Completely in accord with the philosophy of his ripest years, however, the poet finds no ground for melancholy regrets in the spectacle of nature triumphing over man's handiwork.

Even in her work of corrosion she provides for the welfare of her children; in a home reared out of a ruined temple happy human lives are spent.

And it is in the spirit of the broadest humanity--a spirit that marks him off from the sentimentalists of the Darmstadt circle--that he regards the "ruins of time." [Footnote 114: On account of his constant travels between Frankfort and Darmstadt, Goethe was known among his friends as the _Wanderer_.
The poem was written in the autumn, during Goethe's residence in Wetzlar.] Natur! du ewig keimende, Schaffst jeden zum Genuss des Lebens, Hast deine Kinder alle muetterlich Mit Erbteil ausgestattet, einer Huette.
Nature! eternal engenderer, Thou bring'st forth thy children for the joy of living, With care all maternal thou providest Each with his portion, with his cottage.
In reading this poem we feel the force of the words of the younger Schlosser in which he records his impression of Goethe at the moment when both first made the acquaintance of the Darmstadt society.

"I shall be accompanied (to Darmstadt)," he wrote, "by a young friend of the highest promise who, through his strenuous endeavours to purify his soul, without unnerving it, is to me worthy of special honour."[115] The purification had indeed begun, but Goethe had to pass through many fires before the purification was complete.

One such fire was immediately awaiting him.
[Footnote 115: Biedermann, _op.