A TRANSLATION OF GOETHE'S PROEMIUM TO " GOTT UND WELT."
To Him who from eternity, self-stirred, Himself hath made by His creative Word !
To him, supreme, who causeth Faith to be, Trust, Hope, Love, Power, and endless Energy !
To Him, who, seek to name Him as we will, Unknown within Himself abideth still !
Strain ear and eye, till sight and sense be dim ; Thoult find but faint similitudes of Him: Yea, and thy spirit in her flight of flame Still strives to gauge the symbol and the name : Charmed and compelled thou climb'st from height to height, And round thy path the world shines wondrous bright ; Time, Space, and Size, and Distance cease to be, And every step is fresh infinity.
What were the God who sat outside to scan The spheres that 'neath his finger circling ran ? God dwells within, and moves the world and moulds, Himself and Nature in one form enfolds : Thus all that lives in Him and breathes and is, Shall ne'er His puissance, ne'er His spirit miss.
The soul of man, too, is an universe : Whence follows it that race with race concurs In naming all it knows of good and true God,—yea, its own God ; and with homage due Surrenders to His sway both earth and heaven ; Fears Him, and loves, where place for love is given.
J. A. S.
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