[Footnote: The king's own words .-- See "Posthumous Works," vol.iii.] Do not be angry again, you must have patience with the old boy! I shall rejoice heartily if this Herr Goethe becomes a classic writer one day, as you say.

I shall not live to witness it.

I only see the embryo where you see the full-grown author.

We will talk further about it when we meet in the Elysian Fields; then we will see, when you present this Herr Johann Wolfgang Goethe, as a German classic writer, to Homer, Horace, Virgil, and Corneille, if they do not turn their backs upon him.

Now adieu, Herzberg! So soon as circumstances permit, I shall send for you to go to Silesia, and then you can give me your German translation of Tacitus." The king nodded in a friendly manner to his minister, and slowly walked back and forth, while he took leave and withdrew.