"You must have faith in God," said Zadok earnestly and gravely.

"He is too far away."

"Then you must have love for your neighbor."

"He is too near. My confidence in man was like a pool by the wayside.
It was shallow, but there was water in it, and sometimes a star shone
there. Now the feet of many beasts have trampled through it, and the
jackals have drunken of it, and there is no more water. It is dry and
the mire is caked at the bottom."

"Is there nothing good in the world?"

"There is pleasure, but I am sick of it. There is power, but I hate it.
There is wisdom, but I mistrust it. Life is a game and every player is
for his own hand. Mine is played. I have nothing to win or lose."

"You are young, you have many years to live."

"I am old, yet the days before me are too many."

"But you travel the road, you go forward. Do you hope for nothing?"

"I hope for nothing," said the sad shepherd. "Yet if one thing should
come to me it might be the beginning of hope. If I saw in man or woman
a deed of kindness without a selfish reason, and a proof of love gladly
given for its own sake only, then might I turn my face toward that
light. Till that comes, how can I have faith in God whom I have never