Perhaps the saying would better be inverted: it was among the most remarkable endowments, unto which Israel was called, and called by virtue of qualities in which goethe himself was remarkably deficient.
"The Expositor's Bible: The Book of Exodus"
G. A. Chadwick
It is the genius of the earth which is acting in them-the earth-spirit, Maeterlinck might have said with goethe.
"Life and Writings of Maurice Maeterlinck"
Jethro Bithell
Well, probably the fact is that Maeterlinck is no more a "socialist" than goethe was a "patriot."
"Life and Writings of Maurice Maeterlinck"
Jethro Bithell