Page:Near nature's heart; a volume of verse (IA nearnaturesheart00jack).pdf/59

 Amongst men thou didst eat Of the tree of knowledge, good and evil— How human as boy and man! Yet thou didst name thy first born, In youth begotten of thine unlawful union, Adeodatus, "a gift from God." Again and again thou didst strike For freedom from thy fetters and thy foes, Till thou hadst conquered, Later painting thy life of lust In color like unto darkest night.

With hungry heart and spirit high, Thou oft didst delve into Cicero's Hortentius, And give thy faith to Manichaeus, Seeking to know evil and its source— The ever pressing problem, eternally inscrutable.

After God all things good had made, Yea very good, A fearless fool hath said, "He turned Himself into the tempting serpent—" Shocking diabolism!

Creators two? Incredible, impossible. Then it follows, One evil became. But when and where; by whom and why? With all this thou didst wrestle, And more bitterly with thyself.

Yet thou didst give to God And all the ages Thy "Confession," thine and mine; Thy "De Natura et Gratia"— The everlasting conflict; Books fifteen on a single theme, At once the highest and holiest, The redeeming Trinity. Many a tractate and treatise Thou didst leave to men. We bless thee for all this, Thy holy heritage, O Augustine, More brilliant than Ambrose, Of truth more jealous than Jerome, More profound than Gregory the Great; The super-man of thy day and many, Thou enthroned son of the Highest.