Are there not, Festus, are there not, dear Michal,
Two points in the adventure of the diver:
One—when, a beggar, he prepares to plunge;
One—when, a prince, he rises with his pearl?
Festus, I plunge!
FESTUS. We wait you when you rise.
So ends the first part, and the second opens ten years afterwards in a Greek Conjurer's house in Constantinople, with Paracelsus writing down the result of his work. And the result is this:
"I have made a few discoveries, but I could not stay to use them. Nought remains but a ceaseless, hungry pressing forward, a vision now and then of truth; and I—I am old before my hour: the adage is true—
Time fleets, youth fades, life is an empty dream;
and now I would give a world to rest, even in failure!