the helper. I will not begin to quote from Goethe, for I should never end. The volume of Sprüche, or aphorisms in rhyme and prose in his collected works, is accessible to everybody, but some of his wisest and finest are to be found in the plays, like the well-known one in his Tasso, "In stillness Talent forms itself, but Character in the great current of the world."
But here is a concentrated admonition from the volume that I have named, that will do as well as any other for an example of his temper:
"Wouldst thou fashion for thyself a seemly life?—
Then fret not over what is past and gone;
And spite of all thou mayst have lost behind,
Yet act as if thy life were just begun:
What each day wills, enough for thee to know.
What each day wills, the day itself will tell;
Do thine own task, and be therewith content;
What others do, that shalt thou fairly judge;
Be sure that thou no brother-mortal hate,
Then all besides leave to the Master Power."
If any of you should be bitten with an unhappy passion for the composition of
