Would grind one’s very soul to common dust!”
XXIII.
“And what else are we?” turn’d I once to ask;
“Would God we all could free ourselves from laws;
But half our lives we spend in learning them;
And half in learning how to love them then.
And but in souls that learn life’s laws by heart,
Has wisdom, so it seems, a sway complete.”
“’Tis thus with earthly wisdom,” she rejoin’d;
“But earth is ruled by folly,—idiot child