31/95.
An Benjamin Robert Haydon
Weimar, Febr. 16. 1819.
Sir,
In answer to your polite letter, which you did me the honour of adressing to me last November, permit me to remark, that if such young men as Messrs. Bewick and Lansdown have great reason to rejoice at having found in you so able and so distinguished a Master, you must, on the other hand, feel an equal degree of satisfaction to have had it in your power to bring your pupils acquainted with such excellent models, as those which your country of late has had the good fortune to acquire.
Those of us at Weimar, who love and admire the arts, share your enthusiasm for the remains of the most glorious period, and hold ourselves indebted to you for having enabled us to participate, to such a degree, in the enjoyment and contemplation of those works, by means of such happy copies.
We look forward with pleasure (tough we may not live to witness it), to the incalculable effect and influence, which will be produced upon the arts by those precious relics, in England as well as in other countries.
I have the honour to be with great regard
Sir
your most obedient humble servant
[11. März 1819.]
W. Goethe.