THE MOUNTAIN FRINGE. 



"With his gnarled old arms, and his iron form, 

 Majestic in the wood, 

 From age to age, in sun and storm. 

 The live-oak long hath stood. 



And the generations come and go. 



And still he stands upright, 

 And he sternly looks on the wood below, 



As conscious of his might." 



So stands a strong life and a noble character. And it stands 

 there immortal. " Over such, Death hath no power." " Being 

 dead," in respect to this mortal form, " they yet speak." And 

 such lives and such souls are shade and shelter to the multitude 

 of smaller lives that grow like flowers, or blades of grass, around 

 and beneath. For there are little and great, in the world of men, 

 as in the forest of trees. 



But I take note that the greatest men, unlike what the poet 

 has imagined of the " gnarled live-oak," do not " look sternly on 

 the woods below." They look kindly down and around. The 

 greatest souls have most of pity, and kindliness, and sweet charity, 

 for those who are smaller than they. Mercy is " mightiest in 

 the mighty," all the way up, from the greatest human souls to 

 the great Over-Soul, who is — 



" Immortal Love forever full, 

 Forever flowing free, 

 Forever shared, forever whole, 

 A never-ebbinsr sea ! " 



'& 



Hate may go up, but Love comes down forever. That is 

 Heaven's answer to Earth's cry. The wild discord of human 



