But it is not a poem which has to do with any place or any time.

It belongs only to the country of the human soul.
The young student Paracelsus is sitting with his friends Festus and Michal, on the eve of his departure to conquer the whole world by knowledge.

They make a last effort to retain him, but even as he listens to their arguments his eyes are far away-- As if where'er he gazed there stood a star, so strong, so deep is desire to attain his aim.
For Paracelsus aims to know the whole of knowledge.

Quiet and its charms, this homelike garden of still work, make their appeal in vain.
"God has called me," he cries; "these burning desires to know all are his voice in me; and if I stay and plod on here, I reject his call who has marked me from mankind.

I must reach pure knowledge.