The Star in the West

THE VIRGIN IOI shall be pestered on our way by swarms of human blow - flies, that we shall tread on the scorpions of re ligion , the toads of society , and the blind -worms of the law ; that around us will whirl the vampires of the past , the kites of the present , the succubi of the future , is certain enough ; as a shrieking mass of hideous animosity they will conglobe around us, deafening us with the expletives of earth , blinding us with the fumes of hell , and rendering us insane with the inanities of heaven : This were my guerdon : to fade utterly Into the rose -heart of that sanguine vase, And lose my purpose in its silent sea , And lose my life , and find my life , and pass Up to the sea that is as molten glass .? Nirvana . The drowning of self in eternity . Yet if the mind returned not from its abode , and ever rested with God , all would run smoothly enough ; but such a possibility is too transcendental to be actual . If it were , hen this dull house of gold and iron and clay Is happy also — ' tis an easy way !? But this cannot be . The dice are in God's lap , and in him alone rests the Ultimate goal . In “ Tannhäuser ' we find the great dual power of redemption , the inter minglings of the powers of Virtue and Vice . In him , as in the hero of “ The Nameless Quest , " they wage an eternal contest , it not being till he has passed through the Venusberg of mental and physical lust , that he attains the graal of his hopes and aspirations : O God , Thy blinding beauty , and the light Shed from Thy shoulders , and the golden night 1 Tannhäuser , vol . i, p . 227 . 2 Ibid .