"I fear fallacious promises of good," Sighed Krishna; "life were good indeed with peace. But me, I hope not any good save flight, Save flight and refuge inaccessible From persecuting and pursuing ill. Being is misery; I would cease to be; No hope have I, and no desire, but that. Hope is for children; I am not a child To chase the ends of rainbows, seeking gold: There is no hope that does not make ashamed. I dare not hope, eagerly, even for death, Lest that likewise elude my clutch at last. Despair no less I shun; despair is naught But hope turned bitter and sour, postponed too long. I only seek to cease from hope, from fear, From every passion that can shake my calm. Calm is my good, and perfect calm is death, Therefore I wait for death with death-like calm. Thou wouldst disturb the calm with hope of life, Fair, but fallacious; let me alone to die." With soft pathetic deprecation so Krishna, in form of words, half faltering, begged From Paul no more, yet added: "I would hear Something of what he was, thy master; what He did as well as taught; and whence he came, And when, and where, and how; and how he lived And died, having achieved his Buddhaship." "For me," Paul said, "I never truly knew My Master while He lived among us here, Almighty God incarnate in the form Of servant--glory and blessing to His name!-- Though after He in triumph from the dead Rose, and ascended far above all height Into the heaven of heavens to be with God-- Whence he had stooped the dreadful distance down To His humiliation among men-- Then He revealed Himself in power to me, And I beheld His face and heard His voice, And knew Him for co-equal Son of God. But thou, besides that in this power and glory No man may see Him save He show Himself, Wouldst wish a picture of the life He lived, The manner of man He was, while still on earth, The death He died, and how He died His death. There is one here among us well can draw The living picture thou wouldst look upon, For she was with Him when He walked the ways Of Galilee and Jewry doing good; She saw Him suffer when by wicked hands His blindfold yet _more_ wicked countrymen-- Alas, among them I!--put Him to death. With early morning at His sepulcher, His emptied sepulcher, she weeping stood And saw--but what she saw and all her tale Of Jesus as she knew and loved Him here, Is Mary Magdalené's right herself With her own lips and is her joy, to tell." "Lord Buddha would not let a woman teach," Indulging so much of recoil concealed As might consist with utmost courtesy Said Krishna; but, with wise avoidance, Paul: "And Mary Magdalené will not teach, But only in simplicity with truth Bear testimony of eye-witness how Immanuel Jesus lived His life on earth."