Phantastes: A Faerie Romance for Men and Women

For offering this new edition of my father’s Phantastes, my reasons are three. The first is to rescue the work from an edition illustrated without the author’s sanction, and so...

“A spirit . . . . . . . . . The undulating and silent well, And rippling rivulet, and evening gloom, Now deepening the dark shades, for speech assuming, Held commune with him; a...

“‘Where is the stream?’ cried he, with tears. ‘Seest thou not its blue waves above us?’ He looked up, and lo! the blue stream was flowing gently over their heads.” —NOVALIS, _He...

“Man doth usurp all space, Stares thee, in rock, bush, river, in the face. Never thine eyes behold a tree; ‘Tis no sea thou seest in the sea, ‘Tis but a disguised humanity. To a...

By this time, my hostess was quite anxious that I should be gone. So, with warm thanks for their hospitality, I took my leave, and went my way through the little garden towards...

“And she was smooth and full, as if one gush Of life had washed her, or as if a sleep Lay on her eyelid, easier to sweep Than bee from daisy.” BEDDOES’ _Pygmalion_.

But as I crossed the space between the foot of the hill and the forest, a vision of another kind delayed my steps. Through an opening to the westward flowed, like a stream, the...

“Fight on, my men, Sir Andrew sayes, A little I am hurt, but yett not slaine; I’le but lye downe and bleede awhile, And then I’le rise and fight againe.” BALLAD _of Sir Andrew B...

My spirits rose as I went deeper; into the forest; but I could not regain my former elasticity of mind. I found cheerfulness to be like life itself—not to be created by any argu...

“O lady! we receive but what we give, And in our life alone does nature live: Ours is her wedding garments ours her shroud! . . . . . Ah! from the soul itself must issue forth,...

“From Eden’s bowers the full-fed rivers flow, To guide the outcasts to the land of woe: Our Earth one little toiling streamlet yields. To guide the wanderers to the happy fields.”

“A wilderness of building, sinking far And self-withdrawn into a wondrous depth, Far sinking into splendour—without end: Fabric it seemed of diamond and of gold, With alabaster...

They who believe in the influences of the stars over the fates of men, are, in feeling at least, nearer the truth than they who regard the heavenly bodies as related to them mer...

“I saw a ship sailing upon the sea Deeply laden as ship could be; But not so deep as in love I am For I care not whether I sink or swim.” OLD BALLAD.

“Your gallery Have we pass’d through, not without much content In many singularities; but we saw not That which my daughter came to look upon, The state of her mother.” _Winter’...

And now, what song should I sing to unveil my Isis, if indeed she was present unseen? I hurried away to the white hall of Phantasy, heedless of the innumerable forms of beauty t...

“Ev’n the Styx, which ninefold her infoldeth Hems not Ceres’ daughter in its flow; But she grasps the apple—ever holdeth Her, sad Orcus, down below.” SCHILLER, _Das Ideal und da...

When the daylight came, it brought the possibility of action, but with it little of consolation. With the first visible increase of light, I gazed into the chasm, but could not,...

How I got through this dreary part of my travels, I do not know. I do not think I was upheld by the hope that any moment the light might break in upon me; for I scarcely thought...

The water was deep to the very edge; and I sprang from the little boat upon a soft grassy turf. The island seemed rich with a profusion of all grasses and low flowers. All delic...

“Thou hadst no fame; that which thou didst like good Was but thy appetite that swayed thy blood For that time to the best; for as a blast That through a house comes, usually dot...

At length, with much toil and equal delight, our armour was finished. We armed each other, and tested the strength of the defence, with many blows of loving force. I was inferio...

On the third day of my journey, I was riding gently along a road, apparently little frequented, to judge from the grass that grew upon it. I was approaching a forest. Everywhere...

I had not gone far, for I had but just lost sight of the hated tower, when a voice of another sort, sounding near or far, as the trees permitted or intercepted its passage, reac...

“This wretched _Inn_, where we scarce stay to bait, We call our _Dwelling-Place_: We call one _Step a Race_: But angels in their full enlightened state, Angels, who _Live_, and...

Sinking from such a state of ideal bliss, into the world of shadows which again closed around and infolded me, my first dread was, not unnaturally, that my own shadow had found...