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SELF-KNOWLEDGE

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—E coelo descendit — Γνωθι σεαυτον — Juvenal.

Γνωθι σεαυτον !—and is this the prime
And heaven-sprung adage of the olden time !
Say, canst thou make thyself ?—Learn first that
trade;—
Haply thou mayst know what thyself had made.
What hast thou, Man, that thou dar’st call thine
own ?—
What is there in thee, Man, that can be known ?—
Dark fluxion, all unfixable by thought,
A phantom dim of past and future wrought,
Vain sister of the worm,—life, death, soul, clod—
Ignore thyself, and strive to know thy God !

Samuel Taylor Colerridge
1832

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E coelo descendit : This descended from heaven(Latin)
Γνωθι σεαυτον : know thyself(Greek)
Quoted by STC from Juvenal, Satires XI. 27.

Juvenal, a Roman poet, was expressing what the Greeks and Romans thought to be heavenly wisdom. An English translation could be, "This wisdom came down from heaven—know thyself." Colerridge, who knew the Bible, disagreed and said in his poem that true wisdom is to know God.

©FH 2012

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