Harry Haller’s Records

picture as silly as that satisfactory to them! But in spite of this I know that my own picture of the Saviour or St. Francis is only a human picture and falls short of the original, and that the Saviour Himself would find the picture I have of Him within me just as stupid as I do those sickly reproductions. I don’t say this to justify you in your ill-temper and rage with the picture of Goethe. There’s no justification. I say it simply to show you that I can understand you. You learned people and artists have, no doubt, all sorts of superior things in your heads; but you’re human beings like the rest of us, and we, too, have our dreams and fancies. I noticed, for example, learned sir, that you felt a slight embarrassment when it came to telling me your Goethe story. You had to make a great effort to make your ideas comprehensible to a simple girl like me. Well, and so I wanted to show you that you needn’t have made such an effort. I understand you all right. And now I’ve finished and your place is in bed.”