The young girl questions: “Whether were it better

To lie for ever, a warm slug-a-bed

Or to rise up and bide by Fate and Chance,

The rawness ofthe morning,

The gibing and the scorning

Of the stern Teacher of my ignorance?”

“I know not,” Wisdom said.

The young girl questions: “Friend, shall I die calmer,

If I’ve lain for ever, sheets above the head,

Warm in a dream, or rise to take the worst

Of peril in the highways

Of straying in the by-ways.

Of hunger for the truth, of drought and thirst?”

“We do not know,” he said,

“Nor may till we be dead.”