Searching an infinite Where, <br /> Probing a bottomless When, <br /> Dreamfully wandering, <br /> Ceaselessly pondering, <br /> What is the Wherefore of men: <br /> Bartering life for a There, <br /> Selling his soul for a Then, <br /> Baffling obscurity, <br /> Conning futurity, <br /> Usefulest, wisest of men! <br /> Grasping the Present of Life, <br /> Seizing a definite Now, <br /> Labouring thornfully, <br /> Banishing scornfully <br /> Doubts of his Whither and How: <br /> Spending his substance in Strife, <br /> Working a practical How, <br /> Letting obscurity <br /> Rest on futurity, <br /> Usefuler, wiser, I trow.<br /><br />James Kenneth Stephen<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-philosopher-and-the-philanthropist/
