Life or Death + 

A Soul, half through the Gate, said unto Life: + 

“What dost thou offer me?” And Life replied: + 

“Sorrow, unceasing struggle, disappointment; after these + 

Darkness and silence.” The Soul said unto Death: + 

“What dost thou offer me?” And Death replied: + 

“In the beginning what Life gives at last.” + 

Turning to Life: “And if I live and struggle?” + 

“Others shall live and struggle after thee + 

Counting it easier where thou hast passed.” + 

“And by their struggles?” “Easier place shall be + 

For others, still to rise to keener pain + 

Of conquering Agony!”⁠—“And what have I + 

To do with all these others? Who are they?” + 

“Yourself!”⁠—“And all who went before?”⁠—“Yourself.” + 

“The darkness and the silence, too, have end?” + 

“They end in light and sound; peace ends in pain, + 

Death ends in Me, and thou must glide from Self + 

To Self, as light to shade and shade to light again. + 

Choose!” The Soul, sighing, answered: “I will live.” + 