“At times I almost dream I too have spent a life the sages’ way,
and tread once more familiar paths. Perchance
I perished in an arrogant self-reliance
an age ago. And in that act a prayer
for one more chance went up so earnest, so (…)
Instinct with better light let in by death
that life was blotted out not so completely
but scattered, wrecks enough of it to remain,
dim memories, as now, when seems
once more, the goal in sight again.”
—Robert Browning/“Paracelsus” (and later Fox Mulder/The X-Files)