Ferishtah's Fancies by Robert Browning — Read

"Knowledge deposed, then! " -- groaned whom that most grieved / As foolishest of all the company. / "What, knowledge, man's distinctive attribute, / He doffs that crown to emulate an ass / Because the unknowing long-ears loves at least / Husked lupines, and belike the feeder's self / -- Whose purpose in the dole what ass divines?"

"Friend," quoth Ferishtah, "all I seem to know / Is -- I know nothing save that love I can / Boundlessly, endlessly. My curls were crowned / In youth with knowledge, -- off, alas, crown slipped / Next moment, pushed by better knowledge still / Which nowise proved more constant: gain, to-day, / Was toppling loss to-morrow, lay at last / -- Knowledge, the golden? -- lacquered ignorance! / As gain -- mistrust it! Not as means to gain: / Lacquer we learn by: cast in fining-pot, / We learn, when what seemed ore assayed proves dross, -- / Surelier true gold's worth, guess how purity / I' the lode were precious could one light on ore / Clarified up to test of crucible. / The prize is in the process: knowledge means / Ever-renewed assurance by defeat / That victory is somehow still to reach, / But love is victory, the prize itself: / Love -- trust to! Be rewarded for the trust / In trust's mere act. In love success is sure, / Attainment -- no delusion, whatsoe'er / The prize be: apprehended as a prize, / A prize it is. Thy child as surely grasps / An orange as he fails to grasp the sun / Assumed his capture. What if soon he finds / The foolish fruit unworthy grasping? Joy / In shape and color, -- that was joy as true -- / Worthy in its degree of love -- as grasp / Of sun were, which had singed his hand beside. / What if he said the orange held no juice / Since it was not that sun he hoped to suck? / This constitutes the curse that spoils our life / And sets man maundering of his misery, / That there 's no meanest atom he obtains / Of what he counts for knowledge but he cries / 'Hold here, -- I have the whole thing, -- know, this time, / Nor need search farther! ' Whereas, strew his path / With pleasures, and he scorns them while he stoops: / 'This fitly call'st thou pleasure, pick up this / And praise it, truly? I reserve my thanks / For something more substantial. ' Fool not thus / In practising with life and its delights! / Enjoy the present gift, nor wait to know / The unknowable. Enough to say 'I feel / Love's sure effect, and, being loved, must love / The love its cause behind, -- I can and do! ' / Nor turn to try thy brain-power on the fact, / (Apart from as it strikes thee, here and now -- / Its how and why, i' the future and elsewhere) / Except to -- yet once more, and ever again, / Confirm thee in thy utter ignorance: / Assured that, whatsoe'er the quality / Of love's cause, save that love was caused thereby, / This -- nigh upon revealment as it seemed / A minute since -- defies thy longing looks, / Withdrawn into the unknowable once more. / Wholly distrust thy knowledge, then, and trust / As wholly love allied to ignorance! / There lies thy truth and safety. Love is praise, / And praise is love! Refine the same, contrive / An intellectual tribute -- ignorance / Appreciating ere approbative / Of knowledge that is infinite? With us, / The small, who use the knowledge of our kind / Greater than we, more wisely ignorance / Restricts its apprehension, sees and knows / No more than brain accepts in faith of sight, / Takes first what comes first, only sure so far. / By Sebzevar a certain pillar stands / So aptly that its gnomon tells the hour; / What if the townsmen said 'Before we thank / Who placed it, for his serviceable craft, / And go to dinner since its shade tells noon, / Needs must we have the craftsman's purpose clear / On half a hundred more recondite points / Than a mere summons to a vulgar meal! ' / Better they say 'How opportune the help! / Be loved and praised, thou kindly-hearted sage / Whom Hudhud taught, -- the gracious spirit-bird, -- / How to construct the pillar, teach the time! ' / So let us say -- not 'Since we know, we love,' / But rather 'Since we love, we know enough. ' / Perhaps the pillar by a spell controlled / Mushtari in his courses? Added grace / Surely I count it that the sage devised, / Beside celestial service, ministry / To all the land, by one sharp shade at noon / Falling as folk foresee. Once more, then, Friend -- / (What ever in those careless ears of thine / Withal I needs must round thee) -- knowledge doubt / Even wherein it seems demonstrable! / Love, -- in the claim for love, that 's gratitude / For apprehended pleasure, nowise doubt! / Pay its due tribute, -- sure that pleasure is, / While knowledge may be, at the most. See, now! / Eating my breakfast, I thanked God. -- 'For love / Shown in the cherries' flavor? Consecrate / So petty an example? ' There 's the fault! / We circumscribe omnipotence. Search sand / To unearth water: if first handful scooped / Yields thee a draught, what need of digging down / Full fifty fathoms deep to find a spring / Whereof the pulse might deluge half the land? / Drain the sufficient drop, and praise what checks / The drouth that glues thy tongue, -- what more would help / A brimful cistern? Ask the cistern's boon / When thou wouldst solace camels: in thy case, / Relish the drop and love the lovable!"