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Dhammapada · narration sample

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Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Vol. 1 · 2 of 49

Poem

Was he one or many, merging Name and fame in one, Like a stream, to which, converging, Many streamlets run?

. . . . . .

Who shall call his dreams fallacious? Who has searched or sought All the unexplored and spacious Universe of thought?

Who in his own skill confiding, Shall with rule and line Mark the border-land dividing Human and divine?

Trismegistus! Three times greatest! How thy name sublime Has descended to this latest Progeny of time!

Longfellow, Hermes Trismegistus.

Footnotes xvi:1 This poem is dated January 1882. Chambers (p. 155, n.) says: “It is noteworthy that the last poem of Longfellow was a lyrical ode in celebration of Hermes Trismegistus.”