CHAPTER XXXL 
THE BEGINNINGS. 
Can knowledge earth’s deep mysteries unfold, 
And from events discern the primal law 
When earth began ? Can chemistry resolve 
The elements to chaos, and restore 
Again the substance with its living germs ? 
Where science lays the mystic question down. 
Religion takes it up and holds our faith 
In bondage to the things we can not prove. 
When faith is strongest, reason holds her peace; 
When faith is weak, then reason reigns alone. 
Demands the evidence for knowledge claimed. 
But hears not, cares not, what we may believe. 
The most uncertain things we know are facts; 
Old creeds, like moonbeams, shine with borrowed 
light, 
But shine the brightest where the world is dark. 
So circumscribed and earth-bound are the facts 
Of sense, compared with faith in things beyond. 
We grasp with childlike minds the miracles 
Of life, greatest of which is life itself. 
Sage parables exemplify the law. 
And fiction sends a ray of friendly light. 
To lead the restless soul’s imaginings 
Where finite joins the infinite in truth. 
287 
