Sep 21
Goethe, about Nature!
NATURE! We are surrounded and embraced by her: powerless to separate ourselves from her, and powerless to penetrate beyond her.
Without asking, or warning, she snatches us up into her circling dance, and whirls us on until we are tired, and drop from her arms.She is ever shaping new forms: what is, has never yet been; what has been, comes not again. Everything is new, and yet nought but the old.We live in her midst and know her not. She is incessantly speaking to us, but betrays not her secret. We constantly act upon her, and yet have no power over her.The one thing she seems to aim at is Individuality; yet she cares nothing for individuals. She is always building up and destroying; but her workshop is inaccessible...She performs a play; we know not whether she sees it herself, and yet she acts for us, the lookers-on...The spectacle of Nature is always new, for she is always renewing the spectators. Life is her most exquisite invention; and death is her expert contrivance to get plenty of life...We obey her laws even when we rebel against them; we work with her even when we desire to work against her...She is an eternal present. Past and future are unknown to her. The present is her eternity. She is beneficient... No explanation is wrung from her; no present won from her, which she does not give freely. She is cunning, but for good ends; and it is best not to notice her tricks...As she works now, so can she always work.J. W. Goethe
The full text is available at the following link

