36 GOETHE'S SONGS. 



no means remarkable in a Doctor of Laws, but we may well be sur- 

 prised at his letters upon the Revelations and other theological sub- 

 jects, which have had such influence over the opinions of certain 

 schools of Catholic philosophers in Germany. 



His Roman Elegies or Erotics are as sweet and elegant as Pe- 

 trarch, and as luscious as Catullus ; his hexameters and penta- 

 meters move with an ease and grace which remind us of Ovid, and 

 there is a native truth and simplicity pervading them infinitely pre- 

 ferable to the studied graces of the Petrarchic Sonnet. Of all Goethe's 

 poems these appear to us to be best adapted to an English taste ; 

 but although the ideas might be popular, there is a great difficulty 

 offered to the translator in their metrical form. In the following 

 songs some faint notion of the delicacy and playfulness of the original 

 may be preserved ; but whoever would desire to know Goethe must 

 study him in the original, for there is no language loses so much in 

 translation as the German : they are mere " esparcidas flores," as 

 Lope says, which have been selected at random. The melodious 

 originals seem to have been the types of Shelley's varied music. 



THE WORLD'S PHILOSOPHY. 



Go ! but hearken to my preaching ! 



Cast aside thy youthful folly, 

 Be by times thy young soul teaching, 



Of mortals the immortal folly : 

 Calm and cruel calm and strong, 

 Like one who does not suffer wrong, 



Live from love and passion free : 

 Thou must swim or thou must sink, 

 Thou must venture or must shrink, 

 Thou must serve, or thou must reign, 

 Thou must lose, or thou must gain 



Hammer or an anvil be ! 



MORTAL BLISS. 



Wherefore doth mortal bliss but seem .'; 

 A fleeting summer dream ? 

 Friendship's tender hours 



Die like the taper's ray 

 The drooping of pale flowers 



Fading away ! 



We hope, we long, we scarce enjoy 

 Life's transitory gleam, 

 When a despairing sorrow 



O'ertakes our jubilee, 

 Our brief and anxious hour 



Becomes eternity. 



THE LOVED ONE IS EVER NEAR ! 



I think on thee when the sunlight wanes dimmer, 



And the day declines ; 

 I think^on thee when the pale moonlight's glimmer 



On the ocean shines ; 



