The weaver plied his work with lengths of silk

Dyed each to match some jewel as it might,

And wove them, this by that. 'How comes it, friend,'—

(Quoth I)—'that while, apart, this fiery hue,

That watery dimness, either shocks the eye,

So blinding bright, or else offends again,

By dulness,—yet the two, set each by each,

Somehow produce a color born of both,

A medium profitable to the sight?'

'Such medium is the end whereat I aim,'—