Page:The Works of J. W. von Goethe, Volume 5.djvu/141

throughout my whole life, was nevertheless attended with but small results in the time immediately following. I could have wished much rather to begin a book, instead of ending one, with describing it; for no sooner was the door of the noble saloon closed behind me than I wished to recover myself again,—nay, I endeavoured to remove those forms, as being burdensome, from my memory: and it was only by a long, circuitous route that I was brought back into this sphere. However, the quiet fruitfulness of such impressions as are received with enjoyment, and without dissecting judgment, is quite invaluable. Youth is capable of this highest happiness, if it will not be critical, but allows the excellent and the good to act upon it without investigation and discrimination.