I could not tell you what manner of hearsay
Is most readily believed in this world,
But I can tell you that somewhere high
On the list of candidates should go
The sort of report that says that
This thing or that is not important,
And can as such be rightly
Exempted from examination.
The untrained human spirit,
Poor steward of life that it is so far
And quick to want its mental table cleared,
Welcomes the hearsay as just cause to clear it.
And I’ll tell you this, too
Just between you and me―
Since the table clearers
Are naturally unlikely to figure it out:
When they opt out of the thinking
God put them here to do,
They are deciding―
If only for the time being―
That instead of being the
Heart-mind-soul-and-strength humans
God had intended them to be,
They’d rather be more like the animals
Of which God already had plenty
Before he made man.
