Originally titled Die Lehrlinge zu Sais and written largely in 1798, contains one of the most profound and enduring meditations on nature. The newly translated version has highlighted the mystic undertones of a succession of inner voices that provide discontinuous narratives ranging from philosophical to empirical and scientific to poetic. It conveys a wide range of views on nature and leaves the impression that there is no single truth or preferred discourse, despite the fact that nature is clearly unified, spontaneous, dynamic, and transformative. As long as we long for her, we will continue to get closer to what will always remain a mystery.

“Who is not touched, whose heart does not leap with joy, when the innermost life of nature enters his heart in all her fullness? I sink trembling in sweet fear into her dark, alluring lap, and all that remains of me is the focal point of an immense creativity, a swallowing eddy in the great ocean of life! What is the flame that appears everywhere?”

Novalis (1772-1801) was a philosopher, writer, poet, and mining engineer, as well as the Romantics’ most spiritual representative. To him, romanticizing was a verb: “By endowing the commonplace with a higher meaning, the ordinary with mysterious aspect, the known with the dignity of the unknown, the finite with the appearance of the infinite, I romanticize it.”