There was no German nation, there was no standard of taste, no educated public opinion, no recognised models for imitation; and in these circumstances Goethe finds the explanation of the shortcomings of the generation of writers to which he belonged.
On the truth of these conclusions Goethe's adventures as a literary artist are the all-sufficient commentary.

From first to last he was in search of adequate literary forms and of worthy subjects; and, as he himself admits, he not unfrequently went astray in the quest.

On his own word, therefore, we may take it that under other conditions he might have produced more perfect works than he has actually given us.
Yet the world has had its compensations from those hampering conditions under which his creative powers were exercised.

In the very attempt to grope his way to the most expressive forms of artistic presentation all the resources of his mind found their fullest play.
It is in the variety of his literary product, unparalleled in the case of any other poet, that lies its inexhaustible interest; between _Goetz von Berlichingen_ and the Second Part of _Faust_ what a range of themes and forms does he present for his readers' appreciation! And to the anarchy of taste and judgment that prevailed when Goethe began his literary career we in great measure owe another product of his manifold activities.

He has been denied a place in the very first rank of poets, but by the best judges he is regarded as the greatest master of literary and artistic criticism.