Page:The roamer and other poems (1920).djvu/140

130 Great with the flooding passion of mankind

To make one kindred of all human bloods,

One living soul.'" He paused, as if o'erawed

By his own mounting thoughts and visioned sight,

Conscious anew of the evangel winged

Of his great Order: then impassioned rose

The Faith Triumphant, breathing upon lips

That sang its martyrs: "Orphan though he be,

He liveth best who giveth up his life

To live incorporate in other men.

Blessèd is he who hath forsaken all

To lose himself within the larger world

Of indivisible humanity.

A million hearts shall be his earthly home,

And silent bosoms store his virtue up,

Unknown and unsuspected; it shall grow,

Ripen, and multiply the good of God,

And bring the slow millennial harvests on

To clothe the world." How salt the desert gleamed

In the bright sun resplendent, whereon fell

The Roamer's gaze! The other, in quick turn,

As if antiphonal to that high strain,

Took up the Word: "Abandoned and deprived,

He is most rich who, vowed to poverty,

Hath nothing to receive and all to give;

And who beholds him learns the works of love.