44 DESTINY, FATE 



What, without asking hither hurried Whence? 

 And, without asking, Whither hurried hence ! 



Oh, many a Cup of this forbidden Wine 

 Must drown the memory of that insolence ! 



Up from Earth's Centre through the Seventh Gate 

 I rose, and on the Throne of Saturn sate ; 



And many a Knot unravel'd by the Road ; 

 But not the Master-knot of Human Fate. 



There was the Door to which I found no Key ; 

 There was the Veil through which I might not see : 



Some little talk awhile of ME and THEE 

 There was — and then no more of THEE and ME. 



Heav'n but the Vision of fulfill'd Desire, 

 And Hell the Shadow from a Soul on fire, 



Cast on the Darkness into which Ourselves, 

 So late emerged from, shall so soon expire. 



We are no other than a moving row 



Of Magic Shadow-shapes that come and go 



Round with the Sun-illumined Lantern held 

 In Midnight by the Master of the Show. 



But helpless Pieces of the Game He plays 

 Upon this Chequer-board of Nights and Days ; 



Hither and thither moves, and checks, and slays, 

 And one by one back in the Closet lays. 



The Ball no question makes of Ayes and Noes, 

 But Here or There as strikes the Player goes ; 



And He that toss'd you down into the Field, 

 He knows about it all — HE knows — HE knows ! 



The Moving Finger writes ; and, having writ, 

 Moves on : nor all your Piety nor Wit 



Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line, 

 Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it. 



And that inverted Bowl they call the Sky, 

 Whereunder crawling coop'd we live and die, 



Lift not your hands to It for help — for It 

 As impotently moves as you or I. 



YESTERDAY This Day's Madness did prepare ; 

 TO-MORROW'S Silence, Triumph, or Despair : 



Drink ! for you know not whence you came, nor why : 

 Drink ! for you know not why you go, nor where. 



What ! from his helpless Creature be repaid 

 Pure Gold for what he lent him dross-alloy'd — 



Sue for a Debt he never did contract, 

 And cannot answer — Oh the sorry trade ! 



Wherever we turn then we find that men have bound 

 themselves to the chains of destiny. It is a necessity of the 

 human mind. Life were unbearable without its relief. The 

 mystery of existence would be an intolerable burden without 

 some form of determinism to sustain the mind and share 

 its load. So far it has been a means of comfort. It is not a 

 subject to be looked on unsympathetically. 



