Roman Meditation

Learn wisdom, this is wisdom, cry
The teachers; and the teachers die.
What should it profit me were mine
The wisdom of the Antonine,
Or Plato's? What is it to me
If that be wisdom or this be?
I know the same unfaded world,
A pebble from the brook, is hurled
Forth from Time's sling through endless ways,
And I shall have no part or place
Save in the pebble's senseless speed.
Wherein shall wisdom to my need
Minister? how shall wisdom save
From the last folly of the grave?