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Others, I am not the first,
Have willed more mischief than they durst:
If in the breathless night I too
Shiver now, 'tis nothing new.

More than I, if truth were told,
Have stood and sweated hot and cold,
And through their reins in ice and fire
Fear contended with desire.

Agued once like me were they,
But I like them shall win my way
See Housman’s Introductory Lecture at University College, London, October 3rd, 1892: “…the pleasure of discovery differs from other pleasures in this, that it is shadowed by no fear of satiety on the one hand or frustration on the other. Other desires perish in their gratification, but the desire of knowledge never…”
Others I am not the first