Night and day she teaches that Beauty is her state, Silence her delight and Freedom her condition.
TRUTH: Between her hands are Peace ; Righteousness ; Freedom ;
Justice; Silence; And from these come Calm, Living Soul and the Perfect
Race.
POET: After Man has shouted his cries and fretted the air with
his clamor, Lo, he lies down, also, to the great silence. And is gathered up again by the patient roots Into eternal beauty.
XXIII. POET: I sought God in the caverns of the ages, But they were empty. I pushed aside the tapestries of the Night And rudely tore down the star-sown arras of the years. But found only desolation.
I loosed my soul upon the backward path of Eternity, But it was lost in the mists, And I was frightened by the silence. I stood upon the purple peaks And sought to pierce the clouds of Being, But was dizzy with the infinite. I called into the impenetrable vacancy. And was not answered. No voice I heard ; I saw no hand ; no face. My soul rent the veil before the sanctuary of the clouds And rushed in with the rebellious lightning, But there was nothing.
I shod my spirit with the winged slippers of the Wind, And pried curiously into every corner.
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