possess the man?"

This stanza means that man should become like the contour of waves, like
the glory of spring,--something which to a beholder is a mental image,
without constant physical form or substance. Then motion supervenes; not
motion as we know it, but a transcendental state of revolution in the
Infinite. This is the subject of stanza xxiv:--

"Like a whirling water-wheel,
Like rolling pearls,--
Yet how are these worthy to be named?
They are but adaptations for fools.
There is the mighty axis of Earth,
The never resting pole of Heaven;
Let us grasp _their_ clue,
And with _them_ be blended in One,
Beyond the bounds of thought,
Circling for ever in the great Void,
An orbit of a thousand years,--
Yes, this is the key to my theme."

All that might be dignified by the name of pure Taoism ends here. From
this point the descent to lower regions is both easy and rapid.

I am not speaking now in a chronological sense, but of the highest
intellectual point reached by the doctrines of Taoism, which began to
decline long before the writer of this poem, himself a pure Taoist of
the tenth century, was born.

The idea mentioned above, that the grosser elements of man's nature
might be refined away and immortality attained, seems to have suggested
an immortality, not merely in an unseen world, but even in this one, to
be secured by an imaginary elixir of life. Certain at any rate it is,
that so far back as a century or so before the Christian era, the desire
to discover this elixir had become a national craze.

The following story is historical, and dates from about 200 B.C.:--

"A certain person having forwarded some elixir of immortality to the
Prince of Ching, it was received as usual by the doorkeeper. 'Is this to
be swallowed?' enquired the Chief Warden of the palace. 'It is,' replied
the doorkeeper. Thereupon, the Chief Warden purloined and swallowed it.
At this, the Prince was exceedingly angry and ordered his immediate
execution; but the Chief Warden sent a friend to plead for him, saying,
'Your Highness's servant asked the doorkeeper if the drug was to be
swallowed, and as he replied in the affirmative, your servant
accordingly swallowed it. The blame rests entirely with the doorkeeper.
Besides, if the elixir of life is presented to your Highness, and
because your servant swallows it, your Highness slays him, that elixir
is clearly the elixir of death; and for your Highn