The beggar who wrote that on Babylon wall meant that there is a spiritual kingdom that cannot be seen or known till the faculties whereby we master the kingdom of this world wither away, like green things in winter. A monkish thought, the most mischievous thought that ever passed out of a man's mouth. FIRST PUPIL If he meant all that, I will take an oath that he was spindle-shanked, and cross-eyed, and had a lousy itching shoulder, and that his heart was crosser than his eyes, and that he wrote it out of malice. SECOND PUPIL Let's come away and find a better subject. FOURTH PUPIL And maybe now you'll let me choose. FIRST PUPIL Come. WISE MAN Were it but true 'twould alter everything Until the stream of the world had changed its course, And that and all our thoughts had run Into some cloudy thunderous spring They dream to be its source-- Aye, to some frenzy of the mind; And all that we have done would be undone, Our speculation but as the wind. [_A pause._ I have dreamed it twice. FIRST PUPIL Something has troubled him. [_Pupils go out._ WISE MAN Twice have I dreamed it in a morning dream, Now nothing serves my pupils but to come With a like thought. Reason is growing dim; A moment more and Frenzy will beat his drum And laugh aloud and scream; And I must dance in the dream. No, no, but it is like a hawk, a hawk of the air, It has swooped down--and this swoop makes the third-- And what can I, but tremble like a bird? FOOL Give me a penny. WISE MAN That I should dream it twice, and after that, that they should pick it out. FOOL Won't you give me a penny? WISE MAN What do you want? What can it matter to you whether the words I am reading are wisdom or sheer folly? FOOL Such a great, wise teacher will not refuse a penny to a fool. WISE MAN Seeing that everybody is a fool when he is asleep and dreaming, why do you call me wise? FOOL O, I know,--I know, I know what I have seen. WISE MAN Well, to see rightly is the whole of wisdom, whatever dream be with us. FOOL When I went by Kilcluan, where the bells used to be ringing at the break of every day, I could hear nothing but the people snoring in their houses. When I went by Tubbervanach, where the young men used to be climbing the hill to the blessed well, they were sitting at the cross-roads playing cards. When I went by Carrigoras, where the friars used to be fasting and serving the poor, I saw them drinking wine and obeying their wives. And when I asked what misfortune had brought all these changes, they said it was no misfortune, but that it was the wisdom they had learned from your teaching. WISE MAN And you too have called me wise--you would be paid for that good opinion doubtless--Run to the kitchen, my wife will give you food and drink. FOOL That's foolish advice for a wise man to give. WISE MAN