Advice to pilgrims
That our senses lie and our minds trick us is true, but in general
They are honest rustics; trust them a little;
The senses more than the mind, and your own mind more than another man’s.
As to the mind’s pilot, intuition,—
Catch him clean and stark naked he is first of truth-tellers;
dream-clothed, or dirty
With fears and wishes, he is prince of liars.
The first fear is of death: trust no inmortalist.
The first desire is to be loved: trust no mother’s son.
Finally I say, let demagogues and world-redeemers babble their emptiness
To empty ears; twice duped is too much.
Walk on gaunt shores and avoid the people; rock and wave are good prophets;
Wise are the wings of the gull, pleasant her song.
Robinson Jeffers
