Farewell doubts--painful meditation of evil--& the great, ever inexplicable cause of all that we see--I am content to be ignorant of all this happy that not resting my mind on any unstable theories I have come to the conclusion that of the great secret of the universe I _can know nothing_--There is a veil before it--my eyes are not piercing enough to see through it my arms not long enough to reach it to withdraw it--I will study the end of my being--oh thou universal love inspire me--oh thou beauty which I see glowing around me lift me to a fit understanding of thee! Such was the conclusion of my long wanderings I sought the end of my being & I found it to be knowledge of itself--Nor think this a confined study--Not only did it lead me to search the mazes of the human soul--but I found that there existed nought on earth which contained not a part of that universal beauty with which it [was] my aim & object to become acquainted--the motions of the stars of heaven the study of all that philosophers have unfolded of wondrous in nature became as it where [_sic_] the steps by which my soul rose to the full contemplation & enjoyment of the beautiful--Oh ye who have just escaped from the world ye know not what fountains of love will be opened in your hearts or what exquisite delight your minds will receive when the secrets of the world will be unfolded to you and ye shall become acquainted with the beauty of the universe--Your souls now growing eager for the acquirement of knowledge will then rest in its possession disengaged from every particle of evil and knowing all things ye will as it were be mingled in the universe & ye will become a part of that celestial beauty that you admire--[98] Diotima ceased and a profound silence ensued--the youth with his cheeks flushed and his eyes burning with the fire communicated from hers still fixed them on her face which was lifted to heaven as in inspiration--The lovely female bent hers to the ground & after a deep sigh was the first to break the silence--