Page Twenty-one 



Miiulloss wo lived and mindless we loved, 



And mindless at last we died; 



And deep in a rift of the Caradoc drift 



We slumbered side l)y side. 



The world turned on in the lathe of time, 



The hot lands heaved amain, 



Till we caught our breath from the womb of death 



And crept into light again. 



We were amphibians, scaled and tailed. 



And drab as a dead man's hand; 



We coiled at ease 'neath the dripping trees 



Or trailed through the mud and sand, 



Croaking and blind, wdth our three-clawed feet 



Writing a language dumb; 



With never a spark in the empty dark 



To hint at a life to come. 



Yet hapi)y we lived, and happy we loved, 



And happy we died once more ; 



Our forms w^ere rolled in the clinging mold 



Of a Neocomian shore. 



The eons came and the eons fled. 



And the sleep that wrapped us fast 



Was riven away in a newer day, 



And the night of death was past. 



Then light and swift through the jungle trees 



We sw^ung in our airy flights, 



Or breathed in the balms of the fronded palms 



In the hush of the moonless nights. 



And, oh, what beautiful years were these. 



When our hearts clung each to each; 



When life was filled and our senses thrilled 



In the first faint dawn of speech . 



Thus, life by life, and love by love, 

 We passed through the cycles strange, 

 And breath by breath, and death by death, 



