The writer of this legend then records Its ghostly application in these words: The image is the Adversary old, Whose beckoning finger points to realms of gold; Our lusts and passions are the downward stair That leads the soul from a diviner air; The archer, Death; the flaming jewel, Life;Terrestrial goods, the goblet and the knife; The knights and ladies all whose flesh and bone By avarice have been hardened into stone; The clerk, the scholar whom the love of pelf Tempts from his books and from his nobler self. The scholar and the world! The endless strife, The discord in the harmonies of life! The love of learning, the sequestered nooks, And all the sweet serenity of books; The market-place, the eager love of gain, Whose aim is vanity, and whose end is pain! . Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
About This Quote

This is the legend of the Adversary, who beckons us to choose between gold and life. The Adversary is Death; Death is the flame of life. These two temptations are earthly goods. They lure us away from what is good and pure and away from what is real: knowledge and love. The Adversary offers us a chance to live our lives as we wish – for a price.

Source: The Complete Poems Of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

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More Quotes By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
  1. The love of learning, the sequestered nooks, And all the sweet serenity of books
  2. As Unto the bow the the cord is , So unto the man is woman; Though she bends him, she obeys him, Though she draws him , yet she follows: Useless each without the other.
  3. I do not believe anyone can be perfectly well, who has a brain and a heart
  4. Be still, sad heart! and cease repining; Behind the clouds is the sun still shining; Thy fate is the common fate of all, Into each life some rain must fall
  5. Ah, Nothing is too late, till the tired heart shall cease to palpitate.
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