If my desire were no bigger than this world
It were no bigger than a pin's head.
But this world is to the world I want
As a cinder to Sirius.
I am startled at the gigantic suggestions in this old story of the Serpent who introduces knowledge to man in Eden. How could the Jew who wrote Genesis have known the sadness that ever comes with learning—as if wisdom were still the protégé of the Devil.
On the advantage of reducing facts—like fractions—to a common denominator.
We explain: but only in terms of x and y, which are themselves symbols of we know not what, graphs of mystery. We establish relations betwixt this and that mystery. We reduce x and y to a common denominator, so that we can add them together, and make a scientific generalization, or subtract them, and make a scientific analysis: but more we can not do. The mystery is still a mystery, and this is all the material out of which we must weave our life.
I had a dog,
And his name was not Fido, but Credo.
(In America they shorten his name to "Creed.")