Page:Is Life Worth Living?.djvu/19

Rh Our shadowy congregation rested still,
 * As musing on that message we had heard

And brooding on that ‘End it when you will’;
 * Perchance awaiting yet some other word;

When keen as lightning through a muffled sky Sprang forth a shrill and lamentable cry:–

The man speaks sooth, alas! the man speaks sooth,
 * We have no personal life beyond the grave;

There is no God; Fate knows nor wrath nor ruth:
 * Can I find here the comfort which I crave?

In all eternity I had one chance,
 * One few years’ term of gracious human life:

The splendors of the intellect’s advance,
 * The sweetness of the home with babes and wife;

The social pleasures with their genial wit;
 * The fascination of the worlds of art;

The glories of the worlds of nature lit
 * By large imagination’s glowing heart;

The rapture of mere being, full of health;
 * The careless childhood and the ardent youth,

The strenuous manhood winning various wealth,
 * The reverend age serene with life’s long truth:

All the sublime prerogatives of Man;
 * The storied memories of the times of old,

The patient tracking of the world’s great plan
 * Through sequences and changes myriadfold.