' Thus and so dream on
"Fool'd nations, and thus dream their dullard sons.
"Naught is immortal save immortal--Death!"
Max paus'd and smil'd: "O, preach such gospel, friend,
"To all but lovers who most truly love;
"For _them_, their gold-wrought scripture glibly reads
"All else is mortal but immortal--Love!"
"Fools! fools!" his friend said, "most immortal fools!--
"But pardon, pardon, for, perchance, you love?"
"Yes," said Max, proudly smiling, "thus do I
"Possess the world and feel eternity!"
Dark laughter blacken'd in the other's eyes:
"Eternity! why, did such Iris arch
"Ent'ring our worm-bored planet, never liv'd
"One woman true enough such tryst to keep!"
"I'd swear by Kate," said Max; "and then, I had
"A mother, and my father swore by her."
"By Kate? Ah, that were lusty oath, indeed!
"Some other man will look into her eyes,
"And swear me roundly, 'By true Catherine!'
"And Troilus swore by Cressed--so they say."
"You never knew my Kate," said Max, and pois'd
His axe again on high, "But let it pass--
"You are too subtle for me; argument
"Have I none to oppose yours with--but this,
"Get you a Kate, and let her sunny eyes
"Dispel the doubting darkness in your soul."
"And have not I a Kate? pause, friend, and see.
"She gave me this faint shadow of herself
"The day I slipp'd the watch-star of our loves--
"A ring--upon her hand--she loves me, too;
"Yet tho' her eyes be suns, no Gods are they
"To give me worlds, or make me feel a tide
"Of strong Eternity set towards my soul;
"And tho' she loves me, yet am I content
"To know she loves me by the hour--the year--
"Perchance the second--as all women love.
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