The three kingdoms of nature

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Die drey Reiche der Natur is a four-stanza poem by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing , which was published in 1747 in the weekly Der Naturforscher as a reaction to a play by Christlob Mylius .

History of origin

The poem was first published on August 26, 1747 in the 9th part of the weekly journal Naturforscher . It was written between July and August 1747 as a humorous response to a treatise on the three realms of nature that the editor of the weekly magazine, Christlob Mylius, wrote in July of the same year.

content

In the first stanza of the poem Lessing states that nature can be divided into three realms. Although this classification is generally accepted, Lessing claims that hardly any scholar can describe it correctly. He then tries to describe it himself in the following three stanzas. The first kingdom to which humans also belong is the animal kingdom . The animals live, drink and love. The living beings in the second kingdom, the plant kingdom, are characterized by the fact that they can live and drink, but cannot love. The stones of the third kingdom cannot love or drink. Lessing concludes from this that a person without love and without wine is just a stone.

text

There are three empires in the world
Introduces us to nature.
The number remains in all times
Bey the scholar without quarreling.
But how to describe it
Almost every physicist is wrong.
Hear, you scholars, listen to Me
Can I describe it correctly?


Animals are like men
And both are the first empire.
The animals live, drink, love;
Each according to his instincts.
The prince, bull, eagle, flea and dog
Feel love and wet your mouth.
So what drinks and can love
Will be done in the first kingdom.


The plant makes the other kingdom
Not like the first in goodness.
She doesn't love, but she can drink
When the clouds fall down
So drink the cedar and the clover,
the vine and the aloe.
That which does not love but can drink
Is done in the other kingdom:


The stone kingdom is the third kingdom
And this makes sand and demant alike.
No stone feels thirst or tender urges;
He grows without drink and love.
That which does not love, can still drink,
Will be done in the last kingdom.
Because without love and without wine
Speak, man, what are you left with? Einstein.

shape

Each of the four stanzas consists of four paired rhymes . All verses are iambic four-lifters , with the third and fourth verses of the stanza having a female cadence , while all other verses have a male cadence.

interpretation

The three kingdoms of nature came into being in response to a publication by Christlob Mylius, Lessing's cousin. Mylius published a treatise on the three realms of nature in the 4th and 5th part of the weekly magazine Der Naturforscher based on definitions of the biologist Carl von Linné , whereupon Lessing published his poem in the 9th part of the natural scientist . With his definitions Lessing parodies science by creating a semblance of logic in the first three stanzas . He defines the animals, to which humans belong, by the fact that they "live, drink, love" while the plants can only live and drink, but cannot love. In the last stanza Lessing contradicts this scientific logic by stating that a person who neither loves nor drinks is a stone. According to strict scientific logic, these three definitions are therefore contradictory. This contradiction can only be resolved through the anacreontic worldview that man is only human when he loves and drinks. Here Lessing leads science ad absurdum by first creating the appearance of scientific logic, but destroying it in the last stanza through a contradiction.

literature

The poem was printed within the work edition

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Karl Lachmann , Christlob Mylius : Gotthold Ephraim Lessing's entire writings. Volume 1. Voss 1838.

  • Gotthold Ephraim Lessing: The three realms of nature, in: Poems and interpretations. Volume 2: Enlightenment and Sturm und Drang. Pp. 192-203. (Reclams Universal Library. 7891.) ISBN 978-3-15-007891-4