In vanity
In vanity, we inquire into the empty heavens
And witness only birds hunting
In vanity, we dive into the sea and the earth
And discover just bones rotting
In vanity, we read the writings of the learned
And find their footsteps decaying
Within you, behind all the clothing of words
Look, and behold the eternal tree of knowledge
Whose fruits are mankind's untainted ideas
And rests within our hand's reach, beyond the world's edge
Inspired by a passage from "The Principles of Human Knowledge" by the Irish philosopher George Berkeley, near the end of the work's introduction.
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