The Works of Frederick Schiller Part 515

Where will a place of refuge, n.o.ble friend, For peace and freedom ever open lie!

The century in tempests had its end, The new one now begins with murder's cry.

Each land-connecting bond is torn away, Each ancient custom hastens to decline; Not e'en the ocean can war's tumult stay.

Not e'en the Nile-G.o.d, not the h.o.a.ry Rhine.

Two mighty nations strive, with hostile power, For undivided mastery of the world; And, by them, each land's freedom to devour, The trident brandished is--the lightning hurled.

Each country must to them its gold afford, And, Brennus-like, upon the fatal day, The Frank now throws his heavy iron sword, The even scales of justice to o'erweigh.

His merchant-fleets the Briton greedily Extends, like polyp-limbs, on every side; And the domain of Amphitrite free As if his home it were, would fain bestride.

E'en to the south pole's dim, remotest star, His restless course moves onward, unrestrained; Each isle he tracks,--each coast, however far, But paradise alone he ne'er has gained!

Although thine eye may every map explore, Vainly thou'lt seek to find that blissful place, Where freedom's garden smiles for evermore, And where in youth still blooms the human race.

Before thy gaze the world extended lies, The very s.h.i.+pping it can scarce embrace; And yet upon her back, of boundless size, E'en for ten happy men there is not s.p.a.ce!

Into thy bosom's holy, silent cells, Thou needs must fly from life's tumultuous throng!

Freedom but in the realm of vision dwells, And beauty bears no blossoms but in song.

GRECIAN GENIUS.

TO MEYER IN ITALY.

Speechless to thousands of others, who with deaf hearts would consult him, Talketh the spirit to thee, who art his kinsman and friend.

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.

But, joking apart! methinks we two know each other better than by mere hearsay. Enrolled in the order of Aesculapius, the first-born of Pandora's box, as old as the fall of man, I have stood at your altar,-- have sworn undying hatred to your hereditary foe, Nature, as the son of Hamilcar to the seven hills of Rome,--have sworn to besiege her with a whole army of medicines,--to throw up barricades round the obstinate soul,--to drive from the field the insolents who cut down your fees and cripple your finances,--and on the Archaean battle-plain to plant your midnight standard. In return (for one good turn deserves another), you must prepare for me the precious TALISMAN, which can save me from the gallows and the wheel uninjured, and with a whole skin--

Jusque datum sceleri.

Come then! act the generous Maecenas; for observe, I should be sorry to fare like my foolhardy colleagues and cousins, who, armed with stiletto and pocket-pistol, hold their court in gloomy ravines, or mix in the subterranean laboratory the wondrous polychrest, which, when taken with proper zeal, tickles our political noses, either too little or too much, with throne vacancies or state-fevers. D'Amiens and Ravaillac!--Ho, ho, ho!--'Tis a good thing for straight limbs!

Perhaps you have been whetting your teeth at Easter and Michaelmas?--the great book-epidemic times at Leipzig and Frankfort! Hurrah for the waste-paper!--'twill make a royal feast. Your nimble brokers, Gluttony and l.u.s.t, bring you whole cargoes from the fair of life. Even Ambition, your grandpapa--War, Famine, Fire, and Plague, your mighty huntsmen, have provided you with many a jovial man-chase. Avarice and Covetousness, your st.u.r.dy butlers, drink to your health whole towns floating in the bubbling cup of the world-ocean. I know a kitchen in Europe where the rarest dishes have been served up in your honor with festive pomp. And yet--who has ever known you to be satisfied, or to complain of indigestion? Your digestive faculties are of iron; your entrails fathomless!

Pooh--I had many other things to say to you, but I am in a hurry to be off. You are an ugly brother-in-law--go! I hear you are calculating on living to see a general collation, where great and small, globes and lexicons, philosophies and knick-knacks, will fly into your jaws--a good appet.i.te to you, should it come to that.--Yet, ravenous wolf that you are! take care that you don't overeat yourself, and have to disgorge to a hair all that you have swallowed, as a certain Athenian (no particular friend of yours, by-the-by) has prophesied.