one had been before,
driven by unspeakable anguish, powerless, nothing left but a thought of
misery;--as I then looked about after aid, could neither move forward
nor backward, but clung to a fleeting, extinguished life, with infinite
longing,--then came from the blue distance, from the heights of my old
blessedness, a breath as of twilight, and at once the tie of birth, the
chain of Light, was rent asunder. Away flew the glory of earth, and
with it my sorrow; the sadness rushed together into a new, unfathomable
world; thou, Night's-inspiration, slumber of heaven, camest over me.
Gently the scene rose aloft; above it floated my unfettered, new-born
Spirit The hillock became a dust-cloud, and through it I saw the
transfigured features of my Beloved. Eternity lay in her eyes; I
grasped her hands, and the tears became a glittering, indissoluble tie.
Thousands of years flew away in the distance, like tempest-clouds. Upon
her neck I wept enrapturing tears at the thought of this new life.--It
was the first and only dream, and since then do I feel an eternal,
unchangeable faith in the heaven of Night, and its Sun my Beloved."

Such is the melting tenderness, which is a chief element of his poetry,
such the cunning drug that embalms his genius!

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: Maehrchen.]

[Footnote 2: _Mutter_ or _Metallmutter_ is the gang or matrix that
contains the ore.]

[Footnote 3: _Maehrchen._]

[Footnote 4: _Bacchischen Wehmuth_; the sadness that drives to
dissipation, not the Elysium of the morning after.]

[Footnote 5: The word _Critic_ is derived from the Hebrew word [Hebrew:
krty] _executioner_; collectively, _executioners and runners_, from the
root [Hebrew: krt], _to cut_. Thus it gradually came to mean, to cut
and run. It is somewhat remarkable that the secondary meaning of the
noun is _Philistine_. See Gesenius in voc.; who also adds, "the
conjecture is not improbable that the Philistines sprang from Crete,
and that _Caphtor_ signifies [Greek: Krete]. Comp. Michaelis Spicil. J.
1. p. 292-308. Supplemm. p. 1328." The proverbial character of the
Cretans is well known.

The Rabbi Ben Hillel, who was of the tribe of Onagrites, defended the
oral traditions of the Jews against certain persons, who were disposed
to sniff somewhat. In his writings, the venerable Rabbi was accustomed
to designate them as Philistines--_mais nous avons change tout
cela_--and, in a felicitous allusion to the ancient narrative,
ins