KNOWLEDGE NOT WISDOM
Along the path of science as we go
Each day some new discovery repays
Our eager quest, that searches high and low,
And ever grows more skilled in nature's ways:
No star so distant it escapes our ken,
No atom which we cannot analyse,
No element we drag not from its den
To yield its secret to our prying eyes,—
Yes, yes, all this is so, and, if yon please,
'Tis proper we much jubilation show,
But yet with all this marvellous increase
Of knowledge do we better, wiser grow?
Small is the measure of our boasted gain.
If knowledge bring not wisdom in its train.
TRUTH'S GUIDING STAR
In the dim twilight of our troubled life.
Where none may see with vision wholly dear,
And most must tread a path with pitfalls rife,
Where scarce a star their gloomy path doth cheer;
And those who loudliest do themselves proclaim
As sole custodians of the keys of truth,
Most oft are hollow windbags skilled to frame
Poor sophistries or specious falsehoods smooth,—
I find no better guidance than is found
In the assurance that whate'er may chance
A soul resolved truth's heights and depths to sound
Fearless, nor viewing consequence askance,
Is armed against sick thoughts and narrow creeds,
And all the ills that morbid fancy breeds.
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