“Take but rules
For this time,” said she. “Did you ever find
That ever, when the seers look forth through heaven,
They view there pews and pulpits?—Nay, not so:
Yet oft they note a stage and galleries,
All throng’d with white-robed hosts attendant there.
So these, you see, at times may hint of good.”
“They may,” I said, “but do they, as a rule?”
“Ah, as a rule,” she said, “they hint of life—”
“But mainly life to laugh at or to fear,”