Philosophical Letters of Frederich Schiller by Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller
page 23 of 79 (29%)
page 23 of 79 (29%)
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The bodily form of nature came to pass through the attractive force of
the elements. The attraction of spirits, varied and developed infinitely, would at length lead to the cessation of that separation (or may I venture the expression) would produce God. An attraction of this kind is love. Accordingly, my dear Raphael, love is the ladder by which we climb up to likeness to God. Unconsciously to ourselves, without laying claim to it, we aim at this. Lifeless masses are we, when we hate; Gods, when we cling; in love to one another, Rejoicing in the gentle bond of love. Upwards this divinest impulse holdeth sway Through the thousandfold degrees of creation Of countless spirits who did not create. Arm-in-arm, higher and still higher, From the savage to the Grecian seer, Who is linked to the last seraph of the ring, We turn, of one mind, in the same magic dance, Till measure, and e'en time itself, Sink at death in the boundless, glowing sea. Friendless was the great world's blaster; And feeling this, he made the spirit world Blessed mirrors of his own blessedness! And though the Highest found no equal, Yet infinitude foams upward unto Him From the vast basin of creation's realm. |
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