The Star in the West

THE NEW WINE 271 philosophies , n doubt they arise , with doubt they thrive , and by doubt they are urged on ; Hope , like a will- o'-the-wisp , dances before them , leading them through marsh and mire , down dale and o'er hill , deep through the frozen forest, and the broad sun scorched plain , over seas and oceans , over continents and worlds , far, far through universes and systems , past stars , past comets and suns , deep into the depths of unutterable mystery ; and there through the æons midst , the birth of worlds , in the very womb of Time sunk on some fleeting asteroid , is the aspirant , " O Hope ! O Hope ! Where hast thou led me , ever near me , never with me ? ” “ On , on , O weary one , past man , past gods , on , on to the rim of Time ” : then from the parched lips bursts the echoing cry , “ Ag nosco , Agnosco ." The hyperbola of Time , the parabola of Infinity , lie far to the north in the hyperborean regions of the Unknowable . Knowledge is but a ring smitten into the face of the waters , around it grows another ring , the ring of a greater knowledge , around that yet another , it is the ring of a higher knowledge still , countless rings upon rings surround rings ; then , as he has reached some far distant one , man in his pre sumption shouts , “ I have found God ” ; blinded by the glittering projection of circles , dazzled by the greater brilliancy of the jewels in their setting ; “ He has found God .” “ No , no , O deluded one ! not even the ring that fits the little finger of God , hast thou discovered , and , if thou hadst , it and its God who wears it would be but the smallest gem in the ring of still some other God , perhaps even of some other man , who worships yet some other God , who himself is but again some gem in the endless ring of Eternity .