TheS ileonfc e· Goethe. JosPeife per· PrefbayRc ael Mpchi nerny Transblya. tDeaFdna rrelly STA.U GUSTIPNREE'SSS SouBthe nIdn,d iana 2009 Othweo:rr bkyJs o sPeife f:rpoemrS tA.u gusPtrienses' s ThCeo ncoefSp itn DeaatnhId m mortality EnthusainaDdsi mv ine MOandt nhPeels ast:o nic DialoPhgaeudreus HappianneCdso sn templation InTu new itthhW eo rAl Tdh:e oorfFye stivity ScholasPteircsiosnmaa:nl di tPireosb Mleedmise voafl Philosophy ThSei leonfSc tTe.h omTahs:rE eses ays l-VChaatth oBleilci(wse it vh Hee inz Kastop) TraditCioonnc:ae npdCt l aim Othteirto lfie nst erest C.S. Lewis and Don Giovanni Calabria, ThLea tLient ters of LCe.wSi.s Servais Pinckaers, O.P., MoralTihtCeya :t hVoileiwc Peter Kreeft, ThPeh ilosoofJp ehsyu s Peter Kreeft, Jesus-Shock Peter Kreeft, The WSietah Wianv:ae nstd h Mee anionfg AlTlh ings Peter Kreeft, IS urTf,h ereIfA omr:Ae P hilosoofp hy Surfing Peter Kreeft, JfE insHtaedBi ene anS urfAe Sru:r fae r, ScienatnidasP th,i losDoipshceaur "s Usn iversal WwveT heoorr"y T"h eoofErv ye rything" Robert Hugh Benson, Lorodft hWeo rld James V. Schall, ThRee gensLbeucrtgu re Predrag Cicovacki, Dostoeavnsdtk hyAe ff irmaotfi on Life N alin Ranasinghe, Socraitnte hsUe n derwoOrnl d: PlatGoorg'iass Translation copyright © 2009 by St. Augusti�1e's Press All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of St. Augustine's Press. Manufactured in the United States of America 1 2 3 4 5 6 14 13 12 11· 10 09 Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Pieper, Josef, 1904-1997. . [Uber <las Schweigen Goethes. English] The silence of Goethe I Josef Pieper; translated by Dan Farrelly. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-1-58731-765-1 (hardbound: alk. pap·er) ISBN-IO: 1-58731-765-6 (pbk.: alk. paper) ISBN-13: 978-1-58731-766-8 (hardbound: alk. paper) ISBN-10: 1-58731-766-4 (pbk.: alk. paper) 1. Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, 1749-1832. I. Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, 1749-1832. II. Title. PT2054.PS313 2009 831'.6 - dc22 2009002334 oo Thpea puesre idnt hipsu blicmaeteittohsnme i nimum requireomfte hnAetm se riNcaatni oSntaaln dfaorrd InformSactiieon-ncP eesr manenPcaep feoroPr fri nted MaterAiNaSlZIs3 ,9 .48-1984. ST. AUGUSTINE'S PRESS ,vww. staugustine.n et Men teach us to speak. The gods teach us silence. Plutarch TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface by Ralph Mclnerny ix The Silence of Goethe 1 Endnotes for The Silence of Goethe 31 Excerpts from Goethe's Letters 37 Endnotes for Excerpts from 55 Goethe's Letters 59 Index to The Silence of Goethe Index to Excerpts from Goethe's Letters Preface JUST WHEN YOU MIGHT HAVE THOUGHT THAT ALL OF Josef Pieper is available in English and that our pleasure would consist only in rereading him, along comes The Silence of Goethe. It is a short book, but then all Pieper's books are short. The poet said that Obscurus fio dum brevis esse laboro: Obscurity besets me when I try for brevity. Perhaps, as with many other German philosophers, length would have n1ade Pieper obscure. In any case, brevity is his friend. Leisure the Basis of Culture was one of the earliest American paperbacks. Actually, it is two books: the title work and Die philosophieren, On philos­ ophizing. Apparently the publisher thought that one alone would not be hefty enough. Recommended by T. S. Eliot, Pieper entered the American bloodstream and has been nourishing us ever sense. Pieper was a speaker in a program I organized for the Department of Philosophy at Notre Dame many years ago, a program devoted to moral } ix { THE SILENCE OF GOETHE philosophy. The other participants were stellar figures, but Pieper was the superstar. It was his second visit to the university. He was as direct and apparently simple in lecturing as he is on the page. He is utterly un-Teutonic in being accessi­ ble to beginners. Is this simply popularizing? Philosophy for Dummies? (Why hasn't there been a Ventriloquism for Dummies?) Not at all. Just as a Socratic dialogue can be read by any reader and yet bring some back again and again for the 'more' that was missed before, so it with Pieper. Pieper describes his first visit to Notre Dame in his autobiography; that was before my time. Many years after his participation in the program mentioned, I was asked to speak at Munster, an invitation I was glad to accept because of the prospect of seeing Josef Pieper again. He was too old to come to my talk - age has its rewards - so I visited him at his home. A word picture. A vast sunken room, illu­ mined by great windows looking out on a garden. Books everywhere. The philosopher rising from his desk and greeting one with oddly formal warmth. Scattered around the room are artifacts by his late wife. What did we talk about? Mutual friends, this and that. I recall no pearls of wisdom. } X { The Silence of Goethe Yet in his presence I felt as I had in the presence of only a handful of other philosophers. Here was a man who deserved the title. Here was a lover of wisdom. He was retired then but one does not retire from loving wisdom. My colleague Otto Bird was another such personification of our pro­ fession. The Munster professor who accompanied me to Pieper's home began early in the visit to sug­ gest leaving. I ignored him, as did Pieper. When finally we did go, I learned that he had not been worried about tiring Pieper. He thought I would soon be bored by an old man's garrulity. Thus does proximity breed opacity. But then some found Socrates garrulous. Quidquid recipitur ad modum recipientis recipitur. The Silence of Goethe opens with a tantalizing remark about how and where it got written. Toward the end of World War II, Pieper was imprisoned and took the occasion to read through the fifty volumes of Goethe's collected works. While this might sound like punishment to some, to ·Pieper it was an unlooked-for oppor� tunity. And of course it suggests a not-altogether­ menacing confinement. But then Boethius wrote The Consolation of Philosophy in prison. } xi { THE SILENCE OF GOETHE Boethius' stay ended in exeqution, w�ereas Josef Pieper was released to half a century more of teaching and writing and lecturing. Sooner or later, every German hopes to write about Goethe, nor does it usually take imprison­ ment in order for the hope to be realized. Pieper's perusal of the works of Germany's greatest writer produced a book that is vintage Pieper. He picks up on the reticence of Goethe. Think about that. A book about a poet, a novelist, a playwright, a political figure, producer of fifty volumes sugges­ tive of any number of topics, and Pieper writes on Goethe's silence! Wpo other than Borges could surprise in that way? Now I fall silent and turn you over to Josef Pieper. Ralph Mcinerny } xii { THE SILENCE OF GOETHE THERE ARE, IT SEEMS, THINGS WHICH WORK OUT FOR US - no matter how much vigor is in. our plans and intentions - only if vve, as a friend used to say, are locked up for this specific purpose; if we, without any effort on our part, or through external force, are set free to deal with them. In this way a long­ cherished plan came to fruition in a few glorious weeks. Through an almost magical stroke of good fortune I was plucked, as was Habakkuk, by the hair of his head and taken from the lethal chaos of the last months of the war, to be planted into a realm of the most peaceful seclusion, whose bor­ ders and exits were, of course, controlled by armed sentries. But I was not locked away so completely that I could not succeed in making contact with a friend who lived quite close to that island. This proximity proved very fortunate - more so than anything I could ever have arranged for myself. Only a few days had passed and already a regular book-lending system was in full swing. This } 1 {