The Bird in the Box

The soul of man at birth is immured in a prison. It is like a bird singing in a cage, heedless of the bars that confine it. But later the soul knows its bondage.

Panting with a desire for liberty, man tries in two ways to attain it, through his ability to labour, through his capacity to feel.

He has need of freedom, hence the poem, the ship, the engine, the thousand cunning and gigantic structures for annihilating space, for chaining the forces of nature.

He has need of freedom, hence the universal outpouring of his affections, the glory and the emancipation of his highest love.