Page:The Statues in the Block and Other Poems (1881).djvu/50

44 That copulate with greed and beget disease and crime— That join these two and their offspring, till the world is filled with fear, And falsehood wins from truth, and the vile and cunning succeed, And manhood and love are dwarfed, and virtue and friendship sick, And the law of Christ is a cloak for the corpse that stands for Justice! —As sure as the Spirit of God is Truth, this Truth shall reign, And the trees and lowly brutes shall cease to be higher than men. God purifies slowly by peace, but urgently by fire.