How like the rise of Genius is the day
That moves untrammelled through the dusk of night,
Nor loses aught of radiance from its touch!
Oh! is there not unconquered might in mind,
In gifted mind, to whom the task is given.
Το grasp the light of Heaven and make it man's?
Is there not certain triumph to its toils,
A meed of glory for its spirit scathed,
A zenith-home where it may ever shine,
A voice of plaudit for its mission done,
Its holy mission, full of truth and love?
Genius! hast thou that sacred talisman,
The secret proof of greatness yet untold,
The blest refractions of the spirit's light
Through this dim atmosphere of life, that shines
Ere yet its sun has reached th' horizon's bound?
Oh! keep it guarded well, yet keep it hid,
Lock it within the casket of thy soul,
Nor let its light in straggling rays be seen,
But feed the lamp in secret with the oil
Of truth and love, of faith and hope, till men
Shall need its warmth, then lift the darkening veil,
And beam on men, a man, a godlike man!
E'en though thy struggling heart shall tell thee oft
That thou wert only made for lofty things,
For truth and freedom, not alone for fame,
Nor earth's enticements 'mid her grovelling shapes,
Yet hush thy lip, chain down thine anxious pulse,
And drink unbowed the dregs of common life,
Until thy power hath grown to manhood's strength;
Bring not thy candle forth, whose beams the blaze
Of some strong spirit's noon-day light shall pale,
Nor when the damps of earthly gain surround
All human hearts, to chill thy soul and quench
Its rapturous fire; nor when the stormy rage
Of passion sweeps the bloom of life away;
But in the deep hushed darkness of the world,
When suns have set and stars are hid, when hearts
Begin to yearn for truth, for love, for hope,
For liberty; when strong thy light hath grown,
Oh! let it burst effulgent on the souls
Of men, and wake them up from sleep to see
A new day dawning for the deathless mind!
Hope on! if God hath made thee inward great,
Thine outward lot most surely he will shape,
And thou shalt have a goodly heritage
As thine amid the garden-homes of life.
Though now strong hands of Poverty and Hate
Erect their rocky fortress at thy side,
Though Care's fierce myrmidons press hard behind,
And deepest seas of trouble roll before,
Yet faint thou not, God made thee to be great!
When first Creation, in majestic might,
Marched to its station fixed in boundless space,
God said, "Let there be light, and there was light,"
So shalt thou move in dignity of soul,
To hold the birthright of immortal mind,
And tread the way of Heaven with quenchless light,
Which God shall bring forth from thy burning heart.
Aye! He will crush with hand ommipotent,
Those frowning battlements, and through the sea
Will cleave a pathway for thy feet, and ope
A channel for the currents of thy soul,
That crowd with such unnumbered hosts of thought,
While hellish foes, still following in thy steps,
Shall sink o'erwhelmed beneath thy rushing tide.
Say, in the midnight of thy hidden soul,
Come there not dawnings of the vivid day,
When each shall see thy gifted spirit robed,
In sentiments of Truth now unrevealed?
When bitter thoughts break o'er thy burdened breast,
As roll the billows o'er the rocky beach,
Is there not still a bosom undefied ?
Hast thou not still the bold unconquered heart?
Though friends may smile and turn away in scorn,
Call thee enthusiast at thy prophecies,
And bid thee plod with them their earthward course,
Foes may deride and madness call thy hope,
Yet still thy calm unbending will shall sway
Each power within, and give it strength to rise.
The stern resolve to battle with the worst,
To scorn the servitude of outward things,
To rise supreme with majesty of soul,
Above the petty tide of human ills,
Will sit enthroned the ruler of the heart!
Have faith in Truth! believe, O soul of fire!
That life's realities, be they of worlds
Which form Creation or receive its gaze,
Of things that live in yon eternal Mind,]
Or cluster here within the finite man,
Shall meet their destiny triumphant all,
And hear each shout their pæan song of joy!
Have faith in Freedom! know full well, O heart!
That the great God hath made his creatures free,
And none can change what he has thus decreed,
Though Time may threaten and the car move slow
That bears the traveller to his destined home.
Aye! though man put his fetters on the wrist,
He cannot chain the indomitable will,
He cannot scourge the spirit, nor prevent
Its soarings upwards as on eagles' wings;
He cannot make the free-born live the slave,
When death has given it life and unwalled homes
To dwell amid, in Freedom's future worlds!
Have faith in Love! know that the loving soul, Though scarred and blasted by its fellows' shafts, Shall stand at last beloved and crowned by earth, Who then shall weep to view thy many wounds Her hand unkind inflicted, when to bless
Her children, thou didst bare thy dauntless breast,
And bore her strokes with fortitude unbowed.
Oh! thou shalt have thy blessed meed of love
From every heart below that hears thy name,
And more than all from Love's own heart on high!
Have faith in God! believe His promise sure;
His word is graven on thy prophet-soul,
Which tells thee that thy seeds of truth and hope,
Sown in the hearts of all, shall bear their fruit
Unnumbered as the stars or Ocean's sands.
Doth not all outward Nature that declares
His might and glory in the firmament,
And on the broad expanse of earth, display
To man His truth and faithfulness in all
The blest successions of her ordered steps?
Nay more, doth she not in His word revealed,
Of all her life the correlation find?
So learn, O soul, that in symmetric power,
Thou shalt move forth to glorify thy God,
And in His greatness magnify thyself!
Learn that ere long between thy heart and life,
And every sentiment and circumstance
Of inward being and of outward lot,
A correspondence true thou wilt perceive,
To show thee placed on worth's high pedestal,
And mark thy name a favored son of God!
Herald of day! again hast thou announced
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