Perhaps there has never been a more sublime utterance, or a thoughtmore sublimely expressed, than the well-known inscription upon the Temple of Isis: `I am all that is, and that was, and that shall be, and no mortal hath raised the veil from before my face’.

… So said, he seized the cover of the veil.
Well', you will ask,what was it that he saw?’
I cannot tell; unconscious, pale and wan
The temple priests discovered him next morning
Prostrate before the pedestal of Isis.
Whatever there he saw and there experienced
Did never pass his lips, for evermore
All cheerfulness had vanished from his life.
A searing grief soon brought him to his grave.

O woe to him who comes to Truth through guilt,
For it will never, never, bring him joy.