"'Lord Byron,' said Eckermann, 'is no wiser when he takes 'Faust' to
pieces and thinks you found one thing here, the other there.' 'The
greater part of those fine things cited by Lord Byron,' Goethe replied,
'I have never even read; much less did I think of them when I was
writing "Faust." But Lord Byron is only great as a poet; as soon as he
reflects he is a child. He knows not how to help himself against the
stupid attacks of the same kind made upon him by his own countrymen. He
ought to have expressed himself more strongly against them. 'What is
there is mine,' he should have said, 'and whether I got it from a book
or from life is of no consequence; the only point is, whether I have
made a right use of it.' Walter Scott used a scene from my 'Egmont,'
and he had a right to do so; and because he did it well, he deserves
praise.'"

Goethe certainly does not mean that Byron was unable to reflect in the
sense in which Mr. Arnold interprets the word. What was really meant we
shall see in a moment.

We will, however, continue the quotations from the Eckermann:-


"We see how the inadequate dogmas of the Church work upon a free mind
like Byron's and how by such a piece ('Cain') he struggles to get rid of
a doctrine which has been forced upon him" (vol. i. p. 129).

"The world to him was transparent, and he could paint by way of
anticipation" (vol. i. p. 140).

"That which I call invention I never saw in any one in the world to a