CUERVO - Biblioteca Nacional de Colombia

58 PARACELSUS
Too bent on gaining more to calmly stay
And scrutinize the little which he gained :
Slipt in the blank space 'twixt an idiot's gibber
And a mad lover's ditty-lies the whole 1
And yet those blottings chronicle a me-
A whole life,-mine I No thought to turn to act,
No problem for the fancy, but a life
Spent and decided, wasted past recall,
Or worthy beyond peer. Stay, turn the page
And take its chance,-thus; what, concerning" life "
Does this remembrancer set down 7-" \Ve say
" , Time fleets, youth fades, life is an empty dream.'
" 'Tis the mere echo of time; and he whose heart
" Beat first beneath a human heart, whose speech
"Was copied from a human tongue, can never
" Recall when he was living yet knew not this.
H Nevertheless long seasons come and go,
" Till some one hour's experience shows what nought,
" He deemed, could clearer show; and ever after
.' An altered brow, and eye, and gait, and speech
" Attest that now he knows the adage true
" , Time fleets, youth fades, life is an empty dream.' "
Ay, my brave chronicler, and this same time
As well as any: let my hour speak now I
Now I I can go on farther; well or ill-
'Tis done. I must desist and take my chance;
I cannot keep on the stretch; 'tis no back-shrinking­
For let the least assurance dawn, some end
To my toil seem possible, and I proceed
At any price, by any sacrifice:
Else, here I pause; the old Greek's prophecy
Is like to turn out true-" I shall not quit
" His chamber till I know what I desire I "
Was it the light wind sung it, o'er the sea?
An end, a rest I strange how the notion, once
Admitted, gains strength every moment I Rest I
Where kept that thought so long 7 this throbbing brow
To cease-this beating heart to cease-its crowd
Of gnawing thoughts to cease I-To dare let down
My strung, so bigh-strung brain-to dare unnerve
My harassed o'ertasked frame-to know my place,
- My portion, my reward, my failure even,
Assigned, made sure for ever /-To lose myself
Among the common creatures of the world-
To draw some gain from having been a man-
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