Of flesh-perfection! Depths on depths to probe

Of all-inventive artifice, disrobe

Marvel at hiding under marvel, pluck

Veil after veil from Nature—were the luck

Ours to surprise the secret men so name,

That still eludes the searcher—all the same,

Repays his search with still fresh proof—'Externe,

Not inmost, is the Cause, fool! Look and learn!'

Thus teach my hundred pictures: firm and fast

There did I plant my first foot. And the next?