From book Faust( by Johhann Wolfgang
von Goethe)
Nothing can be known---------
I’ve
studied now Philosophy
And
Jurisprudence, Medicine,—
And
even, alas! Theology,—
From
end to end, with labor keen;
And
here, poor fool! with all my lore
I
stand, no wiser than before:
I’m
Magister—yea, Doctor—hight,
And
straight or cross-wise, wrong or right,
These
ten years long, with many woes,
I’ve
led my scholars by the nose,—
And
see, that nothing can be known!
That knowledge
cuts me to the bone.
I’m
cleverer, true, than those fops of teachers,
Doctors
and Magisters, Scribes and Preachers;
Neither
scruples nor doubts come now to smite me,
Nor
Hell nor Devil can longer affright me.
For
this, all pleasure am I foregoing;
I
do not pretend to aught worth knowing,
I
do not pretend I could be a teacher
To
help or convert a fellow-creature.
Then,
too, I’ve neither lands nor gold,
Nor
the world’s least pomp or honor hold—
No
dog would endure such a curst existence!
Wherefore,
from Magic I seek assistance,
That
many a secret perchance I reach
Through
spirit-power and spirit-speech,
And
thus the bitter task forego
Of
saying the things I do not know,—
That
I may detect the inmost force
Which
binds the world, and guides its course;
Its
germs, productive powers explore,
And rummage in empty words no more!
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