Heroes around Goethe
Do you know anyone that knew George Washington (1732-1799), Mayer Amschel Rothschild (1744-1812), Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), and Napoleon (1769-1821) as his generation?
Johann Wolfgang Goethe (1749-1832) did, and how he mentioned each of them was recorded in some books written by Goethe, his friends, or others.
Goethe indeed wrote that he saw historic events happening one after another as if they had been especially presented to him. Goethe saw the independence of the United States of America and the rise and fall of Napoleon in Europe.
And when Goethe died, the Industrial Revolution came into full deployment with real railroad transport started in Britain around 1820. Though today nobody seems to truly respect Goethe, one of the greatest German authors, everybody is living in the world directly affected by legacies of George Washington (the modern superpower America), Mayer Amschel Rothschild (modern monetary systems), Ludwig van Beethoven (modern art), and Napoleon (modern Europe).
One of the most interesting remarks of Goethe is: "You may wonder how Rothschild came to become so rich, but there was a long history behind him and his family. In anything remarkable, there is a background that is deeply rooted in the past." Truly, the modern world today has its direct background that could be traced back to the era of Goethe. It is so, since Goethe witnessed the lives and achievements of George Washington, Mayer Amschel Rothschild, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Napoleon as a man of the same generation.
Nonetheless, the one Goethe praised so unconditionally was Shakespeare.
“God shall be my hope, my stay, my guide and lantern to my feet.”
― William Shakespeare, Henry V
But a word that most well represents what Shakespeare was may be:
“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”
― William Shakespeare, Hamlet
Indeed, Shakespeare is modern; therefore his faith in God must not be backed by classic practices of religion.
Nonetheless, Shakespeare was a person who lived 100 years after the great adventure of Columbus around 1500. In a wider span of time, even Shakespeare belongs to an era having been opened by Columbus who reached the New World or America.
http://www.efficientfrontier.com/ef/404/CH1.HTM
After Goethe, the world changed drastically along with global development and deployment of the Industrial Revolution. However, it has been supported by accumulated human efforts prior to it.
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Mar 7:22 Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: