Milton, Bacon, and Shelley, will not be unacceptable either to the English or German reader, as shewing the identity of thought between great minds of the two nations. If this attempt of mine should add a link, however imperfect, to the intellectual chain that connects the two great families of the Gothic race, I shall feel that, even though the effort should not be as successful as I could have wished, still I shall not have laboured altogether in vain. St. James' Place, CHARLES H. KNOX. 1846. YE fleeting phantoms,* ye approach again! Still that illusion doth my heart adore ?† As forth from mist and cloud towards me ye soar; My bosom flutters youthfully again At the witched atmosphere § that plays around your train. In ye the forms of happier days I hail, Amongst ye many much-loved shades upspring, Like to an olden half-forgotten tale, || First love and friendship in your ranks ye bring, Schwankende gestalten.-Schwanken is to waver, a figure that flits before our eyes, so that we cannot fix it, is called a schwankende gestalt. As empty clouds by rising winds are tossed, Their fleeting forms scarce sooner found than lost.—PRIOR. Faust was one of the earliest conceptions of Goethe, was, though intermittingly, the work of his whole life, and was finished not many weeks before that life terminated. Walten indicates uncontrolled power. Hauch is the motion of the air, caused by breathing, as contradistinguished from Athem, animal breath. || Literally like an ancient half-expired tradition. The pain revives, and it recalls the wail That moans life's labyrinthine wandering, And names the friends that of their hours of light By fate beguiled have vanished from my sight. The following songs alas they cannot hear, Those souls for whom I tuned my early lay,* To crowds unknown I voice my sorrow drear, There seizes me a yearning long unknown, My faltering song in inarticulate tone, Like an Eolian harp floats faint and low, Emotion quells me, tear on tear flows on, The hardened heart feels a new mildness glow, All I possess seems distant to mine eyes, And things long disappeared become realities. * Many years elapsed between the commencement of Faust and its completion, towards the end of which period the dedication was composed. ERRATA. Page 3, line 5, for on, read o'er. دو 57, 9, for unnerving, read unreviving. 58, 58, 66, 66, 92, 95, 95, ,, 101, ,, 104, ,, 107, ,, 112, وو 3, for heart and heart, read head and heart. 12, for your, read thine. 2, for dusty, read lofty. 10, for overwrought, read o'erwrought. 15, for clogs, read cloys. 6, read upon the path. 9, for or, read for. 21, for and, read under. 7, for world, read word. 9, for to, read in. 3, for house, read hour. 4, for 'Ti, read 'Tis. 12, for the, read their. 136, last line, for do, read doth. 146, line 7, for head, read heart. 10, for gape, read squeak. 12, the following lines omitted: Doth a witched atmosphere envelope me? In a wild dream of love how feel distraught, 9, read Includes-sustains he not. 13, for DEVOUT GENIUS, read CI DEVANT GENIUS. 6, MARGARET flings herself beside him. |