Page:The Works of J. W. von Goethe, Volume 9.djvu/347

Rh THE METAMORPHOSIS OF PLANTS.

art confused, my beloved, at seeing the thousandfold union Shown in this flowery troop over the garden dispersed; Many a name dost thou hear assigned; one after another Falls on thy listening ear, with a barbarian sound. None resembleth another, yet all their forms have a likeness; Therefore a mystical law is by the chorus proclaimed; Yes, a sacred enigma! Oh, dearest friend, could I only Happily teach thee the word, which may the mystery solve! Closely observe how the plant, by little and little progressing, Step by step guided on, changeth to blossom and fruit! First from the seed it unravels itself, as soon as the silent Fruit-bearing womb of the earth kindly allows its escape. And to the charms of the light, the holy, the ever-in-motion, Trusteth the delicate leaves, feebly beginning to shoot. Simply slumbered the force in the seed; a germ of the future. Peacefully locked in itself, 'neath the integument lay, Leaf, and root, and bud, still void of colour, and shapeless; Thus doth the kernel, while dry, cover that motionless life.