* Buddha.

"Your gods may be, what shows they are?"
hear China's Perfect Sage declare;*
"And being, what to us be they
who dwell so darkly and so far?"

* Confucius.

"All matter hath a birth and death;
'tis made, unmade and made anew;
"We choose to call the Maker 'God':--
such is the Zahid's owly view.

"You changeful finite Creatures strain"
(rejoins the Drawer of the Wine)*
"The dizzy depths of Inf'inite Power
to fathom with your foot of twine";

* The Soofi or Gnostic opposed to the Zahid.

"Poor idols of man's heart and head
with the Divine Idea to blend;
"To preach as 'Nature's Common Course'
what any hour may shift or end."

"How shall the Shown pretend to ken
aught of the Showman or the Show?
"Why meanly bargain to believe,
which only means thou ne'er canst know?