Master, we have all learnt that truth is learnt When the intellect"s deliberate and cold, As it were a polished mirror that reflects An unchanged world; and not when the steel melts, Bubbling and hissing, till there"s naught but fume.
WISE MAN
When it is melted, when it all fumes up, They walk, as when beside those three in the furnace The form of the fourth.
FIRST PUPIL
Master, there"s none among us That has not heard your mockery of these, Or thoughts like these, and we have not forgot.
WISE MAN
Something incredible has happened--some one has come Suddenly like a grey hawk out of the air, And all that I declared untrue is true.
FIRST PUPIL (_to other pupils_)
You"d think the way he says it, that he felt it.
There"s not a mummer to compare with him.
He"s something like a man.
SECOND PUPIL
Give us some proof.
WISE MAN
What proof have I to give, but that an angel An instant ago was standing on that spot.
[_The pupils rise._
THIRD PUPIL
You dreamed it.
WISE MAN
I was awake as I am now.
FIRST PUPIL (_to the others_)
I may be dreaming now for all I know.
He wants to show we have no certain proof Of anything in the world.
SECOND PUPIL
There is this proof That shows we are awake--we have all one world While every dreamer has a world of his own, And sees what no one else can.
THIRD PUPIL
Teigue sees angels.
So when the Master says he has seen an angel, He may have seen one.
FIRST PUPIL
Both may still be dreamers; Unless it"s proved the angels were alike.
SECOND PUPIL
What sort are the angels, Teigue?
THIRD PUPIL
That will prove nothing, Unless we are sure prolonged obedience Has made one angel like another angel As they were eggs.
FIRST PUPIL
The Master"s silent now: For he has found that to dispute with us-- Seeing that he has taught us what we know-- Is but to reason with himself. Let us away, And find if there is one believer left.
WISE MAN
Yes, yes. Find me but one that still believes The things that we were told when we were children.
THIRD PUPIL
He"ll mock and maul him.
FOURTH PUPIL
From the first I knew He wanted somebody to argue with.
[_They go._
WISE MAN
I have no reason left. All dark, all dark!
[_Pupils return laughing. They push forward fourth pupil._
FIRST PUPIL
Here, Master, is the very man you want.
He said, when we were studying the book, That maybe after all the monks were right, And you mistaken, and if we but gave him time, He"d prove that it was so.
FOURTH PUPIL
I never said it.
WISE MAN
Dear friend, dear friend, do you believe in G.o.d?