Thou dost not see upon thy threshold now The soul of him who was the pupil once Of Benedictus, and came oft to thee, Thomasius, although upon the Earth It had to call Thomasius' form its own. He came to thee, his thirst for knowledge quenched And could not bear to have thee near to him. He hid in his own personality When he felt near thee, and thus oft did see Worlds which, he thought, made clear the origin Of all existence and the goal of life. He found the happiness of knowledge there And also powers which to the artist gave That which directed both his hand and heart Toward creation's source, so that he felt There truly lived within him cosmic powers, Which held him steady to his artist's work. He did not know that nought before him stood In all that he created through his thought Except the living content of his soul. Like spiders, spinning webs around themselves So did he work, and thought himself the world. Indeed he once thought that Maria stood Opposed to him in spirit, till he saw That picture she had graven on his soul Which then as spirit did reveal itself. And when he was allowed a moment's glimpse Of his own being, as it really was, He gladly would have fled away from self; He thought himself a spirit but he found He was a creature but of flesh and blood. He learned to know the power of this same blood; 'Twas there in truth, the rest was but a shade. Blood was his teacher true; and this alone Gave him clear vision, and revealed to him Who was his sire and who his sister dear In long forgotten ages on the Earth. To blood-relations his blood guided him. Then did he see how strongly souls of men Must be deceived when they in vanity Would rise to spirit from the life of sense. Such effort truly binds the soul more firm To sense-existence than a daily life, Dull human dream existence following. And when Thomasius could view all this Before his soul as being his own state He gave himself with vigour to that power Which could not lie to him although as yet 'Twas but revealed in picture, for he knew That Lucifer himself is really there E'en if he can but show his pictured form. The gods desire to draw near to mankind Through truth alone; but Lucifer--to him It matters not if men see false or true, He ever will remain the same himself. And therefore I acknowledge that I feel I have attained reality when I Believe that I must search and find the soul Which in his own realm he did bind to mine. (To the Guardian.) So armed with all the strength which he bestows I mean to pass thee and to penetrate To Theodora whom I know to be Within the realm that o'er this threshold lies. THE GUARDIAN: