nature and the book.
195
NATURE AND THE BOOK.
I HEARD one say but now: "Shut up the Book;
For Nature tells the story better still.
The fingered pages have a musty look;
The wide green margins of the mountain rill,
The running notes of ripples on the beach,
The open scroll of the blue firmament,
In loftier language the same lesson teach.
Will not the broader truth thy mind content?
The cover of thy book may be a door
To shut the elder gospel out of sight.
It tells thee only that which was before;
God said, ere it was writ, 'Let there be light!'
And light is everywhere,—around, within;
Earth luminous with heaven: what more wilt ask?
The Eternal Effluence is thy next of kin:
Lay clogs aside, and in full freedom bask."
For Nature tells the story better still.
The fingered pages have a musty look;
The wide green margins of the mountain rill,
The running notes of ripples on the beach,
The open scroll of the blue firmament,
In loftier language the same lesson teach.
Will not the broader truth thy mind content?
The cover of thy book may be a door
To shut the elder gospel out of sight.
It tells thee only that which was before;
God said, ere it was writ, 'Let there be light!'
And light is everywhere,—around, within;
Earth luminous with heaven: what more wilt ask?
The Eternal Effluence is thy next of kin:
Lay clogs aside, and in full freedom bask."
The Book lay open on the window-sill,
And morning-glories leaned across the leaf
And morning-glories leaned across the leaf
