136
Orion.
[Book III.
Gains yet a noble eminence o'er those
Whose feet still plod the earth with hearts o'erdusted."
Whose feet still plod the earth with hearts o'erdusted."
"Then with aspiring love behold Orion!
Not for his need, but for thine own behoof:
He loved thy race, and calls thee to his side.
The human spirit is a mounting thing,
But ere it reach the constellated thrones,
It may attain, and on mankind bestow,
Substance, precision, mastery of hand,
Beauty intense, and power that shapes new life.
So shall each honest heart become a champion,
Each high-wrought soul a builder beyond Time—
The ever-hunted, ne'er o'ertaken Time,
For whom so many youthful hours are slain
Vainly: (the grave's brink shews we have been deceived,
And still the aged God his flight maintains!)
But not in vain the earth-born shall pursue,
E'en though with wayward, often stumbling feet,
That substance-bearing Shadow, if with a soul
That to an absolute unadulterate truth
Aspires, and would make active through the world,
He hath resolved to plant for future years—
And thus, in the end, each soul may to itself,
Not for his need, but for thine own behoof:
He loved thy race, and calls thee to his side.
The human spirit is a mounting thing,
But ere it reach the constellated thrones,
It may attain, and on mankind bestow,
Substance, precision, mastery of hand,
Beauty intense, and power that shapes new life.
So shall each honest heart become a champion,
Each high-wrought soul a builder beyond Time—
The ever-hunted, ne'er o'ertaken Time,
For whom so many youthful hours are slain
Vainly: (the grave's brink shews we have been deceived,
And still the aged God his flight maintains!)
But not in vain the earth-born shall pursue,
E'en though with wayward, often stumbling feet,
That substance-bearing Shadow, if with a soul
That to an absolute unadulterate truth
Aspires, and would make active through the world,
He hath resolved to plant for future years—
And thus, in the end, each soul may to itself,
