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Page:Poems Emma M. Ballard Bell.djvu/54

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48
RELIGION, SCIENCE, AND ART.
Then Science spoke, and with majestic toneShe said, "On yonder plain, through all the night,With telescopic eye I watched aloneThe orbs of heav'n, until the morning light.
"Through many days, when stars are all concealed,Deep mysteries of Nature I explore;And many truths have I to man revealedTo God alone and angels known before.Lo! now I see upon yon mountain's height,In stately beauty, Fame's proud temple stand;I see its pillars and its domes of light,With groves of laurel-trees on either hand.
"And thither would I bend my onward way,To raise an altar there, whereon to placeFair Wisdom's trophies I have brought to-day,And high upon its glist'ning dome to traceThe names of those whom Science joyful finds,Those heralds of the truths by Science taught,Whose noble thoughts that spring from noble minds,Alike with grandeur and with truth are fraught."
Thus Science spoke, nor knew that by her sideA being other than Religion stood;For Art had come from wand'ring far and wide,And paused to meet her sisters fair and good.