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With lore of Chthonian mysteries, compel
An oracle obscure of age-old Night;
Winning a dubious light from darkness' self.
Nor, impious, seek from deaf inarticulate Earth
To wring ambiguous answer in the cave
Trophonian.


Themistius:

The true Philosopher
At every fane should be a neophyte,
Initiate of every mystery,
Enquirer at every oracle.
From Delos' conscious antre to Deplhi's cave,
From the Trophonian chasm to the height
Where Carmel tends an ever-burning fire,
Or Aphrodité by a falling star
Answers her worshippers on Lebanon,
To misty Mona with her Druid rites,
Culling the best of many an alien faith
To bind it in the nose-gay of his own,