[BNP/E3, 49A3 – 1]

9/VII/12.

My love, and not I, is the egoist.

My love for thee loves itself more than thee;

More than myself[1] in whom it doth exist,

And it, that gives me life, preys upon me.[2]

_______

[1v]

In the country of bridges, the bridge is

More real than the shores it lurks altogether[3];

So in our world all of Relation, this

Is true: that truer is Love than either lover.

This thought therefore comes lightly to Doubt's door —

If we of this world, are not

Mere Intervals, God's Absence and no more,

Hollows in real Consciousness and Thought.

And if 'tis possible to thought to bear this fruit,

Why should it not be possible to Truth?

 
[1] More than myself /Ay, more than me\
[2] And it, that gives me life, preys upon me. /And makes me live that it may feed on me.\
[3] lurks altogether /doth unsever\