Our enemies are closing round us now.

I have given the sacred scrolls into the hands

Of Lysis; and, though all else be destroyed,

If but a Golden Verse or two live on

In other lands, and kindle other souls

To seek the law, our work is not in vain.

If it be death that comes to us, we shall lose

Nothing that could endure. It was not chance

That sent us on this pilgrimage through time,

But that which lives within us, the desire