THE KINSHIP OF LIFE. 



53 



life possible. For every truth that is won for humanity 

 takes the life of a man. 



Among all who have written or spoken of Darwin 

 since he died, by none has an unkind word been said. 

 His was a gentle, patient, and reverent spirit, and by 

 his life has not only science but our conception of Chris- 

 tianity been advanced and ennobled. 



"A sacred kinship I would not forego 

 Binds me to all that breathes ; through endless strife 

 The calm and deathless dignity of life 

 Unites each bleeding victim to its foe. 



" I am the child of earth and air and sea. 

 My lullaby by hoarse Silurian storms 

 Was chanted, and through endless changing forms 

 Of tree and bird and beast unceasingly 

 The toiling ages wrought to fashion me. 



" Lo ! these large ancestors have left a breath 

 Of their great souls in mine, defying death 

 And change. I grow and blossom as the tree, 

 And ever feel deep-delving earthy roots 

 Binding me daily to the common clay ; 

 Yet with its airy impulse upward shoots 

 My soul into the realms of light and day. 

 And thou, O sea, stern mother of my soul, 

 Thy tempests ring in me, thy billows roll ! " 



HjALMAR HjORTH BOYESEN. 



