I saunter’d thoughtfully through the streets,
And saw him behind me stalking,
Just like my shadow, and when I stood still,
He also left off walking.
He stood, as if he were waiting for me,
And when I onward hurried,
He follow’d again, and thus I reach’d
The Cathedral yard, quite flurried.
I could not bear it, so turn’d sharp round,
And said: “I insist on an answer;
“Why follow me thus in the silent night,
“And lead me this wandering dance, Sir?
“I come across thee just at the time
“When world-wide feelings are dashing
“Across my breast, and through my brain
“The spirit-lightnings are flashing.
“Thou gazest upon me so fixedly—
“Now answer me, what is there hidden
“Beneath thy mantle that secretly gleams?
“Thy business say, when thou’rt bidden.”
“The other replied in a somewhat dry tone,
“If not a little phlegmatic:
“I pray thee, exorcise me not,
“And be not quite so emphatic!
“No ghost am I from the days gone by,
“No grave-arisen spectre;
“I have no affection for rhetoric,
“I’m no philosophic projector.
“I am of a practical nature in fact,
“And of silent resolution;
“But know, that whatever thy spirit conceives,
“I put into execution.
“And even when years have pass’d away,
“I rest not, nor suffer distraction,
“Till I’ve changed to reality all thy thoughts;
“Thine’s the thinking, and mine is the action.
“The judge art thou, and the jailer am I,
“And, like a servant obedient,
“The judgments execute pleasing to thee,
“Whether right or inexpedient.