More and Francis Bacon, highlight- severely and spent a good part of his life in church prisons, on ing the fact that, while maybe not yet rejected outright, this charges of heresy and revolt.

It is in prison that he wrote most brand of knowledge was still considered too suspect to figure of his philosophical works, including the City of the Sun. In a in their ideal vision of the world. By contrast, the ideal city that most surprising turn of events, he was released in by Pope Tommaso Campanella outlines in his The City of the Urban VIII, to become his temporary astrological adviser.

After Sun is centered on and guided by Astrology. In his talk, Dr. His last work was a congratulatory note on the the way in which he constructed this model society. After leav- birth of a crown prince, predicting good fortune for the future ing his convent, he was exposed to the latest developments in Sun King, Louis XIV. The most direct connection between Cam- natural philosophy, met important figures of his time, such as Galileo Galilei, and also had his first encounters with the Holy Inquisition.

Having failed to bring about a change of govern- ment in the real world in , by overthrowing Spanish rule in Tommaso Campanella; copper engraving by Nicolas III de Larmessin ; source: Cam- Title page of the Astrologicorum Libri. This manifests itself in the constellations that Campanella considers most beneficial for the founding of his utopian city, which are meant to support its republican, harmonious, and science-based order, rather than a hierarchical one.

Campanella also incorporated the idea of visual learning, for which he may have found the inspiration in the musei and curiosity cabinets of his contemporaries in Renaissance Naples. In his vision, the collective knowledge of the City of the Sun is painted on the walls that surround the temple in concentric circles. Children learn what they need in order to become good citizens by walk- ing past these images as a form of schooling.

They start with the mathematical figures, the map of the earth, and alphabets of the innermost wall, and continue through the other five cir- cles that depict different kinds of knowledge, the categories of which may or may not be symbolically linked to the planets. All of this sounds highly enlightened, but it should be emphasized that the society envisioned here is still a rather totalitarian one: This would lead to cohorts of offspring being born under the same astro- logical constellation, with the goal of bringing about social har- mony by astrologically-planned parenthood.

It is Campanella, however, who incorporates these contemporary astrological practices into a holistic vision of an ideal society based on scientific knowledge. Title page of the Civitas Solis. Printed with the kind permission of the Ritman Library, Amsterdam. Both maps from a manuscript Sino-Korean Atlas; call number: Yet, their origin and authorship are unclear, and it can century onwards, but have evident structural parallels with the prove challenging to pin them down even to a specific century. The in the Sino-Korean Atlases and their research trends, and then emphasis on Kunlun determined the unexpected choice of Song focused on the world maps and the maps of China contained models for the maps of China in the Atlases.

The Song models within these atlases. Francesca Fiaschetti Martin Buber Society of Fellows, Hebrew University of Jerusalem The lecture provided an overview of the main divination methods employed by medieval Mongols from scapulimancy, to dream divination, weather magic, etc. In addition, it explored the ques- tion of how the Mongols employed divination for the ideological legitimation of their empire.

Particular stress was laid on the notion that the legitimacy of the Mongol rulers was based on ideas of divine charisma and its adaptation to the different cultural contexts of the submitted populations. With a focus on the case of the Yuan dynasty , an overview of the sources showed how the inclusion and high privileges granted to specialized personnel for the performance of divinatory practices allowed not only the integration of the sub- mitted populations into the administrative system of the empire, but also the creation of new elites.

Art Institute Chicago ture showed how the inclusivity of Mongol religious policies was nevertheless oriented toward maintaining the distinction between Mongolian shamans and divination experts from other groups and ethnicities. The difference between ikgf. Despite this distinction, the yin-yang experts were nonetheless granted im- portant economic rewards and enjoyed political prominence. Their biographies provide an interesting example of the lively and fruitful religious discourse in Yuan China.

The fact that eschatological references represented, for Gregory, more than a mere means of creating political propaganda is apparent from some of his letters, which do not seem to have any political agenda, but in which he opens his heart to some of his confidants e. Hugh, Abbot of Cluny , offering us a deeper insight into his personal convictions.

Among the writ- ings of Gregory the Great, the Moralia on Job or Magna Moralia is of particular importance to our investigation, as it includes a chapter on eschatology and apocalypticism, the 29th book of the Moralia on Job. Although Gregory VII only once quotes this chapter directly, one finds countless allusions to this partic- ular volume in numerous letters of Gregory VII, which — although perhaps not always obviously — could be understood in an eschatological context.

Gregory VII had a very deep knowledge of the writings of his predecessor and namesake. Jiang Qing is a the challenges of changing times have a long history, but nev- case in point: Other proponents pecially after the Chinese defeat in the Sino-Japanese War. For him, Western ty. His vision shows all the syncretistic traits of these efforts, norms and especially democracy are incompatible with Confu- which of course never managed to shake off the intellectual cianism, and any attempt to prove otherwise must remain fu- environment of their respective times.

Kurtz argued in his conclusion that we should like an amalgam of the British and Iranian constitutional situ- take Jiang Qing seriously, less as a philosopher, but more as a ation. These are adorned with Chinese names that situate the prophet and cultural entrepreneur, as he put it. Other, more implicit influences al performances, and establishing Confucian places of worship on his philosophy include Western thinkers linked to the North and Sunday schools.

Indeed, the obvious contradictions in his American Conservative and Neo-Conservative movement, most reasoning, his chillingly fundamentalist, nationalistic claims, notably Richard John Neuhaus, unofficial advisor to George W. Seligman, Weller et al point out that fundamental- ful state of the philosophical debate in China, as Prof. Kurtz ist movements, contrary to their own claims, are not in fact re- concluded. Could taking him seriously also entail acknowl- turning to the pure, authentic origins of a tradition yet unsoiled edging that the emergence and success of thinkers like Jiang by modernity, but instead impose an extreme version of their Qing, however, with all their faulty reasoning, point to a serious problem in the relationship between China and the West, where China is habitually seen as the Other, on both sides?

From this perspective of the Other, Jiang Qing appears to be solely an in- dication of a Chinese problem, while he himself gets to declare the uniqueness of the Chinese tradition and its incompatibili- ty with Western norms. In this world, as Seligman, Weller et al argue, mod- ern ideas about authenticity are so pervasive that even those who revolt against modernity are left only with the option of declaring that they are more authentic than anyone else in the Prof.

Here, we come full circle to the goals guiding Photo: It is here, outside the realm of Western norms that can Adam B. Puett, and Bennett Simon. An Essay on the Limits of Sincerity. Steps towards a History of Concept Prof. Coming under debate in postmodern times, this hitherto unquestioned concept has never been a given fact, but instead was the result of a long development that was roughly outlined in this lecture.

Somehow, this allowed to calculate experiences of contingency and future expectations. Due to the transculturally conveyed astrometeorological idea of a correlation presumed to exist between macrocosm and microcosm, there seemed to be a basic predictability of the future by means of star observa- tion fatum astrologicum. In the Christian world, however, this was debated, be- cause it questioned the omnipotence of God as well as the free will of humans.

Various narratives and literature showed, however, an increasing number of Photo: This term can be found at an early regions, people faced the insecurity and contin- stage in the contracts of Mediterranean traders mainly from Italian seaports gency in different ways: These contracts served to insure against potential dan- unrealizable plans for diverting and channel- gers but at the same time were a bet on the success of individuals who trad- ing rivers, but also with pragmatic preventive ed by sea.

This at the same time shows the increasingly professional. The daily in- agency on the other, and ranging from astrome- terventions for handling disasters show a belief in the interpretability of pat- teorological practice, prayer, and processions to terns of events, including faith in a providentia Dei, a fatum astrologicum, and an pragmatic attempts to prevent hazards. At the end of the Middle Ages, these old ideas were supple- ikgf. However, this tic mentality. To this end, I have analysed prophetic, liturgical, uncertainty is perceived differently, depending on whether or narrative, and documentary sources, written or re-elaborated in not it is possible to reduce it.

This option was not within the Italy, Germany and Lotharingia between and Far see the Bamberg Apocalypse; the letter of Adso of Montier- more than any political technique, it was the religious view of en-Der; the re-work of the Sibyl Tiburtina coexisted with low the world that allowed one to cope with the future during that apocalyptic or millenarian expectations. The latter were banned era. Regarding the last matter, the Ottonian sources fail to pro- vide any evidence of a strategy of prognostication linked to mantic practices, astronomical calculations, or horoscopes.

In- stead, the uncertainty of the future was tempered by the idea that coming events would not qualitatively differ from those of the past and present. All earthly events are contingencies. This is what many Ottonian authors more or less explicitly as- serted, describing individual lives as a continuous alternation between exaltatio and humiliatio and political life as a continu- ous alternation between pax and discordia. The frequent use of the metaphor of the Wheel of Fortune, drawn from Boethius, was also a way to show this movement of historical time that could be defined as sinusoidal.

Only the Christian faith in tran- scendence assured that contingency was not mere causality or randomness, but an instrument of divine pedagogy. Staatsbiblio- opposition suggested by current political and social sciences thek Bamberg, Msc. We could say that the sinusoidal movement its of Ottonian government. The cal dynamics of the Ottonian Herrschaftsverband, where a wide Ottonians had in fact underdeveloped capabilities to optimize arena of governance without a unique centre of control turned the exercise of power through the systematic planning of royal the future into a time of deep uncertainty.

They had neither a Weberian rationality, nor the refined ikgf. Thus, according to the Extracts of Theodotus, strategies of negotiating fate, in three different the practical means by which fate can be swayed are baptism and the advanced corpora of late-antique texts stretching from the second to the eighth centuries CE. The Nag Hammadi Codices; photo: Strategies for Coping with the Future in East Asia and Europe knowledge to be imparted, in an initiation scenario, to the new To summarize, in the research that I presented, I reconsidered convert.

The information revealed in this way attempted to three sets of different texts magic, Sethian, and Manichaean. In duced into China via Japan at the turn of the twentieth centu- pictorials, magazines, and photo collections such as the Dian- ry. Modern technology offered new perceptions of the world im- plying a better future for the nation and everyday life. It intend- for both men and women. All of these point toward a society. A nascent mass print market emerged as the result of technologically sophisticated, positive future for China. In fact, some of these erness during this period.

By contrast, divina- vincial governors, themselves made use of some of these prac- tion carried out by women, the poor, or foreigners was usually tices and practitioners when they considered this necessary. However, the mate intermediaries between the gods and humanity. This can be shown through the limited direct ev- erodox divination in the Roman Empire.

Sarah Allan Dartmouth College and Dr. The conference was organized by the Preservation of Excavated Texts, Tsinghua University, who have International Consortium for Research in the Humanities, in been responsible for editing and transcribing the manuscripts, cooperation with the Centre for Research and Preservation of and who introduced their work and enriched the discussion Excavated Texts, Tsinghua University, and Dartmouth College.

It with their in-depth knowledge of the texts. The conference focused on the texts published some months before the conference in volume 5 of the edition of bamboo The conference continued the tradition of bamboo-slip read- manuscripts held at Tsinghua University. Due to their recent ing workshops and conferences established at Dartmouth Col- publication, these texts, which present many philological and lege.

In choosing Erlangen as a venue, the conveners intended palaeographical problems of transcription and interpretation, to bring together the discussion of human nature and morality, have hardly been studied. The conference therefore took a close which has often been at the centre of the Dartmouth work- reading of the texts as its starting point.