"But stay, you may perhaps not be apprised Exactly of the current state of things-- You have kept yourself, you know, a bit retired These few days past, a natural thing to do, Under the circumstances, all admit-- Well, we have made some progress; I myself, To imitate your lack of modesty And don the egotistic, I myself Have not been idle; all in fact is now Adjusted on a plan of compromise, My own invention, everybody pleased. We shall dispose of Stephen for you, Saul: Council; Stephen arrested and arraigned; Production of effective testimony; A hearing of the accused; commotion raised, While he is speaking, to help on his zeal; Then, at the proper point, some heated phrase Of his let slip, a sudden rush of all Upon him with a cry of 'Blasphemy!'-- Impulse of passionate enthusiasm, You know, premeditated with much care-- And he is stoned; which makes an end of _him_. Such is the outline; not precisely what I could have wished, a little too much noise, The Mattathias tinge in it too strong-- Still, everything considered, fairly good. The moment favors; for the very fume And fury of the popular caprice Has put it out of breath; nay, for the nonce, The wind sits, such at least my hope is, veered And shifted points enough about to bear A touch of generous violence from us; Then, as for those our rulers, they connive. "You see I have been open to admit Ideas the very opposite of my own. I am not one to haggle for a point Simply because it happened to be mine. The end, the end, is what we seek; the means Signifies nothing to the wise. 'Let us Be wise,' as our friend Nicodemus said, That day, with so much gnomic wisdom couched In affable cohortative, as who Should say encouragingly, 'Go to, good friends, Let us be gods'; wisdom and godship come, As everybody knows, with equal ease Indifferently, through simple conative, 'Let us,' and so forth, and the thing is done."