Oh thou "teterrima causa" of all "belli"—[513]Thou gate of Life and Death—thou nondescript!

Whence is our exit and our entrance,—well I

May pause in pondering how all souls are dipped

In thy perennial fountain:—how man fell I

Know not, since Knowledge saw her branches stripped

Of her first fruit; but how he falls and rises

Since,—thou hast settled beyond all surmises.