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 THB OBSEHUIES OF ORPHEUS 
 
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THE OBSEQUIES OF ORPHEUS 
 
 READ BEFORE THE 
 
 FORTIETH ANNUAL eONVENTiON 
 
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 m m$f^ tf%ilm f raterait| 
 
 Washington, January Fifth 
 1887, 
 
 .^ 
 
 Andrew Oemper. 
 
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 CINCINNATI: 
 Cohen 4 Co., Printers, 
 
 ^ ' / 
 

 Copyright 1887, 
 
 ANDREW C. KEMPER. 
 
 All rights reserved. 
 
The Obseouies oe Okpheus. 
 
 The delight of the Gods was young Hellas to see 
 On the breast, in the arms of the ^gean Sea, 
 Where their fostering diligence lovingly spread 
 Those munificent gifts that prosperity bred. 
 Ere her warm heart was chilled by historical lore 
 Or her fancy was curbed by the myths that it bore, 
 When her garlanded grottoes supplied them a home 
 And her valleys were gardens through which they might roam, 
 When her fountains were clear as the light from the sun 
 Where their daughters might bathe with their tresses undone, 
 And the rills in her mountains from silver cascades 
 Threw a sanctity over her evergreen glades. 
 And each landscape reflected in river or stream 
 Was the dwelling of deities held in esteem 
 By a people as brave, as impassioned and free 
 As e'er conquered the land, or were masters at sea, 
 When her zephyrs were laden with perfume so sweet 
 That it scented her groves to their inmost retreat 
 Where the voice of their oracles, faithfully heard, 
 Was allotting to each the success he preferred, 
 When the future was known from the flight of a bird, 
 And the brutes by omnipotent power were stirred. 
 When the fairest of priestesses served at her shrines 
 With a virginal purity sweet as her wines 
 While adorning the altars with flowers and fruits 
 Keeping time in their hymns to melifluous lutes, 
 When the frame, and its creatures, were cordially bound 
 In a kinship that nature rejoiced they had found, 
 'Twas a dream before waking to eminent deeds 
 That were augured by Hellas's mythical creeds. 
 
4 THK OBSEQUIES OV ORPHEUS. 
 
 Where Pelion frowned upon a restless sea 
 And Ossa smiled across die western lea, 
 Where wild Peneus rolled her silver tide 
 While on her breast the oily streamlets glide, 
 Beside the Vale of Tempe's verdant plain 
 Where Pindus chose to crown his famous chain 
 Olympus reared on high his spacious head 
 As if he knew and felt his Maker's tread. 
 About his zone, and spreading o'er his knees. 
 Were oaks, and pines, and stalwart chestnut trees 
 To hide o'erhanging rocks with fissures wide 
 That marked the limits where the Gods reside, 
 While on his neck eternal snowdrifts rest 
 As kings wear spodess ermine round their breast. 
 Above these guards that human steps defy 
 His head seemed floating in the clear blue sky. 
 'Twas here great Zeus was wont to hold his court 
 As well immortal Homer's lines report. 
 
 One morning when Aurora's crimson blush 
 Bespoke the crimes of night she fain would hush, 
 Ere she with rosy fingers took away 
 The bars that shut the golden gates of day. 
 Or brushed aside the dew pearls from her eye. 
 Or stirred the welkin with her gentle sigh, 
 Puissant Zeus, his sceptre in his hand. 
 Assumed his throne and curtly gave command 
 To Hermes that he call his trusty hosts 
 To come before him from their various posts 
 
 The troubled stars shot flaming through the sky, 
 The JEgean waves made helpless sailors cry. 
 The gentle rivers caught the moaning moods 
 Of winds that murmured through the sacred woods, 
 The birds flew vaguely to the unknown west, 
 The brutes ran homeless exiles seeking rest. 
 Terrific tumults rolling under ground 
 Gave back from heaven's concave awful sound, 
 
THE OBSEQUIES OF ORPHEUS. 
 
 Each creature conscious of some present ill, 
 Some interference with Eternal Will, 
 Seemed disconcerted and by tear perplexed 
 With all its best affections rudely vexed. 
 
 Apollo, first, the radiant god of day. 
 
 More rich in gifts than any of the rest, 
 Appeared, in glory, ready to obey 
 
 The wishes of his lord with lively zest. 
 Then all the powers stood before the throne 
 
 As quick as light leaps through the ether's space, 
 And to the eyes of men Olympus shone 
 
 A piercing splendor that they could not face. 
 Apollo's lyre the waiting quiet broke 
 
 And left its echoes wandering through the spheres, 
 And Zeus in rhythmic voice majestic spoke 
 
 As only speaker can who has no peers. 
 
 "Ye Forces that attend Contriving Will 
 Since Will designed and out of chaos drew 
 This firmament with all its life, sustained 
 By Self-Exisent Life, and with it you 
 Whose pliant service most adorns its frame 
 By working silently throughout the spheres 
 That harmony of purpose which reveals 
 His presence, active in the smallest things. 
 And His one thought of good, ye know that all 
 Are free whose service bears the highest worth, 
 And what constraint of sweet persuasion lures, 
 By my command, from evil ways to good. 
 Those hapless ones who sadly choose the wrong. 
 And how tiieir wayward folly grows rank grief. 
 Your sorrow shall with pity blend to hear 
 What fair Mnemosyne will now rehearse." 
 
 Again A])ollo's lyre soft echoes woke 
 Responsive to its Maker's native stroke. 
 
THE OBSEQUIES OF ORPHEUS. 
 
 They chased themselves in phantom melody 
 Along the crests of Pindus to the sea, 
 And when they sank to silence in the west 
 The goddess answered the divine behest. 
 
 ' ' O, God, thy pure beneficence 
 Enslaves our being to its sense, 
 While man of all thy care the end 
 Cannot its beauty comprehend. 
 No seraph's thought can ever fly, 
 No subtile alchemy can pry 
 To realms thy goodness does not know. 
 If not to bless, to soften woe. 
 This noble race of Hellenese 
 Have rarely failed thy hope to please, 
 Their greater deeds, thy richer grace, 
 Thy poorer gifts, the new displace, 
 Until in all that man achieves 
 They wore the crown of laurel leaves. 
 Then, not from any garnered store 
 Of gifts thy hand selected more, 
 But from thy wise and loving thought 
 A new incentive Force was wrought. 
 As if that hand was pleased to see 
 How blest its workmanship could be. 
 An Energy that hearts incline 
 As kindred particles combine, 
 To soothe wherever sorrow mars 
 And lead the way beyond the stars. 
 Hymettus had no sweeter bees 
 Than thy last gift to Hellenese 
 The poet Orpheus, first and best, 
 Immortal myth of all the rest 
 
 He sang to shepherds 'neath the dome 
 Whose spangles veil the Maker's home. 
 His minstrelsy gave rare delight 
 Where rustic swains pursued the right. 
 
THE OBSEQUIES OF ORPHEUS. 
 
 He taught the poor those deathless strains 
 
 The angels link in their refrains. 
 
 He gave the wise such rha])sodies 
 
 As filled the land with melodies, 
 
 And when their minds could hold no more 
 
 Invented letters for the score. 
 
 Where'er in temple, wood, or fane 
 
 The voice of men God's heart would gain 
 
 His sacred hymns like incense rise 
 
 In clouds of concord to the skies. 
 
 When'er a child was taught to pray 
 
 It lisped the cadence of his lay. 
 
 Where spoken words dare not intrude 
 
 Upon the heart's deep solitude 
 
 His lines its message bore on high 
 
 As sparks to their own fountain fly. 
 
 While thus he sang from place to place 
 
 His art acc[uired a matchless grace, 
 
 And as he trod his lonely way 
 
 Strange mysteries around him play 
 
 To sanctify his steps and guess 
 
 What truths his numbers might not dress. 
 
 From each low hamlet's simple crowd 
 
 His comic verse drew laughter loud, 
 
 Or tears pronounced their sympathies 
 
 For victims of life's tragedies. 
 
 Where any village heard his song 
 
 It drew the neighbors to its throng 
 
 And thus those Festivals arose 
 
 With whose renown no age will close, 
 
 Where Gods were patrons of the games 
 
 That listed theirs with human names 
 
 Since at Olympia's pure shrine 
 
 Their fame was joined by thee with thine. 
 
 The husbandmen his spirit caught 
 
 Until their fields told heaven's own thought. 
 
 Their orchards were an epic ode 
 
 Each fruitful tree an episode. 
 
THE OBSEQUIES OF ORPHEUS. 
 
 Domestic beasts by kindness swayed 
 In sleek contentment fondly strayed, 
 Or patiently endured the yoke 
 With knowing eyes that fairly spoke. 
 The sickle sang a sweet refrain 
 Where cultured soil enriched the grain, 
 And rocks along the inland shores 
 Resounded strokes in search for ores. 
 The clanging axe among the trees 
 Bespoke stout timber for the seas. 
 This enterprise such commerce bred 
 That all the nation's life was fed. 
 The daring Argo led by him 
 Beyond horizon's distant brim 
 For many wrongs obtained surcease 
 And proudly gained the Golden Fleece. 
 Of all those Argonauts achieved 
 No feat thy brother Pluto grieved 
 More than the witching song he sung 
 That hushed the Siren's wicked tongue. 
 
 And yet with honors such as these 
 Returning to the Hellenese 
 He who was leader of his time 
 In thoughts that through the ages climb 
 Came, strangely, by neglected ways, 
 Denied his proper poet's bays. 
 To dwell in Melancholy's cave 
 In life, or death, his only grave. 
 
 While Dionysian rites were pure 
 His hymns were their investiture 
 Until licentious orgies came 
 To render scandalous their name 
 And culture priestesses to hate 
 The innocence they violate. 
 These phrensied women heard the knel 
 The poet sang them from his cell. 
 With horrid oaths and fiendish spite 
 They took him from his cave at night 
 
THE OBSEQUIES OF ORPHEUS. 
 
 To rend his body widi dieir teeth 
 And strew its fragments o'er the heath. 
 The moaning waves of Hebrus bore 
 His sacred head to ocean's shore. 
 Serenp Poseidon paused to weep 
 When it came singing on the deep. 
 His curse the sea perpetuates, 
 The head, he left at Lesbos, waits." 
 
 Apollo's lyre hung mute beneath his eye, 
 Except its whisper of the common sigh 
 Of grief that wafted through the heedful spheres, 
 As silence merged that precious voice in tears. 
 
 "Thanks! dear Mnemosyne, for this sad due 
 That wrings thy heart to tell. We may not spare 
 Thy needful record though it give us pain " 
 
 Thus Zeus fulfilled his godlike courtesy 
 And then addressed his holy company. 
 
 " My soul for Hellas weeps as your hearts ache. 
 The good the Gods provide for men is spurned. 
 The majesty and mystery of love 
 In infinite display is rudely mocked 
 By reason fitly formed the ornament 
 And chief design of all wherein we serve. 
 Such evils live but for a day. We wait 
 Upon Eternal Life. Haste then ye Gods 
 To fetch the mangled shreds of that poor clay 
 Where dwelt our poet's spirit now let free 
 To immortality, and on this high 
 And holy mountain where Apollo's eye 
 Forever rests, attend his sepulture 
 With such a ritual of obsequies 
 As time shall ne'er forget. My daughters nine 
 Obey this trust, whom Hermes will attend, 
 Apollo guard, while each of you consents." 
 
lO THE OBSEQUIES OF ORPHEUS. 
 
 Lo ! m Apollo's hand at once appeared 
 The lyre he gave to Orpheus, now endeared 
 By faculties enlarged on other strings. 
 One sweeping stroke and all sweet sounds took wjngs 
 To blend in measures to awake the dead 
 From musty cerements, or collect each shred 
 Long lost, and like the rapture of a vision 
 Transport their spirit forms to fields elysian 
 Ere his resurgent strains had died awa)- 
 The form of Orpheus on Olympus lay, 
 And that celestial choir about its bier 
 Intoned such chorals of triumphant cheer 
 As thrilled beyond Cecilia's utmost bars 
 And hushed the music of the morning stars. 
 
 Now dextrous Hermes, winged at feet and head, 
 To noble courtesy divinely bred, 
 Each Muse presented near the shrouded bier 
 To sing her requiem forever dear 
 To their fond mother sweet Mnemosyne. 
 The silver toned was first. Calliope. 
 
 " I sing the holy common heart 
 The soul and end of real art. 
 The poet tunes its finest strings 
 To joy perennial when he sings, 
 Or heals its sorrow laden sigh 
 With comfort villains cannot try. 
 When human thought is in its youth 
 He learns from it the crystal truth 
 And sets it in a form so rare 
 No age its lustre can impair. 
 When knowledge tangled in a maze 
 Conceals the truth from reason's gaze 
 He sees by its prophetic lore 
 The beacon on the other shore. 
 
THE OBSEQUIES OF ORPHEUS. II 
 
 He gives his life in humble tears 
 
 To share its hopes, possess its fears. 
 Nor gold, nor crowns its passion prove 
 It gives itself, immortal love." 
 
 A plaintive miserere's tender staves 
 With all Athene's flutes in flowing waves 
 Expressed the longing in each heaven born breast 
 To share a brotherhood by all confessed. 
 
 A holy quiet fell upon the throng 
 Until brisk Hermes ushered Clio's song. 
 
 "This world is but by glimpses seen 
 Without a blending light between. 
 Each hero tells his narrative 
 With all the color he can give 
 Each day reveals some newer thought 
 To set the former time at naught. 
 Each faction strives to gain the rule 
 And use the other for its tool. 
 And yet there is an eye that sees 
 One growing plan in all of these. 
 The lives of men must ever be 
 Like drops of water in the sea, 
 Now in the depths, now dashed on high, 
 Now vapor floating to the sky. 
 Yet each has its own destiny 
 Its duty and its agony. 
 
 Beneath the restless sea of time 
 
 There runs a golden cord sublime 
 That gets a life from cloud veiled skies 
 To tell the world where freedom lies. 
 
 Its whispers charm the poet's ears 
 
 He sings the harmony he hears." 
 
 Now Ares marshaled the celestial host, 
 While Hestia bore the banner, heaven's boast. 
 
12 THE OBSEQUIES OF ORPHEUS. 
 
 And grim Hephaestus made the world resound 
 With cymbals, bells, and every clanging sound. 
 With ringing shouts, and peals of clapping hands. 
 With fear, and love, and strife in all the bands. 
 Nine turns reversed around the bier they wheeled 
 And at its foot in solid phalanx kneeled. 
 With ever restful faith they turn away 
 From Clio's maze to hear Euterpe's lay. 
 
 " There is a world within my breast 
 
 Whose seas of passion never rest. 
 
 No plummet sounds their wondrous deep 
 
 No sail encompasses their sweep. 
 
 Rare jewels lie in golden sands 
 
 Celestial breezes fan their strands. 
 
 And voices sound from shore to shore 
 
 That angels wistfully adore. 
 
 When I their charming tales relate 
 
 I feel that other hearts dilate 
 
 And pleasures roll from soul to soul 
 
 In flowing waves without control. 
 
 Earth's beauty takes a fresher hue 
 
 As if the spirit's bliss it knew. 
 
 And brutes are glad to sympathize 
 
 With joy that beams from human eyes. 
 
 The stars seem nearer to the earth 
 
 And kindling souls receive new birth. 
 O, when the poet tunes his lyre 
 To sing my inmost heart's desire 
 
 His holy numbers bid me rise 
 
 Upon their ardor to the skies." 
 
 Apollo now the tender chorus swayed 
 To strains that doubtfully their thought conveyed, 
 With echoes like the twinkling of a star 
 That faints when forced to send its light too far. 
 From Helicon and all tlie mountains round 
 Those echoes trembled heavenward from the yround 
 
THK OHSKQUIES OF ORPHFAIS. I3 
 
 To fall as gently as the vesper dew 
 
 Or sighs of love-sick Merope that drew 
 
 Reluctant leave from sister Pleiades 
 
 To wed a mortal from the Hellenese 
 
 And with an art endow him that could wring 
 
 From Moros all the wormwood of his sting. 
 
 With mincing gait and smirking clownish face 
 Thalia strutted to the singer's place. 
 
 " I would not wound the humblest soul 
 That labors after virtue's goal, 
 Nor choose to make the vicious fool 
 The target of my ridicule. 
 But when the priests have lost their jjower ' 
 And at the shrine of Mammon cower, 
 And law is but a cheating game 
 To mock a stable social frame, 
 And none appear who dare defend 
 The truths that selfishness offend 
 'Tis then the Gods ordain to purge 
 The social fabric with my scourge. 
 
 Clear as the sun the poet stays 
 
 The gracious beacon of his days, 
 To vice a foe, to virtue true 
 Though shame and poverty ensue. 
 
 The wise shall write his epitaph 
 
 He ruled the foolish with a laugh." 
 
 Sly Momus asked for Psyche leave to try 
 If with such heavenly measures she could vie. 
 In robes of motley sheen, as proud as vain 
 To be admitted to that noble train. 
 She first her posture fixed, and then her dress, 
 Then cleared her voice, and smiled her happiness. 
 And hemmed again, and heaved her snowy breast. 
 And with conceited effort sang her best. 
 
14 THE OBSEQUIES OF ORPHEUS. 
 
 There was amid the rites a ghastly pause 
 While she was waiting for divine applause 
 To hear from Hippocrene's fount the neigh 
 Of Pegasus who did his best to bray. 
 Poor Psyche swooned upon the tender breast 
 Of Niobe by Zeus and all caressed. 
 So near was this to comic tragedy 
 That Hermes ushered next Melpomene. 
 
 " Horror, horror, everywhere, 
 Sorrow, death and dire despair 
 Hurtling through the earth and air, 
 Ruin stalking from her lair, 
 
 Man with power to choose the light 
 
 Dwelling in the^dismal night, 
 
 Souls designed to love the right 
 
 Holding error with delight. 
 Hearts beneath the evil smother. 
 Children wailing for their mother, 
 God descends to help another, 
 Cain for gold destroys his brother. 
 
 Poet of humanity 
 
 Sing the power of Charity, 
 
 Tell the tearful tragedy 
 
 All its blessed remedy." 
 
 The charms of Aphrodite waned before 
 The graceful attitude Pandora bore, 
 Endowed with all the gifts the Gods could give, 
 When she discharged her grave prerogative. 
 Her crown, such work Hephaestus only weaves. 
 Was golden filigree of apple leaves. 
 And o'er her heart a beaming cross more rare 
 Than any other soul in heaven could wear. 
 She stood a moment like a glowing star 
 Then opened wide her alabaster jar 
 And let a cloud of incense spread on high 
 With blue and purple folds to drape the sky. 
 
THE OBSEQUIES OF ORPHEUS. 15 
 
 Portrayed upon this screen was Caucasus 
 A lofty peak most bleakly mountainous. 
 And on its side Prometheus chained in agony 
 Submitted to an eagle's gluttony 
 That tore his bleeding flesh while still it grew 
 To tortures his invention never knew. 
 
 She closed the jar and all the air was clear 
 Then opened it again with trembling fear. 
 Such dark and lurid banks of cloud arose 
 As open gates of Tartarus disclose. 
 Upon their front in traceries of light 
 A dim and startling picture met the sight. 
 A cross that bore a form of godlike mien 
 .\mid a crowd of hooting men was seen 
 And through the dark a flame came streaming down 
 To sit in glory on its thorny crown. 
 
 Amazed to understand this mystic show 
 They asked to hear the song of Erato. 
 
 ' ' The love' that binds the human race 
 To keep the social frame in place 
 Is but a worthless sentiment 
 If it is not to justice bent. 
 The qualities of mercy fail 
 Where justice is of no avail. 
 The want of all veracity 
 Is Pluto's wished calamity. 
 True rectitude must ever be 
 The poet's love Eurydice. 
 Ixion's wheel revolves no more, 
 The wounds of Tityus heal o'er, 
 And Tantalus forgets to drink 
 To see him walking on their brink 
 In search of her whom demons stole 
 And bore away to that dark hole. 
 Forsaking all except his lyre 
 He boldly fronts those demons sire. 
 
l6 I'HE OBSEC^UIES OK ORPHEUS. 
 
 O, Earth, resound thy jubilee 
 
 He gains his love Eurydice. 
 
 Alas ! the faith of mortal men 
 
 He backward looks, she sinks again." 
 
 Then Sysiphus in misery was shown 
 With patience heaving his retreating stone 
 While charming music in suggestive measures 
 In dying roused the hope of sweeter pleasures. 
 
 They cheered the dauntless hero's bravery 
 When called to hear the gay Terpsichore. 
 
 " There 's not a thing however lone 
 
 But has dear kindred of its own 
 And man must ever realize 
 
 His highest joy in social ties. 
 The pious bigot loves himself, 
 
 The sordid miser hugs his pelf, 
 While christian men enjoy good cheer 
 
 And hold each other ever dear. 
 Then let the merry feet go round 
 
 To music's most inviting sound 
 And hearts leap up in glad surprise 
 
 To meet the love from flashing eyes. 
 Let feasting happy hours prolong 
 
 Until they swell with jolly song 
 And when the dawn appears in sight 
 
 Let farewell kisses bury spite. 
 O, happy he whose heart contains 
 
 The glowing fire to weld the chains 
 To fetter each enamored soul 
 
 And bind it in the social whole." 
 
 Two companies they formed and joined the dance 
 To measured music's tripping resonance 
 And to the tune a gleeful carol sung 
 That with their movements rhythmically swung. 
 
THE OBSEQUIES OF ORPHEUS. 1 7 
 
 In rolling waves with surging ebb and flow, 
 And pirouetting singly to and fro, 
 With agile limbs and lissome form they caught 
 The poetry of motion in their thought. 
 Or gliding softly as a summer breeze 
 Through modest gestures with voluptuous ease 
 They led their ardent spirits to aspire 
 To reach the summit of their pure desire. 
 With hand in hand through many an airy round 
 They chased the charming music's floating sound 
 And trod their measures like a flooding river 
 Until they felt, beneath, Olympus quiver. 
 
 To such diversion Hermes gave the choice 
 To be the prelude to Polymnia's voice. 
 
 " Thy praise O God is waiting thee 
 
 Wherever work of thine may be 
 However vast this solar frame 
 
 Its smallest part extols thy name. 
 Through all the years of time there swells 
 
 The anthem that thy glory tells, 
 Sweet sound to sweeter sound replies 
 
 Its growing measures fill the skies. 
 Beyond the realms that men explore 
 
 It vies with all that thee adore 
 And throngs of matchless angels sing 
 
 Resounding praises to the King. 
 O, could my heart this hymn indite 
 
 And all its glowing rhythm recite 
 No seraph's voice would higher raise 
 
 The pean of thy holy praise." 
 
 Apollo caught the wheel upon his lyre, 
 The flushing ardor of the choir took fire 
 And such a choral hallelujah gave 
 As shook the highest heaven's architrave. 
 
l8 THE OBSEQUIES OF ORPHEUS. 
 
 Enraptured to the topmost of their bent 
 They crowded round the bier with thoughts intent 
 Upon the mystery of things supreme 
 That lurked beneath Urania's lofty theme. 
 
 " Hail ! Death thou phantom of a dream, 
 Thou art not what thy features seem, 
 I scorn thy horror crested pride, 
 The Grave, thy sorrow reeking bride. 
 My soul is free, I will not hear 
 The stupid mumble of a fear. 
 The slave to sin and woe no more 
 I will this universe explore. 
 
 In humble tones beneath my feet 
 And from the farthest world's retreat 
 Its countless voices join to say 
 The life of man has no decay. 
 And when to reason I appeal 
 To know what it may well reveal 
 The formal courses of the mind 
 With ease the same conclusion find. 
 But my dear heart more certain still 
 Because it touches heaven's will 
 Can never doubt its quality 
 But feels its immortality. 
 Then how sublime the confirmation 
 That God bestows by revelation, 
 His voice has crowned the certainty, 
 I know my immortality. 
 
 The poet stands on ocean's shore 
 
 To listen to its mystic lore. 
 
 The sands beneath his feet are white. 
 
 Unending dawn contents his sight.'" 
 
 Almighty Zeus then laid his sceptre by 
 And threw the lyre of Orpheus to the sky. 
 Its constellation roves the stellar way 
 And willing minds adore its quickening sway. 
 
■J'HK OBSEQUIES OF ORPHEUS. 19 
 
 Before its light could cross the ether's space 
 The Olympian court became an empty place. 
 
 The tomb made holy by such rites as these 
 Was soon dishonored by the Hellenese 
 And Zeus to mark the stress of his disdain 
 Made Ossa and Olympus burst in twain 
 To let the Vale of Tempe lie between 
 The loveliest spot of earth that eye has seen 
 Where nature all her beauty still unveils 
 To greet these warbles of the nightingales : 
 
 " Brave, guileless souls, rejected by their own 
 To rise through mystic sorrow to their throne. 
 Who drink the gall, yet sweetly furnish bread 
 To feed the hungry long, when they are dead. 
 Who faithful sow the truth in fallow fields 
 And wait in peace the harvest that it yields. 
 Mysterious beings, coming unawares 
 To every age its rightful honored heirs. 
 Unselfish as the self-consuming sun 
 That spreads new life where'er its courses run 
 The Spirits that inspire their quickening lays 
 Will cull their fruit with joy through endless days." 
 
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 LIBRARY OF CONGRfeSS 
 
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