O shadows of Renee,
Obermann, De Guerin, Amiel,
and all holders of mortal
inquisitions -- I shake you off!
I go out into the sunlight,
and I bathe myself in human
fellowship.
Under the leaden wings of night
I see this brood of melancholy
half-gods and half-men,
pitiable because they are neither
the one nor the other.
I grow afraid and turn away
from the bottomless pit of perfect
knowledge. I see the withered
hand that touched all these
curious adventurers who would
search the caverns of the ideal.
I dissipate the thought in
these scribblings, to save myself;
therefore I plunge into the
sea of daily duty, to forget the
lure of the abyss of perfect
knowledge, and to live and
laugh again.