"Nature" () is an essay by Georg Christoph Tobler which is often incorrectly attributed to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. It was first published in 1783 in the Tiefurt Journal.Nicholas Boyle, Goethe: The Poet and The Age: The Poetry of Desire. p339 Oxford, 1992 Tobler wrote the essay after repeated conversations with Goethe.
The essay begins: Nature! We are surrounded and embraced by her—unable to step out of her and unable to penetrate her more deeply.Walter Kaufmann, Discovering The Mind: Freud Versus Adler and Jung p33 McGraw-Hill, 1980
In the first issue of Nature magazine, published on Nov 4, 1869, T. H. Huxley submitted an English translation of the essay, titled "Nature: Aphorisms by Goethe".nature.com
Sigmund Freud wrote that a public recitation of the essay, which Freud refers to as "the incomparably beautiful essay by Goethe", led him to study medicine.
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External links Paul Carus, Goethe's Nature Philosophy