nature and the book.
197
Shall we blow out our torch, because the sun
Shone yesterday, and will to-morrow shine?
Too much of work remaineth to be done,
And every gleam we toil by is divine.
Shone yesterday, and will to-morrow shine?
Too much of work remaineth to be done,
And every gleam we toil by is divine.
"Wherefore should He permit these flowers to bloom,
That rays from earth's great luminary break?
Because to us its dazzling blaze were gloom:
Of ravelled rainbows beauty's web we make.
Jewel and blossom, shaded leaf and star
Give no full revelation of the light.
Colors but letters of an alphabet are,
Pointing us backward to the primitive white.
The common eye needs every tint and tone;
The soul of man, much more, God's faintest word.
His glory through our mortal thought hath shone;
When saint or prophet speaks, He still is heard:
And in the Revelation of the Book,—
For surely He most brother-like hath come,—
As in a mirror on His face we look,
So reassured, when Nature seemeth dumb.
That rays from earth's great luminary break?
Because to us its dazzling blaze were gloom:
Of ravelled rainbows beauty's web we make.
Jewel and blossom, shaded leaf and star
Give no full revelation of the light.
Colors but letters of an alphabet are,
Pointing us backward to the primitive white.
The common eye needs every tint and tone;
The soul of man, much more, God's faintest word.
His glory through our mortal thought hath shone;
When saint or prophet speaks, He still is heard:
And in the Revelation of the Book,—
For surely He most brother-like hath come,—
As in a mirror on His face we look,
So reassured, when Nature seemeth dumb.
"Yet will I listen to the ancient Voice,
Forever new, that speaks in wind and wave;
Forever new, that speaks in wind and wave;
