NEBULA TO MAN 
Fire, water, air, heat, cold, relentless storms 
Are moulding her to divers shapes and forms ; 
Giving her highlands, lowlands, hills and dales, 
Plains, plateaus, gorges, glens, ravines and vales. 
Rock debris lies amassed in sheltered nooks, 1 30 
Hollows and dells ; where rivers, streams and brooks 
Ceaseless transporters of the sand and clay 
From weathered rocks find not their wandering way. 
But oft by rains assailed, and searching wind, 
With little growth its particles to bind, 135 
Slow is the hunted treasure stored away, 
And long must Nature wait for her display. 
Yet plant-life here and there is on the shores 
In growths allied to those that strew the floors 
Of shallow seas and lakes ; and sombre green, 1 40 
And other hues and shades, adorn the scene. 
And nobler plants than simple cells combined 
Where leaf and stem are very ill defined 
Here lift their heads ; plants risen to a state, 
Where stem and leaf are organs separate. 145 
And just as early forms of animals 
Slowly advanced by packing close their cells, 
And found with corporate life came power to act 
With different organs for the mass compact : 
So also early forms of one-celled plants 1 50 
By joining cell to cell made their advance ; 
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