18
Tower of Ivory
Are rainbow-winking bubbles in the bowl
That vanish and are nothing. Lo, this ghost
That makes a mock of them! This thing of air,
Smoke-wrought and smoke-enduring! Such as she,
Appearances and shadows, are all things
That flesh may not acknowledge,—yet the mind
Has conquered even these, has found them vain,
A nothingness, an emptiness, a smoke.
[A great gust of wind shakes the house.]
Faustus [turning toward the door]
I fear you not; I've held the globing world
Of wisdom in my hand. There is no space
Of all the universe I have not won;
No door is closed—shall I then grudge the coin
That pays for this, or hoard the penny when
The ribbon's bought? It's worth the taste of death
To know that death is silence, and the dust
