98 ARBOR DAY 



And three great spirits with the spirit of man 



Go forth to do his bidding. One is free, 



And one is shackled, and the third, unbound, 



Halts yet a little with a broken chain 



Of antique workmanship, not wholly loosed, 



That dangles and impedes his forthright way. 



Unfettered, swift, hawk-eyed, implacable, 



The wonder-worker, Science, with his wand, 



Subdues an alien world to man's desires. 



And Art with wide imaginative wings 



Stands by, alert for flight, to bear his lord 



Into the strange heart of that alien world 



Till he shall live in it as in himself 



And know its longing as he knows his own. 



Behind a little, where the shadows fall, 



Lingers Religion with deep-brooding eyes, 



Serene, impenetrable, transpicuous 



As the all-clear and all-mysterious sky, 



Biding her time to fuse into one act 



Those other twain, man's right hand and his left. 



For all the bonds shall be broken and rent in sunder, 



And the soul of man go free 



Forth with those three 



Into the lands of wonder; 



Like some undaunted youth, 



Afield in quest of truth, 



Rejoicing in the road he journeys on 



As much as in the hope of journey done. 



