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Cornell University Library 
 PS 1262.C6T7 
 
 Truth and other poems / 
 
 3 1924 021 977 198 
 
 ^/ 
 
 CO 
 
Truth and Other Poems 
 
The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924021977198 
 
TRUTH 
 
 ATSTD 
 
 OTHER POEMS 
 
 by 
 
 PAUL CARUS 
 
 CHICAGO 
 THE OPEN CX3URT PUBUSHING COMPANY 
 
 £ V, r: 
 
A3s:°i(a<i-] 
 
 Copyriiiht by 
 
 THE OPEN COURT PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 
 1914 
 
C/fo volume contains: 
 
 TRUTH pa^e. 9 
 
 TIME 15 
 
 LOVE 23 
 
 DE RERUM NATURA. 29 
 
 L THE PRDBIXM 31 
 
 ILTHE SOUL 37 
 
 tU. THE ALL 45 
 
 DEATH 57 
 
TRUTH 
 
 John xviii. 38. 
 
 n.avTO)V fUTpov a.v6po)Tro<!- 
 
 aXk' avBpioirov jatVpov to '^Ev koI Tldv. 
 
TRUTH. 
 
 RULY, the measure of all things is Man; 
 But Man is measured by the One and All, 
 
 Man is a microcosm, and he grows 
 Unto the stature of full manhood, only 
 When to the One and All his soul responds. 
 
 There is a gauge that measures man, a norm 
 
 By which the truth that's in him must be tested. 
 
 'Tis the Eternal in the change of time. 
 
 It is the Law within the macrocosm, 
 
 The Uniformity pervading things. 
 
 It is the One in this great All, — 't is God ! 
 
 Mind you, 'tis Man, not men, that measures things; 
 Not I, not you, nor any other being; 
 Man only, Man alone. 
 
 "And what is Man?" 
 
 Man is the type of Mankind, — men's ideal. 
 
 "Are not ideals purely visionary, 
 
 Mere thought constructions of what ought to be 
 
 Mere fictions of an idle brain?" 
 
10 TRUTH 
 
 Nay ! Think not 
 That only things concrete are actual, 
 Nor that our aspirations are vagaries, 
 Fantastic dreams that lack all potency. 
 
 O, learn to prize ideals and their might 
 Which more eflScient is than Nature's forces 
 And stronger far than footpound-energy. 
 
 Ideals are the factors of man's life. 
 Determinants that will impart direction. 
 They are not vain illusions, they are real. 
 E'en superreal. Yea, they are Man's guides; 
 And they, like guardian angels, help him find 
 The pre-determined goal of cosmic life. 
 
 Man, the ideal, is no transient thing: 
 
 He Is the cosmic law assuming flesh. 
 
 The norm of being in a creature's garb. 
 
 An incarnation of the Deity, 
 
 Of that All-One which shapes and moulds the world. 
 
 Which manifests itself in motes and stars. 
 
 And thrills through all their uniformities. 
 
 'Tis Man, not men, in whom the glory dwells 
 
 Of the great One in All, — The Man of Truth. 
 
 "Truth changes," sayest thou, and thou art right, 
 E'en man himself is changing with his truth. 
 
TRUTH 11 
 
 Both change! for nothing can remain at rest 
 In this corporeal world of flux. And yet 
 Things transient mirror the Etern which always 
 Keeps faith with its own law — faith with itself. 
 
 Truth changes as our knowledge broader grows, 
 As science gains in clearness and in depth; 
 But verily the new and broader Truth 
 Will never call the older Truth a lie, 
 For lo ! it is the selfsame older Truth 
 As from a higher standpoint it appears, 
 And all the truths are ultimately one. 
 
 Truth is beheld by mind, and not by sense. 
 
 'Tis not a thing which merchants keep in store, 
 
 'Tis no commodity which we possess. 
 
 Truth is a power beyond the will of men. 
 
 From generation unto generation 
 
 Truth marches on, unfolding and revealing 
 
 The wondrous mysteries of cosmic life. 
 
 Truth is too great ever to find completion. 
 One goal attained entails still further tasks. 
 And so before our raptured vision stretches 
 The promised land of vistas infinite. 
 
 Truth is no child of human superstition; 
 It is no idol, nor an errant light, 
 
12 TRUTH 
 
 'Ti s not an ignis fatuus, no comet. 
 Truth is God's clearest, highest revelation. 
 In life Truth serves us as our guiding star, 
 And like the sailor's compass on high seas, 
 It draws us gently onward, step by step, 
 On its own path in well prescribed direction. 
 
 Truth is life's factor and determinant 
 
 And we are workers in Truth's noble cause. 
 
 We yearn for Truth, we need its light; and Truth 
 
 Enters our Soul; it takes abode in us. 
 
 And consecrates our lives to higher service. 
 
 Not we own Truth, 'tis Truth that owneth us. 
 
 Search for the Truth ! Truth's problems are not vain. 
 Love thou the Truth I trust Truth, and live the Truth ! 
 Walk on Truth's path and Truth will guide thee right. 
 
TIME 
 
 fiaravoTiji /iiaTOtor^Tcov. Kccl. i. 2. 
 Der Augetiblick ist ewig. 
 TO nv 6 Si aiiovo^ \povoi. 
 
TIME. 
 
 WISE philosopher with gloomy look 
 Sat in his easy chair before his desk; 
 And, thinking of the old King Solomon 
 Said, "All is vanity beneath the sun." 
 Then he took pen in hand, and thus he 
 wrote : 
 
 "'Tis Time which maketh all things vain: 
 
 The past is gone as if 't had never been; 
 
 The future, ever distant, never comes 
 
 But as the present; and the present, lo — 
 
 The moribund, the ever-dying present — 
 
 It disappears into the dread, dead past. 
 
 Never to rise again from out its tomb. 
 
 What difference then between the rotten bones 
 
 Of noble lion and of cursed cur, 
 
 Of king or hero, and a wretched beggar? 
 
 What difference then how life be spent? 'Tis Time 
 
 Which stamps its woeful seal of vanity 
 
 On all existence. Now we live and flourish; 
 
 We glory in our strength, yet are we doomed; 
 
 Alas ! The morrow finds our place no more. 
 
 Oh, tyrant Time! Oh, King of Vanity! 
 
 Thy breath 'tis makes the sweetest roses fade; 
 
 Thy breath acts like a bane ; it proves the curse 
 
 That blights life's health and glory, and brings death." 
 
16 TIME 
 
 There loomed a figure from the living present 
 Awful in majesty yet wondrous mild. 
 'Twas Time himself in his unfading glory, 
 The ever young and yet the ever old, 
 Eternal Time, archangel of creation, 
 And smiling he looked down upon the sage. 
 
 Quoth he: 
 
 "Poor mortal, blinded by thy wisdom 
 Thou dost not know what Time Eternal means. 
 I harbor in my bosom all that was, 
 That is and ever will be : All the past 
 Is here, here in the ever-living present, 
 And all the future lies within my grasp. 
 I shape it; it will be my handiwork! 
 Whate'er I touch is actual, it partaketh 
 Of the eternal, of my own true being. 
 The thoughts of God I render real, change 
 Things possible to facts.". 
 
 Aloft rose Time, 
 And with divine compassion he looked down 
 Upon the ignorant of human kind, 
 Upon the frivolous, the multitudes 
 That do not think, and as a still, small voice 
 In deepest depths of their subconscious conscience, 
 He made appeal to them : 
 
 "Ye thoughtless, hear! 
 Hear, ye deluded mortals, and give heed! 
 
TIME 17 
 
 For I declare to you a revelation 
 
 Which is the all-important truth of God: 
 
 "'Tis not indifferent whate'er ye do, 
 
 Evil or good. Whate'er ye do is done 
 
 For better or for worse. No power on earth, 
 
 No god in heaven can make a deed undone. 
 
 Whate'er ye do, forsooth, becomes established. 
 
 And thence 'twill be immutable for aye. 
 
 Imbedded in the universal structure, 
 
 "Twill be a building block of your own make 
 
 As an enduring part of cosmic life. 
 
 And mind the truth, 'Ye are your own creators.' 
 
 Whate'er ye do, ye are yourselves; and ye 
 
 Are called upon to make the best of life. 
 
 To change, each in his sphere, the world for better. 
 
 Yea, ye can do it! Therefore heed my word: 
 
 Whate'er ye do is not indifferent. 
 
 In all your doings ye do shape yourselves 
 
 As ye shall be for all eternity. 
 
 And thus ye shape eternity itself. 
 
 With God Almighty, as His own true children. 
 
 And His co-workers, ye participate 
 
 In moulding this great Universe of His." 
 
 Time paused awhile and let his searching eye 
 Glance o'er the motley crowd of human kind 
 Which throngs the world's kaleidoscopic show. 
 
18 TIME 
 
 How all these puny creatures hate and love, 
 How wildly do they struggle; and they scramble 
 For worthless goods but leave the pearls of life 
 Unheeded by the wayside ! Father Time, 
 Their guardian, endureth patiently 
 Their many follies, wickedness and crime. 
 He stands unmoved by errors and by failures. 
 And smiles at their uncounted vanities. 
 Divine forbearance hushes in his mind 
 The bitterness and the contempt he feels. 
 And now his speech rings with benevolence : 
 
 "Surely, I cherish all whoe'er they be 
 
 As types of the attempts at actualizing 
 
 The aspirations that ensoul their hearts. 
 
 I treasure every one of them, be they 
 
 Marked characters of greatness that would boldly 
 
 Not shrink from aught and dare to be themselves, 
 
 Or be they weaklings, commonplace and humble. 
 
 They all are welcome, I preserve them all. 
 
 Yea, even for the wretch I have a place 
 
 And hold him safe in my impartial hand. 
 
 But most I treasure those rare, noble souls 
 
 Who their own selves will freely sacrifice 
 
 To live for greater aims, for higher purpose. 
 
 I watch all creatures in their origin, 
 
 I see their growth, becoming, and decay; 
 
 I hold them all and I preserve their types. 
 
TIME 19 
 
 All Stay with me, all help me to work, out 
 The future which they long for." 
 
 Thus Time spake 
 And pointing to the future, he addressed 
 The living generation of the present. 
 In fatherly and mellow voice, he said: 
 
 "A special message have I for each child 
 That enters life, a message which the youth 
 Should mind when he begins to be himself 
 And shape his destiny with clearer vision. 
 
 "O listen, youth, consider life's great boon ! 
 
 I offer thee a chance to be thyself. 
 
 And to immortalize thy better being. 
 
 Rise to this glorious opportunity 
 
 And act as thou would'st fain have acted, when 
 
 After thy death thou couldst revise thy doings. 
 
 Abstain from deeds thou surely wouldst regret 
 
 When thy allotted time of life be spent — 
 
 From deeds which then thou wouldst have left undone. 
 
 Yet do accomplish with thy utmost vigor 
 
 What then in having done thou wouldst take pride. 
 
 "Dare be thyself, yet shun all selfishness, 
 Shun wrong, shun hatred, vanity and greed. 
 Give to thine inmost being real life. 
 Work out the aim that lurketh in thy soul, 
 
20 TIME 
 
 Nor fear the joys of life nor shrink, from pain. 
 Be as thou would'st endure eternalized, 
 For life is not indifferent nor vain, 
 And as thou actest so thou shalt remain. 
 
LOVE 
 
 'AyojnjTOi) dyaTTiujucv dAA^Xous. on ■q ayairq 
 Ik tov 0COV itrnvt Kat tto.'s 6 ayairiav ck tov 
 Oiov ytyiwTjToi Kot yivixTKU tov Oeov- 6 lit) 
 ayairiov ovK eyvo) tov 6f6vr otl 6 deo<; ayawtj 
 OTTiV. 1 John iv. 7-8. 
 
LOVE. 
 
 I OVE is the witch that lures us into life 
 
 And holds us here, thralls of her magic 
 
 spell. 
 Happy is he who, drunk with her sweet 
 
 wine, 
 Raves in a paradise of self-deception, 
 A paradise built up by his own thought; 
 But wretched he who, being disillusioned. 
 No longer trusts the guidance of her wand. 
 
 The primal stuff of ether is too neutral, 
 Too nondescript for Love to play her game. 
 She slumbers in its vast, unmeasured ocean 
 Till matter forms within its secret depths ; 
 Then she awakes and straightway is at work. 
 
 When in concrete formation worlds take shape, 
 When narrow egotism cramps itself 
 Into the shapes of separate existence, 
 Setting themselves in ownhood definite 
 Against the rest, against all other being. 
 Then love stirs them to seek a higher goal. 
 It is as though primordial unity 
 Strove sturdily against the isolation 
 Of a particular disjointed life. 
 
24 LOVE 
 
 Prompted by Love, creation's beauteous queen, 
 The yearning for return to harmony 
 Asserts itself throughout concrete existence 
 In longings still obscure but strong and wild. 
 Love holds all things material in her leash — 
 Not one of them can break away; they all 
 Remain but parts of the encircling whole. 
 
 Love makes the atoms, those self-centered specks 
 
 Of being, yearn with all their gravity 
 
 For other atoms. In their search they whirl 
 
 With myriads of their kind in graceful spirals. 
 
 And when their passion flashes up in heat 
 
 Their radiance trembles through the space as light. 
 
 Love is an artist, and she takes delight 
 In moulding what is bodily. Her creatures, 
 Countless in number, varied in design, 
 Swarm out of her deft hands in bright array. 
 She breathes her breath into the dull commotion 
 And lo ! our world like water-bubbles rises 
 In garish, dazzling beauty! But how hollow 
 Is their revolving shape ! And on their films 
 Material motes crowding round emptiness, 
 Self-seeking puny egos, find a place. 
 
 Such Is Love's work and here she finds her field. 
 Nor can we doubt that the same law determines 
 
LOVE 25 
 
 Varieties untold. The molecules 
 
 Are each by each attracted and combine 
 
 According to their forms in search for others. 
 
 And while they satisfy their needs they build 
 
 Newer creations full of richer chances. 
 
 Affinity — that is the law of Love, 
 
 And Love's the power that keeps the world in motion. 
 
 She moldeth life, and inexhaustible 
 
 Are her designs, her patterns, her devices. 
 
 Wherever life prevails there too lurks Love. 
 Raptures of happiness like hashish visions 
 Glow in the sentiments of every soul. 
 
 Watch here the butterfly I There comes another 
 
 Who just has caught a vision of his mate. 
 
 See how that fluttering phantom draws him on; 
 
 The iridescent colors on her wings, 
 
 Their gay designs, their graceful flapping motions 
 
 Possess the charms that will appeal to him. 
 
 Indeed, the quivering image finds response 
 
 In slumbering sentiments. Intoxicated 
 
 He follows her, while she, his mate, withdraws. 
 
 Now she alights; there on the flower she lingers, 
 
 As though expecting him — a moment only. 
 
 For now, anon, she's on the wing and so 
 
 In playfully coquettish chase they move. 
 
 When he approaches, she will coyly flee 
 
 As though she stood in awe of things unknown. 
 
26 LOVE 
 
 And do we read aright the secret meaning 
 Which her erratic hoverings indicate? 
 His wooing wakens in her virgin mind 
 Sweet half-remembered dreams, inherited 
 From ages past, and yet she hesitates. 
 She seems to waver whether she may trust 
 The fairy vision, whether it Is he 
 Whom she expects. Will he fulfil the longing 
 That stirs her little soul? Ought she to stay? 
 Ought she allow him to draw nigh to her? 
 
 And thou. Oh man, art of no other fabric — 
 
 Only more complicated, partly greater 
 
 And partly grosser. Yet there is but one 
 
 Of all thy preferences quite unique: 
 
 To thee that rarest faculty is given 
 
 To comprehend the world, to know thyself, 
 
 Eke, if thou choose, to search for truth and find it. 
 
 Not being shackled by the fleeting present. 
 
 Beholding past and future all in one. 
 
 The vision of eternity is thine. 
 
 Thou seest the rule that dominates all forms 
 
 And reachest out into the realm of norms. 
 
 What to all other creatures is concealed. 
 
 The cosmic lawdom, is to thee revealed. 
 
 As more and more the truth will make thee free, 
 
 Thou wilt be master of thy destiny. 
 
LOVE 27 
 
 And yet with all thy pride, wisdom and art, 
 'Tis Love that fills and dominates thy heart. 
 Be comforted, perhaps 'tis for thy best 
 Thou art as much Love's toy as all the rest. 
 
DE RERUM NATURA 
 
 I 
 
 THE PROBLEM 
 
 II 
 THE SOUL 
 
 III 
 THE ALL 
 
 Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas. 
 
 -Virgil. 
 
 Translated from the German by Charles Alva Lane 
 in collaboration with the author 
 
I. THE PROBLEM 
 
 I HEN thought, to comprehend the Universe, 
 Within me stirs, my soul is thrilled with awe. 
 With reverence only dare I lift mine eye 
 To front the gathered worlds of that All-One 
 Wherein the cosmic order rules supreme 
 Ensouling with its breath both sun and mote. 
 
 Since measureless eternities new worlds 
 
 Originate from wrecks of those destroyed — 
 
 A rhythmic palingenesis. 
 
 With awe 
 
 O Cosmos, contemplateth he thy ways. 
 
 Whose peering glass surveys the teeming heavens. 
 
 Before the mystery that in thee lives 
 
 Bewildered stands the gray philosopher. 
 
 For like the sea thou art, from whose abyss 
 
 Wave upon wave majestically swells 
 
 To sink again down into plumbless deeps. 
 
 Upon thy bank. Ocean of Worlds, behold 
 The poet musing stands ! What longings stir 
 His dreamy heart! How, as in prayer, the soul 
 With full devotion glows exultantly! 
 Yet through his hallowed mood of worship jars 
 The discord of the doubter's questionings: 
 
32 THE PROBLEM 
 
 "And wilt thou venture the impossible, 
 
 "To celebrate in song the infinite? 
 
 "How darest thou to glorify the All 
 
 "On which for ages man's enquiring mind 
 
 "Has spent its efforts — many not in vain — 
 
 "With probings after truth? The Sciences 
 
 "Are anthems grand whose cadences unfold 
 
 "Far richer music than thy harp can yield. 
 
 "Their notes seraphic are the noble souls 
 
 "That soar on wings of thought to untold heights." 
 
 Yea, but emotion yearns for utterance 
 When I behold the never failing order 
 That brooks no chaos, proves the universe 
 A glorious cosmos well ordained by law, 
 And finds its image in the human soul. 
 What wondrous constancy in nature's realm ! 
 Its ordinance enthralleth every part 
 To service of a greater whole. It sways 
 The love and hate of atoms numberless; 
 By rule mechanical it buildeth worlds 
 And maketh loosely scattered star-dust change 
 To solar systems, — suns with wandering moons 
 The dispensation of this order leadeth 
 The budding race of cells to unity. 
 Allotting so the labor of the whole 
 
DE RERUM NATURA 33 
 
 That organisms deftly shape themselves. 
 What grandeur overwhelming, infinite! 
 
 ■'And this thou laudest?" rose the bitter voice 
 That fain would hush the poet's cosmic psalm, 
 "Forget not then how Justice smiteth him 
 "Who, finding not his duty to the whole, 
 "In restive selfhood shirks. Yea, verily 
 "The guiltless with the guilty feel the smart." 
 
 That know I well, for life hath shown to me 
 How much of misery the heart may hold. 
 Ay, every effort is with grief entwined 
 And anxious care. Without the battle's brunt 
 No victory; and conflict yields but wounds. 
 We all pursue elusive luring goals 
 Which woo the weariness of toiling feet. 
 Onward and on we rush without a halt 
 Around a center dreamed of but unseen. 
 I know it well, yet have I also found 
 That pain's tuition will ennoble life, 
 And our endeavor giveth toil its worth. 
 In equal measure Nature suffering doles 
 With pleasure's sweetening apportionment; 
 And only he who lives is doomed to die. 
 
 And this is justice, therefore murmur not. 
 All preference in life is duly balanced 
 
34 THE PROBLEM 
 
 By corresponding risks. Throughout we are 
 Embraced with equity's unbending sternness 
 And with the favors of impartial love. 
 The burden must be sore that winneth worth, 
 Yet what thou sufferest in the press of strife, 
 Must thou for that humanity endure 
 Which liveth in thy heart, inspiring thee 
 To win the goal that shimmers to thy dream, 
 And goading thee to solve life's mysteries. 
 When I the nameless misery behold 
 That trembles through the individual soul. 
 Whose puny work in idle piecemeal lies, 
 I will look up and seek life's consolation 
 In cosmic Unity's eternal bliss. 
 Then hope, a-yearn within my bosom, saith: 
 "Lo, every dissonance must be attuned 
 "If thou the pulsing harmony wouldst hear 
 "That swelleth from the chorded galaxies." 
 
 Let not self's insufficiency mislead: 
 
 Thou art a part, so gladly serve the whole. 
 
 Take courage lest thine aspirations flag. 
 
 By weariness and tribulation galled. 
 
 And death, life's holy consummation, brings 
 
 The benison of eternality. 
 
 When in death's agony thy heart must break, 
 
 When day declines, and light in consciousness 
 
 Becomes extinct, fading away in gloom, 
 
DE RERUM NATURA 35 
 
 Do not, O Soul, despair! thou livest yet 
 Within the bosom of the All. The stream 
 That finds the sea meets not extinction there. 
 The vampire years soon drain the pulse of life; 
 But transient, too, are all our cares and griefs. 
 When silence darkens round the failing breath 
 The evils vanish that disquiet us. 
 And death, life's holy consummation, brings 
 The benison of eternality. 
 
II. THE SOUL 
 
 jERE am I, imaged in the glass of thought, 
 And eager in desire to dare and do. 
 Life, warm and pulsing, tingles in my veins, 
 And restlessly thought's lightning flashes dart. 
 Pause thee, O Soul, and think upon thyself I 
 What art thou, then? Unveil thy mystery. 
 
 Whence comest thou? and what may be the purpose 
 
 That giveth to thy strivings consecration? 
 
 Declare thy nature to thyself, O Soul, 
 
 And read thy features in awareness traced. 
 
 Kaleidoscopic splendors haunt mine eye. 
 
 Picturing ambient Nature's shifting shapes, 
 
 And through mine ear pierce tonal messages. 
 
 Each sense its typical investment weaves, 
 
 Which, wrapt in memory's stability. 
 
 Shall rise anon out of the buried past. 
 
 From interfused sensations manifold, 
 
 The staple forms of concepts crystallize, 
 
 To union drawn by psychic kindredship. 
 
 As thought joins thought, new thoughts are bred, wherein 
 
 The mind in glorious luminescence moves. 
 
 The restlessness which here for action yearns. 
 
 Gains aim and purpose; and the vague commotions 
 
38 THE SOUL 
 
 Of instincts and of passions wild are stilled 
 In calm tranquillity of self-control. 
 
 What wildering manifoldness I yet how all 
 
 In multifarious unity entwined, 
 
 Creates the wondrous fabric of the soul ! 
 
 And this I call my Self. What visions rare ! 
 
 What cadencing of tones! what odor-sensing! 
 
 And all, yea all, hath meaning: what befalls 
 
 Denoteth streams and forests and the stars, 
 
 Our dearest hopes, love's lurement, and dread fears, 
 
 Denoteth joys and racking pains, denoteth 
 
 Wrath, struggle, brothers, enemies; and all 
 
 This pageantry of varied forms are symbols 
 
 Revealing to the Self its own Beyond. 
 
 Beyond, I hear the clangor of the world; 
 But only in myself the voices range. 
 Beyond, a glimmering panorama lures ; 
 But in mine eye the compassed picture lies. 
 Thus by a thousand subtle threads am I 
 Close intertwined with that surrounding world 
 Wherein I move. I contemplate the Vision: 
 Of me it is a part. I am the All; 
 Albeit that which into Self hath grown 
 Is of the world a part: This bides, I pass. 
 But lo I e'en then, in that which lies outside 
 Of mine own self, I evermore endure. 
 
DE RERUM NATURA 39 
 
 Erewhile I came to birth: the gathered lore 
 
 Of tome and sense and life's wide school I sought. 
 
 Ere ever life I knew, where was I then? 
 
 Am I from nothing come, to lapse again 
 
 Into nonentity? Nay, into form 
 
 Have I been fashioned, and the mould I know 
 
 Wherein the features of my Self were wrought. 
 
 Not from the blank Inane emerged the soul: 
 
 A sacred treasury it is of dreams 
 
 And deeds that built the present from the past. 
 
 Adding thereto its own experiences. 
 
 Ancestral lives are seeing in mine eyes. 
 
 Their hearing listeneth within mine ears, 
 
 And in my hand their strength is plied again. 
 
 Speech came, a rich consignment from the past, 
 
 Each word aglow with wondrous spirit life. 
 
 Thus building up my soul of myriad souls. 
 
 I call that something "I" which seems my soul; 
 
 Yet more the spirit is than ego holds. 
 
 For lo! this ego, where shall it be sought? 
 
 I'm wont to say "I see"; yet 'tis the eye 
 
 That sees, and seeing, kindleth in the thought 
 
 The beaming images of memory. 
 
 "I hear" we say: Hearing is of the ear; 
 
 And where the caught word stirs, there chords resound 
 
 Of slumbering sentiment; and echoes wake 
 
 Of tones that long ago to silence lapsed. 
 
40 THE SOUL 
 
 Not dead, perfected only, is the past; 
 
 And ever from the darkness of the grave 
 
 It rises to rejuvenated life. 
 
 The "I" is but a name to clothe withal 
 
 The clustered mass that now my being forms. 
 
 Take not the symbol for reality, 
 
 The transient for the Eterne. Mine ego, lo ! 
 
 'Tis but my spirit's scintillating play. 
 
 This fluctuant moment of eternities 
 
 That now are crossing where my heart-blood beats. 
 
 I was not, am, and soon shall pass. But never 
 
 My soul can cease; the breeding ages aye 
 
 Shall know its life. All that the past bequeathed. 
 
 And all that life hath added unto me, 
 
 This shall endure in immortality. 
 
 And if the welling spring of spirit-life 
 I seek where but in Nature is it found — 
 In that great All whose tiny part I am? 
 Yea, holy Nature stampeth into me 
 Its own, its wondrous varied forms; 
 Thus after its own likeness fashioning me. 
 
 Something there is eternal in the world 
 Of change, moveless in all the moving tides. 
 Wouldst call it God or Law? Wouldst call it Logos, 
 Which from beginning was? Name as thou wilt: 
 
DE RERUM NATURA 41 
 
 In ceaseless flux it evermore remains 
 True to itself in stern necessity. 
 When I reduce to order the entangled 
 Chaotic mass of my experiences 
 Reflected from the facets of the sense, 
 I seek what changeth not, the calm Eterne, 
 And trace my bearings in the restless world. 
 The still small Voice in reason echoeth. 
 And like a compass in our voyagings 
 Directeth through the oceans unexplored. 
 
 O, thou all-comprehensive Infinite ! 
 
 Thou One and All ! Thou norm of all that is ! 
 
 In no ambiguous language speakest thou. 
 
 In no uncertain promptings teachest duty. 
 
 Thy governance doth in the atom live, 
 
 And in the circling courses of the stars. 
 
 Fountain of Order; fountain, too, of Life! 
 
 To thee all sentient things their being owe, 
 
 'Tis thy warm breath which quickeneth our pulse. 
 
 Here potent aspirations upward yearn. 
 
 As spurning nature's lowly elements. 
 
 Thou formest in the soul an empire new 
 
 Where thou thy dispensation dost portray. 
 
 Thou givest light, and following Its gleam. 
 
 We grope for paths of truth. Thou art the judge. 
 
 Thou art the only standard of the right; 
 
 From thee all motion of becoming starts; 
 
42 THE SOUL 
 
 In thee its motive and its purpose lie. 
 
 What from thee springs not alien is to thee ; 
 
 And life in thee findeth its only aim. 
 
 Thy breath it is which warmly through us thrills; 
 
 It is thy light that gloweth in the soul. 
 
 Into undreamed-of fathoms of thy depth, 
 
 O great Creator-power I — unto thy heart 
 
 Shall man return. Restless in life, in thee 
 
 He finds the holy, termless rest again. 
 
 Yea, in this rest which still remains to us 
 
 As life's last aim and refuge evermore — 
 
 In this great glory of release from self, 
 
 This blissful apotheosis of life. 
 
 In this which never was not, and shall be 
 
 The ever present superreal of being, 
 
 The immutable amid the changeful All, — 
 
 In this my soul its biding-place shall find. 
 
 Here all my deeds, my pains, my surging hopes 
 
 With confidence shall shaded be; and here 
 
 The holy spell of an unfathomed peace 
 
 Which haunts presagefully the yearning world. 
 
 Shall strength amid my toilings bring to me; 
 
 To charity shall rouse, and brother-love ; 
 
 Shall prompt to benedictions on my foes; 
 
 In fortune it shall cheer, in sorrow soothe; 
 
 Shall yield the key to all the many riddles 
 
 Which compass me about; shall show the light 
 
DE RERUM NATURA 43 
 
 Wherein life's tragedies transfigured glow; 
 Shall lend to thought such vast interpretations 
 That Nature's dissonances will accord; 
 That love with hatred will be harmonized, 
 And rapturous fruition compensate 
 For all the pains our aspirations bring. 
 This source of spirit-life, in death's despite. 
 Holds heritage of immortality. 
 
III. THE ALL 
 
 )0T dead is matter, though Inert it seem. 
 A hidden life ensouls the eternal mass, 
 Which ever into quickened forms evolves. 
 Think not that spirit-germs have come to us 
 From alien realms of transcendental being: 
 In matter immanent, their nascent life, 
 
 From ancient darkness struggling, seeks the day. 
 
 Divinely noble thought, the crowning flower 
 
 That on the World-tree grows, concealed hath lain 
 
 Within the quickening virtues of its root. 
 
 An upward impulse animates the All, 
 
 And nothing is that aspiration lacks. 
 
 O, who can gauge the torture of the longing 
 That calleth ever out of gravity 
 For tactual companionship's caress? 
 Who knows how congregated atoms thrill 
 With love's delight, e'en where our feeble eye 
 But dust in stark inertness contemplates? 
 
 Thus slowly through the fathomless expanse 
 Drift ancient fragments of disrupted worlds; 
 When lo ! from out the neighboring fields of space. 
 
46 THE ALL 
 
 The silver wooings of our sun are flashed. 
 The errant masses wax in their desires; 
 And fleeter, ever fleeter, sunward speeding, 
 They kindle into mystic comet flames 
 Whose sheen our far-off firmament reflects. 
 Dismayed are all the superstitious tribe 
 Of frightened folk. Of war and pestilence 
 False prophets prate, of famine and distress. 
 And eke of fronting hour of final doom. 
 Only with gladness thrills the tipler's heart 
 In fancied foretaste of the comet's touch 
 Upon the favored season's vintage cast. 
 But from the world's commotion all aloof, 
 The astronomer, with raptured vision, stands 
 And marks the midnight's fiery wanderer. 
 The spectrum catches tokens from his light 
 Of elemental kindredship with earth, 
 And fancy hints of ancient dwellers there. 
 
 With eager glass the astronomer attends 
 
 The traveller's sun-surrounding course, and maps 
 
 His outward path to distant voids again. 
 
 With flagging pace and breath that wanes of fire. 
 
 The lonely wanderer wends. But in his heart 
 
 A dream of resurrection sleeps. What time 
 
 He yearneth for a larger life, whereto 
 
DE RERUM NATURA 47 
 
 His single power cannot attain, behold 
 
 From distant scopes, where universes teem, 
 
 An errant comrade, as by chance appears. 
 
 By gravitation's mutual greetings lured. 
 
 Both quit their courses, and, with gathering speed. 
 
 Impetuous to collision rush. 
 
 Space quaketh 
 Where in their passionate embrace they meet 
 And night is raptured with a flaming blaze. 
 Their doubled mass, with wider ordinance, 
 More night-embosomed comets summons forth. 
 Responding spaces yield their homeless broods 
 Which come with eager haste from every side 
 To join in tasks of a communal work. 
 
 Such is the birth of cosmic nebulas : 
 They are creation's crucibles, in which 
 From thinnest primal stuff the elements 
 Take shape in hordes of small atomic whirls, 
 A miracle of nature's workmanship. 
 Perfect in build and stable of construction 
 Fit to endure a whole eternity 
 From a world's dawn until the day of doom, 
 From its beginning to its dissolution. 
 
 The sheen of the new nebula which spreads 
 Through cosmic space proclaims the fiery birth 
 
48 THE ALL 
 
 Of a new world with potencies renewed. 
 
 O Light, in beauty's holy guise begot 
 
 Through atom-motions, kissing in their play ! 
 
 Art thou requited love's consummate child? 
 
 Or art thou of the progeny of war 
 
 Whose frantic passion, wrought to furious wrath, 
 
 Dissolveth all to fiery turbulence 
 
 Of gaseous hurricanes a-whirl? Perhaps 
 
 As toil-engendered boon we greet thee best; 
 
 For, after wanderings orderless and dark, 
 
 A common will inspires the meeting atoms; 
 
 Their immemorial desires at length 
 
 Create rich stores of power and life and light, 
 
 Burning the night from space. 
 
 There still prevails 
 A chaos wild of contravening storms: 
 The seething masses interpenetrant 
 Disport themselves in Bacchic revelry. 
 Wider and wider in their mazy gyres 
 The glowing circles spin, until at last 
 Their currents fuse in one vast vortex-whirl 
 To mould anon a pageantry of worlds. 
 Amid the chaos infant Order breathes. 
 In their swift circles see the planets sweep 
 As shapely spheres about the central sun, 
 Whose sovereignty as vassals they obey. 
 
DE RERUM NATURA 49 
 
 But where the cooling surface darkens round, 
 Impending vapors loose their liquid stores; 
 Seas surge with thunderous tides against the rocks 
 And over all an airy heaven hangs. 
 
 Although the atoms are complete, remaining 
 The same in their immutability, 
 They yet for closer union ever strive. 
 They build up higher complexes, but when 
 The active oxygen with burning greed 
 Seizes upon the grosser elements 
 Feeding the flame of life in constant rounds 
 Of nourishment and waste, then in this change. 
 The structure stays while matter passes on, 
 And preservation of the living form 
 Means memory, the builder of the soul. 
 
 Life-plasm builds up cells varied in kind. 
 The tender germs unfold their gathering life 
 And teem in myriad hordes after their kind. 
 The promptings of life's many needs create 
 Various responses with divided labor. 
 'Tis by cooperative work alone 
 That functions slowly into organs grow. 
 Developing the life of organisms 
 With nobler rule upon a higher plane. 
 The hyperphysical is bursting forth 
 
50 THE ALL 
 
 From night's sensationless rigidity, 
 
 Precursor of a spiritual day 
 
 Of consciousness and purpose-guided will. 
 
 The multiplying tribes of living forms 
 
 In struggle for existence ever toil, 
 
 Till all the world a plain of battle grows. 
 
 Creature to creature dealing doom of death, 
 
 For hunger's or for passion's goading sake. 
 
 But keener waxes and of larger use 
 
 The sway of whetted powers that ply the strife ; 
 
 And ever the appropriated gain. 
 
 In stern heredity's bequeathment held, 
 
 From generation unto generation. 
 
 Following fast, is yielded to the years; 
 
 And though for rest a-yearn, the failing lives 
 
 Of ancient ages lapsed to death's dark realm. 
 
 Their aspirations and their toils endure: 
 
 The soul of all their work lives yet, their lives 
 
 Into our own projected hitherward. 
 
 The soul's day breaketh. Consciousness appears 
 With clearing light, and Reason learns at last 
 Her powers to marshal and her realms to rule. 
 In pleasing modulations language rings, 
 Like speech of gods, to ears initiate. 
 Here poets find their rhythmic ravishment; 
 Here, too, desire for knowledge all athirst 
 
DE RERUM NATURA 5 1 
 
 In never-sating draughts her fever feeds; 
 And, borrowing illumination here, 
 The spirit fathometh abysmal depths, 
 Where, wrapt in mystic silences and glooms. 
 The slumbering secrets of creation lie. 
 Cognition's searching sunbeams spread and glow, 
 Transfiguring the unfolding universe. 
 They bring to Ignorance, whose feeble eyes 
 By superstition's louring clouds are dimmed, 
 A lore assuaslve of celestial truth; 
 And unto error's night, that like a prison 
 Encompasseth the aspiring soul of man. 
 They bear the promise of deliverance 
 From false Illusion's lures and mockeries. 
 
 O holy sun, in all the circling host 
 
 Of bleak and darkened worlds, with touch benign 
 
 Light, warmth, and thrilling life awakening. 
 
 Thyself thou givest willingly for others 
 
 In sacrifice, and pourest forth thy gifts 
 
 Unstintedly to all the needful worlds; 
 
 Nor reckest thou If thanks thy largess greet. 
 
 If ingrate fools reject thine offering. 
 
 Or evil-doers warp its sacred use. 
 
 For others dost thou live, for others die. 
 
 So he that would the world Illumine giveth 
 
 Himself, his heart-blood freely yielding up. 
 
52 THE ALL 
 
 The thorny crown resignedly he wears, 
 
 The martyr's scourging suffers and the taunts, 
 
 And on the cross finds ignominious death. 
 
 For this the glorious radiance of the sun 
 
 Longeth again to find the ancient night. 
 
 For all the world he offered up himself 
 
 And in surcease of labor findeth peace. 
 
 As wintry years around the cooling sun 
 
 Fold darkening, life falleth on the planets. 
 
 An arctic desolation everywhere 
 
 To heedless heavens appeals despairingly 
 
 The wedging frosts dispart the shapely spheres. 
 
 And drifting fragments mark the erstwhile worlds. 
 
 With widening distances space presses in 
 
 The sundered masses to estrange, until 
 
 Again they range the voids as comet-forms. 
 
 But as the morning ever wakes the eyes 
 Whose weariness the evening sealed with sleep; 
 As new-born spring the doom of winter thwarts, 
 And genial resurgence foils the tomb 
 With life rejuvenized in serial birth; 
 As night and day, in alternating layers, 
 From time unfold: so too the world respires. 
 The cosmic tides In rhythmic surges rise, 
 Ever to ebb in restless billows back 
 
DE RERUM NATURA 53 
 
 Where call the soundless Deeps; then upward heave 
 
 With gathered stress of nobler aspiration. 
 
 Thus ever from the grave is life redeemed, 
 
 And ruins wake to spheres regenerate, 
 
 Gemming the circle of eternity 
 
 With threaded universes evermore. 
 
DEATH 
 
 TToS Tj StKi; <rov Oavan; 
 TTOV TO Kevrpov <Jov q.Sr]; 
 
 LXX. Hosea xiii. 14. 
 
DEATH. 
 
 DEATH, in thee we reach life's consum- 
 mation; 
 In thee we shall find peace; in thee our 
 woes, 
 
 Anxieties and struggles will be past. 
 Thou art our best, our truest friend! 
 Thou holdest the anodyne that cureth every ill. 
 
 Thou lookest stern, oh Death; the living fear thee; 
 
 Thy grim, cold countenance inspireth awe, 
 
 And creatures shrink from thee ns their worst foe. 
 
 They know thee not, for they believe that thou 
 
 Takest delight in agony and horror. 
 
 Disease and pain. The host of all these ills 
 
 Precedes thee often, but thou brook'st them not. 
 
 'Tis life that is replete with suffering. 
 
 Not thou, O refuge of the unfortunate. 
 
 For thou com'st as surcease of pain; thou grantest 
 
 Release from torture, and thy sweetest boon 
 
 Is peace eternal. So I call thee friend 
 
 And will proclaim thy gift as greatest blessing. 
 
 Death is the twin of birth: he blotteth out 
 
 The past but to provide for life's renewal. 
 
58 DEATH 
 
 All life on earth is one continuous flow 
 Which death and birth cut up in single lives 
 Of individual existences 
 So as to keep life ever new and fresh. 
 
 Oblivious of the day that moulded us, 
 We enter life with virgin expectations; 
 Traditions of parental past are we, 
 Handing the gain of our expanding souls 
 Down to succeeding ages which we build. 
 The lives of predecessors live in us 
 And we continue in the race to come. 
 Thus in the Eleusinean Mysteries 
 A burning torch was passed from hand to hand, 
 And every hand was needed in the chain 
 To keep the holy flame aglow — the symbol 
 Of spirit-life, of higher aspirations. 
 
 'Tis not desirable to eke out life 
 Into eternity, world without end. 
 Far better 'tis to live in fresh renewals, 
 Far better to remain within time's limits. 
 Our fate 't is to be born, to grow, to learn, 
 To tread life's stage; and when our time has come 
 There is no choice but to depart resigned. 
 Again and evermore again, life starteth 
 In each new birth a fresh new consciousness 
 With larger tasks, new quickened interests, 
 
DEATH 59 
 
 And with life's worn-out problems all renewed. 
 But we must work the work while it is day, 
 For thou, O Death, wilt hush life's turbulence 
 And then the night will come to stay our work. 
 
 When we have tasted of the zests of life. 
 Breathed in the bracing air of comprehension, 
 Enjoyed the pleasures of accomplishment, 
 When we have felt the glow of happiness, 
 The thrill of love, of friendship, of endeavor. 
 When we have borne the heat of day and sweated 
 Under the burden of our tasks, we shall, 
 Wearied of life's long drudgery, be glad 
 To sink into the arms of sleep, to rest 
 From all our labors, while our work lives on. 
 As at the end of day we greet the night. 
 So we shall tire of duties, pains and joys 
 And gladly quaff the draught of Lethe's cup. 
 
 Wilt thou be kind to me, O Death, then spare me 
 
 The time to do my duties, to complete 
 
 My lifework ere I die. Let me accomplish 
 
 The most important tasks that lie before me, 
 
 So when I die I have not lived in vain. 
 
 But has my purpose grown beyond myself, 
 
 I shall be satisfied and welcome thee. 
 
60 DEATH 
 
 Kinder thou art than thou appearest, Death ! 
 
 Peace-bringer, healer of life's malady, 
 
 Thou lullest us into unconsciousness. 
 
 Thine eye, well do I know it, solves the transient 
 
 Into mere dust; but thou discriminatest. 
 
 Thou provest all, O just and unbribed judge, 
 
 Appli'st the touchstone of eternal worth 
 
 And so preservest the enduring gold. 
 
 Thou settest free the slave, soothest all anguish, 
 
 Grantest an amnesty for trespasses, 
 
 Abolishest responsibilities, 
 
 Ordainest the cessation of the ills 
 
 That harass life. Withal thou simply closest 
 
 A chapter in time's fascinating book, 
 
 There to remain as we have written It, 
 
 And so thou dost no harm. Happy Is he 
 
 Who neither feareth nor inviteth thee. 
 
 I honor thee, great sanctlfier Death, 
 
 Lord of the realm of no return — High Priest 
 
 Of the unchangeable, thou consecratest 
 
 Our souls when gathering them unto their fathers 
 
 In their eternal home; I honor thee, 
 
 Yet will not seek thee ! I am here to live 
 
 And so will bide until the summons come 
 
 To enter on my Sabbath eve of life. 
 
 But neither shall I shrink from thee, for truly 
 
DEATH 61 
 
 I see no cause why I should face thee not. 
 
 Thou dost not doom me to annihilation, 
 
 Thou wipest out my trace of life as little 
 
 As any deed can ever be annulled. 
 
 Indeed, thou comest to immortalize, 
 
 To finish, to complete, to consummate. 
 
 To sanctify what I have been and done. 
 
 Therefore, I shall be ready at thy call 
 
 And deem the common destiny of all 
 
 Meet for myself, so when thou beckonest. 
 
 Friend Death, grant me thy sweet enduring rest.