GOETHITE 



His works he has himself called 

 " fragments of a great confession," 

 the " confession " of his own life ; 

 and this markedly subjective as- 

 pect lends them a unique interest. 



But Goethe was also a great artist 

 in poetry. It is true, his strength, 

 unlesswherethelyricwasconcerned, 

 did not lie in formal beauty ; 

 his dramas often overstep the 

 limitations imposed by the theatre ; 

 his novels are lacking in proportion 

 and sometimes tedious. But both 

 his dramas and his novels show an 

 almost Shakespearean power of 

 characterisation, an insight into 

 problems of spiritual development 

 and emotional conflict, and con- 

 tain an unrivalled wealth of wise 

 reflection. As a lyric poet, Goethe 

 stands alone in a literature the 

 strength of which has in all times 

 lain in its lyric. In the problems of 

 philosophy, on the other hand, he 

 took little interest ; as a political 

 thinker, he lived in too distraught 

 an age to understand fully the 

 questions either of his own time or 

 of the future ; as a scientist, his 

 achievements have no present-day 

 value. But his attitude to the 

 problem of the conduct of life is 

 still " modern." Goethe's life 

 covered the most important period 

 in the development of his coun- 

 try's literature, and he is its 

 greatest personality. 



Round few men of letters has so 

 vast a literature grown up. The 

 standard edition of his works is the 

 Weimar edition in 142 vols. (1887 

 -1920), which includes, besides 

 the Works proper, his Diaries and 

 Letters. His Conversations have 

 been edited by F. von Biedermann 

 (2nd ed., 4 vols., Berlin, 1908-9). 

 All Goethe's more important works 

 have 'been translated into English, 

 Faust many times. England has 

 also the honour of having produced 

 the first adequate biography of 

 Goethe, that by G. H. Lewes, 1855, 

 a book which still retains its value 

 and popularity. Of modern Ger- 

 man biographies, that by A. Biel- 



3580 



schowsky, 1896- 

 1904, is generally 

 regarded as the most 

 satisfactory ; E n g. 

 trans, bv W. A. 

 Cooper, 1905-8. Of 

 the vast critical 

 literature, it is diffi- 

 cult to make any 

 selection ; but the 

 publications of the 

 German Goethe- 

 Gcsellschaft (since 

 1880) may be speci- 

 ally mentioned. 



GOGH 



Goethe. The poet's birthplace at 

 Frankfort, DOW a museum. Top, right, 

 the house in Weimar where he died 

 (from an old print) 



Bibliography. A complete biblio- 

 graphy will be found in vol. iv of 

 Goedeke's Grundriss zur Geschichte 

 der deutschen Dichtung, 3rd ed., 

 Dresden, 1910. Amongst English 

 literature on Goethe mention may 

 be made of besides Lewes's Life of 

 Goethe and Carlyle's Essays Life 

 of Goethe, J. Sime, 1888; Goethe 

 reviewed after Sixty Years, J. R. 

 Seeley, 1894 ; Goethe and the 

 Twentieth Century, J. G. Robertson, 

 1912; The Life of Goethe, P. Hume 

 Brown, London, 1920. 



Gog and Magog, the wooden figures, carved in 1708, in Guildhall, London 



London Stereoscopic Co, 



Goethite. Mineral containing 

 nearly 81 p.c. of iron. It crys- 

 tallises in column or needle-like 

 shapes in the rhombic system, and 

 is found in Cornwall, Saxony, Lake 

 Onega (Russia), and Jackson Iron 

 Mountain (U.S.A.). 



Gog and Magog. Two names 

 in Biblical and post-Biblical litera- 

 ture. In Ezek. xxxviii, 2, God is 

 spoken of as opposing " Gog, of the 

 land of Magog, the prince of Rosh, 

 Meshech and Tubal " ; and in 

 xxxix a battle on the mountains of 

 Israel is predicted in which Gog is 

 overthrown. In the Mishnah, Gog 

 and Magog appear as the worldly 

 leaders of a furious assault upon 

 the Kingdom of God. The name 

 Gog was perhaps suggested by the 

 Gyges of Herodotus and the Gugu 

 of Assyrian inscriptions. 



Gog and Magog are the names 

 given to two huge carved figures 

 which stand on octagonal pedestals 

 at each angle of the wall at the 

 west end of Guildhall, in the City of 

 London. Figures of this character, 

 but made of wickerwork and paste- 

 board, were at one time carried 

 in the annual mayoral procession. 

 According to tradition they repre- 

 sent Gogmagog and Corineus, who, 

 in medieval monastic chronicles, 

 fought the battles of the Trojan in- 

 vaders against the early inhabitants 

 of Britain. In time Corineus was 

 forgotten and the name of his com- 

 panion divided between the two. 

 With this myth is associated the 

 tradition that the city was founded 

 by the invaders and that London, 

 as Troynovaunt, or New Troy, was 

 the chief city of Albion 1,000 years 

 before the Christian era. 



Each figure is 14 ft. 6 ins. high. 

 They were carved, 1708, by Richard 

 Saunders, who was paid 70 for 

 the work. Similar figures on a 

 smaller scale strike the hours on 

 Bennett's clock in Cheapside. 



Gogh, VINCENT VAN (1853-90). 

 Dutch painter. Born at Zundert, 

 Holland, he was the son of a Protes- 

 tant minister. He was at first pro- 

 foundly influenced by the work of 



