GOETHE 



2521 



GOETHE 



Goethals was an instructor in civil and mili- 

 tary engineering at West Point from 1885 to 

 1887, and he had charge of the construction 

 of the Muscle Shoals locks and dams on the 

 Tennessee River, which was completed in 1889. 

 During the Spanish-American War (1898) he 

 was lieutenant-colonel and chief of engineers 

 of United States Volunteers; later his ability 

 and energy won him an appointment to the 

 board of fortifications in connection with the 

 coast and harbor defense service. 



In 1907 President Roosevelt brought him 

 into national prominence by appointing him 

 chairman, as well as chief engineer, of a com- 

 mission to complete the Panama Canal. His 

 management of the great enterprise, with its 

 many problems and difficulties, was a striking 

 illustration of what may be accomplished by 

 a man of forceful personality, initiative and 

 executive ability. The work was thoroughly 

 organized and was carried on harmoniously and 

 systematically; and the important questions 

 of sanitation, housing and food, and the social 

 organization of the Canal Zone were handled 

 no less admirably. In accomplishing the task 

 of making the Panama Canal Zone healthful 

 the credit belongs to Surgeon-General Gorgas 

 (which see). Though the work was scheduled 

 to be completed on June 1, 1915, a vessel passed 

 through the canal on August 15, 1914. 



In February, 1914, President Wilson appointed 

 Goethals first civil governor of the Panama 

 Canal Zone. This position he retained until 

 1916. In October of that year he was appointed 

 chairman of a committee to investigate the 

 operation of the Adamson Railroad Law, which 

 had raised the wages of employes. 



In April, 1917, after accepting an invitation 

 to construct a highway system for New Jersey, 

 he was recalled to the Federal service to build a 

 vast merchant marine for the United States as 

 part of the plan of war against Germany. Be- 

 cause of friction he resigned and was made act- 

 ing chief quartermaster of the American army. 

 In 1918 he retired to private life. 



GOETHE, go'te, JOHANN WOLFGANG VON 

 (1749-1832), a German poet, novelist, dramatist 

 and philosopher, not only the most eminent 

 figure in German literature, but one of the 

 greatest geniuses the world has produced. Like 

 Socrates, the Athenian, Shakespeare, the Eng- 

 lishman, and Dante, the Italian, he was en- 

 dowed with genius of the universal order, for 

 he was responsive to all the feelings and ex- 

 periences that are common to humanity. He 

 was distinguished for scientific attainments, for 



GOETHE 

 of the old legend the 



literary and artistic criticism, as a writer of 

 fiction and as a dramatist, yet he made his 

 happiest contributions to his country's litera- 

 ture in the field of lyric poetry. From his pen 

 also came one of 

 the most splendid 

 achievements of 

 his age, Faust, the 

 greatest drama of 

 the German peo- 

 ple. On this he 

 labored from 

 early manhood 

 until nearly the 

 end of his career. 



Goethe's Faust 

 is more than 

 a poetic and 

 dramatic treatment 

 story of a weary scholar who sells himself to 

 the Devil that he may taste the joys of youth 

 and love (see FAUST). In it the reader will 

 find a summary of the poet's own experience, 

 and the expression of his philosophy of life. 

 In the second part the drama becomes an 

 allegory of human character and experience: 

 it pictures a Faust who finds salvation in useful 

 labor and who finally triumphs gloriously over 

 the powers of darkness. This was the poet's 

 "confession" of what life had taught him. 



Goethe was born at Frankfort-on-the-Main 

 on August 28, 1749. His early education was 

 directed by his father and by private tutors, 

 and at the age of sixteen he was sent to Leipzig 

 to study law; there he varied the routine of 

 school work by writing lyrics and studying art. 

 After an illness which compelled him to return 

 to Frankfort, he resumed his law studies at 

 the University of Strassburg, and in 1771 re- 

 ceived his degree. During his sojourn in 

 Strassburg he formed a momentous friendship 

 with the poet Johann Herder, who opened up 

 to him the beauties of Shakespeare's writings, 

 and taught him to love the old folk songs. 

 Goethe's poems written at this time mark 

 the beginning of a new era in German lyric 

 poetry. 



Between 1771 and 1775, a period in which he 

 occupied himself as a lawyer at Frankfort and 

 at Wetzlar, he wrote his first important drama, 

 Gotz von Berlichingen, and a novel, The Sor- 

 rows of Werther, the latter of which has im- 

 mortalized one of his unhappy love affaire. In 

 1775 he was invited by Charles Augustus, the 

 young Prince of Weimar, to become a member 

 of his court at the capital of Saxony, and for 



