Section 11. Concentration of Powers

The weakest living creature⁠, by⁠ concentrating his powers on a single object, can⁠ accomplish something. The strongest⁠, by dispersing his over many, may fail to accomplish anything⁠. The drop, by continually⁠ falling⁠, bores⁠ its passage through the hardest rock. The hasty⁠ torrent rushes⁠ over it with hideous uproar, and leaves no trace behind.—T. Carlyle.

creature, Wesen, n.; strengthen the superlative of the adjective by placing ‘aller’ before it, forming one compound expression, analogous to: Die aller schönste Blume, the finest flower (of all).

‘by concentrating his powers’, durch Konzentration seiner Kräfte; to accomplish something, etwas zustande bringen. Use the adverbial expression ‘at least’ before ‘something’, which will give more force to the German rendering.

The copula ‘can’ must be placed immediately after the subject and its attributes, as has been pointed out in S. 5, N. 2.

The strongest — fail, Dem Stärksten hingegen wird es durch Zersplitterung seiner Kräfte nicht gelingen.

anything, auch nur das Geringste.

continual, unablässig, adj.

To render ‘falling’, form a noun of the verb ‘fallen’. The German language makes frequent use of the Infinitive Present of verbs to form abstract nouns, whilst the English language uses the Verbal in -ing for that purpose. Such nouns are always of the neuter gender; as das Gehen, going; das Essen und Trinken, eating and drinking.

to bore one’s passage, sich einen Weg bohren. Place the verb according to S. 5, N. 2; the adverbial clause ‘by continually falling’ must follow it.

hasty, ungestüm; torrent, Strom, m.

to rush over something, über etwas hinweg´stürzen; ‘rushes — uproar’, say ‘rushes with hideous (entsetzlich) uproar (Getöse) over the same.’