Collected Works (Vol. II)

PENTECOST 169 190 195 200 205 210 216 220 225 Why, in a word, I seek to gain A different knowledge. Why retain The husk of flesh, yet seek to merit The influx of the Holy Spirit? And, swift as caddies pat and cap a tee, Gain the great prize all mortals snap at, he- Roic guerdon of Srotapatti ? With calm and philosophic mind, Our logical No fears, no hopes, devotions blind cna ioe a To hamper, soberly we'll state demonstrating The problem, and investigate erudition of In purely scientific mood poet. The sheer Ananke of the mind, A temper for our steel to find Whereby those brazen nails subdued Against our door-posts may in vain Ring. We'll examine, to be plain, By logic’s intellectual prism The spiritual Syllogism. We know what fools (only) call Whether or Divine and Supernatural not spirit and And what they name material tinct, Tet us in Are really one, not two, the line vestigate the By which divide they and define fundamental necessities of Being a shadowy sort of test ; thought. A verbal lusus at the best, At worst a wicked lie devised To bind men’s thoughts ; but we must work With our own instruments, nor shirk Discarding what we erstwhile prized ; Should we perceive it disagree With the first-born necessity. I come to tell you why I shun Impermanence The sight of men, the life and fun of the soul. You know I can enjoy so well, The Nature that I love as none (I think) before me ever loved. You know I scorn the fear of Hell, By worship and all else unmoved.