THE TRIUMPH OF LIFE 



like a blossom against the black back-ground. 

 It is the earth. The flower lies as though in a 

 dark bud. It is the night side, — ^this beautiful 

 star blossom does not shine of itself but is 

 radiant only where the kiss of the distant sun 

 is swept to it over millions of miles of space. 

 A tiny point near it, the moon, drinks in the 

 same light. 



As we draw near the phases of this light 

 move mysteriously, advancing here, receding 

 there. The earth also^ follows .the great law 

 that vibrates through all the star world, it 

 moves. It rolls itself rapidly on its axis. Some 

 regions pass into shadow, others plunge into 

 the sun-light. As Goethe has said in Faust: 



"And swift and swift beyond conceiving, 

 The splendor of the world goes round, 

 Day's Eden-brightness still relieving 

 The awful night's intense profound." 



We draw nearer. In the field of light the 

 water divides itself from the land as on the crea- 

 tion day of the Bible. . . . there is America 

 of which we have spoken, a rock between two 

 seas: there by the northern lights are the ice 

 fields of the north polar lands whose highest 

 summits man has never climbed. * * * 



"The ocean tides in foam are breaking. 

 Against the rock's deep bases hurled, 

 And both the spheric race partaking, 

 Eternal swift are onward whirled/' 



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