...but for pursuit of virtue and of knowledge

"...Noi ci allegrammo, e tosto tornò in pianto,
ché de la nova terra un turbo nacque,
e percosse del legno il primo canto.
Tre volte il fé girar con tutte l'acque;

a la quarta levar la poppa in suso
e la prora ire in giù, com'altrui piacque,
infin che 'l mar fu sovra noi richiuso»."

~Dante Alighieri -La Divina Commedia (Inferno - Canto XXVI)~




("...Joyful were we, and soon it turned to weeping;
For out of the new land a whirlwind rose,
And smote upon the fore part of the ship.

Three times it made her whirl with all the waters,
At the fourth time it made the stern uplift,
And the prow downward go, as pleased another,
Until the sea above us closed again.)

~translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow~