Page:Darwinism by Alfred Wallace 1889.djvu/322

 lines. The marvel will ever remain to the sympathetic student of nature, but I venture to hope that in the preceding chapters I have succeeded in lifting—if only by one of its corners—the veil of mystery which has for long shrouded this department of nature.

In Nature's workshop but a shaving,
 * Of her poem but a word,

But a tint brushed from her palette,
 * This feather of a bird!

Yet set it in the sun glance,
 * Display it in the shine,

Take graver's lens, explore it,
 * Note filament and line,

Mark amethyst to sapphire,
 * And sapphire to gold,

And gold to emerald changing
 * The archetype unfold!

Tone, tint, thread, tissue, texture,
 * Through every atom scan,

Conforming still, developing,
 * Obedient to plan.

This but to form a pattern
 * On the garment of a bird!

What then must be the poem,
 * This but its lightest word!

Sit before it; ponder o'er it,
 * 'Twill thy mind advantage more,

Than a treatise, than a sermon,
 * Than a library of lore.