I have tread an endless trace in ways unentered,

In labours long and wide, withouten guide

Or good direction how to enter in, or how
To issue forth, for it would seem that there is
No system to the puzzle.

And by heaven, methinks it were as easy

To leap and pluck bright honour from the

Pale-faced moon, or dive into the bottom of the

Deep, where fathom-line could never touch the ground,

And pluck up drownéd honour by the locks,

As to endeavour to catch your divers ciphers,

While setting the great wheel to which is fixed,

As to an ayme or butt, wide stretched,

All thy leaves in continual motion, and make their parts
Keep in one consent, congreeing in full

And natural close, like music.

I would out-stare the sternest eyes that look;
Out-brave the heart most daring on the earth,
Pluck the young cubs from the she bear,
Yea, mock the lion when he roars for prey,

To win the cipher. But alas! the while,

If Hercules and Lychas play at dice,

Which is the better man? The throw may turn by fortune

From the greater to the weaker hand;

So is Alcides beaten by his rage;

And so may I, blind fortune leading me,

Miss that which one unworthier may attain,

And die with grieving.

For by God's sonties, sir,

'T will be a hard way to hit."

"We knew this would be your answer,

Yet ought your feeble spirits, that

'Gan faint and reel at this thought

That 'my quest is o'er,' to rise again ;

For it already seems that

Fortune's headlong wheel begins to turn

And sun to shine more bright than it was wont.
Listen now to us, and we shall make it

As bright and beautiful as Glorie's beams appear,
Whose goodly light than Phoebus' lamp

Doth shine more clear.

And sir, though far and wide the secret thread
Of these rules seems scatteréd,

This distribution ceases if you

To one place carry all the words of your cue.
Then may you see the great flood

Or confluence of materials carries along with it
The key of every story for the instruction
Of the decipherer. And as a sentence

Is but a cheveral glove to a good wit,

The wrong side may be quickly turned outward
And transposed to another meaning.

Therefore, let your own discretion be your tutor.

And suit the action to the word, and the word to the action,

With this special observance, that you match
Conjugates, parallels and relatives by placing
Instances which are related one to another
By themselves, and all the concordances
Which have a correspondence and analogy

With each other should be commingled with the connaturais.

And when you have collected a sufficient quantity

Of absolutely similar matter, by skilful handling

The proper collocation of things may be
Made out and disentangled.

The connections, concatenations or unions,
Ought to be, and will be, observed. For they are
Interspersed in sufficient quantities to allow
The correspondences to be revealed so clearly
That any purblind eye may find them out.

They are so clear, so shining, so naked, and so evident,
That they will, in the full course of their glory,
Glimmer through a blind man's eye;

And by transferring and putting together in conjunction
Or combination the aggregation of similars,

You will find, my lord, it shall be our care

To have you so royally appointed that

You shall not want one word, and you will find
You have solved the riddle; for many things

Having reference to one consent may work contrariously.
As many arrows loosed several ways come to one mark;
As many winding ways meet in one town;

As
many
fresh streams meet in one salt sea;
As many straight lines close in the dial's center,
Then so may a thousand ciphers, once afoot,
And in one purpose, be all well borne."

"Heaven give me the patience that I need,

For alas! the way is wearisome and long;

And if I had dreamed it was such a task

Of labour and of judgment to winnow the truth from false

hood,

And sort, match, and combine the disjoined fragments,

Putting it together so that all things

Are changed and nothing lost;

To leave no rubs or botches in the work,

(For if it is not well done, 't is but a botch,

And will be but an ape imitating nothing to the life,

But bringing forth only that which is lame and counterfeit,)

I warrant you I would not have begun.

For in sooth it wearies me to study

For the mixed words. I marvel you would make me.

The very troublesomeness of carefully searching

Everywhere for the quandom directions,
Without regular order, is such a plague.
Oh, it is a tedious search

By indirections to find directions out.

I was a fool to take it upon myself to open it."

"You say it wearies you to study?

A true devoted pilgrim is not weary

To measure kingdoms with his feeble steps.

Then how much less should you, that with our wings can fly,

And when the flight is made to a world so dear?

Yet how many weary steps have you o'er gone?

How many weary miles?

Have you in your travel measured one mile
In your hunt for this golden crown?

No, not one mile. And sir,

What is the end of study? Let me know."

66

"Why that to know which else we would not know."

Things hid and bar'd, you mean, fro' common sense. Aye; that is studie's Godlike recompense.'

"Is not study like the heaven's glorious sun,

That will not be deep search'd with saucy looks?"

Aye, but small have continual plodders ever won

Save base authority from others' books,

And painfully to pore upon a book,

Seeking the light of truth,

While truth the while doth falsely

Blind the eyesight of his look,

(For light seeking light doth light of light beguile)
Is, if you please, a barren task too hard for me;
For ere I find where light in darkness lies,
My light grows dark by losing of mine eyes."
"Then we would burn our study.

Will you tell us how you, who are ignorant,
Can master our secret, or take upon yourself
That which we are sure you do not know,
Unless you be directed, as neither

Wit nor meditation can be relied upon to loose the
Gordion knot, or unpeg the basket

And let our sweet birds fly? And remember, sir,
If all the years were playing hollidays,

To sport would be as tedious as to work;

But when they seldom come, they wish'd for come. And believe us, sir, we did not dare to have

Our ventures in one bottom trusted,

Nor to one place.

"Thou darest not? Why?"

"I'll tell you: for fear the finder out

Of this secret story in inconsiderate zeal

Might make it known unto our great mother,

Or the king. And then our life and glory,
Like a shooting star, would from the firmament fall
To the base earth.

For, my good lord, in this secret way

We unfold a dangerous chronicle, and by starts
Unclasp a secret book to your quick conceiving,
And read you matter deep and dangerous,
As full of peril and adventurous spirit
As to o'er-walk a current roaring loud

On the unsteadfast footing of a spear.