THE POST OFFICE OF FIFTY YEARS AGO.
Like labours—his who tamed by sea and land
Power, Space, and Time, to needs of human kind,
That bodies might be stronger, nearer hand,
And his who multiplied mind's links with mind,
Breaking the barriers that, of different height
For rich and poor, were barriers still for all.
Till "out of mind" was one with "out of sight,"
And parted souls oft parted past recall;
Freeing from tax unwise the interchange
Of distant mind with mind and mart with mart;
Releasing thought from bars that clipped its range;
Lightening a load felt most i' the weakest part.
What if the wings he made so strong and wide
Bear burdens with their blessings? Own that all
For which his bold thought we oft hear decried,
Of laden bag, too frequent postman's call,
Is nothing to the threads of love and light
Shot, thanks to him, through life's web dark and wide.
Nor only where he first unsealed men's sight.
But far as pulse of time and flow of tide!
Was it a little thing to think this out?
Yet none till he had hit upon the thought;
And, the thought brought to birth, came sneer and flout
Of all his insight saw, his wisdom taught;
All office-doors were closed against him—hard;
All office heads were closed against him too.
He had but worked, like others, for reward."
"The thing was all a dream." "It would not do."
But this was not a vaguely dreaming man,
A wind-bag of the known Utopian kind;
He had thought out, wrought out, in full, his plan;
'Twas the far-seeing fighting with the blind:
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