All the ones who started seeking when the game was strange and new,
See the beauty of believing lost in wonders of deceit
There is truth in every vision, but the day is hardly through,
Ere the night is all around us with her silence and defeat.
There is dogma, there is duty in the urge of dead emotion
Through the worshipped gods of yesterday the present gods exist
Hid away among our temples for the dreams of our devotion
The alters of the ages in their ruins still persist.
Let the mothers bear their children for the centuries to come
There is truth in adoration for the thing that is adored
And if all the many answers on the lips of life are dumb
At least the coming children may be murdered for the Lord.
Chapter LXV
After Gud had regaled himself on pork and beans he laid down under a deadly nightshade tree and fell asleep. As he slept a worm happened along and stepped on Gud, and Gud turned.
"Pardon," said the worm, "but I did not notice you until you turned. You see I was very preoccupied, for I have just returned from the Diet of Worms, which was called by the Conqueror Worm to suppress a book. As soon as I heard that a book had been suppressed I went in search of a copy. I found one in the Master's chamber of a deserted mansion of the newly cultured. I carefully chewed it up and removed the fragments to my nest, where I pieced them together again."
"What kind of book is it?" asked Gud. "I am rather fond of forbidden books."
"It is a book of etiquette," replied the worm, "and if you will promise me not to mark it up or tear out any choice passages, I will lend you my copy."
So Gud sat down upon a gravel and the worm climbed a stalk of timothy and handed Gud the book; but it was so badly patched up that he could not read it.