272 The Romantic Revival [March 15, 



down the prison walls of envious and imprisoning materialism. I 

 have seen everywhere life and movement. I have heard everywhere 

 the whirring of God's chariot wheels, and I have found that the 

 impulse of His will vibrates through untravelled and eternal regions. 

 You need fear no more ; go forth and sing freely of the living, 

 energizing, inspiring, force divine which has worked and is working 

 now and has worked in all the myriad worlds and interstellar areas 

 since the first day when the stars first sang together and all the sons 

 of God shouted for joy." 



^Ye have not yet seen among us the poet who can digest the vast 

 knowledge of to-day and sing once more the great eternal and uni- 

 versal song for which human kind is ever waiting ; but we have 

 numberless poets who have seen the travail of man, the glory of God, 

 and the wonder of life, and who have sung to us right worthily of the 

 pain of earth and the call of heaven, and of the faith which lives 

 imperishable in the heart of man, whose song, among the ruins of 

 broken hopes and shattered realms, is still the song of nobler hope. 



" In joy, in joy of the light to be, 



Father of lights, unvarying and true. 

 Let us build the Palace of Life anew ; 

 Let us build for the years we shall not see." 



Yes, the song of the true poet always ends with the " Sursum Corda " 

 of changeless trust. We put aside the pessimism, which whispers 

 that the bright realms in w^hich poetry loves to ramble have passed 

 into alien hands. It is not true that the territory of imagination 

 shrinks as the frontiers of science are advanced. It is true that 

 knowledge needs to be assimilated before imagination musing on 

 new^ truth can take fire and break forth with unfettered voice. It is 

 true that an age of eager acquisitiveness is not always an age of 

 creativeness ; time is needed before food can be converted into 

 strength. But nevertheless as man's knowledge grows, the sense of 

 our ignorance will grow, and the tireless curiosity of our nature will 

 yearn to explore the untrodden regions. AVith such stimulus men 

 will find resources out of which the art of expression will be enriched. 

 New stops will be added to the organ, and richer melodies will roll 

 up to heaven. If God has new light to break forth for men. be 

 assured of this that men's hearts and imaginations will respond to 

 the broadening light. Science, which is the art of knowing, is bound 

 to grow-; as it grows it will increase its wide spreading boughs, and 

 offer welcome shelter to the winged ones whose haunts are between 

 earth and sky. However great may be the tree of knowledge there 

 will always be birds of heaven to sing among the branches. 



[W. B. C] 



