It reminds me of Buffon, who
used to array himself in his full dress for writing 'Natural History.'
Why should we not always do it when we write letters? We should, no
doubt, be more courtly and polite, and perhaps say handsome things to
each other. It was said of Villemain that when he spoke to a lady he
seemed to be presenting her a bouquet. Allow me to present you this
postscript in the same polite manner, to make good my theory of the
rose in the buttonhole."
How delightful it is to catch the intoxication of the little festival
in this way. In his endeavor to further the gayeties of his children
he had received a reflected light and life which his love for them had
helped to create.
"_December_ 14, 1870.--Taylor's 'Faust' is finished, and
Longfellow is coming with other friends to dinner to celebrate the
ending of the work....
"A statuette of Goethe was on the table. Longfellow said Goethe never
liked the statue of himself by Rauch, from which this copy was made.
He preferred above all others a bust of himself by a Swiss sculptor, a
copy of which Taylor owns. He could never understand, he continued,
the story of that unpleasant interview between Napoleon and Goethe.
Eckermann says Goethe liked it, but Longfellow thought the emperor's
manner of address had a touch of insolence in it. The haunts of Goethe
in Weimar were pleasantly recalled by both Longfellow and Taylor, to
whom they were familiar; also that strange portrait of him taken
standing at a window, and looking out over Rome, in which nothing but
his back can be seen.
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