Responsibilities Part 14

FOURTH PUPIL

Master, they have invented this to mock me.

WISE MAN

You are afraid of me.

FOURTH PUPIL

They know well, Master, That all I said was but to make them argue.

They've pushed me in to make a mock of me, Because they knew I could take either side And beat them at it.

WISE MAN

If you believe in G.o.d, You are my soul's one friend.

[_Pupils laugh._

Mistress or wife Can give us but our good or evil luck Amid the howling world, but you shall give Eternity, and those sweet-throated things That drift above the moon.

[_The pupils look at one another and are silent._

SECOND PUPIL

How strange he is.

WISE MAN

The angel that stood there upon that spot, Said that my soul was lost unless I found out One that believed.

FOURTH PUPIL

Cease mocking at me, Master, For I am certain that there is no G.o.d Nor immortality, and they that said it Made a fantastic tale from a starved dream To plague our hearts. Will that content you, Master?

WISE MAN

The giddy gla.s.s is emptier every moment, And you stand there, debating, laughing and wrangling.

Out of my sight! Out of my sight, I say.

[_He drives them out._

I'll call my wife, for what can women do, That carry us in the darkness of their bodies, But mock the reason that lets nothing grow Unless it grow in light. Bridget, Bridget.

A woman never ceases to believe, Say what we will. Bridget, come quickly, Bridget.

[_Bridget comes in wearing her ap.r.o.n. Her sleeves turned up from her arms, which are covered with flour._

Wife, what do you believe in? Tell me the truth, And not--as is the habit with you all-- Something you think will please me. Do you pray?

Sometimes when you're alone in the house, do you pray?

BRIDGET

Prayers--no, you taught me to leave them off long ago. At first I was sorry, but I am glad now, for I am sleepy in the evenings.

WISE MAN

Do you believe in G.o.d?

BRIDGET

Oh, a good wife only believes in what her husband tells her.

WISE MAN

But sometimes, when the children are asleep And I am in the school, do you not think About the Martyrs and the saints and the angels, And all the things that you believed in once?

BRIDGET

I think about nothing--sometimes I wonder if the linen is bleaching white, or I go out to see if the crows are picking up the chickens' food.

WISE MAN

My G.o.d,--my G.o.d! I will go out myself.

My pupils said that they would find a man Whose faith I never shook--they may have found him.

Therefore I will go out--but if I go, The gla.s.s will let the sands run out unseen.

I cannot go--I cannot leave the gla.s.s.

Go call my pupils--I can explain all now, Only when all our hold on life is troubled, Only in spiritual terror can the Truth Come through the broken mind--as the pease burst Out of a broken pease-cod.

[_He clutches Bridget as she is going._

Say to them, That Nature would lack all in her most need, Could not the soul find truth as in a flash, Upon the battle-field, or in the midst Of overwhelming waves, and say to them-- But no, they would but answer as I bid.

BRIDGET

You want somebody to get up an argument with.

WISE MAN

Look out and see if there is any one There in the street--I cannot leave the gla.s.s, For somebody might shake it, and the sand If it were shaken might run down on the instant.

BRIDGET

I don't understand a word you are saying. There's a crowd of people talking to your pupils.

WISE MAN

Go out and find if they have found a man Who did not understand me when I taught, Or did not listen.

BRIDGET