Thus permanence to truth else fugitive,

Did not I also fix each fleeting grace

Of form and feature—save the beauteous face—

Arrest decay in transitory might

Of bone and muscle—cause the world to bless

Forever each transcendent nakedness

Of man and woman? Were such feats achieved

By sloth, or strenuous labor unrelieved,

—Yet lavished vainly? Ask that underground

(So may I speak) of all on surface found