Page:Goethe and Schiller's Xenions (IA goetheschillersx00goetiala).pdf/142

 Human Knowledge.[21]

When thou decipher'st in nature the writing which thou hast inscribed there, When its phenomena thou castest in groups for thine eye,

When thou hast covered its infinite fields with thy measuring tape-lines, Dost thou imagine, thy mind really graspeth the All?

Thus the astronomer paints on the heavens his star-constellations Merely his bearings to find easily in their domain.

Suns that at measureless distances roam, oh how closely together Have they been joined in the swan and in the horns of the bull!

But can the heavens be thus understood in their mystical cycles, When their projections appear on planispherical charts?