Short is my course, during which I salute many princes and nations; Yet the princes are good--ay! and the nations are free.
ILM.
Poor are my banks, it is true; but yet my soft-flowing waters Many immortal lays here, borne by the current along.
PLEISSE.
Flat is my sh.o.r.e and shallow my current; alas, all my writers, Both in prose and in verse, drink far too deep of its stream!
ELBE.
All ye others speak only a jargon; "mongst Germany"s rivers None speak German but me; I but in Misnia alone.
SPREE.
Ramler once gave me language,--my Caesar a subject; and therefore I had my mouth then stuffed full; but I"ve been silent since that.
WESER.
Nothing, alas, can be said about me; I really can"t furnish Matter enough to the Muse e"en for an epigram, small.
MINERAL WATERS AT ----.
Singular country! what excellent taste in its fountains and rivers In its people alone none have I ever yet found!
PEGNTTZ.
I for a long time have been a hypochondriacal subject; I but flow on because it has my habit been long.
THE ---- RIVERS.
We would gladly remain in the lands that own--as their masters; Soft their yoke ever is, and all their burdens are light.
SALZACH.
I, to salt the archbishopric, come from Juvavia"s mountains; Then to Bavaria turn, where they have great need of salt!
THE ANONYMOUS RIVER.
Lenten food for the pious bishop"s table to furnish, By my Creator I"m poured over the famishing land.
LES FLEUVES INDISCRETS.
Pray be silent, ye rivers! One sees ye have no more discretion Than, in a case we could name, Diderot"s favorites had.
ZENITH AND NADIR.
Wheresoever thou wanderest in s.p.a.ce, thy Zenith and Nadir Unto the heavens knit thee, unto the axis of earth.
Howsoever thou attest, let heaven be moved by thy purpose, Let the aim of thy deeds traverse the axis of earth!
KANT AND HIS COMMENTATORS.
See how a single rich man gives a living to numbers of beggars!
"Tis when sovereigns build, carters are kept in employ.
THE PHILOSOPHERS.
The principle by which each thing Toward strength and shape first tended,-- The pulley whereon Zeus the ring Of earth, that loosely used to swing, With cautiousness suspended,-- he is a clever man, I vow, Who its real name can tell me now, Unless to help him I consent-- "Tis: ten and twelve are different!
Fire burns,--"tis chilly when it snows, Man always is two-footed,-- The sun across the heavens goes,-- This, he who naught of logic knows Finds to his reason suited.
Yet he who metaphysics learns, Knows that naught freezes when it burns-- Knows that what"s wet is never dry,-- And that what"s bright attracts the eye.
Old Homer sings his n.o.ble lays, The hero goes through dangers; The brave man duty"s call obeys, And did so, even in the days When sages yet were strangers-- But heart and genius now have taught What Locke and what Descartes never thought; By them immediately is shown That which is possible alone.
In life avails the right of force.
The bold the timid worries; Who rules not, is a slave of course, Without design each thing across Earth"s stage forever hurries.
Yet what would happen if the plan Which guides the world now first began, Within the moral system lies Disclosed with clearness to our eyes.
"When man would seek his destiny, Man"s help must then be given; Save for the whole, ne"er labors he,-- Of many drops is formed the sea,-- By water mills are driven; Therefore the wolf"s wild species flies,-- Knit are the state"s enduring ties."
Thus Puffendorf and Feder, each Is, ex cathedra, wont to teach.
Yet, if what such professors say, Each brain to enter durst not, Nature exerts her mother-sway, Provides that ne"er the chain gives way, And that the ripe fruits burst not.
Meanwhile, until earth"s structure vast Philosophy can bind at last, "Tis she that bids its pinion move, By means of hunger and of love!
THE METAPHYSICIAN.