Figure E4 UNSTABLE

Around great limbs, a winding stair ascend

Up to a lofty chamber. Here, the fate

Of space itself is pondered; if it tend,

As must all things, unto a lower state

Of energy, the peril may be great.

The very vacuum splintering shall go

From one small seed, dying at the rate

Of light itself: small comfort, for this woe,

That if or when it happen, none can ever know.