* * * * *
[What, what? A curtain o'er the world at once!
Crickets stop hissing; not a bird--or, yes,
There scuds His raven that has told Him all!
It was fool's play, this prattling! Ha! The wind
Shoulders the pillared dust, death's house o' the move,
And fast invading fires begin! White blaze--
A tree's head snaps--and there, there, there, there, there,
His thunder follows! Fool to gibe at Him!
Lo! 'Lieth flat and loveth Setebos!
'Maketh his teeth meet through his upper lip,
Will let those quails fly, will not eat this month
One little mess of whelks, so he may 'scape!]
In the great poem _Rabbi Ben Ezra_, a quite different reason from
that of Caliban's is suggested for the drawbacks and sufferings of
life. They are a part of the divine machinery employed by infinite
wisdom to further human development, to make us ultimately fit to
see His face. There can be no true progress without obstacles: no
enjoyment without its opposite: no vacation without duties: no virtue
without sin.
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