 Although the sentimental disposition is more prevalent in the modern world, some of modernity’s finest poets were, Schiller argues, actually naïve. Shakespeare, for example, does not allow himself to “be grasped” in his work (NA XX, 433/E 197). Goethe likewise manages to foreground the object rather than ideas, achieving a sturdy cheerfulness mostly unencumbered by modern anxieties. It is even possible for a modern naïve poet like Goethe to treat a sentimental topic: Goethe’s fictional character Werther “ardently embraces an ideal and flees the actual world” (NA XX, 459/E 220), but Goethe’s treatment of this archetypical sentimental character nevertheless succeeds in being  naïve.[9]  Ultimately, Schiller thinks poets should follow their dispositions: if a modern poet feels enough of an affinity for the Greek spirit “despite all the intractableness of his material”, he should pursue it “wholeheartedly and do it exclusively, disregarding every demand made by a sentimental age’s tastes” (NA XX, 471/E 231). It will be difficult and the effort will be noticeable, but it may work. If the poet is instead drawn to the ideal “then let him pursue this totally … without looking back to see whether the actual world might follow him” (NA XX, 472/E 232).