English: Quotation on floor of Great Court, British Museum The BM seem to be quoting "The Two Voices" in quite a different sense from the poet's meaning, for this is the "still small voice" of despair speaking, and his meaning seems to be - even if you could do this, you would still be, essentially, ignorant:

'Will thirty seasons render plain Those lonely lights that still remain, Just breaking over land and main?

'Or make that morn, from his cold crown And crystal silence creeping down, Flood with full daylight glebe and town?

'Forerun thy peers, thy time, ***and let Thy feet, millenniums hence, be set In midst of knowledge***, dream'd not yet.

'Thou hast not gain'd a real height, Nor art thou nearer to the light, Because the scale is infinite.

Twere better not to breathe or speak, Than cry for strength, remaining weak, And seem to find, but still to seek.

'Moreover, but to seem to find Asks what thou lackest, thought resign'd, A healthy frame, a quiet mind.'

Full poem: http://home.att.net/~TennysonPoetry/tv.htm