We are grinding in the shadow for the glory of the ages, Though no hope of immortality has ever come to stay; Yet each human soul is fretting at the bars of separate cages Hearing rhythms of tomorrow in the discords of today. 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. "Perhaps," suggested the worm, "I should read it to you. See, this is the table of contents. It says: "'How to shake hands with gloves on. "'How to introduce people who already know each other. "'How to steal postage stamps without having a guilty conscience. "'How to dance without knowing how. "'How to pretend to understand relativity. "'What to wear if you don't like spats. "'How to tell a risque story in the presence of a minister. "'How to get rich without making your friends envious. "'How to catch large fish with little worms.' "Ah," cried the worm, "that is the very line that caused the Diet of Worms to suppress the book, for that is an allusion to the bitter truth that worms are put on hooks to catch fish. We worms, who know that in the end we shall conquer man himself, do not like to be reminded that in the meanwhile man may use us for fish bait."