CUERVO - Biblioteca Nacional de Colombia

PARACELSUS
Paracelsus. PrlEclare! Oplime!
Think of a quiet mountain-cloistered priest
Instructing Paracelsus I yet, 'tis so.
Come, I will show you where my merit lies.
'Tis in the advance of individual minds
That the slow crowd should ground their expectation
Eventually to follow-as the sea
Waits ages in its bed, 'till some one wave
Out of the multitude aspires, extends
The empire of the whole, some feet perhaps,
Over the strip of sand which would confine
Its fellows so long time: thenceforth the rest,
Even to the meanest, hurry in at once,
And so much is clear gained. I shall be glad
If all my labours, failing of aught else,
Suffice to make such inroad, and procure
A wider range for thought: nay, they do this;
POl', whatsoe'er my notions of true knowledge
And a legitimate success, may be,
I am not blind to my undoubted rank
When classed with others: I precede my age:
And whoso wills, is very free to mount
These labours as a platform, whence their own
May have a prosperous outset: but, alas I
My followers-they are noisy as you heard,
But for intelligence-the best of them
So clumsily wield the weapons I supply
And they extol, that I begin to doubt
"''bethel' their own rude clubs and pebble-stones
Would not do better service than my arms
Thus vilely swayed-if error will not fall
Sooner before the old awkward batterings
Than my more subtle warfare, not half learned.
Festus. I would supply that art, then, and withhold
Its arms until you have taught their mystery.
Paracelsus. Content you, 'tis my wish; I have recourse
To the simplest training. Day by day I seek
To wake the mood, the spirit which alone
Can make those arms of any use to men.
Of course, they are for swaggering forth at once
Graced with Ulysses' clL1b, Achilles' shield­
Flash on us, all in armour, thou Achilles I
Make our hearts dance to thy resounding step I
A proper sight to scare the crows away I
Festus. Pity you choose not, then, some other method
Of coming at your point. The marvellous art
At length established in the world bids fair
To remedy all hindrances like these:
Trust to Frobenius' press the precious lore
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