The Soothsayer
“—And I saw a great sadness come over mankind. The best turned weary of their works.
“A doctrine appeared, a faith ran beside it: ‘All is empty, all is alike, all hath been!’
“And from all hills there reechoed: ‘All is empty, all is alike, all hath been!’
“To be sure we have harvested: but why have all our fruits become rotten and brown? What was it fell last night from the evil moon?
“In vain was all our labour, poison hath our wine become, the evil eye hath singed yellow our fields and hearts.
“Arid have we all become; and fire falling upon us, then do we turn dust like ashes:—yea, the fire itself have we made aweary.