Page:The roamer and other poems (1920).djvu/140

Great with the flooding passion of mankind
To make one kindred of all human bloods,
One living soul.'" He paused, as if o'erawed
By his own mounting thoughts and visioned sight,
Conscious anew of the evangel winged
Of his great Order: then impassioned rose
The Faith Triumphant, breathing upon lips
That sang its martyrs: "Orphan though he be,
He liveth best who giveth up his life
To live incorporate in other men.
Blessèd is he who hath forsaken all
To lose himself within the larger world
Of indivisible humanity.
A million hearts shall be his earthly home,
And silent bosoms store his virtue up,
Unknown and unsuspected; it shall grow,
Ripen, and multiply the good of God,
And bring the slow millennial harvests on
To clothe the world." How salt the desert gleamed
In the bright sun resplendent, whereon fell
The Roamer's gaze! The other, in quick turn,
As if antiphonal to that high strain,
Took up the Word: "Abandoned and deprived,
He is most rich who, vowed to poverty,
Hath nothing to receive and all to give;
And who beholds him learns the works of love.