metrical expression, may not both these "maxims" be observed in the same
translation? Goethe, it is true, was of the opinion that _Faust_ ought
to be given, in French, in the manner of Clement Marot; but this was
undoubtedly because he felt the inadequacy of modern French to express
the naive, simple realism of many passages. The same objection does not
apply to English. There are a few archaic expressions in _Faust_, but no
more than are still allowed--nay, frequently encouraged--in the English
of our day.

[B] "You are right," said Goethe; "there are great and mysterious
agencies included in the various forms of Poetry. If the substance of my
'Roman Elegies' were to be expressed in the tone and measure of Byron's
'Don Juan,' it would really have an atrocious effect."--_Eckermann_.

"The rhythm," said Goethe, "is an unconscious result of the poetic mood.
If one should stop to consider it mechanically, when about to write a
poem, one would become bewildered and accomplish nothing of real
poetical value."--_Ibid_.

"_All that is poetic in character should be rythmically treated_! Such
is my conviction; and if even a sort of poetic prose should be gradually
introduced, it would only show that the distinction between prose and
poetry had been completely lost sight of."--_Goethe to Schiller_, 1797.

Tycho Mommsen, in his excellent essay, _Die Kunst des Deutschen
Uebersetzers aus neueren Sprachen_, goes so far as to say: "The metrical
or rhymed modelling of a poetical work is so essentially the germ of its
being, that, rather than by giving it up, we might hope to construct a
similar work of art before the eyes of our countrymen, by giving up or
changing the substance. The immeasurable result which has followed works