"So may the God who faileth never To hear the weak and guide the dim, To thee give honour here and ever, As thou hast duly honour'd Him! Far-famed ev'n now through Switzerland Thy generous heart and dauntless hand; And fair from thine embrace Six daughters bloom--six crowns to bring-- Blest as the Daughters of a KING-- The Mothers of a RACE!"
The mighty Kaisar heard amazed; His heart was in the days of old: Into the minstrel's eyes he gazed-- That tale the Kaisar's own had told. Yes, in the bard, the priest he knew, And in the purple veil'd from view The gush of holy tears. A thrill through that vast audience ran, And every heart the godlike man, Revering God, reveres!
[6] Literally, "_A judge (ein richter)_ was again upon the earth." The word substituted in the translation, is introduced in order to recall to the reader the sublime name given, not without justice, to Rudolf of Hapsburg, viz., "THE LIVING LAW."
Three errors there are, that for ever are found On the lips of the good, on the lips of the best; But empty their meaning and hollow their sound-- And slight is the comfort they bring to the breast. The fruits of existence escape from the clasp Of the seeker who strives but these shadows to grasp--
So long as Man dreams of some Age in _this_ life When the Right and the Good will all evil subdue; For the Right and the Good lead us ever to strife, And wherever they lead us, the Fiend will pursue. And (till from the earth borne, and stifled at length) The earth that he touches still gifts him with strength![7]
So long as Man fancies that Fortune will live, Like a bride with her lover, united with Worth; For her favours, alas! to the mean she will give-- And Virtue possesses no title to earth! That Foreigner wanders to regions afar, Where the lands of her birthright immortally are!
So long as Man dreams that, to mortals a gift, The Truth in her fulness of splendour will shine; The veil of the goddess no earth-born may lift, And all we can learn is--to guess and divine! Dost thou seek, in a dogma, to prison her form? The spirit flies forth on the wings of the storm!
O, Noble Soul! fly from delusions like these, More heavenly belief be it thine to adore; Where the Ear never hearkens, the Eye never sees, Meet the rivers of Beauty and Truth evermore! Not _without_ thee the streams--there the Dull seek them;--No! Look _within_ thee--behold both the fount and the flow!