The Life and Works of Goethe: With Sketches of His Age and Contemporaries, from Published and Unpublished Sources, Volume 2

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Ticknor and Fields, 1856

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Page 281 - Was this the face that launched a thousand ships, And burnt the topless towers of Ilium? Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss! Her lips suck forth my soul! See, where it flies! Come, Helen, come, give me my soul again. Here will I dwell, for Heaven is in these lips, And all is dross that is not Helena.
Page 110 - Geheimnisvoll am lichten Tag, Läßt sich Natur des Schleiers nicht berauben, Und was sie deinem Geist nicht offenbaren mag, Das zwingst du ihr nicht ab mit Hebeln und mit Schrauben.
Page 275 - There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream, The earth, and every common sight, To me did seem Apparelled in celestial light, The glory and the freshness of a dream. It is not now as it hath been of yore; — Turn wheresoe'er I may, By night or day, The things which I have seen I now can see no more.
Page 55 - When the centuries behind me like a fruitful land reposed ; When I clung to all the present for the promise that it closed : When I...
Page 320 - There lives more faith in honest doubt, Believe me, than in half the creeds.
Page 364 - Nach drüben ist die Aussicht uns verrannt; Tor, wer dorthin die Augen blinzelnd richtet, Sich über Wolken seinesgleichen dichtet! Er stehe fest und sehe hier sich um; Dem Tüchtigen ist diese Welt nicht stumm. Was braucht er in die Ewigkeit zu schweifen! Was er erkennt, läßt sich ergreifen. Er wandle so den Erdentag entlang; Wenn Geister spuken, geh er seinen Gang, Im Weiterschreiten find er Qual und Glück, Er, unbefriedigt jeden Augenblick!
Page 279 - Shall I make spirits fetch me what I please, Resolve me of all ambiguities, Perform what desperate enterprise I will? I'll have them fly to India for gold, Ransack the ocean for orient pearl, And search all corners of the new-found world For pleasant fruits and princely delicates...
Page 83 - Es bildet ein Talent sich in der Stille, Sich ein Charakter in dem Strom der Welt.
Page 281 - And I will combat with weak Menelaus, And wear thy colours on my plumed crest; Yea, I will wound Achilles in the heel, And then return to Helen for a kiss.
Page 320 - He fought his doubts and gathered strength, He would not make his judgment blind, He faced the spectres of the mind And laid them ; thus he came at length To find a stronger faith his own.

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