Friday, August 06, 2021
An Oddly Modern-Sounding Discussion
Goethe, Conversations with Eckermann, February 19, 1831 (tr. John Oxenford):
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Vogel told us, as the news of the day, how the natural small-pox, in defiance of all inoculation, had again broken out in Eisenach, and had carried off many in a short time.
"Nature," said Vogel, "plays us a trick every now and then; and we must watch her very closely, if our theory is to keep pace with her. Inoculation was thought so sure and infallible, that a law was made to enforce it. But now this Eisenach affair, where the persons who have been inoculated are nevertheless attacked by the natural small-pox, casts a suspicion on the infallibility of the remedy, and weakens the motive for observing the law."
"Nevertheless," said Goethe, "I am against any departure from the strict law for inoculation, since these trifling exceptions are nothing in comparison with the great benefits which it confers."
