And as he went, he thought: "They counsel me, Ay, with a kind of reason in their talk, 'Consider; call thy soberer thought to aid; Why to but one man should a message come? And why, if but to one, to thee? Art thou Above us, greater, wiser? Had He sent, He had willed that we should heed. Then since He knoweth That such as thou, a wise man cannot heed, He did not send.' My answer, 'Great and wise, If He had sent with thunder, and a voice Leaping from heaven, ye must have heard; but so Ye had been robbed of choice, and, like the beasts, Yoked to obedience. God makes no men slaves,' They tell me, 'God is great above thy thought: He meddles not: and this small world is ours, These many hundred years we govern it; Old Adam, after Eden, saw Him not.' Then I, 'It may be He is gone to knead More clay. But look, my masters; one of you Going to warfare, layeth up his gown, His sickle, or his gold, and thinks no more Upon it, till young trees have waxen great; At last, when he returneth, he will seek His own. And God, shall He not do the like? And having set new worlds a-rolling, come And say, "I will betake Me to the earth That I did make": and having found it vile, Be sorry. Why should man be free, you wise, And not the Master?' Then they answer, 'Fool! A man shall cast a stone into the air For pastime, or for lack of heed,--but He! Will He come fingering of His ended work, Fright it with His approaching face, or snatch One day the rolling wonder from its ring, And hold it quivering, as a wanton child Might take a nestling from its downy bed, And having satisfied a careless wish, Go thrust it back into its place again?' To such I answer, and, that doubt once mine, I am assured that I do speak aright: 'Sirs, the significance of this your doubt Lies in the reason of it; ye do grudge That these your lands should have another Lord; Ye are not loyal, therefore ye would fain Your King would bide afar. But if ye looked For countenance and favor when He came, Knowing yourselves right worthy, would ye care, With cautious reasoning, deep and hard, to prove That He would never come, and would your wrath Be hot against a prophet? Nay, I wot That as a flatterer you would look on him,-- Full of sweet words thy mouth is: if He come,-- We think not that He will,--but if He come, Would it might be to-morrow, or to-night, Because we look for praise.'"