what is man?
9
Untrodden cloud-land, and to bloom again,
Mid happy souls released from worldly pain.
Oh! fair flowers, ye are footsteps surely, made
By Angels o'er the world our Master gave,
As beauteous samples of His mighty Hand!—
That could by "Word" a world's foundation plan.
There is a gulf, an abyss, vast, unseen,
Some lives, and actions, e'en some thoughts be- tween.
Alas! one so foul, and one oft so pure,—
'Tis curious that each should thus endure;
Sever'd, yet bound, as by some magic spell,
The pure and tarnished oft together dwell.
Inscrutable the great occult laws which bind
The natural living soul to all mankind
And, amidst the worst we yet sometimes see
Some element still trailing, wild and free,
That marks the impress of some fallen soul,
Whose form debased, as long years did roll,
Still shows how high each aspiration rose,
Only, alas! to sink 'midst fear and woe!
When science oft her bright glittering wing
Shines out, and casts o'er each forbidden thing
The golden halo of many a rainbow dream,
That e'en with its fair and brilliant gleam,
Leads on!—and, yet, alas, but to deceive,
Mid happy souls released from worldly pain.
Oh! fair flowers, ye are footsteps surely, made
By Angels o'er the world our Master gave,
As beauteous samples of His mighty Hand!—
That could by "Word" a world's foundation plan.
There is a gulf, an abyss, vast, unseen,
Some lives, and actions, e'en some thoughts be- tween.
Alas! one so foul, and one oft so pure,—
'Tis curious that each should thus endure;
Sever'd, yet bound, as by some magic spell,
The pure and tarnished oft together dwell.
Inscrutable the great occult laws which bind
The natural living soul to all mankind
And, amidst the worst we yet sometimes see
Some element still trailing, wild and free,
That marks the impress of some fallen soul,
Whose form debased, as long years did roll,
Still shows how high each aspiration rose,
Only, alas! to sink 'midst fear and woe!
When science oft her bright glittering wing
Shines out, and casts o'er each forbidden thing
The golden halo of many a rainbow dream,
That e'en with its fair and brilliant gleam,
Leads on!—and, yet, alas, but to deceive,
