Hegel's Philosophy of Mind · Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
V.
As one ray of thy light appears the noonday sun, But yet thy light and mine eternally are one. As dust beneath thy feet the heaven that rolls on high: Yet only one, and one for ever, thou and I. The dust may turn to heaven, and heaven to dust decay; Yet art thou one with me, and shalt be one for aye. How may the words of life that fill heaven’s utmost part Rest in the narrow casket of one poor human heart? How can the sun’s own rays, a fairer gleam to fling, Hide in a lowly husk, the jewel’s covering? How may the rose-grove all its glorious bloom unfold, Drinking in mire and slime, and feeding on the mould? How can the darksome shell that sips the salt sea stream Fashion a shining pearl, the sunlight’s joyous beam? Oh, heart! should warm winds fan thee, should’st thou floods endure, One element are wind and flood; but be thou pure. I’ll tell thee how from out the dust God moulded man,— Because the breath of Love He breathed into his clay: I’ll tell thee why the spheres their whirling paths began,— They mirror to God’s throne Love’s glory day by day: I’ll tell thee why the morning winds blow o’er the grove,— It is to bid Love’s roses bloom abundantly: I’ll tell thee why the night broods deep the earth above,— Love’s bridal tent to deck with sacred canopy: All riddles of the earth dost thou desire to prove?— To every earthly riddle is Love alone the key.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.