12.0 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



The promptings of the uncurbed mind, 

 Express, alas ! but force. 



Adjustments to surroundings change. 

 And vice, with transformation strange, 



To virtue turns betimes ; 

 E'en Love, emotion sacred, bless' d ! 

 Fixed on some being prepossessed 



We number with the crimes. 



Up through the swaying, toiling throng. 

 Scarce knowing right or knowing wrong, 



All blindly do we press ; 

 Around us sink, with dying wail. 

 The friendless, ignorant and frail. 



And few relieve distress. 



We cry for justice through our tears, 

 But no responsive being hears 



Our heart-sore lamentation ; 

 E'en when we fain would share alike, 

 No human power, for us, can strike 



The infinite equation. 



Each ego-seat — that unseen thing — 

 For greater power is centering, 



And by accretions rise ; 

 The atoms coalesce, and then 

 The molecules, then cells, then men, 



Up through the boundless skies. 



For power alone, for this they strive! 

 The greatest unions men contrive 



Have only this in view : 

 Some mightier grasp on life to take, 

 Some mightier destiny to make, 



Nor knowing whereunto. 

 * * ;jj * * H« 



The heart desponds. This dreary theme 

 Shuts out e'en Hope's inspiring beam 



That buoys us o'er life's storms ; 

 Yet see ! an inspiration bright 

 Illuminates our darkened sight, 



And all the scene transforms ! 



