If we had become acquainted with each other half a dozen years earlier than we did, I should have had time to master your scientific investigations; I should perhaps have sustained your inclination to give these important subjects their ultimate shape, and, in any case, should have honestly looked after what belonged to you.
I have lately been reading some notices on the elder Pliny, which have astonished me in regard to what a man can accomplish by putting time to good use. Compared with him, even Haller was a time-squanderer. But I am afraid that the immense amount of time he devoted to reading, making quotations and dictating, left him no proper time for independent reflection, and he seems to have applied all the activity of his mind to acquiring knowledge; for on one occasion he called his nephew severely to task for walking up and down the garden without having a book in his hand.
During these last days I have been hard at work with my play, and, moreover, not unsuccessfully; and I have never yet learned so much from any work of my own as from this. It is one I can more readily survey and also more readily manage; besides, it is a more grateful and enjoyable task to make a simple subject rich and full of substance than to limit one that is too rich and broad.
Otherwise, however, a variety of things are at present engaging my thoughts; and, as political affairs may also affect my circumstances, I am awaiting my fate not without anxiety. There are also other things which threaten to drag me out of my old position, and which, therefore, are not agreeable to me.
The repairs I am having made and other arrangements will, I hope, be finished this week; and when you return I shall be able to bid you welcome in a clean and pretty house. Farewell, and let me soon hear that you are coming back to us with a rich gift.
* * * * *
GOETHE to SCHILLER
Jena, December 13, 1803.
It was to be expected that I should be recalled when Madame de Stael came to Weimar. * * * If she comes to pay me a visit, she shall be well received, and, if I know of her coming four-and-twenty hours beforehand, a part of Loder's house shall be furnished for her use; she would find homely fare, but we should really meet and speak to each other, and she could remain as long as she liked. What I have to do here can be done at odd quarters of an hour, and the rest of my time I would place at her disposal; but to drive over in such weather as this, to have to dress, to be at court and in society, is utterly impossible. This I maintain as positively as was ever declared by yourself in similar circumstances.
Take this as a friendly guidance for your actions, for I desire nothing more than actually to see and to become acquainted with this remarkable and highly respected woman, and I wish for nothing so much as that she may care to take this drive of a couple of hours for my sake. On her journey she must have become accustomed to worse fare than she will find here. Arrange and manage these things with your gentle, friendly hand, and send me an express messenger at once, as soon as anything important occurs.