--That we do not know.
And whither does it tend?--From dusk to night.
Its purpose?--Earth to teach us to forego.

Say, 'What is God?--That, God alone doth know.
And what is pleasure?--To be free from pain.
And pain?--To lack all pleasure here below.

Not always must we joy in self-denial.
We are too far removed from actual life,
And to the ground 'twixt two beliefs will fall.

Well, in the first class I have learned this truth,
Which in the sixth I dimly did suspect,
Hollow's the nut we have to crack, forsooth.

When scarcely from the nurse's arms escaped,
We gnaw, till on it we have cracked our teeth.
By earnest zeal reward from toil is reaped.

To feel the pangs of hunger never stilled,
Mocking us alway as dry husks we gnaw,
In the delusion we are being filled.

Then, though of course the palate, without question,
Is thereby fooled, the stomach's soothed, and we
Our nap can take fearing no indigestion.

Naught save the carelessness that questions never,
Goes satisfied away. It took the shells
For kernels, and thought ignorance clever.

It hopes, when shrinking from the pangs of death,
That life's just opening, the best to come!
When its last sun doth fade, and fails its breath.

A brighter heavenly light will swiftly shine.
Good dreamers! After school there is no doubt
That a pleasant vacation will be thine.

Next to the university, the student,
When once the school examinations o'er,
Will go, and with the change be well content.

From obscure toil and hours of study free
Into this world we go; only again
Quiet and insignificant to be.

No difference exists 'twixt old and young; nor
Any trace of cheerful intercourse,
No longer rings the cry "Excelsior!"

And say, are all these changing forms in quest
Of this? This lavish outlay too! Oh fools!
Who in this world think "all is for the best."

To me, from whom its joys have passed away,
It seemeth like a dream of the great Pan,
Sprun