New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-03-05
gle H Nj AN LOVE
BY MAX MULLER:
TRANSLATED BY
ARNOLD PR0sEN AND A. E. FEL1x'
First Remembrance.


Childhood has its secrets and its mys
teries, but who can relate them, who inter
pref them? We have all once wandered
through this silent wonder-wood; once
opened our eyes in blissful establishment
as the beautiful reality Of life overlooked
our souls. Then we knew not where
we were, nor who we were; the whole
world belonged to us, and we belonged
to the whole world. That vas an
eternal life, without beginning and
without end, without cessation and with
out sorrow. Our hearts were luminous as
the spring sky, fresh as the fragrance Of
.yiolets, still and holy as Sabbath morn.
ing.
And what disturbs this God-given peace
of the child? How can this unconscious
and innocent existence ever end? What
drives us out Of this happiness of in
.dividuality and universally, and leaves
us suddenly alone and lonely in the dark
ness of life?
Say not, with stern brow, that it is
sin. Can child sin? Say rather that
we know not what it is and must submit.
Is it sin which makes the blossom flower
the flower fruit, and the fruit dust? 1sit sin
which makes the caterpiller chrysalis,
the chrysalis butterfly, and the butterfly
dust? Is it sin which makes the child
man, the man an old man, and the old man
dust? And what is dust? Say rather we
know not, and must submit,
Still, it is SO sweet to reflect upon the
springtime of life; to look back upon our
inward selves; to remember. Yes, even
in the sultry summer, in the sad autumn,
and in the cold winter of life, here and
there is spring day, and the heart says,
sit feels to me like spring." Such day
is to-day, and lie down upon the soft
moss in the fragrant forest and stretch
out my heavy limbs and look up through
the green foliage into the boundless blue
and think-bow was it, then, in child
hood.
Here all seems forgotten, and the first
pages of memory are like an old family
Bible. The first leaves are completely
faded; also somewhat fingered, and not
quite pure. Not till we turn further over
the leaves and come to the chapters where
Adam and Eve were driven out Of Para
disc does it begin to be clear and legible.
Yes, and could we but find the title page,
with the place OF. printing and the date
but that is quite gone, and instead we
find only fair transcription baptismal
certificate. There stand recorded the
date of our birth and the names of our
parents and sponsors, that we may not
think ourselves offspring sine loco ct ammo.
Yes, but the beginning-if there only
were no beginning with the beginning
cease all thought and remembrance.
And when We thus dream back to child
hood, and from childhood to infinity,
then it seems as if the tantalizing begin
ming goes always farther away, and the
thoughts run after it, and can never over
take it; as child seeks the place where
the blue sky lies upon the earth, and runs
and runs, and the sky runs ever before
him, and still lies always upon the earth;
but the child grows tired and never gets
there. But inasmuch as we indeed were
once there-since we indeed once had q
beginning-what do We know about it?
Memory, in truth, shakes itself like a
spaniel that comes out of the waves. with
the water still running in its eyes, and
seems full of wonder.
Nevertheless, think / can remember
the4first time ever saw the stars. They
may have often before seen me; but one
evening it seemed to me cold, although I
lay in my mothers lap, and I shivered
and felt chilled, or was frightened; in
short, something was passing within me
which made my little ego more than
usually observant OF itself. Then my
mother showed me the bright stars, and l
wondered and thought show pretty my
..xy,o, has no1o them and then falt