Wanes, dimly seen, through Error’s mist:
Upon that mist, man’s image cast
Becomes the new God-Mechanist.
The vast Idea shrivels up:
Truth narrows with the narrowing soul:
Men sip it from the acorn’s cup:
Their fathers drained the golden bowl.
Shrink, spelled and dwarfed, their earth, their skies;
Shrinks in their hand their measuring-rod;
With dim, yet microscopic eyes