Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Rhymed Distichs

WHO trusts in God, Fears not His rod. ——- THIS truth may be by all believed: Whom God deceives, is well deceived. ——- HOW? when? and where? —No answer comes from high; Thou wait'st for the Because, and yet thou ask'st not Why? ——- IF the whole is ever to gladden thee, That whole in the smallest thing thou must see. ——- WATER its living strength first shows, When obstacles its course oppose. ——- TRANSPARENT appears the radiant air, Though steel and stone in its breast it may bear; At length they'll meet with fiery power, And metal and stones on the earth will shower. ——— WHATE'ER a living flame may surround, No longer is shapeless, or earthly bound. 'Tis now invisible, flies from earth, And hastens on high to the place of its birth.