CUERVO - Biblioteca Nacional de Colombia

PARACELSUS
When my part in the farce is shuffied through,
Aud the curtain falls; I must hold out 'till then.
Festus. 'Till when, dear Aureole?
Paracelsus. 'Till I'm fairly thrust
From my proud eminence. Fortune is fickle
And even professors fall: should that arrive,
I see no sin in ceding to my bent.
You little fancy what rude shocks apprize us
We sin: God's intimations rather fail .
In clearness than in energy: 'twere well
Did they but indicate the course to take
Like that to be forsaken. I would fain
Be spared a further sample I Here I stand,
And here I stay, be sure, till forced to flit.
Festus. Remain but firm on that head; long ere then
All I expect will come to pass, I trust:
The cloud that wraps you will have disappeared.
Meantime, I see small chance of such event:
They praise you here as one whose lore, divulged
Already, eclipses all the past can show,
But whose achievements, marvellous as they be,
Are faint anticipations of a glory
About to be revealed. When Basil's crowds
Dismiss their teacher, I shall be content
That he depart.
Paracelsus. This favour at their hands
I look for earlier than your view of things
\Vould warrant. Of the crowd you saw to-day
Remove the full half sheer amazement draws,
The novelty, nought else; and next, the tribe
\Vhose innate blockish dullness just perceives
That unless miracles (as seem my works)
Be wrought in their behalf, their chance is slight
To puzzle the devil; next, the numerous set
Who bitterly hate established schools, so help
The teacher that oppugns them, and o'erthrows,
'Till having planted his own doctrine, he
May reckon on their rancour in his turn;
Take, too, the sprinkling of sagacious knaves
Whose cunning runs not counter to the vogue,
But seeks, by flattery and nursing craft,
To force my system to a premature
Short-lived development . . . Why swell the list?
Each has his end to serve, and his best way
Of serving it: remove all these, remains
A scantling-a poor dozen at the best-
That really come to learn for learning's sake ;
\Vorthy to look for sympathy and service,
And likely to draw profit from my pains.
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