When I was in my fiftieth year,

My views became changed

In the course of my age life.

I had never before done anything

But considered the views

Which I held to be right, but now

I came to condemn them as wrong.

How come that I did not know before

That what I now called right

Was not what for last forty-nine years

I had been calling wrong? . .

All things have their life

Which we know, but, alas,

We do not see its root.

They have their goings forth,

But we don't know the gate

By which they depart.

We honour that which lies within

The sphere of our knowledge,

But we don't know our dependence

On what lies without that sphere

Which would be our true knowledge.

May we not call our case one

Of the greatest embarrassments?

Ah! Ah! There is no escaping

From this dilemma. Yes, indeedy!

So it is! So it is! I dare to contend.