'Oinos.'
Pardon, Agathos, the weakness of a spirit new-fledged with
immortality!
'Agathos.'
You have spoken nothing, my Oinos, for which pardon is to be demanded.
Not even here is knowledge a thing of intuition. For wisdom, ask of
the angels freely, that it may be given!
'Oinos.'
But in this existence I dreamed that I should be at once cognizant of
all things, and thus at once happy in being cognizant of all.
'Agathos.'
Ah, not in knowledge is happiness, but in the acquisition of
knowledge! In forever knowing, we are forever blessed; but to know
all, were the curse of a fiend.
'Oinos.'
But does not The Most High know all?
'Agathos'.
_That_ (since he is The Most Happy) must be still the _one_ thing
unknown even to HIM.
'Oinos.'
But, since we grow hourly in knowledge, must not _at last_ all things
be known?
'Agathos.'
Look down into the abysmal distances!--attempt to force the gaze down
the multitudinous vistas of the stars, as we sweep slowly through them
thus--and thus--and thus! Even the spiritual vision, is it not at all
points arrested by the continuous golden walls of the universe?--the
walls of the myriads of the shining bodies that mere number has
appeared to blend into unity?
'Oinos'.