SECOND DISTRICT AGRICULTURAL ASSOCIATION. 503 



POEM, 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY AGRICULTURAL ASSO- 

 CIATION, AT THE DEDICATION OF THEIR NEW PAVILION, SEPTEMBER 



29, 1887. 



By E. J. Marsters, the Poet of the Pacific. 



Along the Nile in ancient hours, 

 Where Egypt saw her grandeur rise. 



Her works of art, her deeds of power, 

 Her stars of glory in the skies ; 



As all her own, as laid in light. 



Her day, her sun, her moon, her night. 



There in her power she reigned and ruled. 

 And gave the world her laws of right; 



And there her sons in warfare schooled, 

 And bade their arms declare their might, 



And all her power, and glory gave, 



To sons, to subjects, and to slave. 



Her power declined, her glory fled; 



Her sons were given change and chains; 

 Her sovereigns lost, her greatness dead, 



And all her grandeur, all her gains 

 Were cast as spoils, upon the sea, 

 Where death commands the soul be free. 



This is the lesson of the past; 



This is the way the world must move; 

 And thus lines of greatness cast, 



And thus the laws of faith and love 

 Are ever broken, ever lost, 

 In blood and blackness, as the cost. 



But power must rise and yet declare 

 How Progress holds the world at will ; 



That here, that there, and everywhere, 

 Its power is moving, rolling still, 



And on the wings of love and right 



Moves grand, eternal, through the night — 



Of wrong and madness in its sway; 



Of vengeance in its march of pain ; 

 Of error through its night and day; 



Of sorrow through its storm of rain, 

 And o'er the world, as light of heaven, 

 Rolls ever wide, in glory given. 



Rise, Progress, rise ! and on the hour 



Declare thy majesty and law : 

 Thy wisdom, strength, and fervent power, 



As breath for genius e'er to draw, 

 And o'er the world in love and light, 

 Declare thy day, declare thy night. 



As never ending, ne'er as lost, 



As ever rising, ever fair. 

 And ail thy waves of light ^is tossed, 



As rolling waves of light and air, 

 And far as light and glory bears, 

 Thy crown of light that genius wears. 



