“In the wide sea there lives a forlorn wretch, Doomed with enfeebled carcass to outstretch His loathed existence through ten centuries, And then to die alone. Who can devise A total opposition? No one. So A million times ocean must ebb and flow, And he oppressed. Yet he shall not die, These things accomplished. If he utterly Scans all depths of magic, and expounds The meanings of all motions, shapes and sounds; If he explores all forms and substances Straight homeward to their symbol-essences; He shall not die. Moreover, and in chief, He must pursue this task of joy and grief Most piously—all
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