Page:The roamer and other poems (1920).djvu/147

Rh The great companions leagued, though only given

One to another by the eyes of faith.

"Comrade," he murmured, "is it thou, indeed?

Yet in the very flower of thy sweet age,

Who bringest the light of unknown loveliness?"

"But not to thee unknown, or any man

Who seeks the beam of beauty in the soul,"

Came the quick answer: "beauty there shines most

And charms men's bosoms; and, implanting thus

The seeds of awful reverence and desire,

Frees the soul's nature; it hath precious friends;

There virtue comes, and mirrors in her shield

Sweet images of virgin purity

In the heavenly mind; there godlike patience bends

The spirit of man to its unending task,

And courage feedeth it with deathless fire;

And hope, the common breath of all men's days,

Lifts over it the universal sky;

Last, honor, the best earthly friend that Love

Warms in his breast, hath in the soul itself

A sacred chapel, pure, inviolable,

Where the young spirit watches till his doom

Comes on him, and he passes to the field,

Where only Love, our lord, is sovereign;

He takes the fair soul into his embrace,

And speeds him to the combat glorious,