Ciii

And the delight wherewith I watch this crowd must be Akin to that which crowns the chemist when he winds Thread up and up, till clue be fairly clutched,--unbinds The composite, ties fast the simple to its mate, And, tracing each effect back to its cause, elate, Constructs in fancy, from the fewest primitives, The complex and complete, all diverse life, that lives Not only in beast, bird, fish, reptile, insect, but The very plants and earths and ores. Just so I glut My hunger both to be and know the thing I am, By contrast with the thing I am not; so, through sham And outside, I arrive at inmost real, probe And prove how the nude form obtained the checkered robe.