Page:Stories Translated from the German.djvu/196

 contrary to reason merely to get out of the way of burdensome truth. But his opinion of this is, that people only want eyes in order to perceive, that remarkable, and even wonderful occurrences are continually happening, but being invested in a phantastical dress, only in extremely rare cases, are, on this account, not observed by the wonder-seekers.

Does not our life itself, yes, and all creation too, if one would only reflect for a moment, repose upon conditions and foundations which one would be almost obliged to call fabulous, and to which we can find no answer for the why, whither, or wherefore?

In this universal silence of the wilderness, the excited spiritual ear frequently imagines that it is listening to some inexplicable sound, like the echo of a different state of being, and this re-echoing is translated by the creative power of phantasy into words, out of which images, sentiments, and thoughts unfold themselves, which afterwards create the Art of Poetry, Religion, and Ideality, or Mysticism for mortals. In this manner, people voluntarily remain during the whole explanation without a text.