Caroline Sturgis said that the old woman who keeps house for Helen in the second part of “Faust” was a Gorgon to her.
This dragged a critical analysis of the “Faust” forward.
Margaret said the Seeker represents the Spirit of the Age. He never sinned save by yielding, and yet he was emphatically saved by grace. It was difficult to see what Goethe meant until he got to the Tower of the Middle Ages. That made all clear.
Charles Wheeler said, the reader would a great deal rather that Faust went to the Devil than not!
Margaret defended Goethe’s way of exhibiting character, of which Wilhelm Meister was an instance. Goethe said to himself, What should I do with a hero in such rascally society? Meister preferred the Brahmal experience.
E. P. P. asked if this moral indifference was well?
Margaret replied, that it was just as frightful as any other Gorgon. If we are to have a purely intellectual development, it was well for a man like Goethe to represent it. To choose fairly between evil and good, the intellect must regard both with indifference.
Somebody asked how the Gorgon’s head came to be on the Ægis of Minerva?
If Apathy is the Gorgon, surely Wisdom needs it!