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—­

Oh divinest prophetess, said she—­how new & to me how strange are your lessons—­If such be the end of our being how wayward a course did I pursue on earth—­Diotima you know not how torn affections & misery incalculable misery—­withers up the soul.  How petty do the actions of our earthly life appear when the whole universe is opened to our gaze—­yet there our passions are deep & irrisisbable [sic] and as we are floating hopless yet clinging to hope down the impetuous stream can we perceive the beauty of its banks which alas my soul was too turbid to reflect—­If knowledge is the end of our being why are passions & feelings implanted in us that hurries [sic] us from wisdom to selfconcentrated misery & narrow selfish feeling?  Is it as a trial?  On earth I thought that I had well fulfilled my trial & my last moments became peaceful with the reflection that I deserved no blame—­but you take from me that feeling—­My passions were there my all to me and the hopeless misery that possessed me shut all love & all images of beauty from my soul—­Nature was to me as the blackest night & if rays of loveliness ever strayed into my darkness it was only to draw bitter tears of hopeless anguish from my eyes—­Oh on earth what consolation is there to misery?