两个人在山谷里行走，其中一人遥指山腰说道："你看见了那隐遁的庵舍吗？那儿住着一个人，他同世界隔绝已经好久好久了。他对尘世一无所求，他只是一味的寻神。"
另一个人说道：她是不会找到神的，除非他离开他的隐遁庵舍。抛弃他的离群索居，回到我们的世界上来，与我们同甘共苦，在婚筵上和我们一同跳舞，同围着死者的棺材痛哭的人们一起痛哭。"
第一个人从心底里被他说服了，可他虽然心服，还是回答道："你所说的话我都同意，然而我相信那隐士是个善良的人。一个善良的人遗世独立，较之那末一些人的伪善虚情，倒是更有益于人世，这难道不好吗？"
Finding God
Two men were walking in the valley, and one man pointed with his finger toward the mountain side, and said, "See you that hermitage? There lives a man who has long divorced the world. He seeks but after God, and naught else upon this earth."
And the other man said, "He shall not find God until he leaves his hermitage, and the aloneness of his hermitage, and returns to our world, to share our joy and pain, to dance with our dancers at the wedding feast, and to weep with those who weep around the coffins of our dead."
And the other man was convinced in his heart, though in spite of his conviction he answered, "I agree with all that you say, yet I believe the hermit is a good man. And it may it not well be that one good man by his absence does better than the seeming goodness of these many men?"