204 \i'- 



Rock and isle and glistening hay, 

 Fell the beautiful white day. 

 Said the Master to the youth : 



" We have come in search of truth, 



Trying with uncertain key 



Door by door of mystery ; 



We are reaching, through His laws, 



To the garment-hem of Cause, 



Him, the endless, unbegun, 



The unnamable, the One 



Light of all our light the Source, 



Life of life, and Force of force. 



As with fingers of the blind, 



We are groping here to find 



What the hieroglyphics mean 



Of the Unseen in the seen, 



What the Thought which underlies 



Nature's masking and disguise, 



What it is that hides beneath 



Blight and bloom and birth and death. 



By past efforts unavailing, 



Doubt and error, loss and failing, 



Of our weakness made aware, 



On the threshold of our task 



Let us light and guidance ask, 



Let us pause in silent prayer ! " 



Then the Master in his place 

 Bowed his head a little space. 

 And the leaves by soft airs stirred, 

 Lapse of wave, and cry of bird 

 Left the solemn hush unbroken 

 Of that wordless prayer unspoken, 

 While its wish, on earth unsaid, 

 Rose to heaven interpreted. 



