The Equinox (Volume I, Number III)

SIR PALAMEDES, THE SARACEN KNIGHT Ah! what conclusion subtly draws From out this chaos of mad laws? Am I, the effect, as I, the cause? Nay, the brain reels beneath its swell Of pompous thoughts. Enough to tell That He is known Unknowable!” Thus did that knightly Saracen In Cantabrig’s miasmal fen Lecture to many learned men. So clamorous was their applause— “His mind” (said they) “is free of flaws: The Veil of God is thin as gauze! ”— That almost they had dulled or drowned The laughter (in its belly bound) Of that dread Beast he had not found. Nathless—although he would away— They forced the lack-luck knight to stay And lecture many a weary day. Verily, almost he had caught The infection of their costive thought, And brought his loyal quest to naught. It was by night that Palamede Ran from that mildewed, mouldy breed, Moth-eaten dullards run to seed ! gr