Page:The Works of J. W. von Goethe, Volume 13.djvu/405

This page has been validated.
LIFE AND WORKS OF GOETHE
367

ing and repeating it; but with respect to Goethe, who has now been more than forty years in his grave, one may hope that evidence so strong as these pages furnish will be held more worthy of credence than anything which gossip or ignorance, misconception or partisanship, has put forth without proof.