other lands, the responsibility assumed by the translator is
immeasurably increased when he attempts to transfer the thoughts
of those great men, who have lived for all the world and for all
ages, from the language in which they were originally clothed, to
one to which they may as yet have been strangers. Preeminently
is this the case with Goethe, the most masterly of all the master
minds of modern times, whose name is already inscribed on the
tablets of immortality, and whose fame already extends over the
earth, although as yet only in its infancy. Scarcely have two
decades passed away since he ceased to dwell among men, yet he
now stands before us, not as a mere individual, like those whom
the world is wont to call great, but as a type, as an emblem--the
recognised emblem and representative of the human mind in its
present stage of culture and advancement.

Among the infinitely varied effusions of Goethe's pen, perhaps
there are none which are of as general interest as his Poems,
which breathe the very spirit of Nature, and embody the real
music of the feelings. In Germany, they are universally known,
and are considered as the most delightful of his works. Yet in
this country, this kindred country, sprung from the same stem,
and so strongly resembling her sister in so many points, they are
nearly unknown. Almost the only poetical work of the greatest
Poet that the world has seen for ages, that is really and
generally read in England, is Faust, the translations of which
are almost endless; while no single person has as yet appeared to
attempt to give, in an English dress, in any collective or
systematic manner, those smaller productions of the genius of
Goethe which it is the object of the present volume to lay before
the reader, whose indulgence is requested for its many