A thinking being in an unthinking world, An island in the sea of the Unknown, He is a smallness trying to be great, An animal with some instincts of a god, His life a story too common to be told, His deeds a number summing up to nought, His consciousness a torch lit to be quenched, His hope a star above a cradle and grave. And yet a greater destiny may be his, For the eternal Spirit is his truth. He can re-create himself and all around And fashion new the world in which he lives: He, ignorant, is the Knower beyond Time, He is the Self above Nature, above Fate.