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Human Knowledge.[21]
When thou decipher'st in nature
the writing which thou hast inscribed there,
When its phenomena thou
castest in groups for thine eye,
When thou hast covered its infinite fields
with thy measuring tape-lines,
Dost thou imagine, thy mind
really graspeth the All?
Thus the astronomer paints
on the heavens his star-constellations
Merely his bearings to find
easily in their domain.
Suns that at measureless distances roam,
oh how closely together
Have they been joined in the swan
and in the horns of the bull!
But can the heavens be thus understood
in their mystical cycles,
When their projections appear
on planispherical charts?
