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soul came into the world—

Whence came it? Who can tell?

Or where that soul went forth again,

When it bade the world farewell?

A body it had, this spirit new,

And the body was given a name,

And chance and change and circumstance

About its being came.

Whether the name would suit the soul

The givers never knew—

Names are alike, but never souls:

So body and spirit grew,

Till time enlarged their narrow sphere

Into the realms of life,

Into this strange and double world,

Whose elements are at strife.

'Twere easy to tell the daily paths

Walked by the body’s feet,

To mark where the sharpest stones were laid,

Or where the grass grew sweet;

To tell if it hungered, or what its dress,

Ragged, or plain, or rare ;

What was its forehead—what its voice,

Or the hue of its eyes and hair.

But these are all in the common dust;

And the spirit—where is it?

Will any say if the hue of the eyes,

Or the dress, for that was fit?