3IO  Later  Poems

statue  and  told  that  whoso  lifts  the  veil  shall  see  the
Truth,  At  the  same  time  he  is  warned  that  the  veil
must  not  be  lifted  save  by  the  consecrated  hand  of  the
priest  himself.  Moved  by  a  curiosity  which  can  hardly
seem  anything  but  laudable, — unless  one  is  prepared
to  take  the  side  of  the  sacerdotal  humbug, — the  young
man  returns  in  the  night  and  raises  the  veil.  In  the
morning  he  is  found  pale  and  unconscious  at  the  foot
of  the  statue.  Soon  afterwards  he  dies,  leaving  to
mankind  the  message:

Woe  unto  him  who  seeks  the  Truth  through  Guilt.
This  has  an  unctuous  sound,  and  one  gets  a  vague  im-
pression that  the  old  story  has  been  dressed  up  for  the
sake  of  some  modern  application.  One  is  piqued  to
reflect  upon  it;  but  the  more  one  reflects  the  more
clearly  one  sees  that  there  is  no  real  instruction  in  it.
But  if  there  is  no  instruction,  there  is  nothing  at  all;
since  the  mysticism  is  of  a  kind  that  appeals  solely  to
the  intellect.
