THE EXPERIENCED PHILOSOPHER 333
Men will love truth, as God loves to be just : 'Tis best — the only reason why they must.
��And, when thou hast advanced to that last bound Where Reason's self her way hath lost in light,
Where worlds in order circling round and round Confirm thy faith in an All-Ruling Right,
Then wisely mayst thou thine old wish restore
To be on earth a little child once more.
Yet not the child that frets with fruitless tears, Doomed like a reptile on the ground to crawl,
But one that shall be master of the years. Hoping all things, enduring, trusting all,
And bound to all by the great law of love —
Wise as the serpent, harmless as the dove.
Then shalt thou reverence rightly, when thy mind Feels this vast world so little in its thought,
And God unlimited ; then will it find
The cause of Wisdom's boast that she knows nought,
And fold its wing, content henceforth to see
All this vast world a boundless mystery.
Then shalt thou in true charity delight,
Last of its wants, which yet transcends all others ;
Here fools and wise may truthfully unite
In one conclusion — that they both are brothers.
Fools nothing know, but fail to find it out ;
The wise that they know nothing feel no doubt.
�� �
