At Penikese. 



169 



THE PRAYER OF AGASSIZ. 



On the isle of Penikese, 

 Ringed about by sapphire seas, 

 Fanned by breezes salt" and cool, 

 Stood the Master with his school. 

 Over sails that not in vain 

 Wooed the west-wind's steady strain, 

 Line of coast that low and far 

 Stretched its undulating bar, 

 Wings aslant along the rim 

 Of the waves they stooped to skim, 

 Rock and isle and glistening bay, 

 Fell the beautiful white day. 

 Said the Master to the youth : 



We have come in search of truth, 

 Trying with uncertain key 

 Door by door of mystery ; 

 We are reaching, through His laws. 

 To the garment-hem of Cause, 

 Him, the endless, unbegun. 

 The unnamable, the One 

 Light of all our light the Source, 

 Life of life, and Force of force. 

 As with fingers of the blind, 

 We are grouping here to find 

 What the hieroglyphics mean 

 Of the Unseen in the seen. 

 What the Thought which underlies 

 Nature's masking and disguise, 

 What it is that hides beneath 

 Blight and bloom and birth and death. 

 By past efforts unavailing. 

 Doubt and error, loss and failing, 

 Of our weakness made aware. 

 On the threshold of our task 

 Let us light and guidance ask. 

 Let us pause in silent prayer ! " 



