But there are those, my saints, who were not content, like thee, with earth's scrap of beauty, but desired the whole.
They are now filled with it.

Take thy one jewel of beauty on the beach; lose all I had for thee in the boundless ocean." "Then I take mind; earth's knowledge carries me beyond the finite.
Through circling sciences, philosophies and histories I will spin with rapture; and if these fail to inspire, I will fly to verse, and in its dew and fire break the chain which binds me to the earth;--Nay, answer me not, I know what Thou wilt say: What is highest in knowledge, even those fine intuitions which lead the finite into the infinite, and which are best put in noble verse, are but gleams of a light beyond them, sparks from the sum of the whole.

I give that world up also, and I take Love.

All I ask is leave to love." "Ah," said the voice, "is this thy final choice?
Love is the best; 'tis somewhat late.

Yet all the power and beauty, nature and art and knowledge of this earth were only worth because of love.