Gargoyles

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, 26