text:  Happy the man--if not in his own generation yet most assuredly in the time to come--whose natural hesitation or fastidiousness has prompted him to weigh his words maturely before launching them forth into the great ocean of literature in the midst of which is a Maelstrom of tenfold absorbing power! From the minor poems therefore of Goethe we propose in the present series to select such as are most esteemed by competent judges including of course ourselves