NEBULA TO MAN 
But though the desert valleys, hills, and plains 
Are worn and torn by winds and torrent rains ; 
And grim volcanoes from their bellowing jaws no 
Belch forth, mid fume and flame, their molten stores ; 
And cleft and wasted rocks about are thrust 
By constant movements of the shrinking crust ; 
And here upheavals come, depressions there ; 
And sea and land join issue everywhere ; 115 
Still through the mell a movement onward goes 
That tends to order, union, and repose : 
All, all is progress ; progress day by day 
To wondrous scenes that still lie far away. 
****** 
Streams, fed by ample rains, with leaps and bounds 1 20 
Are running fast across the cooler grounds, 
Wearing persistent ways 'twixt rocky walls, 
Rollicking in rapids, jets, and waterfalls. 
In hillside hollows, and the basined plains, 
Tarns, lakes, and inland seas, filled by the rains, 125 
Are glimmering in the sun. Whilst in the breeze 
Loosed particles are borne from weathered surfaces 
Of crumbling rocks, and with volcanoes' dust 
Collect and form a soil or supercrust : 
And beds are laid in sheltered vale and plain, 130 
Where life to come some foothold may obtain. 
