Part 35 (1/2)

THE FATHER.

Work as much as thou wilt, alone thou'lt be standing forever, Till by nature thou'rt joined forcibly on to the whole.

THE CONNECTING MEDIUM.

How does nature proceed to unite the high and the lowly In mankind? She commands vanity 'tween them to stand!

THE MOMENT.

Doubtless an epoch important has with the century risen; But the moment so great finds but a race of small worth.

GERMAN COMEDY.

Fools we may have in plenty, and simpletons, too, by the dozen; But for comedy these never make use of themselves.

FAREWELL TO THE READER.

A maiden blush o'er every feature straying, The Muse her gentle harp now lays down here, And stands before thee, for thy judgment praying,-- She waits with reverence, but not with fear; Her last farewell for his kind smile delaying.

Whom splendor dazzles not who holds truth dear.

The hand of him alone whose soaring spirit Wors.h.i.+ps the beautiful, can crown her merit.

These simple lays are only heard resounding, While feeling hearts are gladdened by their tone, With brighter phantasies their path surrounding, To n.o.bler aims their footsteps guiding on.

Yet coming ages ne'er will hear them sounding, They live but for the present hour alone; The pa.s.sing moment called them into being, And, as the hours dance on, they, too, are fleeing.

The spring returns, and nature then awaking, Bursts into life across the smiling plain; Each shrub its perfume through the air is shaking, And heaven is filled with one sweet choral strain; While young and old, their secret haunts forsaking, With raptured eye and ear rejoice again.

The spring then flies,--to seed return the flowers.

And naught remains to mark the vanished hours.

DEDICATION TO DEATH, MY PRINc.i.p.aL.

Most high and mighty Czar of all flesh, ceaseless reducer of empires, unfathomable glutton in the whole realms of nature.

With the most profound flesh-creeping I take the liberty of kissing the rattling leg-bones of your voracious Majesty, and humbly laying this little book at your dried-up feet. My predecessors have always been accustomed, as if on purpose to annoy you, to transport their goods and chattels to the archives of eternity, directly under your nose, forgetting that, by so doing, they only made your mouth water the more, for the proverb--Stolen bread tastes sweetest--is applicable even to you.

No! I prefer to dedicate this work to you, feeling a.s.sured that you will throw it aside.