THE SCYTHE-BEARER 35 



core ; that the social atmosphere may also be searched 

 and its poisons swept away for ever by fearless spirits 

 soon to rise. We shrink from the scalpel of Truth, 

 we scorn the treasure that others greater than our- 

 selves have lived and died for; we toss away salvation 

 to win a fool's vote ; we, who bred Jenner, stand a 

 laughing-stock for wiser nations who bless his name. 

 But already the Orient wind heralds a glorious dawn . 

 already the Children of the Morning sing ; and when 

 the earth and sky have been searched and winnowed 

 by that wholesome air, so much the lovelier, happier, 

 and sweeter will be those generations of mankind that 

 hereafter rise to mourn our errors, pity our ambitions, 

 and forgive our manifold sins against the unborn. 



