PARACELSUS
134
He
Paracelsus. Yes,
started in
for
was
it
in
me
;
I
was born 600
it
was mine by right. ^f other men Doubtless a searching and impetuous soul Might learn from its own motions that some task Like this awaited it about the world Might seek somewhere in this blank life of ours ^'
Paracelsus:
it
;
For fit delights to stay its longings vast And, grappling Nature, so prevail on her
To
fill
the creature
Hungry
for joy
she dared thus frame
full
and, bravely tyrannous,
;
Grow in demand, still craving more and more, 610 And make each joy conceded prove a pledge Of other joy to follow bating nought Of its desires, still seizing fresh pretence
—
To
turn the knowledge and the rapture
As
an extreme,
last
new covetings. doubtless new triumphs
Into occasion for
New
strifes,
wrung
boon, from destiny,
:
—
a strong
soul.
Alone, unaided might
attain to this,
So glorious is our nature, so august 620 Man's inborn uninstructed impulses, His naked spirit so majestical But this was born in me I was made so Thus much time saved the feverish appetites, ;
:
The
tumult of unproved desire, the unaimed Uncertain yearnings, aspirations blind. Distrust, mistake, and all that ends in tears Were saved me ; thus I entered on my course.
You may be sure I was not all exempt From human trouble just so much of doubt 630 As bade me plant a surer foot upon The sun-road, kept my eye unruined 'mid ;