Self-Knowledge

--E coelo descendit γνῶθι σεαυτόν.--JUVENAL, xi. 27.

Γνῶθι σεαυτόν!--and is this the prime
And heaven-sprung adage of the olden time!--
Say, canst thou make thyself?--Learn first that trade;--
Haply thou mayst know what thyself had made.
What hast thou, Man, that thou dar'st call thine own?--
What is there in thee, Man, that can be known?--
Dark fluxion, all unfixable by thought,
A phantom dim of past and future wrought,
Vain sister of the worm,--life, death, soul, clod--
Ignore thyself, and strive to know thy God!