"I cannot conceive," Zelter once wrote to Goethe, "how any right deed can be performed without sacrifice; all worthless actions must lead to the very opposite of what is desirable." A second point of view which must not be neglected is precisely that which Zelter rightly emphasizes.

A great end cannot be attained except by staking large intellectual and material resources, and no certainty of success can ever be anticipated.

Every undertaking implies a greater or less venture.

The daily intercourse of civic life teaches us this lesson; and it cannot be otherwise in politics where account must be taken of most powerful antagonists whose strength can only be vaguely estimated.

In questions of comparatively trifling importance much may be done by agreements and compromises, and mutual concessions may produce a satisfactory status.