NV. Of endless life, of toil and woe
I am the burned and branded foe.
I came this torture to endure
That I might make my freedom sure.
A. No soul is free.
XM. There is no soul.
See yonder gleams the starry shoal
Of orbs incalculably vast.
They are not present: they are past,
Since the long march of shuddering light
Made years the servants of its might.
There is no soul.
A. These stars thou seest
Are but the figuring of thy brain.
NV. Then of all things the soul were freest
4. Move then the centre of thy pain!
XN. *Tis done.
A. A trick to cheat a child.
NV. It is the truth that I am naught.
Hear what I have gathered in the wild,
Flowers of imperishable thought
With glory and with rapture clothed.
This being, thinking, loved or loathed,
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