THE KASÎDAH IX, 49, 60

Better the myriad toils and pains
 that make the man to manhood true,
This be the rule that guideth life;
 these be the laws for me and you:

With Ignor’ance wage eternal war,
 to know thy self forever strain,
Thine ignorance of thine ignorance is
 thy fiercest foe, thy deadliest bane;

That blunts thy sense, and dulls thy taste;
 that deafs thine ears, and blinds thine eyes;
Creates the thing that never was,
 the Thing that ever is defies.