Although I insist on the existence of a close relation between intellectual activity and the sexual function, I do not mean to assert that there have not existed exceptions to the rule.
Now that I have described certain important factors in the genius of Goethe, I shall pass on to a study of his state of mind in the last period of his life, the splendour and harmony of which have been so often admired.
III
GOETHE’S OLD AGE
Old age of Goethe—Physical and intellectual vigour of the old man—Optimistic conception of life—Happiness in life in his last period
Drinkers of wine may take the case of Goethe as an argument against temperance. Although he was not healthy in his youth, his large consumption of wine did not prevent him from enjoying an old age full of force and intellectual work. Eckermann, who was his intimate and constant companion in the last ten years of his life, was never weary of expressing his surprise and delight at the physical and moral vigour of the distinguished old man. He found Goethe on his return to Jena, at the age of seventy-four, in a condition “very pleasant to see; he was in good health and robust, so that he could walk for hours” (Sept. 15, 1823). His eyes were “brilliant and clear and his whole expression was that of joy, vigour and youth” (Oct. 29). In walks with Eckermann, Goethe forced the pace and showed strength which filled his companion with delight (March, 1824). His voice was full of character and of force (March 30, 1824), and every word showed his vitality (July 9, 1827).
In a conversation that Eckermann had with Goethe when the latter was seventy-nine years old “the sound of his voice and the fire in his eyes were of such strength as would have been normal in the full flush of youth” (Mar. 11, 1828). Such characters were preserved until the end of the life of the great man, and a few months before his death Eckermann jotted in his book that he saw him every day in full vigour and freshness, looking as if his health might be prolonged indefinitely (Dec. 21, 1831). In the beginning of the following spring, Goethe caught a feverish cold, possibly pneumonic, and died, probably from weakness of the heart. His illness lasted a week. If he had not been a drinker of wine he would have been able to withstand this attack and to live still longer.
The intellectual vigour of Goethe was even greater and more remarkable than his physical strength. His interests were extremely wide, and his thirst for knowledge was never appeased. Once, when he was absorbed by the interest of hearing d’Alton describe in detail the skeleton of rodents, Eckermann states his surprise that a man not far short of eighty years old “did not give up seeking for and gaining knowledge.” But in these matters he never lost his interest. He wished always to go further and further, always to learn, so showing himself to be a man of eternal and undying youth (April 16, 1825). Goethe’s aptitude for understanding and his memory were most unusual. When he was more than eighty, he surprised those who heard him “by the incessant flow of his ideas and by his extraordinary fertility in invention” (Oct. 7, 1828).
“The old age of Goethe is the most striking proof of the extreme force of his constitution,” said his medical biographer, Dr. Moebius. Works which were written in his last years are for the most part beyond praise, both because of their finished form, and by their wisdom and feeling. What other man of eighty has written anything of the same character? From the physiological point of view I am more surprised at his works when he was old than at those of his youthful activity” (Moebius, Goethe, i, 200, 201).