The weariness, if not disgust, induced by a throng of more than usually absurd imitators, enabled Carlyle, the poet's successor in literary influence (followed with even greater unfairness by Thackeray), more effectively to lead the counter-revolt. "In my mind," writes the former, in 1839, "Byron has been sinking at an accelerated rate for the last ten years, and has now reached a very low level.... His fame has been very great, but I do not see how it is to endure; neither does that make him great. No genuine productive thought was ever revealed by him to mankind. He taught me nothing that I had not again to forgot." The refrain of Carlyle's advice during the most active years of his criticism was, "Close thy Byron, open thy Goethe." We do so, and find that the refrain of Goethe's advice in reference to Byron is--"nocturnâ versate manu, versate diurnâ." He urged Eckermann to study English that he might read him; remarking, "A character of such eminence has never existed before, and probably will never come again. The beauty of _Cain_ is such as we shall not see a second time in the world.... Byron issues from the sea-waves ever fresh. In _Helena_, I could not make use of any man as the representative of the modern poetic era except him, who is undoubtedly the greatest genius[1] of our century." Again: "Tasso's epic has maintained its fame, but Byron is the burning bush, which reduces the cedar of Lebanon to ashes.... The English may think of him as they please; this is certain, they can show no (living) poet who is comparable to him.... But he is too worldly. Contrast _Macbeth_, and _Beppo_, where you are in a nefarious empirical world." On Eckermann's doubting "whether there is a gain for pure culture in Byron's work," Goethe conclusively replies, "There I must contradict you. The audacity and grandeur of Byron must certainly tend towards culture. We should take care not to be always looking for it in the decidedly pure and moral. Everything that is great promotes cultivation, as soon as we are aware of it."
[Footnote 1: Mr. Arnold wrongly objects to this translation of the German "talent."]