CONTENTS.

I.[PREFACE.]
II.[THE RECONCILIATION.]
III.[THE FRIENDS.]
IV.[THE ELVES.]
V.[THE WHITE EGBERT.]
VI.[THE FAITHFUL ECKART.]
VII.[THE TANNENHÄUSER.]
VIII.[THE RUNENBERG.]
IX.[THE MYSTERIOUS CUP.]
X.[THE LOVE-CHARM.]
XI.[THE BROTHERS.]

PREFACE.

GOETHE says of himself, that the first sight of a work of genuine art was always displeasing to him. There was no correspondence between his own mind and the object he was contemplating. It would not fit—became galling. He was made conscious of a deficiency in himself; and the result was, a feeling of annoyance and irritation at the cause of it. Yet if he could overcome this aversion, and set himself to work to understand it, in faith that ultimately he would find himself repaid, he never failed to make the most delightful discoveries; new powers developed themselves in himself, and beauty after beauty came out in the object.