LONE FOUNTS

By Herman Melville

Though fast youth's glorious fable flies,

View not the world with worldling's eyes;

Nor turn with weather of the time.

Foreclose the coming of surprise:

Stand where Posterity shall stand;

Stand where the Ancients stood before,

And, dipping in lone founts thy hand,

Drink of the never-varying lore:

Wise once, and wise thence evermore.