Their kind of knowledge to our son they gave,
With good intent indeed, but yet the child
Found nought therein but death unto his soul.
He grew to manhood steeped in all the light,
His father Felix, through the spirit-speech,
Taught him from fountains and from rocks and hills:
To this was joined all that had lived and grown
In my own soul from my first childhood’s years;
And yet our son’s clear spirit-sense was killed
By the deep gloom of sombre sciences.