Truth is within ourselves, it takes no rise from outward things;
whate’er you may believe there is an inmost center in us all where truth abides in fullness;
and around, wall upon wall,
the gross flesh hems it in, this perfect, clear perception which is Truth.
A baffling and perverting carnal mesh.
Binds it and makes all error;
and to know rather consists in opening out a way whence the imprisoned splendor may escape
than in effecting entry for a light supposed to be without.
–Robert Browning, from “Paracelsus”